Full text of "The Practical Works"

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project 
to make the world's books discoverable online. 

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject 
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books 
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover. 

Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the 
publisher to a library and finally to you. 

Usage guidelines 

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the 
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to 
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying. 

We also ask that you: 

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for 
personal, non-commercial purposes. 

+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine 
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the 
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help. 

+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find 
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it. 

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just 
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other 
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of 
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner 
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. 

About Google Book Search 

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers 
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web 



at jhttp : //books . qooqle . com/ 




B 3 M75 14D 



A 




H 



F 



f 




Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



NICHOI/S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES, 

PURITAN PEBIOD. 



W&xtfy (Bmtxul ^nfott 



BY JOHN C. MILLER, D.D., 

LIMCOLS COLLEGE J HOVORART CANON OF WORCESTER J RECTOR OF 8T MARTON'S, BIRMINGHAM. 



THE 



WORKS OF DAVID CLARKSON, B.D. 

VOL. III. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



\ 



COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION. 



W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational 
, Union, Edinburgh. 

JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh. 

THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University, 
Edinburgh. 

D. T. E. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church, 
Edinburgh. 

WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church 
History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh. 

ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby- 
terian Church, Edinburgh. 

General ©oitor. 
REV. THOMAS SMITH, M.A., Edihbubqh 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



THE PRACTICAL WORKS 



OF 



DAVID CLAEKSON, B.D. 



FELLOW AND TUTOR OF CLARE HALL, CAMBRIDGE. 



VOL. III. 



EDINBURGH : JAMES NICHOL. 
LONDON: JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN: G. HERBERT. 



M.DCCO.LXV. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



LOAN STACK 

KDiwBumofl : 

PKISTBD BT JOHH ORUG AXD SOK, 
OtD PBT8IC OABDBJia. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



CONTENTS. 



Css 

v-3 



SERMONS, &c. 



Page 
3 



The Love of Christ. .... Eph. V. 2. 

Christ's Sacrifice. .... Eph. V. 2. . 47 

Christ's Dying fob Sinners. . . . Rom. V. 8. . 68 

Christ Touched with the Feeling of our 

Infirmities. .... Heb. IV. 15. . 81 

Of Coming Boldly unto the Throne of Gbace. Heb. IV. 16. . 110 

Of Chbist's Making Intercession. . . Heb. VII. 25. . 148 

Believers' Communion with the Father and 

Son. . . . . .1 John I. 8. . 165 

Public Worship to be Pbefebbed before 

Private. . . . . Ps. LXXXVH. 2. 187 



The Practical Divinity of the Papists Discovered to be De- 
structive of Christianity and Men's Souls. . . 1 

Contents of the Preceding Treatise. .... 264 

General Index (with the ' Alphabetical Table ' of the Original 

Edition Incorporated). ..... i 

Index of Scripture Texts. . . . . xii 



033 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



> 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



SERMONS, &c. 



vol. in. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 



And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, 
an offering and a sacrifice, dc. — Eph. V. 2. 

Herb is the greatest duty of the law, ' Walk in love ;' and the greatest pattern 
of the gospel, ' as Christ also hath loved us.' It is this latter, as the most 
alluring and enforcing motive to the former, I shall insist on in this dis- 
course. This love of Christ is what this apostle always admired, since 
the first day its warmth thawed his cold frozen pharisaical spirit : 1 Tim. 
i. 14, ' The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, 
which is in Christ Jesus.' And here in the context, after twenty-two years' 
study, chap. iii. 19, he says, ' it passeth his knowledge' still, passeth all 
natural knowledge, passeth the knowledge of ordinary Christians that enjoy 
and use the telescope of faith, passeth apostolical, passeth angelical ; ver. 10, 
4 might he known by the church.' When saints are perfect in heaven, 
2 Thes. i. 10, they admire Christ and his love still, ver 18. He gives a reason 
of its incomprehensibleness, because it exceeds natural dimensions. Nature 
knows but three measures for solid quantity, length, breadth, and depth, but 
here height also ; and since it knows no standard but itself, he compares it 
with itself ; because he cannot measure itself, he measures by its effects, 
offerings, and sacrifices. The Teruma, the wave-offering, went in its signifi- 
cant pointing as low as hell and as high as heaven, to relieve us from the 
lowest dungeon of misery, and to exalt us to the glory of the highest heaven. 
The Tenvpha, the wave-offering to and fro, points at the breadth and length 
of this love, either in the four points of the mediatorial office, — the undertaking 
it from eternity ; the performance in time, by his assuming our nature and 
laying it down a sacrifice for us ; the love whereby he woos and espouseth 
ua to himself in effectual calling ; the love by which he loves them to the 
end, from eternity to everlasting, — or four corners of the earth, to shew the 
extensiveness of it There is no kind of person but what shall be saved, or 
kind of sin but what shall be forgiven, through the love of him who 4 hath given 
himself for an offering and sacrifice.' , 

The two most considerable things in that part of the words I propose for 
the ground of the ensuing discourse are, 1, The ardency of this all-governing 
affection, as immanent in Christ's breast, ' hath loved us ;' 2, That incom- 
parable method of his expressing it towards us, that never had either, or can 
admit, precedent or copy, ' and hath given himself for us, an offering and 
sacrifice.' 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



4 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. [EpH. V. 2. 

The first proposition upon which I will discourse shall only take in Christ's 
love with its object. 

As Christ also hath loved us. Ton can look npon no place of evangelical 
Scripture where this may not be proved, either directly or by consequence. 
Take one for all : 1 John iv. 16, * God is love.' Love is one of his most 
eminent attributes. Now Christ, Heb. xiii., is called ' the brightness of his 
Father's glory,' t. e. the bright manifestation of his Father's glorious attri- 
butes. These all meet in Christ, and are there united as the beams in the 
sun. But amongst them all there is no beam so bright and conspicuous as 
love. The love of God was always the same in itself, but not always the 
same to us. It was a long time clouded from the world, and shined but 
with a weak osbcure ray, till the Sun of righteousness did arise ; but since, 
the brightness of this love, of this glory, shines in the lace of Christ, and we 
may see it with open face ; we may see with open face this ray of glory, this 
love of God in Christ, who is the brightness of his Father's glorious love. 
Christ is also called, * the express character of his person.' All divine per- 
fections were imprinted upon Christ in an express manner ; but (if there be 
any inequality) that which made the deepest impression, and appears in the 
most legible character, is love, Col. i. 15. He is called ' the image of the in- 
visible God.' There was clear discoveries of some divine attributes before 
Christ, Bom. i. 19, 20 ; but divine love was never made so visible till it was 
represented to the world in this image. 

But how doth it appear that Christ loves us ? 

1. By amorous expressions. Christ acts the highest strains of a lover in 
the Song of Songs. See what amorous compellations he treats his spouse 
with : ' My love, my dove, my fair one, my undented.' Bead his love songs, 
and see how affectionately he sets out the beauty of his beloved, Cant. iv. 
1-8, &c, and then concludes, * Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot on 
thee ;' and complains, ver. 9, * Thou hast ravished my heart with one of 
thine eyes,' &c. ; and chap. vi. 4-6, &c, < Turn away thine eyes from me, for they 
have overcome me ;' ver. 10, ' Who is she that looketh out as the morning, 
fair as the moon, clear as the sun ;' so chap. i. to ver. 10. Hear how he woos : 
* Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away,' chap. ii. 10 ; and iv. 6, ' My 
dove, &c, let me see thy face, let me hear thy voice : for sweet is thy voice, 
and thy countenance is comely.' See his love posture, how he embraces : 
Cant. ii. 6, ' His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth em- 
brace me.' He condescends to set out his love by such expressions as we 
can best judge of, though it transcends all. 

2. By his thoughts. Thoughts and affections are mutual causes one of 
another. Thoughts give life to affection, and affection begets thoughts. 
Where is much affection, there will be many thoughts ; and where there ia 
strong affection there will be high thoughts of what we affect. Christ's 
thoughts of us are many and high. He had thoughts of love to us .from 
eternity, and we were never one moment out of his mind since then. We 
are graven on the palms of his hand, Isa. xlix. 16 ; nay, we are written in 
his heart, and there he wears us, as the high priest the names of the ten 
tribes upon his breast. He has set us as a seal upon his heart, as a signet 
npon his arm, Cant. viii. 6. We can never be out of his sight, and so never 
out of his mind. It is as impossible he should cease to think of us, as it is 
for a mother to forget her sucking child, which is always in her arms, or 
on her knee, or in her bosom, Isa. xlix. 15. Nay, * she may forget,' but 
Christ will not, cannot. 

Also he hath high thoughts of us. We are his jewels, Mai. iii. 17 ; pre- 
cious to him, not only in life, but death, Ps. cxvi. 15 ; his treasure, his peculiar 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Era. Y. 2.] THE LOVB OP CBBIST. 5 

treasure, Exod. xix. 5 ; and where his treasure is, there will his heart be also. 
As the most rich and precious stones, the stones of a crown, Zech. ix. 16, he 
accounts us his joy, John xvii. 18, his glory, 2 Cor. viii. 28, a crown of glory 
and a royal diadem, Isa. lxii. 8 ; yea, an eternal excellency, Isa. lx. 15. ; He 
has preferred us before the rest of men, though in all worldly respects to be 
preferred before us. He has chosen us, the foolish, weak, and base, despised 
things of this world, and rejected the wise, mighty, and noble, 1 Cor. x. 26-28. 
He has preferred us before the angels fallen ; for when we were both involved 
in the same misery, those, sometime gay morning stars, are reserved in 
everlasting chains of darkness ; but he has lifted up our heads and crowned 
us with glory and dignity ; nay, he has in some respect preferred us before 
himself, for he loved us and gave himself for us. 

8. But this flame, where it is, cannot be confined to the breast and thoughts, 
but will break forth into action. And so does the love of Christ appear to 
us, by what he has done for us. He has made us rich, fair, honourable, 
potent, yea, one with himself. We are by this love enriched. The Lord is 
our portion, Ps. xvi. 5, and this is incomparably more than if we had heaven 
and earth; for all the earth is but as a point compared with the vastness of the 
heavens, and the heavens themselves are but a point compared with God. 
What a large possession have we, then ! There is no confiscation of it, no 
banishment from it. Our portion fills heaven and earth, and is infinitely 
above heaven and below earth, and beyond^both. Poor men boast and pride 
themselves of a kingdom, but we have more than all the kingdoms of the 
world and the glory thereof. Christ has given us more than the devil could 
offer him. 

He has made us beautiful ; decked onr souls with rays of his own beauty, 
made us partakers of the divine nature, filled us with the fulness of God, 
conformed us to himself, who is the brightness of divine glory. And now we 
are all glorious within ; the King delights in our beauty. There is a brighter 
lustre on our souls than shone in Moses's face when he had been talking with 
God, or sparkled in the habit of Christ and his glorious companions when 
tbey were transfigured. If the beauty of a sanctified soul could be made 
visible to the world, the sun would be no longer esteemed a glorious creature, 
nor the fairest face lovely. Indeed, it was no easy matter to beautify such 
deformed souls. Christ tells us what it cost him in the text: he loved us 
and washed us from our sins with his blood. Otherwise his pure eye could 
never have beheld us with such complacency, his heart could never have been 
ravished with us. 

He has made us honourable. See what titles we bear. We are his ser- 
vants. The angels count this their honour, to be ministering spirits. But 
it is the lowest of our titles. We are his friends, his favourites, John xv. 
15, * Henceforth I call you not servants,' &c, 1 1 have called you friends,' 
yea, intimate friends, such as he entrusts with his secrets. ' All things that 
I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.' We are not only 
friends, but brethren : Heb. ii. 11, ' He is not ashamed to call us brethren ;' 
sons of the same Father: ' What manner of love is this, that we should be 
called the sons of God,' 1 John iii. 1 ; nay, not only sons, but ' heirs, heirs 
of God, and joint-heirs with Christ:' Rom. viii. 17, who is 'appointed heir 
of all things,' Heb. i. 2. There is no such love amongst men as for an heir 
to admit another co-heir with him. Nay, we are kings and priests in the 
text ; conquerors, yea, more than conquerors, Bom. viii. 

He has made us potent. No such potentates on earth, as these whom 
Christ loves: Philip, iv., 'I can do all things through Christ strengthening 
me.* What ! A creature omnipotent, able to do all things ^^e^ by a bet- 



6 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. [EPH. V. 2. 

tor reason than Oato proved the Roman women ruled all the world. Christ 
can do all things, but these whom he loves can prevail for all that he can 
do. For he hath promised : John ziv. 12, 18, ' Whatsoever ye shall ask 
in my name, that will I do ;' Hosea xii. 8, 4. 

These are large expressions of love indeed. But the proper act of love is 
union ; love is ever accompanied with a strong inclination to unite with its 
object, which, by some secret and powerful virtue, as it were by the emission 
of some magnetical rays, attracts the lover with a restless solicitation, and 
never ceases till they meet and unite, as intimately as their nature will per- 
mit. The grossness of the matter in corporeal parts will not admit of such 
intimacy and penetration as love affects ; but souls, they can mix, twine 
about each other, and twist into most strict oneness. We see this effect in 
Christ's love. His affection moved him to union with us ; and one degree 
of his union was the assuming our nature, by which Christ and we are one 
flesh. He may say to us as Adam, ' Thou art bone of my bone, and flesh 
of my flesh' Nay, we are not only one flesh, but one spirit: 2 Cor. 
vi. 17, 'He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.' transcendent love ! 
As if some man, out of love to a worm, should take upon him the form and 
nature of that irrational, contemptible creature. Hence David (in that a 
type of Christ) calls himself ' a worm, and no man,' Ps. xxii. Yet Christ's 
love, in being incarnate, is infinitely more ; as the disproportion betwixt him 
and us is infinitely greater than between us and worms. This was greater 
love, greater honour, than ever he would vouchsafe to angels : ' He took not 
upon him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham.' But the love of 
Christ would not rest here ; he thinks us yet not near enough, and therefore 
holds forth a more intimate union in such resemblances as these : John 
xv. 6, ' I am the vine, ye are the branches.' We are united as closely to 
Christ as the branches to the vine. More than this : Eph. i. 22, 28, ' gave 
him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body.' We 
are united to Christ, as the body to the head. Each of us may look upon 
ourselves as a part of Christ ; bo that whatever glory and happiness shines 
in our head, reflects upon us ; and whatever dignity and injury is cast upon 
us, it reaches our head. 

But the union which importeth most love, is that betwixt man and wife. 
Christ expresses his love and our union by this : Isa. liv. 5, ' Thy Maker is 
thy husband,' ver. 6. He has ' taken thee, a woman forsaken, a wife of 
youth :' Isa. lxii. 9, ' As a bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy 
God rejoice over thee.' No such love amongst mortals as betwixt man and 
wife ; nor is this love and complacency at any time so vigorous and conspi- 
cuous as in the day of marriage. Yet such a love is Christ's, he is our hus- 
band, and we shall ever* be in his account as a wife of youth, as beautiful, 
as delightful ; and eternity shall be but a continued marriage-day, as full of 
joy and triumph. Oh happy souls that have interest in his love ; you whom 
the Lamb has chosen to be his bride ; you who must taste the sweetness of 
those joys, and must be the object of that complacency and delight ; you 
who must be kissed with the kisses of that mouth, and folded in the arms of 
such a bridegroom ! Oh how unsavoury may the joys of earth be to you, 
how contemptible the choicest beauties in the world I The creature can 
reach no higher either in desires or conceits ; but the love of Christ goes 
above both, and expresses itself in a nearer union than this. A conjugal 
union is very intimate ; yet not so near, as that the terms thereof should 
denominate one another ; the husband cannot be called the wife, nor the wife 
the husband. Yet so near is our union with Christ, that it grounds such a 
denomination; for we are called Christ: 1 Cor. xii. 12, ' So also is Christ,' 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



EPH. V. 2.1 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 7 

i. e. Christ mystical We are not only Christ's, his members, his spouse ; 
bat Christ, in the apostle's phrase. Yet further, the wife is not said to be in 
the husband, yet Christ is said to be in us ; ' that Christ might dwell in 
your hearts by faith,' Eph. iii. 17, Gal. ii. 19. Here is not only a cohabi- 
tation, but inhabitation. 

Yet further, to add one consideration, which advanceth the intimacy of this 
anion above all those mentioned. The branch may be said to be in the 
vine, but not reciprocally the Tine in the branch ; yet Christ is both in us, 
and we in him : John xiv. 20, * At that day ye shall know that I am in the 
Father, and you in me, and I in you.' What more intimate mixture is there 
in the world, than that of light and air ? Yet here is not this reciprocation ; 
though the light be in the air, yet is not the air said to be in the light. 
What nearer conjunction is there than betwixt the soul and the body ? Yet 
here, though the soul be in the body, yet is not the body in the soul. Sure, 
when Christ is said to be in us, and we in him, here is some intimacy in- 
tended more than ordinary union ; some mystery for which we want a name, 
bo far are we from reaching its nature. The apostles themselves here knew 
it not, as the words imply, propounded in the future, ye shall know. They 
could not apprehend it, till that extraordinary effusion of the Spirit, to which 
this place refers ; and then, it is probable, rather apprehend, than compre- 
hend it. And if ever those most comprehensive creatures, the angels, had 
need to bend themselves downward, and stretch out their necks (as the word 
used by Peter implies], to pry into a gospel mystery, sure it is the mystery 
of Christ's love, in mixing himself thus intimately with us. 

It is true, indeed, while we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord. 
There is some distance betwixt us, which, though it dissolves not the union, 
yet hinders the comfortable effects of it. And Christ is sensible of this ; his love 
will not long endure it ; he cannot abide that those whom he loves so dearly, 
should be so far from him. He longs for that happy time when we shall 
meet never again to part. He is gone to prepare the place ; and now that 
it is ready, hear how he woos us : Cant. ii. 10, ' Rise up, my love, my fair 
one, and come away ; for lo, the winter is past,' &c. And, as though he 
wondered at our slowness to meet our happiness, he calls again, ver. 18, 
* Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.' And when he sees we stay, 
and call for him to meet us, how cheerfully does he reply, ' Behold, I come 
quickly ;' and, in the mean time, with all importunity solicits his Father : 
John zvii. 24, ' Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be 
with me, that they may behold my glory ;' and urges the Father, as he loves 
him, to do it. That is his argument : ' For thou lovedst me before the foun- 
dation of the world.' And why is he so importunate ? See it, ver. 21, 22, 28, 
where we have the project of Christ's love four times repeated in three 
verses, ' That they all may be one ;' ' that they may be one in us ;' ' that 
they may be one, even as we are one ;' ' that they may be made perfect in 
one.' You have the union in all three : the pattern and exemplar of the 
union in ver. 22, ' that they may be one, as we are one ;' and ver. 21, ' that 
they may be in us, as thou, Father, art in, me, and I in thee.' Not only as 
the branch is in the vine, or a member in the body, or the light in the air ; 
these are too low resemblances of so high a mystery ; but ' that they may 
be in me, as I, Father, am in thee,' &c. I say not that it is the same 
union with that betwixt the Father and the Son. It is infinitely distant from 
it ; but, as those expressions import, it has some resemblance. And, lastly, 
the motive inducing this, ver. 28, ' That the world may know that thou hast 
loved them, as thou hast loved me.' See here, and wonder, an union, that 
resembles the highest, most mysterious, and incomprehensible union, the 



8 THE LOVE OF CHBIST. [EpH. Y. 2. 

unity of the Father with the Son, proceeding from a love, which is the 
highest, most stupendous, and inconceivable love, the love of the Father to 
the Son. Such is the union wherewith Christ has united us to himself, and 
such is the love which moved him so to unite us. What nearer union than 
this ? What greater love than this ? 

4. The love of Christ appears by what he has given us ; his love-tokens. 
Whatever we have, for being or well-being, spring from his love. It is love 
that opens those infinite treasures of goodness, which had else been eter- 
nally locked up from the creatures. And though, in these showers of mercy, 
some drops fall upon the wicked, and so seem common, yet the fountain of 
love, from whence they issue, is not common. There is a vast difference 
betwixt the provision which a man makes for his wife, and for his servants. 
$very mercy we enjoy is a drop from the ocean of his special love. Let us 
ascend, by some degrees, to the height of this bounteous love. 

He gives us plenty of mercies. . This love daily loads us with benefits, 
Ps. lxviii. 19, 1 Tim. vi. 17. He gives us nothing but what is good. The 
wicked have some good things, and some bad ; those which are materially 
good in themselves, yet are formally evil to them, both in God's intention 
and in the event. Their table is a snare, the word is the savour of death, 
and sacraments seals of condemnation ; but Christ's love makes that which 
is materially evil in itself, yet formally and finally good to us ; for all the 
ways of God are mercy, Ps. xzv. He curses their blessings, but he blesses 
our curses; temptations, afflictions, sin and death, prove all good to us. 
Even all his ways ; and not only all the ways of God, who loves us in Christ, 
but all the ways of those who hate us, whether reprobates or devils. For 
' all things shall work for the good of those that love God,' Rom. viii. This 
is the great privilege of those whom Christ loves ; nothing shall befall them, 
but what shall prove good for them. They may conclude, in whatever con- 
dition they are, it is the best for them ; and if it had not been so, they had 
never come into it ; and whenever they shall cease to be so, they shall be 
removed out of it. It is the sweetest privilege, yet the most difficult to believe 
at all times, since there is often great opposition both of sense and reason, 
yet it is most true. And the reason is, the love of Christ making a sweet 
connection betwixt his glory and our good; so that whatever advanceth the 
one must promote the other. Now every thing must tend to his glory, 
therefore to our good ; these two cannot be separated. 

Besides, Christ's love gives us whatever is good. ' He gives grace and 
glory, and no good thing will he withhold,' &c., Ps. lxxx. We shall want 
no good thing, Ps. xxxiv. 10. Take a survey of heaven and earth, and all 
things therein ; and whatever upon sure grounds appears good, ask it con- 
fidently of Christ ; his love will not deny it. If it were good, for you that 
there were no sin, no devil, no affliction, no destruction, the love of Christ 
would instantly abolish these. Nay, if the possession of all the kingdoms of 
the world were absolutely good for any saint, the love of Christ would 
instantly crown him monarch of them. But if you yet doubt of the bounty 
of Christ's love, see hore a further consideration that will satisfy* 

Christ's love will give you whatever you can desire. For what reasonable 
man can desire that which is not good ? This is included in the former. 
Now all that is good the promises have already assured to you. But lest 
this limitation should seem to straiten this large privilege, it is propounded 
absolutely (though indeed it were no privilege if this condition was not 
implied). ' Delight thyself in the Lord, and he will give thee thy heart's 
desire,' Ps. xxxvii. : John xvi. 28, * Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in 
my name, he will give it you' ; and ver. 15, 17, * Ye shall ask what ye will, 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



EPH. Y. 2.] THB LOVE OF CHBI8T. 9 

and it shall be done unto yon/ The reason is, ver. 9, ' As the Father has 
loved me, so have I loved yon.' Bnt if this satisfy not, if yon still question 
what is this what you will, and fear lest you should desire too little, though 
this be a rare fault, behold the love of Christ will fully satisfy you ; he tells 
you ' All is yours,' 1 Cor. ill. 21-28. And will yon have more ? ' All things 
are yours : whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or 
death, or things present, or to come ; all are yours.' See here the extent of 
this all ; the world, and ail the world is yours. Yea, but alas ! I shall not 
live long to enjoy it ; fear not that, for life is yours, you shall live till you be 
fit to take possession of a greater, a better world. And then death is yours, 
to convey yon from the enjoyment of things present, to the fruition of things 
to come ; from this present world to the world which is to come. See here, 
no less than two whole worlds is yours. If, as Alexander, thy vast desires 
cannot be filled with one world, here are two, both thine ; one present, one 
to come. Oh the wonderful love of Christ, the wonderful bounty of this 
love I It was a royal offer of Ahasuerus to Esther, and a sign of great love : 
Esther v. 8, ' What is thy request ? it shall be given thee to the half of the 
kingdom.' Ay, but Christ not only offers, but gives, not half, but whole 
kingdoms, yea, whole worlds. But you will say, This is but a chimera, an 
empty notion : for we see there are none enjoy less of the world than those 
whom yon say Christ loves. I answer, the world is not able to judge of true 
enjoyments. There are none that have a more real, and advantageous, and a 
less troublesome and dangerous enjoyment of the world than saints. And I 
prove it thus. We may be most truly said to enjoy that which we reap the 
greatest 'emolument from, and get the greatest benefit by, that can be ima- 
gined ; but there are none that improve the world to such a real advantage 
as the saints : for the love of Qhrist has so ordered the world, and everything 
in it, as it tends to their happiness, Bom. viii. And what greater benefit 
imaginable than happiness ? On the contrary, we cannot be said truly to 
enjoy that by which we get no benefit ; but the wicked (those who seem to 
have engrossed the world to themselves) get no benefit by it : for both it and 
all things in it tend to make them miserable. There is no more reason to 
deny the saint's interest in the world, because it seems to be possessed by 
others, than to deny a merchant has interest in his estate, because it is in 
the hands of mariners and factors, whenas it is but committed to them, 
that it may be the better improved for the true owner. And so is the world 
in the hands of others, for the saints' best advantage, which they receive, as 
a landlord from his tenants, withont trouble or hazard. It is evident then 
that this present world is ours. And for the world to come, there is no 
question. So that we need not wonder at Jacob, who, when he was the 
poorer man in the world's account, conceived himself richer than Esau : 
Gen. xxxiii. 9, Esau says, ' But I have enough ; ' but Jacob says (as it is 
in the original) * I have all.' And 60 may every one whom Christ loves say, 
' I have all ;' all that I stand in need of, all that is good for me, yea, all 
that I can desire. This is enough, sure. Who can imagine more ? Ay, 
but Christ's love has provided more than we can desire. See 1 Cor. ii. 9, 
compared with Isa. lxiv. 4, ' As it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which G-od 
hath prepared for those that love him.' What is there in the vast circuit of 
the world that eye hath not seen ? Yet more is prepared for us than eye 
hath seen from the beginning. There is no man whose ear has not heard 
more than his eye ever saw ; yet is there more prepared for us than ear ever 
heard. But there has more entered into the heart of man, than ever was 
offered either to his eye or ear ; yet the vast and unlimited thoughts of man 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



10 THE LOVE OF CHBIST. [EpH. Y. 2. 

could never conceive wjiat great things are prepared for as. Here then is 
more than the largest desire can reach ; for no man can desire that which 
his heart could never conceive. That which never entered into the mind of 
man to be the object of his knowledge, never entered into his heart to be the 
object of his desires. Christ has given more than heart can think, more 
than heart can desire ; nay, more than the angels can conceive, whose 
apprehensions are widest and highest. There is a word in Isaiah upon 
which we may ground this : ' For since the beginning of the world men have 
not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has eye seen, O God ! besides 
thee, what he has prepared for him that waiteth for him.' None besides 
thee, God, whose apprehensions are infinite, can conceive. Not the 
glorified saints, not the glorious angels, none besides thee. Nothing bnt 
infiniteness can comprehend what the incomprehensible love of Christ is. It 
is true indeed, it is said that God has revealed them to us by his Spirit, 
ver. 10, and the Spirit given to this end, that we might know the things that 
are freely given us of God. But this knowledge is not proportionable to the 
dignity of the object, but to the capacity of us the subjects ; for if the Spirit 
should raise his style as high as the glorious expressions of Christ's love, he 
must use such words as Paul heard when he was rapt into paradise, 2 Cor. 
xii. 14 ; unspeakable words, that cannot be spoken, that cannot be under- 
stood by us in the body. The glorious riches of Christ's love cannot be 
expressed but in the language of paradise ; cannot be understood but by a 
transported soul, a spirit rapt into the third heaven. The expressions which 
the Spirit uses to us in the body are such as may rather signify despair of 
full apprehending them, than lead us to a comprehensive knowledge of them ; 
such as these : he tells us of joy, but which is unspeakable, 1 Peter i. 8 ; 
of peace, but such as passeth all understanding, Philip, iv. 7 ; of love, but 
such as passeth knowledge, Eph. iii. 19 ; of riches, but such. as are unsearch- 
able, Eph. iii. 8. 

But we are not yet come to the height of Christ's love. These unspeak- 
able, unconceivable, unsearchable favours are but streams or drops of love ; 
Christ has given us the fountain, the ocean : these are but sparks and beams ; 
he has given us the sun, the element of love. The love of Christ gives us 
interest in the glorious Trinity* 

The holy and uncreated Spirit is ours. How often does he promise to 
give the Comforter? See one for all, John xiv. 16. The Spirit is ours, 
and his graces and comforts, those dawnings and glimmerings of glory, those 
irradiations of the divine nature, those joys, and that peace, which cannot be 
spoken, cannot be understood. 

The Father is ours : John xx. 17, ' I ascend to your Father, and my 
Father ; to your God, and my God.' The Father, and all that he is, all his 
glorious attributes, are ours, his all- sufficiency, wisdom, power, mercy, justice, 
truth, and faithfulness, &c. All that he does is ours, for us. His decrees, 
they are the spring of our happiness, Eph. i. 4, 5. His providence, the acts 
of it are as so many streams, which carry us with full sail into the ocean of 
glory, Ps. xxv. All that he has made: heaven, that is our home, our 
inheritance ; earth, that is our inn, to accommodate us in our pilgrimage, in 
our journey homewards ; angels, they are our guard, Mat. iv. 6 ; inferior 
creatures, they are our servants, Gen. i. 28. For Christ has renewed that 
charter which we then forfeited. Yea, the reprobates, the devils, and hell 
itself, are made so ours by the love of Christ, as they shall increase our 
happiness, and illustrate the freeness of his love ; their temptations and 
persecutions, whatever they intend, shall have no worse effect .than, as Dan. 
xi. 85, and xii. 10, to make us white, more lovely in the eye of our bride- 
Digitized by VjOOQlC 



EPH. Y. 2.] TBB LOVE OF CBBIST. 11 

groom. And how will this endear the love of Christ to us, that he should 
reject so many fallen angels and men to choose us ! That we shall be those 
two who must enter into Canaan, when two hundred thousand of our fellow- 
travellers are shut out and perish in the wilderness ! What thoughts shall 
we have, when, sitting in the bosom of him whom our souls love, we shall see 
the greatest part of the world tormented in that flame t The tortures of that 
lake will sweeten those rivers of pleasures in which we shall eternally bathe 
oar souls. That dismal place shall be as a beauty-spot to make our glory 
more glorious. 

And now, what is there in heaven and earth that the love of Christ has 
not made ours ? There is nothing of all left but himself. And, alas, what 
would all these things profit, if we want him? Without Christ, earth would 
be hell, and heaven would not be heaven. He is the hope of earth, and 
the glory of heaven. See here, then, the height of his love ; be has given 
us himself, and all with himself. He is our husband ; heaven and earth is 
oar jointure. He deals not with ns as some husbands, who, out of more 
providence than love, instate their wives in part of their wealth, and reserve 
the rest for they know not what posterity ; no, his love hath withholden 
nothing from us. No, let him take all, saith he, as Mephibosheth ; all that 
I have by inheritance, and all that I have by purchase. His person is ours, 
he has married us ; his offices are ours, he is our king, our priest, our pro- 
phet ; his sufferings are ours, his merits, resurrection, ascension, intercession — 
all, all is ours that Christ hath, or doth, or suflereth. His love would let 
nothing be detained from us ; not his life, he gave his life a ransom for us, 
Mat. xx. 28 ; not his blood, he washed us in his blood, as in the text ; no, 
not his glory : John xvii. 22, ' And the glory which thou gavest me I have 
given them.' boundless love t the unsearchable riches of Christ's love ! 
happy souls that have interest in this love, in these riches ! How may 
we contemn the pride of such as account themselves great and rich in the 
world ! Your large domains and greatest possessions are but as a point 
compared with ours, whose poverty you despise. If the map of our worlds 
were set before you, how would you be ashamed, with the Athenian gallant, 
to see your imagined vast estates shrink there into nothing! We have 
riches that you know not of. We have more than you can desire, though 
your desires were as wide as hell. We have more than you can imagine, 
though your thoughts were stretched out to the wideness of angelical appre- 
hension. There is no valuing of our revenues,* no measuring of our pos- 
sessions, no bounds of our inheritance ; it is infinite ; God, and heaven, and 
earth is our portion. The love of Christ hath done this for us, has given 
these to us. 

5. Take an estimate of the love of Christ from his sufferings. Consider 
how and what he suffers by us, with us, for us. 

(1.) His love makes him patiently suffer many things by us. It puts up 
many affronts, and indignities, and undervaluings ; many acts of unkindness 
and disloyalty. See the provoking nature of sin, what a grievance and pres- 
sure it is to Christ : Isa. xliii. 24, ' Thou hast made me to serve with tby 
Bins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities ;' Isa. i. 24, * Ah, I will 
ease me of mine adversaries.' Implying sin is an oppressing burden : Amos 
ii. 3, ' Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of 
sheaves ;' Ezek. vi. 9, 'I am broken with their whorish heart. 1 There is 
nothing so provoking, so injurious to man, as sin is to Christ ; for what 
higher provocations amongst men than treason, adultery, murder ? Now, 
every sin against Christ involves in it the heinousness of these crimes. Sin 
is high treason against Christ, would depose him, and advance itself and 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



12 THE LOVE OP CHBIST. [EPH. V. 2. 

Satan into his throne ; he says, ' I will not have this man to rule over me/ 
and ' Who is Jeans Christ, that I should obey him V Sin is an act of 
spiritual whoredom and adultery, a defiling of the marriage bed, a violation 
of our conjugal vow to Christ, when it carries away the heart from Christ, as 
in covetousness and sensuality ; hence such expressions, * How is the faith- 
ful city become an harlot !' Isa. i. 21. That sin has murdered Christ needs 
no proof ; nay, it strikes not only at his life, but at his being ; would anni- 
hilate him, cause the Holy One of Israel to* cease from us, Isa. xxx. 11. 
1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.' Oh, then, what manner of 
love is this, which makes Christ willing to bear with such a thing as sin, and 
to continue so tenderly affectionate to those who have so frequently com- 
mitted it ! What king ever so loved a subject as to continue his love to him 
after he be found an enemy to his crown and dignity ? What man could 
ever be friend to him that seeks his life ? It is great love in a husband to 
bear with the frowardness, unkindness, and ordinary infirmities of his wife ; 
but who ever could bear with whoredom ? No love but the love of Christ, 
that love which has no bounds, no example, no parallel. 

But, lest you should think the sins of saints deserve not to be compared 
with such heinous crimes, consider that the sin of one whom Christ loves is 
more heinous, more provoking than the sin of any damned reprobate ; for 
those sins are most grievous that are against clearest light and greatest love. 
Now, the light which is in reprobates is darkness, Mat. vi. 23, compared 
with ours ; their knowledge is ignorance ; and therefore all theirs are sins 
of ignorance in comparison of ours. And for love, they were never the ob- 
jects of it, it was never assured to them ; whenas we are both beloved of 
Christ, and know it, and yet sin. Sure there are no sins so heinous as these, 
nor any that Christ so much resents, Hosea iv. 15 ; Dent, xxxii. 19, 'When 
the Lord saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provokings of his sons 
and of his daughters.' No provokings like the provokings of sons and 
daughters, nor any love like that which these cannot exasperate. Such is 
the love of Christ. 

(2.) This love makes him willing to suffer with us. ' In all our afflictions 
he is afflicted.' He remembers his in bonds, as though he were bound with 
them ; and those that are afflicted, as though he also were afflicted in the 
body. He knows by experience what it is to be poor, despised, slandered, 
persecuted ; he bare infirmities, that he might pity us under the burden : 
Mat. viii. 17, ' Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses/ that 
he might sympathise with us : Heb. iv. 15, ' We have not an high priest 
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all 
points tempted like as we are.' He is intimately touched with them, even 
as the head with the pain and torture of a member : 1 Cor. xii. 26, ' And 
whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, 1 especially the 
head, which, being the fountain of sense, must be most sensible. This love 
occasions such a reciprocation of interests as he accounts what is done for 
us is done for him, and what is done against us is done against him, Mat. 
xxv. 40-45. He thinks himself hungry and thirsty, when we want meat and 
drink ; a stranger, when we are banished ; restrained, when we are in prison; 
and not well, when we are sick ; as is evident, ver. 85, 86. Those that per- 
secute us persecute him, Acts ix. 5 ; and those that touch us touch the apple 
of his eye, Zech. ii. 8. 

(8.) His love made him willing to suffer for us. And for us he has suffered 
all miseries that all our sins had deserved, and cruelty could inflict. He 
who with one word caused the vast fabric of heaven and earth to start out of 
nothing, who was King of kings and Lord of lords, who had heaven for his 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



EPH. V. 2.] THE LOVE OF CHBIST. 18 

throne and earth for his footstool, was, out of love to us, content to take 
upon him the form of a servant, and to live in such a poor condition as he 
had not a cradle when horn, nor a place to la y his head while he lived, nor 
a sepulchre to bury him when he died. He who was the King of glory, the 
splendour of whose glory dazzled the eyes of seraphims, nay, whose glory 
is above the heavens, was, out of love to us, willing to be ' despised and re- 
jected of men,' Isa. liii. 8 ; to be accounted as * a worm, and no man, a re- 
proach of men and scorn of the people, 1 Ps. xxii. 6, 7. He who was adored 
by the glorious host of heaven, was the object of their eternal praises, yea, 
and ' counted it no robbery to be equal with God,' was, out of love to us, 
content to be * numbered amongst transgressors, 1 to be reviled and slandered 
as a wine-bibber, a glutton, a Sabbath-breaker, a blasphemer, a mad-man, 
and possessed with the devil. He in whose presence was fulness of joy, 
and from whose smile spring rivers of pleasures, was, for love of us, willing 
to become ' a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, 1 yea, and it seems with 
nothing else ; we never read that he laughed. He whose beauty was the 
glory of heaven, the brightness of his Father's glory, the sight whereof tran- 
sports those happy spirits that behold it into an eternal rapture, was, for love 
to us, by his suffering so disfigured as he seemed to ' have no form nor 
comeliness in him, nor beauty that any should desire him ;' ' he gave his 
back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; he hid 
not his face from shame and spitting,' Isa. 1. 6. He in whose sight the 
heavens are not clean, who was of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, was, out 
of love to us, content to 'bear our sins on his body upon the tree,' to be 
* wounded for our transgressions,' and to have all our iniquities laid upon 
him. This love made God, blessed for ever, willing to be made a curse, the 
glorious Redeemer of Israel to be sold as a slave, and the Lord of life to die 
a base, accursed, and cruel death. And, which, is above all, he who was his 
Father's love and delight, who was rejoicing before him from eternity, and in 
whom alone his soul was well pleased, did, out of love to us, bear the uncon- 
ceivable burden of his Father's wrath, — that wrath which was the desert of 
all the sins of the elect, which would have sunk the whole world into hell, 
the weight whereof made his soul heavy unto the death, and was a far greater 
torture to him than ever damned soul felt in hell (if we abstract sin and 
eternity from these torments), the burden whereof pressed from him that 
stupendous bloody sweat, and made him, in the anguish of his oppressed soul, 
cry out to heaven, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' and 
cry out to earth, ' Oh ! have ye no regard, all ye that pass by ? See if 
there be any sorrow like my sorrow, wherewith the Lord has afflicted me in 
the day of his fierce wrath.' No, Lord, there was no sorrow like thy sorrow, 
no love like thy love. Was it not enough (dearest Saviour) that thou didst 
condescend to pray, and sigh, and weep for us, perishing wretches ? Wilt 
thou also bleed and die for us ? Was it not enough that thou wast hated, 
slandered, blasphemed, buffeted ? but thou wilt also be scourged, nailed, 
wounded, crucified. Was it not enough to feel the cruelty of man ? Wilt 
thou also undergo the wrath of God ? or if thy love will count nothing a suf- 
ficient expression of itself, but parting with life, and shedding that precious 
blood, yet, was it not enough to. die once, to suffer one death ? Wilt thou 
die twice, and taste both first, and something of the second death, suffer the 
pains of death in soul and body ? Oh the transcendent love of Christ 1 heaven 
and earth are astonished at it. What tongue can express it ? what heart 
can conceive it ? The tongues, the thoughts of men and angels are far below 
it. Oh the height, and depth, and breadth, and length, of the love of Christ ! 
All the creation is nonplussed ; our thoughts are swallowed up in this depth, 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



14 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. [EPH. V. 2. 

and there must lie till glory elevate them, when we shall have no other em- 
ployment but to praise, admire, and adore this love of Christ. 

Bat farther, to set oat this love of Christ, consider some properties by 
which the Spirit describes it. It is free, unchangeable, incomprehensible. 

1. Christ loves Tin freely. He loved as when we had neither love nor 
beauty to attract his affections. The time of his love was when we lay 
trodden under foot, or polluted in our blood, Ezek. zvi. 6; when we had 
torn off the veil of light and beauty wherewith our souls were at first in- 
vested, and clothed them in Josadech's habit, Zech. iii. 8, filthy or (as the 
original is) excrementitious garments ; when we were wallowing in sin, more 
filthy than the puddle of a sow, and besmeared our souls with that which is 
more loathsome than the vomit of a dog. When the image of God was with- 
drawn, the life of holiness expired, and our souls were dead, putrifying and 
stinking as an open sepulchre. And what think you, could Christ love us 
in this condition ? Will any of us set our affections on a worm, take a toad 
into his bosom ? But Christ embraceth us in the arms of love, when we had 
made ourselves worse than the beasts that perish. Oh the freeness of this 
love ! 

Nor had we more love than beauty when Christ loved us. We were ene- 
mies to him, and all that were of his alliance. When we hated his person, 
scorned his love, rejected his offers with disdain, trampled upon his favours, 
and preferred our base lusts and his deadly enemy Satan before him. When 
we told him, we saw more reason to entertain the devil's offers than his, and 
rather be damned than be beholden to his love for heaven. And could Christ 
love us now ? Yes : Rom. v. 8, ' When we were yet sinners, Christ died 
for us.' No greater enemies to Christ than sinners, no freer love than love 
of enemies, no higher expression of free love than to die for enemies. 

2. It is unchangeable, John xiii. 1. No act of unkindness or disloyalty of 
ours can nonplus it ; no, not that which admits of no reconciliation amongst 
men, adultery : Jer. xxxi., ' Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; 
yet return unto me, saith the Lord.' See that full place, Bom. viii. 85 to 
the end, ' I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin- 
cipalities, nor powers,' &c., ' shall be able to separate me from the love of 
Christ.' Death shall not, for that conveys us to a full enjoyment of this 
love ; nor life, for that is a preparatory to this enjoyment ; nor angels, good 
or bad ; not bad, for if they separate us, it will be by accusing of us to Christ, 
shewing him our deformity or disloyalty, to make us seem unworthy of so 
great love ; but Christ will hear no such thing : Zech. iii.', ' The Lord rebuke 
thee, Satan ;' nor good angels, for if there be any danger, it is because they 
are more lovely, more excellent creatures than we, and so might withdraw 
the heart of Christ from us to them as the more worthy objects, but this 
could not hinder Christ at first from loving us, and therefore cannot hinder 
him from continuing to love us ; nor principalities, nor powers, i.e. no princes 
or potentates, by acts of cruelty or tyranny, expressed verse 85, ' Shall tribu- 
lation, or distress, or persecution, or famine ? ' &c. No ; these are so far from 
separating us from the love of Christ, as they occasion sweeter expressions 
of Christ's love. The saints find by experience never more consolation than 
in tribulation. They are never more enlarged than when distressed, never 
more affectionately embraced than when persecuted, never sweetlier feasted 
than in famine, &c. : ' In all these we are more than conquerors, through 
him that loved us.' Those things which they intend for our ruin, are by the 
love of Christ made our triumph. We are more than conquerors, and may 
more than triumph, in this unchangeable love of Christ. 

8. It is an incompreliensible love : Eph. iii. 19, ' Love of Christ, which 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



EPH. V. 2.J THE LOTS OF CHBI8T. . 15 

passeth knowledge.' There was great love betwixt David and Jonathan : 
1 Sam. xx. 17, Jonathan ' loved him as his own soul.' It is a tenderer 
affection which a mother bears to her sticking child, the son of her womb, 
Isa. xlix. 15. There is yet a stronger love than this, viz. a conjugal love 
between husband and wife, as is implied in Elkanah's speech to Hannah : 
1 Sam. i. 8, 'Am I not better to thee than ten sons? 1 Bat the highest 
strain of love we meet with is that of Moses and Paul to the Israelites, which 
made one of them contented to be blotted out of the book of life, the other 
to be accursed from Christ, for them. These are all high degrees of love 
indeed, bnt such as were in the breasts of men, and therefore not beyond 
their knowledge. Yea, bnt the love of Christ passeth knowledge. He is 
the pattern and subject of all relations ; and the love of all relations is con- 
centred in his breast, and unspeakably more. His love to us is many 
degrees higher than the love which flows from all relations would be if united 
in one soul ; and therefore when he would express it, he goes higher than 
the world for a resemblance of it, even to infiniteness itself: John xv. 9, 
' As the Father hath loved me, even so love I you.' This is such a love as 
we can neither express nor conceive ; we must supply the defect of both with 
admiration. And this should have been the, 

1. Use. To admire the love of Christ. 

2. To admire the happiness of those whom Christ loves. 
8. To move us to love Christ with all, for all, above all. 
4. To move us to love one another. 

Use 1. Admire the love of Christ. Heaven and earth never beheld, angels 
and men never considered, anything so wonderful, so apt to astonish, as 
Christ's love to men. It is wonderful in the eyes of glorified creatures ; 
angels and saints do, and will, admire and adore it to all eternity. And it 
is wonderful in the eyes of all considering men on earth ; nothing more, no- 
thing so much. Wonderful is Christ's attribute, Isa. ix. 6 ; due to him in 
all respects, but above all in this, and in all other for this. All will confess 
it, if they consider the grounds of this admiration, whom, who, and how. 

1. Consider whom he loves. How unfit, unworthy, unlovely. It was not, 
it could not be, in the thoughts of any, whose thoughts are not infinite, to 
imagine that ever man, of all creatures, should be the object of Christ's love. 
For, 

(1.) How vile and contemptible is man in Christ's account ! What is 
man but dust and ashes, breathing dust and enlivened clay ? Gen. xviii. 27. 
What more despicable creature than a worm ? The best of men, compared 
with Christ, are no more, nay, not so much in his sight, as a worm in ours : 
Job xxv. 6, ' How much less man that is a worm, and the son of man which 
is a worm ? ' He is more indeed absolutely, but not so much comparatively. 
The highest on earth is farther below Christ than a worm is below a man. 
Man, so considered, is not so much as a worm, he is but as a moth : Job 
xxvii. 18, ' He builds his house as a moth ;' nay, he is inferior to this small 
contemptible creature : Job iv. 19, ' Crushed before the moth.' Yet there 
is something on earth more inconsiderable than a moth ; as small in quan- 
tity, and far inferior, as being inanimate, a drop, an atom. Yet man is not 
so much, compared with Christ, as one of these: Isa. xl. 15, 'All the 
nations.' If all the earth, all the inhabitants of the earth, be but as one 
drop, what is one man ? Imagine a drop, a mote, divided into as many 
millions of parts as there are people on earth, how small would one of those 
parts be, even beyond imagination ! It would be as nothing. Nay, but all 
nations are ' less than nothing,' ver. 17. Oh what, then, is one man ! Oh 
what a wonder that Christ should love such a thing, such a nothing, as man! 

d by«\J< 



16 THE LOVE OF CHBIST. [EPH. Y. 2. 

Oh that Christ should embrace a worm, and take a moth into his bosom ! 
That he should delight in and rejoice over a drop, a mote, and set his heart 
upon that which is not ! Ps. viii. 4. 

(2.) How impotent ! Man can do nothing to engage or deserve love, no- 
thing to please or honour snch a lover ; and was so considered when Christ 
had intentions of love, therefore it is admirable. It is a wonder that any 
should love a creature whose being is despicable ; but if it be considerable 
in acting, it takes off from the wonder. But man is despicable, not only as 
to his being, but actings. As he is nothing comparatively, so he can do 
nothing ; nothing to glorify Christ, much to dishonour him ; nothing to 
please Christ, much to provoke him. As an impotent slave has no power 
to be serviceable to his prince, much to dishonour him by treasonable 
speeches or practices. An affront from a slave is a greater provocation than 
from an equal. How can one that is halt, lame, or maimed, walk or work ; 
one that is dead, act ? Such were men, so represented to Christ, when he 
entertained thoughts of love ; without active principles, faculties, or qualities. 
And when Christ has bestowed these, yet cannot he act but as he is acted ; 
it is not he works for Christ, but Christ that works all his works for him. 
He cannot act but in Christ's strength, cannot move except he be drawn, 
cannot walk except Christ lead him, cannot stand except Christ uphold him. 
Yea, when he is empowered to act, yet are not his actings more valuable 
than his being. Operari sequitur esse. As he is no more, compared with 
Christ, than a worm, moth, mote, so his best actions, most glorious per- 
formances, are of no more advantage to Christ than the crawlings of a worm, 
the acting of a moth, the motion of an atom, the falling of a drop. As these 
are to us, so we to Christ ; when we have done all, but unprofitable servants. 
What a wonder that Christ should love those in whose being he can take 
no pleasure, and by whose acting he can get no glory, no advantage ! Who 
amongst us would love or marry one who could not stand but while sup- 
ported, nor rise but as lifted up, nor move a finger but as moved ? Bach a 
lame, sick, impotent, dead creature was man, when Christ first thought of 
love, Bom. v. 6. 

(3.) How poor 1 No Buch poverty as man's. He is nothing, can do 
nothing ; nay, and hath nothing. Who poorer than he who has neither 
food, nor raiment, nor money, nay, and in debt besides ? Man is in a 
starving condition, a famished soul ; must needs be so, wanting Christ the 
bread of life. He feeds on nothing but wind and husks, the vanities and 
brutish pleasures of the world please his senses, his soul languisheth, con- 
sumes, and is at the gate of death. He has not so much as will cover his 
nakedness ; though he think, with Laodicea, he is rich, and stands in need 
of nothing, yet he is poor and naked, Bev. iii. 

The poor, forlorn condition of man, when Christ intended love, is de- 
scribed Ezek. xvi. 6 ; lay polluted in his blood, and no eye pitied him. A 
degree below misery, below pity; yet this was * the time of love.' He has 
no money, nothing to purchase meat or clothes. Those whom Christ 
entreats with loving invitation to participation of himself, are such as have 
no money, Isa. lv. 1. He not only wants all things, but owes more than 
ever he had, more than he is worth. He cannot, upon a just account, say 
his soul is his own ; he has given his soul to Satan, sold himself to work 
wickedness ; and Satan leads him captive, has taken possession ; the strong 
man armed keeps the house. He has forfeited not only his soul, but his 
very being to God ; a greater debt than men can owe one to another. The 
least sin is such a debt as all the riches in the world cannot discharge ; 
nothing can cancel the handwriting which is against us but Christ's blood. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



EPH. Y. 2.] THE LOVE OF OHBIST. 17 

What a wonder, that Christ should love such poverty ! No such love 
amongst men. If a great prince, such as Cyras or Alexander, should set 
his love on one he finds in the highway, poor, famished, and naked, it 
would be the astonishment of all that should hear of it ; much more this, 
Christ's state being infinitely greater, and man's spiritual poverty unspeak- 
ably more. 

(4.) How deformed ! Poverty alone cannot hinder love, especially if 
there be beauty ; but who can love deformity? Man not only wants beauty, 
bat is covered with ugly and loathsome deformity. He was created fair and 
lovely, his ornament' was the beauty of heaven, the image of God ; but, 
alas! that is razed out, and the deformed image of Satan drawn in its 
place. His light is turned into darkness ; the fair, and sometimes faithful 
sool, is become a filthy harlot : and, as Isa. iii. 24, ' Instead of a sweet 
smell, there is stink ; and instead of well-set hair, baldness ; and burning 
instead of beauty.' 

There is no lovely complexion, no comely proportion left in man's soul, 
nothing that can please the eye of Christ. The surface of it defiled as with 
a menstruous rag. It is overspread with a filthy leprosy, and full, as David's 
bones, of loathsome diseases, that break forth into rotten ulcers and putrefy- 
ing sores, as Isa. i. 6. Nothing is to be seen in the face of the soul but 
fretting cankers, and spreading gangrenes. Sin has made the soul as un- 
lovely as Lazarus's body, whose sores the dogs licked ; or as Job's, full of 
sore boils, when he sat in the ashes and scraped himself. And who can be 
in love with such a soul ? 

The soul is no less deformed in respect of proportion. It is perverted, 
crooked, and, as that woman, bowed down with a spirit of infirmity, all 
broken, and out of joint. It ip defective in those parts that should make it 
lovely ; it is lame, and maimed, and blind. The eyes, no less an ornament 
to the soul than to the body, are put out : ' The God of this world has 
blinded ' natural men, 2 Cor. iv. 4. Mislocation is a monstrous deformity 
in the body, when the feet are where the head should be, or the thighs in 
place of the arms, or breast where the back, &c. There is such a misloca- 
tion on the soul. That which should be lowest is highest; the appetite 
and fancy above the mind and will ; that which should obey commands ; 
that which should rule is enslaved. A woful deformity! That which 
should be supreme is subordinate ; and that which should be subject is 
supreme. What mother would love a child whose parts were so monstrously 
displaced ? A dislocation in the soul is as odious a deformity in Christ's 
eye, as that of the body in ours. 

But that which makes the soul most unlovely is this, it is dead. When 
the life of the soul expired, all its beauty expired with it. A dead soul is as 
unlovely to Christ as a dead body is to us. Abraham loved Sarah dearly 
while she lived, but when she was dead he could not endure her sight ; he 
desired a place to bury his dead out of his sight. That which is pleasing 
and amiable when it is living, is a ghastly and fearful spectacle when it is 
dead. The soul of every son of Adam is dead, dead in sins and trespasses, 
dead of a noisome and contagious disease. This removes it at a greater 
distance from love, has lain long rotting in a grave. How wonderful is 
Christ's love 1 Who but Christ would entertain thoughts of love towards 
such an ugly, loathsome, deformed, monstrous, dead creature, as man is 
made by sin ? 

(5.) How hated ! Not only hateful, but hated ; hated of all. Who 
would love him, whom none loves, who has no friends, who can meet with 

vol. in. B 



18 f THE LOVE OF CHBIST. * [EpH. V. 2. 

none in the jrorld bat enemies ? A natural man is hated of God ; he hates 
all workeprfof iniquity : and the natural man works nothing else, Gen. vi. 5. 
He is born a child of wrath, it is his inheritance, entailed npon him, the 
wrath of God. And will Christ love what his Father hates ? 

Tue angels hate him. These are the immediate attendants and subjects 
,4? the King of heaven, and have the same friends, the same enemies with 
their sovereign. The seraphims, well rendered p Xog^og,* have their name, 
not from the order of their love, but of their anger, as appears Isa. vi., the 
only place where angels have that name. For there the Lord is repre- 
sented as an incensed judge, and they as ministers of his anger, kindled 
with his indignation. What the saints in heaven do, we may judge by the 
saints on earth : Ps. cxxxix. 21, 'Do not I hate them that hate thee ? Am 
I not grieved ?' &c. 

Nay, all the inferior creatures are at enmity with man. And good 
reason, since by the corruption of man it is brought into woful bondage, 
groaneth and travaileth in pain under it, Bom. viii. 20-22. The whole 
creation is -at enmity with man. He cannot meet any creature, but harbours 
a seeret hatred, and would be ready to manifest it at God's command. What 
a wonder, that Christ will love that which all hate I 

{6.) What enmity ! Man is not only hateful, and hated, but a hater of 
Christ, with such a hatred as would exclude all love from the breast of any 
creature ; a hatred so extensive, that he hates Christ and all that is his, 
all that is like him ; all his offices, especially that which is most glorious, 
his royal office ; keeps Christ out of his throne as to himself, and would do 
it in others. Nay, it reaches to any resemblance of Christ, hates him so 
much, as his heart rises against the image of Christ. Herein man manifests 
the height of his hatred against Christ, in that he hates his very image, that 
which does but resemble him, holiness wherever it is, in his people, in his 
ordinances, in his ways. 

Causeless. It is a wonder if any hatred meet with returns of love, but 
above all causeless hatred. In this respect David was a type of Christ, in 
that so many hated him without a cause, Ps. lxix. 4. There is not in 
Christ the least occasion of hatred, he is all glory, all beauty, altogether 
lovely, nothing else. Nor doth he give the least cause : for all his admini- 
strations are gracious or righteous ; and as his goodness is to be feared, so 
even his justice is to be loved. It is lovely in itself, being a divine, an 
infinite perfection, and should be so to men. Christ may say to all men, as 
to the Jews, John x. 81, ' Many good works have I shewed, &c. ; for which 
of these do ye hate me ?' Though none have cause, yet all hate. That 
Christ should requite any hatred with love, is a wonder; but to return love 
for causeless hatred, is an astonishment! 

Perfect hatred, without any mixture of love, Rom. viii. 7. His heart is 
as full of hatred, as a toad of poison, or hell of darkness. He hates Christ 
more than any man on earth ever loved him ; for love is but imperfect here, 
and mixed with much unkindness ; but there is no mixture of love, not the 
least degree of it, not the least desire, inclination, or tendency to it. Oh 
that Christ should love those with perfect love who hate him with perfect 
hatred, who have no inclinations to love him. 

Mortal and deadly. What more than that which murders what it hates, 
and delights to do it ? Those that delight in sin, delight to murder Christ, 
for it was 6in that murdered him. Who is there that has not delighted in 
sin ? Eternal love for deadly hatred ! 

Implacable. It is not a disposition easily removed, but a habit so firmly 
* Qu. $\«l i-vpt, referring to Heb. i. 7?— Ed. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



EPH. V. 2.] THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 19 

rooted in the heart, as it can never be plucked up, till the heart itself be 
taken out; and therefore when God roots out his hatred, and plants love, 
he quite takes away the old heart, Ezek. xi. 19. 

Oh what enmity is here 1 It is a wonder that any creature should so far 
degenerate as to turn enemy to its Creator and Redeemer. Oh what a 
wonder that Christ should love such enemies. 

Enemies in their minds t who have hard, low, base, dishonourable thoughts 
of Christ ; think Christ a hard master, a tyrant ; think his yoke an intoler- 
able grievance, an insupportable burden, and therefore plot how they may 
break his bonds. 

In their hearts. Every motion there is rebellious, quite opposite to Christ ; 
hate that which he most loves, love that which he most hates, delight in 
that which grieves him, &c. 

In their lives. Every action an act of rebellion, and their whole life (till 
conversion) a continued fight against Christ. This is the cause of the 
quarrel : ( We will not have this man to rule over us/ 

Oh wonder that Christ should love enemies, such enemies, with such love ! 
Rom. v. 10 ; love them better than his life, who hated him to the death ! 
love them unchangeably, who hated him implacably ! love them against 
all provocations and discouragements, who hated him without a cause 1 love 
them with superlative love, who hated him with perfect hatred ! Behold 
what manner of love ! behold, and wonder ! So God loved the world, so 
Christ loved man, so as none can express, none can choose but admire. 

(7.) What base dispositions, what ill conditions, after Christ's love hath 
overcome their hatred, and by his infinite power [infused] some degrees of 
love ; yet tbey continue so froward", unkind, undervaluing, disobedient, un- 
grateful, jealous, disloyal ; as it must needs be a wonder Christ can love them. 
How cross, froward, perverse, almost always complaining of and quarrelling 
with Christ, though he give not the least occasion ; quarrel with him for his 
words, though he express himself never so sweetly. Why was not this pro- 
mise made more particular ? Why clogged with such conditions ? It be- 
longs not to me, I can get no comfort from it ; he might as well have spoken 
nothing as spoke thus. And at his actions ; why is his promise no sooner 
performed ? Why hears he not my prayers ? Why want I that which 
others have ? Why thus afflicted ? In vain am I innocent, Ps. lxxiii. 12, 18. 

How unkind. How seldom visit him. With how little delight and 
affection. How few thoughts of him. How seldom, how coldly entertain 
him. It was Christ's spouse who would suffer his head to be wet, before 
she would wet her foot, and would not stir to the door to let him in, though 
he wooed her with all sweet importunity. Prefer sinful ease and pleasure 
before communion with Christ. How often do they stop their ears when he 
speaks, refase when he offers, give no answer when he calls, turn their backs 
when he would embrace ! 

How do they undervalue him. The highest thoughts of angels do not 
reach him, the best thoughts of men fall infinitely short of him. What then 
do those low, hard, disparaging thoughts of Christ, more frequent than those 
that are better ? How do they slight his tokens, prefer the husks of the 
world before the jewels and dainties of heaven. Who would love such a one, 
as knows not how to esteem of love, or any expressions of it ? 

How disobedient Omit many things that he commands, but do nothing 
at all as he desires ; fail in time, manner, end, &c. Who would endure 
such a servant as will do nothing as he is commanded ? Who would choose 
such a friend as will do nothing as he is desired ? Who would love such a 
wife as will do nothing as her husband would have her ? Yet such a ser- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



20 THE LOVB OF CHEIBT. [EPH. V. 2. 

vant, a friend, a spouse, has Christ of man ; yet he loves more, unspeakably 
more, than men ; here is the wonder. 

How ungrateful. Though Christ give all that is good for them, more 
than they make use of, more than they desire or can conceive, yet they 
think they have not enough, they murmur, complain : What, but a drop of 
comfort, but a dram of grace ? And which is more provoking, for worldly 
things, they often will not so much as acknowledge they have received what 
Christ has given in possession ; judge that counterfeit which has the stamp 
of an heaven and the picture of Christ on it. What more ingratitude than 
this ! What more odious than ingratitude 1 Who can love an unthankful 
person ! 

How jealous. Not only an unkind but cruel affection. Suspect Christ 
does not love, when his love is writ with characters of his own blood, when 
he has bestowed himself and all on them ; suspect he will not be constant, 
notwithstanding all pledges, promises, asseverations, oaths ; thinks, upon no 
ground, that Christ affects others more, because of common favours ; misin- 
terprets his expression, thinks that is sent in hatred which is given in love ; 
think he uses them as enemies, when he chastens them as children ; when 
he withdraws for trial, they conclude he has forsaken, forgotten, with Zion, 
Isa. zlix. 14, forgot to be gracious, Ps. lxxvii. 9. 

How disloyal. Many inclinations to spiritual whoredom, after they are 
espoused to Christ. Too much eye the world, lust after disavowed vanities ; 
too high thoughts of, and eager affections to, those things that are Christ's 
rivals. If to look upon a woman to lust after her, be enough to make one 
guilty of adultery in a carnal sense, then to look upon sin and the world, 
with delight, desire, &c, will bring the guilt of adultery in a spiritual sense. 
And then how much cause has Christ to complain, that those whom he loves, 
and has espoused, do play the harlot with many lovers 1 How often do 
these forsake the guide of their youth, and embrace the bosom of strangers. 
How much are whoredoms multiplied, Ezek. xvi. 25. And those that pass 
for the spouse of Christ are, ver. 82, as a wife that committeth adultery, 
and taketh strangers instead of her husband. wonder t will Christ's love 
be carried to one who runs a whoring from him ! 

How disingenuous. To venture more freely upon what is sinful or doubt- 
ful, because the Lord is so ready to pardon. To grow remiss, negligent, 
indifferent as to endeavours after growth in grace, through mortification, en- 
tire self-denial, strict, watchful, holy, fruitful, exemplary walking, because 
they think themselves sure of heaven. How disingenuous to grow worse by 
mercy, turn grace into wantonness, presumptuous security. 

(8.) How pre-engaged to his deadly enemies, sin and Satan. Who will 
love one for a wife, who is contracted to another, given her heart and self 
into his possession, and has long continued so ? Such is a man's state, 
married to sin, in league with Satan, and brings forth fruit, not unto God, 
but unto them. Fruit unto death, this is the issue of that woful marriage, 
described, Bom. vii. from 1 to the 5 ; these have his first love, Christ has 
but the leavings ; they the first fruits, Christ many times but the gleanings ; 
they have the strength of the body and vigour of the soul, Christ but a 
decrepit body and languishing affections ; they have the spirits of the soul 
and its acting, Christ but the dregs. And will it not astonish any that 
Christ should be content with these ? Is it not a wonder that Christ can 
love and marry a soul, who has prostituted itself a long time to that ugly 
fiend Satan, and that which is more ugly, sin ? 

(9.) How miserable. Nothing on earth more, or so much. Who would 
woo misery, or match himself with wretchedness ? As there is a strange 

Digitized by LjOOQlC 



EPH. V. 2.] THE LOTS OF OHBIST. 21 

propensity in every one to happiness, so a strong antipathy and averseness 
to misery; the very approach of misery begets dread and horror, passions at 
a great distance from love. Yon may take an estimate of man's misery 
from the former particular, not only deprived of beauty, strength, riches, 
favour, &c, bat also of liberty ; enslaved to sin and Satan, in bonds and 
fetters, laden with sins, the chain of darkness, bound in affliction, and in 
that which is worse than iron ; and the poor soul is bowed down under the 
weight of it, though insensible. 

Nay, he is under the sentence of condemnation. The Judge of heaven and 
earth has passed sentence : < He that believes not is condemned already,' 
John iii. 8 ; not only worthy, or in danger to be condemned, or will be 
eondemned hereafter. 

Nay, the execution is begun, the sentence is part executed : ' The wrath 
of God abides on him ;' wrath, wrath of God, abiding wrath. He that is 
under wrath is half in hell. This make* hell and wrath, here and there, differ 
but in degrees. Oh what misery 1 Involuntary misery attracts pity, and 
there is some love in pity ; but wilful misery can expect no pity, and none 
more wilful than these. He involved himself in it, and is unwilling to be 
delivered ; he had rather have his sin with misery, than happiness as the 
gospel offers it. Let these meet in your thoughts, consider how despicable, 
&c. ; any one of them render Christ's love wonderful, altogether an astonish- 
ment. 

2. Ground of admiration, is, who, the lover. That Christ should ! It would 
be a wonder if an angel, if any creature, could love such a thing as fallen man, 
so despicable, decrepit, hateful. Oh ! but that Christ should love him, is 
an astonishment ; from six considerations. 

(1.) How excellent is Christ 1 The highest excellency in heaven, and the 
chiefest excellency on earth, meet in his person. He is ' fairer than the 
children of men,' Ps. xlv. 2 ; nay, fairer than the sons of God. So the 
angels are called, Job i. 6. That beauty that shines in the angelical nature 
is not so much as a glow-worm to the sun, when it comes in comparison 
with Christ. The lustre of it shines so bright, as it dazzles their eyes, and 
they cover their faces ; and all the heavenly company lie prostrate at his 
feet, adoring, admiring that beauty which they cannot behold. 

It is his beauty that makes hoaven a glorious place. The sight of it, 
though it cannot be seen as it is, makes all those both happy and glorious 
that behold it. This is the blissful vision, which makes the angels 
blessed. This is it which makes the saints glorious, transforming them 
from glory to glory. 

Imagine that all the beautiful accomplishments, and lovely excellencies, 
that ever the world saw or heard of, were united in one person ; imagine 
that innumerable more than ever eye saw, or ear heard, or heart can con- 
ceive, were added to and mixed with the former ; imagine that every of 
these excellencies were screwed up to the nil ultra of innniteness ; imagine 
these, and infinitely more than can be imagined, to meet and shine in one 
person : and this is Christ. All the rays of beauty which are dispersed in 
heaven and earth are united in him, as in the sun. Every spark of beauty 
in Christ is an excellency, such as heaven and earth cannot match. And 
every excellency in him is infinite. See how many wonders 1 And can 
such excellency deign to love such baseness ? The bright morning star 
unite itself to a dunghill ? Will such beauty love such deformity ? One 
so fair, us so ugly ? Will so great a king, the King of kings, and Lord of 
lords, marry such a slave ? The most high God the basest and most 
wretched creature ? Will happiness and glory match itself with misery and 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



22 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. [EpH. V. 2. 

vileness, and infiniteness stoop to tbat which is nothing ? Will he, whose 
purity cannot behold sin, cast an eye of love upon sinners ; and he, 
whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, set his heart upon a worm, 
a mote ? Would you not wonder to see a peerless beauty espouse a deformed 
hag? 

(2.) How glorious. In Christ is not only all beauty, that which is the 
perfection of beauty, excellency ; but that which is the highest degree of 
excellency, glory. What glory, see Heb. i. 8, 4 the brightness of his glory/ 
Here is glory, and brightness of glory, and brightness of his Father's glory, 
t. e. of infinite glory. So that Christ is infinitely glorious. And to that 
which is infinite nothing can be added. Whatever man can do, he cannot add 
to the glory of Christ. And since he can get no glory by him, why does he 
love him ? Man's goodness upon this account is no advantage to Christ, 
as Eliphaz expresses it, Job xxii. 2. 

It is true, relative glory may be increased or diminished, that is, when 
essential glory is manifested or. acknowledged. But this is extrinsecal to 
Christ; he had been infinitely glorious if no creature had ever seen or 
acknowledged his glory. Besides, if desire of this might be an engagement 
of Christ's love, yet it is a wonder that man, of all creatures, should be be- 
loved out of this respect ; for there never was any one man upon earth 
but did more dishonour Christ, than all the creatures on earth besides, from 
the beginning of the world to the dissolution of it. One man does more 
dishonour to Christ than the whole creation. 

If Christ have any honour by man, yet he has much more dishonour ; 
therefore it is a wonder Christ should love man, for it will be hard to con- 
ceive how respect to his glory engages him to it. While man is unregenerate, 
his whole life is a continual impeachment of his glory. And alter he is 
regenerate, in the services which tend most to Christ's glory, he seems to 
be more dishonoured than glorified. For there is no one act, but has many 
sins mixed with it. And do not many sins more impair his glory than one 
good act illustrates it ? 

What wonders are here! Will infinite glory love that which is the shame 
of the whole creation ? Will Christ, whose glory is himself, love that which 
most impairs his glory ? Will he pass by them who dishonour him, and set 
his heart upon those who do nothing else ? Who would not wonder to see 
a king in his glory embrace a toad, and cherish it in his bosom ; or run 
into the embraces of a slave, a traitor to his crown and dignity? But when 
the King, the Lord of glory, for love to such a one, becomes ' the reproach 
of men, and shame of the people,' Ps. xxii. 6 ; that glory should be content 
to be covered with shame, and divine excellency to be clothed with ignominy 
and reproach ; what a wonder is this 1 

(8.) How happy. Christ was perfectly, infinitely happy, before the 
creation, and had been so to eternity if no man had ever been created. Men 
love, that they may be more happy, that they may have more delight, or 
contentment, or abundance, or assistance. Christ stood in need of none of 
these ; men and angels could not contribute more of these to Christ than he 
enjoyed. His happiness was in the enjoyment of the eternal Father and divine 
Spirit. To this nothing can be added, from it nothing detracted. For it is 
himself, and so infinite, et wjinito non datur ma jus. Man is of no use to Christ, 
as to his happiness. If there had been a million of worlds of men, Christ had 
been never the happier. If no man had been created, or all men had 
perished, Christ had not been, could not be, one jot less happy. Man 
cannot add so much to Christ as a spark to the sun, or a drop to the ocean, 
or a point to the vast frame of heaven and earth. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



EPH. V. 2.J THE LOVE OF OHBIST. 28 

Christ is not only vavrapxrig, bat civrotgxrjg ; not only all- sufficient, bat 
self-sufficient. The creature's sufficiency is from him, his is from himself. 
The Lord declares how little need he has of man, Ps. 1. 9-12. * The eyes 
of ail wait upon him, and he satisfies the desires of every living thing,' Ps. 
cxlv. 15, 16. Bat he is infinitely satisfied in looking upon himself; for in 
himself dwells all fulness satisfactory to him, and more than sufficient to all 
his. He stands in no more need of man than the heavens stand in need of 
a gnat to move them, or the earth of a grasshopper to support it, or the sea 
of a mote to confine it to its bounds. Fulness emptied V Blessedness 
cursed 1 What a wonder 1 Infinite happiness unite itself to extreme 
misery ! Why does Christ mind that which is useless to him ? But, oh 
why should he love him ? Christ is all-sufficient, and perfectly happy with- 
out man ; why should he shew himself unsatisfied till man be happy ? 
Christ was infinitely, fully satisfied, in the enjoyment of his Father ; why 
would he do, suffer so much, to bring wretched vain man into that blissful 
enjoyment ? Christ had lost nothing if man had perished. Why should 
he expose his person to so many hazards to save him ? Christ had suffered 
nothing, if man had suffered to eternity; why would he suffer so much to free 
him from suffering ? 

(4.) How knowing. Christ is omniscient. He knows all things that 
may discourage him from love, and nothing is to be known in man but may 
discourage, and all things that are hateful meet in man. If one that hath 
nothing lovely can conceal or hide what is hateful, can make fair shows when 
there are foul deformities, it is less wonder if any be surprised with love of 
such an one. But when there is nothing lovely in man, and all things that 
are hateful, and Christ knows this distinctly, exactly, better than man him- 
self, this makes his love a wonder. But so it is, not the least part of man's 
unloveliness was, or could be, concealed from Christ, Heb. iv. 13, Jer. 
xxiii. 28, 24. All the former particulars, and more than we can number, 
were from eternity presented to Christ at once ; not one after another, as 
to us, but he saw them at one view, and he saw them, sees them always 
actually. His knowledge is not, as ours, habitual, but actual. His eye 
is always fixed on them, they are never forgotten, never laid aside, but 
always present, continually presented to his thoughts; for in him cognosce™ 
et cogitare idem mnt. 

This consideration adds as much wonder to Christ's love as any. Does 
he know man's frame, and considers he is but dust ; and will he count such 
a base thing his jewel, his peculiar treasure ? Does he weigh man, and 
find him lighter than vanity ; and will no other expression satisfy his love, 
but ' weight of glory' ? He foresaw man would fall, and shatter the beauti- 
ful frame of his soul into pieces, and so make himself lame, blind, maimed, 
impotent, decrepit, unable to do anything pleasing; and would he do and suffer 
so much for him, who could do nothing for him, so much against him ? 

He knew he was poor, beggarly, naked. Oh why did he not disdain to 
look upon so forlorn a wretch ? Or if he would shew some pity, would 
nothing serve to cover that nakedness but his own robe ; to relieve that 
poverty but unsearchable riches, his own fulness? His pure eye saw 
nothing lovely in man, had a distinct view of all his deformities, his loath- 
some complexion, and monstrous dispositions. He saw that in him alone 
of all the earth that his soul hated, and would he love him more than all the 
earth ? He saw he had made himself worse, more deformed than the beasts 
that perish, and would he so love him as to equal him with angels ? He 
saw man had forsaken God, and was cast off by him and all his, and 
would his soul cleave to him ? He knew man alone, of all his creatures on 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



24 THE LOVE OF CHBIST. [EPB. V. 2. 

earth, did hate him, and would he pass by them who loved him, to love man 
who only hated him ? Would Christ suffer his friends to perish, and save 
his mortal enemy ? 

Christ not only knows that man's disposition is froward, unkind, rebel- 
lious, disingenuous, ungrateful, and disloyal, but he saw from eternity every 
froward look, every unkind gesture, every rebellious motion, every disin- 
genuous act, every ungrateful return, every disloyal inclination. He knows, 
and knew, the hearts and reins, 2 Chron. vi. 80, Ps. vii. 10 ; every heart 
and every motion of it was as visible to him from eternity as our faces to 
us when we look most stedfastly one upon another, and infinitely more. He 
who takes notice of every hair of our heads did take more notice of that 
which more concerns him, the disposition and inclination of our hearts ; if 
those are numbered, surely these are. He tells not only tears, but wander- 
ings ; they are in his book, Ps. lvi. 8. Would he be kind to those who he 
knew would be froward? so indulgent to one so rebellious? multiply favours 
upon such ungrateful wretches, so disingenuous ? would he engage himself to 
one who he knew would play the harlot ? He knew how long he would resist 
before, and how treacherous after. Why would he pity wilful misery, and 
be at such expenses to make him happy, who he knew had rather be miser- 
able ? Why would he love that which he knew was more in love with sin, 
and accept of that which Satan had so long possessed, and espouse Satan's 
strumpet ? 

(5.) How free and independent. There was no necessity, no motive, no 
engagement upon Christ to love any creature. He enjoyed more liberty 
than is to be found in the creatures. It was in his choice whether any 
creatures should have a being, much more whether any should be the objects 
of his love. There was no necessity he should create anything, none sure 
that he should love any. The Lord was infinitely satisfied in the enjoyment 
of himself, and none but himself could be an object meet, proportionable to 
his love, worthy of it. Why then did he think of making, much more of 
loving, anything else ? Or if he would not confine his love to his own 
breast, yet in the expressions of it to those other creatures before man, or 
any men before those that are chosen, as at his liberty. He amongst us, 
who may love whom he pleases, and enjoy whom he loves, will choose the 
best, or else it is a wonder. 

Here is the wonder of Christ's love, that it does fix upon the worst of crea- 
tures, man, yea, and upon the worst of men in some respects. 

Christ has not loved those that are most lovely, nor those who can make 
the best Jfeturns, otherwise he had chosen the fallen angels rather than 
fallen man. The angelical nature is more excellent, and comes nearer to 
the divine nature, being spiritual. They had more power to answer his love, 
as being more intelligent and more active, yet when Christ had his choice, 
see what a wonderful determination his will made : Fallen angels I will hate, 
but fallen man I will love. He leaves them where they fell, to lie in chains 
of eternal darkness ; but he lifts up man's head, and crowns it with glory 
and dignity. 

Nay, since Christ is so free as he might love whom he pleases, it is a 
wonder he did not respect the inferior creatures rather than man. For why? 
They never offended, never dishonoured him, but constantly declare his glory 
and execute his will. But man is the only offender, the only guilty creature 
on earth ; none else dishonour and offend Christ. Yet when Christ had his 
choice, see his resolution, and wonder. I will give him eternal life who has 
dishonoured me ; I will suffer them to perish who never offended me ! 

But if man must be the object of Christ's love, it is yet a wonder he did 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



EPH. Y. 2.] THE LOTS OF OHBIST. 25 

not love other men rather than those whom he has chosen. Christ has not 
chosen men of choicest parts, and sweetest dispositions, or greatest ability ; 
not those that might have been more able and more willing to answer his 
love and do him service. It is a wonderful distinction his love made ; the 
apostle tells as, 1 Cor. i. 26-28, not the wise, bat the foolish ; not the 
mighty, bat the weak ; not the noble, bat the base, despised, nothings, 
things which are not. We may see it and wonder. Earth will wonder 'at 
it while there are men on earth, and heaven while there are saints and angels 
in heaven. 

(6.) How powerful. * All power is given to him in heaven and earth/ 
Mat. xzviii. 18, that as Mediator; but as God, he is coequal with his Father, 
and so omnipotent. He could have created more lovely, more excellent 
creatures than any [that] are in being. He did not act as natural agents, ad 
extremum virium ; but with as much ease as he made the world could have 
formed creatures innumerable degrees more excellent than the molt excellent 
piece of his creation, the angels. There is a vast, an unconceivable distance 
betwixt the angelical nature and infiniteness, therefore there is room enoagh 
for variety of creatures inconceivably more lovely than angels, and such as 
might have been incomparably more serviceable. 

Now since man is so extremely deformed and unserviceable, and therefore 
so unfit, so unworthy to be beloved, it is a wonder that Christ would take 
notice of man, and not rather think of forming some creatures more meet to 
be objects of his love. Since man had made himself equal, if not inferior, 
to the beasts that perish, Christ might have suffered him to perish with them 
without farther regard of him, and chosen a more noble, a more lovely object 
to please himself withal. It is more a wonder than if a curious florist, hav- 
ing choice of the rarest flowers on earth, should please himself with such 
weeds as grow in every field; or than if an exact lapidary, being acquainted 
with the richest mines in the world, and having power to possess himself of 
what precious stones he list, should content himself with pebbles, and such 
stones as are to be found in every street ; or if one, having that imaginary 
philosopher's stone, and power to turn every metal into gold, should be 
satisfied with lead or iron. What a wonder would this be ! Much more 
wonderful is Christ's love, which chooses those who are unspeakably more 
inferior to the creatures he could have formed than lead is to gold, or a 
stinking weed to the sweetest and fairest flower. How should we wonder, 
in the words of the Psalmist, Ps. viii., ' Lord, what is man ? * Thou might- 
eat have made creatures unspeakably higher than both, yet thou wouldst 
not prefer these before man ; suffer these to sleep in their abhorred state of 
nonentity, and give man a being, and so as to be the object of his love. 

(7.) How absolute. The sovereignty of Christ makes his love a* wonder. 
Christ might, without any prejudice to his glory, have annihilated all men 
if they had continued innocent, aud might have justified the act upon the 
bare account of his sovereignty. Shall not I do with mine own as I list ? 
Mat. xx. 15, 'Is it not lawful?' But after sin, he might have executed the 
sentence of death upon all mankind in that very moment they received life ; 
and, as he threatens Ephraim, Hosea ix. 11, might have made the glory of 
man to fly away as a bird, from the birth, the womb, and the conception. 
He might have crushed these cockatrices in the egg, and never let them grow 
up into fiery flying serpents. And this he might have done with advantage 
to his glory, and thereby much prevented that dishonour which he suffers 
by their lives. It is the Lord's mercy that every man in his infancy is not 
consumed. What a wonder of mercy is it that he is loved ! What a won- 
der, when Christ might with 60 much glory to his justice, power, wisdom, 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



26 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. [EPH. V. 2. 

sovereignty, have destroved man, he should rather choose to love him. 
When there was, as it were, a contest betwixt mercy and justice, lore and 
hatred, and when there was so much more reason for hatred, so little or 
none from man for love, yet Christ should interpose his sovereignty rather 
than man should perish, and, when there was no other reason, love him be- 
cause he would love him, Deut. vii. 7, 8, Exod. xxxiii. 19. And as if the 
Lord should say, There is no reason in men why I should love any one of 
them ; I see many weighty reasons why I should hate him ; my hatred will 
be justified before all the world, and my justice much glorified thereby : 
yet for all this, though there be much reason from my own glory, and all 
the reason in the world from man utterly to hate him and all his posterity, 
yet I will not hate him, nay, I will love him. 

3. How Christ loves man. This is a ground of much admiration. Its 
transcendency makes it transcendently wonderful. It is a wonder man has 
a being, that more excellent creatures did not supply ; it is a wonder he is 
not cut off from the birth, hated ; it is a wonder, if Christ should but carry 
himself indifferently as to the inferior creatures, if Christ did but vouch- 
safe the least degree of love imaginable to him, in the highest degree hate- 
ful. But that he should be so far from destroying, as to glorify him ; so 
far from hating him, as he should love him superlatively, transcendently ; 
not only love him positively, but comparatively 1 

(1.) Christ loves men more than the best of men love one another. There 
is more love in Christ than is to be found in the sons of men. There is no 
human breast can contain so much love as moves in the heart of Christ. 
The dearest, the most affectionate relation on earth, affords not so much 
love as is in Christ. Nay, there is as much love in him as in all relations 
united ; nay, there is more love in him than in all relations together. Single out 
that relation, which of all on earth does most engage, and does usually afford, 
the most love, and this will fall far short of the love of Christ. Amongst 
all the examples of love which all generations have afforded, choose that 
which is most eminent, and rises higher than all the rest, as not to be 
paralleled; yet even this will fall far below the love of Christ. We may take 
Christ's testimony in this case, though it be his own: John xv. 18, 'Greater 
love hath no man, than that a man lay down his life for his friend.' But 
Christ's love was greater than the greatest love of men, he laid down his 
life for enemies. To die for such, and such a death, makes his death a 
nonsuch. His love is as far above man's as his thoughts. Love is pro- 
portionable to thoughts. But how high are his thoughts above men's? 
Isa. lv. 89, ' As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways 
higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.' And those 
high thomghts were thoughts of love, thoughts of mercy and pardon, ver. 7. 

His love comprises, and eminently contains, the love of all relations. The 
sparks of love, which are found dispersed in several relations, are laid 
together in Christ's breast, and there break out into a flame, such a flame as 
many waters cannot quench, Cant. viii. 6, 7. The love of all relations meet 
in him, and therefore he is held forth under all relations, that the defect 
which is in one may be supplied by another, and so his love represented to 
us as perfect and entire : Mat. xii. 50, 1 will love, as if endeared to me by all 
relations. He calls us his ' friends,' John xv. 15 ; ' brethren,' Heb. ii. 11,17, 
John xx. 17; he is a ' father,' Isa. viii. 18 ; 'I, and the children,' &c, Heb. 
ii. 18; a 'mother,' Isa. xl. 11, Mat. xxiii. 87, 'As a hen gathereth her 
chickens,' &c. ; ' a husband ; ' and to shew the strength and vigour of his 
love, ' a bridegroom.' In Christ there is the faithful love of a friend, the 
careful love of a brother, the provident love of a father, the indulgent, com- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



EPH. Y. 2.J THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 27 

passionate love of a mother, the intimate love of a husband. Christ's love 
is so abundant, as it runs forth in every relation, and supplies and answers 
the office of all. He answers the engagements of all, better than the best of 
men can answer any. He has the love of a friend ; this made him willing to 
become our surety, counsellor, intercessor. His love is a brotherly love ; 
this makes him willing to advise, comfort, sympathise ; a paternal love, so 
he provides, instructs, corrects ; a mother's love, so he does nourish and 
embrace, with complacency, with passion ; a conjugal love, so he vouchsafes 
his presence, his estate, his person, his honours, his secrets, and his guard. 
Christ's love is propounded as an example. His does perfectly supply all, 
is not defective in any, as men are. A man may be a loving friend, but an 
unkind father ; an indulgent father, but an unfaithful husband, as David ; 
an affectionate husband, but an unkind brother, as Solomon. But Christ's 
love is large enough to reach all. No such friend, father, &c., as he. 

Christ's love is more than the love of all relations. His love amounts to 
more than all these summed up together. No such friend as Christ, who would 
die to make men his friends. No such brother as Christ, who makes all his 
brethren co-heirs. No such father as Christ, who, to bring his children to 
life, would die himself. No such husband as Christ, who will love his 
spouse though she play the harlot. Christ's love is stronger than the united 
love of all relations. His soul, his heart is more capacious. All the love of 
the creatures will scarce fill a corner of his heart ; it is widened by glory and 
hypostatical union. His love is stronger, because he has stronger engage- 
ments to love ; not from us, but from his Father : the strength of a law, a 
law of God, a law written in his heart, Ps. xl. 8. It binds us as much, but 
is not so much obeyed, because we are not so apprehensive of the strength 
of the obligation as Christ. He is as much more loving, as he is more appre- 
hensive than we. He is as loving as he is obedient, and his love exceeds 
ours as much as his obedience. As he fulfilled all righteousness in the 
highest degree, so he performs all acts of love without the least defect. 

His love is perfect. It is not a passionate love, but a perfect love, that 
deserves the name of strong. He is free from all imperfection, that might 
abate the jieat, and eclipse the light of this pure flame. His love is without 
folly, hypocrisy, selfishness, alteration, diminution, inordinary, defect, excess. 
There is a double exercise of love in Christ, but one in the creatures ; so it 
exceeds not only the love of men, but angels. He loves as God, he loves as 
man. Christ has two natures, and so two wills, both seats of love. The 
divine will, that is infinite ; and so his love is unspeakable, passing know- 
ledge ; this fountain of love has no banks, no bottom. The human will, that 
is shallower indeed ; but the streams of love that issue from it are so strong, 
so pure, as the love of the creatures is but as a drop, a polluted drop, com- 
pared with it ; for the human nature is glorified, so it is perfect, and all its 
acts, and this of love. This holy fire flames as high, and burns as pure, as 
any created flame in heaven. What is earth to it ? But besides, it is 
assumed into union with the Godhead, and so this love transcends both the 
love of angels and glorified saints. The love of Christ is both the love of an 
infinite God, and the love of a most perfect glorious man. No wonder if, 
having such springs, it fill the channel of every relation ; but most wonderful 
that all these streams should run towards man. Oh that Christ should love 
an enemy with a greater love than any friend ! should be more indulgent to 
a rebel than any father to his son 1 should be more affectionate to sin and 
Satan's offspring than any mother to her sucking child 1 

(2.) Christ loves man more than man loves himself. The love of Christ is 
more than self-love in man ; therefore it is wonderful. The philosopher tells 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



28 THE LOVE OF OHBIST. [EfH. V. 2. 

us that self-love is the gronnd of all love. The reason why man loves others 
is because he loves himself, therefore it is the greatest love ; for quod efficit 
tale est magis tale. If man loves others because he loves himself, the love 
of himself must transcend his love to others. This love exceeds all others ; 
but Christ's love exceeds it, therefore wonderful. 

Besides, self-love is propounded by Christ as a pattern, an example, to 
which our love to others must be conformed, Mat. xxii. 39. That which is 
chosen for example is eminent. No love like self- love amongst men. How 
wonderful then is Christ's love, which is stronger than this, and exceeds it 
in many respects ! 

A natural man loves his body, not his soul, and so not himself; for animus 
cujusque, is est quisque; Christ loves both. Nor does he love his body in 
reference to eternity, but time only ; the love of Christ has a sweet eternal 
influence on both. He desires no more than sensual happiness, or rational 
at most; Christ desires he should be spiritually, eternally happy. He 
satisfies himself with outward enjoyments ; Christ gives himself to enjoy. He 
seeks but corn, wine, oil ; Christ would vouchsafe the light of his counte- 
nance. He loves death; Christ purchases life. Man cannot truly love 
himself till he have a spiritual principle of love ; this he cannot have but 
from Christ ; wretched man cannot love himself till Christ enable. Now he 
that makes man love himself, does love man more than he loves himself. 

After a man is spiritualised, yet in some respects Christ loves him better. 
His love of himself is imperfect ; Christ's is without defect. Man desires 
some good things, some bad; Christ purchases and bestows nothing but 
what is good. Man would be content with some ; Christ gives all. Nay, 
what man can be found who would do so much, part with so much, suffer so 
much, for his own salvation, as Christ hath ? It would be a wonder if Christ, 
considering the premises, should be willing to love man as much as man 
loves him. Oh what wonder that Christ should love him as much as he loves 
himself 1 Who would expect or desire any more than that he should love 
him as much as he loves himself? That there should be more love is un- 
reasonable to expect, and wonderful where it is found. It is so in men, 
much more in Christ. 

(8.) Christ loves man more than he loves the angels, in divers respects. It 
is evident in that distinction his love has made betwixt both fallen by sin. Not 
one of the fallen angels have, or ever shall taste of his love ; but innumerable 
companies of men are restored to his favour. Those, sometimes bright 
morning stars, Job xviii. 7, are thrown into eternal night and utter darkness ; 
and poor pieces of earth, men, are fixed in their sphere of glory. Herein 
that saying of Christ, by his distinguishing love, is verified, ' The first shall 
be last, and the last first.' The angels, the first-born of Christ's love, are 
disinherited ; and man, the least of creatures capable of happiness, put in 
possession. The angels, first in excellency and glory, the excellency of 
dignity, and the excellency of power, as Jacob of Reuben, Gen. xlix. 8, now 
banished from their father's presence, and must never see his face more. 
Yet men, inferior in all things but rebellion, are reconciled and made his 
favourites. These nobles of his court are reserved in everlasting chains 
under darkness, Jude ver. 6 ; and men, his poorest peasants, though equally 
guilty, are restored into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. 

It is evident also in the hypostatical union. He preferred men before 
angels, in that he chose rather to unite the human nature to himself per- 
sonally than the angelical : Heb. ii. 16, 'He took not on him the nature of 
angels, but the seed of Abraham.' It is wonderful he seemed to love man 
so much as to neglect his honour, that which we account honour. If the 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



EPR. Y. 2.] THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 29 

Lord had a mind to disguise himself in the shape of a creature, why did he 
not rather clothe himself with the robes of angelical perfection than the rags 
of humanity ? Their nature would have been a pavilion of glory, ours but 
tabernacles of clay. What reason has poor man to say, with the centurion, 
* Lord, I am unworthy thou shouldst come under my roof ' ? Why would he 
bear the image of the earthly, rather than the image of the heavenly ? Why 
did he not appear rather in the glory of a star than the baseness of red clay ? 
Oh that he should have such respect to the lowliness of wretched man, to 
respect him so, as if he seemed not thereby to disrespect himself, yet to 
neglect the angels ! 

Ohj there was wonderful love which caused such a strange condescension. 
He never stooped so low for their sakes, though he might have done it at an 
easier rate. Their nature does more resemble him ; their excellency is more 
akin to divinity, though many degrees removed. Why did he not appear 
in the shape of spirit, rather than in the likeness of sinful flesh ? They are 
called gods, Ps. Ixxxvi. 8. And the Chaldee reads it, * Among the high 
angels/ 1 Sam. xxviii. 18, Ps. lxzzii. 6. But man, poor man, is a worm. 
We would say a king forgot himself if he should but speak with his hat off 
to a servant. Oh what did the King of glory when he became flesh, a 
worm 1 Elizabeth said with wonder, when Mary came but to visit her, Luke 
i. 48, * Whence is this to me!' How may man with wonder cry out, 
Whence is this, that the Lord himself should come unto me ; should come, 
not to see me, but to be one with me 1 Where union is affected, there is 
love ; and where the nearest union, the greatest love. No union so near as 
this in heaven and earth, but that whereby God is one with himself. Nothing 
is more one with Christ than man but Christ himself. No union so 
intimate as the hypostatical, but only the essential, cW/f axgd. Angels 
were never so nearly united, and therefore never so much beloved. The 
reason of this union is a demonstration of this truth. Why did Christ take 
our nature ? The apostle tells us, Heb. ii. 17, 'He was made like his 
brethren, that he might be merciful. ' More like, that he might be more 
loving ; that he might be more tenderly affectionate, more feelingly com- 
passionate. Likeness is the mother of love ; and where there is more like- 
ness, there is more love. Christ is now more like to men than angels, 
therefore in this respect he loves man more, Heb. iv. 15. He is not one 
that cannot be touched,' &c., w bwaft'evoe tviMra&neai. He became a man, 
that he might love as man ; and had experience of man's necessities, that 
the expressions of his love might be conformable thereto. But how can he 
sympathise with angels ? Unlikeness in qualities and dispositions makes 
love keep a distance, much more a total unlikeness in nature. However 
Christ be affected to angels, as he is God, he is more affectionate to us, as 
he is man ; he is more fiXavBgwrog than <pi\dyyeXog. It is a wonder he should 
love man more in any respect, who is in all respects more unlovely. 

(4.) Christ loves man more than heaven and earth, more than the kingdom 
of heaven, more than all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of both, 
more than the whole world. 

For earth, it is evident : Mat. iv. 8-10, ' The devil taketh him up into a 
mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory 
of them ; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt 
fall down and worship me. Then Jesus saith unto him, Get thee behind me, 
Satan.' As if Satan had said, If thou wilt put thyself into an incapacity of 
redeeming man, and so lay aside thoughts, of loving him, all this will I give 
thee. But Christ rejects the motion with indignation, ' Get thee behind me,' 
Ac. So I love man, as all the kingdoms of the world are not so valuable in 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



80 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. [EPH. V. 2. 

my account as man's salvation ; so I love man, as I will not for all the world 
that he should miscarry ; his soul is more dear to me than all the kingdoms 
of the earth. What will it profit me to gain the whole world if man lose his 
sonl ? Heaven and earth shall pass away, rather than one jot of my love 
shall fade, one soul whom I love should perish. 

He loved man more than heaven. It is true, no motion or alteration can 
be properly attributed to the second person. But since the Scripture ascribes 
that to the person of Christ which was proper to one nature, we may warrant- 
ably use such expressions of Christ as Mediator. Christ forgot his kindred 
and Father's house, and came to sojourn amongst strangers, amongst 
enemies. He came from the height of glory to the lowest step of shame and 
misery, where, instead of the joys of heaven, the sorrows of hell encompassed 
him, Ps. cxvi. 8. He exchanged a life of infinite blessedness with a cursed 
death ; and, instead of the praises and adoration of angels, he was enter- 
tained with the reproaches and contradiction of sinners. Now, what is 
heaven but life, glory, joy, happiness ? What is hell, but death, shame, 
sorrow, misery ? Christ exchanged heaven for hell, that he might purchase 
man. His love made him willing to part with heaven, rather than man 
should be excluded from it ; to enter the gates of hell (sufferings equivalent), 
rather than man should be tormented in it. He feared not hell ; he loved 
not heaven, so much as he loved man. Oh what wonderful love, that would 
prefer a poor parcel of dust before the glory of the whole world, the happi- 
ness and glory of heaven and earth ! As man, he lived out of heaven all 
the time that he had lived on earth ; whereas he had right and title to heaven 
as soon as he was born into the world. 

(5.) Christ loves man as himself, in some respect more. Christ loves man 
more than himself, as man. I do not say Christ as God, or absolutely ; 
bat as man, and in some respects. With these cautions, it is a truth, that 
Christ loves his people as himself. 

[1.] He is obliged to it by virtue of that law which himself proclaims : 
Mat. xxii., ' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' For this law binds 
Christ as well as men ; for he was ' made under the law,' Gal. iv. 4. He 
acknowledges it his duty to fulfil all righteousness, Mat. iii. 15. And for 
this end he came, to fulfil the law, Mat. v. 19. Christ is bound by the law 
to love his neighbour ; but his people are his neighbours, * a people near unto 
him,' Ps. cxlviii. 14. No such vicinity or nearness on earth. They live not 
only near him, but with him, in him, John xiii. 4, 5 ; and he near, in, with 
them. They are not only neighbours, but inmates ; not only vicini, but pro - 
pinqvi, cognati ; allied to him, one with him ; so intimately as he and his 
make but one Christ mystical, 1 Cor. xii. 12. They are his neighbours, and 
he is bound to love such as himself ; and none ever answered the law's ob- 
ligation so punctually, so perfectly, as he. He that was so observant of the 
ceremonial law, as appears in his circumcision,' but as a beggarly rudiment, 
would much more obey the royal law, as this is called, James ii. 8. If he 
would not transgress that law which enjoined sacrifices, he would not neglect 
that law of love which is * better than all whole burnt-offerings,' Mark 
xii. 88. He that submitted to positive institutions, as baptism, would not 
disobey moral commands, as this is. He that was so punctual in observing 
every tittle of the law, would not neglect that which is instar omnium^ the 
whole law ; so this is called, Gal. v. 14. Nay, this doth virtually contain 
both law and prophets, Mat. xxii. 40. If Christ should not thus love, &c, 
he would violate the whole law, and run cross to all the prophets, which are 
to the law as comments on the text. This cannot be imagined without 
blasphemy. Christ should sin if he should not love his people. He should 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



EPH. Y. 2.] THE LOVE OF CHKI8T. 81 

disobey the law which obliges him, and neglect that which he condescended, 
by becoming man, to make his duty, if he did not love, &c. 

[2.] He advances them to the like state with himself, so far as man is 
capable. He bestows upon them all things that himself bath, so far as they 
are commnnicable. The same natures. He consists of divine and human, 
and so does man in some sense. That Christ might be like them, he took 
human nature ; that they might be like him, he communicates the divine 
nature, 2 Peter i. 4. Not that it is altogether the same, but that it most 
resembles it. There is in them Stiornig, though not §t6rt)c f some divinity, 
not a deity ; 3c/a pv<r/?, not §tov pvag, not substance, but quality. The 
offices. He is king, priest, and prophet ; so are they, in the text, * kings 
and priests.' Prophets, ' all taught of God. 1 The same privileges. Union, 
as be is one with the Father, so they with him, with both, John zvii. 21 ; 
a kind of <rg£/%tof9><r/c, a reciprocal union. Birthright, Christ is ' first-born/ 
Col. i. 15, 18. They constitute ' the church of the first-born,' Heb. xii. 28. 
Heirship, Christ is * heir of all things,' Heb. i. 2. They are ' co-heirs,' 
Bom. viii. 17. Heirs of the world, as Abraham, Bom. iv. 18. The 
same enjoyments. The Lord gave Christ all things, John iii, 85 ; and 
Christ has given them all, 1 Cor. iii. 21, 2 Cor. iv. 15, His own joy, John 
xv. 11, the best of all; not only joy, peace, &c., but his own: John xvii. 8, 'My 
joy fulfilled in them.' His own peace : John xiv. 24, ' My peace' ; * the peace 
of God,' Philip, iv. His own righteousness, Jer. xxiii. He is made so to us, 
1 Cor. i., the righteousness of God, Philip, iii, 9. His own grace : John i. 18, 
* The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.' He would have it with 
them. The fulness of God. His own glory, John xvii. 22 ; his own throne, 
Bev. iii. 21. Where there is such a community, love makes all common. 
Where no distinction in expressions, we may conclude some equality in 
affections. When Christ does for all them as for himself, we may say, he 
loves them as himself. The difference as to accidental happiness arises not 
from want of love in Christ, but for want of capacity in man ; there is love 
enough in him to vouchsafe more, if we were capable. 

[8.] Christ takes what is done to his people as done to himself. He 
punishes what any do against them, as though they acted against himself ; 
and rewards what is done for them, as though it were done for him. Nor 
has he only this account of actions, but of what is less, words, and thoughts, 
and intimations ; he resents all as his own concernments, nay, he takes 
notice of all omissions of what is due to them, and interprets all neglects of 
them, as neglects of himself. The people of Christ are parts of Christ, as 
uxor est pars mariti, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. The head and 
members make but one body ; so also Christ. The intimacy of this union 
causes a reciprocation of interests. ' In all their afflictions he is afflicted,' 
as the head suffers when the body is tormented. Christ accounts the least 
injury done to them as done to himself: ' He that toucheth you, toucheth 
me.' You cannot touch them but Christ feels. 

He is as sensible of words. There is a verbal persecution, such as that 
of Esau's. Christ counts himself wounded, when the tongues of the wicked 
are sharp swords to his people, Ps. lvii. 4. Christ is persecuted in all their 
persecutions : ' Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?' and this is one 
kind ; nay, affections, though concealed. If any hate a saint in his heart, 
though he never manifest it, Christ looks on such an one as a hater of himself, 
1 John iv. 20 ; so of anger, rage, Isa. xxxvii. 29. Intimations ; putting out 
the finger, Isa. lviii. 9 ; lifting up the eyes in derision or contempt, the 
Lord counts himself derided and contemned thereby, Isa. xxxvii. 28 ; nay, 
Christ puts this interpretation upon thoughts, though they seem not consider- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



82 THE LOVE OF tJHBIST. [EPH. V. 2, 

able. He that has low thoughts of Christ's people, in his account has low 
thoughts of him, Luke x. 16, 1 Thes. iv. 8. He owns and rewards what is 
done for them, as done for himself ; he accounts himself clothed, when their 
nakedness is covered ; feasted, when their hunger is satisfied ; relieved, 
when their necessities are supplied ; entertained, when they are harboured, 
Mat. x. 40, xxv. 89, 40. He rewards the least kindness to them as royally 
as the greatest that is done to himself, Mat. x. 42. 

Nay, he has this account, not only of kind actions, but even of every 
kind look, Mat. xxv. 86. When they but lend an ear and hear them, in his 
account they hear him, Luke x. 16. 

[4.] Christ does for them what he would have done for himself, and 
nothing else. He loves another as himself, who is thus despised. Take an 
instance of it, Luke zx., where, ver. 27, having laid down the rale of loving 
others as ourselves, he explains it in a parable, ver. 80, in which we are 
directed both to the object and measure, who, and how. He that does de- 
mean himself to others, as the Samaritan to that traveller, loves him as 
himself. But Christ comes up to, nay, goes far beyond this instance. This 
traveller is a figure of every man by nature, fallen among thieves, the 
powers of darkness, and his own lusts; stripped of the image of God, 
knowledge, righteousness, and holiness ; wounded by sin, so as there is 
nothing in his soul bnt wounds ; half dead, his soul dead, deprived of 
spiritual life, Eph. ii. ; forsaken of all the world, who could neither relieve 
nor pity him. 

The Samaritan is a figure of Christ. He sees and pities fallen man ; has 
compassion on him, shews it in curing and accommodating him. Went to 
him, yea, he came from heaven to shew his love ; bound up his wounds, 
yea, he was willing to be wounded, Isa. liii. ; pours wine and oil, yea, he 
poured out his blood to wash and cleanse our wounds, applied that for cure ; 
sets him on his own beast ; yea, he charges the angels with him, his own 
ministering spirits ; defrays the expenses ; he lays down all that law and 
justice could demand ; defrays all at his own charge, though it cost him his 
life and soul. If the Samaritan, by doing so little; be said to love the dis- 
tressed man, how did Christ love, who did much more ? 

[5.] Christ honours man with those relations which engage to as much. 
A man must love his wife as himself, Eph. v. 88, as his own body, ver. 28. 
A man should sin if he do otherwise. Christ will be far from failing ; this 
love in its highest degree is exemplary in him : ver. 25, ' As Christ loved 
the church/ Why, how did he love it ? He tells, ver. 28, from whence it 
follows, that when husbands love their wives as themselves, they love as 
Christ loves. Besides, man loves his members, his flesh, his bones, as him- 
self, but Christ accounts us so, vers. 29, 80. 

(6.) Christ, in some respects, loves man better than himself. These are 
many. 

[1.] Christ would suffer, rather than man should suffer ; rather undergo 
all that man had deserved, than man undergo any. We may imagine 
Christ's love expressing itself thus : Is poor man in so forlorn a condition, 
as none in heaven and earth will pity him ? I will take to me the bowels of 
a man ; I have seen his misery, and will sympathise with him. Is man 
reduced to this woful strait, as either he must suffer, or he that is God, for 
him ? I will fit myself with a body for his sake ; I will give my back to 
the smiters, &c, rather than man shall bear the burden of infinite wrath, 
rather than the weight of it shall sink him into eternal torments ; let it fall 
upon me, I will bear it, though it make my soul heavy unto death. Rather 
than man shall drink the cup of the Lord's indignation, oh let it be put to 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



EPH. Y. 2.] THE LOYE OF CHRIST. &8 

my head ! I will drink it, even the dregs of it, though the bitterness of 
death be in it. Rather than man shall be cast into that place of torments, 
to spend eternity in weeping and gnashing of teeth, I will be content to be- 
come a man of sorrows, yea, let the sorrows of death encompass my soul. 
Is the sentence of eternal death passed upon man ? Can none else procure 
pardon or reprieve ? Is he, and must he indeed be condemned ? Why, 
righteous is the Lord, but let that dreadful sentence be executed upon me, 
let me die for him, so as poor man may escape. Will nothing else purge 
man from that woful pollution which makes him odious to my Father ? I 
will open a fountain in my heart, I will wash him in my blood. Must all 
the curses of law and gospel fall upon wretched man ? Alas ! what will be- 
come of him ? The least of them will sink the whole creation. Let them 
rather fall upon my soul and body ; I will become a curse for man, I will 
bear it, though it be the curse both of first and second death. Is the ven- 
geance of eternal fire man's portion ? Oh, how can he dwell with everlasting 
burnings ! rather let the flame be turned upon me, though it scorch both 
body, and torture my soul. Will nothing satisfy the avenger of blood, 
nothing satisfy justice but blood ? Every part of me shall bleed for you ; 
lo, here is my head, my heart, my whole body ; let me be scourged, nailed, 
pierced ; yea, let my heart send out its last drop of dearest blood, if man 
may escape. 

[2.] He prayed more for men than himself. Prayer is the pulse of love, 
by it we may know its strength or weakness. Fervent and frequent prayers 
are symptoms of strong and ardent affections. Those that pray much, love 
much ; and them most, for whom they most pray. Christ hereby makes it 
known that he loves his own, not the world ; because he prays for them, not 
for that, John xvii. 9. And as it is a positive sign, so also comparatively. 
As by this we know whom Christ loves, whom not ; so whom he loves more, 
whom less. By all his prayers recorded in Scripture, it appears he prayed 
more for man than himself. Nor was this because Christ had less need to 
pray for himself. For who had so much need, so great extremities, so 
many infirmities, temptations, dangers, necessities, afflictions ? Who has 
more need to pray, than he who has most of these ? Yet, behold the love 
of Christ ! When all these were rushing in upon him, when God and man, 
men and devils, death and hell, were at once falling upon soul and body, 
when he had most need to pray for himself, then he prays most for men. 
See John xvii., the prayer made immediately before his sufferings ; twenty 
parts of that chapter are taken up with petitions for men, but one verse or 
two for himself. He desires many things for them, but one for himself. 
He importunes his Father for union, joy, holiness, perseverance, glory for 
them ; he desires nothing but glory for himself, vers. 1-5. Nor does he 
desire this for himself alone, but for their sakes ; he begs glory of the Father 
that he may give it them, ver. 22. Oh that Christ should be so mindful 
of them as he seems to forget himself 1 That his thoughts should be more 
taken up with them, than with his own grievous sufferings, that he knew 
were then approaching, and his apprehension of them most quick and 
piercing ! 

[3.] He expressed more joy for their welfare, than himself as man. Love 
is proportionable to joy ; for as desire is love in its motion, so joy is love 
in its triumph. Joy is as it were the smile, the blossom of love ; it is a 
sign love is well rooted in the heart, when joy breaks forth in outward ex- 
pressions. We love that best in which we take most pleasure, most rejoice. 
Desire is love in pursuit, so joy is love in possession. Desire is a sign of 

vox., in. o 



Digitized by 



Google 



84 thk love or christ. [Eph. Y. 2. 

some love, but joy of more. Now Christ seems to rejoice more for men, 
than himself as man. He never took pleasure in anything below, so much 
as in advancing man's happiness ; and never manifested more grief and 
indignation than when any would hinder or dissuade. What was that 
wherein he took as much delight as nature does in meat and drink ? It was 
the conversion of souls, John iv. 84. But with what indignation does he 
rebuke Peter, dissuading him from grievous sufferings, sufferings upon which 
man's happiness depended : ' Spare thyself/ Mat. xvi. 22, 28 ; * Be it far 
from thee.' 

It is true, indeed, we seldom find Christ rejoicing in the whole history of 
his life. He was ' a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief,' aud scarce with 
anything else, a stranger to joys. But when we meet him rejoicing, the oc- 
casion is usually, if not always, some advantage to men. We read he 
rejoiced, John xi. 15, %a/gu hi vpw, it was for man's sake. He says not, 
he was glad because he should get glory by the miracle, because he should 
get the honour and repute of one that could work miracles ; but /rat «ritf- 
r'svtrirt, more that it would make them happy, than bring him honour and 
reputation. See Luke x. 21, we find Christ in an ecstasy, almost tran- 
sported with joy, rryaXkiaearo rZ mbpars, his spirit leaped within him, 
and as though he had been rapt into heaven, adds praises, his joy 
breaks forth into thanks. But what is the occasion of both ? Not that 
the devils were subject through- his name, not that Satan fell, &c, but that 
it pleased the Father to make known the mysteries of salvation to despised 
men. Christ seemed to make man, of all earthly things, his chief joy on 
earth ; this was it which revived him, joyed his heart in the midst of his 
sorrows and sufferings, that man should be thereby made happy. 

[4.] He gave himself for men. This is held forth as an expression of a 
transcendent love, Gal. ii. 20, Eph. v. 2, 25. In giving himBelf for man, he 
seems to love man more than himself ; so we judge in transactions with men. 
A wise man in purchasing, accounts the things he buys as good, or better 
than the price ; he values, he loves that which he purchaseth more than what 
he parts with. Christ seemed to make more account of man than himself, 
when he gave himself for man, when he made himself the price to purchase 
man. And his affliction is answerable to his apprehension; whom he 
esteems more, he loves more. ' We are bought with a price,' 1 Cor. vi. 20. 
Himself is the >Mrpv 9 Mat. xx. 28, 1 Tim. ii. 6 ; the price of redemption, 
Lev. xxv. 51. The Lord, as a sign of his love to Jacob's seed, promiseth, 
Isa, xliii. 8, 4, 'I will give men for thee, and people for thy life,' &c. ; 
therefore, he valued, he loved Israel more than Egypt, Ethiopia. He that 
sold all to buy the pearl, valued it more than all that he had, Mat. xiiL 46. 

Oh how did Christ value man, when he gave himself for him, when he de- 
livered himself into the hands of sinners, enemies, murderers, justice, reveng- 
ing justice I It had been much if Christ had but given his word, and engaged 
his person for performance ; if he had become a pledge, a surety, hostage ; 
more, if he had given himself to be prisoner, captive for man. But oh ! that 
he should give himself to the death, to die, after he had exposed every mem- 
ber to torture, hands and feet, head, side, heart, face, his whole body ! that 
he should give his body to death, separated from his soul ! nay, not only 
his body, but give his soul too, Mat. x. 45 ; an offering, Ps. liii. 10, a 
burnt-offering, scorched with wrath, his soul to worse torments than death; 
his whole man. 

[5.] He parted with his dearest concernment, as man, for man's sake. 
Does not he love that party more than himself, who will part with what is 
dearest to him for his sake ? Christ, as man, did thus. What is dearer to 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



EPH. Y. 2.] TBS LOTS OF CHBIST. 85 

men, what so dear to Christ, as his honour? He made nothing of this when 
he ( made himself of no reputation,' when he was content to he ' numbered 
amongst transgressors.' It mast needs he more grievous to Christ to lie 
under the suspicion of the least guilt than man of the greatest ; yet did he 
lie under such suspicions all his life, and in the conclusion was content to 
be accounted worse than a thief, to have Barabbas preferred before him. 
Man was more dear to Christ than his honour ; but is nothing dearer ? Job 
determines this : Job ii. 4, nothing so sweet, so dear as his life ; we will 
part with all, rather than this. But man was dearer to Christ than his life. 
He loved not his life so much as man. Ay, but is there nothing dearer, better 
than life ? Yes ; David tells of one thing better : Ps. lziii. 8, < Thy loving- 
kindness is better than life.' This is it I pitch on as the dearest, the 
sweetest thing that Christ as man, or any creature ever enjoyed. Those that 
have tasted the ravishing pleasures that spring from this, will part with life, 
body, soul, all, rather than it. We have instances of some who have been 
willing to suffer, to part with all ; but none that ever would forego this. The 
world has had worthies who were content to wander in deserts and moun- 
tains, in dens and caves of the earth; to be separated from the comforts of all 
enjoyments and relations, Heb. zi. 88, rather than part with this ; willing to 
wander in sheep skins, goat skins, to be destitute, afflicted, tormented, as ver. 
87, of all, by all, in all. Such as have undergone trials of cruel mockings and 
scourgings, yea, of bonds and imprisonment, ver. 86, not counted their lives 
dear, willing to be stoned, sawn asunder, slain with the sword, tortured to 
death in flames, and would not accept of deliverance ; counted nothing too 
dear to part with, too cruel to undergo. But if you should come to any of 
these and ask, You are willing indeed to part with all that man can take from 
you, and suffer all that the cruelty and malice of men can inflict on you ; 
oh, but will you part with this sense of God's.love ? will you undergo the 
weight of his wrath ? you would have them answer, Oh, no ; let me rather 
be annihilated ; let me rather die ten thousand deaths ; let me rather endure 
all the torments that men, that devils can invent. 

Oh, but though this was dearer and sweeter to Christ than ever it was to 
any saint or angel, yet, for man's sake, he parted with it. The light of God's 
countenance was even totally eclipsed, when he cried out, ' My God, my God !' 
And what mountains of wrath did oppress his spirit, when he complained so 
stdly, ' My soul is heavy unto the death 1' 

[6.] He advanced man's interest (with submission) more than his own. 
What more advantage to man than himself ? He so disposed of his life and 
death as whatever be did and suffered was more advantageous to man than 
himself. You will say, 

Obj. Did not Christ get much glory by the work of redemption 9 Was 
not this the most glorious administration that ever the world was witness 
of? 

Am. Yes. Yet the glory the Son of God got hereby was an inconsider 
able advantage to him, compared with the benefits thereby purchased foi 
man. The Son of God had lost nothing, if he had wanted this ; this did 
not add any degree of glory to that which he enjoyed from eternity. He was 
infinitely glorious before the foundation of the world, and nothing can be 
added to that which is infinite. If he had never assumed man's nature, he 
had been as glorious as be is now ; that glory which accrued to him by this 
great undertaking is nothing but the manifestation of his infinite glory to 
men, or the acknowledgment of it by men. Now, what is this or that to 
the Son of God ? what does it add to him ? He gets no more real glory de 
novo by it than the sun gets new light by shining, or honey gets more sweet- 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



86 THE L0VB OF CHKI8T. [EpH. V. 2. 

ness by being commended for its sweetness. The snn would be as full of 
light if do eye saw it, and honey as sweet in itself if no palate tasted it. He 
might have been without this glory, and yet have been, nevertheless, glorious 
through want of it. What advantage, then, is it to him, since he might 
have wanted it without any disadvantage ? Oh, but man got real advantages 
by Christ's undertaking ; he was thereby freed from sin, wrath, misery ; he 
thereby recovered the favour of God, the divine image, perfect happiness, and 
eternal glory. See here, then, how Christ advanced man's interest more than 
his own, and hereby judge of his love. He got but one advantage ; man 
gets many. That one was but small, and almost inconsiderable ; these were 
great, and of highest concernment. He might have been as well without 
this ; man had better never been than wanted these. He had not been the 
least jot less happy or glorious without it ; man had been eternally wretched 
and miserable without these. He got nothing that he had any absolute 
necessity to desire ; man got all that he can desire. Oh how evident is it 
that Christ manifested in this more love to man than himself ! And who 
can consider this without wonder and astonishment ? 

(7.) As the Father loves him, so does he love man. We can go no higher, 
nor durst have used such an expression, but that Christ himself uses it, John 
zv. 9. Christ would have this made known to the world, chap. xvii. 28-26. 
He loves men, as the Father loves him ; I say not with the same love, but 
such a love. As is not a note of equality or identity, but of similitude and 
resemblance. A love like to that, in respect of duration, perfection, ex- 
pression. 

[1.] Permanency. The Father's love to the Son is everlasting, eternal, 
unchangeable, like himself, without variableness or shadow of change. So 
is Christ's to men ; he loves them to the end, he loves without end ; bis 
love is everlasting, and so is the bond of it, the covenant. It is like the 
covenant of day and night, Jer. xxxiii. 20. Night and day shall cease before 
this ; nay, night shall become day, and day night, before his love become 
hatred. It is like the covenant with Noah, Isa. liv. 8-10. As nothing can 
separate Christ from his Father's love, so nothing can separate man from 
Christ's, Bom. viii. 25, &c. 

[2.] Perfection. It is amor ardentissimus, as Piscator calls it ; DUectto 
absolidissima, as Aretius, without flaw, defect, alteration, diminution ; free 
from these imperfections and gross mixtures which deaden and darken the 
flames of love in creatures. God's love to Christ is incomprehensible, and 
Christ's to man passes knowledge, Eph. iii. 19. 

[8.J Expressions. Christ vouchsafes to express his love to man, as the 
Father expresses his love to him. To love is fiovXtcfou r ayada. The 
Father wills as much good to Christ, as man, as he is capable of; and 
Christ wills as much to men as they are capable of. As the Father is one 
with Christ, so Christ has made man one with himself. Christ desires the 
like union to evidence the like love, John xvii. 21-28. Christ is his 
Father's Son, and believers are Christ's sons, Isa. viii. 18; he is the Father's 
delight, Isa. xlii. 1, they are Christ's, Ps. xvi. 8 ; he is the Father's glory, 
Heb. i., and they are Christ's, 2 Cor. viii. 28 ; God is Christ's head, 1 Cor. 
xi. 8, Christ is their head, ibid. ; he always hears Christ, John xi. 42, and 
Christ them, John xv. ; all power is given to Christ, Mat. xxviii. 18, and by 
Christ to them, Philip, iv. 18, John xiv. 12 ; he has committed all judgment 
to Christ, John v. 22, Christ makes them his assessors, 1 Cor. vi. 2, 8 ; not 
only Israel, Luke xxii., but the world ; not only men, but angels ; Christ is 
the Father's joy, and they are Christ's : ' That my joy may remain in you,' 
t . e. that I may rejoice in you ; he has exalted Christ to be a prince, and 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



EPH. Y. 2.] THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 87 

they are princes : Ps. xlv. 16, ' Instead of thy fathers, Bhall be thy chil- 
dren; 1 Christ is anointed, ver. 7, so they: Ps. cv. 14, 'Touch not mine 
anointed/ 

Quest. 1. Whether Christ's love be universal, extended to all men ; or par- 
ticular, restrained to some ? 

Ans. No. The Scripture holds forth a restrained, a distinguishing love. 
The contrary opinion is against the stream of Scripture, and makes Christ's 
love less endearing, less free, less engaging. The text* evinces this ; he loves 
only those who are washed in his blood ; all are not washed ; those who are 
made kings and priests, all are not such. 

Besides, Christ only loves his own, John xiii. 1, those that are given him 
by his Father. All are not his ; he knows his, and is known of them, John 
x. 14, 27 ; but some he professes he knows not, Luke xiii. 27. It is the 
church that he loves, Eph. v. 25 ; but all belong not to the church, the most 
are not in the church, the greatest part in it are not of it. He gives his life 
for those he loves, Eph. v. 2 ; but he lays not down his life for all. This act 
of love is restrained to those whom he calls his sheep, John x. 11. All are 
not sheep, for who are those that will be found at Christ's left hand ? Christ's 
flock is a little flock ; he intercedes for all whom he loves, John xvi. 26, 27, 
and xvii. 20. He prays not for all ; there is a world that he prays not for, 
John xvii. 9 ; he expresses it when he loves, gives love-tokens ; manifests 
himself, John xiv. 21-23, not to all, ver. 22, draws near them, abides with 
them, gives consolation, good hope, peace, 2 Thes. ii. 16, victory, Bom. 
viii. 87. The Lord hates some, Ps. v. 5, Hos. ix. 15, Mai. i. 8, There is a 
common love, which bestows common favours, outward and spiritual ; and a 
special love. 

Quest. 2. Who are those whom Christ loves ? 

Ans. Those that are washed and made kings and priests. 

Washed. If so, then you are 

(1.) Clean from guilt ; sin pardoned ; are washed in the fountain, Ezek. 
xxxvL 25 ; not the outside only, Luke xi. 89 ; you are free from pollution, 
John xiii. 8, 9 ; your filthy garments taken away ; your hearts are no more 
a nest for unclean birds ; cleansed in mind and heart ; no unclean thoughts, 
projects, affections ; not so many, so frequent, so well entertained. 

(2.) Fearful of being again defiled : * I have washed my feet, how can I 
defile them ? ' Cant. v. 8. Look upon sin as the greatest, most loathsome, 
contagious, dangerous pollution ; fearful of it as of a leprosy, a filthy dun- 
geon, a poisonous ulcer, a miry pit, an infectious disease, a putrefying sore. 
1 How can I do this great evil, and sin against' Christ his blood? defile 
that which Christ has taken such pains, and been at such cost, to wash. 

(8.) High, endeared thoughts of Christ's love : thankfulness both for the 
benefit and the price it cost ; to be made clean, beautiful, lovely, glorious, 
the benefit ; his own blood the price. It cost not Christ only some words ; yet, 
why should Christ speak for us ? he stands in no need of us ; nor prayers 
only, though an inducement ; nor tears, why should he concern himself to 
weep ? but blood, his own blood, 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. Oh who would not love 
thee ? king of saints t God of love ! what thankfulness can answer such 
love as this ? what expressions can manifest such thankfulness as is due for 
soch a favour, of such value, procured at such a rate ? The resentment of 
this is the occasion of the text, the doxology which concludes it. How un- 
worthy shall I shew myself, if I return not love, for such a love as would 
cleanse me when I was all loathsome, and do it, when nothing else would do 
it, with his own blood ? 



Kings. In respect of, 1 , state ; 2, power ; 8, spirit. Free, not slaves to 



' Digitized by CjOO?IC 



88 THE LOTS OF CHRIST. [EPH. V. 2. 

sin, not obey it in the lusts thereof; it has not dominion, it roles not, they 
resist its motions ; Satan does not work them, Eph. ii. Plentiful, glorious, 
conquerors, victorious kings; they conquer the world, sin, Satan. The 
world is cast down in their minds, out of their heajrt, cast off in the life. 

(2.) Disposition ; raised, generous ; not low designs, below them, confined 
to this world, above the serpent's curse. Public, not for private, interest ; 
prefer the designs, the glory of Christ, before private ; mind the things of 
Christ, and not their own. 

Priests. They do the act,, execute the office of priests, which is, 1 Pet. 
ii. 5, to offer spiritual sacrifice ; sacrifice threefold : (1.) acts of charity to 
the body, Heb. xiii. 16 ; we think it best to receive good, but to do good is 
the best sacrifice ; (2.) to the soul ; acts of piety, prayer, praise, Heb. xiii. 1 5 ; 
much in prayer, and spiritual ; not offer the sacrifice of fools, the calves of 
the lips only, but the mind and heart ; (8.) the whole man an holocaust, 
Bom. xii. 1 ; he looks not upon himself as his own, he is bought with a 
price ; and why ? to glorify God ; and how ? by offering and devoting the 
body and spirit. 

Quest. 8. Whether Christ's love be personal ? whether it respect some 
sort of men, viz., believers, infinitely and in general, or descends to, and 
fixes upon, this and that believer in particular, as John, Peter ? 

Ans. It is personal, whether we consider it in the streams or in the spring ; 
in time or from eternity. By love in the stream, I mean the expressions of 
his love, those peculiar favours which in time he bestows on those whom he 
chose from eternity. Love, so taken, must needs be personal ; for though the 
designment of favours (amongst short-sighted men) may be indefinite, yet 
the actual collation must be personal, both with God and men ; for this is 
an action, et actio est supponti, which is true both in respect of agent and 
subject ; it must be an individual both that acts and receives the act 

Love in the spring. The eternal act of Christ, together with the Father, 
choosing some to be the objects of his love, the same really with the decree 
of election, is personal. This is most controverted. I prove it. 

(1.) We have one clear instance proving this love to be personal ; there- 
fore we may conclude it universally, because the decree is uniform, not partly 
indefinitely, partly personal. The instance is brought by Paul, Bom. ix. 18, 
out of Mai. i. 2, * Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated ; ' so Jer. i. 5. 

(2.) If Christ loves, u e. chooses men by name, then his love, his decree, 
is personal ; for there can be no more personal designment than that which 
is by name. But he chooses men by name ; for the Scripture describes elec- 
tion by writing the names of the elect in a book ; by a metaphor, taken from 
those who list soldiers, chosen out for military service, by writing their names 
in a muster-roll. Luke x. 20, the disciples' names were written in heaven, 
chosen by name, and enrolled, listed, registered, from eternity ; Paul testi- 
fies the same of his fellow-labourers : Philip, iv. 8, their names writ in the 
book of life ; and John, Bev. xiii. 8, says the names of all that worship not 
the beast were written in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the 
world, and Bev. xxi. 27. 

(8.) If Christ choose not particular men, he knows not particularly who 
are, or shall be, his ; because the knowledge of futures, in our apprehension, 
follows the decree, and depends on it, and is conformable to it ; if no decree, 
no knowledge. But Christ knows his by name, personally, distinctly, 2 Tim. 
ii. 19 ; he ' calleth his sheep by name,' John x. 8 ; ver. 14, 27. They say, he 
knows who are believers ; ay, but he cannot know who will continue so, if, 
as they say, perseverance depend upon their will, left free from all necessity 
both of Christ' s decree and influence ; for this granted, the perseverance of 

Digitized by LrOOQ IC 



EPH. V. 2.] THX LOVE 07 CHBIBT. 89 

a saint in heaven will be uncertain, and 00 not certainly known to Christ 
himself ; for to apprehend a thing certain which is uncertain is an error. 

(4.) Certain men are ordained to condemnation, Jude 4, ergo certain men 
to salvation ; but indefinite is uncertain. 

Quest. 4. How can Christ be said to love those to whom he denies so 
many temporal blessings, and visits with such variety of grievous afflictions? 
Am. 1. These outward dispensations were never a sign of love or hatred; 
much less under the gospel, which promises fewer outward mercies, and bids 
expect more afflictions. The names of legal and Old Testament spirits have 
been of late abused, misapplied ; but if they belong to any, it is to those who 
expect more outward blessings and fewer afflictions, and judge men by these. 
Solomon's rule is true here : Eccles. ix. 1, 2, « No man knows either love or 
hatred, by all that is before him. All things come alike to all/ &c. Ye 
cannot conclude that Christ hates you because he afflicts ; nor that he loves 
because you are blessed in temporals. The least drachm of grace is a surer 
sign of Christ's love than all the kingdoms, all the glory, all the pleasures of 
the earth, if in one man's enjoyment ; and victory over the least lust, than 
freedom from all outward pressures ; otherwise, we might say, Dives was 
loved, Lazarus hated, and Festus in more favour with Christ, than Paul ; 
nay, Christ himself might conclude he was hated of God, since none more 
afflicted, or less encouraged, with temporals. 

Ans. 2. Wants and afflictions are bo far from being arguments of Christ's 
hatred, as they are many times evidences of his love. For afflictions it is 
evident, Heb. xii. 6-8, Christ thereby conforms us to himself, and makes us 
partakers of his image, holiness, ver. 10, 11. And for wants I thus prove. 
The people of Christ want nothing but that which is not good, for he has 
promised to withhold no good thing. 1 Why does a father envy his child that 
which is not good for him, but because he loves him ? From wants outward 
you should conclude the employment* of what you want is not good, rather 
than the want of what you would enjoy is from hatred. It is no defect of 
love in Christ, but defect of goodness in what you want, that makes you want 
it. 

Quest. 6. Whether is love properly attributed to Christ, or metaphorically ? 
Ans. Both : metaphorically as he is God, properly as he is man. 
(1.) Love, as it is an human affection, cannot be properly ascribed to 
Christ, as he is God, because it includes imperfection. That rule is true, 
Nihil est in intellectu, quod non fuit prius in &emu> our understandings ap- 
prehend nothing but what is fist some way offered to our senses. Now, 
God being an entity at the furthest distance from sense, it follows that our * 
apprehensions of God, taking their rise from things sensible, are not only 
inadequate, falling infinitely short of comprehensiveness, but improper and 
analogical, and no otherwise true but by analogy. Now, the Scripture, speak- 
ing lingua kumand, and condescending to our capacities, describes the 
spiritual essence of God by things sensible, and so uses many metaphors 
taken from things we are best acquainted with. Sometimes an f4/*ro/a,t 1 
Kings xxii. 19, Ps. lxviii. 88 ; an d^gwswadi/a,} when it ascribes hands, 
eyes, feet ; an fafyuwraOua, when it attributes passions to him, as joy, 
anger, sorrow, jealousy, hatred, love. So that when we hear any of these 
ascribed to God, we must not conceive them to be in him as in us, but must 
rectify our apprehensions according to the old rules, per viam negationis, 
separating all imperfections from them, et per viam eminentus, attributing to him 
whatsoever is purely excellent without any mixture of imperfection. So love 
• Qu. ' enjoyment ' ?— En. t Q*- ' W#r#im ' ?— Ed. J Qu. ( *t$t***fMtfu* ' ?— Ed. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



40 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. [EPH. Y. 2. 

in God is not a passion, a perturbation, accompanied with any corporeal motion 
of blood and spirits, bat a pare, perfect, eternal act, whereby he wills good to lis. 

(2.) Love may be properly ascribed to Christ as he is man ; for so he has 
soul and body, will and affections, blood and spirits, as well as we. Only 
we mast give him a large allowance of pre-eminence ; the human nature and 
the grosser part of it, the body, being not only made glorious and spiritual, 
as the bodies of the saints shall be, but also assumed into union with God- 
head, and so elevated to perfections many degrees above the glorified saints. 
So that love is properly in Christ's human nature as in ours, both in respect 
of its rise and operations, beings and workings. It differs from our love in 
respect of the manner of its existence and operations, quoad modum, without, 

lnordinacy. Being guided not only by the dictates of right reason, but 
infinite wisdom without reluctancy. 

Perturbation. It is no grievance, no pressure to him, as sometimes to us, 
but a sweet, quiet, regular motion of his perfect human will. 

Detriment. Though it move blood and spirits, yet it inflames not that, 
nor wastes or impairs this. Its motions are innocent, serene, pacate, and 
spiritual, in that sense as his body is spiritual, and not as in infirm men. 

Quest. 6. Whether Christ's love be infinite ? 

Ans. Christ's love may be considered four ways : (1.) in its prime act, 
(2.) in its termination, (8.) its manifestation, (4.) its duration. 

(1.) The prime act of divine love, velU bonum, Christ's good will, willing- 
ness to do good. It is an act of the divine will, an immanent act, and so in 
God. Quicquid est in Deo, est Deus. God is infinite, therefore love is in- 
finite. In this sense God is love, and love is the same really with God, and 
therefore infinite. 

(2.) As it is terminated to its object. We considered it before simply and 
precisely in itself without its object, but here as it is determined to it ; not 
simply as good will, but as good will to this or that creature. In respect of 
this termination, it is not infinite, for that which is infinite is essential and 
necessary to God ; but this is not necessary, but an act of liberty ; for it was 
in God's choice whether he would make any creature, and consequently 
whether he would love any creature. Whatever is contingent is not God, nor 
infinite. Indeed, Christ's love was necessarily terminated upon his Father, 
and so his love to the Father is infinite in both respects, act and termin- 
ation ; but to us in the former respect only. 

(8.) In the manifestation, in respect of the expressions of it. The ex- 
pressions of Christ's love are not infinite, for they are transient acts, and so 
not in God ; and whatsoever is not in God is not absolutely infinite. Besides, 
they are actually received by us, therefore not infinite; for that which is finite 
(as we are) is not capable of what is infinite. 

Obj. But this is one expression, to give himself ; and he is infinite, there- 
fore expression is so. 

Ans. This giving of himself is the cause, not of identity, but of interest 
only. The creature is not the terminus or object of that act of giving himself, 
but God's paternal authority as founded on the law of nature ; the creature 
only enjoys the effects of offering or sacrifice. He is infinite in excellency 
and value, but our enjoyment of him is not infinite. All the acts of enjoy- 
ment are finite ; he gives no more actually than we enjoy ; we enjoy no more 
than we are capable of. 

Christ's love is infinite, yet he loves not infinitely. There may be infinitum 
amor, and yet it does not infinite amare ; even as he hath infinitam potentiam, 
and yet doth not infinite agere ; has infinite power, and yet does not act in- 
finitely. If he should act infinitely, he should act ad tdtimum svi posse, as 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



EPH. V. 2.] THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 41 

natural agents do. Every act is from infinite power, but the actings of that 
power are limited by his will as to the existence of things ; and in his actings 
towards things existing, he limits or accommodates himself to the nature and 
capacity of those things, so that the actings and effects are not infinite, though 
the principle be. Semblably he loves infinitely, bnt does not express that 
love infinitely ; the objects are not capable of infinite expressions. The re- 
ciprocal expressions of love betwixt the Father and Son are infinite, but not 
betwixt Christ and the creatures. That must be infinite to which love makes 
infinite expressions. 

(4.) In duration it is infinite. It is eternal, without beginning, without 
end, and so has no limits as to continuance, Eph. i. 4, Mat. xxv. Isa. liv. 8, 
Jer. xxxi. 8, ' everlasting light,' Isa. lx. 19, 20, ' everlasting joy,' Isa. li. 11, 
* everlasting salvation/ Isa. xlv. 17, ' everlasting covenant,' Jer. xxxii. 40 ; 
bo that in two respects Christ's love is infinite, viz. as to act and duration ; 
in two respects not infinite, as to termination and manifestation. 

Quest. 7. What must we do to render us capable of Christ's love ? What 
will make us lovely in his eye ? 

Ans. 1. You must be like him. Likeness is the greatest attractive of love, 
ofuiorris rfc piMag fiyr^, that which brings forth and nourisheth love. Christ 
likes none but those that are like him. The more likeness, the more love. 
This was the first act of eternal love : Bom. viii. 29. * Predestinated to be 
conformable to the image of his Son.' And this is the first expression of 
love in time, makes us like him. And both are in order to all the expressions 
of love that must continue to eternity. Till you have his likeness, you are not 
capable of his love. There may be amor benevolentuz, good will, before, but 
not amor amicituB or complacentia. He will not use you as friends, nor can 
his soul take pleasure in you till you be like him. 

But what will make you like him ? How shall we resemble him ? Holi- 
ness, this is Christ's resemblance, likeness, his image : Col. iii. 10, ' Be- 
newed after the image, 1 &c. What this renewing is you find, Eph. iv. 23, 
24. Holiness is the image of Christ. The apostle mentions two images, 
one whereof every man bears, 1 Cor. xv. 49, earthly and heavenly ; that of 
the first, this of the second Adam. Christ is the image of the invisible God, 
and holiness is the image of Christ. He that is holy is a living image of 
Christ. Christ sees himself in a holy soul, and cannot but love it ; he is XparoZ 
etxw sft^vxog, a lively portraiture of Christ. 

It is true nothing finite is properly like' to Christ, as he is God ; for like- 
ness is founded in proportion, and there is no proportion where the distance 
is infinite. But of all things in heaven and earth, nothing more resembles 
divinity and God himself than holiness ; therefore it is called ' the divine nature,' 
2 Peter i. 4. But consider Christ as he is man, and that holiness which is the 
glory and ornament of his soul is the same in specie, in nature, with that 
which is in his people, differs only in degree. No created being is so like Christ 
as he that is holy ; he sees nothing in man or angels so beautiful, so lovely. 

If then you would have Christ to love you, you must be like him ; if like 
him, you must be holy. Holy thoughts, this is the way to have the same 
mind in you, Philip, ii. 5 ; holy affections, so your heart will resemble Christ ; 
holy speeches and actions, so holy as he was in all conversation, 1 Peter 
i. 15. Set Christ before you as a pattern, strive to imitate him, express 
his virtues, 1 Peter ii. 9 ; set the life of Christ before you as a copy, and 
draw your lives after it ; eye it in every act, and strive to bring them to 
conformity ; meekness, Mat. xi. 29, no passionateness ; patience, 1 Peter 
ii. 20, 21, Isa. liii. 7, returning not evil, reviling, hatred ; self-denial, Philip, 
ii. 8, &c. Be his disciples, learn it by his doctrine and example. Hum ility , 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



42 THE LOVE OF CHBIST. [EPH. V. 2. 

Mat. xi. 29, Zeoh. ix. 9, in the lowest condition, or worst accommodation ; 
activeness, Acts x. 88, John iv. 84, delightfully, constantly ; love, Eph. 
i. 1, 2 ; spiritnalness, or making spiritual use of common things : these 
graces are the sparks of holiness, let them shine. Those that hate, contemn, 
jeer holiness, under what name or pretence soever, shall never taste Christ's 
love ; nay, those that are without it, though they never arrive at such a 
height of wickedness as to contemn it, shall never see God, Heb. xii. 14. 
They shall be so far from partaking of the intimate expressions of his love, 
as they shall not be admitted into his presence, not so much as to see him. 
Be sensible of the want, bewail the neglect ; love it, thirst after it, endeavour 
by all means to perfect it, 2 Cor. vii. 1 ; hear, John xv., meditate, pray, 
and prefer it, as Solomon did wisdom, 2 Chron. i. 10, 11. 

Ans. 2. Avoid all that Christ hates. If you love, approve, entertain that 
which is hateful to Christ, how can he love you ? What is that which 
Christ hateB ? The psalmist, Ps. xlv. 7, tells us, making it one of Christ's 
attributes, to hate wickedness. The lusts of your hearts, and sins of your 
lives, is that alone which is hateful to Christ. Sin is the only object of 
Christ's hatred ; he hates nothing but sin, or nothing but for sin. He loves 
many things, but this is that one thing which he hates. The world had never 
known any thing but love in Christ, had it not been for sin. If the devil 
himself were without sin, Christ would love him ; but if the most glorious 
augel in heaven sin, Christ will hate him. Christ has much reason to hate 
sin, for it murdered him, exposed him to the dreadful wrath of his Father, 
and is the only, the greatest, the most odious deformity, that his pure eye 
sees in the world. It is more hateful than a toad to us, more loathsome 
than the k vomit of a dog, more noisome than the stench of an open 
sepulchre. Therefore while you let sin lodge in your hearts, while you stain 
your lives with it, Christ will not, cannot love you. So long as you harbour 
malice, pride, averseness to God, contemn the gospel, neglect ordinances, 
profane Sabbaths, covetousness, contention, intemperance, unoleanness, 
deceit, never expect any love from Christ, nothing but dreadful expressions 
of hatred. No love from Christ, till at enmity with sin, till you fight 
against, endeavour to mortify it, have continual war with it. As Christ 
hates iniquity, so the workers of iniquity, Ps. v. 5. You must not love 
them, so as to be intimate with them, delight in the company of evil doers, 
openly profane, scorners of godliness, obstructors of the power of it, 2 Cor. 
vi. 14-18. If you love so near relations to wicked men, Christ will have no 
relation to you. If you would have communion with Christ in sweet acts of 
love, you must have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, nor 
those that act them. 

An*. 8. Comply with his will, obey his commands. This is a powerful 
inducement amongst men, compliance, observance, officiousness ; and 
Christ engages both his and his Father's love upon this account, John xiv. 
21, 28. That you may comply with his will, you must be careful to know 
it. He is as odious to Christ who will not know what he should do, as he 
who will not do what he knows. It is as provoking disobedience to refuse 
to know Christ's will, as to refuse to do it ; equally threatened, 2 Thes. i. 
8, 9. Wilful ignorance is so far from excusing, as it aggravates sin; brings 
a double guilt, guilt of disobedience, and guilt of the most provoking igno- 
rance. Ignorance is wilful, when the means of knowledge are offered, but 
neglected. 

Ignorance excuses none who have the means and the use of reason. 
How little ignorance is there amongst us, that is not wilful and inexcusable; 
do not know, because they will not use the means ? 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



EPH. V. 2. J THE LOVE OF OHKI8T. 48 

Nor will use of means Buffiee ; it mast be with all diligence, Prov. ii. 8. 
Careless use is little better than neglect. There is contempt in this, when 
Christ speaks to yon, to hear as though yon heard not ; when Christ writes 
to yon, to read as though you read not, this is to affront Christ ; and will 
he love those that affront him to his face ? . 

But suppose you know Christ's will by the use of means ; yet if you close 
not with what you know, you are as far from Christ's love. He that knows, 
and does not, shall be beaten, Luke xii. 47; he must expect no other ex- 
pressions of love. Christ loves the truth so well, as he will not love those 
that imprison it. You may see how Christ resents disobedience against 
knowledge in Saul, 1 Sam. xv. 28 ; it is as witchcraft or idolatry. Where 
there is this disobedience, there is a covenant with hell and death, a league 
with Satan ; there is an idolising ourselves, preferring our will to God's, 
idolatry. To disobey the gospel, is to be disobedient to the heavenly call, 
it is to neglect salvation. Ch what madness is it to prefer a lust before 
your own salvation ! To prefer a lust before the love of Christ, before 
Christ himself! What a heinous provocation, to love sin more than Christ, 
to prefer sin, the vilest and [most] abominable thing in the world, before God 
blessed for ever ! How can Christ love such, who love that more than him 
which murdered him, and will damn them ? Yet this you do in disobedi- 
ence. The least jot of Christ's will is of more value than heaven and earth, 
and you prefer that which is the worst thing in hell before it. 

The way to win Christ's love, is to use all means to know his will, that 
you may obey it ; and to obey it as soon as you know it, immediately, im- 
partially, cheerfully. He loves a cheerful doer, as a cheerful giver. That 
which comes by constraint is servile, unacceptable. Expect not the love of 
sons, while you act as slaves, and serve him not but from fear or force, un- 
less it be that of love. Immediately, consult not flesh and blood, with 
carnal interests, with base lusts, with outward disadvantage or respects ; 
then your obedience will be partial, not do what Christ commands, but 
what these advise. As good not obey at all, as not obey in all ; you must 
not leave a hoof; you must be more respecters of duties than of persons. 
It is universal obedience that engages Christ's love. Obey in all, especially 
the principal commands of Christ and the gospel, faith and repentance. 

Ans. 4. Converse much with Christ. Be much in his company. Labour 
to be, as David, continually with him: d*£o<rijyog/a voX)£{ rag <pi7Ja$ 
dtikuet. Estrangement, neglect of converse, dissolves friendship, occasions 
a consumption of love amongst men, and so it will be with Christ. There 
is both an assimilating and an attractive virtue in communion. It will 
make you like Christ, and so make you capable pf loving expressions ; and 
it will engage, attract, kindle Christ's love, and so make you actually partakers 
of it. Delight then to walk with him, to meet him, to view his beauty, to 
hear his voice, to taste his sweetness. And since Christ delights to see the 
face and hear the voice of his spouse, Cant. ii. 14, therefore you must take 
all occasions to present yourselves before him, in the most lovely and de- 
lightful posture, that the King may take pleasure in your beauty, that your 
eye bo fixed on him, he may be ravished with your eye. 

But where shall we meet with Christ ? Where may we converse with 
him ? Even in his ordinances ; where these are, there is Christ's presence- 
chamber ; prayer, hearing, reading, meditating. When you attend on the 
word preached, you see him, and hear his voice. Here are those sweet 
interviews and colloquies, wherein Christ vouchsafes to manifest his love 
familiarly. He has writ his mind, yea, his heart, in the Scriptures, and 
there you may read the sweetest strains of love that ever the world knew ; 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



44 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. [EpH. V. 2. 

and when you read those heavenly lines, you should look upon them as a 
letter of love sent from Christ. In meditation, there you may have a fall 
gaze at Christ, and if your minds be fixed, you may see every lineament of 
him who is altogether lovely, whose beauty ravishes the angels, makes them 
seraphims, flames of love. 

When you are using these ordinances, you are in Christ's banqueting- 
house ; he spreads over you the banner of his love ; there he feasts his 
people, stays them with flagons; there he admits them to familiar em- 
braces, kisses them with the kisses of his mouth, and vouchsafes such mani- 
festations of his love as are better than wine, sit down under his shadow 
with great delight. Ordinances are the mirrors wherein Christ makes him- 
self visible ; herein, as in a glass, we may see the glory of Christ, and no 
other way, till in heaven, where we may see him face to face. These are as 
Zaccheus's tree : when we get our hearts raised, our souls climb up, and with 
advantage see Jesus ; and there he will spy you, come feast with you, and 
bring salvation to your house. 

Delight in ordinances, and manifest it by being frequent in them. Be 
much in prayer ; be not satisfied in ordinances, without his presence, except 
you may see and enjoy him. Depart not out of his presence, till he smile, 
till he speak kindly, speak to your heart, till he testify his presence by im- 
pressions, light, heat, enlargement; expressions, the still voice speaking 
peace, accepting. That you may enjoy his presence, that he may delight 
to meet you, you mast put your souls into that dress that is most lovely ; 
come with inflamed affections, with acted graces, so you will appear in the 
beauty of holiness. This is the beauty wherein Christ delights. Nothing 
so lovely as a soul of a gracious, a spiritual complexion waiting on him ; to 
him will he look. 

Am. 5. Take heed of unkindnesses. There is so much affinity betwixt love 
and kindness, as they are often joined in Scripture. Love, amongst men, 
will not endure unkind returns ; how much less Christ, who hath infinite 
reason to expect the best requitals ? 

(1.) You are unkind when you undervalue Christ. Contempt is the great- 
est unkindness. You contemn Christ when you set him at nought. He is 
then $%ou$ivii6ue, set at nought, when you prefer that before him which is 
worse than nought, sin. When you set little by him, that is properly h7j- 
yutfa, when you have a higher esteem of that which is little worth, outward 
enjoyments, relations, interests ; when these have more of your thoughts, 
more of your affections, than Christ. He is contemned when anything is 
more loved, desired, delighted in, feared, than Christ ; when any object is 
more lovely, any happiness more desirable, any enjoyment more delightful, 
any suffering more fearful, than Christ's absence or displeasure. 

(2.) When you refuse his offers. He has writ, not a letter, but a large 
volume of love ; will you cast it behind your back ? He sends ambassadors 
to woo, to beseech you to be reconciled to his Father, and accept of him 
for your husband ; you will not give audience, much less obedience ; despise 
both messengers and message. He sends his Spirit to solicit you, makes 
many motions of love to your hearts (how often have you had experience of 
it ?) you quench the Spirit, reject his motions. He comes and knocks at 
your hearts, and stands till his head be filled with dew, and his locks with 
the drops of the night, Cant. v. 2. You will not open, send him away with- 
out admission, while sin is welcome, has quiet possession, and kind enter- 
tainment. He stretches out his hands all the day long, and stands with 
open arms, entreating you to come and be embraced ; but you refuse, delay, 
and weary him out with unkind denials or excuses. He sends his servants 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



EPH. V. 2.] THE L0VB OF CHRIST. 45 

to invite yon to the marriage-feast of the Lamb, tells you all things are pro- 
vided for your delight and happiness, all is ready, and stays for your coming; 
bat you are so busily employed in the world, you cannot, you will not come ; 
and force him to that sad complaint, ' Ye will not come to me. 1 Oh how 
often are you guilty of this t 

Ans. 6. Get and keep up love to him. Love is attractive of love. Christ 
condemns those as worse than publicans that return not love for love, Mat. v. 
He will be far from that which he condemns us for. He that could think 
thoughts of love to those that had no affection for him, will not fail to love 
those who love him, Prov. viii. 17. Those who shew they love him by seek- 
iog him diligently, as we are wont to seek that which our heart is on, shall 
find him ready to express his love to them. His nature, so gracious, so 
affectionate, so compassionate, might assure us of this, without his word ; 
but to give us all assurance of it, he has engaged himself by promise again 
and again, John xiv. 21. He will manifest himself to him in all the riches 
of his love, ver. 28. Both Father and Son will shew that they love such an 
one, by visiting him with loving-kindness, coming to him for that purpose, 
and staying with him, as we would do with those whom we most 'love. He 
promises here such expressions of love on earth, as he vouchsafes in heaven, 
though not in the same degree. For how does he express his love to the 
saints in heaven, but by abiding with them, and manifesting himself to 
them ? The love of Christ shoold be both the pattern and the motive of 
our love to him. We should labour to love him as he loved us, and be 
constrained to love him because he so loved us. Endeavour to love him 
in all that is his. That is the way to have his love reach us in all our 
concerns. 

In his person ; for the infinite excellencies and loveliness of Christ. To 
love him only for the advantages we have by him, is such a love as we our- 
selves care not for from others. We value not his love, who only affects us for 
his own sake, for what he may get by us. That is a selfish love, and comes 
short of the love of true friendship. He is not a friend indeed who loves 
you not for yourself, but only for what he expects from you. Christ chal- 
lenges the Jews for something like this, Luke vi. 26. They followed him, 
not because they had seen the miracles, whereby he had discovered the ex- 
cellency of his person ; they loved him not, but for the loaves. If Christ 
had not loved us, but for what he expected from us, what advantage he 
might have by us, he had never loved us at all. 

In his offices. Though we must not love him only for the happiness we 
expect from him, yet we must love him for that too, and shall be most inex- 
cusable if we do not. The spring of those blessings he enriches us with, is 
his offices, and the execution of them. 

Love him as he is a priest for ever. A priest who made himself a sacri- 
fice for you, to expiate your guilt, satisfy justice, and deliver you from wrath ; 
who washed you, &c, in his own blood, and is still presenting it ; he ever 
lives to make intercession. 

Love him as he is a prophet. To discover himself, to make known his 
will, to shew the way to life, as ready to guide you by his counsel. 

Love him as a king. One who will rescue you from your spiritual ene- 
mies, subdue your iniquities, conquer your hearts for himself, bring you 
tinder his government, so as in all to make you more than conquerors. 

Love him in ail ways : those wherein he proceeds towards you, and those 
wherein you should walk with him ; the former, whether they be pleasing or 
afflictive. When his ways are apparently mercy, the goodness, the sweet- 
ness of them should command love from you, Cant. i. 8, Ps. i. 16. When 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



46 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. [EpH. V. 2. 

they are afflictive, they are mercy too, though sense will not always let you 
discern it. There is love in them, when they make you smart, such love as 
made the apostles triumph : Bom. viii., * In all these things we are more 
than conquerors.' Why more than conquerors ? Because the love of Christ 
was in them. Yea, when there is some anger in them, there is love also, 
Bev. iii. 19. We are slow to believe this, and that may be the reason it is 
so oft repeated in the Old and New Testament, Prov. iii. 11, Heb. xii. 6. 
As he shewed his love by being afflicted for us, so alBo by afflicting us. 
And that love he shews should engage us to love him, even in the furnace 
of affliction, there should our love to Christ flame out, even when the waves 
and the billows go over* us. The opposition should fortify love, many waters 
should not quench it. 

And love him too in the ways wherein we should walk with him, — the 
ways of holiness, self-denial, mortification. These are not grateful to the 
flesh ; but they are the ways of Christ, the ways of him that loved us. And, 
therefore, he made them our ways, and leads us into them, because he loves 
us ; and, therefore, in despite of our corruptions, they should be lovely to 
us. They should be ' ways of pleasantness,' because they are * paths of 
peace,' Itov. iii. 17. His commandments are the paths of life, none of 
them should be grievous. It is the yoke of Christ, his burden which seems 
heaviest : he lays it on us, because he loves us ; and Bhall not that consi- 
deration make it light and easy ? When he came into the world for us, 
if he had declined that which was grievous to flesh and blood, that which 
was difficult, and expensive, and hazardous, and meddled with nothing for 
our sakes but what was cheap, and easy, and safe, and pleasing, oh what 
had become of us, our redemption had never been effected ! Oh, but his love 
to us made him count nothing too costly, too difficult, too grievous ! Let 
us likewise shew our love to Christ, in counting no part of his ways, no part 
of our duty, too hard, or too expensive, or too hazardous, or too grievous. 
How can we say that we love him, if we be sd disaffected to any part of the 
good, and perfect, and acceptable will of Christ, who loved us ? Let us 
resolve to subdue our own wills, to cross our carnal inclinations, to quit our 
worldly interest, to oppose our own humours ; to follow him in painful, and 
costly, and reproached, and hazardous services ; to abate him nothing of 
what he expects, to spare ourselves in nothing that he requires of us. Then 
shall we shew that we love him indeed, and find that he loves us ; other- 
wise we are in danger to be found no better than pretenders to Christ and 
his love, and such as he will not know, nor own. 

Love him in his people. In them all who have anything of his image and 
likeness, however sullied with weaknesses and infirmities, or blotted with 
distasteful carriages, or soured with the crabbedness of an unhappy temper, 
or varying from you in some particulars of practice or opinion, 1 John iv. 
10, 11, 20, 21 ; say not, they are cross, and froward, and peevish, and 
selfish* and every way unworthy, and every way disobedient ; how can I love 
Buch ? Oh, but might not Christ have said this of you, and muoh worse ? 
If he had refused to love you on this account, what had your condition been ? 
And if he would not be hindered from loving you, when there was unspeak- 
ably more in you to forbid his love, shall some little thingB (little in com- 
parison of what Christ might have objected against you), how great Boever 
you think them, hinder you from loving Christ in his members ? Say not, 
I cannot think them his members, they are so unlike him ; for if you look 
well into your own hearts and ways, may not you see much to make you think 
yourselves not like him ? May not Christ see therein much more to make 
him judge you very unlike ? Take heed you venture not to dismember 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Eph. Y. 2.] ohbist's BAOBmoB. 47 

Christ, out of any little pretences or prejudices. He will take it better at 
your hands to love those as his, who are not, than not to love any who are 
his indeed, though they seem not so to you. You love not Christ, if you 
love not his people ; and if you love not him, you cannot expect love 
from him. 

He gave him$df for us. The next thing considerable in the text is the 
expression of Christ's love ; he gave himself for us, Ac. To open this, and 
offer it to you distinctly and clearly, take notice of the several words and 
parte of the expression. 

1. He gave. Gifts are expressions of love. We judge of love by the 
quality or value of the gift. He that loves heartily gives freely, and he that 
loves much gives much, if he have much to give. We conclude with reason 
that he who gives us things of great value, and gives freely, loves us answer- 
ably, has a great love for us. Now what did Christ give ? 

2. He gave himself, nothing less than himself; and that is more, incom- 
parably more, than if he had given all the angels in heaven, all the treasures 
on earth for us ; more than if he had given all the works of his hands. It 
is more than heaven and earth together ; as much more than the whole 
world as the whole world is more than the drop of a bucket, and the small 
dust of the balance ; for the disproportion is greater betwixt the Bon of God 
and the whole world, than betwixt the whole world and the drop of a bucket. 
The small dust of the balance is as nothing to the universe, and the universe 
is as nothing compared with the Son of God. And it is himself that he gave ; 
not so Utile a thing as the whole creation, but, that which is infinitely more 
and greater, himself. That word comprises more than ten thousand worlds 
amount to. 

It is exceeding much that the apostle says is given us ; and it will appear, 
if we view the several parcels of the gift, in the account we have thereof, 
1 Cor. iii. 22. Not only Paul, Ac. ; not only life and death, but the world ; 
not only the world, but that which is to come, things present and things to 
come. No less than two worlds ! Could the heart of man desire more ? 
Oh but he has given more, infinitely more I When he gave himself, he gave 
more than ten thousand worlds. All is yours. Ay, but that all, and the 
great contents thereof, are nothing compared with himself, and he gave no 
less than himself. 

8. How did he give himself ? He did not give himself as we are wont to 
give, nor did he give himself as he gives other things. But as the gift was 
extraordinary and transcendently great, so was his way of giving it. As the 
greatness of the gift, so the manner of giving it, expresses a great, a trans- 
cendent love. He gave himself, not in the common way of giving ; but, as 
the text shews, his giving was an offering of himself. ' He gave himself an 
offering for us/ But then, 

4. How did he give himself as an offering for us ? What kind of offering 
did be make himself? There are several sorts of offerings mentioned in 
Scripture. We meet with offerings that were not sacrificed, and also with 
offerings that were sacrificed. 

Offerings that were not sacrifices. Such were the persons and things which 
were devoted or dedicated unto God for the service of the tabernacle and of the 
temple. Thus the vessels and utensils given up and set apart for the service 
and ministration under the law are called offerings, Num. vii. 10, and those 
offerings are specified, ver. 18, &c. Silver chargers, bowls, and spoons ; 
and not only things, but persons are called offerings when set apart ; for thus 
the legal ministry, Num. x. 10, 11, 18. The other sort of offerings were 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



48 Christ's sacrifice. [Eph. Y. 2. 

sacrifices, such as were offered so as to be consumed and destroyed, and to 
be deprived of life, if they were things that had life. So that there is a 
great difference betwixt these offerings : the former were offered so as to be 
preserved, the latter were offered so as to be killed or consumed. For that 
is the true notion of a sacrifice ; it is an offering daily consumed. And such 
an offering was Christ, such an offering as was a sacrifice, as the text shews. 
He gave himself to be sacrificed for us. ' He was led as a lamb to the 
slaughter.* He was slain, and his blood shed and poured out. Jt had been 
much for the Son of God to give himself for us as an offering in any sense, 
though not one drop of his precious blood had been shed, though he had not 
suffered in the least. Oh what manner of love was it, that he would offer 
himself as a sacrifice for us ; that he would be slain, and so far destroyed for 
us as the sacrifices who lost their lives in the offerings ! But, 

5. What kind of sacrifice was it ? There were several sorts of sacrifices 
under the law. They are commonly reduced to two heads. 

(1.) Some were eucharistical, sacrifices of thanksgiving, offered as thank- 
ful acknowledgments of deliverances, or other mercies obtained. 

(2.) Others were propitiatory, sacrifices for expiation, to make atonement, 
to expiate guilt, and procure pardon and reconciliation. Now Christ offered 
himself a sacrifice, not of thanksgiving ; none have entertained, or can give 
any reason, for such a conceit. But he gave himself ibr us a sacrifice for 
expiation, to expiate the guilt of our sin, to procure pardon, and make onr 
peace with God. And this appears by the phrase which the apostle here 
uses to explain and illustrate it ; it was offered to God for a sweet-smelling 
savour, which is an expression by which propitiatory sacrifices are wont to 
be described in Scripture. In the first place, where we meet with it, it is 
applied to Noah's sacrifice, Gen. viii. 21. This was a sacrifice for propi- 
tiation ; for upon the offering it the Lord declares himself appeased, and 
that though the imaginations of man's heart be evil, yet he will not again 
curse the earth ; which words express that God was atoned with the sacrifice 
which Noah offered. The word signifeB a ' savour of rest ; ' for though the 
Lord was moved with anger against the world, so as to bring a deluge upon 
it, yet now he would rest from his anger, his wrath did cease. And this is 
the proper effect of a propitiatory sacrifice, when it prevails and is accepted. 
And elsewhere also these sacrifices for expiation are set forth by this expres- 
sion, Lev. i. 9, 15, 17. That the sacrifices or burnt-offerings prescribed in 
this chapter were piacular is plain, ver. 4. To make atonement was the 
proper end and design of sacrifices for expiation. 

The Socinians, [who] will not upon any terms allow the death of Christ to be 
such a sacrifice, and so strive to illude* every text which we allege to prove 
it, do use this evasion here. They say the phrase is used of free-will 
offerings ; these are the sacrifices which are commonly said to be a sweet 
savour. But there is no reason in this, for sacrifices for expiation were free- 
will offerings, as much as those for thanksgiving ; and those sacrifices par- 
ticularly which I have instanced and proved to be piacular, viz., that of 
Noah ; for it was not offered at a time determined by God, for anything 
appears, and that is it which makes the difference between free-will offerings 
and the solemn stated sacrifices. And for those, Lev. L, the text is express, 
ver. 8. 

Or if they should allege that this phrase is applied to peace-offerings, yet 
this would not serve their turn ; for peace-offerings for the congregation had 
something of expiation in them, Lev. zxxv. 16. And this appears, not only 
because what is required in propitiatory sacrifices is found in peace-offerings, 

* Qu. 'elude?'— En. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



EPH. V. 2.] CHQIBT*8 8A0BIFI0B. 49 

viz., the slaying of the beast, the sprinkling of the blood, and the consuming 
some part of it upon the altar, Lev. ix. 18, 19, bat also because what is 
proper and ascribed to sacrifices designed for expiation is ascribed to peace- 
offerings, Ezek. xlv. 15, 17, where peace-offerings, amongst the rest, were 
to make reconciliation for the people ; and this is the proper and special end 
of sacrifices for expiation. To turn away the Lord's anger, and appease his 
wrath, was the main design of propitiatory sacrifices. And David, when the 
Lord's anger was kindled and consuming the people, he offers peace-offerings, 
2 Sam. xxiv. 21. And this was the issue of it, the plague was stayed, 
God's anger was appeased, ver. 25. So that, whatever the Socinianists 
object against the text, who, by denying the death of Christ to be a propi- 
tiatory sacrifice, would raze the foundations of all our hopes and comforts in 
the gospel, we have made it clear and firm, that the sacrifice which the text 
says Christ offered for his people in offering himself, was a sacrifice for ex- 
piation. 

Obs. Christ offered himself a sacrifice of expiation for his people. 

To give you distinctly the evidence which the Scripture affords for this 
great and fundamental truth, take it in these severals. 

1. He offered himself, Heb. vii. 27 ; 'He offered up himself/ Heb. ix. 14 
and 28. 

2. He offered himself a sacrifice, 1 Cor. v. 7, Heb. ix. 26. Those things 
which were necessary and requisite to a real and proper sacrifice concurred in 
this sacrifice of Christ. 

(1.) The person offering was to be a priest; it was the peculiar office of 
the priest under the law, Heb. v. 1. So Christ, that he might offer this 
sacrifice, was called to that office, and made an high priest, ver. 6, 6, 10. 

(2.) The things offered were to be of God's appointment, otherwise it had 
been, not a true and acceptable sacrifice, but will-worship ; and no more a 
sacrifice in God's account than the cutting off a dog's neck, or offering 
swine's blood, as appears by the laws given by God to Moses concerning free- 
will offerings, Lev. i. In the free-will offerings, though the precise time for 
offering them was not determined, yet things to be offered were appointed. 
So that what* Christ offered was appointed and prepared by God, Heb. 
i. 5. He prepared him a body, that he might offer that for a sacrifice ; and 
that he offered, ver. 10. It was a living body that he prepared for him, a 
body animated, enlivened with a soul, which soul was separated from his 
body in the offering ; and therefore he is said to make his soul an offering, 
Isa. liii. And soul and body constituting his human nature, and making up 
himself, he is said to offer himself, Heb. ix. 26, 14. 

(8.) That which was offered for a sacrifice was to be destroyed. This is 
essential to a sacrifice ; it is oblatio rite comumpta, an offering duly con- 
sumed. Those things that had life, thai they might be offered as sacrifices, 
they were killed, and their blood poured out ; and the other parts of them, 
besides the blood, were burned, either wholly or in part. 

Thus was Christ sacrificed ; his dying and bleeding on the cross answered 
the killing and bloodshed of the Levitical sacrifices, and his sufferings (ex- 
pressed by the pains of hell) were correspondent to the burnings of the sac- 
rifices, Heb. xiii. 12, 18 ; his sufferings without the gate are held forth here, 
m answering the burning of the sacrifices without the camp. 

(4.) The person to whom they were offered was God, and him only. 
Sacrificing was a divine honour appropriated to God. To offer sacrifice to 
uy else was gross idolatry, Heb. v. 1. What were those things, rd rg&c 
•Qu. 'So what'?— Ed. 

vol. m. D 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



60 chbist's bacbifiob. [Eph. V. 2. 

rov @ihv ? OblatioDB and sacrifices. And this sacrifice Christ offered onto 
God, Heb. ii. 17. He performed the office of a merciful and faithful high 
priest, in offering to God what belonged to him. What were those things ? 
Why, such as made reconciliation, i.e. in offering to God a propitiatory 
sacrifice. 

The Socinians will have Christ to offer this sacrifice, not to God, but to 
us, that they may deny it to be a real and proper sacrifice. But here they 
offer plain violence to Scripture ; the text is express, he offered to God, not 
to us, Heb. ix. 14. 

By these particulars we see, that what was necessary to constitute a real 
and proper sacrifice is found in this sacrifice of Christ. 

8. He offered himself a sacrifice of expiation. And this is it I intend to 
insist on. That his death was such a sacrifice may be made evident in general 
by this one consideration, that the propitiatory sacrifices under the law were 
figures and shadows, whereby this great sacrifice of Christ was typified ; for if 
the figures and shadows had something of expiation in them, that which "was 
the substance of them, and was typified by them, must have it also, else there 
would not be so much in the substance as in the shadow, and the thing 
typified would not answer that which prefigures it, nor would the things 
which the Lord appointed to resemble one another bear a resemblance. 

Now, that those sacrifices under the law did prefigure and shadow out this 
great sacrifice of expiation in Christ's death, appears, because the apostle de- 
clares them to be figures and shadows, Heb. ix. 9 and x. 1. Those expia- 
tory sacrifices had some resemblance of this, as the shadow has of the body, 
though obscure and imperfect ; they were but shadows, the substance and 
perfection of expiation was in the sacrifice of Christ, Col. ii. 17. 

And if we come to particulars, and view the several sorts of them under 
the law, we may find, that whatever sacrifices were then offered to make 
expiation, they all prefigured and signified this of Christ. And we have . 
ground to conclude so, from other places of Scripture, applying them to this 
great sacrifice. Vid. Sermon or Homily 58. 

And let not this discourse seem tedious to you, or not worth your best 
attention here, or your serious consideration in private, for there is scarce 
any subject I can insist on either moro profitable or more necessary ; for 
without understanding this point I am upon, that Christ is a sacrifice of ex- 
piation, you cannot fully understand either the law or the gospel. We shall 
but understand the law as the blind Jews do, who, in all the laws about 
sacrifices, see nothing of Christ ; and we shall but understand the gospel as 
the Socinians do, who quite deface and utterly subvert it. 

I have given you some evidence, in what is already said, that Christ in his 
death gave himself for his people, not only a proper and real sacrifice, but 
also a sacrifice for expiation. 

I proceed now to some particulars, which will both explain and confirm 
this weighty point, and withal clear up divers main truths of the gospel, of 
very great consequence for our comfort and establishment ; which, for some 
seeming difficulty and obscurity in them, are mistaken by some and rejected 
by others, though the gospel itself signify little to us without them. 

If this point, Christ's being a propitiatory sacrifice for us, were well un- 
derstood, there would remain little or no difficulty concerning our sin being 
imputed to Christ, or satisfaction made by him for us, or the imputation of 
that satisfaction to us, or his performing it in our stead. 

All these, and others of this nature, would be clear, so as to be entertained 
and believed without doubt or difficulty, if this was but clear, that Christ 
gave himself a sacrifice for expiation. / 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Eph. Y. 2.J ohbist's SACBIFICK. 51 

And this I shall endeavour to make plain to yon, by shewing in some par- 
ticulars that whatever is essential to a propitiatory sacrifice, and is required 
in snch a sacrifice under the law, is to be found in the sacrifice of Christ. 

Bat let me first premise this one thing : by the judicial law (which was to 
the Jews their civil or statute law, by which they were governed as a com- 
monwealth or body politic) corporal death was the penalty of all disobedience 
to God, Deut. xxvii. 26. The curse is death, death corporal in the civil or 
political sense of it ; death eternal in the spiritual sense, as the apostle 
applies it, Gal. iii. 10. Now, the Lord, who was the King and Lawgiver of 
Israel, relaxed the laws as to many offences; and instead of the corporal 
death of the person offending, accepted of the death of a sacrifice. 

Let this be minded and remembered all along ; for much of what follows 
will be mistaken, or not well understood without it. And so I go on to the 
particulars mentioned, which will shew that the sacrifice of Christ was fully 
correspondent to the propitiatory sacrifices under the law, in all points that 
are essential or necessary to such a sacrifice. 

1. The sin of the offender, whether a particular person or the people, was 
laid upon the sacrifice, imputed to, or charged on it. The sin of the offerer 
was in a manner transferred to the sacrifice, so as it became responsible for 
it, and was made liable to answer or suffer for it, as if itself had contracted 
the guilt. As when the debt is charged on the surety, or he takes it on 
himself, he is as much obliged to pay it, to be answerable for it, as if himself 
had contracted it. The sacrifice was looked on as under guilt, and treated 
as a guilty thing ; not as having sinned, but as if it had sinned. 

Hence the word used for such a sacrifice does signify sin itself. And the 
sacrifices are said to bear the iniquities of the people, Lev. xvi. 22, and 
x. 17, because the people's sins were laid on them. For this we have further 
evidence, by their laying hands on the head of the sacrifice, Lev. i. 4, iv. 4. 
And it is observed, that in all the propitiatory sacrifices for the whole con- 
gregation this rite was used, and in no sacrifices for them, but those. And 
because all the people could not lay on their hands, some other representing 
them did it for them ; sometimes the elders, Lev. iv. 15, 2 Chron. xxix. 
22-24, sometimes the high priest, Lev. xvi. 21. When they laid their 
hands on the sacrifices, they confessed their sins over them. This the text 
calls a putting their sins upon the head of the sacrifice. Hereby was signi- 
fied, as the Hebrew doctors observe, that the iniquities of the people were 
laid upon the head of the sacrifice, and the guilt transferred from themselves 
unto the victim that was sacrificed for them. Hereupon the scape-goat, and 
all those sacrifices, whose blood was carried unto the holy place, and whose 
bodies were burnt without the camp, because the sins of the people were 
laid on them, they were looked on as if they were polluted and defiling 
things, and accounted execrable and polluted ; insomuch, as those who did 
but touch them, contracted such pollution, that they were not to be admitted 
into the congregation till they were purified, Lev. xvi. 26, xxviii. 24. The 
Hebrew doctors say* this was the reason, because the scape-goat and those 
other sacrifices were charged with so much guilt, such a multitude of sins 
being laid on them. 

And as sin was charged upon the legal sacrifices and imputed to them, 
so was our sins charged upon Christ, the great sacrifice, and imputed to 
him, 2 Cor. v. 21. The righteousness of God here is the righteousness of 
him who is God, the righteousness of Christ, that righteousness which he 
performed in being obedient unto death. What is said of Christ's right- 

• Vid, Outram, 271. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



62 Christ's sacrifice. [Eph. V. 2. 

eousness in reference to us, that is said of our sin in reference to Christ ; ve 
are made righteousness, he is made sin. But how was his righteousness 
made ours, how was our sin made his ? Why, by imputation only. We 
were far from being righteous in ourselves, hut his righteousness is imputed 
to us. He was far from being a sinner, but our sin was imputed to him. 
But what is it to he imputed ? If we will speak exactly of this, we must 
speak differently of them, according to the different nature and quality of the 
things imputed, which are good or evil. That which is evil, is said to be 
imputed to us, when it is charged on us. Good is said to be imputed to us, 
when it is accepted for us. When evil is said to be charged on any, so as 
he is to suffer for it, though he committed it not, we say it is imputed to 
him. And when good is accepted for another, so as he has the advantages 
of it, though he performed it not, but another for him, and in his stead, 
then it is said to be imputed to him. 

Thus the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, when it is accepted for 
us, so as we are entitled to the advantages of it, though we performed it not, 
but Christ in our stead. And thus our sin was imputed to Christ, when it 
was charged on him, so as he was to suffer for it in our stead, though we 
only committed it. And thus was sin imputed to sacrifices under the law, in 
that sin was charged on them, so as they were to suffer for it, though they 
were not the transgressors. 

So a debt is imputed to a surety, when he takes the debt upon himself, 
and is thereby obliged to pay, though he never contracted it. 

And this not only clears the nature of the act, but also the justice and 
equity of it. It may seem unjust, that one who is innocent should be 
charged with the sins of another. But there is indeed no unrighteousness 
herein. It was the righteous act and appointment of God, that the sins of 
the people should be laid on the sacrifice ; and it was his act and appoint- 
ment, that our sins should be laid on Christ the great sacrifice. And there 
is no unrighteousness with God in this act, more than in the other ; to say 
nothing that the practice of the world justified it in all their particular sacri- 
fices. Nay, there is more to be pleaded for charging sin on Christ, than in 
that of the other legal sacrifices ; for volenti nonfit injuria, there is no 
injury where there is consent. But sin was laid upon the other sacrifices, 
when they were not capable of consenting to it. But Christ gave his consent 
to have our sins laid on him. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all, 
but he was willing they should be laid on him ; and it was in reference 
hereto that he 6 aid, Heb. z. 7. He himself bare our sins, he took upon him 
the burden of our guilt freely. It was his own voluntary act, so there was 
no more unrighteousness in it, than in charging the debt upon the surety, 
who freely and out of choice takes a debt upon him and thereby engages him- 
self to discharge it. Never did any surety so freely charge himself with a 
debt, as Christ charged himself with our sins. 

It may be objected, that, if our sins were charged on Christ and laid upon 
him, then he was under guilt ; and the most innocent Son of God, who was 
holy, harmless, and separate from sinners, who did no sin, neither was guile 
found in his lips, must be counted a guilty person ; nay, the most guilty of 
all others, as having upon him the sins of all his people. 

I answer, there are two sorts of guilt ; a culpable and a penal guilt. He 
is under culpable guilt, who himself committed the offence. He is under 
penal guilt, who is obliged to suffer for the offence, though he committed it 
not : for this guilt is no more than an obligation to punishment. Now 
Christ, as our sacrifice, was only under this penal guilt. The offences that 
he was charged with were committed by us, not by him ; only by undertaking 

Digitized by LjOOQlC 



Era. V. 2.J chbist's sachitic*. 53 

to be a sacrifice for us, he came under an obligation to suffer for us, as if he 
had sinned, though we only were the transgressors. 

And thus it was in those legal sacrifices, which were shadows of Christ. 
We need go no further to clear it. In them it appears that these two sorts 
of guilt may be separated ; so that he who is not culpably guilty, may be 
penally guilty, and may justly suffer, though he did not personally sin : for 
those peculiar* sacrifices, the sins of the people being laid on them, were under 
penal guilt, and did justly suffer as if they had sinned ; and yet they were 
not culpably guilty, for they neither had sinned, nor were capable of sinning. 

And in respect of this penal guilt, it may be granted that it was under 
more guilt than any, as the sacrifice for the whole congregation was under 
more guilt, being charged with more sin than any sacrifice offerdd for a par- 
ticular person. 

The text insisted on is a sufficient proof of this point. Christ was ' made 
sin for us.' Those who hereby understand a sacrifice for sin, say the same 
thing in consequence that I have said, for if Christ was made a sacrifice for 
sin, that must be granted of him which necessarily belongs to .every sacrifice 
for sin ; that the sin of those for whom it was offered was laid on it, or, 
which is all one, imputed to it. 

This is also signified by those scriptures, where Christ is said to bear 
our sins, Isa. liii. 6, 11, 12, Heb. ix. 28, 1 Peter ii. 24. For the bearing 
of our punishment is hereby commonly understood. 

Yet his being charged with our sin must necessarily be included ; for "our 
punishment could not have been justly inflicted, nor would his sufferings 
have been penal, but that our sin was charged on him, or imputed to him. 
For punishment is never daly inflicted, but where sin is some way charged. 

2. The penalty due to the transgressor under the law was inflicted on 
the sacrifice offered for him. The sinner deserved temporal death and 
destruction ; and the sacrifice was slain or destroyed. So it was with the 
sacrifices for the high priest and the whole congregation. A bullock is ap- 
pointed to be brought as a sin-offering for the high priest, and that was to 
be killed, Lev. xvi. 11 ; a goat was the sin-offering for the people, and that is 
ordered to be killed, ver. 15 ; and the scape-goat, sent into the wilderness, 
wsb so sent in order to its destruction one way or other. 

So it was likewise with sin-offerings for private persons. If it was a 
lamb or a kid, they were killed, as other beasts offered for sacrifice, Lev. 
v. 6 ; if they were turtle-doves or young pigeons, their heads were to be 
wrung off from their necks, ver. 8 ; and when not able to bring doves and 
pigeons, they were to offer fine flour, and this was to be consumed, a' hand- 
ful of it was to be burnt, vers. 11, 12. 

The sinner deserved to be killed or destroyed, that was the penalty due 
to him by the law ; and so the sacrifice that was offered, and thereby 
Buffered for him, was killed or destroyed. The transgressor's sin being 
transferred to the sacrifice, and laid on it by the institution of God, signified 
by the imposition of hands on the head of the sacrifice : hereupon being 
supposed to be under guilt, and guilt being an obligation to punishment, 
the sacrifice was obliged to suffer, and did suffer, the penalty which the 
offender deserved. 

This is further cleared by the words which they used when they brought 
a sacrifice : Let this be *rnD3, my expiation ; the meaning of which, as they 
generally agree, is this, What evil I have deserved, let it fall upon the head 
of my sacrifice. 

Thus it was with propitiatory sacrifices, or sin-offerings under the law. 
* Qu. « piacular ' ?— Ed. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



54 Christ's sacrifice. [Eph. V. 2. 

And thns it was with Christ the great sacrifice, shadowed out by them ; and 
thereby it is manifest that he was snch a sacrifice. The punishment which 
was dne to our sins was inflicted on Christ ; he suffered what our sins 
deserved, 1 Peter ii. 24. As the sacrifice bare the sin of him for whom it 
was offered, and thereupon bare the penalty due to him, so Christ bare the 
sins of his people, and thereupon bare the punishment due to their sins. 
This expression includes both ; both his taking our sins upon him, which 
sins were the meritorious cause of punishment, and his bearing the punish- 
ment, which was the effect of our sins, that which they deserved. The 
sacrifices, by having the sins of the people laid on them, became liable to 
undergo the penalty, and did actually undergo it. So Christ, by taking our 
sins on him, became liable to the punishment, and did actually suffer it. 
We have them joined together, Isa. liii. 12. As the life of the sacrifices 
was poured out unto death in the pouring out of their blood, so was Christ's 
life poured out in the shedding of his blood. 

And why was his life poured out, and death inflicted on him ? Because 
he was reckoned amongst transgressors, our transgressions being laid on 
him by the will and counsel of God. He was reckoned amongst transgressors, 
not by the Jews only, but by God himself. The Jews reckoned him a 
transgressor upon his own account ; the Lord reckoned him so upon oar 
account. And so he bare the sins of many ; he having taken our sins, bare 
the punishment of our sins. This is plainly expressed, ver. 6. As the 
sacrifices were wounded and slain for their sins for whom they were offered, 
so was Christ wounded, and bruised, and killed for the transgressions of his 
people. What the sacrifice suffered, was the punishment due to the offender 
for whom it was offered ; so what Christ suffered was the punishment which 
the transgressions of his people deserved. These expressions here used by 
the prophet, are proper to sacrifices for sin, and so applied to Christ as such 
a sacrifice, ver. 10. He was wounded, he was punished for our transgres- 
sions, in making himself an offering for sin. 

The Socinians would have no more understood by these phrases of Christ 
bearing our sins, but only that he took away our sins ; and so no more than 
when God the Father is said to take sin away. But the expressions here 
used will not endure such a sense. For the Father takes away sin so as 
not to suffer for it ; but it is plainly expressed here, that Christ so bare our 
sins, as to suffer for them. .He bare our griefs, our sorrows; he was 
wounded, bruised, he poured out his soul unto death, he was offered up, he 
bare our sins as a sacrifice. The punishment due to our sin was suffered 
by him, as the penalty due to transgressors was inflicted on the sacrifice. 

3. The sacrifice under the law suffered instead of the sinner. There was 
a substitution of the sacrifice in the room of the transgressor. This is evi- 
dent by the former head last insisted on ; for to sufler in one's stead, is 
nothing else but to suffer for another what himself should have suffered. 
Observe what it is to be in one's stead ; for not only the doctrine of the 
law concerning piacular sacrifices, but the great doctrines of the gospel con- 
cerning Christ's satisfaction and our justification thereby, depend on it, and 
will be mistaken, or not understood without it. To be punished in another's 
stead, is to undergo for him the punishment due to him, that he may escape. 
And so the sacrifice did ; when the transgressor deserved death, the sacrifice 
suffered death for him, that he might not die. Thus the sacrifice died in 
his stead, the life of it went for his life. That there was such a substitution 
of the sacrifice in place of the offender, the life of the sacrifice being taken 
away instead of his life, is apparent also in Scripture, Lev. xvii. 11. The 
life is in the blood, the blood is the vehicle of life ; when the blood goes, 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Eph. V. 2.] ghbist's sacrifice. 65 

the life goes; and because the life is in the blood, therefore was it given for 
atonement for them that they might not die. And so the blood, which is 
the life, being offered to save their life, the life of the sacrifice went instead 
of the life of the offender. 

So the Jewish writers understand it, who yet will understand nothing of 
Chrftt in their sacrifices. When, say they, the guilty person deserved that 
his blood should be shed, and his body should be burned, the Lord in mercy 
accepted of a sacrifice as a thing substituted in his room ; so that the blood 
of the sacrifice was shed instead of his blood, 1BT nnn 101, and the life of 
the sacrifice went instead of his life, PM nnn B>M. Vide Outr. 274, Bux- 
torf. in Stilling. 359. 

And whereas, when they brought a sin-offering, they were wont to say, 
Let this be my atonement, *mfiD ; it is all one, they tell us, as if he had 
said, Let this be substituted in my stead. 

Answerably, Christ suffered in our stead ; and it is so plain, by that sub- 
stitution in the other -sacrifices, that we need wish for nothing more to 
make it clearer. Those that will grant him to be a sacrifice, do not leave 
themselves the least reason to doubt but he suffered in our stead, and not 
only for our good and advantage. 

When he made himself, his soul, an offering for our sin, he was substituted 
in our room ; he died and suffered, not only for us, but in our stead. For 
to suffer in our stead, is nothing else but tosuffer what we deserved to suffer, 
that we might escape. And thus he suffered ; he did undergo what was due 
to us, that it might not be inflicted on us. 

That he bare the punishment due to us, is sufficiently proved in the former 
head. And there needs no more to prove that he suffered in our stead, to 
those who will understand what it is to suffer in our stead. 

The nature of a piacular or propitiatory sacrifice requires this. The 
sacrifice was always supposed to suffer instead of those for whom it was 
offered. The Scriptures declare this, the Jews acknowledge it, the heathen 
did not qnestion it. None can deny it in reference to Christ, but those who, 
against all evidence of Old and New Testament, will deny that Christ was 
such a sacrifice. 

But besides, there is abundant evidence in Scripture that he suffered in 
our stead, Bom. v. 6, 1 Peter iii. 18. In that he suffered for sin,» he 
suffered as a sin offering, and that was instead of the sinner, the just for 
the unjust, as the innocent sacrifice instead of the unrighteous transgressor, 
so 1 Peter ii. 6, Mat. zz. 28. As the life of the sacrifice was a ransom for 
the life of the transgressor, i. e. instead of his life, Xurfor, the word here used 
is the same with the Hebrew, "®3, which is the word in use amongst the 
Hebrews for a propitiatory sacrifice, Mat. zzvi. 28. He speaks of his 
blood, just as of the blood of a sacrifice for sin. Such a sacrifice for the 
whole congregation, the blood of it was shed for many, it was shed instead 
of many. It was shed that they might be forgiven, and that is here for re- 
mission of sins. Not only the words here used in these Scriptures, utfig 
and atrt, but the things spoken of and referred to, do declare a substitution 
of Christ in the place of sinners, and that he died and suffered in our stead ; 
even as the proper sacrifice for ezpiation died and suffered instead of those 
for whom they were offered. 

Finally, in all those places wherein Christ is said to die for us, since he 

died as a sacrifice, the sense must necessarily be the same, as when the 

sacrifice died for a sinner ; but the word for, here, in the sense of the Jews, 

of the Gentiles, of all the world, is to die in the stead of the sinner. 

4. The sacrifice made satisfaction to God for the sinner. Both the words 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



56 ohbibt's sacbifiob. [Eph. V. 2. 

KDn and *>BD f used in the Old Testament for expiatory sacrifices, and ex- 
piation by them, do import satisfaction ; so Gen. xxxi. 89, ' I bare the loss/ 
t. e. I made it good. The word is K&n, which, in other places, is to expiate 
by a sacrifice ; the sense is here, I did make the satisfaction for it ; for to 
make good what is lost, is to make satisfaction for it. So 2 Sam. xxi. ver. 
8, < What shall I do to satisfy yon ? wherewith shall I make atonement ?' 
both expressions signify the .same thing; to make atonement, is to make 
satisfaction, TMK, wherewith shall I atone, t. e. wherewith shall I satisfy ? 
The word is, in other places, wherewith shall I atone or expiate ? the sense 
is here, wherewith shall I make satisfaction ? 

And in our translation, the same word which, in some places, is atone- 
ment, or expiation (which is the proper effect of propitiatory sacrifices), is in 
other places satisfaction, and so rendered, Num. xxxv. 81 82 ; ye shall take 
no TD3, no sacrifice for expiation shall be offered in this case. That sacri- 
fice which would make satisfaction in other cases, shall not be accepted for 
satisfaction in this. To satisfy for another, is to undergo for him the 
penalty of the law, incurred by his transgressing it ; it is the suffering the 
punishment which his sin deserves. 

The offender under the law had deserved death, temporal death (that 
was the penalty of the law, speaking, as we do now, of civil guilt) ; this death 
was inflicted on the sacrifice which died for him. So the law had its exe- 
cution upon the sacrifice instead of the sinner, and justice was satisfied, this 
being what it required. 

There was mercy in appointing and accepting the sacrifice for the sinner. 
But justice had satisfaction too, in that the penalty of the law was so far 
inflicted. 

More distinctly, there are several things required, that satisfaction may 
be made by sacrifice. 

That which is satisfactory in this case, must, 1, be some affliction and 
suffering. 2. Not only so, 'but the suffering must be penal ; not any kind 
of affliction or calamity, but something threatened by the law, and deserved 
by the sinner. Justice, that it may be satisfied, requires the execution of 
the law ; and therefore to satisfy justice, not only that which is afflictive 
must be suffered, but the penalty of the law must be inflicted, or what is 
equivalent to it; it must be something penal. 8. Not only so, but it must 
be suffered for him, and in his stead by another ; if one suffer for himself, 
and on his own account, that can be no satisfaction for another ; he must 
suffer for him, and in his stead for whom he satisfies. 

Now all these concurred (as was shewed before) in the death of a sacrifice. 
1. It was a suffering ; the sacrifice was killed, and death is one of the most 
grievous sufferings. 2. It was penal, that which the law threatened ; the 
penalty of the law was death. 8. This was suffered by the sacrifice, not 
for itself or on its own account, but instead of the transgressor. 

These particulars may be further cleared by an instance. A murderer 
under the law was to suffer death, that was the penalty of the law, Num. 
xxxv. 80, and in case he was not put to death, the land was polluted with 
blood, and the people liable to suffer for it, ver. 88. But when justice 
could not be done upon the murderer, because he was not to be found, the 
Lord found out an expedient to satisfy his law and justice, so as the land, 
the people should not suffer, Dent. xxi. 1-9. So that, though no satis- 
faction was to be taken for the life of the murderer, yet here was satisfaction 
to be made for the people amongst whom it was committed, that they might 
not suffer for it. And this was made by the heifer that suffered, and suf- 
fered the penalty, was put to death ; and this not on its own account, but 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Era. Y. 2.] ohbibt'b sacbifick. 57 

instead of the people, that they might be quitted, and blood-guiltiness might 
not be charged on them. There was satisfaction made on behalf of the 
people by the death and suffering of the heifer ; and therefore the gnilt of 
innocent blood pnt away, as the text expresses it, which was the proper 
design and effect of satisfaction. 

Answerably, thus did Christ our sacrifice make satisfaction to justice for 
ns ; he suffered, and that which he suffered was penal, and he suffered it for 
as and in our stead. 

1. He suffered, fie was a man of sorrows and sufferings ; his whole life 
was a state of humiliation, and his humiliation was a continued suffering. 
Bat near and in his death he was made perfect through sufferings ; there 
was the extremity of his sufferings, there he became a perfect sacrifice, Heb. 
ii. 9, 10, and v. 9. Christ wanted something to make him perfect in his 
office, till he had satisfied his Father's justice ; and this he did, and so was 
perfected, by suffering death as a complete sacrifice. 

2. What he suffered was penal ; it was that which sin deserved, and the 
law threatened. 

His sufferings had a respect to sin in the meritorious cause of them ; and 
that is plainly signified, as any, but such as will be blind, may see, when he 
is said to suffer for our sins. If we will consult with common sense, what is 
it to suffer for sin, but to suffer for the desert of sin ? what to suffer for our 
sin, but to suffer what our sin deserved ? This he is still said to suffer, 
Isa. liil, Bom. iv. 25. 

He suffered the penalty of the law, not a mere calamity, but a punish- 
ment ; for what was the penalty of the law but death ? Gen. ii. 17, and the 
corse, Gal. iii. 10. And he suffered death, 1 Pet. v. 6, 1 Cor. xv. 3, not on 
his own account, but ours ; not for onr good only, but in our stead. And 
he was made a curse for us, Gal. iii. 13. The enemies of Christ's satisfac- 
tion cannot deny, but the curse in the former clause is the penalty of the 
law, the punishment which it threatens- ; and why it should not be so in the 
latter clause, they can give no colour of reason. 

3. Thirdly, he suffered this in our stead. We made that plain before. 
The mere understanding of the expression puts that out of the question. He 
that suffered what we deserved, that we might go free, did unquestionably 
suffer in our stead. 

Put all together, and we have clear and unanswerable evidence, that 
Christ made satisfaction to divine justice for us. If Christ suffered for us, 
and in our stead, did bear the penalty of the law, the punishment due to us, 
so that the law had its execution upon him, then did he satisfy justice for 
us, and tendered that which it required. But, &c. 

Obj. If it be objected that satisfaction is not made, unless the self-same 
thing be suffered which the offender did deserve, and which the law threat- 
ened ; but Christ did not suffer the same thing which was in the sentence of 
the law, and our sins deserved. For we deserved eternal death ; and it was 
not only the first, but the second death, that the law threatened ; therefore 
the death of Christ, which was but the first, but temporal death, did not 
make satisfaction to law or justice for us. 

An$. For the making of satisfaction, it is not necessary that what is suffered 
for another should be the same thing every way, and in all respects. It will 
be enough if it be the same in kind and substance, though it be not just the 
same, but only equivalent in other respects and circumstances. And this is 
very plain by the matter before us. The sacrifice made satisfaction for 
offenders, so that they suffered not according to law; and for this it 
was enough that the sacrifice was put to death, as the offenders should, 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



68 ohbist's sacbifice. [Eph. Y. 2. 

though it was not the very same death in all respects and circumstances, not 
the same sort of death. The throats of the sacrifices were cat, their bodies 
flayed and dissected, and part, or all of them, consumed with fire ; whereas 
the malefactors were to be stoned to death, or hanged on a tree, or beheaded. 
Here was the same punishment in kind and substance, death, but not the 
same sort of death, but very different in circumstances. 

4. Whereas it is said, that the second death, eternal death, was in the 
sentence of the law, and this Christ suffered not (vide Sena. I. on Bom. 
v. 7, and conclude). Satisfaction may be made by the same sufferings in 
substance, and equivalent in other respects. So it was in the sacrifices under 
the law, and so it was in the great sacrifice in Christ's death. 

5. The sacrifice pacified, appeased the Lord, made atonement, turned 
away his anger. That was the principal end and effect of expiating sacri- 
fice, to make atonement, and so expressed in all sorts of them. In sin-offer- 
ings, whether the matter of them was beasts, Lev. v. 6, or fowl, ver. 7, 10, 
or flour, 11, 18 ; also in trespass-offerings, Lev. vi. 6, 7, it is ascribed to 
both of them together, Lev. vii. 7. 

Likewise the burnt-offerings, whether the time for offering them was deter- 
mined, as in their stated solemn sacrifices ; or not determined, but left to 
their arbitrament, as in free-will offerings, Lev. i. 4, i. 6, vi. 9. 

To make atonement is to pacify, to make his peace with one that was 
wroth with him, Prov. xvi. 14. And it is conceived by some, not without 
ground, that peace-offerings were for this end ; and therefore they have the 
name D*M?, because the design and effect of them was to make peace between 
God and those for whom they were offered. Answerably the word *©3, ren- 
dered to atone, is to appease and turn away anger or wrath, Gen. xxxii. 20. 
And this was the end why David offered burnt-offerings and peace-offer- 
ings, 2 Sam. xxiv. 21, and this was the effect of it, ver. 25. 

Sometimes it is expressed by reconciling, or rendering propitious, Lev. 
vi. 80. And this is expressed to be the design of burnt-offerings and sin- 
offerings, 2 Chron. xxix. 24, af d the end of peace-offerings amongst others, 
Ezek. xlv. 15, 17. And because the Lord was thereby rendered propitious 
or well-pleased, therefore those sacrifices are said to be a sweet-smelling 
savour, in the phrase in the text, Lev. i. 5, 9, 18, 17 ; and in Noah's sacri- 
fice, a savour of rest, because when the Lord is pacified and well pleased, 
his anger does rest, Ezek. xvi. 42. Thence these sacrifices are called /Xa<r- 
r/x£, propitiating sacrifices, or propitiatives. So that propitiation, reconci- 
liation, appeasing, pacifying, and atonement, whereby the end and the effect 
of those sacrifices is expressed, are terms of the same import, and signify 
the same thing. 

Now these same ends and effects are ascribed to the death and blood, *. e. 
to the sacrifice of Christ, and expressed by the same terms. 

As the legal sacrifices made atonement, and they received it for whom 
they were offered, so did the sacrifice of Christ make atonement, and they 
are said to receive it, Rom. v. 11, and that was the death of his Son, ver. 10. 

Propitiation is the very same thing with atonement As the Lord was 
rendered propitious by those offerings called propitiatory sacrifices ; so is 
Christ, by his sacrifice, a propitiation, 1 John ii. 2, t. e. a propitiatory sacri- 
fice for sin, 1 John iv. 10, Bom. iii. 25, a propitiation through the blood of 
his sacrifice. The Lord did not only shew himself propitiated and appeased, 
but it was this blood, this sacrifice, that appeased and propitiated him ; as those 
sacrifices were not to shew that the Lord was atoned, but to make atonement 
or propitiation. And so the mercy- seat, called /Xaor^/ov (the word here used 
by the apostle), by virtue of the blood of the sacrifice, was a propitiatory. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Eph. V. 2.] Christ's sacrifice. 59 

As the sacrifice did appease and turn away the anger of God, which they 
were liable to in reference to the temporal effects of it, as they did pacify 
him and make their peace with him, so by the sacrifice of Christ wrath is 
turned away, Rom. v. 9; our peace is made with God, Eph. ii. 12, &c. 
By the blood of Christ, the great sacrifice, peace was made not only between 
Jew and Gentile, but between God and them, Isa. liii. The chastisement 
of our peace, t. e. those sufferings by which our peace was made, he suffered 
as a sacrifice that we might have peace with God, Col. i. 20. 

And as the legal sacrifices were to make reconciliation for transgressors, 
so was the death and sacrifice of Christ, Horn. v. 10, Col. i. 20-22, 2 Cor. 
v. 18, 19, and how, ver. 21. 

To evade these plain texts, they say the phrases used by the apostles are 
for reconciling us to God, not reconciling God to us, and so will have the 
reconciliation to be on man's part only, as if none at all were needful on 
God's part, when yet it is he that is the party offended ; as though the end 
of the death and sacrifice of Christ were only to gain sinners' favour for 
God, and not at all to procure God's favour for sinners ; as if it were to 
make God's peace with us, and to make our peace with God. But this, as 
it is intolerable in the very sound of the expressions, and plainly against 
the sense of the phrases in Scripture about reconciliation, Mat., Cor.* 
so it destroys the correspondence between the legal sacrifices and this of 
Christ. For none will imagine that the Israelites offered sacrifices to turn 
away their own anger from God, but to turn away his anger from them. 
And these being types and figures of Christ's sacrifice, how can it be ima- 
gined that the_end of it should be to divert men's wrath from God, and not 
to divert his wrath from us ? Both were to ' make reconciliation for ini- 
quity,' Dan. ix., so as sin should not be imputed. Now there can be no 
such reconciliation but by pacifying the party provoked by iniquity ; and 
whether that be God or man, let the adversaries themselves judge. 

6. These sacrifices put away guilt (civil guilt), released the sinner from 
the obligation to temporal punishment, procured forgiveness for,him. This 
was the effect of them when they were accepted, sin was forgiven them for 
whom they were offered. And so it is frequently expressed that forgiveness 
was the effect of them, whether they were offered for particular persons or 
for the whole congregation, Lev. iv. 20, 26, 81, 85, and for the whole con- 
gregation, Num. xxv. 26. 

Sin is loathsome and offensive to a holy God, and so liable to the effects 
of his displeasure, which are punishment ; accordingly it is set forth in Scrip- 
ture as uncleanness, Lev. xvi. 16, as a defilement and pollution, Ps. cvi. 89, 
Ezek. xx. 81. Becoming guilty they were defiled ; by contracting guilt, the 
sinner defiles and pollutes himself and becomes unclean, and when guilt is 
removed, he is said to be cleansed, purged, purified. Answerably, the 
taking away guilt by sacrifice is expressed -by cleansing, purging, purifying. 

By cleansing, Lev. xvi. 80. 

By purging, Heb. ix. 18. The blood was sprinkled for that end, and 
sometimes with hyssop, Lev. xiv. 6, 7, Num. xix. 6 ; in reference to which, 
David begging freedom from guilt, does it in these terms, Ps. Ii. 7. 

By purifying, Heb. ix. 18. And so these . expiating sacrifices are styled 
by other authors aywtfr/xa, purifying sacrifices, and xaQagnxa, sacrifices for 
purgation or lustration ; becauso they were supposed to purge them from 
guilt, to make them clean and pure from that guiltiness which was their 
pollution. 

And this was the effect of the great sacrifice of expiation in Christ's death. 
• Probably the texts alluded to are Mat. v. 24, 2 Cor. v. 19.— En. 



Digitized by 



Google 



60 chbist's bacbifios. [Eph. V. 2. 

Thereby we are freed from guilt, and have forgiveness of sins. And it is 
expressed in the same terms, to signify that it was procured in the same way 
by that grand expiatory sacrifice, John i. 29. How did he take away sins ? As 
a lamb sacrificed ; he was the Lamb slain and sacrificed. That is here suffi- 
ciently intimated, but it is plainly expressed elsewhere, Heb. ix. 26 ; and it 
is signified where we are said to have forgiveness by his blood, Eph. i. 7, 
Col. i. 14, Bom. iii. 25, Mat. xxvi. 28. 

As under the law, so under the gospel, without blood no remission, Heb. 
ix. 22. No remission of sin, no expiation of guilt, but by the death and 
blood of a sacrifice. And the expiation of guilt, by the sacrifice of Christ, 
is set forth in the same terms as the expiation by other sacrifices. It is ex- 
pressed by the washing, sprinkling, cleansing, purging, purifying, and so 
expressed by the same reason ; because sin is an unclean thing in the eye 
of an holy God, 2 Cor. vi. 17, Mat. xv. 18, 20. He that contracts guilt 
defiles himself; the defiling guilt cannot be done away but by the blood of 
this great sacrifice ; this and this alone can wash, and cleanse, and purge, 
and purify guilty souls ; these are sacrificial terms, which refer to sacrifices 
for sin, and denote the expiation of its guilt. Let me instance in those 
several phrases, whereby the Holy Ghost in the New Testament holds 
forth the sovereign virtue and efficacy of that precious blood, and inestim- 
able sacrifice for the taking away our guilt ; hereby you may more clearly 
understand both the expressions, and the things what they signify and refer 
to. The removing of guilt by the blood and sacrifice of Christ, is expressed 
sometimes by washing, Be v. i. 5, and vii. 14 ; by sprinkling, Heb. x. 22, 
and xii. 24. The blood of the propitiating sacrifices, on the great day of 
expiation, was to be sprinkled on and before the mercy-seat, Lev. xvi. 14, 15. 
Hereby might be signified, that this seat, which would otherwise be a throne 
of justice, was a mercy-seat, that there was pardoning mercy to be found at 
his mercy- seat, which was Christ in a type ; and that through his blood, 
signified by the blood there sprinkled. The people, then, were kept at a 
distance from the mercy-seat; they might not come and see this blood, 
sprinkled. But, says the apostle, * Ye are come to the blood of sprinkling.' 
That which was the mercy-seat in the Old Testament, is the throne of grace 
in the New Testament ; and we may come boldly to the throne of grace, 
with confidence that we shall find pardoning mercy, through the blood of 
sprinkling, by virtue of which it is become a throne of grace, a mercy-seat, 
without any veil interposing, without anything to debar us from it We 
may find the expiating virtue of that blood of sprinkling flow freely in upon 
our souls for the cleansing of them from guilt. Washing and sprinkling 
was in order to cleansing, and that is another word used to signify this great 
effect. It is expressed by cleansing, I John i. 7, %<xfog/£f/ ; that is ascribed 
to the blood of Christ which is proper to sacrifices for expiation. And to 
be cleansed from sin, is to be forgiven, ver. 9. Cleansing from guilt is ex- 
pressed by forgiveness. 

By purging, Heb. i. 8, by himself, t. e. by the sacrifice of himself, Heb.' 
ix. 18, 14. Purging from guilt, t. e. free from all the obligation to eternal 
death which wicked works lay on it. When an Israelite committed an act, 
to which the law threatened temporal death, his conscience told him he was 
liable to death, till the sacrifice appointed for his expiation was offered ; but 
thereby he was freed from the obligation, and his conscience freed from the 
sense of it. 

By sanctifying, Heb. x. 10. Sacrificed* in a sacrificial sense, as expiating 
sacrifices do sanctify, i. e. by cleansing from guilt, Heb. xiii. 11, 12. It is 
* Qu. Sanctified * ?— En. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Eph. Y. 2.] chbist's sackifice. 61 

a sanctifying by his blood, not by bis Spirit ; such as is proper to the blood 
of sacrifices for expiation, which took away guilt ; whose peculiar efficacy 
was not in working holiness, bnt in procuring forgiveness. 

By purifying, Heb. ix. 22, 28, xatotffyfat. The sacrifices under the law 
did in their way purify from guilt ; but the sacrifice of Christ, as far excel- 
ling those as heavenly things do earthly, purifies in a far more excellent way. 

Use. For information. 1. Hereby we may discover the horrid wicked- 
ness of the sacrifice of the mass, which yet, with the papists, is the chief 
part of their religion. By what we have said of a sacrifice, it will appear 
that their doctrine and practice as to the sacrifice of the mass does both de- 
stroy Christ himself, and destroys the sacrifice of Christ. 

That thereby they destroy Christ, the man Christ Jesus, will appear if 
you take notice of these three particulars. 

1. They teach that Christ, not only as he" is God, but as he is man, his 
whole human nature, soul, and body, is in their mass sacrament, and there 
really and substantially. 

To open this a little. In their mass, which they use instead of the 
Lord's Supper, after the Epistle and Gospel, and some short collects, they 
hate a longer prayer, which they call the canon of the mass, in which are 
the words of consecration, * This is my body, this is my blood ;' by virtue 
of which words they say, the bread and wine, which the priest consecrates, 
loses its substance ; the substance of both vanishes, and the accidents of 
bread and wine only remain ; the quantity and quality, the figure, colour, 
and taste, and not the least substance of either ; but in the room thereof 
the substance of Christ's body and blood is brought or produced. So that 
under the forms or accidents of bread and wine, there is really and sub- 
stantially the whole body of Christ, flesh, blood, and bones, and his soul too. 
It is the living body of Christ, his body enlivened with his soul, which the 
priest holds in his hands, and puts into his mouth. This monstrous 
change, of this substance of bread and wine into the substance of the real 
body and blood of Christ, has a monstrous name ; they call it tran substan- 
tiation, a change of substance. I pass by the multitude of absurdities, con- 
tradictions, impossibilities, which they must swallow who believe this, and 
which none can digest but those whom the spirit of delusion has bereaved 
both of the use of sense and reason. It is enough for my purpose that they 
will have whole Christ to be there, body and soul. And the council of Trent, 
of so great authority with them that it is to be reckoned the standard of their 
faith, curse those who do not believe this in these words : * If any shall deny 
that in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist there is contained truly, 
really, and substantially, the body and blood, together with the soul and the 
divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore whole Christ ; or shall say 
that he is there only in sign, or figure, or virtue ; let him be anathema.' 
They will have all to be cursed as heretics, and burnt too, when they are in 
their power, who will not believe that whole Christ, soul and body, his 
living body, to be in the mass. 

2. They determine, and will have it believed as an article of faith, that 
Christ is truly and properly sacrificed in the mass ; his body and blood is 
there offered, his living body is there made a true and proper sacrifice. 

There are some things are called sacrifices, but are not so indeed ; they 
have not the true nature of a sacrifice, but only some little resemblance, 
therefore have the name. So praise, Heb. xiii. 15 ; doing good, ver. 16 ; 
giving up our bodies, ourselves, to God, Bom. xii. 1 ; such are called spiritual 
sacrifices, 1 Peter ii. 5. They have not the true nature, but only some like- 
ness of a sacrifice ; and therefore are not truly and properly sacrifices, but 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



62 ohbist's sacrifice. [Eph. V. 2. 

only metaphorically. Bat they will have Christ, as offered in the mass, to 
be not a spiritual or metaphorical, but a true and proper sacrifice ; not so 
called because of some resemblance, but because it has the nature and 
essentials of a sacrifice, and therefore truly and properly so. The Council 
of Trent decrees, ' If any shall say that in the mass there is not offered a 
true and proper sacrifice, let him be accursed.' They will have it to be as 
true a sacrifice as the paschal lamb was, yea, as any propitatory sacrifices 
were under the law ; they maintain that it is a propitiatory sacrifice both for 
the living and the dead. 

8. In every true and proper sacrifice, that which is sacrificed is really de- 
stroyed. There is all sorts of evidence for this. It is essential to a sacrifice 
to be destroyed. The definition of it declares this ; it is oblatio riu con- 
sumpta, an oblation duly consumed. And this is the difference betwixt an 
oblation and a sacrifice. That which is offered unto God, and preserved for 
holy uses, is an oblation. That which is offered, so as to be destroyed, is a 
sacrifice. 

Thus it was with all sacrifices under the law ; if they were things without 
life, they were some way consumed ; if they were living things, they were 
killed, put to death. Thus it was, especially in sacrifices for expiation (of 
which sort they will have the sacrifice of the mass to be), when they were for 
particular persons, Lev. v. 6 ; when they were for the whole congregation, 
the consumption was greater, Lev. xvi. 27. 

Nay, this themselves acknowledge, their doctors of greatest repute, not 
only Cardinal Bellarmine, but the most eminent followers of their angelical 
doctor, determine it to be essential to a true sacrifice, that it be killed, and 
put to death. 

Put these together. Christ, his living body, is in the mass ; he is truly 
and properly there sacrificed ; that which is truly sacrificed, is really killed 
and destroyed. The inference from hence is clear as a day the sun shined, 
that Christ is really killed and destroyed in the mass. This, many of them 
acknowledge in plain terms ; take only the words of Bellarmine, instead of 
many others who might be produced. Either in the mass, says he, there is 
a true and real killing and slaying of Christ, or there is not ; if there be not, 
then there is no true and real sacrifice ; for a true and real sacrifice does 
require a true and real killing, because the essence of the sacrifice consists in 
the killing of it. Where he not only affirms that Christ is killed in the mass, 
but proves it by such an argument as can never be answered by those who 
will have the mass to be a real sacrifice. Nor can they possibly find out any 
shift, to excuse their killing of Christ in the mass, without denying that it is 
a true and real sacrifice ; and if they deny this, they abandon their whole 
religion, and must acknowledge that they have no religion at all amongst 
them ; for they say, there is no religion at all where there is not such a 
sacrifice. Yet this may seem a less inconvenience ; for who would not count 
it more tolerable to have no religion at all, than such a one as consists prin- 
cipally in destroying or murdering of Christ ? 

And if they deny this, viz. a real sacrifice, they overthrow the foundation 
of their faith and church, the infallibility of popes and general councils, who 
have decreed this to be an article of faith, to be believed by all, under pain 
of damnation. 

And they must acknowledge that they have murdered all those whom they 
have put to death, and burnt alive, because they would not believe the mass 
to be such a sacrifice. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



CHRIST'S DYING FOR SINNERS. 



But God commendeth his love tqwards «*, in that, while we were yet sinners, 
Christ died for u*— Rom. V. 8. 

The apostle having proved at large that we are justified by faith, in the 
former chapters, in this and the following, he draws several instances from 
that doctrine. First, for comfort to those that are justified, giving an 
account of the several comfortable effects of this privilege. 

Ver. 1. Having pardon of sin and title to heaven, hereby we know the 
Lord is appeased and reconciled, &c. 

Ver. 2. By Christ we have admission to this gracious state in which we 
are established, and rejoiee in hope of a more glorious condition. 

Ver. 3. We not only rejoice in our present happy state, and hopes of 
future glory, but even glory in our sufferings. Tribulation being sanctified, 
helps us to the exercise of patience, which, as other graces, grows and is 
increased by exercise, &c. 

Ver. 4. Experience ; in the exercise hereof we have experiments of the 
grace of God in us and toward us, of his favour and our own sincerity, 
and this raises and increases our hope. 

Ver. 5. That hope which will not disappoint us, especially having our 
hearts replenished by the Holy Ghost, with the sense of the love of God in 
Christ. 

Ver. 6. Which love was herein expressed wonderfully, that when we were 
in a state of sin and damnation, without any power to free ourselves from 
this misery, in the fulness of time Christ died, even for those who were 
without God and opposite to him. 

Ver. 7. This was greater love than is to be found amongst men, for if 
perhaps one may be found who would die for a merciful, an obliging, an 
useful or public-spirited man, yet none can be found that would lay down 
bis life for any other, though he were a just and righteous man. But who 
would die for those that are useless, or odious, as contrary to him, as sinners 
are to God ? 

But this is the glory and triumph of divine love. Ver. 8. By this the 
love of God appeared in its highest exaltation, that when we were so far 
from being good or righteous, that we were sinners; when useless and 
impotent, when loathsome and hateful, when enemies and haters of God ; 
when there was nothing in us, that might move in the least to love us, when 
we were full of that which might oblige him to express his hatred and indig- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



64 chbist's dying fob sinners. [Bom. V. 8. 

nation against us, even then he vouchsafed the very highest expression of 
love ; then he gave his Son, even then Christ exposed himself to death for 
us. Herein both the greatness and freeness of his love appeared, to the 
wonder and astonishment of all that duly consider it. 

Of the love of Christ in dying, I have, spoken on another subject. It is 
his death I shall now consider, in these words, which offer this observation. 

Christ died for sinners. This is the sum of the gospel, the foundation of 
Christianity, the root and spring of all our comforts and hopes, of all our 
happiness here and hereafter. 

For explication, we shall inquire, 1, what death it was he died ; 2, what 
the particle for imports. 

As to the former, 1. It was a real death. He died not in appearance, 
but indeed ; Christ himself, not another taken for him. An old impostor, 
Basilides, in the primitive times, held that it was not Christ who was cruci- 
fied, but Simon of Cyrene in his stead ; and thence inferred, that none are 
to believe in him that was crucified. Mahomet took up the conceit after 
him, and delivered it in his Alcoran, that it was not Christ but one of his 
disciples that the Jews crucified. This is an impudent fable, against the 
types and prophecies in the Old Testament, and the history of the New 
Testament, which, with the evidence of miracles too, declares that Christ 
himself was really put to death. He gave Thomas a sensible demonstration 
that he really suffered, John xx. 25. Hereby Thomas was convinced that 
he suffered indeed. And it was death that he suffered. Life is the result 
of the union betwixt soul and body. This union was really dissolved, and 
the soul separated from the body; though both, in the state of separation, 
continued united in the person of the Son of God. 

2. A violent death. It is true he suffered willingly, Heb. x. 6, 7 ; John 
x. 18. The sacrifices under the law were led to the altar ; but he offered 
himself to those who made a sacrifice of him. 

When I call it violent, I mean, it was not natural. The thread of his 
life was cut off when nature might have spun it out much longer, Dan. 
ix. 26 ; and when he was at the point of death, he did not dismiss his soul 
out of the body, as he had power to do, but it was forced out by the pain of 
death. The violence which he suffered, destroyed the vital disposition in 
the body, which is needful to continue it in union with the soul, and here- 
upon life did not so much expire as it was expelled. It is true, it was in his 
power to have secured himself from that violence ; but having willingly sub- 
mitted to it, it had its effect upon him, and sooner than upon those who 
suffered with him, Mark xv. 44 ; John xix. 32, S3. 

3. A cruel death, full of exquisite pain and torture ; he was crucified. 
Tully calls it crudelimmum mpplicium, the most cruel punishment. Nails 
were forced through the hands and feet, which, being the most nervous, are 
the most sensible parts, though least vital. The body was distended upon 
the cross with such pains as when all the bones are out of joint. That in 
the psalmist is meant of Christ, Ps. xxii. 14-17. In this torturing posture 
they continued on the cross, which made no quick despatch ; the pain was 
prolonged. It was a lingering death, such a death as cruelty itself would 
have one die, ut sentiat se mori, that he might have all the sense of the pains of 
death, both a quick and lasting sense thereof. Such a sense Christ had of 
it, and was willing to have, and shewed it by refusing the wine mixed with 
myrrh and other poisonous ingredients, if they be right who think that this 
potion was given him to stupefy sense, or hasten death. 

4. A shameful death. Crucifying was thought fit for none amongst the 
Romans but the vilest persons, for slaves, renegadoes, the worst of malefac- 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Bom. V. 8.] Christ's dying fob sinners. 65 

tors, such as were counted pests of the earth. It was thought too ignomi- 
nious a death for the meanest person that was a free man. When they 
would choose a death to shew their greatest abhorrence and detestation of 
any creature, this was it ; therefore the dogs, that by their silence betrayed 
the capitol, were crucified. 

Christ, the Lord of glory, was willing to die such a death for sinners. 
There was a concurrence of pain and shame in it ; when he endured the 
cross, he endured the shame too, and made nothing of it, Heb. zii. 2. 

5. A cursed death, Gal. iii. 18, 14. It refers to Deut. xxi. 28. He that 
was hanged is said to be accursed of God, not only because the sentence of 
the law (called a curse) was passed and executed upon him, but also to pre- 
figure what was to befall Christ, who was to be crucified, as if he had been a 
cursed malefactor. The legal curse was a signification of that real curse 
which Christ was to undergo. 

6. The same death, as to the main, which was due to us. The same 
death was threatened in the law as to the substance of it : and as to the 
circumstances, that which was equivalent. The first and second death was 
the sentence of the law, and Christ tasted both. 

The worm of conscience, indeed, did not touch him ; for that is the effect, 
not of imputed sin, but of personal guilt, wherewith he was not in the least 
tainted. Eternal sufferings are in the sentence of the law, not absolutely, 
but with respect to a finite creature, who could not suffer all that was due in 
less than eternity. But Christ being God, his temporary sufferings were 
equivalent to eternal ; he could pay down the whole sum at once ; what it 
wanted in duration was made up in the value. His sufferings for a time was 
of more weight and worth than the eternal sufferings of sinners ; and it was 
far more for the Son of God to suffer for a while, than for all creatures to 
suffer everlastingly. 

But as to the substance, he endured the pains of the second death, so far 
as was consistent with the perfection of his nature. The sufferings of that 
death are punishments of loss and of sense. Punishment of loss is separa- 
tion from God. Of this he complains, Mat. xxvii. 46, Ps. xxii. The per- 
sonal union was not dissolved, but the sense and effects of divine love and 
favour were withheld. His Father appeared as a severe and incensed judge, 
and dealt with him, not as his Son, but as an undertaker for sinners. 

Then for the punishment of sense, how grievous were his inward sorrows ! 
They were equivalent to the sorrows of the second death, Mat. xxvi. 88. 

It was not the sense of his outward sufferings that so much burdened his 
soul ; it was immediately the wrath due to our sins, which were then laid 
upon him, Isa. liii. 10. 

How comes it that Christ expressed a greater sense of these his sufferings 
than many of the martyrs did, when yet their outward torments were more 
grievous? It was not because they could not endure 4 ' more, but because 
they suffered far less ; no bitterness of the second death was in their suffer- 
ings. That which Christ endured in soul was incomparably more grievous 
than all outward tortures. 

Thus much for the first thing propounded, what death this was. We are 
highly concerned to set it out in all its aggravations, that the greatness of 
Christ's love, and the horrid nature of sin, may be more apparent, and upon 
other accounts ; of which in the application. 

Come we to the second : what is the import of this word for t Hereby 
it will appear that the death of Christ was for satisfaction to divine justice. 
* Qu. 'could endure'? — Ed. 

vol. m. B 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



66 cheist's dying fob sinnebs. [Rom. Y. 8. 

A troth denied by too many, who, under the name of Christians, strike at 
the root of Christianity, and agree with the Jews and Turks, change to- 
gether with the gospel the foundation of our faith and hopes, comfort and 
happiness. 

When it is said Christ died for us, for denotes, not only that he died for 
our good or advantage, but in our stead. He died, not only to confirm his 
doctrine, and induce us to believe it, and to imitate his graces, but he suf- 
fered death in our stead, t. e. he suffered what we had deserved, that we 
might not suffer it. There was a substitution of Christ in our place ; he, 
by compact with the Father, undertaking to suffer what should have been 
inflicted on us, that we might escape. 

This the word itirsg, here used, commonly denotes, so twice, ver. 7 ; when 
a good or righteous man is liable to death, scarce will any one die to save 
his life, t. e. die in his stead : 2 Cor. v. 15, ' If one died for ail, then all 
died ; ' all died in the death of one, because that one died in stead of all, 
1 Peter ii. 21, and iii. 18, and iv. 1. He suffered what we had deserved, 
that we might not suffer ; that is to suffer in our stead. The just suffered 
what unjust deserved, &c, Heb. ii. 9. The cup of God's wrath, which our 
sins had filled, and which we should have drank, was by the grace of God 
taken out of our hands, and put into Christ's, and he drank it up, when 
the bitterness of death was in it, that we might not taste it, t. e. he tasted 
death in our stead. 

The word for, in all these, and many other places, signifies the same 
that it does in that expression of David, 2 Sam. xviii. 38, Would God I had 
died in thy stead, so that thou mightest have lived. So Pythias would have 
died for Damon, and Terentius for Brutus, i. e. instead of him, that his 
friend might live, Yaler. Magn. lib. iv. cap. 7. 

'Aw/ is another word which the Holy Ghost uses in this business, which 
always signifies substitution, acting or suffering in another's stead, Mat. 
xx. 28, paid that which they were obliged to, did it in their stead, 1 Tim. 
ii. 6 ; so it is used, Mat. xvii. 27, avri ifioij, pay this in my stead ; and so it 
is rendered, Mat. ii. 22, avri 'Hfudou. 

That we may understand more clearly and distinctly what the design of 
Christ's death was, let us observe those notions wherein the Scripture 
represents it. Three are commonly taken notice of: 1, as the punishment 
of our sin ; 2, the price of our redemption ; 8, a sacrifice for sin. In all 
which, satisfaction for us by his death is evident, though the word be 
not used. 

1. Christ's death was the punishment of our sin. Christ in dying was 
punished for our transgressions. To clear this, let me shew, 1, the notion 
of punishment ; 2, what evidence there is in Scripture that Christ in dying 
was punished for our sin ; 8, how the proceeding was just and righteous, 
that Christ, though innocent, should be punished for those that were guilty. 

The notion of the punishment will appear in the matter, form, and ends 
of it. Of which briefly. 

(1.) In punishment there is an inflicting of some evil of suffering. That 
is the matter of punishment ; it is something afflictive, whether in being 
deprived of something that is good, or undergoing something that is grievous. 
Christ suffered both ways ; privatively, in the loss of what was most desir- 
able ; and positively, in bearing what was most intolerable and grievous. 

(2.) Punishment is a suffering inflicted for some offence deserved by some 
sin. That is the form of it. If it be not upon the account of sin, it may be 
a calamity, but not a punishment. Christ's death was properly a punish- 
ment in this respect, because he suffered death for sin. Not his own ; he 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Rom. V, 8.J gh&ist's dying fob sinnebs. 67 

had none to deserve death, by the testimony of Pilate, Mat. zxvii. 18, 19, 23, 
bnt ours. 

(3.) The end of punishment is the common good ; the same with the end 
of laws and government, the good of the community, rulers and subjects. 
Partly in deterring and restraining persons from breaking the laws (and so 
securing the rights of all sorts, which good laws provide for) when they see 
that such as transgress must suffer the penalty. This is the proper end of 
those punishments, which are called va^adityfd,ara 9 exemplary. 

Partly in asserting and maintaining of the honour and interest of those 
who have suffered by the breach of the laws, which is the end of satisfactory 
punishment. 

Answerably, in the death of Christ, the severity there used is to restrain 
and deter all from transgressing the laws of God. In that respect it was 
exemplary punishment ; and thereby the honour and interest of (rod, as he 
is lawgiver and governor of the world, was to be vindicated and asserted, 
and a^compensation made for the injury and dishonour he had by sin. In 
that respect his punishment was satisfactory. 

But then, negatively, the end of Christ's death was not to satisfy the 
anger of God, as anger signifies a desire of revenge, and as revenge is taken 
for a pleasing one's self in the 'evils which another suffers, merely because 
they are grievous to him whom we are angry at ; for such a revengeful 
humour is not tolerable in men, mueh less is it to be ascribed unto God. 

Now, of these particulars, it is the second we must* stick at, who are 
against the satisfaction of Christ. They do not deny that he suffered 
grievous things ; they cannot deny, but if that he suffered the punishment 
which our sins deserved, his death would be satisfactory ; but they deny 
that his death was the punishment of our sins. And it is the second thing 
I propounded to shew, what evidence there is in Scripture, that his death 
was the punishment of our sins. Let me, for a more distinct view thereof, 
reduce it to some heads. 

1. It is said, ' He bare our sins,' 1 Peter ii. 24, 25. To bear sin is to 
undergo the punishment due to sin, whether he be said to bear hia own sin, 
or the sins of others, Lev. xix. 5, i.e. he shall be punished for it, Lev. 
xx. 17, where ' bearing his iniquity,' is to be punished, i. e. expressly to be 
cut off, ver. 18, 19, and ver, 20, to ' bear sin,' is to be punished for it, and 
the punishment specified by childless. 

So to bear the sins of others is to be punished for others' sins, Num. 
xiv. 33, i. e. they shall suffer the punishment of your fornications, Num. 
xxx. 15 ; Ezek. xviii. 20, he shall not bear the punishment of his father's 
sins, t. e. as it is expressed, he shall not die ; so that when the apostle says, 
' He bare our sins,' if we will understand it as the Holy Ghost leads us, by 
the constant use of the phrase, the meaning is, he bare the punishment of 
our sins when he died ; our sins were imputed to him, and so the punish- 
ment was transferred from us to him. 

Answerable to this of the apostle is that of the prophet, Isa. liii. 6, 11, 12; 
that which is iniquities here, is punishment, ver. 4 ; that which he suffered, 
in being stricken, smitten, afflicted, bruised, wounded, slain, cut off. By all 
these phrases, and more, are his punishments expressed ; and that it was the 
desert of our sins, is clear in the connection. The Jews thought him stricken 
of God, justly punished for his own sins, such as they unjustly charged him 
with, ver. 4 ; but the meritorious cause of the punishment inflicted on him 
was indeed our sins, ver. 5 ; so that no other sense can be put upon this 

* Qu. 'they most'?— Ed. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



68 ohrist's dying fob sinnbbs. [Rom. V. 8. 

phrase, but what is contrary to the natural and perpetual use thereof in 
Scripture. 

(2.) Christ is said to be made sin and a curse for us, which do plainly 
import that he was punished for us, 2 Cor. v. 21 ; he was charged with our 
sin, and so punished as if he had been a sinner, ; he was made sin for us, as 
we are made the righteousness of God in him ; his righteousness being im- 
puted to us, the Lord rewards us as those that are righteous ; and our sins 
being imputed to him, the Lord punished him as a sinner. Not for his own 
guilt, but for ours, was he punished ; as not for our own righteousness, but 
for his, are we saved. The sacrifice that was slain, and so punished instead 
of the sinner for whom it was offered, is called by the name of sin, Lev. 
xliii. 29, P8. xl. 6. The same word the prophet uses, speaking of Christ, 
Isa. liii. 10. Answerable to which is the apostle's expression, when he says 
Christ was made sin for us ; he died and was therein punished instead of 
those whose sin he bare ; as the sacrifice was killed, and so suffered instead 
of him whose sin was laid on it. 

So he is said to be ' made a curse for us,' Gal. iii. 18. The curse of the 
law, in the former clause, is confessed to be the punishment of sin ; and no 
reason is, or can be, given why it should not be in the latter. To be made 
a curse for us, is to be punished for us, as such malefactors were who are 
accursed of God. 

(8.) He is said to suffer for our sins, Bom. iv. 25. He was delivered up 
to death for our sins. To suffer for sin, deserving it, is in a proper sense to 
be punished ; and the particle for, when joined with sin and sufferings, does 
still denote the meritorious cause of sufferings, Eph. v. 6, Lev. xxvi. 28, 
Deut. xviii. 12, 1 Kings xiv. 18. 

That Christ was punished for our sins, is likewise signified by those other 
expressions, 1 Cor. xv. 8, 1 Pet. iii 18, Gal. i. 4 ; these plainly denote 
that sin was the cause of his suffering. And how can sin be the cause of 
sufferings, but as deserving them ? and sufferings deserved by sin are pro- 
perly punishments. This is enough to make it evident that Christ's death 
was the punishment of our sins. 

8. As to the justice of the proceeding. Is it not unjust that an innocent 
person should be punished for the offences of others ? 

(1.) It is not unjust for the innocent to be punished for others' sins, when 
there is a conjunction betwixt the sufferer and the offender ; such as is be- 
twixt parents and children, princes and subjects ; for in this case the Lord, 
the righteous judge of heaven and earth, punishes relatives for sins which not 
they but their relations acted ; he threatens it, Exod. xx. 3. And this is not 
to be understood only in case they imitate their fathers' sins : for if they 
imitate them, God visits their own sins upon them, not their fathers' ; so 
Ham's sons were cursed for his sin, Gen. ix. 25 ; and Saul's sons punished 
for his offence, 2 Sam. xxi. 8, 14 ; and Achan's children for his crime, Josh, 
vii. 24. 

So he punishes subjects for the sins of their rulers : thus Judah is pun- 
ished, in Josiah's time, for the sins of Manasseh, though then they were 
reformed, 2 Kings xxiii. 24 ; and the abominations taken away, 2 Chron. 
xxxiv. 88 ; and the people before for David's sin, when he declares they were 
innocent, 2 Sam. xziv. 15, 17. 

Now, if the proceeding was just, upon the account of conjunction, in these 
cases, why not in this before us ; when there was such a near conjunction 
betwixt Christ and those for whom he suffered ; when he was not only of the 
same nature, but a king, a father, a head to many of them actually, to all of 
them in God's design? 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Bom. V. 8.] ' ohrist's dying fob sinnkbs. 69 

(2.) It is just in ease of consent ; when he that is punished has power to 
dispose of that wherein he suffers, and puts himself freely under an obliga- 
tion to he punished therein, and admitted by him who has power to punish. 
In these circumstances, by the verdict of God and mankind, it is righteous 
to punish a person for the offences of others, which yet he is not guilty of. 
Now there is a concurrence of these in the case. 

[l.j Christ freely consented to die and undergo what was due to us. To 
compel one that is innocent to suffer for another's offences, when he has no 
mind to it, may be an injury ; but in this case there was no constraint, no 
need of it. Christ offered himself willingly to become our surety, he freely 
came under the obligation, and became responsible to all that was due from 
us. He was not only willing, but earnestly desirous to suffer and die in our 
steid, Luke xii. 50, as desirous to see the travail of his soul, what pangs 
soever it cost him, as a woman near her time is to be delivered, Ps. xL 7, 8 ; 
Cant. ii. 8. 

[2.] Christ had absolute power to dispose of what he suffered in. One 
reason why a man is not allowed to lay down his life for another that deserves 
death, is because his life is not his own to dispose of. But Christ was abso- 
lute Lord of his life, and had full power to keep it, or lay it down, as he 
pleased, John z. 18. 

[8.] The Father admitted Christ as our surety. He was content that his 
sufferings should stand for ours, and that we thereupon should be discharged. 
It was his will that Christ should undertake for us, Ps. xl. 7. They agreed 
in the design, and upon the way and means of our deliverance, Zech. vi. 18. 
The Father loves him, because he consented to it, John x. 17. So that in a 
case where all parties concerned had power, all were satisfied, none had cause 
to complain of injury ; and so there was nothing of injustice. 

[4.] Let me add another thing : Christ's loss in suffering was not irrepa- 
rable ; it was fully compensated. If an innocent person suffer for a male- 
factor, the community loses a good man, and may suffer by sparing of an evil 
member, and the innocent sufferer cannot have his life restored, being once 
lost Though David wished it in a passion, yet it had been great wrong and 
damage to himself and the public if he had suffered death instead of Absalom. 

But in this case all is quite otherwise. Christ laid down his life, but so 
as he took it up again, John x. 17, 18. He continued not under the power 
of death for ever, nor as others who suffer death must do, till the general 
resurrection ; but rose again the third day ; death was swallowed up in vic- 
tory. By dying he ' prolonged his days,' Isa. liii. 10 ; his loss of life for a 
while was countervailed and outweighed by infinite advantages. 

Then also those offenders, in whose stead he suffered, are, by virtue of his 
death, reclaimed, effectually changed, made useful and serviceable to God 
and man. 

Briefly, here was no injury to any party whatever ; not to those for whom 
he died : they have unexpressible advantage thereby. Not to the person 
.suffering ; he was willing, and endured nothing without his consent ; he had 
that in prospect which made up all, Heb. xii. 2, and ii. 9. Not to God, nor 
any concerned in his government, for by Christ's death the ends of his 
government were all secured. His honour was hereby vindicated, the 
authority of his law preserved, and his subjects, by such an instance of 
severity in his own Son, deterred from violating it. 

So that, upon the whole, in Christ's being punished for sinners, here is no 
appearance of injury to any, and so nothing at all of injustice upon any account. 

This for the first consideration of Christ's death proposed in Scripture, as 
the punishment of our sins. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



70 CHBJST'S DYJNG FOB SIKNEBS. [BoM. V. 8. 

2. His death is also represented in Scripture as the price of our redemp- 
tion. Redemption in general is a delivering of one from a calamity by a 
ransom, i. e. some valuable consideration, which comes under the notion of 
a price. To understand the nature of it more distinctly, as it is ascribed to 
Christ's death, and to free us from the misconstructions put upon it by the 
opposers of redemption by Christ, take notice of three particulars. 

(1.) Man, by disobedience to God, was brought into misery, such misery 
as the Scripture often expresses by captivity. The Lord, for our rebellions, 
being the supreme judge and governor, did, as it were, commit us, deliver 
us to Satan, leave us under the power of sin and the world. Satan, as the 
gaoler, leads us captive at his will ; he makes use of sin and the world as 
fetters to increase and continue this misery. 

(2.) We conld not be redeemed from this misery, but by a ransom. 
Where there is freedom from a calamity without a price, it is deliverance 
simply, but it is not properly redemption. Our deliverance from this misery 
is still in the New Testament ascribed to a price, a valuable consideration, 
which, tendered to the Lord, and he being satisfied with it, does grant a dis- 
charge. The word airo\\>r£<»<ris, used for redemption, 1 Cor. viii. 20, and vii. 
28, signifies deliverance by a ransom. Hence the delivery of the Israelites 
from Egypt, though it be called redemption, as being a type of that great 
deliverance from spiritual bondage and misery, yet it is not redemption 
properly, because it was not procured by ransom. 

(8.) The price, upon consideration of which we are delivered, is the 
sufferings, the death, the blood of Christ, Eph. i. 7, Col. i. 14. The price 
by which we are acquitted is the blood of Christ. Also Rom. iii. 24, 25, 
Heb. ix. 12, 1 Peter ii. 18, 19. The price, by which we were redeemed, 
was not so mean things as silver and gold, but that which is infinitely more 
precious and valuable. ' That is a price, by the laying down of which some- 
thing is acquired ; and when it is laid down for deliverance from misery 
and slavery, it is a ransom. So Christ's laying down his life is our ransom, 
Mat. xx. 28, Mark x. 45. 

(4.) This price Christ paid in our stead. His sufferings were the price ; 
and he suffered what we should have suffered, or what was equivalent thereto, 
that we might be delivered, 1 Tim. i. 6. 'Avr/Xurfov signifies a price or ran- 
som paid instead of another, for avri (as was shewed before) denotes sub- 
stitution, when one is put in the place of another ; and, in this case, not a 
thing instead of a person, but the sufferings of one person instead of the 
sufferings of others. 'Air/Xurgov is such a ransom, in which the redeemer 
undergoes some such thing as the redeemed were liable to, which is fully ex- 
pressed by the apostle, Gal. iii. 18. He redeemed us, how ? by paying the 
ransom in our stead, t. e. by undergoing the curse which we should have 
undergone, and thereby discharging us from it. 

(5.) The price was paid to God. Those that would have all that was 
done for us by Christ to be only a metaphorical redemption, confess that it 
would be properly redemption, and properly a price, if the price were paid 
to any ; but since Satan detains us, it should be paid to him, if to any ; and 
seeing it is absurd to have it paid to him, it is paid to none at all. We say 
it is God to whom it is paid, for the price is the blood or the death of 
Christ. This is sometimes set forth as a price, sometimes as a sacrifice. 
These are but one and the same thing, under several notions. Now the 
sacrifice was offered to God, and therefore the price, being the same thing, 
was paid to God, Eph. v. 2. 

It is the great God, the supreme governor of the world, that detains sin- 
ners in this misery. Satan is but the instrument of his justice. It was for 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Rom. V. 8.] chbist's dying fob sinners. 71 

the injury done to God that we are cast into this* misery. The injury is 
transgressing of his law ; the law cannot be satisfied, nor the injury repaired, 
but by suffering the death which it threatens. Christ suffered death in our 
stead, thereby the injury done to God is repaired, the law of God satisfied ; 
and the Lord accepting of this, which the Scripture calls a price, tendered 
for his satisfaction, it was clearly paid to him, Rev. v. 19, which may as 
well denote that the price was paid to God, as that the people were pur- 
chased for him. 

3. The death of Christ is proposed in Scripture as a sacrifice of expiation. 
So that, when he is said to die for sinners, we are to understand that he 
died as a sacrifice to expiate their sins. Now that ye may the better appre- 
hend what a sacrifice for expiation is, and how his death is such a sacrifice, 
take serious notice of some particulars. 

(1.) There were some sorts of sacrifices under the law, to which all those 
in use may be reduced. 

[1.] Eucharistical sacrifices of thanksgiving, which were offered to signify 
their gratitude for mercies received of God ; as acknowledgments of their 
own unworthiness, and his bounty and goodness to them. Such a sacrifice 
the death of Christ was not, it had another design and end, and was of 
another nature. 

[2.] Propitiatory sacrifices for expiation. These were to atone God 
offended by their sin, to divert his wrath, and the punishment due to sin, 
when was offered what, by way of satisfaction, might appease God, and pro- 
cure pardon of him, and favour or reconciliation with him, Lev. iv. 26, 81, 
35. The design of these sacrifices in reference to God, was to make atone- 
ment, t. e. to appease him when he was provoked, to render him propitious 
when he had cause to shew his wrath. And in reference to the sinner, to 
obtain forgiveness, and prevent the punishment which his sin deserved. 
And such a sacrifice was the death of Christ, of this nature, and for this end. 

(2.) Those sacrifices uoder the law did prefigure and shadow out the great 
sacrifice of expiation in Christ's death. The apostle so speaks of them, as 
of other things belonging to that administration, Heb. viii. 5, and ix. 9, x. 1. 
Those expiatory sacrifices had some resemblance of this, as the shadow has 
of the body, though obscure and imperfect. They are but shadows, the sub- 
stance and perfection of expiation was in this sacrifice of Christ's death, Col. 
ii. 17. Whatever sacrifices were then offered for expiation, 

[1.] They all prefigured and signified this of Christ, those especially which 
were sacrificed on the great day of expiation, of which there is an account, 
Lev. xvi. The apostle instances in those as figures, Heb. ix. 7-9, shewing 
how far the virtue of the sacrifice signified did transcend that of the signs 
and legal figures, vers. 11, 12, &c. 

[2.] Likewise the trespass-offerings and sin-offerings did signify the same ; 
DtTK, the word used for a sin-offering, is applied to Christ by the prophet, 
Isa. liii. 10. 

[8.] The same was typified by the burnt-offerings of all sorts ; whether 
they were stated, and the time for them determined by the law, or occasional, 
and such as they called free-will offerings, for both were for expiation, or, 
which is all one, for atonement, Job i. 6, Lev. v. 10 ; both the voluntary, 
Lev. i. 4, and the prescribed, Lev. xvi. 6, 10, 16, 18, &c. And burnt- 
offerings with the sin-offerings are reckoned by the apostle amongst thoBe 
which were shadows of this most perfect sacrifice, Heb. x. 1, 6, 8. Both 
burnt- offerings and sin-offerings (expressly applied to Christ) were for expia- 
tion, with this difference, that the sin-offering was to expiate one sort of sin, 
specified ; burnt-offerings were to expiate all sins. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



72 OHBIBT'S DYING FOB BINNEB8. [BoM. V. 8. 

[4.] The peace-offerings for the congregation seem to have been for ex- 
piation, and so of the like typical signification with the rest, because what is 
required in expiatory sacrifices is found in them, Ezek. xlv. 15, 2 Sam. ii. 10 ; 
the slaying of the beast, the sprinkling of the blood, and consuming some 
part of it upon the altar, Ley. ix. 18, 19. 

[5.] The paschal lamb had something of expiation in its first institution. 
The blood of it secured the Israelites from wrath and punishment, which 
they had deserved, and the Egyptians suffered, Exodus xii. 13, Heb. xii. 
24, 28. Through the blood of Christ, typified by that of the paschal lamb, 
the Lord is propitious and favourable to his people, so as not to destroy 
them, as he did the first-born in Egypt. The passover is referred to Christ 
by the apostle, 1 Cor* v. 7. 

[6.] The lamb offered in the daily sacrifice was a burnt-offering; and 
burnt-offerings, as was said before, were for expiation, Lev. i. 4, and xvi. 24 ; 
to make atonement, to remove guilt, to cleanse from moral and legal im- 
purities too, Lev. xiv. 12, Num. vi. 12, Lev. v. 6. In reference to lambs 
thus sacrificed for expiation under the law, Christ is styled, Rev. xiii. 8, the 
Lamb sacrificed, John i. 29, by whose blood the guilt of sin is taken away, 
1 Pet. i. 18, 19. 

So that all sorts of propitiatory sacrifices are referred to Christ, and 
shadowed out that most perfect expiation which we have in the sacrifice of 
himself. The most material resemblances betwixt them will appear in what 
follows. I have stayed the longer here, because it is a most delightful and 
comfortable prospect to one in love with Christ, to see him in those parts of 
the Old Testament which give an account of these sacrifices, which otherwise 
may seem dark, jejune, and useless to us. 

{8.) That which was offered as a sacrifice for expiation was to be destroyed. 
Being a living creature, first it was slain, and the blood, part of it, sprinkled 
upon the horns of the brazen altar, or round about it, sometimes before the 
veil of the sanctuary, and some of it put upon the horns of the altar of 
incense ; all the rest of the blood the priests poured out at the foot of the 
altar, Lev. iv. 18. The other parts of it besides the blood were sometimes 
partly burnt on the altar, partly eaten by the priests, sometimes wholly 
burnt upon the altar, Lev. i. 8, 9, as in the whole burnt-offering ; or burnt 
without the camp, as in the sin-offering for the high priest and the whole 
congregation, Lev. iv. 11, 12. 

Now the sufferings of Christ were correspondent to the burnings of those 
sacrifices, Heb. xiii. 11, 12, and his death to the blood of them. Indeed, it 
is the blood to which expiation is peculiarly ascribed, Lev. xvii. 11. It is 
the blood that makes atonement; and why so? The reason assigned is 
this, ' the life is in the blood,' repeated ver. 14. That sin might be expiated, 
the life of the sacrifice was to go for the life of the sinner ; and the blood 
being shed, the life which is within the blood was given, and so the blood 
made expiation. Hence the apostle, to shew the necessity of Christ's blood 
to make atonement, Heb. ix. 22. Without blood there was no expiation, 
under the law or under the gospel ; and all the effects of expiation are ex- 
pressly ascribed to the blood of Christ, Bom. iii. 25, Eph. ii. 18, 14. 

(4.) The sacrifice for expiation was slain instead of the sinner that offered 
it. There was a substitution here, one being put to death in room of the 
other, and suffering, that he might escape. This is of great consequence, to 
clear the nature and design of Christ's death, in opposition to those who 
would nullify it. Therefore I will insist on it a little, and shew what evidence 
there is for it. 

Let me premise this, which is the observation of many. By the judicial 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Rom. V. 8.] chbist's dying fob sinners. 78 

law, which was to the Jews their civil or common law, by which they were 
governed as a commonwealth or body politic, corporal death was the penalty 
of all disobedience to God, Deut. xxvii. 26. The corse is death, death cor- 
poral in the civil or political sense of it ; death eternal in the spiritual sense, 
as the apostle applies it, Gal. iii. 10. Now the Lord, who was the king and 
lawgiver of Israel, relaxed the law as ty many offences ; and instead of the 
corporal death of the offender, accepted of the death of a sacrifice. Now 
that there was such a substitution, the life of the sacrifice being given for 
the life of the sinner, one suffering instead of the other, appears divers ways. 

[1.] In that the blood is said to make atonement, Lev. xvii. 11. The 
reason why the blood was for atonement, is because the life was in the blood ; 
and therefore when the blood was offered to make atonement for the offender, 
the life of the sacrifice was supposed to be given instead of his life. 

[2. j The offender, bringing a beast for a sacrifice, was to lay his hand upon 
the head of it, Lev. i. 4, whereby is signified that he offered it in his stead ; 
and so, says the text, it was accepted for him, t. e. in his stead, to make 
atonement, i. e. to satisfy for him, as suffering in his stead. 

[8.] The sacrifice is said to bear the iniquity of the people, Lev. x. 17 ; 
and to bear iniquity is to be punished for it, which is to suffer what the 
offender should have suffered, to suffer death instead of them. 

[4. J The sins of the people were confessed over the goat in the day of 
expiations, Lev. xvi. 21, which signified that the sin and punishment of the 
people were transferred to the goat, and upon his head, that he might bear 
them in their stead. 

[5.] A heifer was to be slain when the murderer could not be found, and 
so to suffer in his stead, and secure the land from being defiled with blood, 
as if justice had been done upon the murderer, and himself had suffered, 
Deut. xxi. 1-4, 8, 9. The guilt that was to be put away by the death of the 
murderer, was put away from the land by the death of the heifer killed instead 
of him. 

In short, the Hebrew doctors, as Buxtorf observes, lay it down as a general 
rule, that wherever it is said, Behold, I am for expiation, it is to be under- 
stood, Behold, I am in the place of another, to bear his iniquities. 

Now this substitution of the sacrifice in the room of the sinner under the 
law, typified the substitution of Christ in our stead, in that great sacrifice of 
expiation when he offered himself on the cross. He was offered in our stead, 
he bare our sins, our guilt was transferred to him ; he bore our punishment, 
and suffered it instead of us. His life went for ours. He died, that the 
death threatened in the law might not be inflicted on us ; as the sacrifice was 
slain that the sinner might live. In this sense is he said to die for sinners 
in the text, as a sacrifice for them, suffering death in their stead. And that 
is the sense of the expression wherever he is said to die for us. It still 
implies substitution. Many instances I have given, to which add Luke xxii. 
19, 20, John xi. 60-62. 

(5.) The sacrifices for expiation were offered to God, and had an imme- 
diate respect to him. They were to atone God, and obtain forgiveness of 
him, as is frequently expressed, and had that effect, Num. xvi. 46, 2 Sam. 
xxiv. 25. I mention this particular, because the opposers of Christ his 
sacrifice and death contend that his death had no respect to God imme- 
diately, but only to man. It did not make our peace with God, nor incline 
him to pardon, but only disposed us for pardon of sins past, by leading us 
to amendment of life. And so they leave nothing of a priest to Christ, 
nothing of a sacrifice in his death. Whereas the apostle tells us, Heb. v. 1, 
gifts and sacrifices are things appertaining to God, being offered to him. 



Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



74 chbist's dttng pob sinners. [Rom. V. 8. 

And so Christ our high priest offered himself for a sacrifice to God, Eph. 
ix. 14. What the effect of his death was in reference to God, shall be 
shewed hereafter. 

(6.) The animal designed for expiation was sacrificed, not in the sanctuary, 
hut at the door of the tabernacle, Lev. i. Indeed, part of the blood was 
sometimes carried into the sanctuary, sometimes into the most holy place ; 
but that was not for sacrifice, but the application of the blood of the victim 
already sacrificed. 

This I add, because the adversaries will have no sacrifice of Christ on earth ; 
and though they make show of one in heaven, yet they assign nothing there 
which is like either sacrifice or expiation. Christ was sacrificed when he was 
put to death, and his blood shed. The Lamb of God was made a sacrifice 
when he was slain. If they make a sacrifice of him in heaven, either he was 
not sacrificed on earth, or he will be sacrificed more than once, contrary to 
all evidence of Scripture, Heb. vii. 27, and ix. 14, 26-28, and x. 10-12. 

(7.) The effects of expiatory sacrifices, and answerably of the death of 
Christ, are divers. We may take notice of the virtue and efficacy thereof, in 
reference to sin, to God, and the sinner. 

[1.] The efficacy thereof in reference to sin is to expiate the fault, or, which 
is all one, to satisfy for the offence. Piars is luere (as Grotius), to expiate 
is to bear punishment, to undergo the punishment due to the sin ; the very 
same, or what is equivalent, is to satisfy. When this is suffered, the law ia 
satisfied, and that which justice requires is done, whether it be suffered by 
the offender himself, or by one legally admitted in his stead. Satisfaction 
was made by the sacrifice, substituted in place of the sinner, suffering what 
was due to him. The offender deserved to be punished, the sacrifice bare 
the punishment ; the offender deserved to die, the sacrifice was put to death 
in his stead. Hence the sacrifice is said to bear his sin, Lev. x. 17. To 
bear their iniquity, is to bear the punishment due to them. In correspond- 
ence hereto the apostle says, Christ bare the sins of those for whom he was 
offered, Heb. ix. 28. In being sacrificed, he bare their punishment, suffered 
what was due to them for their sins, and so satisfied for their offences, which 
is to expiate their sin. 

Both the words nsed in the old Testament for expiation, TM and K&n, 
import satisfaction, 2 Sam. xxi. 8 ; atonement, "1MK, the word is, ' Wherewith 
shall I expiate ?' the sense is, Wherewith shall I make satisfaction ? so Gen. 
xxxi. 89, « I bare the loss,' is, I made it good. The word is KDn, I did ex- 
piate ; the sense is, I made the satisfaction for it. This was the end of 
Christ's death, this was the effect of it, to expiate sin, to satisfy for it. What 
God lost by sin, Christ made it up ; what injury he had by shvChrist gave 
satisfaction for it by being made a sacrifice for expiation. 

[2.] The efficacy of those sacrifices in reference to God is to atone him, 
t. e. to appease him and divert his wrath. Making atonement is frequently 
ascribed to the legal sacrifices that were for expiation, Lev. i. 4. Answerably 
we have atonement by Christ, Rom. v. 11, t. e. by his death, ver. 10, by 
virtue of his sacrifice. 

Upon this account those sacrifices are said to be a sweet savour unto the 
Lord, as being thereupon well pleased, no more angry, Lev. vi. 81. Such a 
sacrifice was Noah's, a placatory sacrifice, and the effect of it so expressed, 
Gen. viii. 20, 21 ; it is rendered odor quiet is, a savour of rest, a word which 
comes from rrti, U3ed, ver. 4, where the ark is said to rest, and denotes that 
the Lord's anger did now rest ; he ceased to be angry ; he would no more 
let out his wrath against the world in such a wav. 

Such was the effect of Christ's death and sacrifice, and so expressed by the 



Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Rom. V. 8.] chbist's dying fob binnebs. 75 

apostle, Eph. v. 2. The Lord was well pleased with Christ, and upon the 
account of this sacrifice well pleased with those for whom it was offered. 
Now he says, 4 Fury is not in me.' By virtue of the blood of this sacrifice 
the Lord becomes propitious and gracious ; hence Christ is said to be set 
forth, Bom. iii. 25. He exhibits himself as on the mercy- seat, on the throne 
of grace, to which we may come with confidence, Ac, 1 John ii. 2. 

[8.] The effect of these sacrifices, in reference to the sinner, is forgiveness 
of sin and freedom from guilt ; hence it is often said upon the offering of 
such a sacrifice, it shall be forgiven him, Lev. v. 10, 18, 18, Num. xv. 27, 28. 

Answerably by the blood of Christ sacrificed for us, we are said to have 
forgiveness. Eph. i. 7, Col. i. 14, Mat. xxvi. 28. It is by virtue of this 
sacrifice that we are said to be freed from guilt in variety of expressions. 
Hereby we are ' purged,' Heb. i. 8, Heb. ix. 22, 26, gailt is uncleanness, Lev. 
v. 2, ' washed,' Bev. v. 11, ' cleansed,' 1 John i. 7, 9, ' sprinkled,' Heb. x. 
21, 22, which are such expressions as other authors, Greek and Latin, use 
for their expiations. 

Both these sacrifices procured freedom from gnilt ; but there is a great 
difference in this respect betwixt the expiations by the legal sacrifices and 
that by the death of Christ. Which that we may understand, there are three 
sorts of gnilt to be taken notice of, civil, ceremonial, and spiritual. Guilt is 
an obligation to punishment. To be guilty is to be bound over or made 
liable to Bome punishment or other, which being various, guilt is accordingly 
distinguished. 

1. Civil guilt, when an Israelite was liable to corporal death for some 
transgression of the law, for which death was to be inflicted, Dent. xxi. 9. 

2. Ceremonial guilt, when he was to be debarred from the tabernacle, and 
joining with the congregation in the ceremonious worship then authorised, 
for some legal pollution, Lev. v. 2, 8. Spiritual guilt, when one is liable 
to eternal death for some sins against .God, who has made eternal death 
the wages of sin. Now, the legal sacrifices might free those under the law 
from the two former sorts of guilt ; but the death of Christ and his sacrifice 
alone frees from the third, spiritual guilt. 

1. The legal sacrifices might and did free those for whom they were daily 
offered from civil guilt, and saved them from corporal death ; for when this 
is supposed to have been due for disobedience to God, and was to be in- 
flicted by the magistrate, the Lord (as was said before) relaxed the law, and 
admitted the death of the sacrifice which he appointed instead of the death 
of the offender, so that the offering of such sacrifice dissolved the obligation 
to this penalty, cleared the delinquent from this guilt, and freed him from 
corporal death. 

But, then, a sacrifice would not quit the sinner in all cases from civil guilt 
and penalty. There were some crimes for which no sacrifice was appointed, 
none would be 'admitted : such were, wjlful idolatry, murder, adultery, &c. 
Accordingly some understand Ps. Ii. 16. Those crimes of David were of that 
nature that no sacrifice could expiate. Such were wilful sins, done in con- 
tempt of the law, as the apostle intimates, Heb. x. 26-28 ; and herein the 
sacrifice of Christ far transcends the legal sacrifices, expiating those sins 
spiritually which those sacrifices could not expiate (or procure pardon for) 
bo much as civilly, Acts xiii. 88. 

2. Those legal expiations could free them from ceremonial guilt. If he 
bad contracted some legal uncleanness, he was not suffered to come to the 
tabernacle till he was cleansed, and that impurity expiated ; but having made 
use of the means prescribed for expiation in such cases, he was freed from 
this ritual guilt, and admitted to join in public worship with the congregation 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



76 Christ's dying foe binnebs. [Bom. "V. 8. 

at the tabernacle, or afterwards at the temple ; an instance we have hereof, 
Num. xix. 18, 16. If one had touched a dead body, or one slain, or a bone, 
or a grave, he was unclean, contracted such guilt thereby that his coming to 
the tabernacle before it was expiated (or, as the Dutch render it, before he 
unsinned it), was counted a defiling it. The way of unsinning or expiating 
such uncleanness is described there : a red heifer, burnt to ashes, water was 
pat to the ashes, and with hyssop sprinkled upon the unclean, ver. 17, 18. 
David refers to it, Ps. li. 7 ; and this the apostle calls a ' sanctifying to the 
purifying of the flesh,' Heb. ix. 18, an external sanctification, an expiating of 
them only as to the flesh, not as to the soul and conscience, and so comes 
infinitely short of that expiation which is to be had by the blood of Christ, 
as he shews in the next verse. 

8. The legal sacrifices could not free them from spiritual guilt, could not 
secure them from eternal death, to which they were for sin bound over by the 
sentence of the law. The life of a beast, or of many, was not of sufficient 
value to satisfy for men's sins, which deserved everlasting wrath and endless 
sufferings ; these could not be a compensation for the injury sin had done to 
God ; this could not vindicate the holiness, truth, justice, authority of God, 
which all suffered by the violation of his law, which yet must all be fully 
asserted and vindicated, or else the Lord was engaged in justice to execute 
the sentence of the law, and inflict eternal death on transgressors. Nothing 
less than the death of the Son of God could do this, whose blood was of 
infinite value. The legal sacrifices were of no such value, of no consider- 
able worth or virtue, for such an effect. Hence the apostle : Heb. x. 4, 
' Impossible they should take away sin ' as to spiritual guilt ; not possible 
they should free the sinner from the obligation he was under to suffer eternal 
death. The^same he signifies Heb. ix. 9. They could not perfectly satisfy 
the conscience that sin was pardoned, the spiritual guilt removed, and the 
sinner secured from everlasting death by such offerings. The conscience 
could not have any sufficient or perfect ground of assurance that justice was 
satisfied by such sacrifices ; and the sinner, being conscious that he is ex- 
posed to the justice of God, cannot be perfectly satisfied by anything but 
that which will satisfy justice. 

But did these legal sacrifices only respect civil and ceremonial guilt ? Were 
they not at all considerable as to spiritual guilt ? The apostle shews how 
far they were considerable as to this, when in this verse he calls them figures. 
They did prefigure that which would remove this spiritual guilt ; they them- 
selves did not, could not remove it. They freed the sinner from civil and 
ritual guilt really, but they only typified that which was alone sufficient to 
free from spiritual guilt. They had no virtue of themselves to do it, but 
only signified and shadowed out the sacrifice of Christ, by which it was per- 
fectly done, ver. 13, 14. These legal expiations, which cleansed them from 
ceremonial impurities, signified that the sacrifice of Christ would do more ; 
this being of infinite value, since it was offered ' by the eternal Spirit,' t. *• by 
virtue and power of his own Godhead, would ' purge the conscience from dead 
works,' t. e. free the soul from spiritual guilt, the guilt of those acts whose 
desert was eternal death. Thus you see the difference betwixt the legal ex- 
piations and that by Christ : the one freed but from temporal death, the 
other wrought eternal redemption ; the former cleansed from legal impurities, 
the latter purges the conscience, &c. ; the former did but typify that expia- 
tion as to spiritual guilt, which the latter did really effect. 

Use, 1. This should teach us to admire the love of God, who gave bis 
Son, the love of Christ, who gave himself to die for sinners. This is the 
use the text leads us to in this, &c. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Rom. V. 8.J chbist's dying fob sinkebs. 77 

Here the glory of this love shines forth most admirably, both in the great- 
ness and freeness of it ; the greatness of it, in that he died ; the freeness of 
it, in that he died for sinners. 

1. The greatness of this love, that appears wonderful in the expression of 
it. What greater expression of love was the world capable of, than that the 
Son of God should die for sinful men ? What greater expression of love 
could the great God vouchsafe, than to deliver his Son unto death ? What 
greater expression could Christ make of his love to us than to die for us, and 
to die such a death, and in such a capacity, in our stead, in the stead of the 
vilest malefactors ? How wonderful is it that God should become man, when 
man at his best estate is but vanity ; that he should take the nature and 
innocent weakness of man, who is but a worm, and the son of man that is 
but a worm ; that he should become man, not to enjoy any comforts of hu- 
man life,' but to undergo all the sorrows and sufferings of life and death ; 
that he who gave life and being to all things, and sustains all in life and be- 
ing by the word of his power, should die ; that infinite glory should suffer a 
shameful death, should endure the cross, and despise the shame ; that God 
blessed for ever should become a curse, and die a cursed death, the death of 
accursed malefactors, hanging on a tree ; that he who was the God of all 
consolation, the fountain of all comfort and happiness, should expose himsolf 
to the rage and cruelty of men, and the incensed wrath and justice of his 
Father ; should suffer most exquisite pains and tortures in body and soul from 
men, and God too ; the pains and sorrows both of first and second death ! 

That he who was the righteous lawgiver, the supreme judge, the almighty 
governor of the whole world, should not only suffer, but be punished in our 
stead, and bear the punishment of our crimes in his body too ! 

That he who was more valuable than ten thousand worlds should give 
himself a ransom for us, and not think his life, his blood dear, but lay it 
down freely as a price of our redemption from hell and wrath ! 

That he to whom angels, men, and all creatures owe themselves a sacrifice, 
should sacrifice himself to expiate our guilt, should make his soul a sin- 
offering, that he should love us, and wash us from our sins in his own blood ! 

Oh how is everything herein— every notion, every consideration of Christ's 
love expressed in his death — astonishing and full of wonder ! that which may 
amaze heaven and earth, that which may transport the angels, that which we 
should never speak of, never think of but with admiration ! Oh the height 
and depth, &c., Rev. v. 9-18. Heaven and earth owes all honour to Christ 
for his wonderful love ; and those that have any sense of it will be giving 
him the honour due to his name, to his love. And this is one special way 
to honour him for it, by admiring it. 

2. Not only the greatness, but the freeness of this love is most wonderful ; 
that which we should eternally admire, as being, of all things that the mind 
of man can consider, most worthy of admiration. That love is most free 
which is expressed to those that are most unworthy ; but of all creatures in 
the world, none so unworthy of any love from Christ as sinners. And yet, 
which the text shews, it was sinners that Christ loved, it was sinners to 
whom Christ expressed his love, and gave the greatest expression of it that 
was possible, so as to die for them. Sinners are to Christ the most unworthy 
of love ; for in that they are sinners, they are impotent and worthless ; have 
nothing, can do nothing to deserve love, nothing any way to engage his affec- 
tion, or to move him in the least to express any love to them. In that they 
are sinners, they are hateful to him, and were so far from deserving any love, 
as they on this account deserved all his hatred. 

8. In that they are sinners, they are haters of God ; and upon that ac- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



78 ohbist'8 dying fob sinners. [Bom. V. 8. 

count so far from expecting any sign of love that there remained nothing for 
them but a fearful expectation of acts of wrath and enmity. Now, he that 
could love such as these must love freely ; his love expressed to sinners mast 
be wonderfully free. 

(1.) Sinners are impotent. Sin has divested them of the image of God, 
primitive holiness and righteousness, which was both the strength and beauty 
of their souls ; and so they have nothing, can do nothing to excite love. 
This impolency implied here is expressed ver. 6. When they were ' without 
strength ' either to relieve themselves, though extremely miserable, or to 
apply themselves to him for relief ; when they did not so much as expect to* 
desire it, he was found of those that sought him not ; when they had no 
strength to make any answerable return for his love, any considerable 
acknowledgment of it ; when they could do nothing, speak nothing worthy 
of his love, and such an expression of it. He that loves such creatures as these 
must do it freely ; yet so impotent were sinners when he loved them, and so 
expressed his love as to die for them. 

(2.) Sinners are hateful to Christ, the only objects of his hatred in the 
whole world. All other things, as being the works of his hands, are good, 
and so he likes them, and is pleased with them ; but sinners, as such, are 
evil, and so hateful to him ; they deserve his hatred and nothing else, as being 
contrary to him who is holiness itself. And they are actually hated by him : 
Ps. xlv. 7, v. 5. Now, could he love that which is hateful, that which he is 
of purer eyes than to behold without loathing and detestation ? It is true, 
he could not delight in them as such, but he would bear them good will and 
pity them ; and had such compassion on them, as to expose himself to wrath 
and misery, yea to death itself, a cruel, a cursed death, for their sake. Sure 
such love, to those who were so hateful, must needs be free, wonderfully so. 

(8.) Sinners, as such, are haters of God, enemies to Christ, hate him, as 
David complains, ' cruelly, 1 Ps. xxv. 19, * wrongfully,' Ps. xxxviii. 19, 
4 without a cause,' Ps. xxxv. 19, which is the most provoking and intoler- 
able kind of hatred. 

It is strange for any to love those that are hateful, but more wonderful if 
that hatefulness be accompanied with hatred. Yet there was a concurrence 
of these in sinners, when Christ loved 'them and died for them, Rom. v. 10. 
He would die to make our peace with God when we were enemies to birn . 
Oh what manner of love was this ! John xv. 18. Greater love than this the 
world never knew, till Christ appeared in it ; but in him the world had an 
instance of greater love than this, a love more free, more wonderful, when 
Christ laid down his life for enemies, when he loved those more than his life, 
who hated him. No love can be more free, more wonderfully free, than the 
love of Christ to sinners ; so weak and impotent, so hateful and loathsome, 
yet so much enemies to him. Oh give him the honour due to this love, by 
admiring it, by adoring him for it. 

Use 2. This engages us to love Christ. This shews we are infinitely 
obliged to it. Shall we not love him who loves us ? That is an intolerable, 
an inhuman temper, that will not return love for love. The worst of 
sinners will do this in reference to one another, Mat. v. 46. The return of 
love for love is so due, that it deserves no thanks, no rewards ; the very 
publicans, counted the worst of men, will do this. And shall we be worse 
than they ? Shall we deal more disengenuously, more unworthily with Christ, 
than the worst of men do with one another ? 

2. Shall we not love him, whose love has prevented ours ? John iv. 19. 

* Qu. 'or'?— Ed. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Bom. Y. 8.] ghbist's dying fob sinnebs. 79 

He does not require that we should love him upon any other terns, but 
because he loved us first. If he had resolved not to love us, till first we 
loved him, he should never have loved us ; for we would never have begun 
to him. But since he begun to us, and propounds it as a motive to love 
him, that he loved us first ; how great will oar sin, how great will our con- 
demnation be, if we do not answer the love of Christ with a return of love, 
1 John iv. 10. Herein was the height of his love, and not to answer it with 
affection will be the highest provocation, and that which ourselves count 
most intolerable from others. 

8. Shall we not love him who loved us freely, when we were sinners, when 
we were so far from deserving any love, as we deserved all hatred ? Did he love 
us when we were utterly unworthy of it, and shall we not love him who 
infinitely deserves all our affection ; him who is not only altogether lovely, 
entirely, infinitely amiable, but is as affectionate to us as he is lovely in himself, 
and has expressed his love to us in such a way as is most obliging ; by dying 
for us that we might live, when the sentence of eternal death was passed 
upon us, that we might be happy in the eternal enjoyment of the fruits and 
expressions of his love ? Did he love us when sinners, when we had nothing 
in the least to engage him to it ? and shall we not love him, when he has 
laid infinite engagements upon us to do it ? If we would not fall under the 
greatest and most inexcusable guilt, the heaviest and most dreadful con- 
demnation, let us love Christ with, 

(1.) An ardent love. Such was his love to us, a love strong as death, 
Cant. viii. 6, 7. Death itself could not give any check to it, he would love 
us though he died for it. Many waters could not quench it, the sorrows of 
death could not extinguish it, nor any floods or sufferings abate the fervour 
of it, though all the waves and billows thereof went over him, and seemed 
to overwhelm him. Oh, can we be content, that our love to Christ should 
be weak and remiss ? No ; let us have such an affection for other things, 
the things of the world ; let us love them, as though we loved them not. 
But let us not deal so with him who loved us so as to die for us. Let it be 
a greater shame and affliction to us, that we have so little love for Christ, 
than that we have little worldly wisdom, little wealth, little power, little 
interest, little respect, or little of any thing that men naturally desire. Let* 
little in any thing be more tolerable to us, than little affection to Christ, to him 
who loved us so much as to die for us, and suffer the pains of first and second 
death in our stead. Kindle this love by ail means. And that it may kindle effec- 
tually, bring it to the flame, lay your hearts under the serious consideration of 
this love of Christ ; if this will not influence them, they are hearts of stone. 
(2.) A transcendent love. Love him more than all persons, than all 
things ; love him above all, for so he loved you. He loved you more than 
he did the sinning angels ; they tasted not of redeeming love, this run out in 
full streams to sinful men. 

He loved you more than that which is dearest to you, and which naturally 

is moat loved. He loved you more than riches, 2 Cor. viii. 9, more than 

honour and repute, Philip, ii. 7, exposed himself to scorn, reproach and shame. 

More than the comforts of life : he became a man of sorrows, and lived a 

life of sorrows, afflictions, and sufferings. 

More than his own blood, Rev. i. 5. 

More than his life : he ' counted not his life dear,* but laid it down as the 
price of your redemption, Matt. xx. 28. 
More than blessedness : would be made a curse, Gal. ill. 18. 
More than his own body : he gave up that to be scourged, pierced, wounded, 
crucified, hanged on a tree. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



80 Christ's dying fob sinners. » [Boh. Y. 8. 

Mo» than his soul, Isa. liii. 10. 

More than himself, Gal. ii. 20 ; 1 Tim. ii. 6. When he had no greater 
thing to give, he gave himself. 

After all this, shall any thing, any person whatever he loved more than 
Christ, or equally with him ? Your own hearts must needs pass sentence 
against this, as most accursed ingratitude, as that which is worthy of the 
dreadfullest curse, 1 Cor. xvi. 22. If any man love not him above all, for 
to love him less, is not to love him at all. 

When any thing would come in competition with Christ, or take place of 
him in mind or heart, throw it down with indignation ; say, This place is 
reserved for one more worthy, for him who loved me so as no creature ever 
loved ; who did that for me, who has given that to me, who purchased, suf- 
fered that for me, which none in all the world, which no man or angel, can 
or will do. 

(8.) An effectual love, 1 John iii. 18. Christ loved indeed. He shewed 
the reality of his love by such expressions, as may be the astonishment of 
heaven and earth. He counted nothing too dear to part with, nothing too 
grievous to suffer for us. Shew that you love Christ by real expressions. 
He requires nothing that need seem great or grievous to us. It is only this, 
to comply with his will in order to our own happiness. When Christ was 
to do his Father's will, not in order to his own, but our happiness, he applied 
himself as cheerfully to it, as a hungry man would do to his meat and drink, 
John iv. 84. Shall not we be willing to do the work of Christ, and do it 
cheerfully, when the end of it will be eternal life ? If we love Christ indeed, 
we must do his will, John xiv. 15, 21. When obedience is proposed in 
general, every one will be ready to profess a compliance, God forbid that 
I should not obey Christ. But when it comes to particular instances, and 
some duty is pressed on us that seems difficult, or chargeable, or reproachful, 
or hazardous, here is the trial of our love. Then he that loves Christ indeed, 
will say with David, ' Shall I serve the Lord with that which costs me 
nothing ?' Oh if Christ had done thus in reference to me and other lost 
sinners, what had my condition been ? If he had been willing to bave under- 
taken some small and easy things, but declined that which was difficult, and 
reproachful, and hazardous, and painful, he had never been obedient to 
the death of the cross, he had never died for me, and then I had never been 
pardoned, I had never been saved, I had been a child of wrath now and for 
ever, I had been a son of eternal death, I had been without hope to escape 
it, nothing had remained for me but a fearful expectation of judgment, &c. 

But did Christ think nothing too hard, nothing too grievous to perform 
for me ? And when he calls me to a duty, which intrenches upon my ease, 
or repute, or estate, or safety, shall I stick at it ? shall I decline it ? shall 
I spare myself in opposition to Christ's will, and neglect of his command, 
as the flesh and the world would have me ? Oh, then, how can I say that 
I love Christ ? Indeed, those that accustom themselves to do thus, let 
them say what they will concerning their love to Christ, their practice con- 
futes their sayings. 

Use 8. This engages us to live unto Christ, not to others, not to ourselves. 
This was the end of his death, and we are as much concerned to live unto 
him, as we are not to defeat his design in dying, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. He 
• died that we might live.' Therefore we owe our life to him, it is his, and 
should be employed for him. We were sentenced to die, he ransomed ns 
from death. His blood, his death was the price which bought and purchased 
our life. Therefore we and our lives are his, as that which he has bought 
and paid for, 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



CHRIST TOUCHED WITH THE FEELING 
OF OUR INFIRMITIES. 



For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of 
our infirmities y dbc. — Heb. IV. 15. 

The apostle's design, in this epistle, is to establish the Hebrews who 
professed Christ in that profession ; so as they should neither quit it, nor 
abate anything of it, for the love of the Mosaical rites, or fear of perse- 
cation. 

In order to that end he displays before them the excellencies of Christ, 
and shews how for he transcends the angels, chap. i. 2 ; how far Moses, 
chap. iii. ; how far the high priest. Afterwards he enters upon the com- 
parison betwixt Christ and the high priest, chap. iv. ver. 14. He proposes 
bis main design, that which he pursues all along. 

Let us holdfast. Let us neither quite relinquish it, nor hold it loose, by 
lukewarmness or indifferenoy, remitting anything of our zeal and stedfast- 
ness therein : since there is more encouragement to stick to this, than the 
former legal administration ; since we have a greater high priest, and one 
from whom we may expect for greater advantages. 

He calls Christ a high priest, because he did that really which the legal 
high priest did typically. He makes reconciliation, and he makes interces- 
sion for the people. 

He calls him a great high priest, insinuating that the other high priest- 
hood was little, and of small value, in comparison of Christ's. What Aaron 
and his successors did but in figure and shadow, Christ does really and effec- 
tually ; whatever they did by sacrifice, or interceding for the people, had no 
virtue or efficacy, but what depended on, and was derived from, the sacrifice 
and intercession of Christ, the great high priest indeed. 

He says, he is ' passed into the heavens ;' intimating, that what he does 
there, is as far to be preferred before what the high priest did in the most 
holy place, as heaven is above earth, or that lower tabernacle or temple on 
earth. The high priest, on the day of expiation, after he had offered sacri- 
fice, took the blood of it, and with it passed into the most holy place ; this 
was but a shadow of what Christ did, and is now doing for us. After he 
had offered himself a sacrifice on earth, he, with the virtue of his blood, 

vol* m. f 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



82 CHBI8T TOUGHED WITH [HeB. IV. 15. 

is passed into the heavens, there to carry on and accomplish the remainder 
of his office, as he is our great high priest. 

And so he calls him Jesus a Saviour ; one who, by virtue of his office, 
and his executing of it in earth and heaven, can save his people from their 
sins, which the other high priest could not do. 

. He calls him ' the Son of God. 1 He was not a mere man, as the other 
high priest, but God as well as man. The Son of God, not for his concep- 
tion, or unction, or resurrection, or exaltation ; but his Son by eternal gene- 
ration ; being begotten of the substance of the Father, and so of the same 
nature and essence with him. Equal in power, glory, and all excellencies ; 
and therefore a perfect and all-sufficient Saviour, * able to save to the utter- 
most all that come,' &c. And hereby in such a height of exaltation, as the 
other high priest cannot come into any competition with him in the least 
wise. Yea, one who is not only able, but willing, to save ; being not only 
the all-glorious, almighty, and all-sufficient God, but also gracious, merciful, 
and compassionate : ' For we have not, 1 ver. 15. 

We need not to be discouraged that we have an high priest that is so 
transcendently excellent ; who is so great, as there was none in the world 
ever like him ; who is so far beyond us, so remote from us, passed into the 
heavens, yea, higher than the heavens ; who is infinitely above us, being 
the Son of God, when we are but the children of men, dust and ashes. 
Since, as he is great, and high, and glorious, he is also gracious, merciful, and 
compassionate ; no weakness of ours, wherein he does not shew himself so : 
' For we have not, 1 &c. 

Obs. Christ our high priest is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. 

For the explaining of this let me shew, 1, what it is to be our high priest ; 
2, what those infirmities are, with the feeling of which he is touched ; 8, 
what it is to be touched with the feeling of them. 

1. For the first, his office, as high priest, may be best known by the acts 
of it. The acts of his office are principally two. 

(1.) Sacrificing for us to make reconciliation, chap. ii. 17. Reconciliation 
was made by offering sacrifice; this the high priest did under the law, 
chap. v. 1. Thus did Christ, our high priest, he offered sacrifice for sin, 
for the expiating and removing the guilt of it. A * better sacrifice,' chap, 
ix. 28 ; a wonderful sacrifice, Isa. liii. * His soul ;' yea, soul and body, 
himself, chap. ix. 14, 26. 

(2.) By interceding. The typical high priest, on the day of expiation, 
after he had offered the appointed sacrifice, took the blood of it with him 
into the most holy place, and there, burning incense withal, sprinkled it 
upon the mercy-seat, Lev. xvi. 14. 

Heb. ix. 7, 25, Thus the high priest under the law appeared for the 
people ; and this was a shadow of Christ's interceding in heaven for us, 
chap. ix. 12, xi. 24. 

He appears for us in our nature : as one who has shed his blood to ex- 
piate and cleanse us. The virtue of that blood is as fresh as if it were there 
poured out and presented, it cries. 

And he appears as one whose will and desire it is, that all the advantages 
of his purchase may be bestowed on his people. This is more than if, as 
man, he should offer up strong cries with tears, as he did, chap. v. 7. Thus 
he intercedes, chap. vii. 26, and acts as our high priest, ver. 26. 

2. What those infirmities are, with the feeling of which he is touched. 
Infirmities here, are whatever our weak and frail condition makes us sub- 
ject to suffer by. The apostle takes infirmities in this latitude, 2 Cor., latter 
part of the xi. and the former part of the xii. chapter, comprising his 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HEB. IV. 15.] THE FEELING OF OtTB INFlBMmXS. 88 

wants, weaknesses, inward and outward; his perils and dangers, his temp* 
tations and trials, his afflictions and sufferings, under the notion of infir- 
mities. 

All that our Lord Jesus, taking our frail nature upon him, was exposed 
to, or exercised with ; particularly, either such as concern the outward man, 
as want, or poverty, hunger, cold, nakedness, weariness, vide 2 Cor. xi. 27 ; 
also pain, sickness, or death itself. Not only such as are natural, but ad- 
ventitious, through the injustice, cruelty, or other sin of men ; as contempt, 
disgrace, reproach, slander, hatred, opposition, exile, imprisonment ; or that 
which sometimes more troubles us, the unkindness, nn&ithfulness, unaf- 
fectionateness, desertion of Mends and relations. 

Or, 2, such as concern the soul, viz. grief and anguish, trouble and per- 
plexity, fear and terror, spiritual desertion, sense of God's displeasure or 
wrath, temptations from Satan, and horrid suggestions. All these, and such 
like, we may understand by infirmities. All these in a manner was Christ 
exercised with, or exposed to ; and he is touched with the feeling of all and 
every of these, when his people are under them. But, 

8. What is it to be touched with the feeling of trar infirmities ? The word 
is fvfLva&itfou, which signifies to condole with one, or to suffer with him. 
As one member is in pain or distress, the other members suffer with it, 
which the apostle expresseth by the same word, 1 Cor. xii. 26. 

But this requires a more distinct and particular account. Take it thus, 

(1.) He knows all our infirmities. He knows them actually, he sees them. 
He knows them all, none of them escape his notice. There is none of them 
so small, as that he should think them not worth his notice. None of them 
bo great, as that he will be loath to concern himself therein. That is true 
still which David speaks of the Lord, before our nature was assumed, Ps. 
Ivi. 8. All his troublesome motions, when he was forced from home, and 
in a sad wandering condition, the Lord took a particular account of it ; he 
had them in numeration, as we have things which we count or tell one by 
one. We may think our afflictive infirmities more than we can number ; 
but he counts them exactly, and has the account always in his eye. He 
takes not less notice of them, since he took our natures and infirmities, than 
he did before. As he is God, he is no less able. As he is man, we cannot 
imagine him less willing to do it ; he is now doubly willing, both as he is 
God and man too. 

(2.) He knows them experimentally. For he has tried what they are, 
he has himself been exercised with them. For tempted, in the latter end of 
this verse, some copies have ffw/gcfa/tsiw. He found by experience what 
they are, Mat. vii. 18. He took our infirmities, and bare them ; and so 
knows how heavy they are* by his own feeling. He knows what weight, 
or smart, or trouble, or afflictiveness there is in any of our infirmities, for he 
himself hath felt it all; he himself was under, and perfectly remembers what 
he suffered by it, and so he knows feelingly and to the hfe what we suffer 
by any of them. He does not only know what it is to be poor, in want and 
necessities, as one who having always lived in plenty himself, has an account 
of the poor and necessitous condition of others, but he himself was poor, 
2 Cor. viii. 9. 

He knowB by experience what it is to be in such necessities, as not to 
have whereon to ride, whereon to feed, whereon to lay his head, Mat viii. 20. 

He knows what it is to be in pain, not only as one who having been at 
ease all his days, hears but others complain of it, but as one who himself 
has felt it, and that in extremity. 

He knows what it is to be despised and set at nought, to be abused and 

Digitized by LjOOQlC 



84 CHBIST TOUGHED WITH [HeB. IV. 15. 

reproached, to be hated, and persecuted, and despitefully need. He knows 
the sorrows of life, and the pangs of death ; not as the angels know them, 
by sufferings of others, but by his own experience, as one that has suffered 
all these himself. 

He knows what it is to be tempted to sin, troubled with horrid sugges- 
tions from Satan ; what it is to be deserted of friends, of all men ; yea, what 
it is (as to sense) to be forsaken of God. For this was his own case, he 
himself was thus tempted and tried, thus deserted and forsaken. All his 
disciples forsook him and fled ; yea, the sense of his Father's love was 
withdrawn from him, when he cried out, ' My God,' &c. He knows all this 
by his own sense and suffering ; he knows how grievous and afflictive this 
is, and what pity it calls for, and what succour and relief it stands in need 
of. He became like us in all these, that he might know this by experience, 
as chap. ii. 17, 18. 

(8.) He is affected with'our infirmities, he feels them, he is touched with 
the feeling of them. He has a sense thereof which touches his soul, and 
makes some impression on it; as one who not only has suffered what others 
feel, but suffers with them in what they feel. As when one member is 
under some grievance, not only the other members suffer with it, but the 
soul is affected therewith ; affected with grief arising out of love, attended 
with desire to give or get relief, and anger and indignation against that which 
brought the grievance, or continues it, and hinders relief. In like manner 
is Christ affected with the infirmities of his people. 

[1.] He pities, has compassion on them. This the word here used 
signifies, and may be read thus, We have not an high priest which cannot 
have compassion, &c. The same word is used, Heb. x. 84. Though they 
were not in bonds with the apostle, yet they suffered with him, being 
touched with a compassionate sense of his sufferings and bonds, as if they 
had been bound with him. So, though Christ labour not under these infir- 
t mities, as once he did, yet he is not without sense thereof; it touches his 
' soul, so that he does m^adjtfa/, suffer with us therein, having a com- 
passionate sense of what we thereby suffer. 

[2.] And this pity and compassion, it is not without the motions and acts of 
love. Indeed, this is the rise of it. It is out of such a love as made him 
willing to humble himself so low as to take our weaknesses and infirmities 
upon him. He would know what they were, and what it was to labour 
under them, by his own feeling and experience, that he might know the 
better how to pity those that are encompassed with them. He would in all 
things, in all soul-infirmities, be made like to us, that he might be, with 
more advantage, a merciful, a compassionate high priest, chap. ii. 17, 18. 
This was out of a wonderful and astonishing love ; this fitted him for com- 
passionateness, and excites it. 

[8.] This is attended with desire, accompanied with an inclination to 
succour, relieve such, whose condition is to be pitied ; to do that which is 
best for them in such a condition. That which wants .this is no pity 
indeed. It is that which is most advantageous and desirable in this affec- 
tion ; it is all that we must understand by compassion, when the Scripture 
ascribes it to the Lord ; and when we conceive it to be in Christ as God, in 
the divine nature, it is not in him a troublesome or passionate grief. That 
is an imperfection not to be ascribed to him ; nor would it be any advantage 
to us if he were liable to it. But it is a willingness in him to help and 
succour those whose state calls for pity or commiseration. It is an inclina- 
tion to do that which is good, which is best for us under our infirmities, 
Mark i. 41, ix. 22. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



HEB. IV. 15.] THE FEELING OF OT7B INFTBMmES. 85 

[4.] This is accompanied with zeal and anger, or indignation, against 
those who occasion the grievance, or would make it worse and heavier. 
Christ hath left us an instance of this before he took oar nature and infirmi- 
ties, Zech. iii. 1, 2. Joshua, and those whom he represented, had infirmi- 
ties enongh, were covered, clothed with them, ver. 8. Satan makes use of 
them as matter of accusation, would have had the Lord severe against them, 
instead of pitying and relieving them. Hereupon Christ is moved with zeal 
and indignation against him, and expresses it, ver. 2 ; and has such a sense of 
his people's infirmities as raises his zeal and indignation against those who 
will have no compassion for them while they are under infirmities. 

[4.] He is affected with our infirmities as a man ; for he is not only God, 
but man. Herein the comparison holds betwixt Christ and the Levitical 
high priest, as the apostle expresseth it, Heb. v., and ii. 14. He assumed 
our nature, and so our affections ; as he has a human nature, so he has 
human affections. He has such love, pity, compassion for his people 
in their infirmities, as are in the hearts of the children of men, the weak- 
nesses excepted. They are in him properly, and not as they are attributed 
to God, to whom such affections are only ascribed metaphorically. When 
Scripture says, the Lord loves and pities, we must not conclude that he is 
affected as we are, but such acts and motions as we feel are ascribed to God 
from some little resemblance, a very remote likeness, whereas the difference 
is infinite. And we know no more what they are in God than the brutes 
know what these affections are in us ; the distance is incomprehensibly 
greater. They do no more properly belong to God than a human soul, or 
the members of a body, belong to him, which yet are spoken of him in 
Scripture. But what is spoken after the manner of men must be under- 
stood in a way suitable to the excellency and perfection of God. 

But these affections are not only ascribed to Christ, after the manner of 
men, but they are truly and properly in him as he is man. He has truly 
and properly the heart and affections of a man ; a heart that can be touched 
with the feeling of our infirmities, even as you feel your hearts affected with 
the sufferings of a very dear friend. He has such compassion as a parent 
has for the weaknesses of a beloved child, Ps. ciii. 18, Judges x. 16, Jer. 
xxxi. 20. This is ascribed to God very improperly ; but it is true of Christ 
as he is man, in a most proper sense. There is no such grief and pity in 
God as there is in us, ho is infinitely above them, &c. 

It may be said that there is a great difference betwixt these affections as 
they are in Christ, and as they are in us, both in respeet of the personal 
nnion of the human nature with the Godhead, and because of his now per- 
feo, and glorified state. 

It must be confessed there is a difference upon these accounts, but it is 
such a difference as does nothing lessen the advantage, or abate the comfort, 
we may have from this particular. 

First, For as [to] the personal union, this is not inconsistent with such 
affections as are in us, no, nor the sinless weakness of them ; for Christ had 
and expressed such affections while he was on earth ; and yet that union 
was then the same that it has been since, and will be for ever. 

To instance but in one, his compassion ; that which is most pertinent, and 
which seems to import more weakness than some other affections, as love, 
joy, desire. We find him shewing his compassions frequently, upon all 
occasions offered, Mat. ix. 86, and xiv. 14, and xv. 82, Mark i. 41, Luke 
vii. 18 ; yea, such was the tenderness of his compassions, as he often ex- 
pressed it in tears. The motion of this affection was not confined to his 
soul, but wrought upon the body also ; and made more impression there, 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



86 OHBIBT TOUGHED WITH [H£B. IV. 15. 

than jit will do upon every temper, Luke ix. 41, 42, John li. 83, 85, Heb. 
v. 7. 

So that though he was God-man, yet his affections were like those of a 
mere man, only without sin. This affection did not prevent reason or dis- 
turb it, or hunger him into any irregularities, as inordinate passions do sin- 
ful men. And such calm, untainted affections in him, are of far more 
advantage and comfort to ns than turbulent and excessive passions would be. 

Secondly, As to his glorified state, the difference as to his affections is this, 
that they are perfected, freed from some weakness and imperfections, which, 
though they were in him without sin, yet were the effects of man's sin, and 
by the sin of man brought upon man's nature ; which nature, so weakened, 
the Lord our Redeemer assumed, and continued under those innocent 
weaknesses during the state of his humiliation. But now being exalted to 
the height of perfection and glory, he is freed from those weaknesses, and 
all shadow of imperfection is vanished. There is no inward disquiet of his 
soul by grief or pity, as John xi. 88 ; no outward disturbing commotion of 
humours or spirits in his glorified body ; no tears or weeping, as in the days 
of his flesh, which may be included in his being made perfect, Heb. v. 9 ; 
nothing remains which imports weakness, or suffering, or imperfection, 
2 Cor. v. 16. 

But we lose nothing by this alteration in his state and in his affections. 
The difference seems but to be this, now he has perfect affectionateness to 
his people in their infirmities ; he perfectly pities and sympathises with 
them ; his compassion and sympathy is without weakness or imperfection ; 
not only without sinful weakness, which he never had, but without innocent 
weakness, which attended him in his love and suffering condition. 

So that he still hath human affections to us, retaining still the human 
nature ; he still has love, pity, compassion for us, not only such as are 
ascribed unto God, but such as are in the heart of a man (which we being 
better acquainted with, are more familiar and obvious encouragements and 
supports to us), only they are more perfect affections than are in the heart 
of any other man on earth or in heaven. There is less weakness in them ; 
he more perfectly loves and pities us, and is more perfectly touched with the 
feeling of our infirmities, as man, now that he is in heaven, than when he 
was upon earth. 

[5.] Christ is affected with our infirmities, as one concerned in us very 
much and nearly. A good man, when he sees another in wants, distress, 
misery, will be moved with it, though he be a stranger to him. Oh, but if 
he be one in whom he is concerned, one who is nearly related or much 
endeared to him, he will be much more affected,' and more feelingly touched 
with his condition, Luke x. 80, 88. He did this for a stranger, what for a 
' friend, brother, child ? Christ is not affected with the infirmities of his 
people, as if they were strangers to him, and he no otherwise concerned in 
Ihem than a stranger ; but as one that has interest in them, that is related 
to them, that counts himself one with them and them one with him. 

He is touched with the sense of our grievances, as one that has interest 
in us and we interested in him. This is intimated in the text ; we have an 
high priest, he is ours and we are his ; so that he is touched with the feeU 
ing of our infirmities, not as of those who belong not to him, but of (hose 
who are his own. Christ himself requires that we should have bowels of 
compassion for those who belong not to us, when their condition requires it ; 
much more for those that are our own ; and he himself will perfectly answer 
what he enjoins us in this particular. 

As one related to us, nearly and many ways related, by all sorts of rela- 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



HKB. IV. 15.] THE FBXLINO OF OUB INFIRMITIES. 87 

turns, those that are most endearing, and most oblige the heart to affection- 
ateness and sympathy. 

As a friend, John xv. 14, 15. Now, Job vi. 14, pity should be shewed to 
a friend; pity should be shewed to a servant, to a stranger, much more to 
a friend. Christ shewed great compassion to his enemies, what has he then 
for hifl friends, those that were dearer to him than his life ? 

As a brother, Heb. xii. 11, 12 ; Joseph's brethren, Gen. xlii. 21. 

As a father with the grievances of his children, chap. ii. 18. Christ as a 
father presents himself and his little ones to the Lord as a pleasant sight. 
Now what a quick sense has a parent of the pain or wants of a dear child ? 
Jer. rod. 20. 

As a husband with the wants or sufferings of the wife of his own bosom, 
2 Cor. xi. ver. 2. The covenant wherewith he married them to himself, is 
founded in his own blood ; they were dearer to him than his own heart 
blood. How would a husband of such love (if there were any had such love) 
be touched with the feeling of what is grievous to his wife ? So is Christ 
touched with the sense of his people's infirmities ; he is not affected with 
them as though they were aliens, but as those whom he owns in the nearest 
and most obliging relations. 

Yea, he is touched, &c., as one united to us, as counting himself one 
with us. The nearness of this union is expressed by that of head and 
members, Eph. L 22, 28 ; and this is laid down as the ground and reason 
of the sympathy, 1 Cor. xii. 26, 27. When one member suffers, all the rest 
are sensible ; but especially the head, which is the foundation of sense. 
Christ being the head, from whence spiritual sense is derived from its mem- 
bers, by which they sympathise with one another, he himself is sensible of 
what is grievous to the members in particular ; on this account, in all their 
afflictions he is afflicted. 

He being one with them, he counts their sufferings his; he is afflicted 
with their want, pain, suffering, as if it were his own. The troubles which 
Saul gave the primitive saints, he resents it as a persecuting of himself, Acts 
ix. 5 ; he that touches them, touches the apple of his eye ; yea, any neglect 
to relieve the least of them in their infirmities, he is sensible of it as a 
neglect of himself, Mat. xxv. He is affected with their infirmities, as one 
greatly concerned, no less than if it were his own concernment. 

[6.] He is affected with them really and to purpose ; he is touched with 
the feeling of them effectually. It is not an ineffectual sympathy, a fruit- 
less pity, like that censured by the apostle, James ii. 15, 16 ; but it is 
active, that which is really advantageous to us every way : to give what we 
want, to secure us from what we fear, to ease us of what is grievous, or to 
do for us that which is as good or better. 

It inclndes a readiness in Christ to accommodate himself to all our infir- 
mities, according to the exigence of them, so as to give ease, relief, supply, 
deliverance ; so far as is needful, as soon as it is seasonable, whenever it 
will be good for us. 

It makes him ready to shew mercy and grace in time of need ; so ready, 
as we may be confident of it It is the ground of what is held forth in the 
next verse; ' in that he is touched with the feeling,' &c. We may have help 
and relief under all infirmities ; we may have whatever of this nature will 
be a mercy to us ; all that is mercy we may obtain, and this is all that is 
desirable. We may have it freely, from grace ; we may find grace, which 
gives without money or price ; we need but come to find it, we need but ask 
to obtain it. We may have it in abundance from him who ,sits upon the 
throne to shew himself gracious ; whose glory it is to give like himself, the 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



88 CHRIST TOUGHED WITH [HEB. IV. 15. 

King of kings ; to give royally, liberally, bountifully. We may have it all 
whenever we need it, whenever it will be seasonable ; and we may be con- 
fident of all this, because he has such a sense of our infirmities ; this leaves 
us no occasion in the least to doubt of it. We may have all that heart can 
reasonably desire, in such kind, in such way, in such measure, and at such 
times, as is most desirable. We may be sure, because he is touched with 
the feeling, &c. He has a more effectual sense of them than any other, men 
or angels, yea, or we ourselves have ; for he has such a sense thereof as will 
assuredly bring relief, which neither we ourselves, nor men or angels for us, 
can do in many cases. 

[7.] It is an extensive sympathy, it reaches all our infirmities. He has 
compassion on us in all our weaknesses, all that we suffer by, in all that has 
anything of misery or activeness in it. This is plain by the latter end of this 
verse : he ' was in all points tempted/ Ac. He is touched with the feeling 
of all those infirmities wherewith himself was tempted or exercised ; but he 
was exercised in all points with all our weaknesses, but those that are with- 
out sin. 

Oh, but it may be said, this exception does exclude the greatest part of 
our infirmities from this sympathy, and us from the comfort and advantage 
of it, in those points too which stand in most need of it ; for those infirmi- 
ties which proceed from sin, or are mixed with it, and sin itself especially, 
are our greatest misery, make our present state most lamentable, and so stand 
in most need of pity and relief. If Christ be not touched with the feeling of 
these (which are worst of all), so as to have compassion on us, and be ready 
to succour us, we are to seek in our greatest pressures and grievances, where 
we have most necessity of relief and pity ; as e.g., 

1. In those infirmities which are from sin, the effects of sin, which are 
many and great, is he not touched with the feeling, &c. ? 

I answer, Yes, he is touched, &c. These are not excluded by the expres- 
sion. He himself laboured under these ; for such infirmities as are from 
sin may be sinless, though they be the effects of sin, yet they may be inno- 
cent in themselves, and without sin ; and all that are without sin he himself 
was exercised with. He was tempted in all points, exercised with all infir- 
mities, even those which are the effects of sin, as we are ; only they were 
in him without sin, as they are not in us. For, 

Let it be observed, that Christ took not our nature, as it is now in the 
glorified saints, who are not only freed from sin, but from all the sad effects 
of it ; nor as it was in our first parents, in the state of innocency, before they 
had sinned, and before sin had made any breach upon human nature, and 
brought those weaknesses and infirmities upon it which they afterward and 
we now suffer under. But he took the nature of fallen man, as it was bruised 
and rendered infirm by the fall ; he took our nature as weakened by sin, 
though not as defiled by it ; there was no sin in his human nature, but 
there was those weaknesses and infirmities which were the sad issues of sin. 
These he laboured under, and so knows how to pity and sympathise effec- 
tually with those that are yet under them. He was not exempted from 
those infirmities which are part of the curse brought upon our nature by 
sin, but only exempted from what was sinful in them, Horn. viii. 8, where 
likeness refers not only to flesh (for that in him was not only like, but the 
same with ours), but to sinful flesh. He assumed our nature, not as it is 
glorified, or as it was innocent,' but as it is sinful, as it is under the effects 
of sin. The meaning is, he had a human nature just such as that of sinful 
man ; as frail, as infirm, as mortal, as corruptible as that of sinful man, 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



HEB. IV. 15.] THE FEELING OF OUB INFIRMITIES. 89 

altogether like it in those infirmities which are the effects of sin, but without 
sin in him. 

Obj. It may he said, there are some infirmities in us which are the effects 
of sin, which Christ was not exercised with, as painful distempers and sick- 
nesses ; yet these are grievous and afflictive to us, and so need his compas- 
sions and relief. But how can he be touched with the feeling of them, since 
he never felt them, never was tempted or exercised with them ? 

An*. Those infirmities (the issues of sin) which Christ took on him, were 
such as are natural, common to the nature of man and all mankind ; not 
such as are personal and proper to some only, as those be which are instanced 
in ; but though he did not suffer by these, yet the grievance and afflictive- 
ness that is in them he suffered. He endured as much trouble, and more, 
than any fever can afflict us with, in that agony, which forced from him a 
bloody sweat ; he endured as much pain as any man in the most acute sick- 
ness or distemper, when nails were driven through his hands and feet. And 
bo he knows by experience what pity and relief such anguish and pain calls 
for, and thereby is disposed to sympathise with his people therein, as effec- 
tually as if himself had been exercised with those particular and personal 
distempers which are so afflictive to nature. That, Mat. viii. 17, holds true in 
respect of his effectual sympathy with us, in sickness and painful distempers. 

The grounds which may assure us of the truth of this are such as these : 

(1.) This was one end why he took our nature, and became man. It was 
not only that he might suffer far us, but also that he might suffer toith us, 
by a compassionate feeling of what we suffer. He was to be like the Levi- 
tical high priest, Heb. v. 1, taken from among men. And why so ? Ver. 2, 
that he might be the more disposed to have compassion on his people in 
their infirmities ; even those that are sinful, and are so less or more, Heb. 
ii. 16, 17. He took man's very nature, the seed of Abraham, and was made 
in all things like unto us in our nature, in its parts, properties, infirmities, 
in all. Wherefore ? Why, that he might be merciful ; that he might have 
the mercies and compassions, not only of God, but of a man also. Such 
mercies and compassions as angels have not for us, yea, such as God alone 
could not have had for us ; not only those of God, but those of man too. 
He might have had the mercies of angels for us, if he had taken the nature 
of angels ; he might have had the mercies of God for us, if he had not taken 
onr nature ; but he could not have the mercies and compassions both of God 
and also of man for us, unless he had become man ; and therefore it behoved 
him to be made like us, that there might be in him a concurrence both of the 
mercies of God and of man also ; that he might not only be merciful to us as 
God, but compassionate us as one man does another ; and that he might 
pity us too out of experience, as one that had boen exercised with the feeling 
of the very same weaknesses and grievances that we feel, ver. 18. He be- 
came man, that he might be exercised with such weaknesses and grievances 
as the children of men are ; and was actually tempted or exercised with them, 
that his own experience might render him ready and forward to pity and 
succour us under them. 

Now, this being the end why he became man, it is no more to be doubted 
of than that he took our nature. As sure as he was taken from among men ; 
as sure as he wad born of a woman; as sure as he is the man Christ Jesus ; 
as sure as he has the nature, the soul of a man ; as sure as he has the affec- 
tions of a human soul : so sure it is that he is touched with the feeling, 
&c. ; with such a feeling as is collected from Scripture. 

(2.) This was the end of his sufferings, Heb. ii. 18. All that he suf- 
fered, by our weaknesses, our sins, was that he might succour those that 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



90 CHBIST TOUCHED WITH [HEB. IV. 15. 

suffer by them, that he might be touched effectually with the sense of what 
we are exercised with. As by his sufferings he learned obedience, Heb. v. 8, 
so thereby he learned compassionateness to his people. Indeed, this was 
one part of that obedience which he was to learn thereby. The Father 
would have him to be a compassionate high priest ; and himself suffering by 
our infirmities, and for our sins, he learnt by experience how to pity those 
that suffer. 

Now, this being the end of his sufferings, as sure as he would not suffer 
so many things in vain, as sure as he would not lose the end of his suffer- 
ing, so sure it is that he is touched, &c. 

(8.) It is his office, as he is high priest. This office required it. He 
being called to this office, must be faithful in the discharge of it. He could 
not have been faithful herein if he had not been merciful These are conjoined 
by the apostle, chap. ii. 17. Compassionateness was required in the Leviti- 
cal high priest to the faithful discharge of his office, chap. v. 1, 2. Two 
things are necessary in every one who has this office : one in reference to 
God, to offer sacrifice for reconciling him ; the other in reference to the 
people, that he can have compassion on them, that he be touched with the 
compassionate sense of their infirmities, as one who himself has suffered by 
and under them. 

Now, Christ far excelled all other high priests in both these ; as in the 
former, so in the latter. He answered the office herein perfectly, as none 
else could. It behoved him so to do, vers. 8, 9. Made perfect, how ? 
• By the things which he suffered, 1 ver. 8 ; « by sufferings,* chap. ii. 10. 
Though he had all perfection in his person, yet he could not be made perfect 
in his office without suffering. For his office was both to satisfy God, and 
to have compassion on man ; and by suffering he came to do both perfectly. 
Thereby he satisfied divine justice, and thereby he learnt experimentally com- 
passions to his people. So that, without this latter, a compassionate feeling 
of his people's infirmities, he had not been perfect in his office. As sure as 
Christ is faithful, as sure as he perfectly discharged his office, so sure is he 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. 

2. But in sinful infirmities, what relief is there hereby for them 2 Christ 
was not touched with any that were sinful, and how can he be touched with 
the feeling of them ? e. g. the people of Christ have much ignorance and 
darkness, and many spiritual wants ; they are sinfully defective, both in 
knowledge and holiness ; and these are in themselves, and to those that are 
duly sensible of them, greater miseries than poverty, or sickness, or other 
outward afflictions and sufferings. 

I answer, Christ had something of these, though nothing of the sinful- 
ness of them ; so much of these, as that he can sympathise with his people 
under them. 

He wanted much knowledge of many things ; he wanted some spiritual 
gifts, yea, and some exercise of grace, in some parts of his life, while 
he was upon earth. He came not to perfection in these, but by degrees, 
and till then was under some defect and imperfection, though not any 
that was sinful. For he wanted none that he ought to have had, or 
that his present state was capable of; yet, wants, defects, and inward weak- 
nesses, without sin, he was really under, Luke ii. 40, 52. Hereby it seems 
plain, that he had not at first that measure of knowledge, and of the Holy 
Ghost, as afterwards. He knew not so much, nor had that exercise of grace 
in his infancy or childhood, as at perfect age. His faculties were not cap- 
able of full perfection herein till they came to full maturity ; he grew but 
up herein by degrees, as he grew in stature, and consequently was without 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HKB. IV. 15.] THE FBBZJHO OF OCT INFIBMITIES. 91 

some degrees of what he after attained ; and till then, under defects and 
wants, though sinless. So that he knows by experience what it is to be 
under defects and wants, and so knows how to pity those who labour under 
them. In this the comparison holds betwixt him and the Levities! high 
priest, chap. v. 2. 

8. Oh, bat he was never touched with sin, chap. i. 16, and this is our 
greatest misery, the sting of all grievances, that which makes all other to 
be heavy and grievous. If he be not touched with the feeling of our sin, we 
are at a loss where we have most need. 

I answer, There are four things considerable about sin, the offence, temp- 
tation to it, guilt of it, punishment for it. Now there are none of these but 
Christ was touched with them, but the first only. He was without fault ; 
there was nothing in him, nor acted by him, which was an offence to God, 
1 Peter ii. 28. He was perfectly innocent ; and if he had not been so, he 
had not been capable of bringing us any relief as to sin ; he could neither 
have been a high priest nor a sacrifice for sin. 

But (1.) he was tempted to sin ; tempted much and long by Satan, and to 
the most horrid sin, chap. ii. 18. In that he was tempted, he is disposed, 
he is both able and willing to, &c. ; in that he ' suffered by being tempted,' 
he can pity, and so is ready to succour those that suffer by temptation. He 
was not overcome when tempted, though he suffered by it, but he knows 
hereby what it is to be overcome ; for the sense of that kept him from yield- 
ing, and so he knows how to have compassion on those that are overcome by 
temptation. 

(2.) The guilt of sin, of our sin, was upon him, 2 Cor. v. 21. Sin was 
imputed to him ; he was by imputation a sinner, though he never sinned 
personally. Our guilt was laid on him. Guilt is an obligation to the 
penalty. Christ came under this obligation, and so under guilt ; not by his 
own sin, but by his own consent he became our surety, and so was bound to 
pay the debt. Guilty so far, as to be bound to endure what sin had deserved, 
and sinners were worthy to suffer. 

So far he was touched with the guilt of sin ; so far he knows what it is to 
be under guilt, and so knows what pity and relief they need who are under 
it. So far he is touched with the sense of their condition who are guilty, 
chap. y. 2. 

(8.) As to the punishment of sin, he was not only exposed to it, and 
bound to bear it, but actually endured it, Isa. liii. 4-6. ' The iniquities,' 
i. 6. the punishment of them, all the punishment that was due to ail ; the 
whole curse was inflicted on him, so he is said to be ' made a curse,' Gal. 
iiL 18. 

So that he had a greater sense of sin than any of his people ever had. 
We may hear him cry out under the weight of it, Lam. i. 12. The whole 
penalty and curse was upon him, part of which made his soul heavy unto 
death. 

So that, though he was without sin, yet he was touched, or rather op- 
pressed with such a sense of sin, as is enough abundantly to move him to 
all compa8sionateness to any of his people under the burden. It is an 
extensive sympathy; such as reaches not only infirmities that have no 
respect to sin, but those that are from sin, as its effects, and those that are 
sinful formally, yea, sin itself; he is touched with the feeling of all. 

[8.] It is a proportionable sympathy ; a compassion which is exactly an- 
swerable to the nature and quality of every infirmity ; fully commensurable to 
it, whatever it be. As it is not more than it needs, so it is not less than it 
requires, how much compassion and relief soever it calls for. This is ex- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



92 CHRIST TOUGHED WITH [HEB. IV. 15. 

press, chap. v. 2, dvvdfMvoc fiirpio*aQtft 9 rendered * who can have compassion;' 
bat the word signifies, a compassion or sympathy answerable to the occasion. 
Quantum satis est, so much as is sufficient for it. Not only when the griev- 
ance of it is'less, but when it is more ; proportionable to the actual afflictive- 
ness of it at present, and the danger of it for the future ; to what we do suffer 
by it, or what we may suffer. 

This was the duty of the Levities! high priest, with whom Christ is there 
compared. He did thus sympathise with the people in their infirmities, in 
proportion to their ignorances and wanderings, when he was faithful in an- 
swering his office. But Christ herein excelled him, as the apostle shews, 
ver. 7. He shewed his compassions in strong cries and tears, and does it 
still ; though not in such expressions, yet as effectually, and more perfectly. 
We may be apt to measure Christ by ourselves, and to think that small 
grievances he will overlook and pass by without regard or resentment, and 
that he will not trouble himself with those that are greater, according to the 
exigence of them. But he has a sense of every infirmity, proportionable to 
the grievance or danger of it. The least he slights not, the greatest he 
waives not ; turns not aside, as the priest and Levite did, as if a resentment 
answerable to it would be troublesome to him. He is not like us, who have 
no sense of others' grievances when but small, or bat little sense of them when 
they are great. But he has a compassion for all, and more for those which 
need and require more. He has a due sense of all, and that which is suffi- 
cient for our relief and comfort ; not only in the least, but the greatest. 

9. A constant and perpetual sympathy. It continues without any inter- 
mission so long as he is high priest, or so long as our infirmities continue ; 
so long as we are under any weakness, inward or outward ; so long as we 
are in any danger or peril ; so long as we are exposed to any trouble or 
suffering. 

This is one thing wherein the faithful discharge of his priestly office 
consists. And he is a priest for ever, Ps. ox. 4, repeated often in this 
epistle, chap. v. 6, and vii. 17, 21. 

It is true, one principal part of his office, as priest, the offering himself 
as a sacrifice as priest, the offering himself as a sacrifice for sin, is already 
finished and discharged. And sin being fully expiated by that once offering 
of himself, there is no need of repeating it. But this efficacy of it does still 
continue ; and in the virtue of it his intercession (the other part of his office 
as priest) is still effectual, and will be for ever, chap. vii. 25. There will be 
some alteration also as to this part of his office. Now he intercedes for 
relief and comfort to his people under infirmities, and for deliverance from 
tbem. And when full deliverance is obtained, there will be no need, no 
occasion to intercede either for succour in, or freedom from, them ; but even 
then he will intercede for the continuance of that happy deliverance. And 
both his sacrifice and intercession will have an influence upon, and be 
effectual for the everlasting continuance of that blessed freedom. 

So that, though there be some change in the acts, yet the office of Christ 
as high priest continues for ever ; and is, and will be exercised in acts suit- 
able to the state of his people. 

Now, while his people are compassed with infirmities, he sjiews himself a 
merciful and faithful high priest, in effectual pity and compassionate sympathy. 
And so he will continue while they are under weaknesses, i.e. so long as ever 
there is any occasion for it, and his people have any need thereof. But 
when they are fully delivered, and their weaknesses end in perfection, then 
joy will succeed compassion, and the conflict, with the succour therein, will 
end in an everlasting triumph. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



HEB. IV. 15.] THE FEELING OF OUB INPIBMITIES. 98 

Thus much to explain this truth. Something should be added for con- 
firmation of it. It is so great and wonderful a condescension in Christ to 
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, that some may be apt to ques- 
tion it, very ready to doubt of it, too slow to deliver* it. Faith may want 
some grounds to support it, and encourage it in the belief of a truth so 
strange to reason, so far above all expectation, beyond all we could ask or 
think. And there are grounds for it sure and stedfast, which the apostle 
lays down in this epistle. 

l)te 1. For instruction. This truth leads the people, of Christ to many 
duties, and strongly obliges to the performance of them. 

1. To admire Christ ; to employ your minds in high, adoring, admiring 
thoughts of Christ. He is wonderful ; it is his attribute, Isa. ix. Wonder- 
ful every way, in his person, natures, offices, and the execution of them ; but 
especially wonderful in this, that he would be touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities. And this will appear wonderful in our eyes, if we consider who 
he is that is thus touched, and what was required that he might be capable 
of this sense, &c, and what such a sense thereof imports. 

For the first, Christ, as to his divine nature, is God ; the great, blessed, 
glorious, and all sufficient God, infinite in happiness and all excellencies ; 
farther above us, and the noblest piece of the creation, unconceivably 
farther above the highest, than the most excellent creatures are above the 
vilest thing on earth, the meanest thing imaginable. He could expect no- 
thing from us, no advantage by us ; not the least degree of glory or happi- 
ness, being in the perfect possession of infinite glory and happiness without 
ns. He had lost nothing if we had perished in our sin without pity, and 
sunk under the weight of our infirmities. We had nothing to oblige him to 
concern himself in our weaknesses and miseries ; why then would he bring 
himself under the sense of them ? How wonderful it is that he would do it I 

2. That he might be capable of the sense of our infirmities, he was to take 
upon him both our nature and our infirmities, and it is highly wonderful that 
he would meddle with either. 

It was requisite that he should assume a created nature. And if this 
nature had been that of the angels, this had been a wonderful condescension ; 
infinitely more wonderful than if the most glorious angel should have been, 
willing to take the form of the vilest creeping thing ; for the distance is in- 
finitely greater betwixt God and such an angel, than betwixt such an angel 
and any creeping thing we tread on. 

But he was to take the nature of man, so much lower than that of the 
angels ; more wonderful than if the most glorious potentate on earth should 
be willing to live in the form of a beast, or to take the shape of a worm ; 
the glorious God stooped lower when he took the nature of man. 

Yea, he was to take the nature of sinful man. The ' likeness of sinful 
flesh, 1 Horn. viii. 8. As if a man should be willing not only to take the like- 
ness of a worm, but the likeness of a toad, though without poison, for which 
our nature has a greater averseness and abhorrence. This would be an 
astonishment. Oh, but the infinitely holy God had a greater averseness to 
sinful flesh than we have to a toad, and yet took the likeness of sinful flesh ; 
he assumed it as it was abased by sin, as the effects of the venom and 
poison of sin was upon it, though without the sin of it. How wonderful is 
this! m * 

Yea, he was to take our infirmities also. Not only the excellencies in our 
natures singled out for him, as divers there were wherein we excelled the 
inferior creatures, but the weaknesses, the blemishes, the debasements of 

* Qu. 'believe' ?— En. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



91 CHBI9T TOUCHED WITH [HEB. IV. 15. 

our nature, as it was sullied, and bruised, and crazed by the fell ; under all 
the defects, and maims, and disadvantages it had suffered by sin, sin itself 
only excepted, he declined none else. He took, he bare all, he laboured 
under all, that [he might] have a compassionate sense of all, the vilest, the 
worst of all, by his own feeling. It may well seem a debasement of such 
a glory to unite our nature to him in its best state, as it was innocent, or 
as it is glorified. How wonderful is it that he would assume it when it was 
at worst, with all its specks, and flaws, and cracks, all its rags and vileness, 
all its bruises and weaknesses ; nothing excluded, not the effects of sin, bat 
only sin itself ! 

It is infinitely below that glorious majesty of God, to be clothed with the 
sun, as he was clothed with flesh. What a wonderful condescension would 
it be for him to be covered over with clay, with mud ! We would think it 
so in a person of honour, though the mud were without stench ; and yet our 
nature was viler to Christ, as he is the God of glory, than any clay or mud 
is to us. Oh that he, the King of glory, should clothe himself with so vile 
a thing, should appear and live in such a covering that he might learn to 
pity us ! What an astonishment is it t If our minds were duly exercised 
with the thoughts of these things, how would they strike our souls with 
wonder and admiration I 

8. For the import of it, this being touched with the feeling, &c, is a kind 
of suffering with us. It includes compassion, a motion of the heart which 
is taken to have more weakness in it than other affections. 

Now, that the God of glory should have such respect to contemptible 
creatures, as not only to suffer for, but also to suffer with them ; — 

That he should have compassions on us in infirmities, which are the 
effects of sin, or in themselves sinful, and shew compassion and tenderness 
where there is just and proper occasion for his anger, indignation, and 
severity ; — 

That he should concern himself, not only in those cases where common 
friends will stand by us, but in our weaknesses, where others will be 
ashamed of us ; in dangers and sufferings, where others will be afraid ; in 
the sad circumstances of our lives, when others withdraw, andjwhere his own 
best friends on earth deserted him ; — 

That he should have such regard for those who are infinitely below him, 
and whom he might pass by with as much disregard as we do flies or grass- 
hoppers ; for we are incomparably less to him than these are to us ; — 

If these things were in our thoughts, what occasion of wonder will they 
offer to us 1 How admirable is Christ hereby represented to us ! how 
worthy of all admiration, both from heaven and earth, both now and ever- 
lastingly 1 

2. To love Christ. There is no greater attractive of love to an ingenious 
temper than love. Now in that Christ is touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities, you have a most evident demonstration that he loves you ; and 
with such a love as is most obliging, such as is most proper and powerful 
to command, excite, and draw out your affections to him. For hereby it is 
very clear what his love to you is. 

(1.) A great love, and most extensive ; that can reach all conditions and 
circumstances which you are or may be in, even such as the love of others 
will not touch, will not come near : a love that will shew itself in all eases, 
even where it could be least expected ; a love that will surmount and over- 
flow all discouragements. No want, no, weakness, no hazard, no suffering, 
is able to quell or stop it. It breaks forth in all, for he is touched with an 
affectionate sense of all these. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



HEB. IT. 15. J THE FMLING OF OUR INFIBMITISS. 95 

(2.) A free lore. This is an evidence he can love freely ; he can love 
those who are all made up of defeets and imperfections, who are covered with 
specks and blemishes, who are compassed with infirmities ; not only with 
those that are sinless, which might move him to despise us, bnt those that 
are sinful, which might provoke him to ■ hate us. He is affectionately 
touched with the feeling of alL 

He can love those souls that are crazy and sickly, that are lame and 
maimed, that labour under many weaknesses and infirmities, such as hinder 
them from being duly serviceable to all,* and honouring him in the world, 
or expressing any love to him answerable to his. Though they be poor and 
in want, though their parts be low, though graces be weak, and their affec- 
tion to him small, very small in comparison of what they owe, yea, nothing 
in comparison of what he deserves ; though they can do little for him, and 
suffer less, this is so far from withholding his love, that it runs out the more 
in a compassionate sense of their weaknesses. 

He can love his people, though they have nothing to oblige him to do it ; 
yea, though there is little in them but what might disoblige him. Their 
infirmities of all sorts, which might estrange him, meet with a tender re- 
sentment, in that he is affectionately touched with the feeling ofthem. 

(8.) A lasting, a constant love, such as all the waters cannot quench, nor 
the floods drown. It cannot be nonplussed, it abides the sorest trials. 
When his people are low and weak, when poor and despised, when re- 
proached and hated, when cast off by all, when overwhelmed with all that 
extinguish love amongst men, it abides the same, not in the least cooled : 
' Who can separate,' &c, Bom. viii. All these are comprised in the notion 
of those infirmities wherewith Christ is affectionately touched. His love 
flames forth even in the waters, which quench the love of others. Instead 
of withdrawing his affection in such cases, he expresseth it more, and suffers 
with them, being touched with the feeling of those infirmities by which they 



(4.) A peerless love. It cannot be matched. There is no such thing to 
be found in heaven or earth, but in Christ only. The text shews that, as 
he is high priest, he is touched with the feeling, &o. Therein his love 
appears. Now, as he is high priest, he is both God and man ; and so his 
love to us is both the love of God and also the love of man in one person. 
No instance of such a love can be given in the whole world. There is no 
such love in the angels, how much soever they affect the people of Christ, 
for theirs is neither the love of God nor the love of men. There had been 
no such love in God alone ; his was the love of God only, not of man. But 
Christ's affection to us is both the love of God and the love of man in one 
person. 

Look over heaven and earth, and you will never find two springs of love 
in one subject, whether it be finite or infinite. There is but one in an angel, 
there is but one in man, there is but one in God. The angel has but one 
nature, man has but one heart, God has but one will, each of these a single 
spring. Oh, but in Christ, and in him alone, there is a double fountain of 
love, each sending forth its proper streams, both meeting upon his people. 
The divine nature is one fountain ; there springs the love of God to us. 
The human nature is another ; there springs the love of man to us ; and 
both these in one person, in one Christ. 

It is true, the love of God alone is infinite, too much for us, or the most 
excellent creatures. There is infiniteness and incomprehensibleness in it, 
that which may asto nish and transport us eternally ; but there is not that 

* Qu. 'him*?— Ed. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



96 CHRIST TOUCHED WITH fHSB. IT. 15. 

suitableness in it to our natures or apprehensions, as there is in roan's love 
(not through any defect in it, but through our weakness) ; and though we 
should be more taken with it, because it is so much as we cannot apprehend, 
yet we are subject to be less moved with that which we apprehend not, or 
are less acquainted with. Whereas human love, such as is in the heart of 
man, is both co-natural to us, and we are well acquainted with it. We know 
not by experience what it is -to love as God loves ; such a love was never 
seated, nor ever moved in the heart of man ; but we know by experience 
what it is to love as men do ; we have felt the motions of such a love in our 
own breasts. 

Now such is the love of Christ to his people, in that he is touched with 
the feeling of their infirmities. Hereby it appears that he has the love, pity, 
compassions of a man for us, not that love of God only. There is both 
infiniteness, incomprehensibleness in his love, and likewise suitableness, co- 
naturalness also ; that which may not only transport us, but make the most 
impression on our hearts, and move our affections in the most suitable and 
kindly way. The love of God is hereby brought down to our capacity, to 
our experience, to our feeling ; in that he who is God would not only love 
us like himself, with the love of God, but as man also, with such a love as 
is in the heart of a man. ' 

Oh what a way has he made for our love to him ! He loved us as God ; 
and if that be above us, if that will not prevail with us as it should do, this 
love made him become man, that he might love us with such a love as most 
suit) us, and we are most apprehensive of, not only with the love of God, 
but of man also. Herein his love is matchless ; and so will our stupidness 
and ungratefulness be, if we love him not again. 

Moreover, it is peerless love upon another account ; not only because the 
love of God and the love of man meet in one person, but also because the 
love of all relations meet in his human nature, and that to each of his people. 
Not as it is with us, who have but the love of one relation for one, and of 
another for another, but not the love of all for any one. But Christ has the 
love of all relations, as much as all require, for every one that belongs to 
him. Jonathan had the love of a friend for David, and Joseph of a brother 
for Benjamin, and Jacob that of a father for Joseph, and Abraham that of 
a husband for Sarah, and Bachel that of a mother for her children ; but none 
of them had the love of all these for any one. If these several streams which 
did run in divers channels had been united, and run in one current towards 
any one, it had been a matchless love, such as could not be paralleled on 
earth. 

Now such is the love of Christ. He has the love of a friend, a brother, 
a father, a husband, of all relations, for every one of his people, Mat* xii. 
48-50. He owns such in all relations, and thereby declares himself obliged 
to have the love of all relations for every of them. 

And his sympathy, his pity, and compassions, which proceed from this 
love, are answerable to it. He is as affectionately and as effectually touched 
with the feeling of his people's infirmities as if every one of them were every 
way related to him ; as if they were both his friends, his brethren, his sisters, 
his mother, his children, and his sporfse. He has the compassions, and so 
the love, not only of one relation for one, and another relation for another, 
but of all relations together for every one of his. 

(5.) It is a cordial love, not in show or appearance only, not in outward 
acts and expressions, but such as springs from his heart, and affects that. 
He is touched, t. e. his heart is touched with the concerns of his people ; he 
is touched with the feeling of their infirmities, i. e. his heart feels. It is his 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HEB. IV. 15.] THE FEELING OF OUB INFIRMITIES. 97 

love that makes him inwardly, feelingly, heartily sensible of what they suffer. 
This excites inward motions, stirs np compassions, and all affections that 
depend thereon ; not only delight, which is an affection of enjoyment, to 
which therefore the nature of man is more inclinable, but pity and compas- 
sion, which (as I said before) is some kind of suffering to which our nature 
is more averse t 

His glorified body is now above suffering, but his heart suffers still, so far 
as perfect compassionateness is a suffering. His love is such that the griev- 
ances of his people touch his heart as if they were his own. Paul calls his 
suffering the * filling up of .that which remains of the afflictions of Christ/ 
Col. i. 24. The afflictions of his mystical body are resented by his love as 
if they were his own. Paul learnt this of Christ before ; he expressed such 
a heart-resentment of his people's grievances when he suffered by Saul, Acts 
ix. 4, 5. Saul trod but on the feet, and the head complains. He would 
not have complained that himself was persecuted, but that himself some way 
suffered. His glorified body suffered not ; this was above the reach of per- 
secution. What then suffered ? Why, his heart. The injuries reached not 
his body, but they touched his heart. This was touched, not with a painful 
but with a compassionate sense, which is the touch in the text, and is ex- 
pressed by tufMra&rjacu, a co- suffering, a suffering in mind or heart with those 
who suffer otherwise. 

You will say he loves you heartily, whose heart and soul suffers with you, 
when his body cannot. Such is the love of Christ ; hereby it appears to be 
such, in that his heart is touched with the feeling, &c. He lays to heart the 
wants, weaknesses, dangers, grievances of his people. His heart is on them, 
or else that which touches them would not reach his heart. 

(6.) An all-sufficient love. That which is sufficient for us whenever our 
condition is exigent, and in any need, and sufficient for all that we need or 
can reasonably desire in such a condition, is all-sufficient. 

Now, such is the love of Christ, and such it is represented to be in the 
text. This love shews itself in all our infirmities, and these comprise all the 
exigencies of our present condition in this world. Therein are included our 
weaknesses, our wants, our dangers, our troubles, whether inward or out- 
ward. This is the sum of all that oar frail condition is subject to or labours 
under. Now, the love of Christ reaches all these, and us in and under them 
all, in that he has an affectionate sense of all our infirmities. 

And it is sufficient for all that our condition requires in all or any of these, 
for all that we need desire under them is but pity and relief. These two com- 
prise all that is needful or desirable for us, and the love of Christ affords both, 
assures us both in that he is touched with the feeling of our condition. For 
that which the text gives as in these terms here is expressed by compassion 
and succour in this epistle ; by compassion, chap. v. 2 ; by succour, chap, 
ii. 18 ; and both together in the verse after the text. 

That is an all-sufficient love which will let you want nothing. But when 
your condition is saddest and most necessitous, you want nothing but pity 
and help. These are abundantly enough in the greatest, in any time of 
need ; and these the love of Christ will not let you want. He gives all 
assurance of it, in that he is touched with the feeling of your infirmities. 

Hereby you see what love Christ has for his people, what love he has for 
you, if ye be his indeed. It is most evident by this truth that he has a 
greater love. 

Now what does this call for ? Deep calls to deep. The love of Christ, 
such a love calls aloud, calls importunately for love again. Will you deny 

VOL. HI. G 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



98 CHRIST TOUCHED WITH [HfiB. IV. 15. 

the importunity of love, of Christ's love, of a love so obliging? No renewed 
heart, no ingenuous spirit, no soul that has anything of an evangelical temper, 
can resist it ; it will kindle into love, a love that will stir and act and sparkle 
at the view of the love of Christ, that will be ashamed of its own weakness, 
coolness, unactiveness, and shew it by diligence in the use of all means to 
get inflamed affections to Christ. 

Oh, if the love of Christ, such a love, will not constrain you to love him 
again, what is there in heaven or earth can have any power upon your hearts? 
If you can hear and believe that Christ is thus touched with the feeling of 
your infirmities, and this prevails not with you to love him, your hearts 
are stone. 

Shall love amongst men be judged worthy of a requital with love, and shall 
the love of Christ, in comparison of which all the love of the children of men 
is nothing, want this return ? 

If you return not .love to him for this love of his, you are worse than 
publicans, Mat. v. 46. If you love those that love you, this is not thanks- 
worthy ; it is due debt, even the publicans will pay it. If you love not 
Christ after such love expressed to you, ye are worse than they, worse than 
the most ill-natured, the most selfish, the most disingenuous, the most 
odious sinners ; worse to Christ than these are to one another ; as much 
worse to Christ, as the love of Christ is greater than any that is to be found 
in the hearts of men. 

8. Another duty which this truth calls for and engages us to is to hold 
fast our profession. This is the use which the apostle makes of it ; this is 
the end why he lays down this great and comfortable truth, viz. to encourage 
and oblige them to continue in their profession of Christ, and hold it fast ; 
to engage them neither to abandon it nor to abate anything of it, neither to 
quit it in whole nor in part : ver. 14, * Let us hold/ &c. Why so ? What 
reason, what motive, what encouragement have we to do it ? Much every 
way, that which is abundantly sufficient, says he, for, ver. 15, ' since we have 
such an high priest, 1 &c. let us hold our profession of Christ, and hold it 
fast. Let our judgments be established in the truth we profess, else we 
shall not hold it. Let our hearts clasp about it and embrace the goodness 
of it, else we shall not hold it fast. 

Let us hold it firmly, stedfastly, without wavering, else we hold it but with 
a palsy hand. Hold it without indifferency ; not, as the Israelites of old, 
halting between two, 1 Kings xviii. 21 ; nor as some of the Jews in the 
apostle's time, who halted between law and gospel, betwixt their former legal 
profession and the profession of Christ ; not walking uprightly according to 
the truth of the gospel, Gal. ii. 14 ; or as others now, halting betwixt Christ 
and antichrist, betwixt popery and pure religion. And as those judaising 
Christians made a medley of law and gospel, so do these a hotch-potch of 
popery and true profession, in doctrine, worship, or government ; shewing 
themselves to be indifferent, in many points, to either, and thereby tempting 
others to be indifferent in all, and to be determined as their interest may 
require. This is not to hold fast, but to be fast or loose as occasion serves ; 
to be fast to nothing, but their carnal or worldly interest, James i. 8. 

Let us hold it resolutely, without timorousness or cowardice. Not like 
those represented to us by the stony ground, Mat. xiii. 21. We had need 
look to it, having reason enough to expect greater and sorer trials, as to our 
profession, than this age has exercised us with, or that before it our ances- 
tors. If we be found amongst the cowardly and fearful here, we shall have 
our place with them hereafter, Rev. xzi. 8, inter omnes, imo ante omnes, 
timidis. s 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



HEB. IV. 15.] THE FEELING OF OX7B INFIRMITIES. 99 

Let as hold it affectionately, with zeal, delight, and love for Christ, his 
troths and ways, without remitting any degree of affection or fervour. He 
that grows cool lets go his hold, or the fastness of it. We hold not fast 
our profession, hut when our hearts are fastened to it, and that is by affec- 
tion. These are the strings and cords that fasten our hearts to it ; when 
these are slacked, our hold is loosened. 

Let us hold it openly, without fear or shame. It is not a thing of that 
nature that we should either be afraid or ashamed of. These make men 
shrink or draw back, and he that draws back sticks not fast to his profes- 
sion. The apostle would not allow the Hebrews, even in the midst of the 
reproaches and hazards wherewith they were encompassed, to hide their 
heads, contenting themselves with a secret or concealed profession, and with- 
drawing from their assemblies, Heb. z. 25. Those that forsook their as- 
semblies were such as had already deserted their profession, or were not (if 
they yet held it) like to hold it fast. 

Hold it entirely, extensively, in all the parts and acts, all the truths and 
duties, which belong to your profession. He that lets go any, has not fast 
hold of the whole. He that will hold only the safe, and cheap, and easy 
parts of his profession, lets go his hold where he is most tried, where it 
should be fastest. 

Thus we should hold fast our profession. And we have great encourage- 
ment from this truth to do it ; it affords that which strongly obliges us, 
neither to quit it of our own accord, nor to suffer anything to force it from 
us. It offers enough to arm us against temptations we may meet with of 
such a tendency. 

That which may tempt us, either to quit our profession or to abate any- 
thing of it, is either the difficulties in it, or the hazards of it. Now, in that 
Christ is touched, Ac, we are secured, we are encouraged, we are fortified 
against both these, both as to what may seem hard or difficult in it, and what 
we may hazard or suffer by it. 

1. As for the difficulties. There are some acts, some duties of our pro- 
fession, are too hard for us. Our infirmities and weaknesses cannot reach 
them, or make us drive on heavily in them. This may make us weary, or 
tempt some to give over. 

But against this, in that Christ is touched with the feeling of our in- 
firmities, we have these encouragements. 

(1.) Christ expects not that from his people, which their infirmities and 
weaknesses cannot reach. He is our high priest ; ours by virtue of an office 
which requires all tenderness and compassionateness. He expressed it, and 
perfectly answers it, in being touched with the feeling of our infirmities. 

A master that is merciful will not press that upon a sickly servant which 
his distemper will not suffer him to do. If he be careless and slothful, 
indeed he may be angry ; but in that which he falls short of, measly because 
he is sick, he will shew pity rather than rigour. 

Christ is a merciful high priest. He knows that weaknesses and inward 
distempers are the sickliness of the soul. He would not have us slothful, 
indulgent to carnal ease ; that will displease him. But he looks not for 
more than a sickly temper can afford. ' If there be a willing mind,' 2 Cor. 
viii. 12 ; if he see there is really a willing mind to do more and better, that 
which we cannot do will not be expected. That which we do, though it fall 
far short of what is due, will be accepted. 

A parent that has any tenderness will not look for that from an infant, or 
weak child, that he expects from another. He will be pleased with a little 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



100 CHBIST TOUCHED WITH [HeB. IV. 15. 

done by a weakling, ont of affection and sense of duty. What cannot be 
done through weakness, will be passed by with pity. 

We have a high priest that is touched with the feeling of onr infirmities, 
who has the compassions of God, of man, of a father, of all relations : Ps. 
ciii. 18, 14, ' He knows onr frame,' of what a frail and infirm composition 
it is ; he knows it by experience, and- learned compassionateness thereby. 
And in that he is touched with the compassionate sense of our weaknesses, 
he will not rigorously exact what through infirmity we cannot reach. 

(2.) He will not be severe for failings, such as are the issue of our in- 
firmities. He has a tender sense of our weaknesses, pities us under them ; 
and such a compassionate tenderness excludes severity, leaves no occasion 
to fear it. We have a pregnant instance hereof in the days of his flesh, 
Mat. xxvi. 87-41. His soul was under great affliction; he desires his 
disciples to watch with him a little while ; they, instead thereof, fall asleep. 
He might have resented this heinously, tha^t they would not attend him 
watchfully for one hour, for so little a while, and that too when he was in 
so great extremity, when his soul was so exceeding sorrowful even unto 
death. They could not but condemn themselves for this ; but he, instead 
of condemning them, or making any severe or sharp reflection upon them 
for it, finds out an excuse for them, ' The spirit is willing,' &c. He takes 
gracious notice of a willingness within, when no such thing appears without, 
when it was quite overpowered with weakness, and gives the weakness itself 
a merciful allowance. 

(8.) He will succour you. In that he is touched with the feeling of your 
infirmities, you may be sure he is ready and willing to do this to relieve 
you, either by lessoning the difficulty or the infirmity ; either by making the 
burden less, or healing the sore which makes it uneasy. In that he has 
such a sense of our infirmities, we may conclude, as the apostle does, that 
we shall ' find grace to help in time of need,' as much as is sufficient. He 
assures him of it, 2 Cor. xii. 9. The perfection 6f his strength appears 
most in the weak. This made Paul bear up under all difficulties, to such a 
height, as he could rejoice, yea, glory, in the hardest circumstances that 
encountered him, ver. 9, 10. Nor was this a privilege peculiar to the 
apostle ; there is a promise offering it to all Christ's people, Isa. xl. 81. 
Since Christ has such a feeling of our infirmities, we might be sure he would 
relieve and strengthen, though he had not promised it. It is some ease to 
those who do but suffer with others, by way of sympathy and fellow-feeling, 
to have them eased. Christ himself some way suffers, till his people be 
relieved. It is through him, and mercy through him, that the promise is 
made. ' Now that it is promised, both his faithfulness and compassionate-' 
ness insure the performance. 

If CLrist have such a sense of the difficulties we labour under, they need 
not discousage us ; he will take care we shall not sink under them. He 
himself is concerned in the pressure, and has a feeling of it. 

2. As for dangers and sufferings which attend the profession of Christy 
they need be no discouragement. For in that Christ is touched with the 
feeling of our infirmities (sufferings amongst the rest), he suffers with his 
people therein ; and so they are upon this account (as they are upon others 
also) his sufferings ; therefore he will order them as his own. Hence we 
may conclude they will do us no hurt, they shall do us good. 

Christ will take care they shall not hurt us ; he will secure us from the 
evil of them ; and being secured from the evil of them, there is nothing in 
them to be feared ; nothing to fright us from our profession, any part or 
degree of it ; nothing to discourage us from persisting in it, and holding it fast. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HEB. IV. 15.] THE FEELING OF OUB INPIBMITIES. 101 

There is a threefold evil in sufferings : legal, moral, natural. 

(1.) A legal evil, and that is the curse. Afflictions, that which we suffer 
by since the fall, were deserved by sin, threatened by the law, executed by 
divine justice, to satisfy for the injury sin had done him ; so they become a 
curse. Christ has freed his people from the curse, by suffering for them, 
Gal. iii. 18 ; and even those that are chastisements, are now freed from the 
curse. They are not destructive penalties, they are not from vindictive 
wrath, they are not to satisfy justice ; and if sufferings for sin be secured 
from this dreadful evil, sufferings for the profession of Christ are at far 
farther distance from it. 

(2.) A moral evil. And that is the sin that sufferings expose us to, which 
may be occasioned thereby, which those are usually tempted to who are under 
Bufferings. 

Now Christ himself, in the days of his suffering, was tempted to sin ; that 
was one of those infirmities he laboured under, and was exposed to, for our 
sakes ; and for this end, that he might be touched with the feeling of their 
condition who are tempted, that he might sympathise with them in the hour 
of temptation, that he might know by experience their danger and distress, 
and so both pity and relieve them, Heb. ii. 18. He is hereby every way 
sufficient, both able and willing to succour the tempted. 

He shewed a compassionate sense of their danger of sin under sufferings, 
and how desirous he is to have them secured from it, by his prayer on earth. 
It was his petition a little before his death, John xvii. 15. He would not 
have them taken out of the world, nor freed quite from troubles and suffer- 
ings in it ; but freed from the evil, that is, the sin of them. Though troubles 
continue, though this serpent will live, and be upon us now and then while 
we are on earth ; yet he takes care that it be disarmed, that the sting be 
polled out, that the mortal venom of it may not seize on his suffering saints ; 
and then there is nothing in it to discourage or make them afraid. 

(8.) A natural evil. And that is the smart, the grievance, the pain, and 
afflictiveness of it to the flesh. This nature is most afraid of; but the fear 
and discouragement of this may be quite overcome by a due consideration 
and belief of this truth. Christ himself suffered this ; he knows by expe- 
rience what the pain and afflictiveness of sufferings is. He would feel it 
himself, that he might be touched with the feeling of what his people suffer 
by it. He knows what relief and compassion it calls for ; and as he would 
not have been denied it when the case was his, so he will not deny it to his 
people. Indeed, the case is still his in some sense, seeing he suffers with 
them, not by a painful, but by a compassionate feeling of their sufferings. 
Hence we may conclude, 

[1.] He will let no more befall us than is tolerable, than we may well 
endure. He knows the weight and grievance of sufferings ; himself bore it. 
He knows our weakness and infirmity ; himself was under our weaknesses. 
He has experience of both, so he knows what degree of pain or grievance 
would be too much or too heavy ; and since he is touched with the feeling 
hereof, to be sure he will not suffer us to feel more than we can bear. His 
compassions are too great to let any grievance be too heavy. If he were not, 
as we may say, a fellow-sufferer with us, if he had not the compassions of a 
man for us, yet his faithfulness as God would prevent this, 1 Cor. x. 18. But 
there is a concurrence of both ; he is both a merciful and faithful high priest. 

[2.] He will make what befalls us comfortable. He that cannot fail to 
pity us will not fail to comfort us. It is so amongst men. He that is 
heartily touched with the feeling of another's grievances, and really pities his 
condition, will comfort him if he can. Now Christ, who has such a feeling 

Digitized by LjOOQlC 



102 CHRIST TOUCHED WITH [HEB. IV. 15. 

of his people's pressures, and has such transcendent compassions for them, 
he can accordingly comfort them. When sufferings most abound, he can 
make comforts super abound, 2 Cor. i. 5. He can poor in snch comforts as 
will drown the sense of what is most sharp and afflictive in outward suffer- 
ings, 1 Cor. vii. 4 ; such as will make what is otherwise grievous to the flesh 
to be exceeding joyous, occasion of more joy than the greatest occasions of 
rejoicing in the whole world, Bom. viii. 85, 87. What joy like that of a 
conqueror in the day of his victory or of his triumph ? Even in the^worst 
of sufferings, &c, Christ affords more joy than that of conquerors ; he makes 
his suffering people more than conquerors, and so gives more occasion of joy 
and triumph ; they have it through Christ that loves them, that has an 
affectionate sense of their sufferings. 

[8.] He will make what befalls them profitable, highly advantageous. 
That shall be the issue of the smart and grievance of outward sufferings. 
This also we may be assured of, in that he is touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities. He is, as I shewed, touched effectually with the feeling. Now 
such an effectual sense will afford the best relief, the most advantageous, 
such as is expressed by riches of grace and glory, and what is most desirable, 
advantage every way. 

First, Temporal, Mark x. 80. In this time he shall have an hundredfold 
advantage ; in kind, if that be best for him ; or else what is better: 

Secondly. Spiritual advantage. The increase of holiness, and the fruits 
of it, which is more precious than gold, Heb. xii. 10. That we might more 
richly partake of his holiness, than without sufferings we would do, that we 
might be more filled with the fruits of it, ver. 11. The apostle found it true 
by experience, 2 Cor. iv. 16. Holiness was daily increased in his soul by 
daily sufferings, such as threatened the ruin of the outward man. 

Thirdly. Eternal advantage, ver: 17. For affliction, glory ; as if one for 
bearing a cross word patiently should be crowned a king. For light afflic- 
tion, a weight of glory ; as if one, for the loss of a farthing, should have 
millions of gold. For a moment's affliction, eternal glory ; as if one, for the 
pain of a minute, should have all prosperity and happiness imaginable for 
thousands and thousands of ages, for ages without end, and that without 
intermission. But no comparison can reach it. It is wrg£j3aXAo», &c, 
exceeding more, far more exceeding. Put them together in the balance, 
and that scale wherein the weight of glory is will make the other fly up, as 
if there were nothing at all in it. The heaviest afflictions are no more a 
counterpoise to this weight of glory, than the small dust of the balance is to 
an hundred thousand weight. Christ's feeling of his people's sufferings for 
their profession, gives assurance of such weighty and rich advantages by the 
worst they can suffer for holding it fast. 

What encouragement then is here to hold fast our profession ! No diffi- 
culties or sufferings can be any just occasion for discouraging us. Nothing 
can be pretended but the evil of them ; and Christ is ready, not only to 
secure his people from all kind of evil, but to turn it into good ; not only to 
render it tolerable, but very comfortable, richly advantageous, with the 
highest advantages that earth or heaven, time or eternity, can afford. All 
this we may be assured of, in that he is touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities. 

4. Another duty which this truth calls and obliges us to, is to sympathise 
with one another. If Christ be thus touched with the feeling of our infir- 
mities, then ought we to be touched with the sense of our brethren's infir- 
mities. If the head be thus sensible, shall the members have no sense ? 
1 John iv. 11, * If Christ so loved us,' &o. This is propounded not only for 

Digitized by LjOOQlC 



HEB. IV, 15.] TH« FEELING OF OOTt INFIRMITIES. 108 

oar comfort and encouragement, but also for our imitation, 1 John i. 7. 
We have not fellowship with one another, as Christ has with us, unless we 
have a fellow-feeling of what others suffer. 

It is due upon this account, and frequently called for : 1 Peter iii. 8, 
QfioppMs. There should be an union of souls amongst those who are one in 
Christ. They should be compassionate, <ri/fMra0«/fc, should sympathise 
together ; feel what lies heavy on others, and suffer by compassion what 
others suffer otherwise. Else they are not p/Xa&Xpo/ ; they have not that 
love for their brethren, which the love of Christ obliges them to have. They 
should be pitiful, luerrXay^w/ ; their bowels should be troubled for that which 
troubles them, and shew it by being p i\6pgov*e , ready to relieve. The same 
word, Acts xxviii. 7, such sympathy, with the acts or parts of it (pity and 
readiness to succour) ; and this out of love, as those that are concerned, as 
being all one, of one mind and soul, we should have for one another, because 
Christ has it for us, CoL iii. 12, 18. We should sympathise with them in 
all infirmities ; so does he with us. 

(1.) In outward infirmities, weaknesses, wants, dangers, sufferings. We 
should be touched with what others feel herein, 2 Cor. xi. 29. He calls 
Timothy to partake with him in his danger and restraint, 2 Tim. i. 8. The 
Hebrews sympathised with him in his bonds. Heb. x. 84, <rw«rato)(wm, ye 
suffered with me, &c. He would have them (and us in them) so to suffer 
with all the members of Christ, Heb. xiii. 8, have that sense of their con- 
dition as if it were your own, such a sense as you would others have if the 
case were yours ; and this not only for bonds, but any adversity, 1 Cor. xii. 
25, 26. If the foot be in pain, the head feels it ; if the back be naked, the 
breast will be sensible of it ; if the belly be pinched with want, or the 
stomach be sick, the other parts will feel it. So should it be with the 
members of the mystical body. We shall want one main evidence that we 
are parts of that body whereof Christ is head, if there be not some sense in 
us of what fellow- members feel. It is schism ; you divide yourselves from 
the rest of the body when you have not a joint sense of what other members 
suffer. This is to be schismatics in the apostle's sense. 

(2.) Inward infirmities. When they are tempted, sympathise with them, 
considering ourselves, lest we also be tempted. When dejected, 1 Thes. 
v. 14. And those that are weak, ready to fall ; not only bear with them, 
but bear them up, take part of the pressure upon yourselves, that they may 
not sink under it. So does Christ for us, leaving us an example that we 
should follow his steps. 

When weak in judgment, Rom xv. 1, 8. Ye that understand the doc- 
trine of Christ, that in particular concerning Christian liberty, ought to bear 
the weakness of those who are not so apprehensive of it ; and not to please 
yourselves with reflecting upon the strength of your own judgment, or clear- 
ness of your own apprehensions. And so imitate Christ, ver. 8, counting 
weir concernments yours ; as he did the concerns of his Father, was as ten- 
der of what reflected on him, as if it had fallen on himself. 

(8.) In sinful infirmities, 2 Cor. xi. 29. « Who is offended,' i. e. who 
falls into sin ; for that is the true notion of being offended in the New Tes- 
tament. So giving of offence is explained, Rom. xiv. 13. Who falls into 
sro, ' and I burn not,' says he. Such falls were grievous to him, he had a 
quick and painful feeling thereof; he both suffered by, and with such. Falling 
into sin is like falling into the fire ; not only the offenders, but the apostle, 
was scorched thereby. So should it be with us, Gal. vi. 1, 2. Do not bur- 
den him more, by censuring and aggravating his fault ; but ease him, by 
suffering with him, counting his fall your own burden. 



Digitized by 



Google 



104 CHBIBT TOUGHED WITH [HEB. IV, 15. 

We should sympathise with our brethren, even in infirmities that are not 
without sin ; whether they be apprehensions or acts, opinions or practices 
(being but weaknesses incident to those whom Christ owns, and sympathises 
with) ; we should learn of him to have compassion on them, and affection- 
ately endeavour to succour them. 

The consideration of this, that Christ is touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities, is enough to remove whatever may hinder us from a compas- 
sionate sense of others' mfirmitiea. 

Obj. 1. It is a plain truth wherein he diners from me; it is evident to 
me, and seems clear as the light, yet he will not yield to me. If it was ob- 
scure and difficult, if it were doubtful and disputable, and had probable rea- 
sons both for it and against it, such as might puzzle a common understand- 
ing, then I might pity and bear with him. 

Ans. It seems clear to thee, but is it so in itself, or so to him ? If it were 
plain to him, it would be rather wilfulness than infirmity in him not to yield. 
But is it not possible that you may be mistaken as well as he ? Are you 
infallible ? Have you not found by experience, that what once you have 
judged a clear truth, you have afterwards discerned to be a mistake and 
error ? Who is there that makes any diligent inquiry after truth, that has 
not found this by experience ? Now, were not you to be pitied in those 
misapprehensions, wherein you now discover a pitiful weakness ? What if 
the world had agreed with you, yielded to you in this, in those first opinions, 
wherein you now see reason to differ from yourselves ? Did you not need 
Christ's compassions in such weaknesses ? And Will you have no tender- 
ness for others, in such cases where you need it yourselves. 

But, further, Do not you differ in some points from Christ himself ? Are 
your judgments perfectly conformable to his in all things ? May there not 
be some particulars, which to you seem clear truths, which yet he knows 
infallibly to be mistakes and erroneous apprehensions ? It would argue in- 
tolerable pride, and unacquaintedness with the darkness and weakness of our 
own understanding to question this. Now, would you not have Christ to pity 
and bear with you, in points wherein you dissent from him ? Would you 
not have Christ to judge, that in all things where you are not of his mind 
(which yet are clear to him beyond all possibility of mistake), your mistake 
is out of wilfulness, not infirmity, and so shonld have no pity for you ? Oh, 
if he did so, you were undone I Miserable must we all be, if Christ were 
not touched compassionately with the feeling of our weakness, in varying 
from his judgment as to those things that are most clear and certain 
truths to him. And do we expect compassion from him, where we have no 
forbearance for others? Are we disciples of Christ, and will not learn 
of him ? 

Obj. 2. But it is not a few things wherein he crosses my persuasion. If 
he differed but from me in one or two points, it might be borne; but he runs 
counter to my way and judgment in many. 

Ans. But does he differ from you in more, or as many particulars, as you 
dissent from Christ in ? I am much mistaken if this be not true ; that even 
the sincere lovers of Christ and his truth differ in far more points from 
Christ, than they differ one from another. This leads me to judge so ; there 
are many things that we know not ; the best, most knowing, are ignorant of 
far more than they understand ; and those things that we have <any know- 
ledge of, we know but in part, 1 Cor. xiii. 12, and viii. 2 ; we partly know 
it, and partly are ignorant of it, 1 Cor. xiii. 12 ; we see but darkly, t. e. we 
know but ignorantly, as children do, ver. 11. 

Now, where there is ignorance (if the mind come to any positive judg- 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HKB. IV. 15.] THE FEELING OF OTJB INFIBMITIE8. 105 

ment), there will be error and mistake ; so that, being wholly ignorant of 
many things, and partly ignorant of all, we are subject to err more or less 
in all things. Hence it comes to pass, that the errors of our minds are like 
those of our ways for multitude : Ps. xiz. 12, ' They are so many, we cannot 
know them. Our mistakes are in number like the hairs of our heads. 

Now, so many ways as we mistake and err, so many ways do we dissent 
from Christ, and run cross to his judgment and persuasion. And has Christ 
compassion on thee and all these ? Is he touched with the feeling of thy 
weakness in all ? And wilt thou not forbear thy brother in some differ- 
ences ? What though they seem many, they are but few really, in compa- 
rison of those wherein thou dissentest from Christ ; and wherein, if thou 
meetest not with pity and succour from him, thou art lost. 

Obj. 8. But those opinions wherein he differs from me are of very ill 
consequence. They are not mere notions, or speculative errors, but practi- 
cal mistakes, such as lead him out of the way wherein I walk, and Christ 
would have him walk ; and may mislead others into wanderings and by- 
paths. And though they be not paths pernicious and destructive, but such 
as those who, for the main, are under the conduct of the Spirit of Christ, may 
slip into, yet they are not without some sin and great danger. Erroneous 
speculations may be better borne with than practical errors. 

Ans. Christ has compassions for those who not only err notionally, 
but practically, so as to step out of the way, and wander too. Herein he 
is compared with the Levitical high priest, of whom it was required, Heb. 
v. 2. Christ herein transcends him. He <jan more pity, both ayvoova and 
vXawpivoig ; both those who are in the dark, and apt to wander, not dis- 
cerning betwixt light and darkness in their notions ; and those also who mis- 
take their way, turn aside, and are actually wandering out of the path. 

Now, does Christ compassionately sympathise with thee and others, when 
out of the way by practical mistakes ; and wilt thou have no tenderness, no 
forbearance for thy brother in the like case ? Shall he have compassionate 
sympathy, proportionable to the wandering (so the word there signifies) as 
great as the mistake is ; and wilt thou think it too great for thine ? What 
if Christ should measure to thee what thon metest to others ? 

Obj. 4. But he is sour, cross, fro ward, peevish, wilful, puts a bad con- 
struction upon my forbearance and condescensions, makes ill returns, gives 
great provocations when I give him no occasion, and every way disobliges 
me. This calls for severeness, or rougher passions than pity. Who can 
affectionately sympathise with such a one ? Who can shew compassionate 
tenderness towards him ? It is unreasonable to expect it, it is impossible 
to do it ; who ever did, who can do it ? 

Ans. Who can do it ? dost thou ask. Why, Christ does it for thee. 

(1.) When thou earnest thyself worse towards him than thy brother does 
to thee. There is not any one in the world shews himself so sour, cross, 
&c., so disingenuous, so provoking, so ungrateful, so every way disobliging, 
as thon hast shewed thyself to Christ. There is not the most perverse, the 
most cross-grained person, that ever thou hadst anything to do with, that 
has demeaned himself worse to thee, than thou hast done to Christ. Thou 
art wofhlly blinded by self-love ; thou art one of no consideration, of no 
sense, if not sensible of this. Thou knowest not Christ, thou knowest not 
thyself, thine own heart and ways, if thon wilt not acknowledge this. 

(2.) Yea, take them altogether, that ever dealt ill with thee, all that ever 
thon hast had any occasion to complain of ; and thou alone hast dealt worse 
with Christ, and done more against him, than all of them together have 
done against thee. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



106 CHRIST TOUCHED WITH [HEB. IV. 15. 

(8.) Where thou hast had one provocation from any, Christ has had an 
hundred from thee. Yon disoblige Christ more in one day, than others do 
yon in a whole year. 

(4.) And provocations of Christ are not only more in number, but greater, 
and of a higher nature ; as much higher as the heavens are above the earth ; 
as much greater, as God is greater than man ; for the height of the provo- 
cation rises from the transcendency of the person provoked. He that pro- 
vokes you is but a man like yourselves, but Christ is not only man, but 
God, and we are less to him than flies and gnats are to us. And the less 
we are in his eye, the greater and more insufferable is every provocation 
from us. 

(5.) And all this thou doest when he gives thee not the least occasion to 
deal ill with him, when all his ways are mercy, when he is every moment 
obliging thee, and does so much to oblige thee as no creature in the world 
can or will do. 

Now, put all these together. Have you been worse to him than any other 
has been to you ? Have you more disobliged him than you have been dis- 
obliged by all the persons in the world put together ? Has he had a thou- 
sand provocations from you for one you have had from any ? Are your 
provocations incomparably greater and higher than any you have met with 
from others ? And do you provoke him without a cause, when he gives yon 
not the least occasion imaginable to do it? And yet notwithstanding all this, 
does he not only bear with you, but pity you ? Has he tender affections, 
when he has so much occasion for indignation and severity ? Is he touched 
with the feeling of your infirmities ? Has he a compassionate tenderness for 
you after all this ? And will you not have sympathy and tenderness for your 
brethren ? Oh this example of Christ will leave us without excuse herein ; 
we have nothing to plead, but this will silenoe us. Nothing at all left us, I 
say not to justify, but in any degree to extenuate, the sinfulness of this 
neglect. 

You see all that may hinder us from sympathising with our brethren is 
quite removed by Christ's own example, here set down before us in the text. 
Let us see what it affords to enforce this duty on us further. 

(1.) Hereby you will be like to Christ, and to be like to Christ is the 
highest excellency we can attain ; it is the sum of all our duty, and so 
should be the end and scope of all our endeavours, the great design and 
business of our whole life. 

What higher excellency can we aspire to than a likeness to Christ? 
Revenge is that indeed wherein the world glories, to do evil for evil, and 
come even with those who affront or wrong them ; but this they learn of 
the devil, not of Christ. It is a devilish deformity ; they have it of their 
father, and are herein as like him as they can look. But the glory of a 
Christian is to do good for evil, to pity those they suffer by, and to sympa- 
thise with such as disoblige them. This is glorious indeed ; this is to be 
like to Christ himself; it is his- glory, and shines in the text ; it is the ex- 
cellency of his office, as he is High Priest, Philip, ii. 5. While the same 
mind is in others that is in the world, that is in the devil, it will be our 
glory to have * the same mind in ns that was in Christ,' by having a sense 
of others' wants, weaknesses, dangers, sufferings, as Christ has of ours. 

It is our great duty also. Christ calls us to it : Mat. xi., * Learn of me.' 
It is essential to a disciple of Christ to learn of him ; if we refuse it, what- 
ever we pretend to, we really disclaim, renounce our relation to him, Mat. 
xvi. 24. If we will be his disciples, we must follow him ; we must imitate 
him, follow his example, for he has left us his example on purpose, 1 Peter 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HEB. IV. 15. J THK FBEUXG OP OUB INFIRMITIES. 107 

ii. 21. This is one of the paths wherein he went before us. We see in 
the text the steps which we most follow : Eph. iv. 82 and v. 1, 2, « tender- 
hearted, 1 tvoTXay^vcg. 

That is the eompassionateness the text calls for ; shew it in such acts as 
he has done. Be ye followers, imitators of him herein; walk in love. 
How ? Even as Christ. Christ shews his love in being touched, &c. ; so 
do ye. This is to follow God ; this is to learn of Christ effectually. So he 
begins the exhortation to the duties following, -and this particularly, chap, 
iv. 20, 21. Ye have not so learned Christ; ye do not follow him, ye are 
not like him, if ye do not this ; ye have not pat on the new man, which is 
Christ's resemblance, ver. 24. If this be wholly wanting, Col. iii. 12, 18, 
put on 4*a}&yyytM. iixrie/Aov, bowels of compassion. Shew it as Christ did ; 
let him be your example ; let no /to/up)), nothing that you can blame or find 
fault with in those who want your compassion, hinder you, ver. 14. Love 
to others, founded in the love of Christ to you, is the bond of perfectness ; 
the most perfect bond, that which most strongly binds and obliges you to 
this ; to all mercifulness and eompassionateness, in imitation of Christ. 

Use 2. For comfort to the people of Christ. Here is ground of great con- 
solation in every condition ; in the worst, the most grievous circumstances 
that yoa can be compassed with in this world. All grievances whatsoever 
are comprised under infirmities ; and this affords comfort as to everything 
that can be a grievance to you, especially taking in the ground of it in the 
next words, ' But was in all things tempted,' or exercised, like unto us. 

Art thou poor, wantest conveniences, and sometimes (it may be) neces- 
saries ? Why, Christ is touched with the feeling of a poor condition ; it was 
once his own case, 2 Cor. viii. 9 ; poor in relations, Philip, ii. 7. As to 
friends, a few fishermen ; as to estate, he had not wherewith to pay a small 
tribute, but what he got by miracle ; as to accommodations, worse provided 
for than the inferior creatures, Mat. viii. 20. Christ is touched with the 
sense of thy poor condition, for he himself felt it ; he will relieve thee, for 
therefore did he feel it, that he might be ready to do it. 

Art thou tempted to sin, "buffeted by Satan, afflicted with horrid sugges- 
tions ? Christ is touched with the feeling of a tempted soul ; he himself 
was exercised with temptation. Satan assaulted him both invisibly and 
visibly ; he tried him with variety of temptations. And what more horrid 
suggestion than that, to fall down and worship the devil ? Mat. iv. Yea, 
Christ was so far in his power, and at his disposal, in the hour of tempta- 
tion, that Satan carried him from place to place in the air, from the wilder- 
ness to the temple at Jerusalem, and from thence into a high mountain, 
Mat. iv. 1, 6, 8. 

Art thou despised, hated, reproached, despitefully used? He is touched 
with the sense of this; it was his own case. He was reviled as a glutton, 
a wine-bibber, an impostor, a blasphemer, and one that dealt with the devil. 
He knows what it is to be overwhelmed with shame and reproach, his own 
experience makes him sensible of it. 

Is this world a vale of trouble and tears to thee ? Is thy life a life of 
sorrows and sufferings ? Dost thou suffer from all sorts, not only from 
professed enemies, but those whom thou seekest most to oblige ? Art thou 
in anguish of spirit, heaviness of soul, forsaken of men, and to sense deserted 
of God ? Why, thus it was with him, he himself felt all this. So there is 
no doubt but he is touched with the feeling of it. He was a man of sorrows, 
acquainted with griefs, with all sorts of grief. He suffered from all sorts ; 
not only his enemies, but his friends, were a trouble to him. Even his dis- 
ciples forsook him in his greatest distress. He was afflicted with outward 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



108 OHBIST TOUGHED WITH [Hl£B. IV, 15, 

pain and soul- trouble both at once; his soul was heavy, exceedingly sor- 
rowful, even unto death ; and when he was in the hands of cruel and bloody 
men, he cries out in the anguish of his soul, as one forsaken of God. 

Briefly, whatever thy trouble or grievance be, here is a spring, a well of 
comfort opened to thee in the text, from whence thou mayest draw streams 
of joy and refreshment in all the sad circumstances of thy life, for hence 
thou hast ground to conclude assuredly, 

(1.) That the Lord delights not in your grievances. He takes no pleasure 
to afflict you, or to let others do it; he ' afflicts not willingly, 1 Lam. iii. S3; 
he delights not in that which he has such a compassionate sense of ; he 
takes no pleasure in that which is afflictive to you, for he himself feels it. 

How comes it then to pass that the troubles of the righteous are so many ? 
Why, there is some necessity for it ; it is not but ' if need be,' 1 Peter i. ; there 
is some great advantage to be had by it, and this is the method which infinite 
wisdom counts best for the attaining of it. Otherwise, if it were not neces- 
sary, if it were not good, he would not suffer it, since he some way suffers 
by it; it is not the suffering that pleases him, the same thing cannot in the 
same respect be the object both of delight and commiseration. Christ has 
compassions on you herein, so far as he suffers with you. He takes no plea- 
sure in what is grievous to you, for himself feels it. Acts vii. 34, ' I have seen, I 
have seen,' says the Lord ; I have felt, I have felt, says Christ, the affliction, &c. 

(2.) You are n6t alone in any condition, in any grievance, be it want or 
weakness, danger or suffering ; you will always have one by you to sympa- 
thise with you, one who stands for more than all the world. This was the 
comfort wherewith Christ comforted himself, when he was like to be left 
destitute of all outward comforts and comforters, John xvi. 82. This is it 
which will secure you against the evil of any want, or weakness, or trouble, 
how great soever; yea, against all fear of it, Ps. xxiii. 4, Isa. xli. 10, Ac. 
That which need not be your fear need not be your trouble. You need fear 
nothing if Christ be with you. And this the text assures you of, he will be 
with you ; not only as a spectator, but as a co-sufferer ; as one that not only 
will see, but will feel, what you want, or what you endure. Oh what com- 
fort is it to consider this ! While I am in want, in pain, in distress, labour- 
ing under weaknesses, or conflicting with outward troubles, inward temptation ; 
while I am complaining and bemoaning myself, Christ is pitying me. His 
bowels yearn towards me, he feels what pinches me, he is affectionately 
touched with the feeling of it. 

(3.) You shall have his affection in every state, under all infirmities. 
The mind and heart of Christ will be upon you in every condition, under all 
weaknesses, in all wants, in all grievances. For this is a proposition of 
eternal truth, Christ is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. This 
will hold true in every moment of your lives, Christ's compassions mil not ; 
and while he has compassions, he has love, and all the affections that depend 
on love. So that, whatever you want, Christ will never want love for you ; 
you will never want his love. And what need you more ? What want is 
there in the world that his love will not make up ? Whatever you suffer, you 
will not lose his love ; and there is enough in his compassion, in his love, to 
make any grievance better than freedom from it; to make any condition, how 
necessitous, weak, afflictive soever, more comfortable, more advantageous, 
more desirable, than any exemption from it, when this is not from love. 
Will he love you less, because you are compassed with infirmities ? Will 
he not shew more love ? The more compassion is shewed, the more love 
appears. And he shews most compassion where there is most need ; and 
who need more than they that labour under most infirmities ? 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



HSB. IV. 15.] THE PEELING OF OUR INFIRMITIES. 109 

4. You shall have that which is best for 70a in your infirmities ; and 
nothing can be more comfortable than to be assured of what is best for you. 
If it be best to have your infirmities, the burdened lessened, he will do it. 
If it be best that they be continued, with support under them, you shall 
have that. If it be better to have a holy and fruitful improvement of them, 
than to be freed from them, you shall have that. If it be best to have 
deliverance from them, he will work it; as soon as it is so, he will not delay 
it. This you may be sure of, because he is touched, &c. For this is not 
the pity of a weak man, who may wish well to him he pities, but cannot 
help ; may be willing to do what is best for him, but is not able ; but it 
is the compassion of him, who is the mighty God. Indeed, he is both God 
and man, who is thos touched with the sense of our condition. And so it 
is the compassion of a man, for the tenderness of it, but the compassion of 
God, for the mighty power and efficacy of it. 

This assures us that he is both able and willing to afford the best relief, 
and this is by doing that which is best for us. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



OF COMING BOLDLY UNTO THE THRONE 
OF GRACE. 



Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, 
and find grace to help in time of need. — Heb. IV. 16. 

These words are a most comfortable conclusion drawn from what is pre- 
mised in the former verse. Since we have an high priest, one who has 
reconciled ns to God, and does intercede for [as] ; snch an high priest who is 
tonched with the feeling of oar infirmities ; one who is so. compassionate to 
us, and so ready to relieve as under all infirmities whatever ; therefore let 
us come boldly. 

To open the words a little. Here is an act or motion, with the manner, 
and term, and end of it. 

Let us. This may denote, it is both our privilege and duty to come, and 
thus to come. We may do it, it is our privilege, our happiness. We ought 
to do it, it is our duty. We have not only leave to do thus, but it is 
enjoined us ; the Lord has made that our duty, which is our happiness. 
Indeed, he enjoins us nothing but what tends to make us happy. Such a 
Lord we have, as requires nothing of us, but in order to our own happiness. 
This is true in all the instances of our duty, though it do not so plainly 
appear in some of them ; but in this before us it is both true and evident ; 
it is clearly our happiness, a most blessed privilege, to do that which he 
calls for. 

Come. Let us make our addresses to him. Let us apply ourselves to 
the Lord in all the ways he has appointed, in all his ordinances, all acts of 
worship, and prayer particularly. 

Boldly. Here is the manner of the address, fisrSc mgwiag. A word 
frequently used, and denotes several things. Let us take notice of such as 
may be here pertinent. It signifies, 

1. Liberty without restraint. You may be free, as those that are 
assuredly welcome. You may use freedom of speech. So used, Acts ii. 29, 
and iv. i8. You have liberty to speak your minds freely, to speak all your 
heart ; to declare all your ails, and wants, and fears, and grievances. As 
others should not restrain and fetter you, in speaking to God, prescribing 
what things you should seek, what words use, and no other ; so you need 
not restrain yourselves, but speak all that your condition requires, freely. 
It is your privilege to be free, Christ has made you welcome. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



HSB. IV. 16.] OOMINO UNTO THE THBONB OF GRACE. Ill 

(2.) Security, without Tearfulness. You need not fear that you shall be 
slighted, or repulsed, or disappointed, John xi. 54, wag£ij<r/a, as one secure. 
We may come openly, as those that have the greatest security, and not the 
least occasion to be fearful. 

(8.) Authority. Without question whether this belong to us, whether 
we have warrant for it, so used, Heb. z. 19. As the high priest had 
authority (and he alone under the law) to outer into the holiest, so has every 
believer warrant now to do it; he has that which will bear him out in it, his 
warrant is the blood of Jesus. We may come with such authority as none 
can question ; Christ hath authorised us to do it, he will bear us out in it. 

(4.) Confidence, * without doubting/ Such faith as assures us of accept- 
ance and success, 1 John iii. 21, and v. 4. This includes all the former ; we 
may come with confidence, as those who have security, liberty, authority to 
come. We may come, with all assurance that we shall obtain, &c. We 
have encouragement, sufficient ground from the premises to come in faith, 
with full assurance. of faith ; pfi btsraZpms (says Chrysostom in loc), not 
doubting. So that, to come boldly, is to come as those that have security, 
liberty, authority ; and which is the sum of all, to come in faith, with 
assurance to obtain what they come for. 

To the throne of grace. That is the term of this notion. The Lord is 
represented as having two thrones : one a throne of judgment, where he 
shews his justice and severity; the other a throne of mercy, where he shews 
himself gracious and compassionate. It is a dreadful thing to appear before 
the throne of judgment Sinners, when they are awakened, will think the 
weight of rocks and mountains more tolerable than this, Rev. vi. 15, 16, 
Dan. vii. 9, 10. But to be admitted to the throne of merey is the most 
comfortable and happiest privilege that the children of men are here capable 
of, as will appear by a fuller account of it in the sequel. And this is the 
happiness in the text, fy6voc x&prog forw, ov Sgjvo? xf/<rt o>f . Not where ever- 
lasting destruction will be awarded, 2 Thes. i., but where mercy and grace 
will be obtained. This follows, 

That we may obtain merey .and find grace. This is the end why we are to 
come. The favour of God through Christ is sometimes called mercy, some- 
times grace, indifferently. What difference there is betwixt them seems not 
to be real, but respective. Mercy respects misery in the object, as grace 
does unworthiness. Mercy is favour shewed to the miserable, and grace is 
favour to the unworthy, freely shewed to such as have no reason from them- 
selves to expect it; nothing to deserve it, nothing to oblige the Lord, nothing 
to move him to vouchsafe it. 

To help in time of need. A general term, indefinitely laid down, but is 
equivalent to an universal. All kind of relief, suitable to the necessities and 
various circumstances of every condition. Help, as to our wants, our weak- 
nesses, our straits, our difficulties, our dangers, our temptations, our sin and 
guilt, oar troubles and sufferings, outward and .inward ; help for all, and all 
that will be helpful, all that can be needful. And as relief in all, so the 
best relief, Zvxa/gov Sorjfoiav ; the best help, when it will be best, when it will 
be most opportune, most seasonable. Help, when it comes too soon, or 
when it comes too late, proves not helpful ; but this shall come just in its 
season, just in the nick of opportunity, when it will be helpful to the best 
advantage. The people of Christ may come to the throne of grace, with 
assurance to find grace and mercy for such help as this ; for relief in all 
cases, and that when it will be best of all. 

Observations. 

1. There is a throne of grace, which believers may come to. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



112 OP COMING BOLDLY UNTO [HEB. IV. 16. 

2. They may come boldly, with confidence, to this throne ; they have 
liberty to do so, they have security in doing it, they have authority to do it, 
and so may do it with confidence. 

3. This is the way to obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. 
I shall handle the first of these as the doctrine, and make use of the other 

by way of application. 

To proceed with the former clearly and profitably, I will endeavour to shew 
what a throne of grace here imports and signifies ; what it declares to us 
concerning the Lord, whom we may approach as upon such a throne. Now 
I do not find that a throne of grace is anywhere else mentioned in the New 
Testament ; but that which is equivalent to it in the Old Testament very 
frequently. The apostle, speaking of the throne of grace, alludes to the 
mercy-seat in the tabernacle and temple. The Lord's throne of grace, and 
his mercy-seat, differ not in sense, but in sound. A seat and a throne, 
referred to God, are both one ; and grace and mercy differ very little. The 
mercy-seat (as you may see, Exod. xxv. 17, 18, 21) was the golden cover of 
the ark ; at each end of it was a cherub, and between the cherubims is the 
Lord said to sit, and so is represented as sitting, or residing on the mercy- 
seat as on a throne. This was the throne of grace under the law. And in 
allusion to this does the apostle speak of him as upon a throne of grace 
under the gospel. 

So that by understanding what the mercy-seat signified concerning God, 
we may come to understand what the throne of grace imports concerning 
God, both what he is to himself and what he is to his people, what appre- 
hensions of him we are led to when we are to come to the throne of grace. 

1. Let us see what it declares the Lord to be in himself. His throne of 
grace signifies these severals — 

(1.) That he is a God of glory, of a glorious majesty. Here was the most 
glorious and majestic appearance of God amongst his people of old. Upon 
the mercy-seat he appeared in glory. The ark, whereof this very mercy-seat 
was a part, the most rich and splendid part, is called his glory, Ps. lxxviii. 61. 
Here he vouchsafed his special presence, as upon his throne. When they 
were deprived of this by the Philistines, the glory was departed, 1 Sam. 
iv. 22. The cherubims, which were part of the mercy-seat in the taber- 
nacle, are called * cherubims of glory/ Heb. ix. 5. As it is a throne, it speaks 
him glorious, 1 Sam. ii. 8. Thrones are for persons of great glory on 
earth, and so is ascribed to him who is the most glorious majesty of the 
world. When the prophet represents him upon a throne, Isa. vi. 1, it is 
said, ver. 8, ' One cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord 
of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.' Thus we should approach the 
Lord, thus we should apprehend him when we come to the throne of grace ; 
the notion of a throne obliges us to it. 

(2.) That he is a God of dominion and sovereignty, that he rules and 
reigns and is supreme governor, Ps. xcix. 1, 2. He reigns, that appears by 
his throne. He sits between the cherubims. As so represented, the mercy- 
seat was his throne. Upon this account, greatness, supremacy is ascribed 
to him, ver. 2, and from hence Hezekiah declares his sovereignty over all 
kingdoms, 2 Kings xix. 15. Thou art placed upon the mercy-seat as a 
throne, &c. From the mercy-seat, as his throne, he gave law to his subjects 
(and legislation is the chief act of sovereignty) ; he appoints Moses to expect 
his laws from thence, Exod. xxv. 22 ; and accordingly, here he exercised hia 
legislative power, Num. vii. 8, 9. The particular laws here enacted are in 
the chapter following. 

And without reference to the type, a throne denotes sovereignty. Thrones 



HBB. IV. 16.] THE THSONB OF GRACE. 118 

are lor sovereign rulers, Job xxxvi. 7, 1 Sam. ii. 8 ; so it is applied to the 
Lord, who not only makes laws, but passes judgment, Ps. xciv. 7, 8. His 
throne is terrible to wicked men, a throne of justice ; so it is a comfort and 
relief to his people, a throne of mercy, ver. 9. Very frequently in Scripture 
throne is used for sovereign government, Gen. xli. 40, 2 Sam. vii. 18, 16, 
and applied to God, Ps. ciii. 19. 

Thus we should draw near to God with such apprehensions of him as 
sovereign Lord of the world, as King of kings and Lord of lords, supreme 
governor of all kingdoms, who has all creatures in heaven and earth under 
him as his subjects, gives law, passes judgment, does execution as he sees 
cause. The mention of a throne minds us of this. 

(8.) That he is a God of power and might, of almighty power. When he 
is spoken of as upon his throne, the mercy- seat, he is called the Lord of 
hosts, one who has all the power in the world, 1 Sam. iv. 4, 2 Sam. vi. 2. 
And the ark, whereof the mercy-seat was a principal part, is called the 
strength of God, Ps. Ixxviii. 61, and cxxxii. 8 ; because, as it was a testi- 
mony of his presence, so a symbol of his strength and power, ready to be 
engaged for his people. Hence the church, having addressed herself to the 
Lord, as upon the mercy-seat between the cherubims, Ps. lxxx. 1, adds, 
ver. 2, ' Before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up thy strength, 
and come and save us.' The expression has reference to the form of the 
Israelites encamping about the ark (the throne ef God) in their marches to- 
ward Canaan. They were disposed in four squadrons, under four principal 
standards. This of Ephraim, with Benjamin and Manasseh, encamped on 
the west behind the tabernacle. Judah, with other two tribes under his 
standard, encamped on the east, and had the front, Num. ii. 8, 18, x. 25. 
So that when the ark was taken up in order to a march, it was before 
Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. In allusion to which they pray, ' Stir 
np thy strength,' i. e. the ark (with the merey-seat on it, the throne of God 
in that representation) being a sign of God'B power or strength engaged for 
them. It is like that prayer which they used when the ark set forward, 
Num. x. 85. Answerable to which is David's prayer at the removal of the 
ark, Ps. cxxxii. 8. Hence that petition, Ps. xx. 2, ' Send the help from the 
sanctuary,' which is all one as if he had said, Send the help from the mercy- 
seat, or from the throne of grace. Thus should we eome to the throne of 
grace, with apprehensions of his almighty power. 

(4.) That he is a God of holiness, Ps. xcix. 5. To worship at his foot- 
stool is to worship towards the mercy-seat, ver. 1, between the cherubims. 
That was a symbol of his special presence. There he resided as a God of 
holiness. And upon that account every part of the temple, yea, the hill 
where it was seated, was counted holy, ver. 9. But above all, that part 
where the mercy-seat was, that was the most holy place, or, as it is in 
Hebrew, the holiness of.holinesses, Exod. xxvii. 28. The mercy-seat was 
the throne of his holiness, Ps. xlvii. 8 ; and giving oracles from thence, it is 
called the oracle of holiness, Ps. xxviii. 2. 

So the throne of grace is the throne of holiness. Thus we should come 
to the throne of grace with apprehensions of the holiness of God, that he is 
of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, that he is holy in himself, and will be 
sanctified of all that draw near him. 

(5.) That he is a God of wisdom, who sees and knows all things, to whom 
nothing is hid, or obscure, or difficult. From the mercy-seat he gave oracles ; 
he made discoveries to his people of such things, which otherwise they could 
not come to the knowledge of. They were to inquire here of him for resolu- 

vol. in. H 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



114 Or COMXHO BOLDLY UNTO [HEB. IV. 16. 

tion in their most intricate doubts, and greatest difficulties/ and weightiest 
undertakings, Ex. xxv. 22. Thus they were directed to do, and thus they 
were wont to do, when they were at a loss and wanted the conduct of 
divine wisdom, Judges xx. 27, 28, 1 Ohron. xiii. 8. This was the oracle 
they consulted with, the oracle of God, 2 Sam. xvi. 28. Hence the place 
of the mercy- seat, from whence the Lord gave those divine discoveries of his 
wisdom and testifications of his will, is called the oracle, 1 Kings vi. 6, 
16, 19. The word is "Wl from tn, to speak, because the Lord from hence 
gave divine answers when they inquired of him. Symmachus and Aquila 
read it x^quarorqgfoy, as an oracle was called amongst the gentiles, the place 
from whence they expected divine answers. And with the apostle ygntfia.- 
rtcfihg is the answer of God, Bom. xi. 4. And as the place, so the answers 
of God are called oracles, Bom. iii. 2 ; oracles, i. e. divine revelations and 
directions proceeding from infinite wisdom, and so of the greatest certainty, 
truth, and authority. Such oracles did the Lord give from the mercy-seat, 
and so he declared himself to be the God of wisdom. 

But this is not all. In that representation of the Lord upon the mercy- 
seat was wrapped up the manifold wisdom of God in a mystery, those riches, 
those wonders of mercy which are now unfolded in the gospel, where he ap- 
pears upon this throne of grace, and which the angels learn and are instructed 
in by the discoveries made thereof to the church, Eph. iii. 10. And while it 
was hid in a mystery, they were prying into it then, 1 Peter L 12. They do 
iragaxo^aj, stoop, bend their faces downward, as having an object before them 
which they earnestly desire to take special notice of. They shew the earnest- 
ness of their desire by their posture. And where is this to be seen ? Why, 
in the posture of the cherabims' faces towards the mercy-seat (to which we 
may well suppose the apostle's expression has reference), Exod. xxv. 20. 
Towards the mercy-seat ! There was Christ in a type ; there was the 
marrow of the gospel, and the sum of the riches of divine wisdom and good- 
ness in a mystery ; and the faces of the cherubims were towards it, as Mary's 
face was towards the sepulchre when she looked for Christ there, John 
xx. 11, *-a£8xu\j/M ; the same word which the apostle useth to express how 
the angels look into this gospel mystery. 

It was then a mystery hidden and kept Beoret, while the mercy-seat was a 
representation of it, for there was no ark, no mercy- Beat in the second temple, 
and in the first temple it was reserved in the most secret part of it; none was 
to see it but the high priest only, and he but once a year. 

But now the throne of grace is openly exposed, all the people of Christ 
have access to it, for the temple is opened, and the ark, and so the mercy- 
seat, is seen, Bev. xi. 19. If the temple had been opened, yet there was a 
veil betwixt the holy place and the ark, which hindered the sight of the 
mercy -seat. But now the veil also is rent, Mat. xxvii. 51, so that we all 
with open face may behold the glory, both of the goodness and wisdom of 
God. There is no veil now before the throne of grace ; Christ the mercy- 
seat (/Xacrrqf/ov the apostle calls him, Bom. iii. 84) is set forth openly, and 
in him all riches of grace and wisdom. 

(6.) In fine, the mention of the throne of grace minds us of the wisdom 
of God, that we should draw near him as one that knows our state, yea, our 
hearts, and understands all the ways and means how to help us, and do us 
good ; as one that knows all our doubts and fears, how to satisfy them ; all 
our perplexities of spirit, how to unravel them ; all our wants, how to supply 
them ; all oar weaknesses and distempers, how to cure them ; all our cor- 
ruptions, how to subdue them; all our afflictions and troubles, how to 
deliver us. He whose wisdom could find out a way to save and deliver us, 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HEB. IV. 16.] THS THBONS OF OB40B. 115 

when his truth and justice was engaged to destroy us, his wisdom can never 
be nonplussed. And this is that depth which was held forth by the mercy- 
seat as in a type of mystery, but now by the throne of grace more clearly 
and conspicuously, which will appear with more evidence by the 

2nd Head, What the throne of grace declares the Lord to be unto us. 
Take it in these particulars. It signifies and offers him to us, as the mercy* 
seat did of old (for that which the apostle allndeB to, we shall still make use 
of to direct us all along). 

(1.) As a God in Christ Since sin entered into the world, God is not to 
be approached by the children of men, with any acceptance, with any success, 
with any hopes of either, but in and through Christ. Sin has made man 
miserable, his misery is his separation from God. He cannot be happy but 
by access to God again. There is no access to God for sinners but by a 
mediator. No other mediator could be sufficient, but such an one as was 
both God and man as to his natures, and both prophet, king, and priest by 
office. Such a mediator is Christ, and he only. The Lord upon the mercy- 
seat, and so upon the throne of grace, offers himself to us in Christ as such 
a mediator. The mercy-seat shews forth both natures and offices of Christ, 
and so represents to us God in Christ, as in an all-sufficient mediator. God 
is said to dwell or reside upon the mercy-seat, and the fulness of the God- 
head dwells in Christ, Col. ii. 9, John i. 14. The Word was made flesh, 
there is both his natures, and dwelt amongst us ; hx7)vu<n, a word not 
much differing from the Hebrew word nJW, by which they express the 
glory of God appearing or dwelling on the mercy-seat. God dwelt there as 
in shadow, but in Christ bodily, substantially. 

The Lord spake and declared his mind from the mercy-seat. He speaks 
to us by his Son, and by him gives divine revelations and directions. There 
is his prophetical office, Heb. i. 1. God sits on the mercy-seat, as a king on 
his throne. This, as the throne of grace, §g6vog /SaaXjxoc, with Chrysostom. 
He rules his people by Christ, whom he has appointed king of his people : 
Ps. ii. 6, ' Yet have I set my king upon Zion, the hill of my holiness.' The 
holiness of that, and of the whole temple, was from the residence of God 
upon the mercy-seat : and this is spoken in reference to David's bringing the 
ark thither ; and his residing there, is, with Theodoret, dvmr&e fiatftXiuttv, to 
reign potentially. 

The throne of grace is ' the throne of God and of the Lamb,' Rev. xxii. 3. 
The throne of God alone is not to be approached by us ; but the throne of 
God and the Lamb is the seat of mercy, the throne of grace. He not only 
gives law to his people, but makes provision for them, that their souls may 
have plenty, ver. 1 with Ezek. xlvii., and he protects his subjects too. As 
the wings of the cherubims (parts of the mercy-seat) overshadowed and 
covered the holy things, so does he cover and overshadow his holy ones. 

His priestly office is likewise held forth by the mercy-seat. The very 
name of it denotes this. It is the propitiatory, and that speaks satisfaction, 
one chief act of his priesthood. And this satisfaction was made by his 
blood, which was typified by the blood sprinkled on the mercy- seat, Lev. 
xvi. 14. As his intercession, the other act of his priesthood, was fore- 
shadowed by the cloud of incense which was to cover the mercy-seat, 
ver. 18. That this was a figure of his intercession, we learn, Rev. viii. 8. 4. 
So that to come to the throne of grace, is to come to God in Christ, to 
apply ourselves to the Lord through the mediation of Christ. Otherwise 
there is a throne of God indeed, but none that sinners can or dare approach to, 
unless they will venture to rush upon a consuming fire. There is no throne 
of grace, but through Christ ; no mercy-seat for us, but by his mediation. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



116 OF COMING BOLDLY UNTO [HSB. IV. 16. 

The throne of God in Christ is the throne of God and the Lamb, so it is a 
throne of grace indeed. The throne of God alone is like his appearance 
on mount Sinai, Heb. xii. 18. There is no other throne for sinners without 
Christ bat that of justice, shadowed out by the burning mount ; all black 
and dark, all dreadful and terrible, as smoke, and storm, and fire, and death, 
can render it. If you will find a throne of grace, you must seek it in Christ ; 
approach to God through him, and come, as ver. 24, to Jesus the mediator 
of the new covenant. 

(2.) As a God reconciled. It signifies that his justice is satisfied, his 
wrath appeased : not now incensed against his people, but well pleased and 
propitious. The name of the mercy-seat declares this. It is iXaerfigio*, a 
propitiatory. So it is called by the Seventy in the Old Testament ; and 
so it is called by the apostle in the New Testament, Heb. ix. 5. And Christ 
being that which was prefigured in the mercy-seat, he has this very name 
given him by the apostle, Bom. iii. 25. The word is /Xcurrjjf *ey, it is ren- 
dered propitiation, because it is Christ by whom the Lord becomes propitious 
or reconciled. But how was this offered ? By his blood, he made his soul 
an offering for sin, he offered up himself as a propitiatory sacrifice. His 
blood was shed for the satisfying of justice : and so the Lord became satis- 
fied, well pleased, reconciled, propitious, through his blood. 

And this was shadowed forth by the mercy-seat of old, as I intimated 
before from Lev. zvi. 14. The blood of the sin-offering was to be sprinkled 
upon the mercy-seat seven times, signifying, that by the blood of Christ the 
justice of God was fully and perfectly satisfied. And blood upon the mercy- 
seat denotes a meeting, a reconcilement of justice and mercy ; justice will 
not now hinder, but that the Lord may be propitious to his people. 

So that this is it which the throne of grace signifies to us, that the Lord 
through the blood of Christ is atoned, sin is expiated, wrath appeased, justice 
satisfied, mercy glorified, the sinner reconciled, and the Lord every way well 
pleased. The Lord's voice from the throne of grace is, I am appeased, I 
am satisfied, * Fury is not in me ; ' I am at peace with you, I am recon- 
ciled. 

(3.) As a God of forgiveness. As graciously pardoning the sint of his 
people. When he is represented to us upon the mercy-seat, he is set forth 
as a God that has found out a way to hide our sins out of his sight (which 
in Scripture phrase is to pardon them), for observe, in Exodus xxv., the 
tables of the law were in the ark, ver. 16, 21, and H6b. ix. And these are 
called the tables of the testimony, because they testify against those who do 
not keep the law, Deut. xxxi. 26, 28. It being evidence against transgressors, 
as those that are guilty, and so should be condemned and proceeded against, 
as those that break the laws of God, and will not demean themselves as his 
subjects. But now this dreadful testimony, that bears witness of our sin and 
guilt, it is put into the ark, and there covered by the mercy-seat, Exod. 
xxv. 21. By the Lord's gracious appointment, there is a mercy-seat upon 
it, to hide and cover it. There is a mercy-seat between him and the con- 
demning law, between him and our guilt. So that in this posture, wherein 
the Lord would have himself represented to us, our sins are hid and covered 
out of his sight, i.e. pardoned. That of the psalmist, probably, has refer- 
ence hereto, Ps. xxxii. 1, lxxxv. 2. It is a blessed state to have sin 
covered, t. e. pardoned, so as they shall not appear for our condemnation ; 
but a woful condition not to have them covered, Nehem. iv. 5. 
4 Observe that expression : Ps. lxv. 8, ' As for our iniquities, thou shalt 
purge them away.' The "1M, the same which is rendered to cover in the 
fore-cited places. And hence that very word, which is translated the mercy- 
Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HBB. IV, 16.] THE THBONE OP QBA0B. 117 

seat, JTOD, of very near affinity with our English word covereth. So that 
when the Lord is set forth to as as on the mercy-seat, or the throne of 
grace, mercy is between him and our sins, Christ is between him and our 
guilt (for the mercy-seat was Christ in a type) there is a mediator between 
him and the condemning law. He looks not upon the guilt of his people, 
and the accusation of the law, but through mercy, the mercy-seat is inter- 
posed ; but through a mediator, Christ, the expiation of sin is interposed. 
This is next his eye ; sin is at a further distance, it is removed out of his 
sight, hid in the ark, there covered. So, no matter of provocation being in 
his eye, no guilt exposed to his view ; we are not bound over to punishment, 
not liable to condemnation, but fully pardoned. If he be of purer eyes than 
to behold iniquity, he shews, by representing himself on the throne of grace, 
that he has taken a course not to behold it, so as to condemn for it, but so 
as to pass it by, and pardon it. Thus comfortably did the Lord set forth 
himself, as on the mercy-seat of old, and on the throne of grace now. And 
the mention of a throne of grace minds us thus to draw near him as a God 
covering our guilt, pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin, removing them 
out of his sight. 

(4.) As a God in covenant. The ark (whereof the mercy-seat was the chief 
and most significant part) is called the ark of the covenant, Num. x. 88, and Heb. 
ix. 4. And the apostle insinuates the reason why it is so called : in it was 
the tables of the covenant. This was the end and use of the ark, 1 Kings viii. 4. 
Now the mercy-seat being the golden lid or cover of the ark, it was to secure, 
it did preserve, the covenant, Exod. xxv. 2. 

But this is not all. The mercy-seat (which signified Christ) being inter- 
posed betwixt the Lord above and the covenant within the ark, may signify 
that he was the mediator of the covenant ; as he was indeed the mediator 
of the covenant of grace, both in the legal administration of it under the law, 
and in the new administration of it under the gospel. So he is called, Heb. 
ix. 15, a mediator ; one by whose interposal, as the covenant was first made, 
so it shall stand firm and be made good, for all ends and purposes to which 
it was designed. 

But how does he effect all this ? By his death and blood, as the apostle 
shews, ver. 15 to 22. It was by virtue of his blood that the covenant is 
made, ratified, and accomplished. But what does this concern the mercy- 
Beat ? Why, the apostle has reference to the blood sprinkled upon the 
mercy-seat in the day of expiation, Lev. xvi. 14. This signified the blood 
of Christ, and it is called ' the blood of the Testament/ or covenant, Heb. 
ix. 20, 21, Heb. xii. 24 ; so that the mercy-seat, with this blood of sprinkling, 
signifies that the Lord, by virtue of the blood of Christ (the Mediator of the 
New Testament), is in covenant with his people, and will make good that 
gracious covenant in all the parts and articles, in all the promises and 
branches of it. 

God is in covenant with his people through the mediation of Christ. This 
was signified by the mercy-seat That was but a type, a shadow. The truth 
and reality which it shadowed out is expressed : Heb. viii. 1, The throne of 
the majesty in the heavens, Christ sitting there at the right hand of the 
Father : it is the throne of God and of the Lamb ; it is the throne of grace. 
There Christ appears as Mediator of the covenant, as is declared, ver. 6. 
The administration of the covenant of grace under the law is called the first 
covenant, ver. 7. It was inferior to the administration of the covenant of 
grace under the gospel, this being more clear, more full, more free ; and 
therefore this latter is called the better covenant, consisting of better pro- 
mises. These are specified in the following verses : it promises more holi- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



118 Jr OF COMING BOLDLY TOTO [HBB. IV. 16. 

ness, ver. U^ clearer light, ver. 11, and fall pardon, ver. 12. The sum of 
all, * I wijlnbe to them a God.' This covenant, these promises, are through 
Christ ;yeaand amen; through his mediation they stand firm, and shall he made 
good Jo the fall. He undertakes to see all performed, and sits on the right hand 
of the throne of God for this purpose. There is the throne of grace, and^this 
if signifies. We may come to the throne of grace, we may apply ourselves to 
the Lord as a God in covenant. He has entered into covenant with his 
people, and has found oat a way, notwithstanding their weakness and un- 
stedfastness, to secure the blessings of a gracious and everlasting covenant to 
them. If anything be objected against it, Christ is there ready to answer 
it, there to remove whatever may hinder it The Lord's voice from the 
throne of grace is, I am thine, thy God, thy Father, thy portion, thy exceeding 
great reward. What I am in myself, I am to and for thee. I am God all- 
sufficient, and will be so to thee ; my wisdom, power, goodness, trath, faith- 
fulness, is all for thee, and shall be so for ever. 

(6.) As a God that will have communion with his people ; as one who will 
admit dust and ashes to have fellowship with him. He offers there to meet 
them, to commune with them, to discover and communicate himself to them. 
He admits his servants to communion with him when he vouchsafes to meet 
them. And the mercy-seat was the place of meeting which the Lord ap- 
pointed for looses, Exod. xxx. 86. He will meet with him as we meet 
with a friend, whom we desire and delight to converse with. He would 
meet his servants there to discover himself to them. The LXX render it, 
' I will be known to thee from thence.' He did make known himself as a 
man to his friend. There he did commune with them, Exod. xxv. 22. It 
is not the special privilege of some particular persons only to come to the 
mercy-seat as of old, bat all the people of Christ may have access to the throne 
of grace. There we may meet with God ; there he is willing to commune with 
ns ; there is he ready to reveal himself unto us, to cause his goodness to pass 
before us ; there our fellowship may be with the Father and the Son. Offer- 
ing himself to as on the throne of grace, he offers the greatest happiness ; 
for communion with himself is the greatest happiness on earth or in heaven. 
There is a gradual difference, bat the substance of it here and hereafter lies 
in communion with the Father and the Son, 

And this gracious posture offers the continuance of this communion. He 
was represented of old as residing constantly on the mercy-seat, as dwelling 
between the cherubims ; not as standing, for so a passenger may do, whose 
business is to be gone ; nor as sitting, for so a stranger may do upon occasion ; 
nor as sojourning, as one who turns bat in for a night or for a few days ; bat 
as dwelling there. It was his resting-place, 2 Chron. vi. 41, Ps. cxxxii. 8, 14. 
This Is true of the throne of grace, without limitation. The mercy-seat (the 
shadow of it) did not continue always, but this throne is for ever, Ps. xlv. 6, 
Heb. i. 8. It is spoken of the throne of Christ the mediator, through whom 
the throne of majesty in the heavens is a throne of grace, and bo for ever ; 
and so consequently offers this happy communion without intermission, with- 
out end, everlastingly. 

(6.) As a God that hears prayer, and will answer the petitions and suppli- 
cations of his people. The Lord gave answers from the mercy-seat ; and 
this may be the reason why their posture of old in worshipping and praying 
was towards the mercy-seat, Ps. xxviii. 2. That was the place where the 
mercy-seat was. Called the oracle, because the Lord from the mercy-seat 
gave answers ; and so it is rendered by some, ' the answering place' ; so Ps. 
v. 7. The temple was not then built ; but he means the tabernacle, and the 
mercy- seat in it, where the Lord hath declared himself present, ready to answer 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HSB. IV. IS.] THB TEBOMX OF GRACE. 119 

those who worshipped him. And when Solomon had built the temple, and 
seeking the Lord to give audience to his people, it is for prayers directed 
towards that place, 2 Chron. vi. 20-26, &c. And the Lord promises to 
answer accordingly, chap, vii, 15, * To the prayer of this place,' i. e. made 
in or towards it. Yea, when the temple was burnt and the ark lost, yet 
Darnel observed this posture still, Dan. vi. 10. For the place was destroyed, 
yet the promise was in force still. 

When the Lord offers himself upon the throne of grace, he gives assurance 
that he will hear prayer, and give gracious answers. The vugrpia, the bold- 
ness or confidence in the text, has respect to this particular. Being upon a 
throne of grace, we are at liberty to present all our petitions, and we may 
present them with confidence that we shall have gracious answers. It is the 
confidence which the apostle speaks of, 1 John v. 14, 15. When he ex- 
hibits himself as upon a throne of grace, then is the season, the opportunity, 
to make our requests, and to have them granted. Those that will have their 
petitions to great persons succeed, observe the season which appears to be 
most favourable. And this is the season for us to make known all the 
desires of our souls unto God, such an opportunity as assuredly promises 
success. 

When he is upon the throne of justice, then he is for passing sentence, 
and executing judgment according to his threatenings ; but when he is upon 
the throne of grace, that is the season for granting petitions. His voice from 
the throne of grace is like Solomon to Bathsheba from his throne, 1 Kings 
ii. 20. Whatever our request be, if it be fit for him to give, if it be good for 
us to receive, he will not say us nay. That which is good for us is all that 
heart can desire. This is satisfaction to the utmost, unless we will question 
whether infinite wisdom know what is good for us. 

The season for access to Ahasuerus was when the golden sceptre was held 
forth. Esther comes in to him then, and the answer is, Esth. v. 8, ' What is thy 
request ? it shall be given thee to the half of the kingdom.' This seems a great 
offer, but it is nothing to what the Lord, in his gracious posture, signifies 
himself ready to grant : Bom. viii. 82, He will give us all things. 

His being on the throne of grace is not in order to the executing his 
threatenings, but for the making good his gracious promises ; and these are 
large and free, without restriction, larger than that of Ahasuerus. He pro- 
mises all things to those who seek him. When he is on the throne of grace, 
he will deny nothing : his posture assures us that he will grant everything, 
which it becomes infinite graeiousness to bestow, Mat. xxi. 22, John xv. 7, 
and xvi. 28, 24, Mat. vii. 7. When we address ourselves to the Lord on 
the throne of grace, it is but ask and have. We may come boldly with all 
confidence of this," since it is a throne of grace we come to. 

(7.) As a God that is present with his people. It signifies he is a God 
with them. The Lord was set forth as residing on the mercy-seat ; when 
that was with his people of old, it signified the Lord was with them. And 
so they bewailed the loss of the ark as the loss of God's presence, that being 
the symbol of it. When that was gone, the glory was departed. The signi- 
fication of the mercy-seat was, God with us; as this was the name of Christ, 
of whom the mercy-seat was a type. The Lord speaks of himself as abiding 
there, and promises to shew himself there to give signs of his presence, Lev. 
xvL 2, so when the tabernacle (wherein was this symbol of the divine pre- 
sence) was with that people, the Lord is said to be with them, Ezek. 
xxxvii. 26, 27, ' I will be their God,' i. e. a God with them ; so it is repre- 
sented, Rev. xxiv. 8; so the throne of grace signifies. The Lord is with 
his people, he is very near them ; so near, as they may have access to him, 

Digitized by LiOOQ IC 



120 VkF COMING BOLDLY UNTO [HEB. IV. 16. 

and so may be with him whenever they will. He is still to be found on the 
throne 'of grace, still present. 

More particularly, this denotes, 

[1.1 An intimate presence. He is in the midqt of his people. So he was 
while he was on the mercy-seat, so he will be while that remains, which this 
did but typify ; while the throne of grace, while the mediation of Christ con- 
tinues, who is king and priest for ever. How can he be more intimately 
fvesent than by residing in the midst of his people ? And thus he is repre- 
sented. The tabernacle was hi the midst of the camp, Num. ii. 17, and 
the ark was in the midst of the tabernacle, 2 Sam. vi. 17 ; and the cheru- 
bims being at each end of the mercy-seat, and the Lord between them, he is 
set forth in the mercy-seat as in the midst of the ark. And so the Lord 
shewed himself to be in the midst of Israel, Num. v. 8 ; and to walk in the 
midst of them (to be active), Deut. xxiii. 14. This shewB the Lord will be 
intimate with his people, intimately present; even within them, in the midst 
of them. 

[2.] A special, a gracious presence. He was not present here only as he 
is in the rest of the world, but in a more special way, as upon a mercy-seat, 
from which others were far removed, so as they could have no access to the 
propitiatory, no advantages by it. Tims, when he exhibits himself as on a 
throne of grace, he shews he is in tSbe midst of his people in a gracious 
manner ; present with them through Christ's mediation and interposal, that 
is a gracious, a special presence. 

[8.] A glorious presence. As the mercy-seat upon which the Lord appears 
is a throne of grace, so is it a throne of glory : Jer. xvii. 12, and xiv. 21, ' Do 
not disgrace the throne of thy glory. 1 As if they had said, Suffer not the 
ark, the mercy-seat (whereon thou art set forth as gloriously enthroned), to 
be disgracefully used. The Lord residing there, as a glorious king on his 
throne, is said to be the glory of his people in the midst of them, Zech. 
ii. 5, as the presence of the sun is the glory of the firmament. 

[4.] An all-sufficient presence. Sufficient to secure them from all things 
dreadful, and to supply them with all things desirable. This is the security 
of his people, Ps. xlvi. 5, ' God is in the midst of her, she shall not be 
moved.' The Lord upon the mercy-seat, and so upon the throne of grace, 
is in the midst of his people ; this is their safety and establishment, there- 
fore they shall not be moved. 

It is all-sufficient also to help us to all things desirable. The waters, in 
Ezek. xlvii., issuing out of the temple, are described to be plentiful for their 
measure, ver. 2-5, and for their virtue to be quickening and healing, ver. 9, 
and fructifying, ver. 10. Those waters, Rev. xxii. 1, are said to proceed 
1 from the throne of God and the Lamb.' The throne of God in the temple 
was the mercy-seat ; the throne of God and of the Lamb is the throne of 
grace. The influences which flow and stream from the presence of God 
with his people are quickening, healing, and fructifying influences; they 
stream forth in such plenty as is sufficient abundantly to refresh and satisfy 
them to the utmost. There is a * river of pleasure,' Ps. xlvi 4 ; ' in thy 
presence is fulness of joy,' Ps. xvi. 11. 

[5.] A continuing presence. He is said to dwell on the mercy-seat. In 
reference thereto is his promise, 1 Kings vi. 18, ' I will dwell among the 
children of Israel.' The throne of grace denotes no less : Rev. vii. 15, * He 
that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.' Here he is, and here 
he abides. We need never suffer through his absence. Have recourse to 
him on the throne of grace, and we need never be at a loss. He is al- 
ways here to be found, here he dwells ; here we may find him whenever we 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HEB. IV. 16. J THE THRONE OF OBAOB^ 121 

have occasion ; here he is always as a ' very present help in time of trouble/ 
as a very present supply in time of want, as a very present security in time 
of fear, as an all-sufficient portion ; one who is all in all to his people, and 
always present for his purpose. 

[6.J As a God that will shew himself merciful and gracious to his people, 
that will deal mercifully and graciously with them. Now, when he thus 
represents himself, they may find grace and mercy. We need go no further 
for this than the text, and it is so plainly there held forth, that we must not 
pass it by. Since he is upon a throne of grace, we may find mercy and 
grace to help in time of need. Take the import hereof more distinctly in 
these particulars. 

First, He is ready to shew mercy and grace. He is willing to shew him- 
self gracious and merciful. When he shews himself on the mercy-seat, he 
shews he is ready for acts of mercy ; when he is upon the throne of grace, 
he declares that he is ready for acts of grace. His posture declares that he 
is now willing to let his people find that he is indeed merciful and gracious. 
When may grace be expected from him, when is he willing, ready for acts 
of grace, if not when he offers himself as upon a throne of grace, a seat of 
mercy? 

If he presented himself upon a judgment-seat, a tribunal of justice, we 
might conclude he was ready to do justice, willing to execute judgment; the 
seat and posture would be a plain signification of it. And therefore when 
he presents himself upon a throne of grace, we may conclude he is ready 
for acts of grace, willing to shew mercy. This is a plain signification of it, 
and the Lord gives us no signs that are fallacious, that will deceive us. 
When he signifies anything to us, the sign will be answered with a reality, 
he will not delude us ; when he appears in a gracious posture (as he does 
upon a throne of grace), he is ready for acts of grace. He would not appear 
to be willing if he were not so really ; he would make no show of grace or 
mercy if he were not willing to act accordingly. If he was backward, and 
not inclined to acts of grace, he would not set forth himself in a gracious 
posture. 

Secondly, He will certainly shew mercy and grace. His people shall 
surely find it so. There is not only some probability, but a certainty for it* 
It is not only probable that he may, or more likely that he will, than that 
he will not ; but it is certain that he will shew mercy, we may be sure of it. 
The apostle would have the people of Christ bold and confident herein, ' Let 
us come boldly,' &o., t. e. with confidence and assurance that we Bhail obtain 
mercy, &c. He is a God gracious and merciful in himself, essentially, 
infinitely so ; but he is at liberty when and how he will express his mercy 
and grace, till he oblige himself by declaring it ; but when he offers himself 
as on a throne of grace, he declares, and so obliges himself to express it now 
at this season, and shew it thus in this way. Now, if ever, will he shew 
that he is actually gracious ; in this way, in this posture coming to him, 
they shall surely have mercy. Grace and mercy is to be found, that is cer- 
tain ; but it will never be found if not when he is on the throne of grace, 
therefore now, when he thus presents himself, we may be sure and confident 
of it. H we should fall short of his grace here, if his mercy should fail us 
now, if we should not find and obtain it at the throne of grace, if he should 
not vouchsafe it when he presents himself to us on that throne, the Lord 
would prove otherwise than he has declared himself to be ; we should not 
find him such a one as he has obliged himself to be found ; his throne would 
not prove what he calls it, it would not be what the Lord has said it is, a 
throne of grace. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



122 OF COMING BOLDLY TTHTO [HlIB. IV. 16. 

Thirdly, He will shew this in all variety, in all acta of favour ; both 
mercy and grace, as is express in the text. All the acts of divine love and 
goodness ran in these two streams, mercy and grace ; and these streams 
will meet upon us when we come to the throne of grace. There we shall 
meet with both, they both flow from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 
The throne of grace is the fountain, the spring-head wherein they issue, 
where they break out ; there these sweet currents encompass those who have 
access to the Lord on this throne. 

All that we can expect from infinite goodness is to free us from misery, 
and to make us happy. And here is both offered and ensured to us ; both 
mercy to free us from misery, and grace to advance us to the height of 
happiness. Mercy will deliver us, but grace will exalt us ; not only lift us 
out of the pit, but advance us to the throne ; not only deliver us from the 
wrath to come, and then leave us in a middle state, but crown us too with 
glory. Mercy will not suffer us to be ruined, but grace will have a triumph 
for us. This assures us we shall not only obtain mercy to help us out of 
misery, but find grace to help us far above it. 

Fourthly, He will do this affectionately. The mercy in the text speaks 
this also. Mercy is love shewed to the miserable ; so mercy is love in the 
rise of it, and it is compassion in the workings of it towards a pitied object. 
When Christ would give an instance of such love as he requires, he does it 
in the Samaritan, Luke x., who had mercy on the Bpoiled and wounded man, 
ver. 87; and that is expressed by having compassion on him, ver. 33. 
There is both love and compassion in mercy, and these are the sum of ail 
affectionateness ; and this the Lord assures us of, by setting forth himself 
as on a throne of grace. We shall find mercy from him, and love and com- 
passions, and so all affectionateness. Here is love offered to us, the love of 
God in Christ ; a peculiar love, a transcendent love, such as passeth know- 
ledge ; the acts, expressions, embraces of suoh a love. Here is compassion 
insured to us, the compassions of God, which as far transcend those of the 
best and sweetest tempered men, (for the efficacy thereof, though there be no 
compassionateness therein), as the heavens are above the earth. 

Here is tender love. For such is mercy, it is love which is compassionate, 
called ' tender mercy,' Ps. lxxix. 8, James v. 11 ; ' bowels. of compassion/ 
Isa. Ixiii. 15, Jer. xxxi. 20. The Lord presenting himself on a throne of 
grace, offers to meet us there with such affectionateness ; without the weak- 
ness of affections in us, but with infinite more virtue and advantage. There 
we may find mercy, suoh mercy, and all the expressions which so great, so 
tender a mercy can afford. He that sits upon this throne is the God of love, 
the Father of mercies ; whose being is goodness, whose nature and essence 
is mercy, whose bowels are compassion, and whose glory it is to shew 
mercy, and express love to such as have access to his throne. It is the 
glory of his throne that it is a mercy-seat. 

Fifthly, He will do it freely. It is a throne of grace that we come to. It 
is grace that is offered, grace that we find there. And grace is free good- 
ness, that which puts forth all acts and expressions freely ; that which looks 
for no desert, overlooks all unworthinesB ; that which stays not till it be 
obliged, but engages itself, and will not be hindered by that which is most 
disobliging ; that which moves, when it has nothing to move it but itself ; 
this is grace. When the Lord is on the throne of grace, he gives, he does 
not owe ; it is grace, not debt. These are opposite,* Rom. iv. He gives, we 
do not purchase. There was a purchase, indeed, but we who have the pos- 
session had no hand in it. We have it freely ; we have all for nothing ; we 
have it for coming for, though we come without money and without price ; 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



Ebb. IV. 16.] the thboms of obaob. 128 

it costs job nothing ,but the acceptance, Isa. It. 1. Upon these terms we 
may come and be welcome to the throne of grace ; so we may come, and so 
freely. We may have all the riches of grace ; we come not to a market where 
we most pay for what we have, but to a throne of grace ; and it is the glory 
of him that sits on this throne, that all we have of him is free gift. All his 
acts are acts of grace ; he gives, looking for nothing again ; he knows that 
all we return will be as good as nothing ; he will not be one jot the better 
for it all, either in point of glory or happiness. Not the leaBt scrapie, the 
least degree, can be added to either, by all that men or angels can return. 
Our sinfulness, unworthiness, weakness, nothingness, need'be no discourage- 
ment ; for we come to a throne of grace, a throne where grace rules and is 
sovereign, where grace is enthroned, and is, and will be, all and all ; before 
which angels and saints should cast their crowns, and cry, Grace, grace; 
giving the glory of all they have received, of all they enjoy, unto that to 
which they owe it all, and from which they had it freely. * 

Sixthly, He will do this royally, magnificently, as becomes him who sits 
on the throne. His throne speaks him a king, and he is a great king, Ps. 
xlvii. 27, and zcv. 8, and he will do for his people accordingly. When he 
exhibits himself upon a throne, he would have us with confidence expect 
from him what is correspondent to his greatness. He encourages us to 
look for great things from his hand, and much of them, in great quantity, 
2 Sam. xxiv. 28. Since he sets forth himself on a throne, and is represented 
as a king, and would have us come to him as on his seat of majesty, he as- 
sures us he will give like a king ; not so few, nor small things, as other 
persons, but such as are answerable to his greatness and magnificence. 
Those that have thrones, shew their greatness and magnificence by their 
gifts, presents, rewards ; it is a disparagement to them not to act herein 
like themselves. Hiram gives to Solomon, 1 Kings ix. 14, and the queen 
of Sheba, 1 Kings x. 10. The value of the gold alone is reckoned at four 
hundred and fifty thousand pounds in our accounts ; a great sum, if gold 
was so much scarcer in those times than it is now, as is commonly thought. 
8ach gifts are for enthroned persons. They give such things as others 
oannot, either for value or excellency, or greatness and quantity. 

The Lord has a throne, and he will have us come to him there, as on 
his throne ; this intimates he has a design to shew his greatness. He will 
have those that come to him here, expect what is answerable to his throne 
and dignity. This Chysostom observes, ptXortpia yag v^ay/ia sirri xal 
Japes j&tttX/xi). The Lord will shew his magnificence ; he will give royally. 
The honour of his throne is concerned. We disparage him, if we be not 
confident to have that of him which will be answerable to such a majesty ; 
that which none else can give, things of greater value, and those of greater 
quantity, Ps. Ixxxiv. 11. Grace, the least dram of it is of greater value 
than all the gold in the world ; and glory, that is a kingdom, in comparison 
of which all the kingdoms of the earth are but mole-hills. But this is not 
*U> ' No good thing will he withhold,' &c. He would have us expect from 
him no less than all that is good, no less than all that heart can desire ; he 
assures us of no less than all this, Bom. viii. 82, 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22, Bev. 
*xi« 7, Mat. vi. 88. The Lord will deal royally with his people ; we dis- 
honour him if we do not expect it ; it is the glory of his throne to do it. 
We may be confident he will do for us what becomes so great a king, when 
it his design to shew his greatness, when he sets forth himself as upon his 
throne. • 

Seventhly. He will do it effectually ; he will shew himself gracious and 
merciful, so that none shall hinder, all shall promote it. This is signified 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



124 OF COMING BOLDLY UNTO [HeB. IV. 16. 

also, in that he is represented as on a throne. That tells that all are his 
subjects, all are at his command ; he can order anything, everything, to be 
the instruments of his grace, and make all things serve the designs of his 
mercy which he has for his people : for he has the throne, all are subject to 
him, at his beck, he can order all to do his pleasure. 

Or if any would resist or hinder him in his acts of grace >nd mercy, he 
can crush them. As he is upon the throne, they are under his feet ; and 
he can use them as his footstool, and trample on them, crush them as easily 
as we can crush the worms or snails that are under our feet, Zech. iv. 7. 
He can take a course that none shall so much aa mutter against his gracious 
proceedings, or move a tongue in order to the hindrance thereof; Zech. 
ii. 18, ' Be silent before the Lord, for he is raised up out of his holy habita- 
tion.' By holy habitation, some understand the temple, and it was a shadow 
of heaven, the other habitation of his holiness. It is called his habitation, 
because he was there set forth on the mercy-seat as on a throne. When he 
is said to sit there, it signifies his presence ; when he is said to rise up, it 
denotes his readiness to exercise his power and authority. The power and 
authority of him who sits on the throne, when exercised, is enough to strike 
all flesh, all the creatures in the world, mute ; this makes all hush, they shall 
not so much as by a word give impediment to his gracious designs expressed 
in the promises foregoing. 

And as it is enough to quash the opposition of enemies, so likewise to 
silence the unbelief of weaklings, as doubting that what they desire or stand in 
need of, is too much to be expected, or too hard to be accomplished. Is 
anything too much or difficult for him who sits upon the throne, and so has 
all things in his power ? The throne is his, and so the kingdom, and 
glory, and power ; what, then, can hinder him ? What can resist him ? He 
will do all his pleasure, all that his power and mercy will have done, and 
none can say unto him, What dost thou ? 

Thus I have opened to you the great import and pregnancy of this ex- 
pression. I have stayed the longer on it, because I found it useful to clear 
up many passages in Scripture. And you will find it further useful practi- 
cally in the application. 

Use. Since there is a throne of grace for the people of Christ to come 
unto, let ub come unto it ; take this encouragement to make our addresses 
to him who thus exhibits himself to us. And so come to him, as we may 
find it to be a throne of grace to us ; and that we may find it to be so, let 
us come in such a manner as the import of the expression, already opened, 
directs us. What direction it affords us, let me shew in some particulars. I 
shall touch upon several, but most insist on that which is plain in the text, 
and principally intended by the apostle. 

1. Let us come with holiness of heart and life. The mercy-seat, and so 
the throne of grace on which the Lord offers himself, is a throne of holiness, 
as was shewed before. And this calls for holiness in those that come to it, 
Heb. x. 22, a place parallel to the text, they explain one another : ' Let as 
draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts 
sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water/ 
Hearts sprinkled, Ac. The mercy-seat was a throne of grace by virtue of 
the blood of sprinkling. Those that come to the throne of grace, and would 
find it so to them, must, through the efficacy of that blood, get their hearts 
eleansed from whatever makes the conscience evil, t. e. not only from the 
guilt, but the pollution of sin. And to inward purity, that of the heart, 
should add outward holiness, that of the life. ' Their bodies washed with 
pure water,' u e. their conversations cleansed from blots and stains of sin by 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HEB, IV. 16. J THE THBONX OF GBACB. 125 

the Spirit of sanctification. The legal rite signified this. Aaron and his 
sons were to wash their bodies when they went into the tabernacle of meet- 
ing, Exod. xxx. 17, 18, 19, &c., 29. This was to signify the real holiness 
which we should labour for, that we may come to the throne of grace, that 
we may be capable of meeting with the Lord there. The Lord upon the 
mercy-seat, npon the throne of grace, shews himself to be a holy God, 
therefore we should approach him in holiness: 'Holiness becomes thy 
house for ever,' Ps. xciii. 5. Holiness becomes the presence of God ; get it 
into a lively exercise when you draw near him. The Lord communed with 
Moses from between the cherubims ; if you would do so, observe the 
Lord's method : ' Isa. i. ' Wash ye, make ye clean,' and then come, let us 
commune together. He appears here in his holiness, and will be sanctified 
of all that draw near him ; therefore, sanctify yourselves, get mind and 
heart raised to a holy strain. 

2. Let us come with fear and reverence. The Lord on the mercy-seat, 
and so on the throne of grace, appears in his glory. A glory that should 
make such worms as we, whose habitation is in the dust, and who are crushed 
before the moth, to fear before him, and approach with reverence. Those 
who are most holy, have most communion with God, are most after his own 
heart (as David was), owe him as much reverence and fear as any ; and the 
nearer they are to God, the more will they count themselves obliged to shew 
this : Ps. v. 7, * In thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.' Their 
worship towards the temple was with respect to the mercy- seat. It was 
npon the account of the Lord's residence there that their posture in worship- 
ping was towards the temple, and this obliged them to fear : Ps. xcix. 1, 
' The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble : he Bitteth between the cheru- 
bims, let the earth be moved.' It is fit that dust and ashes should tremble 
before the God of glory. How was the holy prophet struck with the sense 
of his own vileness, when he saw the Lord upon a throne, and the seraphims 
above it, Isa. vi. 2, 8. Though the Lord do not present himself there to 
our eyes, yet our faith may always have such a vision of God ; yea, he is 
thus presented to our sense ; we hear, though we do not see, that the Lord 
sits upon ' a throne, high and lifted up,' between the cherubims, yea, with 
thousands of seraphims about him. And will neither faith nor sense strike 
us with the trembling sense of our own vileness ? The Lord expects it, and 
encourages us to it. He that dwells between the cherubims of glory, will 
dwell also in that heart that trembles at his word. He looks that we should 
tremble, not only when we see him, but when we hear of him, Isa. lvii. 15, 
16 : * Wherefore,' as the apostle advises, Heb. xii. 28, ' let us have grace, 
whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.' 

8. Let us come with sincerity. The Lord upon the mercy-seat shewed 
himself to be a (Sod that knows all things, all secrets, and so the secrets of 
hearts. When they were concerned to know those secrets (as David was to 
know the inward inclinations of the men of Keilah), here they inquired, as 
is before shewed. He hereby declares that there is nothing secret to, nothing 
hid from, him, with whom we have to do. This obliges us to deal uprightly 
with him, and to come before him with sincere hearts. 

The apostle, shewing how we should draw near to the throne of grace, 
requires this particularly : Heb. x. 22, * Let us draw nigh with a true heart,' 
&c. He loves truth in the inward parts, and hates the contrary, and knows 
whether it be there or no. It is madness to dissemble with him who knows 
all things, and hereby declares it ; he ' searches the heart,' &c. It is mad- 
ness to make a shew of the good that is not in us, or to go about to hide any 
evil that is in us. The apostle warns us of this, before he advises us to 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



126 OF COMING BOLDLY UNTO [HfiB. IV. 16. 

come to the throne of grace : Heb. iv. 18, there is nothing good or evil, how 
secret soever we may think it, bnt is manifest in his sight Whatever is 
covered, and shut np close from the eyes of others, is naked and open to 
him. He, with whom we have to do at the throne of grace, is a discoverer 
of the thoughts and intents, ver. 12 ; and, therefore, when we come to the 
throne of grace, let ns be careful to bring nothing, no, not in the secrets of 
our minds and hearts, but/what we would have him to see. Let ns bring no 
thought nor motion, no disposition nor inclination, no aim or end, no desire 
or intention, but what we would have exposed to the eye of him that sits on 
the throne. When we are before him, his eye penetrates the inwards of our 
minds and hearts as if they were a globe of crystal ; they are more trans- 
parent to him than crystal is to the sunbeams. Oh take care that the posture 
of our souls be upright before him, that it be not crooked and sinister ; but 
without carnal aims, worldly designs, selfish reflections; that, though we 
cannot get rid of all iniquity, yet we may regard none in our heart ; that, 
though he see us far short of perfection, yet we may be sincere in his sight, 

4. Let us come with subjection. When he is set forth as upon a throne, 
this signifies that he is sovereign, and we are subjects ; he is, though a gra- 
cious, yet an absolute sovereign, and we must come tohim^ as those who are 
wholly subjected to him, and resolved to shew ourselves absolutely subject, 
ready to be ordered by his wisdom, and ruled by his will, and subservient to 
his interest, and to have what we are, and what we have, and what we desire 
or hope for, disposed of as he thinks fit. His sovereignty and dominion calls 
for this, and his throne shews his dominion and sovereignty. 

We must be ordered by his wisdom, not our own ; when our wisdom agrees 
not with his, we must account it folly, and not follow its dictates, how spe- 
cious soever ; his will must be our will, it must be a law to us, as it is in 
itself; and, when it crosses our will, we must yield to it, comply with it, as 
holy, and just, and good ; it must be observed as good, and perfect, and 
acceptable, even when it lies thwart to our wills and inclinations. 

We must be ready to do whatever he would have us do. None of his 
commands should be grievous ; we should have respect to them all, else we 
may be ashamed- to profess ourselves his subjects, or approach his throne, 
Ps. cxix. 6 ; willing to forsake whatever he would have us to abandon, even 
every false way, Ps. cxix. 104 ; every way of sin, how pleasant or advan- 
tageous soever it seem ; willing to resist whatever he would have us oppose ; 
not only temptations from without, but our own humours, appetites, passions, 
inclinations, so far as they please not him ; willing to part with what he 
would have us to lose, though it be endeared relations and enjoyments, Luke 
xiv. 83 ; willing to suffer what he would have us endure, though it be that 
which flesh and blood thinks grievous. 

If he be our sovereign, bis interest must be sovereign ; we must make our 
own and all stoop to it ; we must own none, but what will serve it, and all 
that we have must be at the service of it ; we must look upon ourselves and 
enjoyments as not our own, but his, and to be employed for him, when, and 
as he calls for it ; even all, when no less will serve to uphold his interest ; 
we must submit our desires and hopes to him, when we come to his throne ; 
be willing to be denied in what he thinks best to deny us, and to be delayed 
in what he thinks fit to defer us. The throne we are to come to, minds ns 
that we are to come resolved for such subjection. 

5. Let us come with love and affectionateness. As it is a throne, it calls 
for subjection ; as it is a throne of grace, it calls for love, and all the affec- 
tions that depend thereon. The Lord offering hiinself to us on the throne 
of grace, is presented to us as the most amiable object, and in the most 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



HBB. IV. 16.] THB TBBONK OF GRACE. 127 

delightful and desirable posture ; when should we draw near him with all 
affectionateness, but when he holds forth all affectionateness to us ? and this 
he does, in a most rich and ample manner, on the throne of grace. When 
should we come to him with inflamed love, with ardent desires, with greatest 
delight and rejoicing, but when he displays the riches of his grace and mer- 
cies, and opens to us the treasures of his love, as he does on this throne ? 

(1,) When he appears on the throne of grace, then love is on the throne; 
mercy and grace appear in their sovereignty and exaltation, they are set 
forth all in their glory ; and does not this call for, and oblige us to, the 
highest love, the most raised affection ? Will some little love, some small 
degree of affection, be a suitable answer to such an obliging appearance ? 
will a poor, cool affection be fit for us to meet him with, when he is ready to 
meet us with the riches and greatness of an enthroned love? Shall we leave 
so much reason for sorrow and shame, to supply the defect of better affec- 
tions ? Shall not his love, when it is represented to us as on a throne, 
in its greatest power, constrain us to love him, and love him more and more, 
every time we draw near him ? Shall we not delight to be in a gracious 
presence, a presence which is gloriously gracious ? Such is the presence on 
the throne of grace : there grace appears in its glory, and all the royalty and 
magnificence of the King of kings. Another throne we may dread ; but this 
sure should be our delight and joy when we draw near it. Shall not our 
desires be excited and drawn out when the riches of grace and mercy offer 
themselves freely to those that are desirous ; when the throne of God declares 
that he will give like a king to those that desire it ? Oh, why does covet- 
ousness run so low and feed on mud, when here it might be entertained at 
a throne, and satisfied with royal riches ? 

(2.) Here all streams of goodness meet us ; both mercy and grace, both 
compassion and love. And does not this call for all acts, all expressions of 
affection, when we draw near ? 

(8.) Here love resides ; here grace reigns ; here mercy keeps the throne. 
And this should keep up our affection ; we should not be off and on, up and 
down. Decays and declinings should be hateful to us. Delight should be 
constant : love still sparkling, desire always upon the wing, when we come 
to the throne of grace, while we may find the Lord there ; and he is never 
off, his people may find him ever open his throne. 

6. Let us come in faith, come believing that we shall have access, acceptr 
ance, and success ; come with confidence of this, as those who may be 
bold to expect it ; as those who have all freedom and liberty to come, with- 
out any restraint, who have security to do it, and need not fear it ; who 
have warrant to do it, and need make no question of it. 

This is plain and open in the text. It is that which the apostle expressly 
requires in these words. Let us come boldly with confidence, with such a 
faith as prevails against fears, doubts, suspicions, jealousies, and rises up to 
full assurance. And he calls for it afterwards in that parallel place, Heb. 
x. 19, 20, 22, where his expressions refer to the mercy-seat, the throne of 
grace in a type, and, which I have shewed all along, helps us to understand 
what it signifies to us. ' Having boldness,' flraggfjo/ay, the same word which 
we have in the text ; ' into the holiest, 1 that was the place of the mercy-seat, 
the most holy part of the sanctuary ; ' by the blood,' the high priest might 
not approach the mercy-seat without blood, which signified the blood of 
Jesus, ver. 20 ; ' through the veil :' the way to the mercy-seat was through 
a veil, which parted the holy and most holy place. The apostle shews 
there is now a way for us, we may now come to the throne of grace 
shadowed out by these expressions. And how we may and ought to come, 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



128 OF COMING BOLDLY UNTO [HEB. IV. 16. 

he tells us, ver. 22, in foil assurance of faith, h v\nz*<p*y<t *'***«& There 
is nothing to stop or retard us, we may come with fall sail ; there is nothing 
to discourage us, we may come without any distrust or doubting, with all 
assurance, a fulness of it. We have sufficient encouragement for such a 
faith, such an exercise of it. 

Now this being the duty of the text, I shall insist on it the more ; taking 
in here the usefulness of the other observations which the words afford, that 
I may not stay too long upon this subject. 

Since it is a throne of grace we come to, here is great encouragement to 
come in faith, with an emboldened faith, a faith encouraged unto confidence. 
More distinctly, let me shew, 1, in what particulars we have this encourage- 
ment for faith and confidence ; 2, how all discouragements may be hereby 
removed ; and 8, what positive supports are hereby offered to our faith. 

1. For the first ; we may come in faith to the throne of grace in all cases 
that require help or relief. Whensoever we need help, whatever the need 
be, grace and mercy is to be found for help, without limitation. Par- 
ticularly, 

(1.) In sense of guilt. -When sin troubles the soul, stings the conscience, 
disquiets the heart, makes us fear it will rise up before the Lord against us, 
that it is set in the light of his conscience, and that he will judge us for it, 
the throne of grace gives assurance this shall not be. When he offers 
himself to us upon a throne of grace, he makes it evident he is not willing 
to judge his people for their sins ; he has no design to arraign, or condemn, 
or punish them for past transgressions. If he intended this, he would shew 
himself upon another throne ; not his mercy, but his judgment-seat. The 
throne of grace is his mercy- seat, and that, I shewed you, signified that sin 
was covered, hid from his sight ; so that he would not see it, nor take 
notice of it as a judge. The mercy-seat (signifying Christ) was betwixt the 
Lord and the condemning law, which bears witness of our sin and guilt. 
That was hid in the ark and covered, which shewed the Lord on the mercy- 
seat, and so on the throne of grace (shadowed out thereby) has found out a 
way through Christ to cover our sins, L e. to pardon them, Ps. lxxxv. 1-8. 

Oh, but though sin be covered, so as he will not take notice of it, to con- 
demn me for it hereafter, yet he may deal severely with me for it here ; I 
may feel the effects of his wrath in grievous afflictions, I tremble at the 
apprehension of that. 

But when sin is covered and forgiven, the wrathful effects of it cease, as 
the psalmist shews ; when their sin was forgiven, their captivity was brought 
back, vers. 1, 2, and all wrath taken away. Though he may chastise whom 
he pardons, yet not as a judge, to satisfy law and justice, but as a father, out 
of love and grace. The throne of grace ensures this ; no afflictions for 
sin come from thence, but such as, whatever they seem to be, will really 
prove to be acts of grace, i. *. of love and mercy, not of enmity or penal 
wrath. Believers may be hereby assured their pardon will be both free 
and full : free, because it is of grace ; and full, because from grace in its ex- 
altation, when it has the throne. 

(2.) In wants and necessities this assures us of supply. We come to the 
throne of grace for all we want, whether it concern soul or body, and be 
confident we shall have it ; and confident because it is a throne of grace we 
come to. For he that sits upon the throne can supply all our wants. The 
throne signifies he has alignings in his power, and at his disposing. There 
is no doubt but this great King can supply the poorest body, the poorest 
soul that belongs to him. And that he is ready to do it, we may be sure, 
because it is a throne of grace where he offers himself, and to which we are 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HEB. IV. 16.] THE THRONE OF GRACE. 129 

invited. This declares him gracious, ready to supply our necessities, and 
that freely, Bey. vii. 15, 16 ; by hunger and thirst, all wants whatever are 
signified. Here is assurance that all wants shall be supplied, and the ground 
of it expressed, ver. 16. The throne of God, through the Lamb in the 
midst of it, becomes a throne of grace ; hence flow all supplies to the people 
of Christ, in heaven and on earth. They shall not hunger, the Lamb in the 
midst of the throne, he feeds them ; they shall not thirst, he leads them to 
living fountains. Here is a free, a full, a lasting aad continuing supply, as 
from a fountain that runs freely, that affords not drops or draughts, but 
streams, many streams, and that continually. It is not a vessel or a cistern, 
but a fountain, a spring ; a spring that ift never dry, a living fountain ; till 
this fail, we can never want supplies. 

Obj. Oh, but do not we see many of those in want who eeme before this 
throne? 

Ans. You may see many things that they have not, but nothing that they 
want. They that have all that is good for them, though there be many 
things which they have not, yet properly they want nothing. Want is 
something to be complained of; but none in reason can complain because 
he is without that which is not good for him ; he wants it not, unless it may 
be said he wants a calamity, that which would be bad for him ; that is such a 
want of which none but a madman would have a supply. The people of 
Christ may have all that they want, because they may have all that is good ; 
the throne of grace makes them sure bf this. There the Lord sets forth 
himself as infinitely gracious, and so ready to make good all that he has 
graciously promised, and he has promised all that is good, Ps. zzziv. 9,. 10, 
and lxxxiv. 11. 

Obj. But I cannot think but such a thing which I have not would be 
good for me. 

Ans. The question here is, Whether the Lord or thyself can best judge 
what is good for thee ? yet methinks this should be no question. 

(8.) In weakness, inward or outward, public or personal. Hence we are 
encouraged to expect strength and assistance ; hence it comes, even from the 
mercy-seat, from ihe throne of grace : Ps. xx. 2, ' Send thee help from the 
sanctuary.' Why from the sanctuary, but because the Lord presented him- 
self there as upon the mercy-seat ? The sanctuary was in Zion, the mercy- 
seat was in the sanctuary, the Lord was in the mercy-seat, he would have 
himself set forth as residing there. Herein they pray, and pray in faith, for 
help and strength. 

Thou wantest strength to subdue corruption, to resist temptation, to over- 
come the world, to master self, to bear the cross, to perform hard duties, to 
improve ordinances and gracious opportunities, to walk exemplarily, to live 
eerviceably, to persevere thus doing. Alas ! says the soul, sensible of its 
own weaknesses, where shall I have strength for all this ? Where ? why at 
the throne. If he that sits on the throne will strengthen and assist thee, 
nothing will be too hard for thee, Phil. iv. 18. And he is ready to do it, for 
he that has all power, as being upon the throne, is all gracious, as being upon 
the throne of grace. 

Then as to the public, where shall there be help, when all seems running 
to ruin, when the interest of Christ seems sinking in all countries round 
about us, where it is not sunk already ; when it is sinking in the midst 
of us ? What help can stay it, or be any support to it, when we, see it 
pushed headlong ? What strength can raise it, when it seems so low, so 
like to be buried, beyond hopes of a resurrection ; when all that look 

vol. m. i 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



180 OF COMING BOLDLY UNTO ' [HBB. IV. 16. 

about them, and have a due sense of such concerns, find their hearts failing 
them for fear, and for ' looking after those things that are coming on the 
earth,' Luke xxi. 26 ; when they say with trembling hearts, By whom 
shall Jacob arise, for he is small ? What help or strength shall secure the 
gospel, and the interest of Christ (which depends on it) to these parts of the 
world, ready to be over-run with antichristian darkness and violence ? 
What hope in such circumstances that seem hopeless ? Why, this : the 
Lord reigns, he has the throne still ; there is help and strength enough 
there. Oh, but what is that to those who have utterly disobliged him, who 
have forfeited the gospel, as much as any that ever lost it ? Why, the Lord 
here shews himself gracious, and who knows but the unworthiest may find 
him so ? As it is a throne of power, so a throne of grace we come to ; and 
grace acts freely, and may appear for the relief of those who have no reason 
from themselves to look for any such thing. If the throne of grace were 
duly plied by those who have interest there, there might be hope concerning 
this thing ; there, and there only, is help to be found in such a time of 
need. There is no need so great, but help for it may be had at this throne ; 
none so unworthy but may meet with it freely, for it is a throne of grace. 

(4.) In fears and dangers, here you may have security, Ps. xxvii. 5, Pg. 
xxxi. 20. The secret of the tabernacle was the holy of holies, the place of 
the mercy-seat. And this is called the secret of his presence, because he 
exhibited his presence on the mercy-seat. Thus David was confident to be 
secured, as if he had been hid with God, as if he had been covered with the 
wings of the cherubims, which overshadowed the mercy-seat, and so made 
it the secret of the divine presence. To come to the throne of grace is the 
way to get into the secret of the Lord's presence. For any to assault you 
there will be to offer violence to the throne of God ; he that sits upon the 
throne will never endure it. If you take sanctuary here, you are safe. You 
are invited to come, to fly to it in time of danger. He that offers his own 
throne for a sanctuary will not suffer it to be violated. He that touches you 
there touches the apple of his eye, for it is the secret of his face. So the 
words signify which are translated the secret of his presence, Ps. xxxi. 20, 
TOE) inD, the secret or covering of thy countenance. What will become of 
those who will venture to strike at the face of God ? How safe are they 
that are hid under this covering, who are secured in the secret of his 
countenance ! This is the security which the throne of grace offers you. 
The horns of the altar were nothing to such a sanctuary, r Joab was plucked 
from thence, but none can reach you here. It is the throne of God, he can 
secure you ; and a throne of grace, he will do it. It was the ground of that 
confidence, Ps. xxvii. 

(5.) In troubles and calamities this is the surest way to deliverance. In 
the great calamity and desolation of the church, lamented Ps. Ixxx., she 
applies herself to the Lord as dwelling on the mercy-seat, ver. 1, 2. So did 
Hezekiah, when he and all the people of God were in great distress, ready 
to be overcome and ruined by Sennacherib : 2 Kings xix. 15, * Thou residest 
on the mercy-seat/ &o. The throne of grace is now our mercy-seat, there 
we may be sure to find deliverance, hxcugov fiojjfaav, « relief in season ;' 
deliverance whenever it will be, as soon as ever it is seasonable. Oh but 
we may stay long first, have not many done so ? You shall stay no longer 
for it than yourselves desire, for you will not desire it till it be good ; and it 
will not be good till it be seasonable. If it come too soon, it is as bad as if 
it come too late. It is never good, never desirable, but when it is in season ; 
and when it will be seasonable, the throne of grace in the text assures you 
of it. Whenever deliverance will be a mercy, whenever it will be an act of 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



HEB. IV. 16.] THE THBONE OF GB4CH. 181 

grace, yon shall have it assuredly ; and it is madness to wish-it before. The 
text bids yoa be confident of it ; anything that is mercy, you may find ; 
whatever will be an act of grace, yoa may obtain. Yon may be sure of it, 
because it is a throne of grace yoa come to, Ps. lvii. 1, Ixiii. 4. 

I might add many other particulars. In straits and perplexities yoa may 
have direction here, as from an oracle ; in grievances yoa may have ease 
and support : what sweeter and stronger support than the throne of grace ? 
In desertion and despondency, yoa may have comfort ; it is from this throne 
the Lord will shew himself so gracious as to wipe all tears from his people's 
eyes, Rev. vii. 17. In distance and estrangement from God, by coming to 
his throne you get near him, Ps. xci. 1. 

2. The next thing propounded is to shew how all discouragements to faith 
may be hereby removed. And indeed there is scarce anything that tends to 
discourage faith, or to puzzle it with doubts and fears, or to weaken it in 
its actings and exercise, but may be hereby dispelled. There is no objection 
that unbelief can make, or a distrustful heart suggest, but may be taken off 
by eyeing God as represented on the throne of grace, and viewing those per- 
fections and excellencies which he holds forth to us in this posture. To 
instance in some particulars. 

(1 .) The difficulty of what we need, of what we would have, sometimes 
puzzles faith. So it did not only, 2 Kings vii. 19, but in Moses, otherwise 
strong in faith : Num. xi. 21, ' The people are six hundred thousand foot- 
men ; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh that they may eat a whole 
month.' So it did in Martha : John xi. 39, ' By this time he stmketh, for 
he hath been dead four days.' As though time might prescribe to the Lord, 
or as if the grave would not deliver up one so long detained, at the word of 
Christ's power. Faith often staggers here. How can such a danger, sach 
a calamity, be prevented ? How shall antichristianism, coming in upon these 
parts of the world as a mighty flood, be stopped, when all things in view 
threaten, all seem to conspire to make way for it, and no means visible to 
divert it ? How can 6uch an evil, hanging over person or family, be re- 
pelled ? How can such a loss be made up, such a relation, such a comfort ? 
How can such a lust be subdued, which I have been struggling so long with 
to so little purpose ; that which is rooted in my temper and constitution, 
and has revived so often when I have looked on it as subdued and sap- 
pressed ? What escape out of such a strait, when no way visible to escape, 
no passage, no chink, to let out of it ? How shall the gospel, our liberties, 
comforts, be secured to us, when no wisdom, no power of man, appears for 
the effecting of it ? 

Yea, but consider, the Lord appears here as a God almighty. So he did 
on the mercy- seat, so he does on the throne of grace, as before. And is 
anything too hard for God ? Is anything too difficult for him that sits on 
the throne, to whom those things that seem utterly impossible to us are 
things of greatest ease ? ' Is the Lord's hand shortened ? ' So he answers 
Moses, Num. xi. 23. 

What does the throne here mentioned signify ? 

[1.] He rules and reigns over the world. All creatures, from the highest 
to the lowest, are absolutely subject to him. He can order all the creatures 
in the lower world, whatever is on the earth, or in the sea, or in the air ; 
yea, the stars in the firmament, and all the angels in heaven, to do whatever 
he pleases. He can bring them in altogether for the help of his servants, 
will force the meanest of them rather than fail. If all the hosts of the lower 
world were not sufficient, he has innumerable legions of angels, many and 
many myriads of them at his beck. They are about his throne, and stand 

Digitized by UOOQ IC 



182 OF OOUING BOLDLY UNTO [HXB. IV. 16. 

there as the attendants of this great King, ready to receive his orders, and 
to execute them in the behalf of his people, the weakest of them, the little 
ones, Mat. xviii. 10. What cannot he do for you, whose throne declares 
that he can raise all the powers of the world to do his pleasure ? 

[2. J But there is no need of all this. Since he has the throne, he can 
empower any one thing to do for you whatever you need ; since he has the 
throne, he has the power, all power is at his disposing. He is the God, the 
king of power. Since the kingdom is his (which a throne signifies), the power 
is his, 1 Chron. xxix. 11, Mat. vi. 18, Rev. v. 18. All creatures ascribe all 
power to him that is on the throne. And he that has dispersed this power 
unto several creatures, he can unite it all in one ; or as much of it in any 
one as will be enough for your relief, whatever your case be. He can con- 
vey power into any ordinance to comfort, quicken, or strengthen you ; so as 
you may prevail against any lust, resist any temptation, bear any cross what- 
soever. He can enable any creature to supply any want, make up any loss 
or breach, even such as you are apt to think can never be repaired. He can 
empower any instrument, how crooked, or weak, or broken, or insufficient 
soever it seem, to do that for you which you see no means or instruments 
able to do. He has the throne, the power is his ; he can dispose of it as 
he pleases ; he can convey so much of it into anything as will serve your 
turn, and answer your need, whatever it be. 

[8. J If there were no creature, no instrument in the -world to help, yet 
would you not be at a loss in time of need ; for he that is on the throne 
could do it alone. He can do all that ever you need, without any means or 
instruments. His bare word is sufficient, all-sufficient, for it, whatever it 
be, how great, how difficult, how impossible soever it seem. Such a power 
there is even in the word of the great King, Ps. xliv. 4. There needs no 
more to deliver you, to deliver his people anywhere, how deep soever plunged : 
but only the command of him that sits on the throne. If the gospel, the 
interests of Christ, in these parts of the world, and the dear concerns of our 
souls, and the souls of posterity, were all as dry bones, in a more forlorn 
and hopeless condition than they are, he could make all live with a word. 
He that is our king, that sits upon the throne, can command life into that 
which seems as far from living as a dry bone. While he keeps the throne, 
it is a senseless heart that fails through distrust of power, even when all 
visible power and help fails. 

(2.) Some may say, The Lord is able enough ; I do not doubt of bis 
power ; but is he willing to help, to strengthen, to deliver me from inward 
or outward dangers ? Here faith is often at a stand : Mat. viii. 2, ' If thou 
wilt, thou canst make me clean.' The leper did not question Christ's power 
to cleanse him, but his willingness. Many who believe his power, yet ques- 
tion his will. Here it usually sticks : Is he willing ? 

Why, yes. The Lord upon the mercy-seat appeared as a God of mercy. And 
what is mercy, but a willingness, a readiness to pity and help. When will 
the Lord shew mercy, if not here, if not now, when he exhibits himself as 
on the mercy-seat ? When the Lord offers himself on a throne of grace, 
this gives assurance that grace is then to be found. He bids us now come 
with confidence to find grace ; and when he bids us be confident, can there 
be any doubt that he will fail us ? Will he let those whom he bids trust 
in him for this thing be ashamed and miss of it ? An ingenuous man will 
not do so, much less the gracious God. Upon this throne he appears gra- 
cious in a solemn, a glorious manner. He will not frustrate the expectation 
that such an appearance, such a manifestation of himself, raises. It is not 
for his honour to defeat those hopes that himself hereby excites and encour- 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HBB. IV. 16. J THE THBONE OF GRACE. 138 

ages in each a manner. It would be a blot, a great disparagement to this 
throne, if it should not prove what himself styles it. His throne is a pledge 
that he is willing. Yon have a pledge no less considerable than the throne 
of God to assure you that yon shall find him gracious ; and to be gracious, 
is to be freely willing. 

(8.) It is true, you may say, the Lord is gracious and merciful, and so 
he may be willing to help and pity others, and freely so ; but how does it 
appear that he is willing to do it for me ? Faith is here often at a stand. 

Why, consider the Lord on the mercy-seat, and so on the throne of grace, 
is a God under promise, as I shewed before. And promises are for particu- 
lar application ; they speak the Lord willing to do this, and the other ; and, 
in a word, whatever thou needest, whatsoever is good to thee ; they offer all 
the great and precious things which are the contents of these great and pre- 
cious promises to thee in particular. 

To go no farther, the words of the text, though propounded in form of an 
exhortation, yet they are indeed a promise virtually, and so to all effects and 
purposes, as many other expressions are in Scripture, so that a great part of 
Scripture are promises in effect, though not so taken notice of. This here 
may be resolved (as there is good ground to resolve it) into this form : Those 
that come to the throne of grace shall find mercy, &c. And then, you see, 
it is a most gracious promise ; and to whom is it made ? To the people of 
Christ that are in need ; and so it belongs to thee if thou pertain to Christ, 
and art in need. If it be a time of need with thee, either as to inward or 
outward state, here is mercy and grace for thee in particular ; thou hast a 
promise of it, which thou mayest apply particularly to thyself. 

(4.) Oh, but though I may apply this or that promise, yet there are many 
promises that I think are not fit or proper, or intended for me. Many seem 
particular to some eminent saints, and divers of them were made upon special 
occasions, which restrains them from me ; and, which concerns the matter 
before us, those in particular which were made to Moses and his successors, 
touching the Lord's meeting them, and communing with them from the 
mercy-seat. And this in the text, it is for those that can come with confi- 
dence and assurance. 

In answer to this, consider : the Lord upon the mercy-seat, or the throne 
of grace, appears a God in covenant, as I shewed in the application. Now, 
all the promises are but several articles of that covenant. He that is in 
covenant with God is included in all the articles of it ; every promise belongs 
to him, so far as his condition makes him capable, and requires it. The 
Lord upon the throne of grace is a God to us in Christ. Now, in Christ all 
the promises are yea and amen. He being the mediator of this covenant, and 
&11 the promises being ratified and confirmed by his blood, they are yea and 
amen in him ; and that constantly ; not yea to his people formerly and nay 
to his people now, but yea always. And they are all so in Christ, 2 Cor. i. 20, 
true and firm. The covenant is as a cluster of grapes, the several promises 
are as particular grapes in that cluster, Christ is as the branch or stalk that 
holds them all. He that lays hold on Christ hath the stalk in his hand, and 
so holds the whole cluster, and every particular grape. If Christ be thine, 
thou hast laid hold on the covenant ; the whole cluster of promises is in 
thine hand. 

The Lord here offers grace and mercy ; he is upon the throne for this 
purpose. It is therefore called a throne of grace. Now, he who has 
grace and mercy offered has all the promises made over to him ; for 
mercy and grace is the sum of them all ; all that they contain or hold forth 
is mercy or grace. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



184 OF COMING BOLDLY UNTO [HBB. IV. 16. 

And as for promises made upon special occasion, we find the Holy Ghost 
applying them to others afterward, upon occasions far differing from those 
upon which they were first made, e. g. that promise, Josh. i. 5, 'I will not 
fail thee nor forsake thee.' It was made to Joshua in particular, and upon 
a special occasion, when he was going to conquer Canaan, and to get posses- 
sion of another land. And yet this the Holy Ghost applies to the faithful 
in common, and that as a motive to be contented with their present condition 
and enjoyments ; an occasion very different, if not opposite, to that which 
was its first rise, Heb. xiii. 5. 

If we be not in the same circumstances with Moses, when the Lord made 
those promises to him, there may be some circumstantial difference as to the 
performing of them to us, but the substance of them will be made good to 
his people in all ages. Though he will not speak to his servants now, and 
commune with them now in an audible voice, as he did with Moses from the 
mercy-seat, yet he will' meet his people at the throne of grace, and admit them 
to communion with him, and give them divine answers in a way suitable to 
gospel times ; and for this may these promises now be made use of. 

(5.) Oh, but I fear I want the condition of the promise, and then what 
encouragement can there be for me to apply the promise for this ? I intend no 
encouragement but for believers ; for it is faith that the text leads me to en- 
courage ; and where there is faith, here is great encouragement, though there 
be great weaknesses and defects as to other qualifications. For when the high 
priest appeared before the Lord, presenting himself upon the mercy-seat, what 
was he required to bring into the most holy place ? Why, only incense and the 
blood of sprinkling, Lev. rvi. 12-14. These signified the intercession and 
satisfaction of Christ. Now, these are already prepared to thy hand, and 
held forth to thee by the throne of grace ; for by virtue hereof it is a 
throne of grace. If, therefore, faith lay hold on these, that will give thee 
access to the mercy- seat, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant ; to 
the covenant of promise, and to all the promises of the covenant; and to him 
who is upon the throne of grace, as a God in covenant. 

(6.) Oh, but if I have faith, it is very weak ; so weak as I know not 
whether it be alive in me ; I doubt whether it have a being there. And 
it is a strong faith that the text calls for, such as is strengthened into 
confidence, and rises up to assurance. Those that are to come are such as 
can come boldly. 

The apostle does not say that none may come before this throne but those 
that can come with assurance and confidence. But the design of this ex- 
pression is to shew that all the people of Christ, even the poorest weaklings, 
such whose faith is weakest, have encouragement to come boldly. Here is 
enough in this representation to strengthen the weak hands and the feeble 
knees, to put spirits and strength into a fainting, a languishing faith ; enough 
to quash its fears, satisfy its doubts, scatter all jealousies, and support it in its 
tremblings. So that here is no reason at all to stay away, because you are 
weak ; but the rather to come, that you may be strong in faith ; for the 
throne of grace offers grace and mercy, is a ground of assured hope that 
you may obtain mercy, &c. Now, what is the property, the office of mercy, 
but to pity weaknesses and relieve them ? And what does grace import, but 
that the Lord upon this throne will do it freely ? If it were not so, 
grace were no grace ; it would be a throne of something else, nojb of grace. 
Both grace and mercy are for help, says the text, and for help in time of 
need ; and so they are most for those who are in most need. And those who 
are weakest are in most need ; and therefore weaklings have as much en- 
couragement as any to come boldly. Mercy and grace is as much designed 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



HSB. IV. 16.] THE THBONB OF GBACE. 185 

for thee as (if not more for thee than) any, and offered here to answer all 
thy needs, supply defects, strengthen thee in weaknesses, and out of weak- 
nesses to make thee strong. 

(7.) Oh bnt I have more to discourage me than mere weakness ! I have 
sinned, I have disobliged the Lord who sits upon the throne, and have dealt 
too unfaithfully in the covenant. 

I suppose thou dost not allow thyself in any evil way, in any known sin ; 
thou bewailest thy proneness to sin; thou watchest and resistest, and strivest 
against it. If this be thy case, here wants not encouragement ; sin in such 
circumstances does not disoblige the Lord, so as he will not remember his 
covenant. Remember what I said in the opening of the point in hand. The 
Lord is upon the mercy-seat; and consequently, as upon the throne of grace, 
is a God reconciled, a God pardoning sin, covering it out of his sight. Christ, 
the covering, the mercy-seat, is interposed betwixt him and the condemn- 
ing, the accusing law, to hide sin and guilt from his eye. As he is upon the 
throne of grace, he ' sees no iniquity in Jacob/ kc ; he will not take notice 
of it so as to be disobliged. The Lamb is said to be ' m the midst of the 
throne,' Rev. v. 6, and vii. 17. It is through him that it is a throne of 
grace, and it is that Lamb that takes away the sin ; so that coming to the 
throne of grace, there you may see the Lamb in the midst of it, and so may 
conclude sin taken away. It is gone, it cannot disannul the covenant. You 
may see that in the throne of grace, which declares the Lord has taken a 
coarse to make the covenant everlasting ; though it be made with sinners, the 
mediation and interposal of Christ, who is in the midst of the throne, will 
secure it. 

(8.) But the Lord is long ere he perform his promise. I want help, and 
it comes not. I cry unto him for it, and he answers not. He delays ; my 
soul fails in waiting for him. 

Ans. There may be mistakes here. Either he performs his promise and 
answers your desires, and you observe it not, or else it is not best for you 
that he should do it yet. The throne of grace holds forth ground of assur- 
ance that you shall have help as soon as you can reasonably desire it (and 
what would you have more ?). You cannot reasonably desire it but when it 
will be best for you ; it will not be best for you but when it is seasonable, 
and when it is seasonable you are here assured of it. This is expressly in 
the text ; coming to the throne you shall obtain mercy, and find grace for 
seasonable help, its Ivxatpv fiofifaav, for help when it is seasonable. It is 
not good till then, and so till then you cannot in reason desire it. As soon 
as the finding of it will be a mercy, as soon as the obtaining of it will be an 
act of grace (and before, it cannot be in season, it is not to be desired). ' He 
that shall come will come, and will not tarry ;' he will not stay one jot 
longer. His posture upon the mercy-seat (to which the throne of grace 
answers) signifies all speed and celerity, when the wisdom of him who 
charges the angels with folly can see fit and good for you. He was upon 
the mercy-seat as his chariot; there he was presented as sitting between the 
cherubims. The word Cherub is most probably derived from Bechab, a 
chariot. That of the psalmist refers to this representation : Ps. lxxxvi. 17, 
' The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thousands of angels multiplied.' 
The two cherubims upon the mercy-seat were an emblem of these two 
myriads. # ' The Lord is among them ; as in Sinai, so in the holy place.' 
These signified his special presence in both. Here he sets forth himself as 
on a throne, or in a chariot. It is called the ' chariot of the cherubims,' 
1 Chron. xxviii. 18. The Lord will be as quick and speedy in bringing 
help to his people when it is good and seasonable and desirable, as if he 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



186 OF COKING BOLDLY UNTO [HBB. IV. 16. 

came in a chariot drawn with cherubims, Ps. xviii. 10 ; and this chariot is 
swifter than the wings of the wind. So he came for David's deliverance ; 
so he will come for yours when it is seasonable. You cannot desire it 
sooner, unless you would have it before it be good, before it is to be desired. 

8. The last thing propounded is to shew what positive supports are 
hereby offered to our faith. Having set before you how our eyeing the 
Lord as on the mercy-seat, as on the throne of grace, serves to remove 
all discouragements that faith may meet with, I shall now let yon see 
positively how the Lord, thus represented to us, affords all encouragement 
that is requisite to strengthen and support our faith in all addresses. 

The Lord here shews himself both able and willing to be unto his people 
whatever Uhey can desire, and to do for them whatever they need. And 
whore the Lord declares himself both able and willing, there faith hath 
ail the encouragement that it can possibly have to strengthen and embolden 
it. The Lord is not hindered or disabled by any of those defects which 
may disable others from helping us, for he appears here as always present, 
as unconceivably wise and infinitely powerful. 

(1.) This may persuade us, assure us of his presence. I shewed you 
in the explication how the Lord in the mercy-seat, and consequently on 
the throne of grace, offers his presence to his people, and what a presence 
it is that is here exhibited in divers particulars. Let me but add one 
text wherein we have them ail together, Ezek. xliii. 7. 

[1.] 'Here is an intimate presence. He will be not near them or with 
them only, but in them, in the midst of them. 

[2.] A special presence. He will be in them, not only as he is in the 
rest of the world, but in a more peculiar manner, with a gracious pre- 
sence, such as the mercy-seat held forth there and the throne of grace now ; 
present in a way of mercy, in a gracious manner. 

[8.] A glorious presence. He will be with them as on his throne, where 
he appears in his glory and majesty. See ver. 5. 

[4.] An all-sufficient presence. To secure them from what they fear, and 
give what they desire. ' My holy name shall they no more defile.' His pre- 
sence shall keep them from sinning against him ; and that which keeps us 
from sin secures us from all that is dreadful, for there is nothing dreadful 
but sin and the effects of it. There will be no more effects of sin when they 
no more defile his name ; and so far as they are kept from sin, so far the 
way is open for all good things, all we can desire, for it is sin only that 
stops the way and withholds good things from us. 

[5.J A continuing presence. It is not, I will come to them, I will visit 
them, I will stay with them for a while, but ' I will dwell with them.' That 
denotes a settled, a constant abode. And ' dwell with them for ever. 1 Thus 
will the Lord be present with his people when the place of his throne is 
amongst them. Such a presence the throne of grace imports. It is true, the 
Lord's throne is said to be in heaven, because his glory in a peculiar manner 
appears there. But throne is a figurative expression, and denotes his reign 
or empire ; and so, wherever the Lord reigns and rules, there is his throne, 
Ps. ciii. 19, ' His kingdom ruleth over all.' He rules everywhere. His 
throne is where his kingdom is, and that is, as over all, so within his people : 
Luke xvii. 21, ' The kingdom of God is within you.' There is an intimate 
presence. And as his throne is everywhere, so it is everywhere a throne of 
grace to his people ; and so, wherever they are, they have his gracious pre- 
sence. And though he appear most glorious in heaven, yet wherever he is, 
wherever his throne is, he is glorious ; so that, being in the midst of his 
people, he is the glory in the midst of them. It is a glorious presence. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



HBB. IV. 16.] THE THBONB OF GBACK. 187 

And it will afford help in need ; all help that is needful, and that is as 
much as we need desire ; help in season, and that is as good as we can 
wish. So far it is an all-sufficient presence, and it will continue while his 
grace continues, and that is for ever. It will be a throne of grace while 
his grace and mercy endures, and this endures for ever. 

So that upon the whole, there is not the least occasion of distrust or 
doubt that we shall suffer by reason of his distance from us, that he will fail 
us any moment by reason of his absence, since the throne of grace insures 
his presence with his people, and such a presence as is most desirable. 

(2.) This may persuade us of his wisdom ; for from the mercy-seat did 
the Lord manifiest his infinite wisdom by giving them a resolution of their 
greatest difficulties, such as were too hard for any created understanding. 
Here they asked counsel of the Lord, and he answered them according to the 
judgment of Urim : Num. xxvii. 21, ' Before the Lord,' i. e. with their faces 
towards him, as presenting himself on the mercy-seat ; for when they were 
to ask counsel, the priest, putting on the- breast-plate of tfrimand Thiimmim, 
set his face towards the mercy-seat, and the Lord from thence gave him an- 
swers, either by an audible voice or by secret inspiration, which answers when 
the priest had declared to the people, the stones and letters in the breast- 
plate 8hined (as is conceived) with some extraordinary lustre and brightness. 
and thereby the people had assurance that the answer was from the Lord. 
And the priest being herein a type of Christ, who carries his people in his 
heart before the Lord, as the priest did the names of the twelve tribes upon 
his breast. To the brightness shining in the breast-plate that expression of 
the apostle may have reference : 2 Cor. iv. 6, * God, who commanded the 
light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light 
of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. 1 How- 
ever, in this representation of the Lord upon a throne of grace, the light of 
the glorious knowledge of God does appear shining in the face of Christ, 
with a brighter and more conspicuous lustre. Here we may see with open 
face, without any veil interposed, without any shadow of obscure types, that 
«o\woixi\bg topia, as the apostle calls it, Eph. iii. 10, that admirable variety 
of infinitely wise contrivances and dispensations for the saving of Jew and 
gentile, the depths of which the angels cannot sound, though they do their 
endeavour, diving into it with earnest desire of fuller discoveries, and great 
admiration of what they see. 

Here he shews men and angels that his wisdom has found out a way to 
reconcile justice and mercy, through the mediation and interposal of Christ, 
the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne. Here we have a view of that 
wisdom which could find out a way to shew mercy to sinners, when his justice 
had condemned them, and was obliged to do severe execution upon them. 
All the wisdom of men and angels could never have found out an expedient for 
this difficulty ; they had been to seek (as we had been lost) eternally, if any- 
thing but infinite wisdom had been put upon this discovery. And is he not 
able, in point of wisdom, to do anything, to do everything for us ; to find out 
ways and means to relieve us in any case or exigent whatsoever, whose 
wisdom could find out a way to do that which was too hard for the wisdom 
of angels to discern how it could be done ? 

(8.) This may persuade us of his power. Faith may hence grow confident 
that he is not disabled, cannot fail his people, for want of power. For he 
appears on the throne as one that has all power, which I made clear to you 
before. Let me but add one expression, frequently used in Scripture, and 
very pregnant for this purpose. The Lord's appearing from the mercy-seat, 
for the help of his people, is expressed by shining : Ps. lxxx. 1, * Thou that 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



188 OF COMING BOLDLY UNTO [Hl5B. IV. 16. 

dwellest on the mercy-Beat, shine forth. 1 The greatest works that ever the 
Lord did for his people are thus set forth. It is deliverance from the cap- 
tivity that they pray for here in these terms. And their deliverance out of 
Egypt is thus expressed : Dent, xxxiii. 2, ' The Lord came from Sinai, and 
rose np from Seir unto them ; he shined forth from mount Paran,' &c. 
And the same expression is used with respect (as is probably ooneeived) to 
the great work of redemption by Christ, Ps. 1. 2. The words in the original 
ran thus : From Sion, from the perfection of beauty, the Lord will shine. 
As the Lord shined from the mercy-seat, which was seated in mount SIod, 
and where the Lord most perfectly manifested his beauty or glory, so in 
Sion the true light, the Messias, appeared, and from thence diffused the true 
light of the gospel through the world. All the Lord's most signal works are 
thus set forth by shining. And the Lord upon the throne of grace is repre- 
sented as shining ; for there he appears in the greatness and exaltation of 
his grace and mercy ; and the lustre of these appearing is his shining forth, 
his manifesting himself on the throne of grace, where the glory of his throne, 
the beams of his majesty, are mercy and grace ; this is shining forth. And 
by this expression, faith may discover how able he is, who sits upon the 
throne, to do whatever we stand in need of. Hence it appears he can do all 
things for the help of his people, easily, instantly, irresistibly, and advan- 
tageously. He is able to do anything, everything, for our relief. 

[1.] Easily. Without any toil or trouble. It costs him no more pains 
to do all you need or can desire, than it costs the sun to shine forth. He 
can supply all wants, resolve all doubts, subdue all corruptions, secure from 
all calamities, those which most threaten us, as easily as the sun can shine. 
He can as easily scatter all your doubts, fears, dangers, lusts, as the sun can 
scatter the thinnest cloud ; it is no more to him than shining forth. 

He can as easily do all you can think or desire, as you can turn an eye, 
or move a hand* or speak a word ; for with as much ease does the sun dirt 
forth his light and beams ; and it is no more for the Lord to put forth his 
power, than to shine forth. If that which you desire would put the Lord to 
any pains, or toil, or trouble, you might doubt whether it would be done; 
but here is the enoouragement of faith, the Lord can do all with the greatest 
ease ; let him but shine forth, and it is done* 

[2.] Instantly. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, as soon as the 
light diffuses itself through the air : Mat. xxiv. 27, ' As the lightning cometh 
out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall the coming of the 
Son of man be.' The lightning is so quick in its motion, that it is in the 
east and west at once, and in a moment. So quickly can the Lord do all 
you can desire ; he can make the outgoings of his power like the goings 
forth of the light ; let him but shine forth, and it is done. Those lusts that 
you have been wrestling and tugging with for many years, he can subdue in 
a moment. Those doubts, obscurities, perplexities that have puzzled you so 
long, and through which your understandings cannot make their way, he can 
clear up in a moment Those clouds of antichristian darkness that are 
gathering thick about us, he can quickly scatter ; let him but shine forth, and 
they will vanish. If what you need or desire would cost the Lord any expense, 
or time, or prove tedious to him, you might doubt whether it would be done ; 
but he can do all with as quick a motion as that of the light, all in an instant. 

[8.] Irresistibly. Nothing can stop him or give him any impediment. 
Men and devils can no more obstruct what his power is engaged in, than you 
can hinder the sun from rising with your hand, or stop it from going forth in 
its strength and lustre when it is risen. If the Lord could be hindered, faith 
might be at a stand. But here is the encouragement of faith, he can do 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



HEB. IV. 16.] THB THBONX OF GBACB. 189 

what you would have him, irresistibly, and break through all impediments, 
as the light passes through the clear air, without the least stop or stay. 

[4. J Advantageously. Without any loss or prejudice to himself; nay, 
with advantage as to his own glory. The sun loses nothing by shining forth ; 
nay, the more it shines, the more does it display its beauty and glory. The 
Lord loses nothing by employing his power for his people ; nay, the more 
he puts it forth, the more glorious he appears. When the sun goes forth in 
its roll strength, it goes forth in the brightness of its glory ; so when the 
Lord puts forth the greatness of his power for his people, he shines forth in 
the brightness of his glory. If the Lord suffered any loss, or prejudice, or 
disadvantage, by doing for you what you stand in need of, you might doubt that 
it would not be done ; but this is faith's encouragement, the Lord gains glory 
by employing his power for you ; the more he doth, the more his glory shines 
forth. His appearing for you from between the cherubims is a shining forth. 

So you see that faith may here discern that the Lord is able, and thus 
able, to do whatever you need or desire. And that is one of the two prin- 
cipal supports and encouragements that faith has in all its actings. Now if 
we may be assured that he is willing too, then faith has all the encourage- 
ment that we can wish. And herein, in the 

Second place, we may be persuaded that he is willing likewise. When 
faith can have assurance that the Lord is not only able, but willing to help 
in time of need, to give all relief that is needful, then there is no place left 
for the least distrustful fears or doubts. Faith, by these two supports, may 
raise itself up to the height of confidence ; and so may come boldly to the 
throne of grace, without any question or scruple, but that whatever is needful 
or desirable will be obtained, will be granted by him who sits upon the throne. 

If the Lord be both able and willing to vouchsafe it, there is nothing ima- 
ginable can hinder it. Now the Lord, as offering himself to us on the throne 
of grace, appears willing ; and faith has from hence sufficient ground to 
conclude he is so. I shall endeavour to discover this, both positively and 
comparatively. That this shews him positively willing, I have hinted some- 
thing before ; but now take it more fully and distinctly in these particulars. 

1. He appears to be willing when he appears on the throne of grace. His 
manifesting himself there is a glorious appearance of his willingness. And 
will he appear to be what he is not ? He is far from being like deceitful 
men ; he will not delude us with vain shows, such as have no reality answer- 
ing them. He would never seem willing, if he were not so indeed. All that 
the psalmist desired for the support of his faith was * a token for good,' 
Ps. bcxxvi. 17. Here is a token for good ; the throne of grace is a sign, a 
glorious signification, that he is willing to do us all the good, to give us all 
the help we stand in need of. 

2. He bids us be confident when we come to the throne of grace ; he 
would have us come boldly. Now he would not bid us do this if we had no 
ground for it ; he would not encourage us unto a rash and groundless con- 
fidence. But we have no ground for it to come with boldness and confidence, 
if he be not willing to let us have what we come for. Would he bid us be 
confident of help from him, if he were not willing to let us have it ? He will 
not so abuse poor creatures ; he is infinitely further from it than the best of 
men. An honest, ingenuous man would never bid us be confident in him, 
come boldly to him, for that which he has no mind, no will to do, which he 
never means to do for us. And can we think the Lord would do it ? He 
raises our confidence by offering himself on a throne of grace ; and will he 
dash that which himself raises, and make that ashamed which himself 
encourageth ? Will he bid us come boldly, and then send us away disap- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



140 OF COMING BOLDLY UNTO [HBB. IV. 16. 

pointed ? What would you think of a man like yourselves that should serve 
you so ? Such unworthy thoughts you must have of him who sits on the 
throne, if this do not persuade you of his willingness. However men may 
serve us, those that trust in the Lord shall not be ashamed, never disap- 
pointed, Prov. x. 25. But they would be disappointed, and sent away with 
shame from the throne of grace, if they should not find the Lord willing to 
do that which he encourages them to trust him for. 

8. His honour is engaged. It is the glory of his throne, that it is a throne 
of grace. It would not be a throne of grace, nor would he that sits on it be 
gracious, if he were not willing to do his people good, to help them when it 
is good, when needful. So that you have the throne of God, the glory of him 
who thus represents himself, engaged for his willingness. What greater en- 
gagement can you wish, or possibly have, than the throne of God ? Can 
you have any security more considerable than heaven or earth ? Can you 
have anything greater for your assurance herein than the throne of God, 
the glory of the Most High ? This you have here in the text, and what 
need you more ? What greater security can you have, since the Lord engages 
his own throne ? If a man should engage his whole estate that he would be 
willing to help you, you would not doubt but he would be willing to do it. 
And will you doubt of the Lord's willingness when his throne is engaged for it ? 

4. He appears here as a God of mercy and grace, as I shewed you in the 
explication, and it is express in the text. And to be a God of grace and 
mercy, is to be a God willing to do good freely, willing to help in time of 
need. He is essentially merciful and gracious, and so essentially willing to 
do his people good. It is his nature, and here he displays it ; it shines forth 
from the throne of grace. Now may faith say, Though I have deserved that 
the Lord should deny me, yet he cannot deny himself; though he has just 
reason to cast me off, yet he cannot lay aside his own nature and goodness ; 
and that inclines him to be willing, freely willing. 

5. He appears here in a willing posture. He is here upon the throne of 
grace, upon the mercy- seat : and why represented in such a posture, but to 
signify he is ready for acts of grace and mercy ? We may now find grace, 
and obtain mercy. And what is mercy, but a willingness to pity and relieve ? 
And what is grace, but a willingness to do it freely, a free willingness? 
That which is the mercy-seat in the Old Testament, is the throne of grace in 
the New Testament. And this throne is established for ever, he is willing, 
and freely willing for ever, to do his people good, to help and relieve in need. 
The golden sceptre will be always held forth, while the Lord is on this throne ; 
and as the throne, so the sceptre is an everlasting sceptre. The Lord shews 
himself always willing that his people should have access to him ; yet never 
willing that they should go out of his presence sad and dejected, as though 
they could not obtain mercy, Ac. This throne is established in mercy, Isa. 
xvi. 5. That of Solomon may be applied to it, Prov. xx. 28, ' His throne 
is upholden by mercy.' The Lord would have no throne, no kingdom 
amongst his people, were it not upheld by mercy, were he not willing to 
pity and help. You may as well doubt whether the Lord will still have a 
mercy-seat, whether he will still have a throne or no ; as doubt whether he 
be willing to help in time of need. You may as well say that now there is 
no mercy-seat, no throne of grace, t. e. that Christ is not in heaven, that you 
have no mediator there, that the Lamb is not in the midst of the throne ; as 
that the Lord is unwilling to hear and help. 

6. He here shews that he has given us Christ, and thereby assures us 
that he cannot be unwilling to give us anything. The Lord had not set 
forth himself to us on the throne of grace, but that he had set forth Christ 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



H*B. IV. 16.] THX TBBOME OF GBACB. 141 

to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood. Bom. iii. 25. We have now 
no /Xa<mjf/«r, no mercy-seat but Christ. That under the law was but a 
shadow of him. Christ was then hid in that shadow, but now set forth. 
Now not typified as to be given hereafter, but actually exhibited as given 
already. He has actually shed his blood for this purpose, that through his 
mediation the Lord might be propitious, merciful, willing to relieve us 
under all our guilt, and help in all our needs. It is through the Lamb in 
the midst of the throne, the Lamb slain, that the throne of God is to us a 
throne of grace. It is so through him who was slain, who was given for this 
end. Now he that was willing to give us Christ (as the throne of grace 
manifests he has already given him), assures us hereby, that he is freely 
willing to give all, Bom. viii. 82. 

7. He appears here under obligations to be willing. The Lord on the 
throne of grace represents himself to us as a God under promise, a God in 
covenant, as I shewed in opening the point. Now what are the promises, 
but declarations what the Lord is willing to do for his people ; gracious ex- 
pressions of his willingness to do us all the good we need or can desire ? 
Let me add, that the Hebrew doctors express a proselyte's or convert's enter- 
ing into covenant with God, by being gathered under the wings of the divine 
presence. And the Lord's appearing on the mercy-seat, shadowed with the 
wings of the cherubims, they called peculiarly fUW, the divine presence. 
To enter into covenant with God, is to be gathered under these wings. To 
which some conceive that expression of Christ has reference, Mat. xxiii. he 
would have 'gathered them under his wings,' i.e. he would have brought 
them into the new covenant. The Lord upon the mercy-seat, and so on the 
throne of grace, appears as a God in covenant. Now what are the contents 
of this covenant but sure mercies, Acts xiii. 84 ; mercies insured to believers 
through Christ ; acts of grace and favour made sure by an everlasting covenant ? 
The Lord hereby shews himself obliged to be everlastingly willing to help in 
time of need. He is as surely willing, as he is sure to be true and faithful, as 
he is sure to be like himself, as he is sure not to deal falsely in the covenant. 

8. He appears here as having removed all impediments that might hinder 
him from being willing. For what can hinder, but either incensed justice, 
or the condemning law, or the provokings of sin ? But the Lord, as offer- 
ing himself on the throne of grace, shews that he has taken a course that 
none of these shall be any impediment to him. 

Not incensed justice, for the Lord here shews himself upon the propitia- 
tory. He is now propitious, as one reconciled, and that shews that wrath is 
appeased and justice satisfied. 

Not the accusing law : for the mercy-seat is betwixt the Lord and the 
condemning law ; the accusations of the law are all silenced through the 
mediation of Christ, the pleadings of the law will not be heard or admitted 
at this throne. 

Not the provokings of sin : for here sin is covered. This is a throne for 
pardons and free forgivenesses. 

Bo that nothing is left to hinder him from being willing. And if the Lord 
appears willing, bids us be confident of it, shews himself in a willing posture, 
and his promise, his honour, his throne, his Son, engage him, and there be 
nothing to hinder him, what remains, but that believers should be con- 
fident of his readiness, his willingness, to hear and help, to pity and relieve, 
and give them all their heart's desire? What remains, but to 'come 
boldly,' Ac. 

Thus it is manifest positively that the Lord is willing. Let me shew it 
comparatively also, but very briefly. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



142 OF COMING TO THE THBONE OF OBACE. [HEB. IV. 16. 

1. He shews himself more willing than he did of old under the law ; jet 
then his people found him ready to help, relieve, supply. He shews it now 
more openly on the throne of graoe ; whereas in the mercy-seat it was but 
held forth obscurely, as in a shadow, a typical and mysterious representa- 
tion : now there (is no veil interposed, now we may with open face behold 
the Lord's good-will towards men, shining in the face of Christ. This 
he shews continually on the throne of grace, to which all may have access 
every moment ; whereas the people were admitted to the mercy- seat, only 
in the high priest, and that but once a year. The blood and incense, with- 
out which the mercy-seat was not to be approached, did but shadow forth 
the sufferings and intercession of Christ, and these are now not prefigured, 
but really exhibited. The throne of grace is now said to be the throne of 
God and of the Lamb ; of the Lamb slain and already sacrificed, so he has 
made satisfaction ; of the Lamb in the midst of the throne, there making 
intercession. So that, though he appeared willing before, yet now he mani- 
fests it in a way which gives much more assurance to faith ; he shews it 
clearly, fully, effectually, continually. 

2. He is more willing to help us, than we are to help one another, than 
those amongst us that are most so. The throne of grace shews us mercy 
and grace upon the throne ; there this willingness appears in the highest 
exaltation and glory, and so sets forth the Lord to be as much more willing 
than we, to afford relief, as he is higher than we. As his other thoughts 
are not as ours, so his thoughts of grace and mercy, for the relief and 
supply of his people, and the ways wherein he is willing to help us, are far 
above ours, even as the heavens are high above the earth, Isa. lv. 9. Even 
as his highest throne is above his footstool, Heb. viii. 1. Who more willing 
to relieve a child in want or distress, than an affectionate father? yet that will- 
ingness conies short of his : Luke xi. 18, ' If ye being evil know how to 
give good gifts unto your children ; how much more shall your heavenly 
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him,' so Mat. vii. 11. The 
gift of the Spirit is the sum of all good things ; it comprises spiritual light, 
life, strength, treasures, comforts. And the Lord is much more willing to 
give all these, than any Father to supply his child. 

8. He is more willing to send help, than we to have it. This is unques- 
tionable in many cases, and those that are of most consequence to us, such 
as concern our souls. He that will do most for our relief, is most willing to 
help us ; but hereby it appears that he has done more. this way for us than 
we will do for ourselves. When we are loath to quit our own ease, to cross 
our own humours and inclinations, for the advantage and relief of our souls, 
he spared not his own Son for our sakes. It cost him more to relieve us in 
our lost condition, than ten thousand worlds are worth. At such a rate was 
he willing to appear for our help, when our state was otherwise helpless and 
desperate. This the throne of grace sets before us. There we may see 
Jesus, who by his blood has procured us access to it, and there sits on the 
right hand of the throne, making intercession for us. Which of us are 
willing to part with that for the interest of our own souls, which is as dear 
to us as the Son of God was to the eternal Father ? His giving his Son for 
us is a clear demonstration he is more willing to help us than we ourselves. 

Nay, further, we are not willing to have relief till he makes us so ; and 
he that makes us so is more so himself. He encourages us, he invites us 
in the text, to come to the throne, that we may find grace to help. He uses 
means to make us willing. A plain evidence that he is more willing than 
we ; more willing that we should have help, than we are to have it. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



OF CHRIST'S MAKING INTERCESSION. 



To make intercession. — Heb. VII. 25. 

The offices of Christ, the great mediator betwixt God and man, are the 
foundation of our hopes, and the springs of our comfort and happiness, 
his priestly office particularly ; and of his priesthood there are two principal 
acts : his satisfaction, by dying for sinners, and his intercession at the right 
hand of God. Of the latter, I shall give you an account from the words 
read. 

The apostle, observing that the believing Hebrews were in danger to fall 
from the profession of Christ, by being too passionately addicted unto the 
Levitical ordinances, to secure them, he, through this epistle, sets before 
them the glory of Christ, in his person and offices, and shews how infinitely 
he transcends all that they affected and admired in the Levitical adminis- 
tration. 

In this chapter he proves the excellency of Christ's priesthood above the 
priesthood under the law, by many arguments. Only at present take notice 
of some from ver. 19. The law, and the priesthood under it, made nothing 
perfect, made no perfect satisfaction for sin, nor purchase of salvation ; but 
Christ, then hoped for, as better than those legal rites, being the end of and 
thing signified by them, being brought in, did, by virtue of his priesthood, 
make all perfect by perfect satisfaction and purchase. And by him we have 
nearer access to God than was held forth in the legal administration. None 
bat the priests were then admitted into the holy place ; none but the high 
priest into the holy of holies, the place of God's special presence on the 
mercy-seat ; but now there is no veil betwixt us and the mercy-seat ; it was 
rent to make our way, and all believers may have always access unto the 
throne of grace, &c. 

Ver. 20, 21. Christ's priesthood had a stronger confirmation. That 
under the law stood but by positive institution, the Lord leaving himself a 
liberty to change it when he pleased. But the priesthood of Christ is estab- 
lished by an oath, and rendered unchangeable for ever ; as unchangeable as 
God himself, who cannpt repent, as inviolable as the oath of God. 

Ver. 22. Christ is the surety of a better testament, of a covenant made 
up of better promises, Heb. viii. 6. The covenant of grace, in its adminis- 
tration under Christ, is more free, clear, full, extensive, and firm. Christ 
is surety of the covenant, i.e. he obliged himself to see the articles and con- 
tents of the covenant made good, removing what might hinder, and provid- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



144 of chbibt's making intercession. [Heb. VIL 26. 

ing what might secure and promote the observance. In the same sense he 
is called, Heb. xii. 24, not a mediator of supplication only, as the woman of 
Tekoa, 2 Sam. xiv., but of satisfaction, as Paul, Philem. 18, 19. Such a 
mediator is a surety, binds himself to satisfy for another. 

Ver. 28, 24. The priesthood was defective, and very imperfect. The 
priest, then, did need partners, one could not do all the work ; and succes- 
sors too, they could not live always. But Christ, our high priest, needs 
neither partner nor successor ; he alone is sufficient for all the acts of his 
office ; and he is so always, unchangeably ; he lives ever. Hence he infers, 
ver. 25, e/f rh vavrs'ktg. 

1. Perfectly ; to remove whatever is an impediment to their salvation, and 
vouchsafe whatever is requisite to make their happiness and salvation 
complete. 

2. Eternally, ver. 9, ' Because he ever lives.' He is able, bat is he 
willing ? Yes, that is evident by his intercession. Therefore, those that 
turn from sin by repentance, and come unto God by faith in Christ, shall 
certainly be saved to the utmost. 

Obs. Christ always makes intercession for his people. 

For this intercession of Christ, there is all sorts of evidence in Scripture, 
by types, prophecies, and plain assertions. 

That was typified under the law, by what the high priest is appointed to 
do on the day of expiation, Levit. xvi. 11-15. A bullock and a goat was 
appointed for sin-offerings ; they were to be sacrificed, and their blood shed 
without, at the door of the tabernacle. Then Aaron was to take part of the 
blood, and carry it with incense into the most holy place within the veil, 
and there sprinkle it upon and before the mercy- seat. Now the slaying of 
these sacrifices, and offering them without, at a distance from the holy place, 
signified the death of Christ, wherein he offered himself to God a sacrifice 
on earth for the expiation of his people's sins ; and the presenting of the 
blood of those sacrifices in the most holy place, signified the intercession of 
Christ in heaven ; and so the apostle applies it, Heb. ix. 12, 28. He entered 
within the veil, i.e. into heaven; and there, by virtue of his own blood, 
appears, t. e. intercedes, for us. 

It is foretold by the prophet, Isa. liii., where, having given an account of 
the sufferings and death of Christ (one main act of his priestly office, whereby 
he made satisfaction to justice), so plainly and punctually, that it may seem 
rather a relation of what was past, than a prophecy of what was to come ; 
he concludes with the other part of that office, the intercession of Christ, 
ver. 12. 

It is plainly asserted in the New Testament, Bom. viii. 84, Heb. ix. 24 ; 
how, and in what capacity he appears for us, the other apostle shews, 1 John 
ii. 1, 2. He appears as our advocate, to make our defence, to secure us 
in judgment, to plead for us ; and his plea is grounded upon satisfac- 
tion, made by the sacrifice of himself for our expiation ; /'Xaqctoc is Svcia 
/Xaw/xi), a propitiatory sacrifice. Having offered himself as such a sacrifice, 
sufficient to make atonement, he appears by its virtue to plead for, and ob- 
tain the effects of it ; which are no less than perfect salvation, aa the text 
comprises. For as he argues, Rom. v. 10, o-lXXp fidXkot, much more shall 
we be saved, saved to the uttermost, by his life, i.e. by his living to make 
intercession. 

It is a matter of great consequence, you see, though not much (that I can 
find) insisted on. Let me therefore endeavour to open it more fully and 
clearly, by giving you some account of the nature, efficacy, and continuance 
of this intercession. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Hbb. YII. 25.J of ohbist's making intercession. 145 

1. For the nature of it. la general, it is Christ's appearance in heaven 
in behalf of his people ; as having on earth satisfied for them, done and 
suffered all things which were requisite on his part to be there accomplished 
for their salvation, both for the removing of what might hinder it, and par- 
chasing what might perfect it, and make it complete ; or a presenting of 
himself, as having finished what was necessary on earth, for the saving of 
them to the utmost. 

More particularly, it includes these severals ; — 

(1.) He appears in oar nature, not only as God, but as man, 1 Tim. ii. 5. 
While he is mediator, he is man. Now his intercession is a principal act 
of his mediation. To intercede is to mediate. He did not cast off the 
human nature when he left the earth, but carried it into heaven, and there 
retains not only the soul, but the body of a man ; the same body as to the 
substance, though freed from corruptible qualities, such as are inconsistent 
with his glorious condition in the heavens. The same body which suffered, 
which was buried, which rose again, the same ascended into heaven. The 
same body that did bleed and die, that suffered and was made a sacrifice, he 
presents in heaven. He appears with it, and thereby it is evident that he 
appears for us, as Heb. ix. 24. He appears as one concerned for us, as one 
[who] is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. As he assumed our nature, and 
took a human body for us, so he retains it in heaven, and appears there with 
it for us. The apostle does not say he entered into heaven, to appear there 
in glory and majesty, as if his appearance there had been for himself solely ; 
bat to appear in the presence of God for us. As he was born, and lived 
and died for us, so he ascended into heaven, and appears in our nature at 
the right hand of God for us. But how for us ? 

(2.) He appears as our advocate, to present us and our cause unto God. 
When Aaron was to enter the most holy place, to intercede for the people, 
he was to bear the names of the twelve tribes upon his breast and shoulders, 
Exod. xxviii. 12, 29. la that Aaron was to bear the names of the tribes, 
may be signified that he was not to enter into the place of intercession in 
his own name only, but in the names of all the people. So did Christ (typi- 
fied by the high priest, and so often called) appear in heaven, the place of his 
intercession, not in his own name, but in the name and behalf of his people. 

Aaron was to bear their names on his shoulder ; to denote, as is conceived, 
that the high priest was to bear with their weaknesses and infirmities ; and 
such an high priest is Christ represented, Heb. iv. 15. 

Aaron was to bear the names of the tribes upon his breast, when he 
appeared for them in the holy place ; to signify he was to have such care 
and love for them as though they were in his heart. According to what the 
apostle expresseth towards the Corinthians, 2 Cor. vii. 3, to be sure it is 
thus with Christ ; he in appearing for his people as intercessor and advocate, 
does as it were bear them on his breast ; presents them unto God as those 
that are in his heart, to die and to live for them. He died to make satis- 
faction; and lives to make intercession for them ; he ever lives to appear as 
their advocate, 1 John ii. 1 ; he states their cause before 0od as it now 
stands, and represents it to him in the favourable and advantageous state 
and circumstances to which it is brought by his obedience and sufferings for 
them. And so stated it cannot miscarry, when they come to trial before 
God's tribunal ; they need fear no charge that can be brought against them, 
no accusation of men or devils, they have such an advocate, as can answer, 
and nonplus, and silence all. Some resemblance of this you may see, Zech. 
iiL 1, 2; Joshua, a type of the church, is charged, accused by Satan; 

vol. m. k 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



146 of Christ's making intercession. [Heb. YII. 25. 

Christ, called the Lord here, by his intercession with the Father, pleads that, 
instead of Joshua, his accuser may be rebuked and confounded, acquitting 
and justifying the accused. No charge will have better success, -which is 
formed against those for whom Christ appears as advocate, Horn. viii. 84. 
No charge can be fixed on his chosen people, not only because Christ died 
and rose again, but because Christ appears at the right hand of God as their 
advocate, to plead, Ac. 

(8.) He presents his death as suffered in our stead, his blood as shed for 
us. The high priest (as was said) when he was to mediate for the people in 
the most holy place, was to bring the blood of the sacrifice and present it 
there; he was not to enter without it, there was no interceding but by 
virtue of it, Heb. ix. 7 ; so Christ by his own blood entered into heaven, 
ver. 12, thereby to make intercession for transgressors. Indeed, his inter* 
cession is but the continued virtue of his blood, and therefore is described 
by his presenting it, as the high priest did that of other sacrifices. Not 
that Christ in heaven presents his blood out of his veins, but his soul and 
body which was sacrificed ; that body which was scourged, wounded, pierced 
through with nails, and made full of bloody furrows, remains in the presence 
and at the right hand of God, and will remain there for an eternal memorial 
of his sufferings. Not that the Lord needs any memorial, and wants any 
helps to continue things in remembrance, or less regards, or is less mind- 
ful of things long since past ; for things past, how long since soever, are as 
full in his all-seeing eye as if they were present ; and so are things future 
too, at what distance soever. Hence Christ is said to be the lamb sacrificed, 
&c, Bom. xiii. 8. That sacrifice of Christ was present to him, so as to 
procure all the advantages of it for believers under the Old Testament, many 
ages before it was actually offered ; and so it is as present to him still, 
though it be many hundred years since it was offered. 

But such expressions, when we say Christ presents his blood, they help 
our weaknesses ; and signify to us that the death and sufferings of Christ have 
the same influence with God now, as if he were still suffering, as if he were 
but just now crucified. That the virtue of his blood is still as fresh and 
efficacious as if it were but just now shed ; as if the wounds were still open, 
and the blood now streaming out in the presence and at the right hand of 
God. This blood, thus presented, is said to ' speak better things than the 
blood of Abel,' Heb. xii. 24, Gen. iv. 10 ; it cries for mercy as much as 
the blood of Abel cried for vengeance ; it pleads powerfully, and has as much 
the virtue of interceding as if it had an articulate voice. 

(4.) He presents his will and desire that his people may have all the pur- 
chase of his blood. The will of the divine nature as he is God, the desires 
of his human nature as he is man. Thus he is said to intercede for us, in 
that the Father understands that it is his will and desire, as he is God and 
man, that his people may be possessed of all the effects, and receive all the 
advantage of his obedience and sufferings for them ; so that his intercession 
is in effect his praying for us in heaven. His intercession is by some called 
a prayer, and so it is rightly understood, as it imports his will and desire 
to the Father for us. His prayer on earth is expressed in this form, John 
xvii. 24 ; and his desires in heaven are called prayer, John xvi. 26, ' at that 
day/ after he had left the world and was ascended into heaven, ' I say not 
that I will pray,' I need not tell you that ; this you may take for granted, 
you may be sure I will do it, some understand it. More plainly, John 
xiv. 16, when I am departed from earth, and am set at the right hand of 
God, I will bo mindful of yon, I will pray for you ; so that in some sense 
Christ prays now that he is in heaven, and his interceding is praying for 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Heb. VII. 25.] of Christ's making intercession. 147 

us. To clear this, it differs in some circumstances, both from oar prayers, 
and from his own prayers on earth. 

[1.] He does not desire undeserved favours as we do ; so it differs from 
oar prayers. The best of men that make any address to God, are unworthy 
of the mercies they pray for. But Christ wills nothing for us but what he 
merited ; he desires to obtain nothing on our behalf but what he has de- 
served for us. Rev. v. 9, 12, « Worthy is the Lamb that was slain/ how 
unworthy soever they are for whom he was sacrificed ; he has redeemed us, 
laid down a price of more equal value with what he asks for us. 

[2.] He does not present any petitions in the posture of a humble, de- 
jected supplicant ; he does not fall on his knees, or lie prostrate to beg tiny- 
thing for us ; this is not agreeable to him as he is God, nor to his present 
glorious state as he is man. As God, he is equal with the Father, counts 
it no robbery ; as man, he sits at the right hand of God, Heb. i. 8, and 
viii. 1 ; he is exalted to all glory, power, and majesty, next to the Father : 
4 Far above, 1 &c Eph. i. 20, 21. 

[8.] Nor does he present any requests with cries and tears, or such ex- 
pressions of passionate fervour ; and so his intercession differs from his own 
prayers on earth, Heb. v. 7. Then he did as a man of sorrows, acting 
suitably to his condition then in the flesh, which was a state of humiliation, 
bat is not congruous to his present state, when he is crowned with divine 
glory, Heb. ii. 9. 

[4.] Nor does he. desire anything for us by virtue of what he undertook, 
bat has not yet performed, as he did in that divine and admirable prayer, 
John xvii. For whatever was requisite to make way for the fulfilling of his 
desires in behalf of his people is already fully accomplished, John xix. 80. 
His intercession there was by virtue of the sacrifice he was to offer ; his in- 
tercession now is on account of the sacrifice already offered. 

These are some accidental differences betwixt the intercession of Christ 
and other prayers, whether his own or ours. But then I conceive, with 
submission, that his intercession is a prayer. 

[1.] Essentially. Though it differ from other prayers in some circum- 
stances, yet it has the essence of a prayer, and is so truly and really. For 
prayer, when it is designed by what is essential to it, is a presenting of our 
desires unto God, Philem. 4 ; and if we add, in the name of Christ, that 
will make no difference here. Christ, as our intercessor, presents his desires 
for his people unto the Father in his own name. It is his earnest desire 
that his people may reap all the fruits of his purchase ; he desires it for his 
own sake, who died for this end, and made the purchase for this purpose, 
that they might inherit. 

[2.] It is prayer virtually. The presenting of his blood has the virtue 
and force of a prayer, Heb. xiu 24. The blood of Christ, called the blood 
of sprinkling, in reference to the blood of the sacrifices, which were to be 
sprinkled on, and before the mercy-seat, and by virtue of which the high 
priest did intercede for the people ; it speaks, it cries ; there is something 
in it equivalent to the voice of an importunate supplicant. It speaks for 
excellent things, xptrrov, for grace, reconciliation with God, and all the com- 
fortable effects and consequents thereto ; it is a voice most powerful and 
prevalent, though it be not articulate. There needed no other plea, no other 
advocate for Abel against Cain, but the cry of his brother's blood ; the Lord 
heard it immediately, and answered it with a curse, Gen. iv. 10, 11. There 
needs no other plea for as with the Father than the cry of Christ's blood ; 
that prevails instantly, infallibly, for the blessings, Eph. i. 8 ; it has the 
virtue of a most effectual prayer. . 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



148 or ohaist's making intercession. [Heb. VII. 25. 

[8. J It is transcendently a prayer. It is of greater force and prevalency 
with God than all the prayers of all creatares together, even of those which 
have most power with God. If all the glorious angels, and all the saints in 
heaven and on earth, should prostrate themselves before God, and come to- 
gether to prefer one petition to him with all fervour and importanity, you 
would think that a powerful prayer indeed, of great virtue and prevalency. 
But the intercession of Christ, as it is a representation of the will and desires 
of Christ, is of more force and power to prevail, of more infinitely ; for it is 
a presenting of the will of God for us, and of the desires of him who is God- 
man, and so more considerable than the united requests of men and angels 
all together. If we should have seen Christ on earth praying with strong 
cries and tears, we would not have questioned but he would have been heard. 
His intercession now is rally as prevalent with God as such a prayer of 
Christ would have been ; nay, he presents his will and desires now with 
more advantage ; for, being as our intercessor at the right hand of God, his 
power and interest is in the highest and most glorious exaltation. Thus 
much for the notion of Christ's intercession, what it imports, and wherein 
it consists. 

2. For the efficacy of it, it may partly be understood by what is said. Let 
me add some particulars. 

(1.) The intercession of Christ is grounded upon merit, And therefore 
must prevail in point of justice. Christ's obedience unto death was meri- 
torious, and did deserve for his people thai which, as intercessor on their 
behalf, he pleads for. There are three ingredients of strict and proper merit 
which concur in the obedience And sufferings of Christ. That which any 
will merit by, 1, oauat be his own; 2, and that which he owes not; $, 
there must he a proportion betwixt it and that which he would deserve by 
it. Now, as to the first, the soul and body of Christ, which he offered for 
us, was his own, John x. 18 ; and the obedience he performed for us was 
done by his own strength, the divine nature empowering the human, both 
doing and suffering ; whenas otherwise his sufferings would have been uh- 
supportable to any mere man. 

As to the second, that which he performed and suffered was what he 
owed not, not due from him. He was not obliged to it by his own volun- 
tary undertaking and submission, being not only man, but God in one person. 
As to the £hird, his obedience and sufferings were of equal worth with 
the recompence which he pleads for in behalf of his people. He thereby 
fully satisfied the demands both of law and justice ; and though it was 
the life and pardon of a world of condemned persons that he pleads for, 
yet his obedience and blood is of more worth than all this ; for these are of 
infinite value, being the obedience and blood of God himself, Acts xx. 

So that Christ's obedience, active and passive, is meritorious, not only 
ratione pacti, by reason of the agreement betwixt the Father and him, he 
having performed all the conditions required in order to our redemption, but 
ratione pretii, by virtue of the intrinsic value of what he payed and per- 
formed. 

Now, to use the apostle's expression, Bom. iv. 4, 'To him that thus 
worketh, the reward is reckoned not of grace, but of debt ;' it is grace to us, 
but it is debt to Christ. And so the plea on our behalf in his intercession, 
being for a just debt, it cannot but be most effectual with a righteous God. 
(2.) The efficacy of it appears in the acceptableness of all included in 
Christ's intercession unto God the Father, and his readiness to comply with 
the motions which it imports. Christ appears in our nature ; now, that is 
the nature, the body which the Father prepared for him, Heb. x. 5, prepaied 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Heb. VII. 25.] of obrist'b making intercession. 149 

for Christ, that he might become a sacrifice ; such a sacrifice whereby justice 
was fully satisfied, mercy made wonderfully conspicuous, wisdom, power, 
goodness, truth, righteousness, and in a manner all divine perfections trans- 
cendency glorified, and thereby this nature eternally endeared unto God, and 
so exalted at his right hand as an everlasting monument thereof. Though 
it be man's nature, yet it is now (as the Lord says in effect) a part of my 
beloved Son, his nature too, in whom I am well pleased. 

He appears as our advocate, and he pleads nothing but what is the will 
of God, Heb. z. 7-9. His will was that Christ should be a sacrifice ; and 
it is upon the perfect fulfilling of his Father's will that his plea proceeds ; 
that is the ground of it, therefore it must prevail. If it should not be effec- 
tual, the will of God would be ineffectual ; if it should meet with a repulse, 
the Lord would cross his own will. It is God that justifies, so as none shall 
condemn. How so ? It is Christ that makes intercession. 

He presents his blood, his interceding is a commemoration of his sacrifice; 
and this is the savour of a sweet smeS to God, Eph. v. 2 ; he is infinitely 
pleased with it. 

He presents his will and desires for saving of his people to the utmost ; 
and his will is his Father's will ; his desires always fulfilled, his requests 
ever heard and answered, Mat. xvii. 5. He would have him heard of all, he 
himself will certainly hear him, he is his beloved Bon. Christ expresses his 
assurance of it, John xi. 42, xii. 48. He can ask nothing so great but the 
Father will give it, Ps. ii. 8. The Father says of Christ, ver. 7, ' Thou art 
my Son/ &c. It is Bpoken in reference to his resurrection from the dead 
(which was an evidence that he was not a mere man, but the eternal Son of 
God), and upon his resurrection followed his intercession ; in reference to 
which the Lord says to him, Ask of me, and I will give thee a spiritual king- 
dom over all my people through the whole world, a power to rule and save 
them. This is the greatest thing that Christ does ask, the sum of all he 
intercedes for. When Esther appeared before king Ahasuerus to intercede 
for her people condemned to destruction, he gives her this assurance, Esth. 
v. 8, hereby signifying that she could ask nothing so great but he would 
grant. Christ had this assurance of the Father before he became our advo- 
cate and intercessor actually, that there is nothing so great that he could 
ask but the Father would grant it Such is the efficacy of his intercession. 
(8.) By virtue of his intercession, all that he purchased by his obedience 
and sufferings is actually conferred. Pardon and salvation are sometimes 
ascribed to the death of Christ, sometimes to his life ; for he made the pur- 
chase by his obedience unto death. But we have the possession by virtue 
of his life in heaven, by his living there to make intercession for us. He 
merited salvation, and all that tends to save us to the utmost, by what he 
performed and suffered for us on earth. But all is actually conferred on as 
by virtue of his appearance for us at the right hand of God. 

This we may understand by what he tells his disciples he would do in 
heaven, what he will intercede for, John xiv. 16, 17. The Lord was willing 
that his people should be saved to the utmost; but then their salvation must 
be accomplished in a way that would glorify him, and on such terms as would 
be for his honour. Those terms are declared in the gospel ; those that will 
be saved must be both justified and sanctified : justified, since none can be 
saved unless the sentence of condemnation passed upon all sinners be re- 
versed ; sanctified, because without holiness no man can see God. That 
they may be justified, they must have faith ; that they may be sanctified, 
they must have holiness. Both these Christ purchased by his blood, but 
he works them by his Spirit ; and that the Spirit may be given for this 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



150 of ohbist'b making intebcession. [Heb. VII. 25. 

purpose, he prays, he intercedes. For the word rendered Comforter is of 
large import, and denotes not only the act of comforting, hut in a manner all 
the offices and operations of the Holy Ghost in reference to his people ; and 
speaks him not only a Spirit of comfort, hut of truth, and faith, and holiness. 
Thus Christ by his Spirit puts his people into a capacity of salvation, and 
all that salvation to the uttermost comprises. And this is done by virtue of 
his intercession. That which Christ purchased by his death is not actually 
bestowed but through his intercession. His. people would not be capable 
thereof, but tbat the Spirit works them to it. The Spirit would not be sent 
for this purpose, but that Christ intercedes for it, John xvi. 7 ; not come, 
because his coming was to be the issue of Christ's intercession ; therefore 
said to be sent in Christ's name: John xiv. 26, 'In my name,' t. e. for my 
sake, interceding to that purpose. 

(4.) Christ's intercession was effectual before he was actually an interces- 
sor. By virtue of this, all believers from the beginning of the world were 
pardoned and saved. The efficacy of his intercession is as extensive as the 
virtue of his death, upon which it is grounded. By virtue of his death, 
believers were freed from guilt in the Old Testament, before he actually 
suffered, Heb. ix. 15. His death was effectual to expiate the transgressions 
under the first testament, though it was then future ; and so his future in- 
tercession was effectual to give them possession of the promised inheritance. 
Even as a debtor is discharged, when the surety gives sufficient security that 
the debt shall be paid, though he pay it not presently, 2 Tim. i. 9. Christ 
engaged himself, gave a sufficient security that he would offer himself a sacri- 
fice in due time, and would present that sacrifice at God's right hand for all 
believers from the foundation of the world ; and upon that account they 
were pardoned and saved, though they died many ages before he actually 
suffered or interceded in our nature, Bom. iii. 25. He was set forth as a 
propitiation, that which rendered God propitious, through his blood, for the 
forgiveness of transgressions before. The mercy-seat (which the word sig- 
nifies) shewed that the Lord was reconciled, through the blood there 
sprinkled, which signified the blood of Christ presented in his intercession. 
By virtue of this transgressions were pardoned, and a way opened into heaven 
for those who believed in the Messias to come ; though he came not, though 
he died not, though he interceded not, as now, till long after. In respect of 
the eternal purpose of God, and the undertaking of Christ, correspondent 
thereto, it was as sure to be, as though it had been already accomplished. 
And so it was as effectual before, as if it had been actually in being, 2 Tim. 
i. 9. That which is sure to be done, is said to be done already. He was 
' the Lamb slain,' i. e. sacrificed, * from the beginning of the world,' Bev. 
xiii. 8. The virtue of his sacrifice to be offered, and so of his sacrifice to 
be presented, was vigorous and efficacious in all ages, from the foundation 
of the world. 

8. As to the continuance of this intercession, it is perpetual. The text 
is express for this, ' He ever lives,' &c. He intercedes while he liveB, and 
he ever lives; he intercedes always: 1, without intermission; 2, without 
end. It is represented as the end why he lives, and the end of his life he 
pursues every moment. The high priest did but solemnly intercede for the 
people once in [a year] ; but Christ appears for his people continually. There 
is not a moment wherein this act of his priesthood is intermitted. He is 
always at the right hand of God in our nature ; he is always ready to justify 
our cause against all gainsayers, making a legal appearance for that purpose. 
He is always presenting his blood ; his sacrifice is no moment out of the sight 
and presence of the divine majesty. He is always representing his will and 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Heb. VII. 25.] of ohbist's making intkboession. 151 

desires, that those who come to God by him may be saved to the utmost. 
His requests are not made known now and then, as ours are to him, but 
without ceasing ; this he does every moment. And, 

(2.) Thus he will be doing for ever. His oblation was but one act, his 
sacrifice was finished at once ; but his intercession, the other act of his 
priesthood, is everlasting ; it continues while he lives, who ever lives, Rev. 
L 18, Rom. vi. 9, 10. He died once to expiate sin ; and he did it perfectly, 
there was no need to repeat it, Heb. x. 14 ; but there was need to present 
this sacrifice to God, and to apply the virtue of it to us. And for this he 
lives unto God, with God, at his right hand, for ever. 

Upon this account, the priesthood of Christ is preferred before the Levi- 
tical, Heb. vii. 15, 16. He was not made priest by a law that provides for 
mortality, and appoints priests in succession ; but by the power which raised 
him to an endless life, and so made him priest for ever. So he is said 
to be a priest after the order of Melchisedek, of whose beginning and 
end we have no account ; on purpose to signify that Christ's priesthood 
should have no end. And this the Lord, who cannot repent, confirmed by 
an oath, Heb. vii. 21, 28. 

Now, it is upon the account of his intercession that the priesthood is ever- 
lasting ; for his oblation is past, and he offered himself once for all, Heb. 
ix. 25. So that, if he do not intercede for ever, he will not be a priest for 
ever ; unless he can be so, without any act of the priestly office. 

Obj. Bat it may be said, the kingdom of Christ shall cease, and therefore 
his priesthood and intercession may cease ; for one office of Christ is not of 
longer continuance than another. And that there shall be an end of his 
kingdom, the apostle seems to declare, 1 Cor. xv. 24, 28. 

An*. The spiritual kingdom of Christ here on earth will cease at the end 
of the world, for there will be none left for the exercise of his government 
here. There will be no sinners to conquer, no subjects on earth to rule, no 
enemies to subdue. But his glorious kingdom in heaven shall not cease ; 
he will have the same regal majesty, glory, and power, at the right hand of 
God, and may exercise his kingly power, though in a different manner, viz., 
in keeping those enemies under, whom he had before subdued ; and in con- 
finning and establishing his heavenly subjects in their glorious condition, 
Rev. xi. 15, Luke L 82. 

Accordingly, as to his intercession, there will be some difference therein, 
at the end of the world, from what there was before ; but no total cessation 
of it. The state of his intercession will be somewhat different from what it is 
now, because the state of his people will not then be the same, nor will there 
be the same occasions or necessities. He will not intercede for those that shall 
believe hereafter, because all will then be gathered and brought to the obe- 
dience of faith ; nor for pardon of sin, or power against it, because there 
will be no sin to be pardoned or mortified ; nor for increase of holiness, be- 
cause all his people will be then come to their full growth, to the fulness of 
the measure of the stature of Christ ; nor for the acceptance of imperfect 
services, because then there will be no imperfection ; nor for glory to come, 
because then it will be present. 

Yet his intercession will not cease, there will be occasion and neces- 
sity for it in other respects. The virtue of it will be needful for the con- 
tinuance in their state of perfection and happiness, that so hereby he may be 
the author of eternal salvation to them. For this he will still appear in our 
nature at the right hand of God, and appear as our advocate, and present 
his blood, that, by virtue thereof, they may have eternal redemption ; for 
this he will still present his will and desires, and so will intercede for ever. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



152 of Christ's making intmicesbioh/ [Heb. VII. 25. 

Use 1. This leads us to admire the loving- kindness of Christ to lost sin- 
ners, in that he lives ever to make intercession for them. His affection to 
his people, his condescension for them, appears herein every way admirable 
and astonishing. There are four severals held forth in the text, which may 
render this for ever wonderful in onr eyes. 

1. That this should be one end of his life. Thai he should live for us ; 
live, to make intercession for us ; live, that this should be an end and 
design of his life, to free us from misery, to promote our happiness and 
secure it ; that the Son of God, infinitely happy and glorious without us, 
should make the concerns of men, inconceivably below him, the design of 
his life ; and declare that he lives for this reason, and will live upon this 
account, to appear on their behalf. If any one, especially a person far above 
us, should assure ns that he makes it one end of his life, and will design it 
while he lives, to mind our concerns, to promote all that may be for our 
advantage and happiness, and to appear for this on all occasions ; what 
greater expression of love could be expected ? If one far above you, and who 
had no dependence on you, should declare this, it would seem just cause of 
wonder. How much more admirable is it, that the Son of God should give 
us this assurance ; that though we are but as worms and grasshoppers in 
his sight, yet it shall be one end of his life to do us good, and he will em- 
ploy himself while he lives to promote our interest, and make us happy ! 

It was a wonderful favour to man that this lower world should be ordered 
for his good ; that all creatures in heaven and earth should be for his use 
and advantage, Ps. viii. 8, 6, 7, 8. The consideration of this made David 
cry out with admiration, ver. 4. How much more wonderful is it, that the 
great and supreme Lord of heaven and earth should declare that he lives for 
man ; that he lives for this end, to appear for our interest and concerns, that 
it should be any end of his life to intercede for us ! 

2. That he should live again for us ; live more than once, more than one 
life for as. He had already lived one life for us, and had already lost one 
life for us ; and when a new life was restored to him, he would live that life 

or us too. As though he had not thought it enough to live one life for us 
on earth, he lives another for us in heaven. He counts not two lives too 
much for us. Oh what manner of love was this ! The whole world cannot 
shew anything like ; amongst all the children of men, no instance of love 
can come near it. 

For a man to live a whole life for his dearest friend, to make it the 
business of his life sincerely to promote his true interest, would be an 
instance of rare love. But to die afterwards to save his life is rarer yet, 
and would be more wonderful. But if any one could be found that would 
die for his friend, yet being once dead, there is an end of his love and the 
expressions of it. 

Oh, but Christ after he had lived one life for us ; a life of so many years, 
a life of sorrows and sufferings ; and after he had died for us such a death as 
no man could endure, considering the unsupportable pains and sorrows of 
it ; yet his love survives his death, and being raised to another life, he lives 
that for us also, he orders that to be a continued expression of his tender 
care and love for his people. After he had lived for us in this world, and 
died for us too ; he still lives in heaven to intercede for us. 

8. That he lives in our nature, and appears for us, not only as God, but 
as man, as one of us, as nearly allied to us ; as our kinsman, Job xix. 25, 
i AyXjonui /aoD, my nearest kinsman; our brother, so called on this 
account, Heb. ii. 11, 12. It was a wonderful condescension, that he wonld 
take our nature, and unite it with the nature of God in one person ; for 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Heb. VII. 25.] of ohbist's making intkbcxssion. 158 

what is man to him bat a worm ? It is more worthy of Admiration than if 
the greatest monarch should take npon him the form, and live in the likeness 
of a worm. This was greater love and honour than he would shew the 
angels, Heb. ii. 16. He chose rather to be lower than the angels ; for so 
in respect of our nature he is said to be, ver. 9. The great God of angels, 
upon the account of our nature, being made man, was made lower than the 
angels, though they be but his mere servitors. 

How wonderful is it, that at his exaltation he did not cast off this rag, 
wherewith he was covered in his low condition ; that he would retain that 
nature of ours, in which he had been so much humbled and debased, even 
to the form of a servant ! Was it not enough that he lived in it, and died 
in it for us on earth ; but will he still live in it for us in heaven ; live again 
in our nature, have it seated at the right hand of God ; and when he is in 
the height of his glory, then appear in our nature, as one most nearly con- 
cerned for us ? 

4. That he lives thus evermore, Rev. i. 18. And for what end he ever- 
more lives, he expresses here by the apostle. This second life he lives for 
us is not like the first, a life of some certain years, but an endless life. He 
lives not for us a life of some hundreds, or some thousands, or some millions 
of years, but beyond all account of years, even for ever and ever. It is an 
everlasting life that he lives for us ; it is one end and design of his life, while 
it lasts, to appear for us, and it lasts eternally. He ever lives in our nature ; 
he is never weary, never ashamed of it, how mean and vile soever it be, as 
it is ours. He cast not off a human body, no, not when he had finished the 
work for which it was prepared, when he had offered himself a sacrifice ; but 
presents the sacrifice, i. *., the soul and body that was sacrificed, for ever 
before God. It is placed at God's right hand, for an everlasting memorial 
and representation of his bloody death and sacrifice. The blood is not 
sprinkled once on the mercy-seat, or seven times before it, as under the 
law ; but that sprinkling which it signified is continued for ever ; the blood 
of sprinkling, wherewith our high priest entered into the holy place, remains 
there eternally. 

He appears as our advocate, not only in two or three trials, or in this and 
that special cause ; but in all trials, in all causes wherein we may be con- 
cerned, to eternity. He ever appears. He is always ready to quit us, as to 
every charge ; to clear us as to all accusations for ever, which law or justice, 
which men or devils, may form against us. 

In his appearance and plea for us there lies an eternal challenge against 
all adversaries whatever. ' Who can lay anything to the charge ? ' &c, Bom. 
Till. 84. 

He prefers not a petition for his people now and then only ; he prays not 
for them in this or that season, as he did in the days of his flesh ; but he 
ever intercedes. His intercession has the virtue of a continued, of an ever- 
lasting prayer. It is no less in effect, than if he were praying for them 
without ceasing, and that for ever. He continually, he eternally, presents 
his will and desires, that they may be saved to the uttermost. He is ever 
doing all this, he ever lives to do it ; there is no end of his love, no end of 
these expressions of it. There should be no end of our praises, no end of 
our admiration, no end of our affectionate resentments of his endless love, 
in his everlasting intercession. 

Use 2. This teaches us to live for Christ. This highly, strongly engages 
us to it. Shall he live for us again and again, and live eternally for us ; 
and will not we live once, live a -little while for him ? The love of Christ in 
living ever for us should constrain us to live our whole life for him. But 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



154 OF CHBISX'S MAKING INTEECES8ION. [HEB. Vll. 25. 

how ? Why, after his example and method he shews us. His living for as 
in the text succeeded his dying for as ; he was made a sacrifice before he 
lived to intercede for us. There is something we mast die to, before we can 
live for him. We must sacrifice our worldly, carnal, and selfish interest ; 
carnal and earthly designs, and affections, and inclinations, and actings, 
must be crucified. We must carefully observe and take notice how far they 
are alive, by their motions and actings, within and without. We must be 
sensible how pernicious their liveliness is, how dangerous, both in reference 
to Christ and our souls, making account they are deadly enemies both to 
him and us. 

And then proceed against them accordingly. Make it the design and 
business of oar lives to get them pat to death. Farther than we are dead 
to these, we cannot live for Christ ; these must first be made a sacrifice. 

And then positively, to lite for him is to make it the chief end and con- 
stant design of our lives, to please him and be serviceable to him; to 
conform in all to his will, and employ all for his honour and interest. To 
aim at him in all, even in our earthly business ; to consecrate all we are 
and have unto him ; to lay out our time, strength, parts, enjoyment for 
him, and not for ourselves ; not for the pleasing, advancing or securing oar- 
selves, but in such ways as he has declared to be; honourable and well- 
pleasing to him : this is to live for Christ ; this is it which his living ever 
for us obliges us to. And none can be assured that Christ ever lives for 
them, but those who sincerely endeavour thus to live for him. 

This is it which the apostle calls importunately for, Bom. xii. 1, 2. 

Mercies. All whose mercies do most eminently appear in the death and 
intercession of Christ, his giving him to die and live for as. 

Your bodies, i. e. yourselves. Your whole persons, in the whole coarse 
of your lives. 

A living sacrifice. We are not to die for sin, Christ only died for the 
expiation of it. All that is to die in this sacrifice is our carnal and worldly 
lasts ; the rest mast live to God. 

Holy. So it will be, when we consecrate all entirely unto God. 

Acceptable. This will be more pleasing to him than any legal sacrifices or 
burnt offerings. 

Reasonable service. The spiritual service which the word calls for, and 
calls for upon the highest and strongest reason. How this may be done, he 
explains, ver. 2, ' Be not conformed to,' imitate not the men of the world 
who live for themselves ; but let your life be conformed to the good, Ac., 
will of God. That is the way to live for God, therein it consists. To be 
living sacrifices, is to live for God. This is reasonable service, upon account 
of Christ's living for as. And the apostle would have them argue them- 
selves into it by this reason, because Christ died and lives for us, Rom. vi. 
9-11. He died for sin to expiate it, and now lives with God to intercede 
for you. Therefore Xoyifyafa, count it reasonable, make account there is all 
reason you should die to sin and live for God. There is the strongest, the 
most cogent reason from Christ's living for you, that you should live for him. 

1. Christ is infinitely above us. It is a wonderful condescension that he 
will live a moment for us ; he humbled himself that he might do it. Bat it is 
our greatest honour and advancement to live for him, we cannot live in a 
more noble and honourable capacity. It is the honour of the glorious angels 
to live for him ; and if we live not thus, we live like slaves. The greatest 
persons on earth, who live for themselves, are no better ; slaves to the 
world, slaves to Satan, the worst tyrant in the world ; slaves to sin, which 
is worse than the devil, ver. 16 ; a life, a service, that you may be ashamed 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Heb. Til. 25.] op chbist's making intbbcession. 155 

of, ver. 20, 21. It is a life of glory to live for Christ. The more perfectly 
we do it, the more gloriously we live. This is the difference betwixt earth 
and heaven : here we live for Christ imperfectly, there we shall live per- 
fectly for him ; that is our shame and disgrace, this will be our complete 
glory. 

2. He does this freely. We never in the least obliged him to it ; there 
was no engagement on him to live for us, but from his own free grace, and 
the good pleasure of his will. But there are infinite engagements on us to 
live for him. The mercies of God, which herein appear most conspicuously, 
engage us to it. The whole life of Christ eternally obliges us, for he lives 
eternally for us. His life in heaven, his death on earth, his life before that 
death, all were for as, all engage us to live for him. He calls not on ub 
to live for him, till he has declared that he is living for us, and will do so 
for ever. He requires it not, till he have obliged us to the uttermost. 
It is a free favour in him, it is an absolute debt as to us. His love has so 
bound us, that heaven and earth may cry shame of us if we pay it not. 

8. He had no need of us. He was infinitely happy and glorious without 
us, and might have been so eternally, if he had neither died nor lived for us. 
What advantage has he by us ? What could he expect from such impotent, 
inconsiderable creatures as we are, Job xxii. 28, and xxxv. 7, 8 ; Ps. xvi. 2. 
The Seventy r£v ayaQwv (loZ ou ygti** s%"?. * Thou hast no need of my 
good things/ but we have infinite need of, and advantage by him, and so 
are infinitely concerned to live for him. It is our true, our main interest to 
live for him, and not for ourselves ; indeed, we cannot live so advantageously 
for ourselves any way, as by living wholly for him, for thereby we shall gain 
all that comfort, treasure, and happiness which he died to purchase, and 
which he ever lives to intercede for. 

Use 8. Here is great encouragement to faith and hope. Firm ground to 
believe and expect salvation to the uttermost, for those that come unto God 
by Christ, *. *. to those that repent and believe ; those that abandon sin in 
heart and life, i. e. in sincerity, resolution, and endeavour, and fly unto 
Christ for refuge, betaking themselves to him, to be ruled and saved by him. 
Such may have strong consolation from the intercession of Christ, Heb. vi. 
18-20. Hope is an anchor fastening upon Christ within the veil, i. e. as 
interceding for us. That is it which is done within the veil ; that is the 
only act of his priesthood in heaven, and upon that account he is high priest 
for ever. That which the high priest under the law did within the veil, was 
interceding. Christ's intercession makes it sure and stedfast ; no waves or 
storms, from the justice of God, or the malice of Satan, or the weakness of 
such as cast anchor here, need make them lose anchor's hold, they may ride 
out all tempests, and be safe for ever, upon the account of Christ's living 
ever to make intercession. 

Christ's intercession gives firm and assured hope of complete salvation ; 
by virtue of this, whatever is a hindrance to it will be removed, whatever 
is requisite to begin, carry on, and finish it, will be obtained. 

This gives assurance, that all the riches of Christ's purchase shall be 
actually bestowed upon those that come, &c, for his intercession is the con- 
tinued representation of his death and sacrifice, for this purpose, that the 
ends thereof may be accomplished, t. <?. that believers may be possessed of 
all the fruits of his obedience and sufferings. 

This assures us of all the blessed and comfortable operations and work- 
ings of the Spirit in us and for us ; for Christ intercedes, that the Spirit may 
be sent to supply his absence on earth, and to perform all those acts and 
unices for us, which are promised, and his titles import ; to be an advocate, 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



156 of Christ's making intercession. [Heb. VII. 25. 

an intercessor in us, a comforter, an enlightening, convincing, persuading, 
sanctifying, and sealing Spirit. 

This gives assurance, that all the great and precious promises, all the 
articles of the covenant of grace, "shall be performed to a tittle. The sum 
of all we have, Heb. viii. 10-12, all will be performed, because, ver. 6. 
Christ is mediator, he undertook for the performance, became surety for it, 
and so appears, ver. 1. 

Let me more particularly specify some of those great and comfortable 
advantages, which flow from the intercession of Christ ; in expectation of 
which it affords great encouragement to our faith and hope. 

1. Pardon of sin, Zech. xiii. 1. This fountain was opened in the death of 
Christ (it denotes the virtue of his blood shed for remission of sins) ; but it 
is kept open, and flows out continually, by virtue of his intercession. In 
reference to that, it is called the blood of sprinkling, the blood of the sacrifice 
being to be sprinkled upon, and before the mercy-seat by the high priest, 
when he was to intercede for the people, Heb. xii. 24. The virtue and 
effect whereof, is to sprinkle his people from an evil conscience, Heb. x. 22, 
t. e. to cleanse the conscience from guilt. 

It is not enough to do this once, when we first believe and return to God. 
For sin being too often repeated, and guilt renewed, the sprinkling must be 
renewed, there must be fresh and new application of this blood. And we 
have advantage and encouragement for this from Christ's intercession. For 
though this blood was but once shed, at Christ's death, yet it is continually 
presented in his intercession, and so the virtue of it perpetually held forth 
for the cleansing of guilty souls, and daily sprinkling us from an evil con- 
science, 1 John ii. 1. The children of God should be careful, above all 
things, above all persons, that they fall not into sin. Their sins are more 
heinous than those of others, being the provocations of sons and daughters. 
But if they be overtaken, though falling into sin should be more dreadful and 
grievous to them than falling into any calamity, there is gracious provision 
made upon their repenting and returning. If any man sin, there is an 
advocate, who pleads for his children. He pleads nothing but what is 
righteous, and what justice will admit as satisfactory, and pleads satisfaction 
made for their sin, and that by the sacrifice of himself. So it follows, ver. 2. 
A propitiatory sacrifice, offered himself for the expiation of sin, made his 
soul a sin-offering, and so made atonement for us, that so we might find his 
Father a God of forgiveness. 

2. Acceptance of our services ; sanctifying of them, that they may be ac- 
ceptable to a holy God. This is done by virtue of Christ's intercession, and 
upon the account thereof faith has ground to expect it. Under the law, the 
priest was to bear the iniquities of the holy things of the children of Israel, 
that they might be accepted, Exod. xxviii. 88, Num. xviii. 1. This they 
did by laying those sins upon the sacrifice which was to suffer for them, Lev. 
x. 17. And to signify the sacrifice was to bear the sin, the priest laid his 
hand on the head of it, Exod. xxix. 10. Herein the priests were a type of 
Christ ; only he was both priest and sacrifice ; he laid not the iniquities of 
our holy things upon another, but he himself bore our sins in his body, 
1 Peter ii. 24. He bore them, so as to carry them away ; and so removes 
what might render them unacceptable. 

The high priest, when he was to intercede for the people, is appointed to 
carry much sweet inoense into the most holy place, Lev. xvi. 12, 18. Christ's 
intercession, in reference to the holy services of his people, is represented by 
incense, Rev. viii. 8. Christ intercedes, by presenting the merits of his 
obedience and sufferings ; and this is the incense which he offers with the 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Hsb. VII. 25.] of ohbist's making intercession. 157 

prayers and services of the saints. Herewith the mercy-seat is covered, and 
their services (for which they might otherwise die) offered herewith by the 
hand of their intercessor, become pleasing and acceptable to him who sits 
upon the throne ; by virtue hereof they ascend as the savour of a sweet smell, 
Philip, iv. 18, 1 Peter ii. 5. Spiritual sacrifices, though accompanied with 
such failings and weakness as might render them distasteful to an holy God, 
become acceptable, delightful to him, by virtue of Christ's intercession. 

8. Victory over our spiritual enemies, those that oppose Christ's interest, 
and our salvation. Sin, Satan, his wicked agents in the world, and death 
itself. The intercession of Christ gives us ground to expect and be confident 
that these shall all in due time be fully conquered and subdued, Heb. 
x. 12, 18. Christ our high priest having fiuished his oblation, his sacrifice on 
earth, the only act of his priesthood that remains is his intercession ; this 
is here signified by his sitting at the right hand of God. The expression 
denotes that he is able to bring down these enemies, that he has all power 
for it, Ps. lxxx. 17, Luke xxii. 69 ; and that he is willing too. He expects 
it as that which he deserves. It is the merit of his humiliation and suffer- 
ings. This he presents at the right hand of God, and so intercedes for it. 
Upon this account the Father is engaged to see it done, Ps. ex. 2. 

So that how many, how powerful, how prevalent soever the enemies of 
Christ' 8 interest and our happiness are now in the world, yet faith may cer- 
tainly conclude from the intercession of Christ, that they shall fall. He will 
in due time bring them all under his feet, they shall be made his footstool ; 
he will put his feet upon their necks, as Joshua's captains did upon the necks 
of the kings of Canaan, Josh. x. 24. The intercession of Christ gives us 
the encouragement which is there given them, ver. 25. 

Thus will the Lord do to sin particularly. That is the most dangerous, 
the most formidable enemy of all other. None of the rest, without this, 
could hurt you. It wars against your souls, but it wars against Christ too ; 
the war is his, as well as yours ; it is his enemy, not yours only. It is his 
interest, as well as yours, to have it subdued. It is one of those enemies 
that he appears against at the right hand of God. He is able and willing to 
have it quite vanquished ; he expects till it be done ; he intercedes for it as 
a conquest which cost him his blood. Upon this account the Father under- 
takes, this with the rest shall be brought under foot. Be but true to the 
interest of Christ and your souls in opposing it, and maintaining the conflict, 
and then, as sure as Christ intercedes at God's right hand, so sure will these 
luste be subdued and made Christ's footstool ; his intercession gives faith 
assurance of it, Josh. v. 18, 14. Joshua had not greater encouragement, 
that he should prosper in the war against the Canaanites, by Christ's ap- 
pearing to him on earth, than we have to prevail against sin by his appearing 
for us in heaven. 

4. For grace and spiritual blessing, for the increase of grace, for the means 
of grace, the continuance and efficacy. All this he appears for, and his in- 
tercession gives great encouragement to our faith to expect them by virtue 
ofit. 

For spiritual blessings, Bph. i. 8, b tTovgawtf, some render ' in heavenly 
things,' i.e. blessings which belong to heaven, which come from heaven, and 
are appointed to lead us to it. But it is better rendered, * in heavenly 
places ;' for so the word is used both in this chapter, viii. 20, and the next, 
ver. 6. And so we may read it, ' with spiritual blessings in Christ, who is 
in heavenly places,' as ver. 20 directs us. We have these blessings through 
Christ, as he is now in heaven at the right hand of God, interceding for us, 
i.e. presenting his will and desires that the blessings purchased by his blood 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



158 of Christ's making intercession. [Heb. VII. 25. 

may be actually conferred on us. Hereby faith may conclude that Christ is 
both able and willing we should be blessed with spiritual blessings. He is 
willing, because he intercedes for us : he is able, because he intercedes in 
heavenly places, at the right hand of God. 

For increase of grace, John x. 10. What Christ came for to earth, he 
intercedes for in heaven. For his intercession is in pursuit of the ends of 
his coming, that they may be effectually accomplished. Now he came, that 
his people might have spiritual life, and abundance of it ; and so he appears 
in heaven, that they may have it more and more. Therefore in the sense 
of spiritual wants, weaknesses, and falling short of those degrees of grace 
you should attain ; that strength, growth, liveliness, activeness, you should 
have arrived at; look up to Christ, as interceding at the right hand of 
God, and appearing for these ends, that your souls' wants may be supplied, 
that out of weakness you may be made strong, that of his fulness you may 
receive, &c, that the smoking flax may flame, and the bruised reed grow 
strong. He lives to intercede for this, John xiv. 19. If you had no hopes 
of this, but from the virtue of your own prayers, your hands might be weak. 
But the power of Christ's intercession is engaged for it ; he lives for this 
end, that^ou may live, and have life in more abundance. 

For the means of grace, Ps. lxviii. 18. It is spoken in reference to Christ. 
These gifts he receives as fruits of his intercession. And he receives, that 
he may give them. So it is in the apostle, Eph. iv. 8, Ac. Christ, being 
ascended to the right hand of God, appears there as a conqueror. And as 
conquerors were wont, in their triumphs, to bestow largesses, donatives, so 
he gives gifts. And these gifts are officers for the ministry of the word ; 
and they are to continue, till the mystical body of Christ, all the members, 
be perfected. 

So that, though Satan and his agents design and endeavour to destroy the 
ministry, and bereave us of the means of grace, yet while Christ has any 
people in the world to be converted and edified, the ministry shall be con- 
tinued one way or other. It is as sure as that Christ ascended, and is at 
God's right hand ; for there he intercedes for this purpose. 

For the qfficacy of the means, John xvii. 17, he prays that the word of 
truth may be effectual for the working and promoting of holiness. And 
what he prayed for on earth, he intercedes for in heaven. For his inter- 
cession in heaven is conformable to his prayer and intercession on earth. 
The differences that are between are for the encouragement of faith. He 
interceded on earth in a state of humiliation ; he intercedes in heaven in a 
glorious condition : his power and interest, at the right hand of God, is in its 
highest exaltation. He interceded on earth, by virtue of the sacrifice not then 
offered. He intercedes in heaven, by virtue of his sacrifice already offered. 
He pleads for the purchase upon account of the price already paid. Bat as to 
the things interceded for, they are the same ; he presents his will and desires 
in heaven for that which he prayed for on earth. And here we see he prayed 
for holiness, the growth and increase of it; for the means, and their efficacy. 

Perseverance. The intercession of Christ is a sure ground of this, from 
whence faith may certainly conclude it. We need go no further for this than 
the texjt. He is able to save those who come to him, to the uttermost ; and he 
is willing to save them, for he intercedes for it, and that is a presenting his 
will and desires for this purpose. Now they cannot be saved unless they per- 
severe in the way to salvation. Therefore, being able and willing to save them, 
he is able and willing to make them persevere in the way to salvation. And 
what he is able and willing to have done, shall infallibly be effected. 

The apostle from Christ's intercession concludes, that nothing shall sepa- 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Heb. VII. 25. j of Christ's making intercession. 159 

rate us from the love of God, Bom. viii. 84, 85. While Christ's interces- 
sion continues, the love of God to his people will continue ; and while his 
love continues, it will secure them from what is inconsistent with his love. 
This is it which Christ intercedes for in heaven, for this is it which he prayed 
for on earth, John xvii. 11. 

Joj and comfort. Li the day of expiation, after the high priest had been 
interceding with blood and incense in the most holy place, the jubilee was 
to be proclaimed, the time of greatest joy to the people, Lev. xxv. 9. The 
issue and consequence of Christ's intercession is joy, matter of great joy. 
It is ground of everlasting consolation, 2 Thes. ii. 16. Christ, when he was 
on earth, promised he would intercede in heaven for the Spirit of consola- 
tion, John xiv. 16. He assures his disciples that he will pray the Father to 
give them his Spirit, as, for other acts and offices, which the word imports, 
so expressly to be a comforter, and- that for ever. Not only for them, but 
for all his people to the end of the world. He is interceding for this for 
ever. We have farther assurance for this, in that he prayed for it on earth, 
John xvii. 18. 

Glory. Christ's interceding in heaven makes it as sure that they shall 
be glorified in heaven with him, as though they were already, Eph. ii. 6. 
He sits in heavenly places interceding ; and, upon this account, those that 
come to him are as sure to be saved to the uttermost, as sure to sit in 
heavenly places with him, as though they were already with him. He sits 
there in our nature, as one with us ; we are one with him who is in heavenly 
places; while we look upon him at the right hand of God, we may see our- 
selves in heavenly places. He sits there as our head ; the body is so far in 
heaven, as the head is there. He is there as our forerunner, Heb. vi. 20. 
He is there to make way for us, John xiv. 2, 8. He prepares it by inter- 
ceding, that is his great work for us in heaven. What he intercedes for 
there, we may understand by what he prayed for on earth, John xvii. 22, 24. 

Belief in all weaknesses, infirmities, troubles, sufferings, whatever needs 
compassion or relief. Heb. iv. 14, 15, Christ our high priest is now passed 
into the heavens, and the only act of his priesthood in heaven is intercession 
for us. And he intercedes as one touched with the feeling of our infirmities. 
He sees all that we suffer by, in soul or body. He sees it all, so as to feel 
it, to be touched with the feeling of it. He is touched with the feeling of 
it, as one that has felt the like himself. He feels it effectually, so as to 
appear for our relief, so as to intercede for the procuring of what we want, 
securing us from what we fear, easing us of what is grievous, or obtaining 
for us that which is as good or better. 

He accommodates his intercession to all our infirmities, according to the 
exigencies of them, so as to intercede for supply, ease, deliverance, relief, so 
far as it is needful, as soon as it is seasonable, whenever it will be good for us. 

The intercession of Christ affords support to faith, and comfort to souls 
compassed about with infirmities, in the worst circumstances that can befall 
them, in all that may be grievous to them. All grievances whatever are 
comprised under infirmities* and this gives ground to expect relief, as to 
everything that is a grievance ; especially taking in the ground of it in those 
words, .' but was in all things tempted,' or exercised like unto us. 

Art thou poor ? &c. Why, Christ is touched with the feelings of a poor 
condition, and intercedes as one touched with the feeling of it. It was once 
his own case. And so in other cases. Vide Serm. on Heb. iv. 15. 

Answer of our prayers. The intercession of Christ gives great encourage- 
ment to come to the throne of grace, find ground to believe that we shall 
have admission and success, Heb. x. 19-22. The people under the law 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



160 of Christ's mazing intercession. [Heb. VII. 25. 

were excluded from the holiest, the high priest alone was to enter it with 
the blood of the sacrifice ; but, by the blood of Jesus, presented in his in- 
tercession, all believers have boldness to approach the holiest, and make 
their addresses there. By him way is made for us, a new and living way, 
through him who ever lives, in opposition to the old veil, which was an in- 
animate thing. It is made for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, 
which, when it was separated from his soul by death on the cross, it is said 
the veil of the temple was rent, Mat. xxvii. 51. That veil, which excluded 
priest and people from access to the most holy place, and the sight of the 
mercy-seat there. This was rent, to signify that now a way was made to 
the mercy-seat, and nothing left to hinder our access to it ; especially having 
an high priest, an advocate, an intercessor, there ready to appear for us. 
By virtue of this we may draw near, not only with faith but full assurance, 
that we shall obtain our requests, Heb. iv. 14-16. Since we have an high 
priest, whose office and work it is in heaven to make intercession for us, and 
who intercedes as touched with the feeling of what we want, or fear, or 
suffer ; upon this ground we may approach the mercy-seat, we may come to 
the throne of grace, and come boldly, without fears, or doubts, or jealousies ; 
without making any question, but that we shall obtain, &c. Faith is hereby 
assured, that we may obtain whatever will be a mercy to us, and that is all 
which is desirable. We may have it freely from grace, which gives to those 
that are most unworthy. We may find grace, which gives without money, 
without price, which expects no valuable consideration for it at our hands. 
We need but come to meet with it ; we need but ask to obtain it. We may 
have it in abundance from the throne of grace, from him who sits on the 
throne to shew himself gracious ; whose glory it is, to give like himself, the 
King of kings, to give royally, liberally, magnificently. We may have all 
this in time of need, whenever we need it, whenever it will be seasonable to 
have it. We shall not want what is best for us, nor when it is best. All 
this we have assurance of, because we have such an high priest interceding 
for us ; upon this account we may come boldy for it, and expect it 

There are many things in Christ's intercession which encourage us to come 
to the throne of grace, and to be much and often there ; and also give as- 
surance that we shall not come in vain ; that we shall find the mercy we seek, 
and obtain the grace we desire, even all those great and glorious things 
already specified which Christ makes intercession for. When we pray for 
the same things for which Christ intercedes, and consider that while we are 
praying, Christ at the same time appears at the throne of grace on our be- 
half for the same things, how can we doubt but they will be granted ? Though 
we deserve to be denied, Christ our intercessor will meet with no repulse. 

That our prayers may be prevalent, this is one condition requisite, that 
they be made in faith, James i. 6, Mark xi. 24, Mat. xxi. 22. Now, there 
is no stronger ground in the world for the establishing of faith in prayer than 
Christ's intercession. 

His intercession gives assurance of the success of our prayers upon an- 
other account. It is by virtue thereof that we have the Spirit to help us to 
pray ; and that which proceeds from the assistance of the Spirit will be ac- 
ceptable and prevail, Zech. xii. 10. It is by virtue of Christ's intercession 
that this promise is accomplished, John xiv. 16. The word vragaxXqros 
signifies not only a comforter, but an advocate ; and the Spirit is promised, 
and declared to be an advocate for his people, both unto men and unto God, 
to plead for them or help them, to manage their plea, both with men, Mat. 
x. 20, and with God, Bom viii. 

So that when Christ promises that he will pray the Father to give us an- 

Digitized by LiOOQ IC 



Heb. YII. 25.] of ohbist'b making intercession. 161 

other advocate, he promises to intercede for as that we may have another 
intercessor in us ; and if we take notice how the Spirit acts as an intercessor, 
how he helps our infirmities, what he is ready to do for ns in prayer, it will be a 
great encouragement to believe that our prayers, through. his help, shall 
succeed. 

I have shewed particularly what great things the intercession of Christ 
gives assurance of. Let me shew upon what ground we may have assurance 
hereof by his intercession. 

1. Christ has power, all power, to effect what he intercedes for ; and this 
is a great support to faith, and that which we often doubt of, though we do 
not observe. Can God prepare a table, &c. ? can Christ do all those things 
for me which I hear he intercedes for ? Yes, assuredly he can ; for his in- 
tercession imports no less power than good will. He is at the right hand of 
God interceding, Bom. viii. 84. That is his work at the right hand, &c. 
Now, his sitting at the right hand of God is a metaphorical expression ; we 
must not take it literally ; for God is a spirit, not a body ; he has no right 
hand nor left. But thereby is signified the fulness of power which Christ 
our intercessor has in heaven, and so it is frequently used in Scripture. Ps. 
Ixxvii. 10, in opposition to his own infirmity and weakness, he would con- 
sider the right hand, t. e. the power of God ; so Ps. cxviii. 14-16, he ex- 
presses the power of God by the right hand ; and Luke xxii. 69, Christ in- 
tercedes at the right hand of power, t. e. he has all power to accomplish what 
he intercedes for. He not only desires these great things for his people, but 
is able to effect them. He intercedes for the Spirit, John xiv. 16, and he 
sends the Spirit, John xvi. 7. He receives gifts as the effect of his inter- 
cession, Ps. kviii. 8. And he gives those gifts, Eph.iv. 8. He does not only ask 
and receive in behalf of his people, but has power to give. He intercedes that 
those who come unto God by him maybe saved to the uttermost. And he is able 
to save, &c. He is able to remove all impediments, to conquer all difficulties, 
to bestow every degree of grace and spiritual strength, which is requisite that 
they may be saved to the uttermost, to make them conquerors, and more, Ac. 

2. He has right. He intercedes for nothing but what he has right to ob- 
tain, nothing but what is due to him. He sues but for his purchase, that 
for which he has paid the full value to a righteous God. He has bought 
his people, 1 Cor. vi. 20 ; he has purchased their persons, Acts xx. 28 ; 
and so has right to dispose of them as his own, according to the purpose of 
his grace ; he has purchased the kingdom of heaven for them, Eph. i. 14 
he has purchased grace, and the means of grace, faith, holiness, perseverance, 
and all spiritual blessings ; glory, and holiness the way to it, and all good 
things on earth. This is the sum of what he intercedes for, and this is no 
more than what is due to him. His blood was the price of it : the price is 
paid and accepted, and he appears for the possession ; and his intercession 
will as certainly prevail for it, as it is certain that God is just and righteous, 
2 Thes. i. 6-10. 

To us, upon our account, belongs nothing but shame and confusion of 
face ; we have nothing to plead but free morcy. But that which Christ 
pleads for on our behalf is due to him, and therefore will assuredly be 
granted. His intercession, as I shewed before, is grounded upon merit. 

8. He has interest, the greatest imaginable, as much interest as is pos- 
sible. He intercedes, not with a stranger, or a friend, or a common relative, 
but with his Father, one who loves him as himself, John v. 20, and with- 
holds nothing from him ; he has as much interest in him as in himself, and 
can prevail as much with him as with himself ; and can no more be denied 

vol. in. L 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



162 op chbist's making intebcession. [Heb. VII. 25. 

by him in what he desires than he can deny himself, for they are both one, 
John x. 80 ; they have not only one interest, and one design, but one 
essence and one will. What Christ wills, the Father wills, and therefore 
what he desires it is granted, it is done ; that which he intercedes for is 
his Father's will. Christ will have as say to the Father, when we pray, 
' Thy will be done,' for it is no other than his own will ; and heaven and 
earth shall pass away, rather than one iota or tittle of it shall not be fulffUed. 

4. He has affections and compassions for as, and so intercedes affection- 
ately, compassionately, as one greatly concerned for us ; and that assures ns 
we shall not miss of the great advantages he intercedes for, Heb. iv. 15. 
The apostle shews what an high priest we have, how he executes the office 
of an high priest in heaven for us, t. e. how he there intercedes for us ; for 
his intercession is the only part of his priestly office that he performs in 
heaven ; and he does it as one touched, &c. Herein the comparison holds 
betwixt him and the Levitical high priest, expressed Heb. v. 2 and ii. 14. 
And as he is high priest and intercessor, both as God and man, so he has 
for ub the affections, not only of God, but of a man ; and accordingly inter- 
cedes for us, as one that has such love, flare, pity, compassions for us, as 
are in the hearts of the children of men, the weaknesses excepted. 

5. He is obliged ; invested in an office, he is under the obligation of it: 
it is his office, as he is mediator, to intercede. His honour is engaged, and 
depends both upon the execution of his office, and the success of the per- 
formance. If he should either neglect it, or be unsuccessful in it, it would 
reflect ill upon him.. It is impossible that either should fall out. 

He took not the office upon him of his own accord, without a call, but the 
Father called him to it, engaged him in it, expects the discharge of it, Heb. 
v. 4, 5. The Father called him to be an high priest, and so to intercede ; 
he would not have .called him to &, but with a design to comply with him in 
it, and to be prevailed with by his intercession, Isa. xlii. 1, This is spoken 
of Christ, and applied to &im, Mat. xii. 18. He is called his servant, in 
respect of the office of mediatorship, a principal act of which is his inter- 
cession. Uphold; the Hebrew doctor renders it, whom I lean upon, t . *• 
whom I trust to or rely on, for the performance of the office I have called 
him to. My beloved, one whom I have chosen, beloved and preferred before 
any other to this great office,, and well pleased with him for his undertaking 
and discharging it. 

Now, if intercession be an act of Christ's office, and his honour engaged 
upon his sucess therein ; if the Father employs him in it, loves him for it, 
is well pleased with his performance, with his interceding : there can be no 
question but it will be admirably, eternally successful, John x. 17. He laid 
down his life to give satisfaction, he took it up again to make intercession. 
The Father Iotob him for both, and in both the pleasure of the Lord shall 
prosper in his hands. 

6. He has a personal, a particular respect for every of his servants in his 
interceding. It is as comfortable, will be as effectual, and gives as much 
assurance of success, as if now in heaven he did pray and intercede for every 
of us by name. If you knew that Christ now in heaven were praying for 
you by name, you would not doubt of being saved to the uttermost. Why, 
that which his intercession imports is no less in effect. The high priest 
under the law carried the names of the twelve tribes upon his breast when he 
went into the holiest. Christ does not carry the names of the tribes of his 
people upon his breast only, but every of them in particular is in his mind 
and heart while he is interceding. There is in heaven a special, a personal 
regard of all that come unto God by him, as if their names were there recorded, 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Hkb. VEL 25.] oy ghbist's making xntbboxbbion. 168 

Luke x. 20, Rev. xxi. 12. Christ remembers them as effectually, as if he 
presented them by name to his Father in his intercession, Rev. xiii. 8. 
Their names are written in the Lamb's book, that was slain, that was sacri- 
ficed, and he that was sacrificed is the same who intercedes. He knows 
who*re his, 2 Tim. ii. 19, and how ; he knows them by name, John x. 8 ; 
and as he knows, so he presents, so he intercedes for them. Those who 
come nnto God by him, may have as much assurance of the comfort and 
advantage of his intercession, as if they heard him in heaven interceding for 
them by name. 

For temporal deliverance. Christ, the great intercessor, is greatly con- 
cerned for his people in their outward distresses and calamities. Let me 
insist a little on this, as being seasonable. Our danger and distress is very 
great : we are threatened with ruin in all our concerns, and our posterity 
after us. Our main support in this sinking condition is, that Christ appears 
for us, and lives to do it. He is concerned for his people when they are in 
the depths, he has always been so, Gen. xlviii. 16. This angel is Christ, 
who redeemed him. The word is ^M, the Redeemer, as Christ is called, 
Job xix. 25, Isa. lix. 20. He redeemed Jacob not only from eternal miseries, 
but delivered him out of all the troubles and calamites he had met with in 
the world. 

But how does he deliver his people from outward calamities ? Why, by 
his blood, by that presented, by his intercession, Zech. ix. 11. They were 
delivered out of Egypt, out of the wilderness, out of Babylon, by which the 
eternal redemption of believers is shadowed out, and confirmed by the blood 
of the covenant, by this blood presented in his intercession. Upon this 
account, when our condition seems helpless, as theirs in a pit of water ; 
when we see not either how we can live in our present circumstances, or 
how we can get out of them ; when we are encompassed with dangers and 
distresses on every side, as if we were in a strong prison, without means, 
and so without hopes, either to subsist in it, or get out of it : yet by 
virtue of this blood we may be ' prisoners of hope.' Upon the account 
of Christ's blood shed and presented, there is hope concerning this thing ; 
even concerning temporal deliverance, when all things seem to look upon 
us with a hopeless aspect. 

Deliverance out of all sorts of troubles seems ascribed to Christ as inter- 
ceding, Isa. lxiii. 9. Who is this that saved and delivered his people in all 
their troubles and calamities ? to whom so much love is ascribed, so much 
sympathy, so much compassion, so much tenderness and relief towards 
his people, in their distresses and dangers, all their days? Why, it is 
Christ, called ' the Angel of his presence,' Heb. ix. 24. All this was ex- 
pressed to, all this was done for, his ancient people. Not some, but all 
the days of old, by the Angel of his presence, by Christ appearing in 
the presence of God for them ; i. e. by Christ interceding for them. And 
all this may be expected, and will be done for his people now, by the Angel 
of his presence ; in all days of distress and calamity, present or to come, 
even all their days, because he ever appears in the presence of God, he ever 
lives to make intercession. 

Further, Christ is represented plainly, expressly, actually interceding for 
his people in reference to their outward distresses and calamities, Zech. 
i. 12. This angel is Christ, God and man in one person. He is called 
God, Jehovah, ver. 9, and he is called man, ver. 8, 10. It is Christ, the 
Son of God, who in the fulness of time became man, who expresses such an 
affectionate resentment of the sufferings and calamities of his people ; who is 
tenderly sensible both of the weight and continuance of them, and impor- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



164 of oheist's making intercession. [Heb. 711. 25. 

tones the Father to tarn from his indignation, and shew them mercy in 
sending relief and deliverance. And his intercession was effectual, and pre- 
vails for a gracious return, ver. 18. And this particularly expressed and 
opened in the following verses. The return was gracious and full of 
consolations. 

Hereby it appears that faith may expect great and comfortable advan- 
tages from the intercession of Christ, in reference to outward sufferings and 
calamities. 

1. The turning away of God's anger and indignation. Upon Christ's 
interposal, the Lord's indignation was diverted from his people, and turned 
upon their oppressors and persecutors, ver. 14, 15. When the Lord's 
anger is turned away, the bitterness of any affliction is past. Though the 
Lord writ bitter things against his people before, yet upon Christ's appear- 
ing for them, he speaks good and comfortable words. 

2. Faith may expect sympathy and compassions under sufferings, instead 
of wrath and indignation. Our great High Priest, who intercedes for us, is 
touched with the sense of our sufferings ; and sufferings pass under the 
name of infirmities in the style of the apostle. He has as effectual a sense 
of them as if himself felt them. The Angel of his presence, he who appears 
in the presence of God for us, in all our afflictions he is afflicted. What- 
ever pressure lies upon us he bears us, and so is apprehensive of the weight 
of both. 

8. Faith may expect that sufferings shall be proportioned to our strength. 
If our strength be small, sufferings will be, some way or other, made lighter ; 
or if they be heavier, our strength will be proportionably increased. He 
who intercedes for us, as he is a merciful, so he is a faithful high priest, 
1 Cor. x. 18. He will take care that they shall not be too heavy, nor lie 
too long. When Satan or his agents would sink them, Christ interposes 
with a The Lord rebuke thee, Zech. iii. 1, 2. 

4. Faith may expect on this account that we shall be secured from the 
evil of sufferings ; and when the evil is gone, there is nothing in them to be 
feared ; for nothing is reasonably an object of fear, but something that is 
evil, John xvii. He prays not they may be taken out of the world, nor that 
they may be kept from troubles and sufferings, but from the evil of them. 
And what is there else to be desired? We cannot desire to be freed 
from the good of them, we need not desire to be freed from that which is 
neither good nor evil in them. All that we need, all that we can in.reason 
desire to be freed from, is the evil ; and this Christ prayed for, this he inter- 
cedes for. 

5. Faith may expect deliverance in due time, when it is best, when most 
for his honour and interest, and most for our spiritual advantage and com- 
fort. And that is as soon as we can in reason desire it ; for before it be 
good in those respects, it is not desirable. Upon Christ's interceding for his 
people in their distress, the Lord prepares instruments from all quarters to 
cut off the horns which pushed, and gored, or dispersed his people. Their 
power and greatness could not secure them. Horns, in the prophetic style, 
signify kings or sovereign powers. Upon Christ's appearing for his people, 
they are cut off, their power is broken, so that the oppressed are no more in 
danger of their push. 

6. Faith may expect, till deliverance come, that which is better than 
deliverance, t. e. an holy and fruitful improvement of suffering ; and such an 
improvement of them is better than freedom from sufferings. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



BELIEVERS' COMMUNION WITH THE 
FATHER AND SON. 



And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 

— 1 John I. 8. 

Hebe is heaven in the text, as much happiness as men and angels do or 
can desire, happiness both formal and objective ; and the sweet issue of both 
in the words following : ' These things write we unto you, that your joy may 
be foil.' Joy, fulness of joy ; joy, which is the smile of happiness and the 
flower of glory. 

The object of this happiness, or the object which is our happiness, is God 
in Christ, the Father and the Son, the Father of Christ, and the Father of 
believers. * I go to my Father and your Father ; ' his Father by eternal 
generation, ours by adoption ; his, quoad rem et modum subdstertdi ; ours, 
quoad effectum, et modum operandi ; which shews itself in indulgence, love, 
care, pity, providence. ' And his Son Jesus Christ,' that is the other object 
of oar happiness; he who, ver. 1, is called ' the Word of life/ and, ver. 2, 
4 eternal life.' Now eternal life and happiness are reciprocal, and used as 
convertible terms in Scripture. Christ is the word of life in himself, eternal 
life to ns : the word of life, essentialiter ; eternal life, causalUer. And this 
is that happiness, that eternal life, which we have from him and by him. 
This fellowship in the text, which we call formal happiness, the word xo/vama, 
is rendered by some consortium, converse ; by others, societas, fellowship ; 
by others, cotnmunio, so Beza. And this does best express the word, and 
therefore we will use it, and the rather because it includes both the former. 
And from the connection we might observe that fellowship, or communion 
with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, is eternal life or happiness ; 
for what is happiness but the enjoyment of the chiefest good ? Now the 
Father and the Son are the chiefest good, and communion with them is the 
enjoyment of them ; for then we enjoy the chief good, when we are united 
to it, when we have interest in it, and when we partake of it. But com- 
munion includes all these, as will appear in the explication. 

And thence we might infer that eternal life is not confined to heaven. If 
we take eternal life for happiness, a man may have eternal life on earth. 
Heaven is not so much local as we imagine. Communion with God is 
heaven, and happiness, and eternal life. He that hath communion with 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



166 BELIEVERS' COMXUNIOX WITH [1 JOHN I. 8. 

God is in heaven while he is on earth ; and if a man could he there without 
this, he would want heaven even in heaven. There is no essential difference 
betwixt happiness on earth and happiness in heaven ; they differ but gra- 
dually. If a man on earth could enjoy perfeot communion with God, he 
would be perfectly happy. But I pass by this to that which is express in 
the text, and I shall insist upon this. 

Obs. Believers have communion with the Father, and with his Son Jesus 
Christ. We need not seek out more proofs. That which will be most pro- 
fitable is an inquiry into the nature of this communion, wherein it consists. 
Take an account of this in three particulars. Communion includes, 1, real 
union ; 2, reciprocal community ; 8, familiar converse. 

1. Union. This is the basis of communion. Believers are united to the 
Father and the Son, and the Father and the Son to them. They are united 
morally, conjugally, mystically. The bond of moral union is love, gluten 
animarum, by which spirits cleave to one another, nay, penetrate into one 
another and mix together so as they become one. Jonathan loved David 
as his own soul, as though one soul had informed and animated both bodies. 
Thus friends are united. Now believers are the friends of God. Abraham 
was called the friend of God, James ii. 28. ' Ye are my friends,* says 
Christ to his disciples, and in them to us, John xv. 14, 15. 

There is also a conjugal union. By this men are b *ft/tta, as by the other 
they are pJa ^u^i). And thus we are united to the Father and the Son. 
We are the spouse of Christ, and the Father has married us in an everlasting 
covenant. Christ, by assuming our nature, became h <j£/*x, with us, Eph. v. 
And by this conjugal conjunction we are b mtv/Aa with him, 1 Cor. vi. 17. 
' He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.' 

There is also a mystical union, which is set forth frequently, though not 
fully, by physical unions. We are united to Christ as the branches to the 
vine, John xv. 16 ; as the members to the head, Col. i. 16, Eph. v. 28 ; as 
the building to the foundation, 1 Cor. iii. ; and, which is nearer than all 
these, as the soul and body. Christ is wholly in every believer, and wholly 
in every part, as anima is tota in toto corpore, et tota in qualibet parte; there- 
fore, Gal. ii. 20, * I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' As the soul 
liveth in the body, and the body is animated by the soul, so is the soul ani- 
mated by Christ, and depends upon htm as much for spiritual life, as the 
body depends upon the soul for natural life. He is the actus primus, the 
principle of our supernatural being and operations ; and, abstracting all im- 
perfection from the word, Christ may be called the forma informant of a 
sanctified soul, as it is sanctified. But there is an expression beyond all 
this, John xvii. 21, 22, ' That they all may be one, as thou art in me and 
I in thee, that they also may be one in us' ; and ver. 22, ' that they may bo 
one, even as we are one.' 

2. Community. The Lord and believers have all this in common* And 
this seems to be the proper signification of xo/vtowa. It may be rendered as 
well community as communion, if we may conclude from its original. Xldrm 
rwv p\£v xoha, says the philosopher, and gives the reason in his Ethics, iv 
xo/vww(f y&£ jj p/X/a, friendship consists in community, and so does fellow- 
ship. Now there is betwixt the Lord and believers a fourfold community. 
(1.) Of enjoyment; (2.) Of affections ; (8.) Of interests ; (4.) Of privileges. 
There is a community, 

(1.) Of enjoyments. The Lord is ours, and we are his. * I will be your 
God, and ye shall be my people. 1 That is the covenant. The ' Lord is 
their portion,' Ps. xvi. 5, Lam. iii. 24. And they are the Lord's portion ; 
Deut. xxxii. 9, < The Lord's portion is his people/ We have interest in his 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



1 JOHM L 8.] THE FATHBB AND SON* 167 

glorious essence and attributes. In his omnipotency, that is our safety. By 
it we are more secure than if all the hosts of heaven and earth did surround 
Q8. And if we could use faith when we seem most deserted in the world, we 
might see more with ns than against us ; we might behold, with Elisha's 
servant, 2 Kings vi. 17, the mountains full of horses and chariots of fire 
about us. , 

His wisdom is for us. That laid the plot of our happiness from eternity, 
and does carry it on successfully, mangre all the plots and stratagems of men 
and devils ; and we, relying upon the conduct of omnisciency, are further 
from miscarrying than if all the wisdom of angels and policy of men were 
engaged for us. 

We have interest in mercy. Mercy is peculiarly the saints' ; no creatures 
partake of mercy but they, and they have nothing but merey. All the ways 
of God are mercy to them, Ps. xxv. 10. The greatest afflictions, yea, in 
some sense the greatest sins, the issue makes itfalix culpa. The saints are 
vessels of mercy ; it falls into them here, but they shall fall into it hereafter, 
and be filled therewith, as a vessel cast into the sea. We swim in streams 
of mercy from one condition to another, till at last we be swallowed up in 
the ocean of mercy. 

In all-sufficiency. This is our riches, and we are richer in this interest 
than if we were actually possessed of the whole world. I am HP 'K, says 
God to Abraham. And he is the same to all the faithful. ' To him that over- 
eomethl will give to inherit all things,' Rev. xxi. 7. And he giveth us vdvra 
tXw*/*;, < all things richly to enjoy/ 1 Tim. vi. 17. Thus God, and with 
him all things, are ours ; and so, reciprocally, we are his, and every part of 
ns, our body, soul, and spirit. A saint is the temple of God, 1 Cor. iii. 16, 
and every part of him is dedicated and consecrated to God ; he is deya^a, 
that is not diolqua. Our body, that is the outer court ; our souls, that is 
the holy place ; our spirits, that is the holy of holies. God is most in this, 
and manifests himself most gloriously to it. ' This is my resting place, 
here will I dwell. 1 All the faculties of our souls and members of our bodies 
must be weapons and instruments of righteousness. 

And as there is this community betwixt us and the Father, so also be- 
twixt us and the Son. His nature is ours, and ours is his ; he is bone of 
oar bone, and flesh of our flesh. His riches is ours, and our poverty his : 
2 Cor. viii. 9, ' He became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich.' 
His righteousness is ours, and our sins are hiB ; he made him sin for us, who 
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. 
v. 21. His happiness is ours, and our curse is his, Gal. iii. He was made 
a corse for us, that he might free us from the curse of the law. His glory 
it ours, and our shame was his ; he took upon him the form of a servant, 
that we might be made the sons of God. He was made the most contempt- 
ible and abject of men, for so Isa. liii. 8 is rendered contemptimmus abjectis- 
timwque virorum, QWX 71H, detilus virorum, i.e. in quo derinunt viri f ita ut 
ipse non habeatur pro viro. He was brought so low, as he seemed not to be 
a man ; and we are exalted so high, as we seem not to be men. He was the 
reproach of men and shame of the people, and we are the glory of Christ : 
John xvii. 22, ' And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them. 1 

(2.) Community of affections. The Lord and hiB saints have the same 
affections, running in the same channel, fixed on the same objects. There 
is mutual love. The saints love the Lord, and are beloved of him. ' I love 
those that love me,' says Christ, the Father's Wisdom, in Proverbs. And 
John xiv. 21, * He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is 
that loveth me : and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



168 believers' communion with [1 John 1. 8. 

will love him,' &c. A saint loves whatever resembles Christ, whatever be- 
longs to him : his image, his people, his ordinances. And the Lord loves 
whatever belongs to a saint as a saint ; his love extends itself to his friends, 
his goods, his posterity ; he shews mercy unto thousands of those that love 
him. 

There is also a reciprocal delight. The Lord takes pleasure in his saints, 
and in their services ; they are all his Hephzibahs, his rest, his joy, his 
peculiar treasure. And they delight in him and his administrations ; they 
prefer him before their chief joy. The soul says, * Lord, whom have I in 
heaven but thee ? and there is none on earth that I can love in comparison 
of thee.' And the Lord says to his saints, ' Whom have I on earth but 
thee ? and there is none in the world that I love like thee. 1 

So mutual desires. The soul desires God's glory, and the Lord desires 
the soul's happiness. The soul desires to be with Christ, and cries, ' Come, 
Lord Jesus, come quickly.' Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a 
roe or a young hart upon the mountain of spices. And Christ desires the 
soul should be with him, and calls, Cant. ii. 10, ' Rise up, my love, my 
fair one, and come away. John xvii. 24, ' I will that they also whom thou 
hast given me may be with me.' 

So for hatred. The Lord hates sin and sinners, and so does a saint : 
Ps. exxxix. 21, ' Do not I hate those that hate thee ? and am I not grieved 
with those that rise up against thee?' Here is an exact compliance, 
they do idem velle, et idem nolle ; love the same things, and hate the same 
things. 

(3.) A community of interest. The Lord and saints have the same ends, 
the same designs, the same friends and enemies. So Jehoshaphat expresses 
his society with Ahab, ' I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my 
chariots as thy chariots. 1 The Lord aims at his own glory and our happi- 
ness, and we aim at his glory and our happiness. And though he may seem 
more to seek his glory than our happiness, and we may fear we seek our 
happiness more than his glory, yet indeed these two are inseparable and 
almost coincident. That which advances his glory promotes our happiness, 
and that which makes us most happy makes him most glorious. Wisdom 
and mercy have made a sweet connection betwixt his honour and our happi- 
ness, so that they cannot be disjoined. We need no more fear to come short 
of happiness than we need to fear that the Lord will come short of his glory, 
for these two are embarked together. 

And as they seek the same ends, so they choose the same means. There 
is not only /*/a j3ouXjj<r/$, but ngoaigeeie. A saint will use no means but what 
the Lord prescribes and approves ; he will rather depend on the wisdom of 
God for the success of those means which seem most improbable, if the 
Lord has prescribed them, than consult with or rely upon carnal reason ; 
rather hazard the loss of a kingdom than set up a golden calf, though Jero- 
boam, a stranger to God, did ; rather die than deny the truth, to save his 
life ; rather lose the world than tell an officious lie. 

And as they have the same end and means, so in the prosecution of these 
they have the same friends and enemies. He is not a friend in the Lord's 
account that is an enemy to the saints ; nor is he the saint's friend that is 
the Lord's enemy. Those that hate thee (says David), and rise up against 
thee, I hate them with a perfect hatred, I count them my enemies. And 
they have the same account of things as of persons ; what is done against 
one is done against both, and what is done for one is done for both. The 
wicked they persecute the saints, and the Lord looks upon them as perse- 
cutors of him : ' Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? ' And Saul need 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



1 John I. 8.] the fathbb and son. 169 

not wonder at this, if he had considered that of the psalmist, * He that 
toneheth you, touches the apple of my eye.' And therefore the sufferings 
of the saints are called the sufferings of Christ. The saints they do good 
to their brethren, feed, clothe, and visit them, and the Lord takes it as done 
to himself : Mat. zxv. 84, 85, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father ; I was an 
hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : a 
stranger, and ye took me in : naked, and ye clothed me : sick, and ye 
visited me : in prison, and ye came unto me.' But how could this be, 
think the saints, seeing Christ is above these kindnesses? He tells: 
ver. 40, ' The King shall say,' and he says it with an asseveration, * Verily 

1 say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me.' 

(4.) Community of privileges. The Lord condescends to make the saints, 
bo for as they are capable, partakers of his own privileges, even those which 
no creatures else partake of. 

It is his privilege to be omnipotent, and the saints have something that 
resembles this. One would think Paul speaks as much, when he glories that 
he can do all things, Christ strengthening him. And every saint may pre- 
sume as much. 

It is the Lord's privilege to be omniscient, yet he vouchsafes some shadow 
of this to us, when he promiseth the Spirit shall lead us into all truth, and 
that the Spirit should teach us all things, 1 John ii. 20. 

It is his privilege to be all-sufficient. And what does he promise less to 
us, when he assures us we shall want no good thing, we shall have all things 
richly to enjoy, we shall inherit all things ? Who would desire more all- 
sufficiency than to have all things sufficient, all things that are good ? 

2 Cor. ix. 8. 

And as we partake of the privileges of the Father, so ako of the Son. 
He is rgifffiiysgrog, king, priest, and prophet, and so are we ; he has ' loved 
us,' Ac., * and made us kings and priests,' enables us to offer up spiritual 
sacrifices acceptably ; and has prepared crowns, and sceptres, and kingdoms 
for us. We are prophets too, for we are all taught of God ; we have the 
Spirit of wisdom and revelation, Eph. i. 17. The same Spirit, which was a 
Spirit of prophecy, is in us ; and though it do not enable us, as formerly 
them, to foretell future contingencies, yet something future we know. Every 
saint, who has attained assurance, knows he shall be saved ; and this is a 
contingency in respect of second causes. 

Again, Christ is the Son of God, and so are we. What honour is this t 
' Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we 
should be called the sons of God,' 1 John iii. 1. Christ is the heir of all 
things, and we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, Bom. viii. 17. 
Christ is the object of his Father's love, and so are we, Lev. xxvi. 11. 
Christ is the glory of God, the brightness of his glory, and we are the glory 
of God, Ps. xi. 10. It is rendered, * His rest shall be glorious.' Now, the 
saints are they in whom God rests. Ecclesia, in qua aquiescit Deu$> says 
one on the place. Therefore they are his glory. Christ is a conqueror, and 
so are we ; conquer the world, John v. 5 ; and the god of this world, Satan, 
who also commands another world, prince of the power of the air ; him we 
conquer, and all his legions of darkness. Yea, we conquer that which is 
more potent than both the world and the devils, and this is sin ; it over- 
threw both the former, and we subdue this. Nay, in all this, wnptxwfitv, 
we are more than conquerors. 

Christ is a judge, and so are we : 1 Cor. vi. 2, 8, ' Enow ye not that the 
saints shall judge the world?' Nay, the chiefest part of the world, the 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



170 believers' communion with [1 Johm 1. 8. 

angels : ver. 8, ' The saints shall judge the angels.' This ia the second 
head, wherein this communion is expressed. 

8. Familiar converse, which we may make out in four particulars: 
(1.) Visits; (2.) Walking with God, and he with us; (3.) Conference; 
(4.) Feasting. 

(1.) Visits. The Lord visits us, and we visit him; he comes to us, 
stands at the door and knocks, and if we open he will enter, Bey. iii. 20 ; 
he will come in and manifest himself to us. This is the end of visiting, to 
see whom we visit ; and this is it the Lord desires, Let me see thy face, and 
hear thy voice, Cant. ii. 14. There are sweet interviews betwixt God and 
the soul ; he shews himself in part, withdraws the veil a little, that we may 
have some glimpses of his glorious excellencies. The day of glory dawns 
here, though the meridian be only in heaven ; and though we see but darkly* 
as in a glass, yet we see more clearly than his ancient people. The object 
was far off from them, and the medium was darkened by the intcarposition of 
a cloud of ceremonies ; but the Day-spring from on high hath visited us, and 
made them vanish. Abraham saw but his day, and that afar off; we see 
himself, he is set forth crucified before our eyes, GaL iii. Moses's fcce was 
veiled, nor was he permitted to see anything of God but his back parte ; 
but we, 2 Cor. iii. 16, with open face behold the glory of God, yea, the 
brightness of his glory shining in the face of Christ. These interviews, these 
visits are in the ordinances. 

He visits us also in his providences. There is no condition so sad and 
forlorn, which can estrange him from us, hinder him from visiting us ; nay, 
he takes those opportunities to be most kind and frequent in seeing us, 
when a visit will be most welcome ; nor does he visit us merely to see us, 
but to do us good. In trouble of conscience, he visits us with his loving- 
kindness ; in darkness and perplexities, with comforts makes his face to 
shine upon us. In troubles and dangers, he visits us with his salvation ; 
in sickness and restraint he comes to us, and performs all the acts that love 
can put forth to a sick friend, he makes our beds in our sickness, Ps. xli. 8 ; 
his left hand is under our head, and his right hand sustains us. Nor need 
we fear to be troublesome to him with too frequent visits ; he takes nothing 
more unkindly than when we withdraw and grow strange ; he invites us : 
Cant. ii. 10, « Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.' 'Come unto 
me, all ye that are weary.' And when he cannot draw us up with his oords 
of love, he drives us with his rod ; and that is one end why he exercises his 
people with sickness, losses, disappointments, wants, desertion of friends, 
and other afflictions, to draw them more to himself. 

(2.) Walking with God. A saint walks with God, and God with him ; 
so he promises, ' I will walk in the midst of you, 2 Cor. vi. 16; Lev. xxvi. 
12, ' I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' Nor is this only in fair way : 
' When thou goest through the fire, I will be with thee,' &c., Isa. xliiL 2. 
The familiarity of this walking, methinks, is held forth in this expression, 
Ps. lxxiii. 28, ' Thou holdest me by thy right hand.' What more familiarity 
than to walk hand in hand ? Thus Enoch walked with God, Gen. v. 22 ; 
and Noah, Gen. vi. 9 ; the whole conversation of a saint is a walking with 
God. He sets God always before him, Ps. xvi. 8 ; walks, as seeing him 
who is invisible, Heb. xi. 27 ; makes God his meditation day and night, and 
says with David, ' I am continually with thee/ Ps. lxxiii. 28. He observes 
God in all his ways, looks upon the world as an engine acted by the Lord's 
influence, acknowledges no other animam mundi, he sees providence act and 
move the whole universe. He sees God in everything visible, qualibeL herba 
Deum, tastes God's sweetness in every comfort, hears God's voice in every 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



^OHR L 8.] THE VATEBB AND SON. 171 

' speaks to him. David heard God speak, when his companions 

^ > but Shimei. Job's carnal acquaintance wonld blame the Chal- 

% and other second causes for his losses ; but he looks higher, 

*k> <>th,' Ac. Others may refer sickness to the distemper of the 

* me the malice of men for their afflictions ; but a saint says, 

v Lord.' He rests not in the surface of things, but pene- 

' v^: *> the first mover ; his sight is not terminated in second 

- 'h^ *re dead and without motion, till moved by the first ; 
* v x *^, ^ % at least a more practical, assent to that meta- 

- ^^ <£ ~ Jtunda non movet, nisi tnota. 

"„ % X S^ -od in all, and ascribes all to God, so he depends upon 

"« * '. ** *c m of the flesh supports not him except he see the 

m it Ordinances are in his account empty cisterns, till 

vzod fill them ; the staff of bread cannot strengthen him till the 

^gthen it ; the word is a dead letter unless the quickening Spirit 

~u it. He esteems these because they are means of God's appointing, 

at he knows they are arbitrary means ; God can give the end without them, 

but they can never attain the end without him. 

As he walks with God in respect of thoughts and judgment, so also in 
respect of his affections. These are animi pedis, rfc ^u^fc flrijp^aara.* 
Desire draws us towards him, love joins us to him, delight continues us 
with him ; by desire we move to God, by delight we rest in God. Desire acts 
thus : Oh when shall I come and appear before God ? How long will the 
Itfrd be as a stranger, and as a wayfaring man ? How long shall there be 
such a distance betwixt me and him whom my soul loves ? Oh draw me, 
and I shall run after thee ; nay, draw me, that I may run with thee, for 
nothing short of thyself can content me. Then, when desires are answered, 
love acts thus : it closes with Christ, and twines itself into a strict embrace 
with him ; it is jealous of everything that might estrange, and counts it 
death to hear of parting. It says, with Ruth to Naomi, Rath i. 16, < En- 
treat me not to leave thee, or to return from following thee : for whither thou 
gpest, I will go ; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge ; thy people shall be 
my people, and thy God my God : the Lord do so to me, and more also, if 
aught but death part thee and me.' 

Being thus united and resolved, delight acts thus : Oh then, and have I 
found him whom my soul loves ? I have enough : ' Return to thy rest, O 
my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee ; whom have I in 
heaven but thee?' Ac. There is more beauty in the light of his countenance 
than in all the glory of the world ; there is more sweetness in thy presence 
than in all worldly pleasures ; there is more riches in the enjoyment of thy- 
self than in all the kingdoms of the earth. So in practice, as in judgment 
and affection, our conversation is a way, a pilgrimage. Now because our 
weakness is much, the difficulties and dangers many, the Lord promises his 
presence shall go along with us ; he walks with us, Isa. xlix. 10, 11, nay, in 
ss ; before us, so he is our guide, Ps. xlviii. 14 ; behind us, so he is our 
guard, our rearward, Isa. lviii. 8 ; beside us, on our right hand, Ps. cxxi. 5, 
Ps. ex. 5 ; lest we should err, he leads us, Isa. lviii. 11, takes us by the 
hand, cum apprehension* mama, i. e. apprehendendo manum meant. When 
we grow weary, he bids us lean upon him : Cant, viii., ' Who is this that 
cometh out of the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved ? ' he holds us up, 
ft. Ixxi. 8. Faith is expressed frequently by this notion, leaning upon God, 
PP, recumbency. When we faint, and can walk no longer, he bears us, his 
everlasting arm supports us, Isa. lxiii. 9, xlvi. 8, 4 : a full place, Isa. 



Digitized by 



Google 



172 BELIE VEB8' COMMUNION WITH [1 JOHN I. 8. 

zl. 11, * He shall feed his flock like a shepherd : he shall gather the lambs 
with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that 
are with young. 1 

(8.) Friendly conference. The Lord talks with us, and we with him ; 
friendly and familiar colloquies ; he speaks to us by his word, by his provi- 
dence, by his Spirit ; the sweet whisperings of the Holy Ghost, that still 
voice comforts, directs, encourages. This answers all objections by which 
we would deprive ourselves of comfort ; this tells us the non-consequence of 
all Satan's fallacies, and does nonplus that arch-sophister. When he pre- 
sents hell and wrath, it says, ' I am thy salvation ;' when he brings us into 
the valley and shadow of death, it saith, * Be not afraid, I am with thee,' I 
will not leave thee. When we have lost our way, and know not how to re- 
tarn, then we hear a voice behind us, nay, in us, saying, ' This is the way, 
walk in it.' And when the word that he hath writ to us seems obscure, he 
instructs us viva voce. The Spirit, as Philip to the eunuch, not only joins 
himself to the chariot, but comes in ; and this voice the saints know : ' My 
sheep know my voice,' John z. 5 ; others are strangers to it. 

Nor does he only make known, tell us the secret of his word, but the 
secret of his providence : * The secret of the Lord is with those that fear 
him,' Ps. xxv. 14 ; < Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do V 
Gen. zviii. 17, * The Lord will do nothing, but will reveal his secret to his 
servants the prophets,' Amos iii. 7. Oh what familiarity is here ! What 
more amongst the dearest friends than communication of secrets ? These 
God communicates, yea, those which were locked up from eternity, even 
from the angels, the salvation of particular souls. So he speaks to us. 

And we speak to him in prayer and meditation. We may speak at any 
time : the Bang's ear is never denied us ; the chamber of presence is always 
open, and we may speak with boldness and confidence, though we be poor 
worms. The Lord delights in such dialogues, and is much displeased when 
we estrange ourselves : ' Let me see thy face,' &c. And therefore when he 
sees us so busy in the pursuit of other things, and so much taken up with 
outward comforts, as we neglect him, he many times deprives us of these 
comforts, that when we have less of them he may have more of our com- 
pany. See a pregnant place, Hosea ii. 10, * I will allure her into the 
wilderness ;' she shall be in a wilderness in respect of friends, comforts, 
riches, honours ; these shall desert her, or be taken from her. And what 
then ? ' Then I will speak comfortably to her.' The noise of the world was 
before so loud in her ears as she would not hear me, no, not when I spake 
comfortably to her ; she was so busy in parleying with the world, as she had 
no leisure to confer with me. But I will bring her into the wilderness, far 
from these incumbrances that have interrupt our communion, and then we 
shall enjoy one another; he will speak comfortably, and we may talk 
familiarly with him. He oftentimes breaks the cistern, that we may have 
recourse to the fountain ; lets our corn, wine, and oil be plundered, that we 
may more delight in the light of his countenance ; lets the swine devour our 
husks, that we may learn to prize the pleasures of our Father's house. He 
deals with us, as Absalom did with Joab, when he desires conference with 
him ; he sets our corn on fire, for, says he, in their affliction they will seek 
me diligently, Hosea v. 15, 2, Lam. ziv. 80. 

(4.) Kind entertainments. The Lord feasts the saints, and they feast 
him : Isa. xzv. 6, ' And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto 
all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full 
of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined.' Christ leads his spouse into 
his banqueting house, Cant. ii. He satisfies them with the fatness of his 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



I John I. 8.] the fatheb and son. 178 

house, Pg. xxxvi. 8, and makes them joyful in the house of prayer ; fills our 
souls as with marrow and fatness, Ps. lxiii. 5 ; feeds as with manna from 
heaven, with angels' food. All truths are pabulum anima ; bat divine truths, 
they are delicacies, sweeter than the honey and the honeycomb to a renewed 
soul. He gives us sweet intimations of his love, peace that passes all under- 
standing, joy unspeakable, and full of glory. The full fruition of these joys 
are reserved for heaven, yet some drops fall from those rivers of pleasures 
that are at his right hand, to refresh us in our pilgrimage. He conveys to 
us in this wilderness some clusters of grapes and figs, though we must stay 
for a full vintage till we come to Canaan. We break our fast here, but stay 
for the marriage-feast till we be taken up to our glorious bridegroom. Some 
of our master's joy enters into us here, but there we shall enter into our 
master's joy, and shall bathe ourselves in that boundless and immense ocean 
of pleasure and sweetness to all eternity. 

And as the Lord feasts us, so we him. ' Behold,' says Christ, Rev. iii., 

I I stand at the door and knock ; if any man will open the door, I will come 
in to him, and sup with him, and he with me.' And what is that which the 
Lord counts a feast ? A broken heart, that is a sacrifice well pleasing ; a 
humble spirit, he dwells with such a spirit, Isa. Ivii. 15. He does not sup 
and depart, but is at a constant diet with such a spirit. So also high 
thoughts of God ; these he delights in, they are as a feast to him. When 
they are so elevated as they make us tremble at his word, Isa. Ivii. So also 
graces exercised, affections rightly fixed and elevated ; for when affection is 
down, and grace unexercised, the soul is asleep, and cannot entertain Christ, 
as the spouse, Cant. v. 12 ; will not admit him, will not open to him, though 
he tell her he has gathered his myrrh with his spices, and prepared the 
honeycomb with the honey, and brought wine and milk, brings his enter- 
tainment with him, will not put her to the charge and trouble of providing 
it. Yet, in the drowsy condition, she opens not, though he use such power- 
ful rhetoric to get entertainment : * Open to me, my sister, my love, my 
dove, my undefiled : for my head is filled with the dew, and my locks with 
the drops of the night.' What sweeter compellations, what stronger argu- 
ments, could be used ? Yet he prevails not ; the spouse was slumbering, 
the exercise of grace was suspended. A sleeping soul will not, cannot, feast 
with Christ. It is an awakened soul, whose graces and affections are exer- 
cised, that entertains Christ ; these he counts a feast. 

Use 1. If believers have communion with the Father and the Son, then 
unbelievers hath communion with the devil and his angels. Your fellow- 
ship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. There is happi- 
ness, here is your misery. I might enlarge it in analogy to the particulars 
formerly insisted on. As believers are united to Christ, are one with him, 
so wicked men with the devil. As all things are common between God and 
believers, so are all things common between the devil and unbelievers. 

Briefly thus. Unbelievers are one with the devil. There is a physical 
union ; they are his members, he their head. There is a moral union be- 
twixt them, such as is betwixt friends ; the bond of that union is love ; and 
though they defy him, and pretend much hatred, yet the argument of Christ 
proves unanswerably that they love him. ' He that keeps my command- 
ments, he it is that loveth me,' John xiv. 21. And so answerably, he that 
keeps the devil's commandments, he it is that loves him ; but these keep 
his commandments, comply with his will, do what he suggests. The power 
of the devil is absolute over these, as the centurion's over his servants. He 
says to one, ' Go, and he goeth ; to another, Come, and he cometh ; to all 
his servants, Do this, and they do it.' Nay, which is more, there is an 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



174 BEUEVEBS* COMMUNION WITH [1 JOHN I. 8. 

essential union betwixt these ; not because his essence, as he is a spirit, 
belongs to thorn, or their essence, as they are men, belongs to him ; but 
because those qualities, which make him a devil, and are essential to him 
as he is so, are in wicked men ; and those sinful qualities which make them 
wicked, and are essential to them as they are wicked, are in the devil. 
Pride, malice, averseness to God, hatred of his people, antipathy to his ways, 
ordinances, and administrations, these are the same in both, and do only 
differ in degrees. Further, the nearness of this union is evident, in that 
the devil is in them, keeps possession of them. He is the strong man that 
keeps the house. He is the prince of the power of the air, that not only 
rules over, but rules in, the children of disobedience. Wicked men may 
more properly be called demoniacs, than those whose bodies are possessed 
of the devil, of which we read in the Gospel ; for he possesses wicked men's 
souls, and being a spirit, can join himself more intimately to a soul, and 
mix his being more nearly with it, than with a body. 

And as they are united, so they have all things common. He is theirs, 
and they are his, Bom. vi. 16. The apostle's argument proves it. ' Enow 
ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his ye are to whom 
ye obey ?' He is their god, ' the god of this world ;' their prince, he 
< rules in the children of disobedience ;' their father, « You are of your father 
the devil,' John viii. 44 ; and they are his people, his slaves, his children : 
Acts xiii. 10, ' Thou child of the devil.' They have the same interests, the 
same designs ; they both drive on this design, to dishonour God, and de- 
stroy souls ; they have the same affections ; they love, hate, delight in, and 
desire the same things ; they love, and delight in, the works of darkness, 
hate God, his image, his people, his ways and ordinances. Bo for converse, 
they walk and confer together ; for as the Lord does talk with his people, 
by his Spirit suggesting his will to their souls, so Satan talks with wicked 
men by his suggestions, making his will known to them. 

And as they have all things alike in communion here, so they shall have 
the like condition hereafter ; the like torments, and eternal woful fellow* 
ship in them. That is the doom which you must hear pronounced : * De- 
part from me, ye cursed, into everlasting Are, prepared for the devil and 
his angels.' * Consider this, ye that forgot God ;' see and bewail the 
misery of your condition. Think you are in hell, while you are so near to, 
and so familiar and intimate with, the devil. Renounce this cursed fellow* 
ship with the prince of darkness, and with the unfaithful * works of dark- 
ness, and never give rest to yonr souls till ye be in that happy condition on 
which you may be admitted to fellowship with the Father, and with his Son 
Jesus Christ. 

Use 2. An exhortation to get this fellowship, and continue it. This we 
shall urge by some motives, and shew the way to it, prescribing the means 
whereby it may be attained. The motives I shall reduce to two heads, the 
two ends for which we were sent into the world, and therefore the most 
powerful to move and excite desire and endeavours, God's glory, and our 
good. 1 . It is most for God's glory. 2. It is best for us. 

1. It is most for God's glory. God is most glorified in heaven. Now to 
have communion with God, is to be in heaven. This is the gate of paradise, 
and puts us into the suburbs of heaven. Besides, it is true, God's absolute 
glory is indivisible, admits of no addition or diminution ; it is, as Chrysostom 
calls it, aiaXXwwroc xai axmjroc £o'£a, admits of no change, no alteration, 
for in this respect he was infinitely glorious from all eternity, and nothing 
can be added to infiniteness, Infinito non datur majus. But his relative 
• Qu. • unfruitful' ?— En. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



1 John 1. 8.] thb fatheb and son. 175 

glory, that may be] augmented; he may be more glorious, though not in 
himself, yet in reference to as. And in this sense he is glorified, or (as we 
speak) made more glorious, both by himself and by his creatures : by him- 
self, when he manifests his glorious excellencies to the world ; by us, when 
we acknowledge and take notice of those excellencies. Both ways God is 
glorified by our communion with him. He manifests many glorious attri- 
butes hereby in admitting us to this fellowship i his truth in performing, 
whereby he is engaged to grant it ; justice, in excluding others ; power 
and wisdom, in fitting us poor pieces of clay for it ; and that which is the 
darling of his attributes, to which he seems in the gospel to have designed 
a peculiar glory, his mercy, love, and free grace, so far condescending as to 
advance us, who are less than worms, worse than nothing, to such a glorious 
fellowship. 

And as God glorifies himself, Ac, so those that have fellowship with him 
hereby glorify him ; for he is glorified when he is acknowledged to be glo- 
rious, and none can do it with such advantage as these, for it is grace by 
which God has most glory. Every grace exercised gives a testimony to all, 
or some of God's excellencies : love to his 1 beauty and goodness, fear to his 
justice and holiness, faith to his truth, all -sufficiency, wisdom, power, and 
faithfulness, humility to his majesty, patience to his sovereignty. Now 
none exercise these graces but those who have this fellowship ; and those 
who have most intimate communion have the most constant and vigorous 
exercise of them. 

And as the Father, so the Son is hereby glorified. It is the honour of 
any person to attain his principal end, and this is it in which he most 
glories. The end not only crowns the actions, but the agent. Now the end 
of Christ's glorious undertakings on earth, the end of all his actions and 
sufferings, was to glorify himself and his Father, in bringing us to communion 
with both. He suffered so many things of God and man, that he might 
make reconciliation, Heb. ii. 17 ; that, being reconciled, we might meet 
and converse in a sweet and blessed fellowship here and hereafter. 

And as the Father and Son are glorified hereby, so the Holy Ghost ; the 
Scripture holds forth this as his peculiar glory. Hence that phrase in 
Paul's prayer, ' the communion of the Holy Ghost,' 2 Cor. xiii. 14. The 
Spirit is no less glorified by this communion (which seems to be ascribed to 
him as an attribute) than the Father by the manifestation of his love, or the 
Son by the dispensation of his grace. This then is the glory of God, and 
this renders it most desirable to all generous and self-denying spirits. The 
end is the primum mobile, the first principle of motion, and the motion is 
swifter and nobler, according to the value and excellency of the end. Heroic 
actions aim at glory, as that which is the noblest end. But no glory com- 
parable to the glory of God, which seeing this communion so much advances 
our desires and endeavours after it, should be no less strong and indefatigable 
than they are noble and glorious. There is nothing more glorious than that 
which most glorifies God ; and there is. nothing so worthy of our desires 
and endeavours, as that which is glorious ; and therefore we should desire 
and endeavour nothing more in the world than this fellowship, since hereby 
God is so eminently glorified, both in his attributes and relations. But if 
our spirits be so low, as we cannot rise to this highest and supreme end ; 
though those, who are elevated by grace, neither can nor* ought ; if this last 
end seem too remote, to have any strong influence upon us by way of motive, 
though indeed nothing is nearer or dearer to those to whom grace hath 
endeared the glory of God, there are other motives near us, yea, within us, 
* Qu. ' either can or' ?— Ed. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



176 believers' commotion with [1 John L 8. 

not only the glorious concernment of God, bat oar own may move as. It 
is not only most for God's glory, bat best for as.' 

2. Most for oar good. The sweetest pleasure, the highest honour, the 
greatest advantage, and the chiefest happiness. 

(1.) The sweetest pleasures are in fellowship with the Father and the 
Son. Every step in communion with God is a paradise. And how can it 
be less, since they are led by that hand, at which are rivers of pleasures ; 
lie in that bosom, which is infinitely sweeter than myrrh, aloes, and cassia ; 
walk in the light of that countenance, from whose smile spring all the 
delights of heaven, are always in the view of that beauty which makes heaven 
glorious, and all that behold it happy ? They sit under the shadow of the 
tree of life, and have the banner of Christ's love for their canopy; feast 
daily with the choicest delicacies of Christ's banqneting-house, and drink of 
that pure river of the water of life, which proceeds oat of the throne of God 
and of the Lamb. 

Pleasure is the result of those acts, which well tempered faculties exercise 
upon the best object. Now what faculty can be of a rarer temper, than that 
which is refined and elevated by grace, the most excellent accomplishment 
that ever omnipotency created ; grace, I say, which informs the whole soul 
of him who has this privilege ? And what more excellent, more glorious, 
more delightful object, than God in Christ, the Father and the Son ? God 
in Christ is the ocean of all sweetness and pleasures, in comparison of whom 
all the pleasures that are, or ever were in the world, amount not to the pro- 
portion of a drop, and for quality, the very quintessence of them is but 
bitterness. This is that object, which is all made up of sweetness and 
ravishing delights. And he holds forth himself as delightful to every faculty 
of man that is capable of pleasure. Truth, that is the dainty upon which 
the mind feeds. Now he is the first truth, the sun, the fountain of it, from 
whom were darted all those beams of truth which are scattered to this lower 
world. ' He enlightens every man,' Ac. 

Goodness is that only which the will embraces with complacency. Now 
he is the chief good, avr' &yafo*> the idea and exemplar of all goodness, and 
the spring from whonce dropped all creature goodness. 

Beauty, that is the pleasure of the eye. Now God in Christ, as Clemens 
Alex, dfxcfwov r£v xa\wv, the archetypal exemplar of all beauty. The 
fairest and most glorious creatures are but rude, blurred, and imperfect tran- 
scripts. He is fairer than the morn, clearer than the sun. As Basil, wnpjiftm 
ri)y roD f)7Jou \afi<r$6rr)ra, his brightness darkens the lustre of the sun. Nay, 
he is infinitely brighter than the most glorious seraphim, rb 6*ro*s xaXfr 
xardXtj-^tv *aaav Av^&wt/vjjv fangjS&iv/ xa) duvafuv, it is this beauty that 
transports those happy souls that behold it, f/£ §e?av r/w ixaram, as Basil, 
into a divine, an eternal ecstasy. To the taste he is hidden manna, angels' 
food, the bread of life. The touch is ravished with the kisses of those lips 
that drop sweet-smelling myrrh, Cant. v. 18, and with the embraces of his 
eyerlasting arms. The ear is delighted with the voice of joy and gladness : 
'The voice of my beloved,' Cant. ii. 8. The sound of the voice can heal 
broken bones, Ps. Ii. 8, can breathe life into a dead soul, convey heaven 
into a spirit despairing at the gates of hell, and still it with joy unspeakable 
and glorious. To the smell he is spikenard, myrrh, aloes, cassia, Ps. xlv. 8. 
What a fragrant smell does Christ diffuse, when he lies in our bosom as a 
bundle of myrrh i as Cant. i. 18. 

Oh what joy is in this fellowship, whenas there is nothing in the Father 
or Son, but is a spring of comfort, pure, satisfying, overflowing, ravishing 
comfort 1 It is true, while we are present in the body, we are absent from 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



1 John I. 8.] the fatheb and son. 177 

the Lord. We are not yet admitted to the well-head, that is in heaven ; 
but there are rivers flowing from hence, that make glad the city of God. 
There are streams of comfort conveyed to us in ordinances, promises, pri- 
vileges, of which they only have the actual improvement who have such 
communion, they only with joy draw waters out of the wells of salvation, 
whenas to others they are a fountain sealed. 

No wonder if the saints have such a high esteem of this communion, and 
of the ordinances wherein they enjoy it. See it in David : Ps. xlii. 1, 2, 
' As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after God. 
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God : when shall I come and appear 
before him?' So Ps. lxxxiv. 1, 2, 'How amiable are thy tabernacles, 
Lord of hosts ! my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the 
Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God/ Ver. 4, 
' Blessed are they that dwell in thy house/ Ac And why so ? See ver. 7, 
• Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God ;' ver. 10, ' For a day in 
thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a door-keeper in the 
house of God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.' Hence the Marquis of 
Vico, the pope tempting him with gold to leave the ordinances at Geneva for 
the enjoyment of his estate in Italy, replied, Let his money perish with him 
who prefers all the riches in the world before one day's communion with 
Jesus Christ. But it is in vain for me to endeavour to express what joys 
are in this fellowship, for it is beyond expression. It is joy unspeakable ; 
nay, not only beyond expression, but above apprehension ; the peace of 
God passes all understanding. Such peace, such joy is there in this 
fellowship. 

(2.) The highest honour. It is accounted a great honour amongst men 
to be near unto and familiar with princes. ' Seest thou a man diligent in 
his business ? he shall stand before princes/ Prov. xxii. 29. These shine 
in the orb of honour as the sun, when all about them, as planets of an in- 
ferior degree, borrow their light ; and they shine with the clearest ray who 
are nearest to the fountain. What honour is it, then, to have such near and 
familiar converse with the King of kings and Lord of lords ; to a companion 
of the prince of the kings of the earth ? He alone is truly the fountain of 
honour, and whatever is not derived from him by advantage of vicinity to 
him is but a name, a shadow, ovdt afrupara durcb that av rfc f a/jj, dXXa 
hf6f&ara. u%iu>ftaruv {i6w, as Chrysostom. He is clothed with honour and 
majesty as with a garment ; and there is no way to be honourable but by 
getting near to him, and creeping under the skirts of his garment. Those 
that are not near to God are far from honour, even as those are far from 
light who are antipodes of the sun. The light of these is darkness ; the 
glory of those is their shame. Now, those who converse with God must 
needs be near him ; they are so called, ' a people near unto God,' Ps. cxlviii. 
14. They are vicini, neighbours ; there is nothing but the partition of the 
body betwixt them, and there are many windows, many avenues in that by 
which God passes to them and they to God ; whereas others are strangers, 
foreigners, aliens to the commonwealth of this Israel, Eph. ii. 12. There 
is a vast ocean parts them from that region where God is known and enjoyed. 
It is true of them which Abraham says of those in hell ; we may say to them 
as he to Dives, ' Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they 
which would pass to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would 
come from thence.' The king of this commonwealth forbids traffic and com- 
merce with all but those few who have submitted to his sceptre, and theRe 
only are near him. They are not only vicini, but propinqui ; not only 

vol. m. M 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



178 BELDEVEBS' COMMUNION WITH [1 JOHN I. 3. 

neighbours, but indwellers ; not only of the same commonwealth, but of the 
same family. They are members of the household of faith. The Lord is 
the master of the family, and Christ the heir. It is a great honour to be a 
servant in such a house ; so says Ghrysostom, dtr/ fieyftfrov agiufbarog roZro 
rl(h\ti y Xtyuv dovXovg. Paul puts this amongst his titles of honour, accounts it 
one of his greatest dignities, to be servant of Jesus Christ. But we have 
greater honours than these ; we are not only servants, but friends : * Hence- 
forth I call you no more servants, but friends/ John xv. 14, 15 ; nay, not 
only friends, but favourites. What greater honour than to be a prince's 
favourite, to be in his presence, to have his ear, his smile, his heart ; to be 
deep in his affections, high in his thoughts ; to have liberty to make known 
all grievances, and the privilege to know all his secrets ? And all these are 
made ours by communion. Haman knew that his interest in the king's 
favour did entitle him to all the honour he could confer ; there/ore he says, 
Esth. vi. 6, ' To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to 
myself?' Though Haman's hopes deceived him, yet does the Lord never 
disappoint his favourites. They have the royal apparel which the king useth 
to wear, the robe of his righteousness, and shall have the crown royal upon 
their heads ; and time will come when they shall be brought through the 
streets of the great city, the new Jerusalem, with glory and triumph ; and 
he shall command his angels to proclaim before them, * Thus shall it be done 
to the men whom the king will honour.' 

Nay, this is not all. They are not only propinqui, but proximi, by this 
communion ; joined to the Lord in the nearest ties of affinity and consan- 
guinity. The nearest affinity are husband and wife. Now, they are married 
to the Lord, betrothed to Christ ; and uxor coruscat radii* mariti, the rays 
of honour which make the husband illustrious shine in the wife. The glory 
of Christ makes his spouse glorious ; so he says, John xvii. 22, ' The glory 
which thou gavest me, I have given them.' What glory in the world com- 
parable to this ? It is as far above the highest honours in the world as he 
is higher than mdn who is higher than the heavens. 

The nearest tie of consanguinity is that between parents and children. 
Now, these are the children of God, and do converse with God as with a 
father. They have fellowship with the Father, not only as he is so to 
Christ, but also as to them. Now, what kind of honour is this, that we 
should be called the sons of God ? orav ds viovg Imj, aVavra rwv aya&tut 
rbv Sfaavgov avtxdXv^e. The spouse is not only the Lamb's wife, and so a 
queen, a queen in gold of Ophir, Ps. xlv. 9, but also a king's daughter, ver. 
13, the daughter of him who sits on the throne. And as though this were 
not honour enough, he gives us a better name than that of sons and daugh- 
ters : Isa. lvi. 5, ' To him that lays hold on my covenant, I will give within 
my house a name, &c, even an everlasting name.' Here is immortal honour. 
Sweetly Chrysostom, xav dov\7j xav ayovyg xav irsvi^d ri xcu forifiog xav » r£ 
xara t^v yyv j3/a» a*sfigtfj.ft's*r) 9 vvdg%ri dta r^v vgog avrfa xoivwiav c£jsvygw£««r 
fiatfiki&a ou^aiwv cro/E/. 

But we are not yet come to the highest of that honour to which this fel- 
lowship advances. There is not only approximation, but union. They are 
not only near to God, but one with him ; united to him closely, intimately, 
inseparably. And this by virtue of communion ; for this (as before) neces- 
sarily includes union. What honour is this, to be one with God ; to be one 
with the Father and the Son, even as the Father is one with the Son ? So 
Christ prays, John xvii. 22, * that they may be one, as we are one ;' as truly, 
though not as perfectly. And the intimacy of this union is expressed by in- 
hesion ; they are not only united to God, but (if we may use the phrase) 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



1 John I. 8.] the father and son. 179 

mixed with him ; ver. 29, * I in them, and thou in me.' Nay, a mutual in- 
herency : ' He that dwelleth in love * (in love, which is the bond of this 
glorious fellowship) ' dwelleth in God, and God in him/ 1 John iv. 16. 

(3.) The greatest advantage. We have hereby, 

[l.J Plenty, and [2.] Safety. 

(l.J Plenty. No good thing will be withheld from those that walk up- 
rightly, Ps. lxxxiv. 11 ; and who walk uprightly but those who walk with 
him ? as appears, Gen. xvii. 1, < Walk before me, and be thou perfect/ or 
upright, which is either an f^yijtf/c of the former, or has necessary connec- 
tion with it. There is nothing good in heaven or earth which God will with- 
hold, no, not heaven and earth itself, when they are good ; nor that which 
hath more goodness in it than heaven and earth united, himself, his Son, his 
Spirit. < The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hands/ 
The Son loveth us, and giveth us all things ; for all things are common in 
this communion ; the Son, and whatever he hath, is ours, as before. He 
gives us vavra vXovtiug, 1 Tim. vi. 17 ; ' all things richly to enjoy.' All 
things, not only good, but evil ; not as they are evil, but good. The worst 
thing given to a saint becomes good. That which is evil in itself, and evil 
to others, is good to them ; that which is good in itself and to others, is evil 
to the wicked. ' All things shall work together/ &c. 1 Cor. iii. 21, All is 
yours, the whole world ; vratyg *%<; yn$ oL^%oyrtg 6t oiyiot, rulers of the whole 
world. See here the total of your wealth. The parcels are in the same 
chapter, ver. 22. You have your possessions in a map, divided into two 
hemispheres ; each of them comprise a worTd ; things present and things to 
come, heaven and earth, this world, and that which is hereafter. And in 
either of these, besides what is known and described, there is a terra incog- 
nita, vast continents which no eye ever surveyed, nor ear ever heard a rela- 
tion of ; nor could any heart, any thought, take the dimensions of it, so large 
it is. Yet all this is theirs who are Christ's, ver. 28. 

[2.] Safety : Ps. xci. 1, < He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most 
High, shall lodge under the shadow of the Almighty.' Isa. xxxiii. 16, ' He 
shall dwell on high, his defence shall be the munition of rocks.' Who dwells 
in the secret of the Most High, but he that is continually with God, by secret 
and intimate communion ? And he it is that abides under the shadow of 
the Almighty, his shadow, who is the rock of ages ; therefore it may be well 
said, his defence is the munition of rocks. He that hath such a defence 
need not fear, as Ps. xlvi. 2, 8, ' Though the earth be removed, and the 
mountains carried into the midst of the sea ; though the waters thereof roar 
and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof/ 
ver. 5, ' God is in the midst of her ; she shall not be moved.' No such 
safety as in nearness to God. 

And as the Father undertakes their protection, so the Son. He looks 
upon them as parts of himself, and those parts that are nearest to his heart. 
They are his members, and he is sensible of their sufferings, as though the 
union betwixt them were not only mystical, but physical ; in all their afflic- 
tions he is afflicted ; nay, his body mystical, his people, who have com- 
munion with him as a head, are more dear to him than his natural body ; 
for he exposed this to all miseiies, to make that happy. Christ will suffer 
himself rather than they shall suffer. How safe are they ! 

(4.) The chiefest happiness ; for what is happiness but the fruition of the 
chief good, the enjoyment of God in Christ ? Now, what is it to enjoy the 
chief good (to enjoy God in Christ) but to be united to it, partake of it, con- 
verse with it ? All these are included in communion. 

There is no true blessedness but in this fellowship ; and hell itself cannot 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



180 believers' communion with [1 John 1. 3. 

hinder those who have this fellowship from being blessed. There is more 
happiness in this communion, abstracted from heaven, than there is in heaven 
abstracted from this communion. Heaven is the place of happiness ; but 
this fellowship is the cause, or rather the formality of happiness. This is it 
which makes heaven happy ; and this would make hell to be heaven, if that 
unhappy place would admit of it : this is heaven upon earth now, and will 
be the heaven of heaven hereafter. He that has this fellowship is happy 
before he come to heaven ; nay, heaven comes down to him, and is in him, 
before he be in it. After the descent of the new Jerusalem from heaven, 
John heard a voice, Rev. zxi. 8, saying, * The tabernacle of God is with 
men,' &c. The tabernacle of God is heaven, Ps. xv. When God dwells 
with a soul, and continues to grant communion, heaven is with that soul. 
Where the king is, there is the court. 

It is true, this communion, while in the body, is very imperfect, and much 
interrupted, and our happiness is answerable ; but, whatever happiness we 
enjoy, we have it from and in this fellowship. In heaven it shall be perfect 
and constant, and this is it which makes heaven desirable ; however, the 
happiness which we shall have in heaven, and this here, differ not essentially, 
but only in degrees. Communion here is the first dawnings of heaven, the 
first gladsome appearings of glory ; the day breaks here, and the day-star of 
bliss arises ; the meridian, the noon-day of happiness is in heaven ; but there 
is no happiness, here or in heaven, bat springs from this communion. 

This is the highest privilege, the greatest happiness, that the most glorious 
angel in heaven enjoys. What difference betwixt angels and devils, but this, 
that the one has fellowship with God, the other neither hath, nor can have 
it ? What difference betwixt heaven and hell, but this, that heaven is made 
happy by this communion, hell miserable by wanting it ? What difference 
betwixt saints militant and triumphant, but this, they are perfectly happy in 
a perfect communion ; these happy imperfectly, enjoying but communion 
in part ! But whatever happiness either angels or saints, in heaven or earth, 
enjoy, it consists only in this fellowship. 

What a strong invincible motive should this be to desire communion with 
the Father and Son 1 What stronger motive than happiness ! There is 
none but desire it. There is a strong inclination, a natural tendency, in all 
creatures, in their several spheres, to happiness. It is the voice of all mor- 
tals, * Who will shew us any good ? ' Why, here is the way to the chief 
good, to the greatest happiness, if you will walk in it. Ask the glorious 
angels and saints why they are happy ; they will tell you, because they have 
this fellowship. Ask the devils and damned spirits why they are miserable ; 
they will say, because they have not, or ever shall enjoy this fellowship. 
Ask why there is nothing but darkness ; they will answer, because they have 
no fellowship with the Father of lights. Why there is nothing but weeping. 
&c. Am. Because no communion with the Father of consolation. Ask 
why there is nothing within them but the torturing worm that dies not ; they 
will answer, because they have no fellowship with him who died for sinners. 
Ask why nothing without them but everlasting burnings ; they will answer, 
because no communion with him whose blood should quench them. Ask 
the saints in this world why they are imperfectly happy, why their life is 
yXuxucr/x^ov, made up of bitters and sweets, happiness and misery ; they will 
answer, because their communion is imperfect and interrupted. Ask infe- 
rior creatures why they are [not] so happy as men and angels ; the answer 
is, because they are not capable of this fellowship. Ask who you will, all 
will conclude, all happiness is in communion, nothing but misery without it. 
If then you would be happy, if you would not be miserable, get it ; and if 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



1 John 1. 3.] the fatheb and son. 181 

you would be perfectly happy, get nearer, closer communion with the Father 
and the Son. 
Means. 

1. Entertain frequent and delightful thoughts of God. Such will present 
us to God, and make him present with us. WhPe they are in our minds, he 
is in our hearts ; and there we enjoy him, and converse with him, in a way 
most suitable to spirits. Communion amongst men is maintained by confer- 
ence ; that with God principally by meditation. This is the character of the 
wicked, those who are at the greatest distance from God, « God is not in all 
their thoughts ;' he is not in all their thoughts, or to little purpose. But 
those who have fellowship with him, he must be in all their thoughts ; all 
their thoughts must be of God. Even when their thoughts are employed 
about lower objects, they then think of him ; because their thoughts of other 
things have always a tendency to him ; he must be your meditation day and 
night, last and first thoughts ; he must be betwixt your breasts as a bundle 
of myrrh, Cant. i. 18, that, when ye awake, ye may be satisfied with his 
image ; and so, with David, ye may be continually with him, Ps. lxxiii., 
Ps. czxxix. 

It is true, while we are here, we must be employed in particular call- 
ings, and must do what we are called to with all diligence ; but one who 
tastes the sweetness of this fellowship can never be so busied in the world, 
but he can steal a glance at Christ ; and in the thickest crowd of worldly 
employments, can find a passage to let in some sweet thoughts of God ; but, 
when disengaged from earthly affairs, oh then, as Basil swoetly, *ae &* 
rorog U r? 4^? rfc tytui Xgitrov *t*>^uioto ; let the whole soul be taken 
up with thoughts of Christ ; let him fill every part of it ; wdug de rb 6vv67.n 
rfaog h avrrj fl%oXagjra/, no vacant place, no room to entertain vain, sinful 
thoughts. 

He that is much in thoughts of God hath much of God ; these both 
admit him into the soul, and there entertain him. Christ enters into our 
hearts, when thoughts of Christ enter ; and the meditation of him, in effect, 
is his inhabitation in us. So Basil, xai rovro fori rod 0«oO hoix^ig, rb bia. rfc 
tLvfll*ns lypn indgvpiw i v iavru* rbv Qtbv. These seat God in our hearts, as 
he sometimes seated himself between the cherubims ; and these make our 
souls his temple, yea, the holy of holies, the holy place of the most holy 
God ; so he, ovrea ytvo/MOa vabg 0«ov, 6rav ptj (pgovriat ynfratg rb avnytn nfc 
fLtijpjjs dtaxfarrirou. Our hearts, by a constant entertainment of such 
thoughts, either actually, or, when that cannot be, habitually, become the 
tabernacles of God ; and he says of them, This is my resting-place, here will 
I dwell ; and, according to his promise, I will walk in them, and dwell in 
them. God is but a sojourner with tnose who seldom think of him ; he is 
a wayfaring man, that turns but in for a night ; but he is an indweller, 
and makes a constant abode, with those who constantly entertain him with 
sweet thoughts. He dwells in them, and walks with them, t. e. he abides 
in them, and converses with them. He does not *-afOix«ft, bat xarotxift. 
This for frequency. 

They must be also delightful ; such wherein both Christ may, and we 
must, take delight. Take heed of such thoughts as disparage or misrepre- 
sent God ; they must be such as advance him, endear him to us ; those 
must delight us. • How precious are thy thoughts ! ' &c. Not merely 
speculative thoughts, for devils and reprobates may have such, but such as 
have a sweet and powerful influence upon heart and affections. Speculative 
let God into the head, but not into the heart ; into the fancy, but not into 
the affections. They must be high, adoring, affecting thoughts. The Lord 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



182 believebb' communion with [1 John 1. 8. 

enters with such thoughts, and with him enters divine light; which, as light 
here below, being accompanied with heat, kindles the heart into flames oi 
love, zeal ; burns up world-lusts and affections, quickens grace, refines the 
spirit, melts the whole soul, separates it from dross ; makes it fit to be cast 
into the mould of God, and impressions of his glorious image. Be frequent 
in thoughts that beget such effects ; for in these we both enjoy communion 
with God, and by them are fitted for farther communion. 

2. Live in dependence upon Christ, in the exercise of faith upon God in 
Christ. Trust him in all, for all, with all. Trust him with all your con- 
cerns, for soul and body, for this life and eternity, for yourselves and pos- 
terity. Have confidence in him. You can have no fellowship or intimacy 
with one in whom you have not confidence ; so far as you have fears, doubts, 
suspicions, jealousy, distrust of him, bo far you will be estranged from 
him ; these will keep you off from him, as from one whom you cannot fully 
trust, and will disoblige him, and so keep him off from you. These, so fax 
as they prevail, will occasion a mutual distance and estrangement, which 
will not stand with near and mutual fellowship. When you find anything 
too hard and difficult for you, sin, the world, temptation, any spiritual duty, 
any service, he calls you to leave it, commit it to him, Ps. xxxvii. 6. When 
you find anything too heavy for you, any want, affliction, suffering, when 
it proves too burdensome, cast it upon him : Ps. lv. 22, ' Cast thy burden 
upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.' He will shew the part of an 
intimate friend, and put his t shoulder under, and not suffer thee to shrink, 
to be moved, much less to sink. When you are apt to be troubled, per- 
plexed, solicitous about anything, cast that care upon him, 1 Peter v. 7, 
Philip, iv. 6. They that have lived most in communion with God have 
lived most in the exercise of faith ; trusting him with all they have, in all 
they fear, for all they want. Walking in communion with God is a walking 
by faith, not by sense ; not making sensible objects, persons or things, their 
support and confidence ; but renouncing all confidence in the flesh, or in 
those things which a carnal heart has recourse to for support. Rely on, 
and stay yourselves upon God, Isa. 1. 10, else you will walk in darkness, 
not see your way to communion with God, nor discern the comfort of it. 
There is perfect peace and repose in this communion, but how may one come 
by it ? See Isa. xxv. 8. While you stay yourselves on God, and go lean* 
ing on him, you are near him ; he is near you, you are in fellowship with 
him. This is the posture of intimate friends; thus they enjoy one another, 
herein their communion shewB itself. ' 

8. Renounce fellowship with others, all that is not consistent with, and 
subservient to this with God. Aristotle tells us, Eth. 10, woXXoft d' that 
$ iXov xard rtXtiav pTJav ovx f rifgira/. Perfect friendship can be betwixt no 
more than two. And good reason ; for entire friendship requires intense 
affection, a high degree of love. And love, when it is divided, dis- 
persed amongst many objects, is weakened. This is more evidently 
true here. The continuance of this blessed fellowship requires the whole 
strength of our souls, the highest strain of affection, Mat. xxii. 87. No 
love is sufficient, but that which is cordial, love with all the heart. God 
will have all, or none at all. He will have our love, or we must have none 
of his company. Now, how can God have all our hearts, if we let them be- 
distractcd, by admitting others into such endeared fellowship ? Basil upon 
that place, With all thy heart, &c., says, rb di «g o\ne luyqiA* «/* Mfa ©wt 
i «7&Xcra/, that is not the whole which is divided. God has not all that heart, 
which is parted betwixt him and others; Uw yctf ai» rifc aydvnc x*ram*M**t 
f/f xdru, rosoirov 00/ Xti-^tt i% dvwyxffr dvb rou foou. God wants so much 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



1 John L 8.] thr fathbb and son. 188 

of our affections as the creatures have, or when they are loved otherwise than 
for his sake. The stream of affection will run low to heaven, when it finds 
many channels on earth; nor will God ever mix with that stream that, dirties 
itself in an earthly channel. As he will not he found of us except our whole 
hearts seek him, so he will not stay with us except all our affections wait 
on him; and how can this be, if we suffer other objects to steal them 
away? 

More particularly, 

(1.) No fellowship with sin. He shall not have fellowship with the Father 
of lights, who will have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. 
Renounce all sin, the least, the sweetest, the dearest, the right hand, the 
right eye, else Christ will renounce you. We have fellowship with Christ 
as with a king. Now, what king will admit of a competitor, will suffer one 
to exercise equal authority with himself in his own dominions ? Our hearts 
are Christ's throne, and when we obey sin, delight in it, we lift it up into 
his throne ; and while we do this, Christ will be so far from conversing with 
us as friends or subjects, that he will denounce war against us as traitors 
and rebels. It is such as betwixt husband and wife. Now, what husband 
will admit of a co-rival ? He is a jealous God. Our hearts are, as it were, 
the marriage bed ; and when we delight in sin, it creeps into our hearts, and 
takes possession of the bed of love. If we suffer this, we may expect a 
divorce rather than a conjugal converse with Christ. It is as impossible 
that light and darkness should be received in the same subject, that heaven 
and hell should be in the same place, as that Christ and sin should be affec- 
tionately entertained in the same heart. Forsake sin, or Christ will forsake 
you, 1 John ii. 24. 

(2.) No fellowship with the world. * If any man love the world, the love 
of the Father is not in him.' If the love of the Father be not in us, there 
is no love of the Father to us ; and where no affection, there can be no 
fellowship, James iv. 4. * The friendship of the world is enmity with God.' 
He that will be the world's friend will be God's enemy. No fellowship, in 
respect of things lawful or unlawful. You must not give too much of your 
hearts to lawful comforts, not too affectionately converse with lawful rela- 
tions. ' He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of 
me ;' is not worthy of such fellowship. If we be ready and willing to for- 
sake father and mother for Christ, we shall find incomparably more comfort 
in fellowship with God than in all these enjoyments. Krtl varfa sx ovXXou 
r«S ctg/ovof wr«fj8am/ <pikoaro^yiav xal pqrg&f xvfiqpoviM, Chrysost. If these 
have more of our affections than God, we shall lose both our relations in 
heaven and earth, and be deprived of fellowship with both. He that will not 
lay down his life for Christ, shall lose both his life and Christ too. ©ux ip- 
«-o4jJ cm that njy aya<xj)v. 

(8.) No fellowship with the wicked : 2 Cor. vi. 14-18, < Touch not the 
unclean thing,' or things (as the Syriac) ; it is an allusion to the legal cere- 
mony. For as unclean things did defile the Israelites, who touched them, 
so are believers in danger to be defiled by conversing with the wicked ; and 
as those so defiled were not received into the sanctuary, no more will the 
Lord receive those into friendship with himself, who defile themselves with 
familiarity, intimate, delightful, with the wicked. But be ye separate, keep 
at a distance from unclean persons, and then I will receive you. Not into 
heaven (that is not the meaning), but into my tabernacle, into the secret of 
the Most High, as appears, Lev. xxvi. 11, 12. I will admit you into my 
tabernacle, and there you shall converse with me as familiarly as sons and 
daughters with a father, ver. 8. Now that God's people are defiled by such 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



164 BKLIEVBBS' COMMUNION WITH [1 JOHH I. 8. 

converse, appears, Heb. zii. 15, 16, * Looking diligently, lest any man 
fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing np trouble 
yon, and thereby many be defiled,' &c. 2 Pet. ii. 18, < Spots they are 
and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own Receivings, while they 
feast with you.' Jade, ver. 12, ' These are spots in your feasts of cha- 
rity,' &c. 

. 4. Labour to be like to God. Assimilation is an effectual means to attain 
and preserve this fellowship. 4/X/a is either tpojtfriK or xaff ofworrrrcL, as 
Aristotle. It is the mother of friendship ; and communion is nothing but 
friendship in exercise. Likeness doth both engender and nourish it. There 
is in similitude a secret sympathy, which does strongly incline the subjects 
of it to unite, close, mix together, and that attained, does rest in it with 
much delight; whereas unlikeness is cause of disagreement, and this of 
estrangement. We must be like God, if we would converse with him ; but 
how ? It is true, if we speak properly, we cannot. No creature can be like 
God, there is an infinite distance betwixt us. He is infinite, we finite. Now 
betwixt finite and infinite there is no proportion, no similitude. This not- 
withstanding, God does put such a glory upon grace, as to style it his 
image, his likeness : Gen. i. 26, ' after his own likeness,' because bis soul 
was adorned with holiness ; which is, in Scripture phrase, the divine nature, 
the image of God, an impression of divinity. The way, then, to be like 
God, is to get this imsge repaired, which is now razed and defaced by sin. 
To get it conformed to its first idea and pattern ; to raze out all the sculp- 
tures of hell, all the impressions that Satan hath stamped upon our souls, 
thereby making them deformed, unlike to God, the pattern of our primitive 
beauty, and incapable of this fellowship : we must be holy, as he is holy, 
1 Peter i. 15, 16 ; merciful, as our heavenly Father is merciful, Luke vi. 
85, 86 ; just, faithful, righteous, spiritual, even as he is so. ' Then shall 
the King delight in your beauty,' Ps. xlv. 

Like the Son too. The same mind must be in us, Philip, ii. 5. We must 
express the virtues of him who hath called us out of darkness, &c. Learn 
of him to be meek, lowly, patient, self-denying, zealous, faithful, public spi- 
rited. Look unto Jesus as our pattern, endeavour unweariedly to reduce 
our whole man to a conformity and likeness with him. The more we re- 
semble him, the more will he love and delight in, the more frequently visit 
us, the more affectionately embrace us ; I/lmw fyWou ipitrai. What com- 
munion hath light with darkness ? The harmony of this communion may 
admit of disproportions, but not of contrarieties. You may as well recon- 
cile light and darkness, as bring the holy God into fellowship with those 
who have nothing in them like him; fUm p/Xo# eȣ xai aXXjX** it 
ayioty says Basil. There can be friendship and communion betwixt none 
but God, and those that are holy, like him ; cbSt *i*ru rl rifc p/X/a; x«Xfe f/'c 
IwyQvit&v &sa6tto¥. A wioked disposition, an unsanctified heart, is incapable 
of friendly communion with men, much more with God. 

5. Get nearer union with the Father and Son. This is the foundation of 
communion. Far from God, and far from communion. Distance hinders 
the acts of friendship ; the interruption of these acts occasions forgetfulneas, 
and this begets estrangement, and this destroys friendship ; and where no 
friendship, no fellowship. On the contrary, the nearer union, the sweeter 
communion. That we may be more nearly united, we must exercise uniting 
graces, faith and love. Faith is the cause of mystical, love of moral union. 
The hand of faith clasps Christ to us, the bonds of love tie us to Christ. 
Exercise faith on the attributes, promises, providences of the Father ; on 
the person, offices, undertakings of the Son. The more faith is acted, the 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



1 JOHH L 8.] THB PATHBB AN© SON. 185 

more it is strengthened; the more strengthened, the more it unites; the 
newer united, the more sweetly may we converse with God : Heb. x. 22, 
* Draw near to God in fall assurance of faith/ 

Love, that is afectus unionis. The formality of it is an inclination to 
union, accompanied with a sweet sympathy, which strongly inclines to join, 
unite, mix, with the object beloved. Love cannot endure absence or dis- 
tance ; it calls in and commands all other affections to assist in attainment 
of what it loves. Desire is the wing by which it flies towards its object, and 
hope supports it. It fixes hatred upon that which interposes, and when this 
cannot be removed, sorrow and anger attend it. When it is attained, joy 
and delight embrace it. No grace or affection tends so much to union as 
love, and therefore none so much to communion ; oy *unw Bibg 6 fok <*X*A 
r (bi otxt /«# mw avrtS <3/a rfc 071x^5, Basil. Love is essential to friends, 
mutual love, Ainp#Xq«rc, we cannot imagine this without friendship, nor any 
communion without both. When we love Christ, he loves us ; and where 
there is mutual love, there will be reciprocal delight ; and this will not suffer 
any distance or estrangement, the only obstacles of this fellowship. 

Exercise love, then. Let it inflame itself by the contemplation of the 
glorious excellencies, eternal love, merciful administrations of the Father ; 
meditation of the transcendent love, infinite loveliness of the Son. This is 
the way to increase love, and every degree of its increase brings us a degree 
nearer. 

6. Comply with God's designs. That of the wise man* is applicable, ' Can 
two walk together except they be agreed V No communion where no con- 
cord ; no concord, where contrary designs : for contrary designs and ends 
require contrary means ; and they who agree not either in end or means, 
agree not at all. If you would have fellowship, comply with his end, let his 
end be yours. Manifest this compliance by promoting his design with his 
own means. Now the last and the first design of God is his own glory ; the 
end of all his purposes from eternity, and performances in time, is to glorify 
himself. This must be the aim of all our designs and actions, to make God 
glorious. Do nothing that tends not thereto ; all things with an intent to 
advance it, and all so as they may most glorify him. The apostle's rule, 
1 Cor. x. 81, hd fuxktGTo* btfn tyuft dobf , &c. ; not only spiritual, but natural 
acta, must be directed in a straight line towards this end. And not only 
actions extraordinary and of great concernment, but ordinary and of smaller 
importance. No thought must be entertained, no employment undertaken, 
before we put this question to it, Will this glorify God ? Can I think or 
do nothing that will more honour him ? And if an answer cannot be returned , 
according to this rule, we should there stop, let it proceed no further, lest 
we run cross to God, and so break that concord which is the bond of com- 



And as we must comply with general, so with particular designs. God 
in every act of providence intends his glory, all his works praise hi™ : but 
commonly he glorifies one excellency more than another, making one attri- 
bute more conspicuous than the rest, mercy, or justice, or power. Now 
when such a beam of glory shines in a dispensation, our soul should fix 
upon it, praise, adore, admire it ; for when God thus honours himself, by 
darting forth such irradiations of glory, to the end we may glorify him, by 
acknowledging and taking notice thereof with suitable affections; if we 
neglect it, We run cross to God's design, and such crossness is inconsistent 
with communion. 

And as we must comply with the end, so with the means which he has 
• Qu. 'Amos iii. 3'?— Ed. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



186 believers' communion with patheb and son. [1 John I. 8. 

made choice of to advance this end. Now the means whereby he promotes 
this end, in those who are admitted to this fellowship, is their holiness. 
Our holiness is his honour, our grace his glory ; though not formally, yet 
by necessary consequence. God is most honoured by those who are most 
holy, gets most glory where he gives most grace. The way that is called 
holy leads directly both to God's glory and ours, brings us to the place where 
his honour dwells, and where we shall be happy in dwelling with him. Now 
we must shew our compliance with God in improving this means. Grow in 
grace, be perfecting holiness. Which that we may do, he calls upon us by 
the motions of his Spirit, ordinances, acts of providence : these all bespeak 
our holiness. The rod has a voice, he speaks by afflictions distinctly ; he 
sometimes calls for the exercise of this grace, subduing of that lust. If we 
diligently observe, we may spy some passage, circumstance, which points at 
that grace, corruption, &c. Be watchful, obsequious, and then we have God 
engaged to vouchsafe communion, Rev. iii., John xiv. 28. But if we comply 
not with God in end and means, will not hear nor open, he will not deal 
with us as with the spouse, Cant v. 2; he will withdraw and be gone. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



PUBLIC WORSHIP TO BE PREFERRED 
BEFORE PRIYATE. 



The Ijord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. — 
Psaui LXXXVII. 2. 

That we may apprehend the meaning of these words, and bo thereupon 
raise some edifying observation, we mast inquire into the reason why 
the Lord is said to love the gates of Zion more than ail the dwellings of 
Jacob. This being manifest, the words will be clear. 

Now the reason we may find assigned by the Lord himself, Dent. xiii. 
5, 6, 11. The gates of Zion was the place which the Lord had chosen to 
cause his name to dwell there, i. e . as the following words explain, the place 
of his worship. For the temple was built upon, or near to, the hill of Zion. 
And this, you know, was in peculiar the settled place of his worship. It was 
the Lord's delight in affection to his worship, for which he is said to love 
the gates of Zion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob. 

But it may be replied, the Lord had worship, not only in the gates of Zion, 
in the temple, but also in the dwellings of Jacob. We cannot suppose that 
all the posterity of Jacob would neglect the worship of God in their families ; 
no doubt the faithful among them resolved with Joshua, ' I and my house 
will serve the Lord/ Since, therefore, the worship of God was to be found 
in both, how can this worship be the reason why one should be preferred 
before the other? Sure upon no other account but this, the worship of 
God in the gates of Zion was public, his worship in the dwellings of Jacob 
was private. So that, in fine, the Lord may be said to love the gates of 
Zion before all the dwellings of Jacob, because he prefers public worship 
before private. He loved all the dwellings of Jacob, wherein he was wor- 
shipped privately ; but the gates of Zion he loved more than all the dwellings 
of Jacob, for there he was publicly worshipped. Hence we have a clear 
ground for this 

Observation. Public worship is to be preferred before private. So it is 
by the Lord, so it should be by his people. So it was under the law, so it 
must be under the gospel Indeed, there is difference between the public 
worship under the law and gospel in respect of a circumstance, viz., the 
place of public worship. Under the law, the place of public worship was 
holy, but we have no reason so to account any place of public worship under 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



188 PUBLIC WOBSHIP TO bb [Ps. LXXXVII. 2. 

the gospel ; and this will be manifest, if both we inquire what were the grounds 
of that legal holiness in the tabernacle or temple, and withal observe that 
none of them can be applied to any place of worship under the gospel. 

1. The temple and tabernacle was [set] apart, and separated for a holy 
use, by the special express command of God, Dent. xii. 18, 14. But there 
is no such command for setting apart this or that place under the gospel. 
The worship is necessary, but the place where is indifferent, undetermined ; 
it is left to human prudence to choose what place may be most convenient. 
We find no obliging rule, but that in general, ' Let all things be done de- 
cently and in order.' Men's consecrations cannot make that holy which 
God's institution does not sanctify. 

2. The temple was pars cxdtm, a part of the ceremonial worship under 
the law, but there is no such ceremonial worship under the gospel, much 
less is any place a part of gospel-worship; and therefore no such holiness in 
any place now as in the temple then. 

8. The temple was medium cultus, a mean of grace, of worship, under the 
law. Thereby the Lord communicated to those people many mysteries of 
religion and godliness ; thereby was Christ represented in his natures, offices, 
benefits. But there is no place under the gospel of such use and virtue 
now; no such representations of Christ, or communications of religious mys- 
teries by any place of worship whatever ; ergo, no such holiness. 

4. The temple was a type of Christ, John ii. 19; but all the shadows and 
types of Christ did vanish when Christ himself appeared ; and there is no 
room for them in any place under the gospel. 

5. The temple did sanctify the offerings, the services of that people. The 
altar did sanctify the gift, Mat. xxiii. 19. The worship there tendered was 
more acceptable, more available, than elsewhere, as being the only place 
where the Lord would accept those ceremonial services, as also because there 
is no acceptance but in Christ, who was hereby typified. But these being 
ceased, to think now that our worship or service of God will be sanctified 
by the place where they are performed, or more available or acceptable in 
one place than another, merely for the place's sake, is a conceit without 
Scripture, and so superstitious; nay, against Scripture, and so profane. 
The prophet foretold this : Mai. i. 11, 'In every place incense shall be 
offered unto my name ;' in every place, one as well as another, without dis- 
tinction. The Lord Christ determines this in his discourse, John iv. 21. 
The hour is at hand when all such respects shall be taken away, and all 
places made alike, and you and your services as acceptable in every place 
of the world as at Jerusalem. Hence the apostle's advice, 1 Tim. ii. 8, * I 
will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands,' not in this or that 
place only. And the promise of Christ is answerable, Mat. xviii. 20. He 
says not, when two or three are gathered together in such a place, but only 
4 Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the 
midst of them,' Observable is that of Origen upon Matlhew, Tract, xxxv., 
Vir quidem Judaicus non dubitat de hujuemodi, A Jew indeed doubts not but 
one place is more holy than another for prayer, but he that has left Jewish 
fables for Christ's doctrine doth say that the place doth not make one 
prayer better than another. So in Homil. Y. on Levit., Locum sanctum in 
terris non requiro positum, sed in corde, I seek no holy place on earth, but 
in the heart. This we must take for the holy place rather (quam si putemus 
structuram lapidum) than a building of stones. So Augustine, Quid suppli- 
caturu8 Deo locum sanctum requiris, &c., When thou hast a mind to pray, 
why dost thou inquire after a holy place ? Superstition had not yet so 
blinded the world but these ancients could see reason to disclaim that holi- 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



PS. LXXXVII. 2.] PBEFEBBED BEFORE PRIVATE. 189 

ness of places which after-ages fancied. And well were it if such super- 
stitious conceits were not rooted in some amongst us. Those who have a 
mind to see, may, by what has been delivered, discern how groundless that 
opinion is. But I must insist no longer on it. 

Hence it appears that there is a circumstantial difference betwixt the 
public worship of God under the law and under the gospel. But this can 
be no ground to conclude that public worship is not to be preferred before 
private, as well under the gospel as under the law ; for the difference is but 
in circumstance (the place of worship), and this circumstance but ceremonial 
(a ceremonial holiness) ; whereas all the moral reasons why public worship 
should be preferred before private, stand good as well under the gospel as 
under the law. 

But before I proceed to confirm the observation, let me briefly explain 
what worship is public. Three things are requisite that worship may be 
public, ordinances, an assembly, and an officer. 

1. There must be such ordinances as do require or will admit of pub- 
lic use; such are prayer, praises, the word read, expounded, or preached, 
and the administration of the sacraments. The word must be read, and 
prayer is necessary both in secret and private, but they both admit of public 
use, and the use of them in public is required and enjoined. These must 
be used both publicly and privately ; the other cannot be used duly but in 
public. 

2. There must be an assembly, a congregation joined in the use of these 
ordinances. The worship of one or two cannot be public worship. Of what 
numbers it must consist we need not determine ; but since what is done in 
a family is but private, there should be a concurrence of more than consti- 
tute an ordinary family. 

8. There must be an officer. The administrator of the ordinances must 
be one of public quality, one in office, one set apart by the Lord, and called 
to the employment by the church. If a private person in ordinary cases 
undertake to preach the word or administer the sacraments, if it be allowed 
as worship, which is not according to ordinary rule, yet there is no reason 
to expect the blessing, the advantage, the privilege of public worship. 

This for explication ; now for confirmation. Observe these arguments. 

1. The Lord is more glorified by public worship than private. God is 
then glorified by us when we acknowledge that he is glorious. And he is 
most glorified when this acknowledgment is most public. This is obvious. 
A public acknowledgment of the worth and excellency of any one tends more 
to his honour than that which is private or secret. It was more for David's 
honour that the multitude did celebrate his victory, 1 Sam. xviii. 7, than if 
a particular, person had acknowledged it only in private. Hence the psalm- 
ist, when he would have the glory of God most amply declared, contents not 
himself with a private acknowledgment, but summons all the earth to praise 
him, Ps. xcvi. 1-3. Then is the Lord most glorified, when his glory is most 
declared, and then it is most declared when it is declared by most, by a mul- 
titude. David shews the way whereby God may be most glorified, Ps. xxii. 
22, 28, 25. Then he appears all glorious when publicly magnified, when 
he is praised in the great congregation. Then he is most glorified when a 
multitude speaks of and to his glory: Ps. xxix. 9, 'In his temple does every 
one speak of his glory/ The Lord complains as if he had no honour from 
bis people, when his public worship is despised, neglected : Mai. i. 6, ' If I 
be a father, where is mine honour ? If I be a master, where is my fear ? 
saith the Lord God of hosts unto you, priests that despise my name.' By 
name of God here is meant his worship and ordinances, as plainly appears 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



190 PUBLIC WORSHIP TO be [Ps. LXXXVH. 2. 

by what follows, ver. 7, 8, 11. And he here expostulates with them as 
tendering him no honour, because they despised his worship and ordinances. 
Then shall Christ be most glorified, when he shall be admired in all them 
that believe, in that great assembly at the last day, 2 Thess. i. 10. And it 
holds in proportion now ; the more there are who join together in praising, 
admiring, and worshipping him, the more he is glorified : and therefore 
more in public than in private. 

2. There is more of the Lord's presencein public worship than in private. 
He is present with his people in the use of public ordinances in a more 
especial manner, more effectually, constantly, intimately. 

For the first, see Exod. xx. 24. After he had given instructions for his 
public worship, he adds, ' In all places where I record my name, I will come 
unto thee, and I will bless thee.' Where I am publicly worshipped, for the 
name of God is frequently put for the worship of God, I will come ; and not 
empty-handed, I will bless thee : a comprehensive word, including all that 
is desirable, all that tends to the happiness of those that worship him. 
Here is the efficacy. 

For the constancy of his presence, see Mat. xxviii. : 'I am with you always 
to the end of the world.' Where, after he had given order for the administra- 
tion of public ordinances, he concludes with that sweet encouragement to the 
use of them, vdaae rctg fjfiigas, I am with you always, every day, and that to 
the end of the world. Here is the constancy. 

See the intimacy of his presence : Mat. xviii. 20, ' Where two or three 
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' He 
says not, I am near them, or with them, or about them, but in the midst of 
them ; as much intimacy as can be expressed. And so he is described, Rev. 
i. 13, to be in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, in the midst of the 
church ; there he walks and there ho dwells ; not only with them, but in 
them. For so the apostle, 2 Cor. vi. 16, renders that of Lev. xxvi. 12, 
which promise he made, upon presupposal of his tabernacle, his public wor- 
ship amongst them, ver. 11. Hence it is, that when the public worship of 
God is taken from a people, then God is departed, his presence is gone ; as 
she, when the ark was taken from the Israelites, cried out, ' The glory is de- 
parted.' And why, but because the Lord, who is the glory of his people, is 
then departed? Public ordinances are the sign, the pledge of God's pre- 
sence ; and in the use of them, he does in a special manner manifest himself 
present. 

But you will say, Is not the Lord present with his servants when they 
worship him in private ? It is true ; but so much of his presence is not 
vouchsafed, nor ordinarily enjoyed, in private as in public. If the experience 
of any find it otherwise, they have cause to fear the Lord is angry, they 
have given him some distaste, some offence ; if they find him not most, 
where ordinarily he is most to be found, and this is in public ordinances, for 
the Lord is most there where he is most engaged to be, but he has engaged 
himself to be most there where most of his people are. The Lord has en- 
gaged to be with every particular saint, but when the particulars are joined 
in public worship, there are all the engagements united together. The Lord 
engages himself to let forth as it were, a stream of his comfortable, quicken- 
ing presence to every particular person that fears him, but when many of 
these particulars join together to worship God, then these several streams 
are united and meet in one. So that the presence of God, which, enjoyed in 
private, is but a stream, in public becomes a river, a river that makes glad 
the city of God. The Lord has a dish for every particular soul that telly 
serves him ; but when many particulars meet together, there is a variety, a 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



PS. LXXXVII. 2.] FREFKRBED BBFOBB PRIVATE. 191 

confluence, a multitude of dishes. The presence of the Lord in public wor- 
ship makes it a spiritual feast, and so it is expressed, Isa. xxv. 6. There 
is, you see, more of God's presence in public worship, ergo public worship 
is to be preferred before private. 

8. Here are the clearest manifestations of God. Here he manifests him- 
self more than in private, ergo, public worship is to be preferred before 
private. Why was Judah called a valley of vision, but because the Lord 
manifested himself to that people in public ordinances? Which he not 
vouchsafing to other nations, they are said to ' sit in darkness, and in the 
valley of the shadow of death.' Here are the visions of peace, of love, of 
life ; and blessed are those eyes that effectually see them. Here are the 
clearest visions of the beauty, the glory, the power of God, that can be looked 
for, till we see him face to face. David saw as much of God in secret as could 
then be expected, bat he expected more in public, and, therefore, as not 
satisfied with his private enjoyments, he breathes and longs after the public 
ordinances, for this reason, that he might have clearer discoveries of the 
Lord there : Ps. xxvii. 4, ' One thing have I desired, and that will I seek 
after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.' 
Why did he affect this, as the one thing above all desirable ? Why, but to * 
behold the beauty of the Lord? &c. So, Ps. lxiii. 1, 2, though David was 
in a wilderness, a dry and thirsty land, where was no water, yet he did not 
so much thirst after outward refreshments as after the public ordinances ; 
and why ? ' To see thy power and thy glory.' 

If we observe how Christ is represented when he is said to be in the midst 
of the churches, we may thereby know what discoveries of Christ are made 
in the assemblies of his people, Rev. i. 18, &c. 

Clothed with a garment down to the foot. That was the priests' habit. 
Here is the priestly office of Christ, the fountain of all the saints' comfort 
and enjoyments. 

Girt about the paps with a golden girdle. This was the garb of a conqueror. 
So Christ is set forth as victorious over all his people's enemies. 

His head and hairs white like wool. Here is his eternity ; whiteness is 
the emblem of it. Therefore, when the Lord is expressed as eternal, he is 
called the Ancient of days. 

His eyes as aflame of fire. Here is his omnisciency ; nothing can be hid 
from his eye. The flame scatters darkness, and consumes or penetrates 
whatever to us might be an impediment of sight. 

His feet like to fine brass. Here is his power ; to crush all opposers of his 
glory and his people's happiness ; they can no more withstand him, than 
earthen vessels can endure the force of brass. 

His voice as the sound of many waters* Here his voice is most loud and 
powerful ; so powerful, as it can make the deaf to hear, and raise the dead 
oat of the grave of sin. His voice in private is a still voice, here it is as the 
sound of many waters. 

He had in his right hand seven stars. Here is his providence, his tender 
care of his messengers, the ministers of the gospel, the administrators of 
public ordinances ; he holds them in his hand, his right hand, and all the 
violence of the world, all the powers of darkness, cannot phick them thence. 

Out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. His word publicly 
preached, sharper than a two-edged sword, as described, Heb. iv. 12, 18, 
pierces the heart, searches the soul, wounds the conscience. With this 
Christ goes on, conquering and to conquer, mangre all opposition. 

His countenance was as the sun that shineth in his strength. Here the 
face of Christ is unveiled, the fountain of light and life, the seat of beauty 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



192 PUBLIC WORSHIP TO be [Ps. LXXXVIL 2. 

and glory, such as outshines the sun in his full strength. So he appears, as 
he becomes the love, the delight, the admiration, the happiness, of every one 
whose eyes are opened to behold him. 

Now, as he is here described in the midst of the churches, so does he in 
effect appear in the assemblies of his people. No such clear, such com- 
fortable, such effectual representations of the power and wisdom, of the love 
and beauty, of the glory and majesty of Christ, as in the public ordinances : 
4 We all here, as with open face, behold the glory of the Lord.' 

4. There is more spiritual advantage to be got in the use of public ordi- 
nances than in private, ergo they are to be preferred. Whatever spiritual 
benefit is to be found in private duties, that, and much more, may be ex- 
pected from public ordinances when duly improved. There is more spiritual 
light and life, more strength and growth, more comfort and soul refreshment. 
When the spouse (the church) inquires of Christ where she might find comfort 
and soul nourishment, food and rest, he directs her to public ordinances : 
Cant. i. 7, 8, ' Go by the footsteps of the flock,' walk in the path of God's 
ancient people. And feed the kids beside the shepherds' tents. Shepherds 
are (in the phrase of the New Testament) pastors or teachers, those to 
whom the Lord has committed the administration of his public ordinances. 
To them is the church directed for food and rest, for spiritual comfort and 
nourishment; and it is commended to her as the known way of the 
whole flock, that flock whereof Christ is chief shepherd. 

That is a pregnant place for this purpose, Eph. iv., where the apostle 
declares the end why the Lord Christ gave public officers, and consequently 
public ordinances. He gave them, ver. 12, ' for the perfecting of the saints, 
for the- work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.' Here is 
edification, even to perfection : ver. 18, * Till we all come in the unity of the 
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the 
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.' Here is knowledge and 
unity, even in a conformity to Christ : ver. 14, « That we henceforth be no 
more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of 
doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in 
wait to deceive.' There is strength and stability, maugre all the sleight and 
craftiness of seducers : ver. 15, ' But speaking the truth in love, may grow 
up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.' There is growth 
and fruitfulness, and that in all things. These are the ends for which the 
Lord Jesus gave his church public officers and ordinances ; and they will 
never fail of these ends if we fail not in the use of them. What more can 
be desired ? Here doubts are best resolved, darkness scattered, and tempta- 
tions most effectually vanquished. David had private helps as well as we, 
but how strangely did a temptation prevail against him, till he went into the 
sanctuary : Ps. lxxiii. 16, 17, ' When I thought to know this, it was too 
painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God ; then understood I 
their end.' Nothing was effectual to vanquish this temptation, till he went 
into the sanctuary. Thus you see there is more spiritual advantage in public 
worship than in private, and therefore it is to be preferred. 

5. Public worship is more edifying than private, ergo, dc. In private you 
provide for your own good, but in public you do good both to yourselves and 
others. And that is a received rule, Bonum, quo communius, eo melius, that 
good is best which is most diffusive, most communicative. Example has 
the force of a motive ; we may stir up others by our example : Zech. viii. 20, 21 , 
There shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities : and the in- 
habitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to prav 
before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts.' This was frequent with 

• 



PS. LXXXVII. 2.J PREFERRED BEFORE PRIVATE. 193 

David : Ps. xxxiv. 8, * Oh magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name 
together ;' Ps. xcvi. 7, 8, ' Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, 
give onto the Lord glory and strength. Give onto the Lord the glory due 
unto his name. 1 Live coals, if ye separate them, and lay them asunder, will 
quickly die ; hut while they are continued together, they serve to continue 
heat in one another. We may quicken one another, while we join together in 
worshipping God ; hut deadness, coldness, or lukewarmness may seize upon 
the people of God, if they forsake the assembling of themselves together. It 
is more edifying ; therefore to be preferred. 

6. Public ordinances are a better security against apostasy than private, 
and therefore to be preferred : an argument worthy our observation in these 
backsliding times. He that wants the public ordinances, whatever private 
means he enjoy, is in danger of apostasy. David was as much in the private 
duties of God's worship as any, while he was in banishment ; yet, because 
he was thereby deprived of the public ordinances, he looked upon himself as 
in great danger of idolatry. Which is plain from his speech, 1 Sam. 
xxvi. 19, ' They have driven me out this day from abiding in the inherit- 
ance of the Lord, saying, Go serve other gods.* There was none about Saul 
so profane as to say expressly unto him, Go serve other gods. Why then 
does he thus charge them ? Why, but because by banishing him from the 
inheritance of the Lord, and the public ordinances, which were the best part 
of that inheritance, they exposed him to temptations which might draw him 
to idolatry, and deprive him of that which was his great security against it. 
They might as well have said plainly, Go and serve other gods, as drive him 
out from the public worship of the true God, which he accounted the sove- 
reign preservative from idolatry. 

But we have too many instances nearer home to confirm this. Is not 
the rejecting of public ordinances the great step to the woful apostasies 
amongst us ? Who is there falls off from the truth and holiness of the 
gospel into licentious opinions and practices, that has not first fallen off from 
the public ordinances ? Who is there in these times that has made ship- 
wreck of faith and a good conscience, who has not first cast the public wor- 
ship of God overboard ? The sad issue of forsaking the public assemblies 
(too visible in the apostasy of divers professors) should teach us this truth, 
that public ordinances are the great security against apostasy, a greater 
security than private duties, and therefore to be preferred. 

For this end were they given, that we might not be tossed to and fro with 
every wind of doctrine, Eph. iv. 14. No wonder if those that reject the 
means fall so wofully short of the end ; no wonder if they be tossed to and 
fro, till they have nothing left but wind and froth. This was the means 
which Christ prescribed to the church, that she might not turn aside to the 
flocks of those companions, hypocrites, or idolaters : Cant, i., ' Feed by the 
shepherds 1 tents.' No wonder if those who shun those tents become a prey 
to wolves and foxes, to seducers and the destroyer. Public ordinances are a 
more effectual means to preserve from apostasy, and therefore to be preferred 
before private. 

7. Here the Lord works his greatest works ; greater works than ordinarily 
he works by private means, ergo. The most wonderful things that are now 
done on earth are wrought in the public ordinances, though the commonness 
and spiritualness of them makes them seem less wonderful. It is true, we 
call not conversion and regeneration miracles, but they come nearest to 
miracles of anything that is not so called. Here the Lord speaks life unto 
dry bones, and raises dead souls out of the grave and sepulchre of sin, 
wherein they have lain putrefying many years. Here the dead hear the voice 

V0L - m - Digitized^ Google 



194 PUBLIC WORSHIP TO BE [Ps. LXXXVII. 2. 

of the Son of God and his messengers, and those that hear do live. Here 
he gives sight to those that are born blind ; it is the effect of the gospel 
preached to open the eyes of sinners, and to turn them from darkness to 
light. Here he cures diseased souls with a word, which are otherwise 
incurable by the utmost help of men and angels. He sends forth his word, 
and heals them ; it is no more with him but speaking the word, and they are 
made whole. Here he dispossesses Satan, and casts unclean spirits out of 
the souls of sinners that have been long possessed by them. Here he over- 
throws principalities and powers, vanquishes the powers of darkness, and 
causes Satan to fall from heaven like lightning. Here he turns the whole 
course of nature in the souls of sinners, makes old things pass away, and all 
things become new. Wonders these are, and would be so accounted, were 
they not the common work of the public ministry. It is true indeed, the 
Lord has not confined himself to work these wonderful things only in public ; 
yet the public ministry is the only ordinary means whereby he works them. 
And since his greatest works are wrought ordinarily by public ordinances, 
and not in private, therefore we should value and esteem the public ordinances 
before private duties. 

8. Public worship is the nearest resemblance of heaven, therefore to be 
preferred. In heaven, so far as the Scripture describes it to us, there is 
nothing done in private, nothing in secret, all the worship of that glorious 
company is public. The innumerable company of angels, and the church of 
the first-born, make up one general assembly in the heavenly Jerusalem, 
Heb. xii. 22, 28. They make one glorious congregation, and so jointly 
together sing the praises of him that sits on the throne, and the praises of 
the Lamb, and continue employed in this public worship to eternity. 

9. The examples of the most renowned servants of God, who have pre- 
ferred public worship before private, is a sufficient argument. It was so in 
the judgment of those who were guided. by an infallible Spirit, those who had 
most converse with God, and knew most of the mind of G-od ; and those who 
had experience of both, and were in all respects the best, the most competent 
judges. If we appeal to them, this truth will quickly be put out of question. 
David, who has this testimony, that he was a man after God's own heart, 
shews by his practice and testimony that this was God's own mind. To 
what I have formerly produced to this purpose, let me add but one place, 
wherein he pregnantly and affectionately confirms this truth : Ps. lxxxiv. 1, 
* How amiable are thy tabernacles, Lord of hosts ! ' He speaks by way 
of interrogation, insinuating that they were amiable beyond his expression. 
You might better read this in his heart than in his language. Accordingly 
he adds, ver. 2, ' My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the 
Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.' Oh what 
expressions ! Longing ; nothing else could satisfy. Fainting ; it was his 
life ; he was ready to faint, to die, for want of it : ver. 10, ' I had rather be 
a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wicked- 
ness.' David was at this time a king, either actually or at least anointed ; 
yet he professes he had rather be a door-keeper where he might' enjoy God 
in public, than a king where deprived of public worship. He would choose 
rather to sit at the threshold, as the original is, than to sit on a throne in 
the tents of wickedness, in those wicked, heathenish places where God was 
not publicly worshipped. Hezekiah and Josiah were the two kings of Judah 
of highest esteem with God, as he has made it known to the world by his 
testimony of them. Now what was their eminency but their zeal for God ? 
And where did their zeal appear, but for the public worship of God ? See it 
of Hezekiah, 2 Chron. xxix. 2, 8, ' He did that which was right in the sight 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



PS. LXXXVIL 2.] PBEFBBBED BEFOBB PRIVATE. 195 

of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. He, in the 
first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of 
the Lord, and repaired them.' Of Josiah, chap, xxxiv. and xxxv. The 
apostles also, and primitive Christians bear record of this. How careful 
were they of taking all opportunities that the word might be preached, and 
the Lord worshipped in public ! How many hazards did they ran, how many 
dangers, how many deaths did they expose themselves to, by attempting to 
preach Christ in public ! Their safety, their liberty, their lives, were not so 
dear to them as the public worship ; whereas, if they would have been con- 
tented to have served the Lord in secret, it is probable they might have 
enjoyed themselves in peace and safety as well as others. The Lord Christ 
himself, how much soever above us, did not think himself above ordinances, 
though he knew them then expiring ; nor did he withdraw from public wor- 
ship, though then corrupted. Nay, he exhorts his disciples to hear them 
who publicly taught in Moses's chair, though they had himself, a far better 
teacher. You find him frequently in the synagogues, frequently in the 
temple, always at the passover ; and his zeal for public worship was such, 
as they apply that of the psalmist to him, * The zeal of thine house hath 
eaten me up.' 

10. Public worship is the most available for the procuring of the greatest 
mercies, and preventing and removing the greatest judgments. The greatest, 
i.e. those that are most extensive, of universal consequence to a whole 
nation or a whole chureh. It is most effectual for the obtaining public mercies, 
for diverting public calamities, therefore to be preferred before private wor- 
ship. This is the means the Lord prescribes for this end; and he en- 
courages his people to the use thereof with promises of success : Joel ii. 
15, 16, *Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. 
Gather the elders, sanctify the people,' &c. There is the means prescribed : 
See the success, ver. 18, 19, ad finem. He assures them the issue hereof 
should be mercies of all sorts, temporal and spiritual, ordinary and extraor- 
dinary, and that to the whole nation. Jehoshaphat used this means, and 
found the success answerable : 2 Chron. xx. 8, 4, ' He set himself to seek the 
Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah/ Ac. This is the argu- 
ment he uses, ' Thy name is in this house,' ver. 9. Immediately the Lord 
despatches a prophet with a gracious answer: ver. 15, 17, ' Thus saith the 
Lord, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude ; for the 
battle is not yours, but God's. Stand still, and see the salvation of God.' 
The event was wonderful : ver. 28, 24, * The children of Ammon and Moab 
stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy 
them. And when Judah came toward the watch-tower in the wilderness, 
they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies.' 
Nineveh bears witness to this, who hereby prevented her utter destruction, 
threatened by the prophet within forty days. Nor want we instances in the 
New Testament. Hereby the church prevailed for the miraculous deliverance 
of Peter, Acts xii. 5. And wonderful were the effects hereof to the whole 
church : Acts iv. 81, ' When they had prayed, the place was shaken where 
they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, 
and spake the word of God with boldness.' So Bev. viii. 4. There you 
have mention of the prayers of all saints, in a description after the form of 
public prayers, offered in the temple at the time of incense. And an answer 
is immediately returned, such an one as brought with it the destruction of 
that domineering Roman state which then persecuted them. Now, that 
which is of most public and universal advantage is worthily to be preferred ; 
but such is public worship, and therefore to be preferred before private. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



196 PUBLIC WORSHIP TO be [Ps. LXXXVIL 2. 

11, The precious blood of Christ is most interested in public worship, 
and that must needs be most valuable which has most interest in that which 
is of infinite value. The blood of Christ has most influence upon public 
worship, more than on private ; for the private duties of God's worship, 
private prayers, meditation, and such like, had been required of, and per- 
formed by, Adam and his posterity, if he had continued in the state of inno- 
cency ; they had been due by the light of nature, if Christ had never died, if 
life and immortality had never been brought to light by the gospel. But the 
public preaching of the gospel, and the administration of the federal seals, 
have a necessary dependence upon the death of Christ. As they are the 
representations, so they are the purchase of that precious blood ; as Christ 
is hereby set forth as crucified before our eyes, so are they the purchase of 
Christ crucified, so are they the gifts of Christ triumphant. Conquerors 
used on the day of triumph, spargers miss ilia, to scatter gifts amongst the 
people. Answerably the apostle represents to us Christ in his triumph, 
Eph. iv., distributing gifts becoming such a triumph, such a conqueror : 
ver. 8, ' When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave 
gifts unto men.' And those gifts, he tells us, ver. 12, are public officers, 
and consequently public ordinances to be administered by those officers. 
How valuable are those ordinances, which are the purchase of that precious 
blood, which are the gifts Christ reserved for the glory of his triumph I 

12. The promises of God are more to public worship than to private. 
Those exceeding great and precious promises, wherever they are engaged, 
will turn the balance ; but public worship has most interest in them, and 
therefore more to be valued than private. If I should produce all those 
promises which are made to the several ordinances, the several parts of pub- 
lic worship, I should rehearse to you a great part of the promissory part of 
Scripture. I shall but briefly touch some generals. The Lord promises 
his presence, in the places before alleged : Exod. xx. 24, ' In all places 
where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. 1 
Protection and direction : Isa. iv. 5, ' Upon all the glory shall be a defence.' 
The Lord will be to the assemblies of his people as a pillar of cloud and 
fire. His presence shall be as much effectually to his people now as those 
pillars were then. ' Upon all their glory.' As formerly in the wilderness, 
the Lord, having filled the inside of the tabernacle with his glory, covered 
the outside of it with a thick cloud, Exod. xl. 34, so will he secure his 
people and their glorious enjoyments in public worship. His presence 
within shall be as the appearance of his glory, to refresh them ; his presence 
without shall be as a thick cloud to secure them, ver. 6, a tent. His pre- 
sence shall be that to the assemblies of his people which the outward tent or 
coverings were to the tabernacle, Exod. xxvi. 7. 

Light, and life, and joy, and that in abundance, even to satisfaction, Ps. 
xxxvi. 8, 9. Satisfied abundantly, and drink spiritual delights as out of a 
river. Life and growth : Isa. Iv. 2, 8, ' Hearken diligently unto me, and 
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness,' Sec. 
Life and blessedness : Prov. viii. 34, 35, ' Blessed is the man that heareth 
me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For 
whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.' Accept- 
ance, Ezek. xx., xliv. 4. Spiritual communion and nourishment: Rev. 
iii. 20, ' Behold I stand at the door and knock,' &c. He speaks there to a 
church, and in public ordinances he knocks hardest. Grace and glory, yea, 
all things that are good. There is not a more full and comprehensive pro- 
mise in the Scripture than that, Ps. lxxxiv. 11, 'No good thing will be 
withhold from them that walk uprightly. ' But what is this to public wor- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Pg. LXXXYH. 2.] pkeferked before private. 197 

ship ? Why, the whole psalm speaks of public worship ; and therefore, by 
the best rale of interpretation, we must take this as promised to sincere 
walking with God in public worship. Besides, the particle for tells us this 
is given as the reason why David had such a high esteem of public worship, 
why he preferred one day in God's house before a thousand ; and therefore 
this promise must have reference to public worship, else there is no reason 
to use this as a reason. This promise is to public worship ; and what is 
there in heaven or earth desirable that is not in this promise ? 

It is true, you may say, there are many great and precious promises to 
public worship, but are there not promises also to private duties ? 

It is granted there are, but not so many, and the argument runs so. The 
promises are more to public worship than to private ; besides, those which 
seem to be made to private duties are applicable to public worship, and that 
with advantage. If the interest of one saint in a promise be prevalent with 
God, how prevalent then are the united interests of many assembled to- 
gether ? So that all the promises which the people of God make use of to 
support their faith in private duties will afford us mnch support, nay more, 
in public. Then add to these the promises which are peculiar to public 
worship, and the sum will appear far greater, and this reason of great force 
to prove the truth propounded ; that is most valuable which has the great- 
est share in those exceeding great and precious promises, but public worship 
has the greatest share in these, and therefore most valuable. 

Obj. But notwithstanding all the arguments brought to prove public wor- 
ship is to be preferred, I find something to the contrary in experience ; and 
who can admit arguments against experience ? I have sometimes in private 
more of God's presence, more assistance of his Spirit, more joy, more en- 
largement, more raised affections ; whereas in public I often find much dull- 
ness of heart, much straitness and unaffectedness, therefore I cannot so 
freely yield that public worship is to be preferred. 

Ans. I shall endeavour to satisfy this in many severals. 

1. Experience is not a rule for your judgment, but the word of God ; that 
m a fallible guide, this only infallible. If you press your judgment always 
to follow experience, Satan may quickly afford you such experience as will 
lead you out of the way. Be scrupulous of following experience when it 
goes alone, when it is not backed by the word, countenanced by Scripture. 
It has deceived many. Empirics are no more tolerable in divinity than in 
physic. As there reason and experience, so here Scripture and experience, 
should go together. Those that live by sense may admit this alone to be 
their guide, but the event has often proved it a blind one. Those that live 
by faith must admit no experiments against Scripture. Nay, those that are 
bat true to reason will not admit a few experiments against many arguments. 
You find this sometimes true in private, but do you find it so ordinarily ? 
If not, here is no ground to pass any judgment against what is delivered. 
It may be a purge or a vomit does sometimes tend more to your health than 
your meat and drink ; will you therefore prefer physic before your ordinary 
food ? It may be in some extremity, of cold you find more refreshment from 
a fire than from the sun ; will you therefore prefer the fire, and judge it 
more beneficial to the world than the sun ? Experience must not rule yonr 
judgment here, nor must you be confident of such apprehensions as are only 
granted upon some few experiments. 

2. It may be your enjoyments in private were upon some special occasion. 
Now some special cases make no general rule ; nor are they sufficient pro- 
mises to afford an universal conclusion. For instance, it may be you 
enjoyed so much of God in private, when you were necessarily and unavoid- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



198 PUBLIC WORSHIP TO be [Fb. LXXXYH. 2. 

ably hindered from waiting upon the Lord in public ordinances. Now in 
this case, when the people of God bewail the want of public liberties as an 
affliction, and seek the Lord in special manner to supply that want in 
private, he is graciously pleased to make up what they are deprived of in 
public, by the vouchsafements of his quickening and comforting presence in 
private. So it was with David in his banishment, yet this did nothing abate 
his esteem of or desires after the public ordinances ; far was he from pre- 
ferring private duties before public, though he enjoyed exceeding much of 
God in private. Nor most we from such particular cases draw an universal 
conclusion ; either affirmatively, that private is to be preferred ; or nega- 
tively, that public is not to be preferred. 

8. These enjoyments of God in private may be extraordinary dispen- 
sations. These the Lord does sometimes use, though seldom, though rarely. 
Now, such extraordinary cases are exceptions from the general rule, and such 
exceptions do limit the rule, but not overthrow it. They take off something 
from the extent, nothing from the truth of it. It holds good still, more of 
God is enjoyed in public than private ; except in rare extraordinary eases, 
ordinarily it is so. And this is sufficient, if there were no other argument 
to establish the observation as a truth, public worship is to be preferred 
before private. 

4. It may be thy enjoyments in private are the fruits of thy attendance 
upon God in public. It may be the assistance, the enlargement, the affec- 
tions thou findest in private duties, are the returns of public worship. The 
benefits of public ordinances are not all, nor always, received while ye are 
therein employed ; the returns of them may be continued many days after. 
The refreshment the Lord affords his people in public worship is like the 
provision he made for Elijah in the wilderness, 1 Kings xix. 18, * He arose 
and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days.* 
When the Lord feasts his people in public, they may walk with the Lord in 
the strength thereof in private duties with more cheerfulness, with more en- 
largedness, more affection, many days after. Those that know what it is to 
enjoy communion with God in his ordinances, know this by experience. 
When the Lord meets you in public, find ye not your hearts far better dis- 
posed to, and in, private duties ? Now, if the assistance you find in private 
be the fruits of your waiting upon God in public, this should rather raise 
your esteem of public worship than abate it. That which is objected tends 
to confirm this truth, so far should it be from hindering you to subscribe it. 

5. There may be a deceit in thy experience. All those joys, affections, 
enlargements, which men find in duties, are not always from the special 
presence of God. There may be a great flash of spirit, and much cheer- 
fulness and activeness from false principles ; some flashes of fleeting affections, 
some transient and fading impressions, may fall upon the hearts of men, and 
yet not fall from above. The gifts of men may be sometimes carried very 
high, even to the admiration of others, whenas there is little or no spiritual life. 
Vigour of nature, strength of parts, enforcement of conscience, outward respects, 
delusive joys, delusive visions, ungrounded fancies, deceiving dreams, yea, 
superstitious conceits, may work much upon men in duties when there is little 
or nothing of God. When men seem to be carried out with a full gale of as- 
sistance, it is not always the Spirit of God that fills the sails. A man may 
move with much life, freedom, cheerfulness, in spiritual duties, when his 
motion is from other weights than those of the Spirit. 

Nay, further, not only those potent workings which are ordinary, but ex- 
traordinary, such as ecstasies and raptures, wherein the soul is transported, 
so as to leave the body without its ordinary influence, so as it seems without 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



PS. LXXXVIL 2.] PREFERRED BEFOBB PRIVATE. 199 

sense or motion ; such inward operations on the soul as work strange 
effects upon the body, visible in its disordered motions and incomposed ges- 
tures. Such workings as these have been in all ages, and may be now, from 
the spirit of darkness transforming himself into an angel of light ; and there- 
fore, if such private experiences be produced to disparage the public worship, 
the public ministry, or any other public ordinance of God (however they 
pretend to the Spirit of God), they are to be rejected. The deceits of our own 
hearts, or the delusions of that envious spirit, who has always shewed his malice 
against God's public worship, should not be admitted, to render this Scripture 
truth questionable, that public worship is to be preferred before private. 
And, indeed, the experiences of ordinary personal assistance in private duties, 
if it be made use of to this end, is to be looked upon as suspicious ; you may 
suspect it is not as it seems, if this be the issue of it. Those assistances 
which come from the Spirit of God have a better tendency than to disparage 
the public worship of God, which himself is so tender of. And this should 
he the more regarded, because it is apparent Satan has a design against 
God's public worship, and he drives it on in a subtler way than in darker 
times. He would thrust out one part of God's worship by another, that so 
at last he may deprive us of all. Mind it, then, and examine thy experiences, 
if there be a deceit in them, as many times there is. They are of no force 
against this truth, public worship is to be preferred before private. 

6. It may be the Lord seems to withdraw from thee, and to deny thee, 
spiritual assistance in public worship for trial ; to try thy love to him, and 
the ways which most honour him ; to see whether thou wilt withdraw from 
him and his worship, when he seems to withhold himself from thee ; to try 
whether thou wilt serve God for nothing, when thou seemest to find nothing 
answerable to thy attendance and endeavours. This is the hour of England's 
temptation in other things, and probably it is so in this as well as others. 
If it be so with thee, thy resolution should be that of the prophet, Isa. viii. 
17, ' I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob.' 
If this be thy case, thy esteem of his public worship should hereby be rather 
raised than abated, since this is the way to comply with the Lord's design 
in this dispensation, the way to procure more comfortable returns, more 
powerful assistance than ever. 

7. You may enjoy more of God in public, and not observe it. As there 
may be a mistake in thinking you enjoy much of God in private when you 
do not, so there may be a mistake in thinking you want the presence of God 
in public when indeed you have it. It is not the improvement of parts, 
enlargement of heart, flashes of joy, stirrings of affections, that argue most 
of God's presence ; there may be much of these when there is little of God. 
It is a humble soul, one that is poor in spirit, that trembles at the word, 
that hungers and thirsts after Christ, that is sensible of spiritual wants and 
distempers, that is burdened with his corruptions, and laments after the Lord 
and freer enjoyments of him. He whose heart is soft and pliable, whose 
conscience is tender, it is he who thrives and prospers in the inward man. 
And if these be the effects of thy attendance upon God in public worship, thou 
dost there enjoy much of God's presence, whatever thou apprehend to the 
contrary. These are far more valuable than those affections and enlarge- 
ments by which some judge of the Lord's presence in his ordinances ; for 
these are the sound fruits of a tree of righteousness, whereas those are but 
the leaves or flourishes of it, which you may sometimes find in a barren tree. 
So far as the Lord upholds in thee a poor and hungering spirit, a humble 
and thirsting heart, so far he is graciously present with thee ; for this is it 
to which he has promised a gracious presence in his ordinances, Isa. lxvi. 1, 2. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



200 PUBLIC WORSHIP TO be [Ps. LXXXVIL 2. 

The Lord speaks here as though he were not so much taken with the glory of the 
temple, no, not with the glory of heaven, as with a spirit of this temper. As sore 
as the Lord's throne is in heaven, this soul shall have his presence. The 
streams of spiritual refreshments from his presence shall water these valleyB, 
whenas high-flown confidents, that come to the ordinances with high conceits and . 
carnal boldness, shall be as the mountains, left dry and parched. See Mat. v. 
8-6. You may enjoy the presence of God in public, and not observe it Now, 
if thy experience be a mistake, no reason it should hinder thee from yielding 
to this truth, that public worship is to be preferred before private. 

8. It is to be suspected that what you want of God's presence, in public 
worship, is through your own default. Not because more of God is not to 
be enjoyed, more spiritual advantage is not to be gained in public ordinances, 
but because, through some sinful miscarriage, you make yourselves incapable 
thereof. Let this be observed, and your ways impartially examined ; and 
you will find cause to accuse yourselves, instead of objecting anything against 
the pre-eminence of public worship. There is so much self-love in us, as 
we are apt to charge anything, even the worship of God itself, rather than 
ourselves ; yea, when ourselves ought only to be charged and accused. The 
Lord's hand is not straitened, &c. The worship of God is the same, the Lord 
as much to be enjoyed in it ; no less comfort and advantage to be found in 
it than formerly (and formerly more has been enjoyed therein than in private) ; 
how comes it, then, that there is any occasion to object against it ? Why, 
our iniquities have separated between us and our God, 

Let our hearts and' ways be searched, and all, or most of all those, who 
have any temptation to object against it, will find it thus, and may discern 
the reason in themselves. 

Do ye not undervalue the public worship, and the enjoyment of God in it? 
Are ye not many times indifferent, whether ye enjoy it or no ? Is it a sad 
affliction to your souls, when ye leave the ordinances, without enjoying God 
in them ? Have ye bewailed it accordingly ? If not, you have too low 
thoughts of spiritual enjoyments to have much of them. Do ye think God 
will cast such pearls before swine, such precious things before those who 
trample on them, who contemn them ? 

Do ye not entertain some prejudice against some public ordinances, or 
against the public minister ? Even this is enough to render them less com- 
fortable, less effectual. Why was the public ministry of Christ less effectual 
amongst his own countrymen ? Why were they possessed with prejudices 
against him ? Mat. xiii. 55. 

Have ye not neglected the public worship ? Have ye absented yourselves 
from the ordinances without any necessary occasion ? Oh how common is 
this sin ! and how justly chastised, when the Lord absents himself from 
them, who are so willingly absent from his public worship. When yon 
withdraw from the public ordinances, you withdraw from God ; and is not 
here reason enough for the Lord to withdraw from you ? 

Come ye not unprepared, with slight and careless hearts, without due 
apprehensions, either of the Lord or of yourselves ? This is to affront his 
majesty, this lays his honour low, Mai. i. 6. No wonder if ye find not that 
power and quickening virtue in the ordinances ; you may find the reason in 
yourselves ; you hereby provoke the Lord to withdraw from them, and you 
in them. 

Where are your desires after public ordinances, after the presence of God 
in them, after the spiritual advantages of them ? Can ye say with him, 
4 One thing I have desired, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in 
the house of the Lord,' &c. Can ye say, ' As the hart panteth after the 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



PS. LXXXVli. 2.] PBEFEBBED BBFOBE PRIVATE. 201 

water-brooks, so pantefh my soul after thee, O God ? My soul thirsteth for 
God, when shall I come and appear before God ?' Can you say, ' My soul 
thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, to see thy glory,' &c. Can ye 
say, * My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord ; my 
heart and my flesh crieth oat for the living God.' Oh, were there bat such 
desires, there would be few such complaints, few such objections. Were 
there such desires, the Lord would quickly clothe his public ordinances with 
their wonted glory and power, cause to say, Nunquam ab$ te, absque te. But 
is it not reason they should not enjoy much, who desire so little ? 

Do ye not give way to deadness, slothfalness, carelessnes in public 
worship? Do you stir up yourselves to lay hold on God? It is the 
diligent hand that makes rich. * He becomes poor that dealeth with a slack 
hand,' Prov. x. 4. If the ordinances come not to you, as a ship laden with 
precious treasures, blame your negligence : Heb. xi. 6, * He is a rewarder of 
them that diligently seek him.' 

Do ye come in faith ? Do your thoughts and hearts work upon a pro- 
mise, when you are going to public ordinances ? You know who said it, 
* Except ye believe, ye shall not see the power of God.' If Christ could do 
no mighty works, because of their unbelief, what think ye the ordinances 
can do? 

Do ye not come for by-ends, come for something else, something worse, 
than that which you complain you find not ? Come ye not for custom, 
because it is the fashion, and shame not to come to it ? Come ye not to 
avoid the censure, the offence, the displeasure of others ? Come ye not to stop 
the mouth of conscience, to avoid its clamours ? Come ye not for niceties, 
notions, novelties, as those who seek a fine weed rather than the ears of 
corn ? Come for what you will, if ye come not to meet with God, to get 
life, to be filled with the Spirit, is it not reason why you should go without 
them? 

Do ye not neglect the after improvement of public ordinances ? Neglect 
ye not to draw out the efficacy of them in secret, by prayer, meditation, and 
the exercise of faith ? Think ye the act done is sufficient, labouring for nothing 
but what ye find in the present exercise ? Do ye think your work done 
when the minister has done ? Oh no. If you would enjoy God in the 
word, then your work should begin. The ordinances are like grapes ; it is 
not enough that they are given into your hands ; if you would have the 
sweetness and nourishment of them, they must be pressed, that is your work 
in secret. The negligence, carelessness, slothfalness of men in not improv- 
ing public ordinances in secret, causes him to withdraw himself, and his 
blessing in public. 

These, and such evils, provoke the Lord to deny his presence, withhold 
the comforts and blessed advantages of public worship ; so as others may 
enjoy more hereof in private than those that are herein guilty do find in 
puhjic. You need but read your own hearts for an answer to this objection ; 
it is not because the Lord is less to be found in public than in private, that 
you find less of him there, but because you make yourselves uncapable of 
enjoying him, unfit to find him. 

0. Suppose what is alleged were true, that you did find more joys, enlarge- 
ment, assistance in private, that there was no mistake in these experiences, 
and that they were ordinary, which I am far from granting, yet, allowing all 
the advantage imaginable in this respect to private duties, this notwithstand- 
ing, public worship is to be preferred, for divers other unanswerable reasons 
formerly given. I will but now instance in two. Public worship is a more 
public good, it is more edifying, the advantage more common and extensive, 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



public worship to be [Ps. LXXXYtL 2. 

the benefit more universal, and therefore to be preferred before private, as 
much as an universal benefit is to be preferred before a particular, a public 
good before a private. He is a man unworthy to live in a commonwealth, who 
will prefer his private interests before the public good. It is a nobleness of 
spirit to be public-spirited; the light of nature discovers an excellency in it, 
religion and gospel principles much more require it, and the Lord himself 
does commend and encourage it with special rewards. Those that profess 
themselves to be servants of God should be ashamed to be outvied herein 
by heathen. Our first question should not be, Where may I receive most 
good ? But where may I do most good ? The saving of souls should be 
preferred before our comforts, and that advantage most valued which is most 
extensive and universal. Such is the advantage of public ordinances, and 
therefore they are as far to be preferred before private, as the public good 
before a man's private interest. 

Then suppose you found more comfort, enlargement in private than in 
public worship, yet the glory of God is to be preferred before your advan- 
tages ; and therefore that whereby his glory is most advanced, before that 
wherein your particular interest is most promoted. But God is most glori- 
fied in public worship; here is given the most ample testimony to his 
glorious excellencies, here is the most public acknowledgment of his glory. 
No otherwise can we glorify him than by acknowledging his glory, and the 
more public this acknowledgment is, the more is he glorified ; but it is most 
public in public worship, and therefore this is as much to be preferred before 
private, as the glory of God before your private advantage. 

Use 1. Reproof to those that undervalue public worship. Too many there 
are worthy of this reproof, especially two sorts : 

1. Those that prefer worse things before public worship. If it be to be 
preferred before private duties, which are excellent and singularly advanta- 
geous in themselves, how heinously do they sin who prefer things that are 
base and sinful before public ordinances ; those who prefer their ease, their 
worldly employments, their lusts or unlawful recreations, before them ! 

Do not they prefer their ease before the worship of God, who will not take 
the pains, who will excuse themselves by very slight and trivial occasions 
from coming to the place of public worship ? The Lord has not made the 
way to his worship so tedious, so toilsome, as it was under the law ; there 
is not the distance of many miles betwixt us and it, nor will it cost us divers 
days' journey to have the opportunities of public worship ; we have it at our 
doors. And yet such slothfulness, such contempt there is of it, as we will 
scarce sometimes stir out of doors to enjoy these blessed liberties ; a little 
rain, a little cold, anything of like moment, we take for a sufficient excuse 
to be absent. The people of God, in former times, counted it their happi- 
ness that they might come to the public ordinances, though through rain, 
and cold, and wearisome journeys, Ps. lxxxiv. But where is this zeal for 
God's worship now ? Is there not much less, when the gospel engages us to 
much more ? May not even the unbelieving Jews rise up in judgment against 
the slothfulness of this generation, and condemn it ? No such thing would 
hinder them from coming to the gates of Zion at the appointed seasons, how 
far soever their habitations were distant from it, how unseasonable soever the 
season seemed ; yet many amongst us make every sorry thing a lion in the 
way, prefer their sloth and ease before God's public worship. 

Others prefer their worldly occasions before the public worship of God, 
willingly embrace any earthly business offered to stay from the ordinances. 
Esau was stigmatised as a profane person for preferring the pottage before 
his birthright; but they exceed Esau in profaneness who prefer the things 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Ps. LXXXVII. 2.] PRSFKBRBD BEFORE PBIYATE. 

of the world before this singular prerogative, of worshipping God in public. 
What a special privilege is this ! How few are they in the world enjoy it 1 
Does the Lord vouchsafe this honour, to have it, and himself in it con- 
temned ? Of thirty parts, into which the world may be divided, twenty-five 
are pagans or Mahometans, wholly without the true worship of God ; but 
five bear the name of Christian. And of those, when you have discounted 
the Greeks, papists, Abassines, amongst whom the worship of God is worally 
corrupted, you may judge to how small a part of mankind the Lord has 
vouchsafed his public worship in its purity. It is a special, a peculiar 
favour, a singular prerogative. Oh what profaneness is it, to prefer outward 
things, such as are common to all, to the worst of all, before this peculiar 
blessing 1 Yet how common is this profaneness 1 The thinness of our 
assemblies does daily testify it. One part of the day is thought enough by 
some, too much by others, for God's public worship; whereas we think no- 
thing too much for the world. Oh the Lord's infinite patience 1 

Others prefer their lust before it ; had rather sit in an ale-house, or in the 
seat of scorners, than wait at the posts of wisdom. Many had rather spend 
that time which the Lord has allotted for their souls, in sports and recrea- 
tions, than in the public worship ; think one whole day in seven too much, will 
rob God of all, or part of it, to recreate themselves. Oh that such profane- 
ness should be so common where the light of the gospel has so long shined ! 
The Lord prefers the gates of Zion, but these prefer Meshech and the tents 
of Kedar. I beseech you, consider the heinousness of this sin. The Lord 
styles his worship his name frequently in Scripture, as though his worship 
were as dear to him as himself. What do ye then but contemn God him- 
self, while ye despise his worship ? He that speaks it of his officers has the 
same account of his ordinances : he that despiseth them despiseth me, &c. 
And what do ye think it is to despise Christ ? How jealous has the Lord 
always shewed himself of his worship ! Some of the most remarkable judg- 
ments we meet with in Scripture have been inflicted for some miscarriage 
about his worship. For this Nadab and Abihu consumed with fire from 
heaven, for this Eli's family utterly rained, for this Uzziah smitten with 
leprosy and Uzzah with sudden death, Michal with barrenness, for an error 
in the outward part of worship. The Lord is a jealous God, jealous espe- 
cially over his worship. If you despise that, you are in danger; his jealousy 
will burn like fire against you. Now, do ye not despise it, when you prefer 
jour ease, worldly afiairs, lusts, idleness, recreations before it ? This is to 
profane the holy, the glorious name of God. And the Lord will not hold 
him guiltless; it is a /tiiW/f ; the Lord will certainly judge, surely condemn, 
him that does so. 

2. They deserve reproof who prefer private before public worship, or equal 
with it. I shall but instance in two particulars, wherein this is evident. 

(1.) When private duties are used in the time and place of public worship. 
Now, how ordinary is this amongst us 1 When you come too late to wait 
upon God, after the public worship is begun, I see it is common to fall to 
your private prayers, whatever public ordinance be in hand. Now, what is 
this but to prefer your private praying before the public worship, and so to 
despise the ordinance in hand ? What is it but to thrust public worship 
out of its season, and put private in its room ? It is held indeed a great 
point of devotion and reverence, that is the pretence for it; but this 
pretended reverence casts a real disrespect upon the public ordinance then 
used. For the mind is withdrawn from it in the sight of God, and the out- 
ward man in the sight of men ; and so public worship is hereby disrespected, 
in (he sight both of God and men. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



204 PUBLIC WORSHIP TO be [Ps. LXXXVIL 2. 

The intention may be good indeed, but that cannot justify what is sinful, 
what is evil ; for we must not do evil that good may come of it. And this 
is evil, it is sinful, since it is sinful to prefer a private duty before a public 
ordinance. 

It is against the apostle's rule, which he prescribes for the regulating of 
public assemblies : 1 Cor. xiv. 40, ' Let all things be done decently and in 
order/ Now that is net done in order, which is not done in its place and 
season ; but this is neither the place nor season for private prayers ; it is 
the time of public worship, therefore private is now unseasonable. Nor is 
this the place of private prayer ; that is thy closet, according to Christ's 
direction, Mat. vi. 6 ; and he makes it the badge of hypocrites, to use their 
private prayers in public places, ver. 5. A good thing, out of its place and 
season, may become evil, evil in the worst sense, that is, sinful. This is 
not the place, the time for your private prayers, therefore it is a disorder 
here to use them ; and what is here disorderly, is, by the apostle's rule, 
sinful, and therefore I beseech you let it be avoided. Do not expect the 
Lord will accept your private devotion, when it casts disrespect upon his 
public worship, which he himself prefers, and will have us to prefer before 
private. 

(2.) When men absent themselves from public worship, under pretence 
that they can serve the Lord at home as well in private. How many are 
apt to say, they see not but their time may be as well spent at home, in 
praying, reading some good book, or discoursing on some profitable subject, 
as in the use of ordinances in public assemblies ! They see not but private 
prayer may be as good to them as public, or private reading and opening 
the Scripture as profitable as public preaching; they say of their private 
duties, as Naaman of the waters of Damascus, 2 Kings v. 12. May I not 
serve the Lord as acceptably, with as much advantage, in private exercises 
of religion ? May I not wash in these and be clean ? They see not the 
great blessings God has annexed to public worship more than to private. 
Oh, but if it be thus, if one be as good as the other, what means the Lord to 
prefer one before the other ? To what purpose did the Lord choose the 
gates of Zion, to place his name there, if he might have been worshipped as 
well in the dwellings of Jacob ? How do men of thiB conceit run counter 
to the Lord ? He prefers the gates of Zion, not only before one or some, 
bat before all the dwellings of Jacob ; and they prefer one such dwelling 
before the gates of Zion. What is this but to disparage the wisdom of God, 
in preferring one before another when both are equal ; in preferring that 
which is unworthy to be preferred ? What presumption is this, to make 
yourselves wiser than God, and to undertake to correct him ? He says the 
gates of Zion are to be loved, public worship before private ; you say no, 
you see no reason but one should be loved as well as the other. Who art 
thou, man, who thus disputest against God ? 

To conclude this use, let me shew you the sinfulness of preferring private 
worship before public, in the fore-mentioned or other respects, by applying 
what has been delivered. To prefer private before public, or by not pre- 
ferring public before private, in your judgment, affection, or practice, you 
neglect the glory of God, which is here most advanced ; you slight the pre- 
sence of God, which is here most vouchsafed, that presence which is the 
greatest happiness the people of God can expect, in heaven or on earth. 
You undervalue the manifestation of God, those blessed visions of life and 
peace, which are most evidently, most comfortably, here represented ; those 
manifestations which are the dawnings of approaching glory, the first glimpses 
of the beatifical vision. You contemn those blessed soul advantages which 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Pa. LXXXYII. 2.] prefebbed bepobe private. 205 

are here more plentifully gained ; you prefer a private supposed benefit 
before public edification ; yon expose yourselves to the danger of backslid- 
ing, which is here more effectually prevented ; you contemn the Lord's 
greatest works upon the souls of sinners, which are here ordinarily effected ; 
you slight heaven, which is here in a more lively manner resembled ; you 
disparage the judgment of the most renowned servants of God, who in all 
ages have confirmed this truth by their testimony or practice ; you make 
yourselves less capable of procuring public mercies, or diverting public 
calamities, slighting the means most conducible to this end ; you undervalue 
the blood of Christ, whose influence is here most powerful ; you despise 
those great and precious promises of the gospel, which are more engaged for 
public worship than private. Ohy consider how heinous that sin is, which 
involves the soul in so much guilt, which is attended with so many pro- 
voking evils ; bewail this sin, so far as thou art guilty of it, and let the sin- 
fulness thereof engage thee to be watchful against it. 

Use 2, of exhortation. Be exhorted to give to the public worship of God 
the glory that is due to it ; let it have the pre-eminence which the Lord has 
given it ; prefer it before private, in your thoughts, in your affections, in 
your practice. Get higher thoughts of public ordinances, get affections 
answerable to those apprehensions ; manifest both by a frequent affectionate 
use of these ordinances, by your praises for the enjoyment, by your prayers 
for the continuance of them. A duty this is which the text requires, a duty 
which these times call for. When there is so mnoh disrespect cast upon the 
worship of God, your endeavours should be more for the advancement of it. 
This is the way to shew yourselves faithful to God, stedfast and upright, in 
the midst of a declining generation. This duty always finds acceptance with 
God ; but now he will take it better, because there is a stream of tempta- 
tion, of opposition against it. Oh let not your souls enter into their secret, 
who dishonour God, by despising his public worship ; who blaspheme God, 
by speaking contemptibly of his name, that name which he records amongst 
as, and thereby does graciously distinguish as from the neglected world. I 
might enforce this with many motives ; but what more forcible than this in 
the text ? * The Lord loves the gates of Zion, more than all the dwellings 
of Jacob.' Those that thus do are herein like the Lord. This is the highest 
pitch of excellency that angels or men can aspire to, to be conformable to the 
Lord, to be like him, to have any resemblance of him. Why, this is the 
way ; when we thus love, prefer the public worship, the like mind is in us 
that is in the Lord (so far as likeness may be admitted, where there is an 
infinite distance), herein you will be followers of God as dear children. 
Whereas those who despise the public worship of God, despise God himself, 
comply with Satan in one of his most mischievous designs against God and 
his people, and hereby do what in them lies to lay his honour in the dust. 
It is not out of any respect of private duties that Satan endeavours to ad- 
vance them above public worship ; his design is to withdraw professors 
from both, he knows they stand or fail together, and the event proves it. 
You will find those that withdraw from public worship will not long make 
conscience of private ; except the Lord break Satan's design, by a sudden 
reducing them. If you will not be carried away with the error of the wicked, 
and fall into the snare of the devil, keep up the honour of public worship. 
To that end observe these directions. 

1. Get high thoughts of God. The Lord and his worship are so nearly 
related, as they are either esteemed or despised together. He that has 
high thoughts of God, will have suitable apprehensions of his worship, 
wherein his glory most appears, Ps. cii. 16. We see it in David. None 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



206 PUBLIC WORSHIP TO be [Ps. LXXXVH. 2. 

had higher apprehensions of God; see with what raised expressions he 
extols him, Ps. cxlvi. And none had a higher esteem of public worship, as 
appears in those affectionate (expressions formerly alleged. If yon have 
high thoughts of God, that will he of high esteem with yon, wherein he 
most appears, wherein he is most enjoyed. ' In the temple will every one 
speak of his glory/ for in public worship he appears most glorious. If ye 
have low thoughts of God, no wonder if you undervalue his worship ! If 
you have a high esteem of God, you will have an answerable esteem of his 
name, of his worship. So Ps. xlviii., they profess their high thoughts of 
Zion, the public ordinances, ver. 2, 8, and the reason you may see : ver. 9, 
1 We have thought of thy loving-kindness, God, in the midst of thy 
temple!* If you apprehend God as great, and holy, and fearful, and 
glorious, it will help you to such thoughts of his worship as becomes his 
great, and holy, and fearful name. His worship is his name. 

2. Get due apprehensions of those things, whereupon the pre-eminence of 
public worship is grounded. It follows, ver. 8, ' Glorious things,' Ac, t. e. 
of the church and ordinances of God. It was the city of God in these 
respects, and in no other respect could so glorious things be spoken of it. 
Here is the sweetest enjoyment of God, the clearest discoveries of his glory, 
the powerful workings of the Spirit, the precious blood of Christ in its force 
and efficacy, the exceeding great and precious promises in their sweetest 
influences, spiritual life and strength, soul comforts and refreshments, the 
conversion of sinners, the edification of the body of Christ, the salvation of 
souls. These are the glorious things that are spoken of public worship ; 
get a high esteem of these, and public worship will be highly valued. 
Look upon public ordinances in their glory, as they give the greatest glory 
to the God of heaven, as they are the greatest glory of his people on earth, 
and this will raise a spiritual mind to high apprehensions of them. Will 
you not honour that which is most honourable to God, that which is your 
greatest honour ? Here the Lord, if anywhere in the world, receives the 
glory due unto his name, Ps. xxix. 1, 2. To worship God in public is the 
way to give him the glory due to his name ; and is not this of highest value ? 
It is your glory too. Public ordinances are the glory of the people that 
enjoy, that improve them. Where the Lord has placed his name, there his 
honour dwells. When the Lord has erected his public worship in a place, 
then glory dwells in that land ; when this is removed, the glory is departed. 
That which is most your glory, challenges your highest esteem. Look upon 
this as your glory, and then you will account it highly valuable. 

8. Delight in the worship of God. We soon disrespect that which we 
take no pleasure in; and, therefore, when the Lord is commanding the 
sanctifying of his Sabbath, he joins these : Isa. lviii. 18, ' If thou turn away 
thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and 
call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable,' &c. If it be 
not your delight, it will not be honourable. If you be of their temper who 
say, * When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn ; and the 
Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat ¥ Amos viii. 5 ; if public ordinances, 
praying, preaching, be a burden to you : not only private duties, but the 
base things of the world, will take place of it in your minds and hearts. 
When we are weary of a thing, take no pleasure in it, we easily give way 
to any suggestion that may disparage it. Let the worship of God be your 
delight, the joy and solace of your souls. Be glad of all opportunities to 
worship God in public, in season, and out of season, like David : Ps. cxxii. 1, 
' I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord.' 
Let it be your meat and drink to be thus employed ; go, as to a feast ; sit 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



PS. LXXXVli. 2.] PBEFERBED BEFORE PBIVATB. 207 

down under the shadow with great delight, while the fruits of ordinances, the 
shadow of heavenly enjoyments, are sweet. 

4. Get spiritual hearts. All the glory of public worship is spiritual, and 
spiritual things are spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. ii. 14. A carnal man cannot 
discern that which renders the public ordinances so highly valuable. Cus- 
tom, and other respects, may persuade him- to use them, but he will never 
perceive the glory, the spiritual value of God's worship, till he have a 
spiritual eye. Christ himself was foolishness to the Greeks, because they 
saw no further than his outside, 1 Cor. i. 28. So was the preaching of 
Christ to carnal Jews and Gentiles ; so it is, more or less, to all natural 
men, except some outward respect, some plausible ornament commend it. 
A spiritual eye can discern a glory in public worship, when the outside seems 
mean and contemptible. As the unbelieving Jews of Christ, so carnal men 
of his ordinances ; there is no form nor comeliness therein to command 
any extraordinary respect; they see no beauty therein that they should 
desire them. 

6. Look upon the public ordinances with the eye of faith. If you consult 
only with sense, you will be apt to say as the Assyrian, What are the waters 
of Jordan more than the rivers of Damascus ? What is there in public read- 
ing the word, more than reading at home? What is there in public 
preaching, more than in another good discourse ? Sense will discern no 
more in one than in the other ; but the eye of faith looks through the pros- 
pect of a promise, and so makes greater, more glorious discoveries ; passes 
through the mean outside, to the discovery of a special, an inward glory ; 
sees a special blessing, a special assistance, a special presence, a special ad- 
vantage, in public worship ; no way so discoverable as by the eye of faith 
through a promise. Unbelievers want this perspective, and therefore see no 
further than the outside. 

Faith can see the wisdom of God in that preaching, which the blind world 
counts foolishness, as they did the apostle's ; can see a glory in those ordi- 
nances which, in the eyes of carnal men, are mean and contemptible. When 
the child Jesus lay in the manger, a poor, despicable condition, the wise 
men saw, through those poor swaddling clothes, such a glory as commanded 
their wonder and adoration, whenas many others, in the same inn, saw no 
such thing. And why so ? The wise men looked upon the child Jesus 
through that intimation, that word from fieaven, whereby he was made 
known to them. The outside of public worship, now under the gospel, is 
but like those poor swaddling clothes ; but Christ is wrapped in them, there 
is a spiritual glory within, which a believer discerns, and accordingly values 
them, whenas an unbeliever sees no such thing. That worship, which, to 
sense and unbelief is mean and contemptible, is to faith, looking through 
a promise, the most glorious administration under heaven. The eye of faith 
must be opened, else the ordinances will not be valued. The Lord has given 
more encouragements to faith under the gospel, and therefore may expect 
more exercise of it, than under the law. And his dispensations are answer- 
able. His children under the law were in their minority and nonage, Gal. 
iv. 1. The outside of his worship was then glorious, the administration of 
it in state and pomp, he allowed the children that which would please their 
senses ; but now, under the gospel, they are come to riper age, he allows 
no such gay outside, prescribes no such pomp as sense is taken with ; the 
glory is spiritual, and such as is only visible to faith. And yet the glory of 
the second temple is greater than the first, the public worship under the 
gospel is more glorious than under the law. Though there be no golden 
censer in the ark, overlaid with gold, no cherubims of glory shadowing the 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



208 PUBLIC WORSHIP TO BE [Ps. LXXXVII. 2. 

mercy-seat, no such ornament to take the senses, yet there is a far more 
exceeding glory, 2 Cor. iii. 11, bat it is such a glory as is only discerned 
by the eye of faith. This yon must exercise if yon would give to the public 
worship of God the glory that is due to it. 

6. Labour to draw out the virtue and efficacy of public ordinances, to 
make the utmost improvements of them. When you find the refreshing 
comforts, the blessed advantages of public worship, you will not need many 
motives to give them their due honour: Ps. xlviii. 8, ' As we have heard, so 
have we seen,' &c. When they had not only heard, but seen, what God 
was to his people in his public worship, no wonder if they express their high 
esteem of it : ver. 1-3, ' Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the 
city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, 
the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, 1 &c. 

Now, that you may reap such advantage by them as may raise your 
esteem of them, 

1. Come not unprepared. No wonder if unfruitfulness under the ordi- 
nances be so common, when neglect of preparation is so ordinary : Eccles. 
v. 2, ' Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter 
anything before God/ Come not rashly, without due consideration with 
whom you have to do, and what you are a-doing. Come not with guilt 
and pollution upon your consciences, Ezek. xxiii. 21, 29. This is it from 
which we must be separate, if we would have God receive us, 2 Cor. 
vi. 17. Come not with minds and affections entangled in the world : * Put 
off thy shoes,' &c. Come not with careless, indisposed spirits, with hearts 
unfixed, Ps. lvii. 7. Come not with that carnal, dull temper, which your 
hearts contract by meddling with the world. Plough up the fallow ground. 
If you sow among thorns, you will reap little to raise your esteem : Ps. xxvi. 
6, ' I will wash mine hands in innocency, so will I compass thine altar, 
Lord.' He alludes to the custom of the priests, enjoined under the law 
to wash their hands and feet, when they went about the service of the taber- 
nacle. And this was exemplary to the people then, to us now, to teach us 
with what preparedness we should approach God. 

2. Get acquainted with your spiritual condition. Come apprehensive of 
the state of your souls, whether it be the state of grace or nature, what 
your spiritual wants, what your inward distempers, what your temptations 
are; else you may hear much to little purpose, not discerning what is 
seasonable ; else many a petition may pass unobserved, when you know not 
what most concerns you. Oh, if professors knew their soul's condition punc- 
tually, and were throughly affected with it, the word would come in season, 
it would be like apples of gold, the ordinances would be as rain upon the 
new-mown grass, they would distil a fruitful influence, and their souls would 
grow as the lily. 

8. Come with hearts hungering after the enjoyment of Christ in his ordi- 
nances. This affection has the promise: Mat. v., 'He filleth the hungry 
with good things/ Sense of emptiness and indigency brings you under the 
aspect of this promise, under the sweet and gracious influences of it ; whereas 
conceitedness of our own abundance, senselessness of our spiritual poverty, 
shuts up the treasury of heaven against us, ' The rich he sends empty away/ 
Ps. lxxxi. 10. Our souls should stretch themselves wide open, in earnest 
longings after God ; this is the way to be filled with the rich blessings of 
spiritual ordinances. 

4. Use the ordinances with holy fear and reverence, Ps. ii. 11, and iii. 7. 
That confidence which the Lord approves in his children is not a caraa 
boldness, such as some mistake in the room of it. When we are admitted 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



PS. LXXXVII. 2. J PREFERRED BEFORE PRIVATE. 209 

to most intimacy and familiarity with Christ, when we are invited to kiss the 
Son ; yet there is a holy fear required : ' Serve the Lord with fear/ &c. 
When we have cause to rejoice in the Lord's gracious condescension to ns 
poor worms, yet then we must tremble in apprehension of that overpower- 
ing glory and excellency to which we approach, Heb. xii. 28. The house, 
which the Lord prefers before the temple, is a trembling heart, Isa. lxvi. 
And if he choose it for his habitation, he will richly furnish it ; his presence 
will be to it light and life, joy and strength, grace and glory. 

5. What you do in public worship, do it with all your might. Shake off 
that slothful, indifferent, lukewarm temper, which is so odious to God. Let 
your whole man tender this worship. Think it not enough to present your 
bodies before the Lord. Bodily worship profits as little as bodily exercise. 
The worship of the body is but the carcase of worship ; it is soul worship 
that is the soul of worship. Those that draw near with their lips only shall 
find God far enough from them ; not only lips, and mouth, and tongue, but 
mind, and heart, and affections ; not only knee, and hand, and eye, but 
heart, and conscience, and memory, must be pressed to attend upon God 
in public worship. David says, not only ' my flesh longs for thee/ but ' my 
soul thirsts for thee.' Then will the Lord draw near, when our whole man 
waits on him ; then will the Lord be found, when we seek him with our 
whole heart. 

Let your whole man wait upon God ; serve him so with all your might. 
Let his worship be your work, and be as diligent in it for your souls, as you 
are in other employments for your bodies. Spiritual slothfulness is the rain of 
souls, it brings them to consumptions, it leaves them languishing under sad 
distempers. Those that will not stir up themselves to lay hold on God, 
will be bowed down under many infirmities. Soul- poverty will be the issue 
of spiritual sloth, Prov. xviii.,-' a great waster.' So far from increasing the 
stock of grace, as he will greatly waste it, Prov. xx. 4. It holds in a spiri- 
tual sense. His soul shall be in a beggarly condition, as though it had 
nothing, even in harvest, in the midst of plenty, when others are reaping the 
sweet fruits of public ordinances, and laying up store against winter, against 
an evil day. In the midst of their plenty, the spiritual sluggard shall have 
nothing, Prov. xii. 17. It is the diligent man that shall be enriched with 
precious substance, even the precious advantages of public worship. The 
Lord is the rewarder of those that seek him diligently. Those that are 
diligent in preparing for it, diligent in attending on it, diligent in after 
improvement of the ordinances, this man's soul shall be rich, rich towards 
God. The Lord will bless him with such spiritual riches, in the use of 
public ordinances, as will raise his esteem of them. 



END OF DISCOURSES. 



vol. m. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



THE PRACTICAL DIVINITY OF THE PAPISTS 



DISCOVERED TO BE DESTBUCTIYB OP 



CHRISTIANITY AND MENS SOULS. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



[As this is a polemical treatise, it has been deemed necessary to use 
more than ordinary care in verifying the numerous quotations. Almost 
the whole have been so verified, and may be depended upon as abso- 
lutely accurate. — Ed.] 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



AN ADVERTISEMENT. 



I have always thought, since I considered and understood what popery was, 
that the knowing of it would he a sufficient dissuasive from it, to those 
that regard God and their souls. This persuasion, together with compas- 
sion for those that are seduced, and desire to secure those that are in danger, 
engaged me in this present undertaking ; wherein I have discovered what 
the practical divinity of that church is, how pernicious, and inconsistent with 
the way to salvation declared in the Scripture. I have herein the concur- 
rence of some (few in comparison) of that church, who are sensible of such 
doctrine prevailing amongst them, as they say is absolutely opposite to the 
rules and spirit of the gospel ; i such as no man that hath never so little ten- 
derness of his own salvation, but must conceive an horror at ; ' such as they 
call a poisonous morality, more corrupt than that of pagans themselves ; 3 
and which permits Christians to do, what pagans, Jews, Mahometans, and 
barbarians, would have had in execration ; * such as is, in their style, the 
most palpable darkness that ever came out of the bottomless pit ; * such 
as overthrows the essential points of Christian religion, and the maxims that 
are most important, and of greatest necessity, in order to the salvation 
of men. 6 Of this they have given the world notice in several dis- 
courses, 7 two of which I have seen (though unhappily not the latter, 
till I had gone through the greatest part of what I intended). As to the 
extent of this execrable divinity, they declare, that whole societies would 
have these extravagancies accounted Roman traditions ; « that the church is 
overgrown with this poisonous morality ; that it is ready to be overwhelmed 
with the deluge of these corruptions; that tjie church is filled with this most 
palpable darkness. 9 Elsewhere they seem to fix this charge upon the 
Jesuits principally, as if they would have it thought not to reach much 
further ; but withal tell us, that the Jesuits are the most numerous and the 
most powerful body of men in the whole church, and have the disposal of 
the consciences of all the greatest. l0 80 that I can represent them no worse 

1 Representation of Cures of Paris, p. 8. * Page 4. 

* Their Remonstrance, p. 2. 

* Their Answer maintaining the Factum, p. 8. * Ibid. 

* Ibid. p. 12. 

Provincial Letters, Jesuits 1 Morals. 

Remonstrance of Cures of Paris. 

Answer maintaining the Factum. " Ibid. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



4 AM ADVERTISEMENT. 

than some of themselves do ; and the worst that can be said falls, by their 
own acknowledgment, upon the most considerable part of their church. That 
they should so far accuse the whole, cannot be expected (whatever occasion 
there be for it), so long as they think fit to continue in its communion. But 
then, if we regard those who are so great a part of the church upon the 
account of their numbers, and more in respect of their authority and in- 
fluence, the maxims so branded,! are Roman traditions, 1 the true doctrine of 
faith, the true morality of the church, not asserted by that society alone, but 
equally (if not more) by Catholic writers of all sorts ; and those that quarrel 
thereat are factious spirits. Hereby, so far as the testimony of adversaries 
against themselves can clear a matter in question, there is evidence, both 
that the practical doctrine amongst them is pernicious and damnable, and 
also that it is common and generally followed. 

I intend not here to impeach any maxim peculiar to the Jesuits, but that 
doctrine of the Romanists which is far more extensive, delivered by canon- 
ists and divines, secular and regular, of every sort, and in part by the canon 
law and their councils (who sometimes glance at this subject, though they 
make it not their business) ; that which in most particulars, and those of 
greatest moment, is ancienter than the Society ; and in many points such, 
as the censurers of the Jesuits' morality do not touch, but either approve 
themselves, or dare not condemn, lest they should involve the whole church 
in the condemnation. I cannot discern that the practical divinity of the 
Jesuits is more corrupt than that of other Romish writers, their contempo- 
raries ; and those that view the moral discourses of both, and compare them, 
will (if I much mistake not) discern no other. I never yet met with any 
author of that order so intolerably licentious, but might be matched, if not 
outvied, by others. There is no need to except Escobar or Bauny (though 
most branded), nor do their keen antagonists do it, when they speak of others 
whom they know to be no Jesuits, as the most extravagant that ever were. a 
There is no reason why the odium which a community incurs should be 
appropriated to a party ; nor that the Society only should be noted as the 
sink, when the corruption is apparent everywhere. So far as the Jesuits 
are concerned herein, it hath been sufficiently exposed by others ; upon 
which account I decline those of that order, not putting the reader to rely 
upon any evidence from their writing. Only because it is requisite to shew 
their concurrence in some points, which otherwise might not pass for the 
common doctrine, I make use of Bellarmine freely (whom none can count a 
corrupter of popery, however Christianity hath been treated by him), and of 
Suarez sometimes (whose judgment alone is counted equivalent to a thousand 
others, by some 4 that are none of the Society). I allege beside, though 
rarely, one or two more of those fathers, of like eminency and authority in 
that church ; but none of them, save in such points wherein they have not 
been noted for extravagancies by others ; or in such wherein those of other 
orders concur with, or go beyond them. The greatest advantage I make of 
them, is to represent the opinions of others, not their own ; and most herein 
of Suarez, who usually gives an account of the common doctrine out of un- 
exceptionable authors. Those whom I principally rely on to make good the 
charge, are the ancienter and better sort of their divines and casuists (the 
strictest of them in points of morality that I could meet with), such as are so 
far from being disciples of Ignatius, that most of them are Dominicans (most 
opposite of all orders to the Jesuits, and said to be the least tainted with 
these corruptions), and the greatest part of them were writers before their 

1 Supra. * Remonstrance of the Cures of Paris. 

* Defence of the Factum. « Vid. Jo. Sane. Disp. 44, n. 41. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



AN ADVXBTISBMENT. 6 

order was founded, or appeared to the world on this subject. To these I 
have added other casuists of this last age, not that there is need to produce 
any worse than the former, but to shew that time hath made little or no 
alteration amongst them for the better. 

The Romanists, when they are ashamed of their doctrine, or think the 
world will cry shame of it, are wont to disown it. It is like they may do so 
here, and tell us that these points, not being determined by councils, are not 
the doctrine of their church, but the opinions of particular doctors. This 
serves them for a shift in other cases with some colour, but it will be absurd 
to offer at it here. For though this be not their doctrine of faith, which 
with some generals, most about the sacraments, (reflected on in the sequel as 
there is occasion) is the business of their councils ; yet it is the practical 
doctrine of their church, if it have any, and if they think their catholics con- 
cerned to be Christians more than merely in opinion. And this, under several 
heads, I have collected out of such writings as are the proper place of it. 
Therefore, to say that this is not the doctrine of their church, because the 
particulars are not found decided by councils, is to tell us that they are not 
charged with it, unless we can find it, where they know it cannot be found, 
and where, with any reason, it cannot be looked for. It is no more reason- 
able than if one, who hath taken a purse, should plead, though it be found 
in his hand, that he is not to be charged with it, unless we can spy it in his 
mouth, when yet he never opens it. That councils should give particular 
directions for conscience and practice, in cases innumerable, was never 
attempted, nor ever can be expected. Their church leaves this to her divines 
and casuists ; and that nothing may pass them but what is agreeable to her 
sense, no books are to be published, but with the approbation and authority 
of such as are counted competent judges hereof; so that the doctrine of their 
authorised writers, that especially wherein they commonly agree, is the prac- 
tical doctrine of that church, or else she hath none such, and consequently 
no care of the lives and consciences of her members ; and though this be not 
infallible, or defide, as they count the decisions of councils, yet is it as cer- 
tain, they say, as the nature of the subject requires, nor do they pretend to 
have any infallible doctrine for particular directions herein ; which yet may 
justly seem very strange to any man that considers that gross faults in life 
and practice are more infallibly damnable than errors in faith and specula- 
tion. Now, upon this their common doctrine, the substance of the charge 
ensuing, and the principal articles thereof, are grounded. As for the opinions 
of particular doctors, wherein there is no such common concurrence, though 
they be not so certain as the other, yet they are (even the worst of them) 
safe in practice, any of their people may follow them without danger, and 
with a good conscience ; for this (as will appear hereafter) is the common 
judgment of their schools and doctors, and so far the doctrine of their church. 
And if that church did no farther own these opinions, common or particular, 
then, under this character, this is enough for our purpose (when the question 
is of the danger of popery in reference to men's salvation), that she counts 
such rules of life safe, and publicly allows them as direction for practice, 
which tend to ruin religion and men's souls. If they were not counted safe, 
that church which pretends to so much care of souls, since all in her com- 
munion are exposed to the danger, would be concerned to give warning of it, 
and brand these maxims as pernicious ; but this was never yet done, nor ever 
like to be. These opinions, all, or the greatest part of them, were taught 
and published in that church, before the Council of Trent ; there was time 
enough, in eighteen years, to take cognisance of them and their pernicious 
consequence ; yet, when they bestowed anathemas so liberally, where there 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



6 AN ADVERTISEMENT. 

was occasion, and (for the most part) where there was none, they thought 
not fit to bestow one curse upon these doctrines, how execrable soever ; yea, 
some part thereof of worst consequence had there an express confirmation. 
Their popes since, though they could see occasion to condemn such propo- 
sitions as the five ascribed to Jansenins, and those of Bains, White, and 
many others, could not, by the help of a judgment counted infallible, discern 
anything in the worst of these doctrines worthy of, or fit foe, their censure. 
The cardinals of the inquisition at Borne, and their setters in other countries, 
whose business it is to spy whatever (in books particularly) is against faith 
and good manners, see nothing of this nature in that which destroys both. 
No expurgatory index (what havoc soever has been made by those tools in 
their best authors) hath, so far as I have observed, touched the common 
opinions here exposed. It is true, some others have been expunged, and I 
find above forty opinions of the late casuists censured by Alexander the 
Seventh, and the cardinals of their sacred congregation ; l but hereby more 
authority is added to those I insist on, being thought good enough to pass 
untouched ; which must therefore be counted sound doctrine and safe for 
practice in the judgment of their virtual church, and the chief parts of their 
church representative. 

There is no ground to expect that this doctrine, as to the principal and 
most pernicious parts of it, will ever be condemned by any popes or councils 
of such complexion and principles as that of Trent, where it was a maxim 
observed religiously, that no determination should pass, which either in matter 
or form would disoblige any considerable party among them, much less all. 
The Roman interest is supported by such politics, and must be secured, 
whatever become of souls or saving doctrine. There are indeed some dis- 
senters amongst them (as there are elsewhere) who complain of their moral 
divinity, but they are such whose power and interest can reach little further 
than complaints ; and these are so far from being the voice or sense of their 
church, that their writings which exhibit such complaints are condemned at 
Borne 9 by the supreme tribunal (as they call it) of the inquisition. 

In short, by the known custom and settled order of the Roman church, 
the people, for regulating of their hearts and lives, are to be directed by their 
confessors, their confessors have their direction herein from their casuists 
and practical authors ; both priests and people must believe this to be safe, 
because the church hath made this provision for them, approves the course, 
and obligeth them to take no other. And thus that doctrine, the deadly 
venom whereof I here discover, must be conveyed from their casuists to all 
sorts amongBt them ; nor must they fear any danger in it, unless they will 
question the wisdom and goodness of their church. There can be no ques- 
tion but that this doctrine is thus far owned by the church of Borne; whether 
it be delivered fallibly or infallibly, by councils or without, is not at all here 
considerable. It is enough that such is the conduct provided for Roman 
catholics, and that it is to be followed without apprehension of danger, and 
cannot be declined by those that will keep the ordinary road of that church, 
though it lead directly to destruction. 

When no other shift will serve, to hinder those from being undeceived 
whom they would delude, it is usual with them to make loud outcries of 
false citations, and that their doctrine is misrepresented. I have been very 
careful to give no just occasion for this, being apprehensive that he who doth 
it wrongs not them more than he doth himself and his cause. The places 
cited I have viewed again and again, where there might be any doubt of mis- 
construction, and set down their own words where it might seem scarce 
1 Index Expurg. sub Alexand. VII. Ad. 16G6. ■ Ibid. 



Digitized by 



Google 



AN ADVERTISEMENT. 7 

credible that Christians and divines (directing conscience) should speak at 
such a rate ; and where that would have been too tedious, have given their 
sense faithfully, so far as I could discern it, and directed the reader where 
he may find and judge thereof himself. Yet if, notwithstanding all the care 
and diligence I could use, it hath been my unhappiness anywhere to mistake 
them, upon notice from any I shall do them right ; and am capable to give 
them further satisfaction, knowing well that I am yet far from representing 
their doctrine fully so bad as it is. Large volumes might be filled with the 
corruptions of it ; I have but pointed at some, and contented myself with few 
authors in many particulars, where plenty might have been produced. I 
designed briefness, and have waived much that was ready, lest I should be 
tedious, considering that seme who are most concerned in such discourses 
will have nothing at all when they think too much is offered. 

I have been less solicitous about the style ; it doth not always satisfy my- 
self, so that I can allow others to find fault with it ; it may be thought some- 
times less grave, elsewhere too sharp and vehement. I suffered it to be 
what the subject would have it ; and the quality thereof now and then over- 
ruled me, somewhat against my own inclination. Only I make nothing 
ridiculous, but find it so, and should scarce do it right if I represented it 
otherwise than it is. Where I seem too sharp or severe upon any occasion, 
I found something in the nature of the subject that forced me to it. And 
it is not easy (if it be congruous or just) to speak of what is monstrously 
extravagant or pernicious, with such calmness as we treat indifferent things. 

It will be enough for me if (through God's blessing) people will hereby 
be brought to understand that popery designs not to trouble them either with 
the reality of religion, or the happiness which Christ has entailed thereon. 
And that their practical doctrine is contrived accordingly, will, I doubt not, 
be hereby manifest to all such as have a mind to see, and are not wilfully 
resolved to lose the way to salvation, and their souls together, by shutting 
their eyes against so plain a discovery of so great a danger. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



INTRODUCTION. 



The danger of popery in points of faith hath been sufficiently discovered to 
the world by the divines of the Beformation, but their doctrine, which con- 
cerns life and practice, hath not been so much insisted on. And yet there 
is as much occasion for this ; for here the mischief is as great, an unchris- 
tian heart and life being at least as damning as erroneous belief; and hereby 
the great apostasy and degeneracy of the papal church is as apparent, and 
herein they have proceeded with as much disregard of Christ and the souls 
of men. Their design in this seems to have been, not the promoting of 
Christ's interest (for that is manifestly prostituted), but the securing and 
greatening of a faction, which, under the profession of Christianity, might 
be false to all its realities. And their rule is the corrupt inclinations of 
depraved nature, to which they have throughly conformed their practical 
divinity, which easeth it of the duties for which it hath an aversation, how 
much soever enjoined, and clears its way to those sins to which it is dis- 
posed, as though there were no need to avoid them. This rule serves their 
design with great advantage ; but souls are more endangered hereby, and 
their principles become more pernicious, because they are so taking. Per- 
suade a man that he may safely neglect the duties which he owes to God, 
his own soul, and others, and may gratify the lusts he is addicted to, and 
give him the maxims of religion, and the authority and conclusions of 
divines, and the teachers whom he trusts, for it, and he will like that reli- 
gion, because he loves his sin, and is in danger to follow both, though he 
perish for it eternally. And indeed this is it which makes the condition of 
papists deplorable ; for though the principles of their belief, as it is popish, 
be mortally poisonous, yet there might be some antidote in the practical of 
Christianity, retained and followed by those who are unavoidably ignorant of 
the danger of their more speculative errors, and so some hopes of such ; but 
their practical doctrine being no less corrupted, the remedy itself becomes 
poison, and their condition who freely let it down hopeless. Whether their 
errors in matters of faith be directly fundamental hath been with some of 
their opposers a question, but those who will view their practical doctrine 
may discern that it strikes through the heart of Christianity, casting off the 
vitals of it as superfluities, and cuts off those who will believe and follow it 
from the way of life ; not only by encouraging them with security to live and 
die in all sorts of wickedness, but also by obliging them to neglect, as need- 
less, the greatest and most important concerns of Christians, without which 
God cannot be honoured by us, nor salvation attained. This will be apparent 
by observing what is determined in that church by those who have the con- 
duct of their lives and consciences, concerning the worshipping of God, 
Christian knowledge, love to God, faith in Christ, repentance from dead 
works, and holiness of life ; as to the exercise of Christian virtues, the 
abandoning of sin, and the practice of good works ; of all which in particular 
the following discourse gives an account. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



THE PRACTICAL DIVINITY OF THE PAPISTS 

DISCOVERED TO BE DE8TBUOTTVE OF 

CHRISTIANITY AND MEN'S SOULS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Real worship of God not necessary in the Church of Rome. 

There is nothing wherein the honour of God and the happiness of men is 
more concerned than divine worship. Religion provides for these great ends 
by obliging us to worship God ; this it doth indispensably, and can do no 
less without abandoning itself; for this is essential to it, 1 and gives it being. 
And the truth and goodness of it depends as much thereon ; for no religion 
is true and saving but that which obligeth to worship God really. Now 
worship is not real unless mind and heart concur in it ; whatever it hath, 
without this it wants* its life and soul, and is no more worship really than a 
picture is a man. Hence Christ brands those who draw near to God with 
their lips, without their hearts, for hypocrites, Mat. zv. 7, 8, Mark vii. 6 ; 
such as pretend to be what they are not, and to do what really they do not; 
who are but worshippers in show and fiction ; no more so indeed than the 
stage-player is the prince whose part he acts. The Romanists seem to 
acknowledge all this, and therefore ought not to deny but that it is as neces- 
sary that God should be really worshipped, as it is needful that he should 
have any honour in the world, or that there should be any true religion 
amongst men, or salvation for them. Yet notwithstanding, their practical 
doctrine makes it needless to worship God really. That this may be fully 
and distinctly manifested, let us observe, first, what they count requisite in 
divine service and in their mass. The former is their worship for every day 
(which goes under the name of canonical hours and the divine office), and is 
the proper service of their clergy and monastics ; the latter is for holidays, 
and is common to the people with the religious, and the only public service 
they are ordinarily obliged to. Afterwards we may reflect upon what else 

1 Religio est virtus per qnam homines Deo dcbitnm cnltam et reverentiam exhibent. 
— Tullius dicit, ii. Rhet. quod religio est virtus, qo» snperiori cuidam natnro (quam 
drrinam Tocant) cnltnm caremoniamqne affert. — Aquinas ii. 2, q. lxxxi. art. i. 

* Nam spirit us interior adoration is, qui est ipsa vita et aniroa adorationis exterioris, 
apeltatnr quoqne ipsa Teritas adorationis. — Vatquez de Adorat, 1 i. disp. i. cap. ii. 
p. 18. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



10 BBAL WORSHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

passeth under the notion of worship in public, and also take some notice of 
their devotions, or religions employments in private. 

For the first of these, their divine service, if there were anything of reli- 
gion or religions worship counted needful amongst them, it would be required 
of their clergy, and those whom by way of eminency they call religious, in 
their divine office especially (if anywhere) ; but by their doctrine it is not 
needful for them to worship God really there, unless he can be said to be 
worshipped where both himself and all that concerns worshippers indeed 
may (as it may by their leave) be quite neglected, and no way actually 
minded. They seem, at least some of them, in their discourses of worship 
and prayer particularly, to require as necessary thereto both an act of the 
mind and of the will (attention and intention they call them) ; but proceed 
with them a little, and you will find the former of these quite lost in the 
latter ; and the latter, as they order it, dwindling into nothing. It is the 
common determination of their schools and doctors, that actual attention of 
mind is not necessary when they recite their canonical hours, that is, they 
need not mind God in their service, nor the matter of it more than the object, 
nor the sense of what they say, nor the words they use ; not any of these 
need be actually minded. A purpose or intention to do it is sufficient, though 
that purpose be not at all performed. This is the doctrine of their great 
Aquinas, 1 concerning prayer in general, whom the rest 9 commonly follow. 
Attention is not necessary all the while, but the virtue of the first intention, 
with which a man comes to prayer, renders the whole prayer meritorious, 
as it falls out in other meritorious acts. And this first intention also is 
enough to make the prayer prevalent. So he explains his main conclusion, 
viz. prayer ought to be at least attentive in respect of a previous intention.' 
So that they may be attentive enough, by virtue of this first intention, though 
they do not at all mind afterwards what they are doing, when they should be 
worshipping ; which is just as if they should say, a man that goes to church 
with an intent to join in their service, but falls fast asleep when he comes 
there, serves God effectually, and is attentive enough by virtue of that former 
intention, though he sleep all the while. It seems it is sufficient in the 
church of Rome, and effectual, even to a degree meritorious, to worship God 
as one that is asleep may worship him, if he falls asleep after a good inten- 
tion. However, hereby it is manifest that with them it is not needful to 
worship God at all, even in their most solemn service, but only to intend 
some such thing. If there be a purpose of worship, though God be never 
worshipped indeed, by their doctrine, it is enough for him. I suppose ' his 
holiness ' would not think himself well served at this rate. The common 
women at Borne are to pay him a julio a head weekly, for the liberty he gives 
them to drive there their trade ; now if, instead of payment, they should 
allege an intention of it, and declare this is all they are obliged to, and that 
they ought to be acquitted upon that account, though they never laid it 
down, he would think himself not paid hereby, but scorned ; he loseth his 
sacred reverence, and is affronted into the bargain ; yet at this rate will he 

1 Ad hunc effectum (viz. mereri) non ex necessitate requiritur quod attentio adsit 
orationi per totum : Bed vis prim® intentionis, qua aliqois ad orandum accedit, redd it 
totam orationem meritoriam, sicut in aliis meritoriie actibu* accidit. — ii. 2, q. lxxxiii. 
art. xiii. 

1 Ut officium ipsa attentio comitetur actualiter, nee in officio, nee in aliis orationibos, 
vel bonis operibus, requiritnr. — Sylvester, sum. v. bora n. xiii. edit. Lngdnn. An. 167fe. 
D. Thorn, quern omnes sequuntur, affirmat (impetrationem) non pendere ex actuali 
attentions sed virtu alem ad illam sufficere,et videtur certa sententia. — SuartM, lib. UL 
De Orat. Vocal, c. v. n. v. 

s Attentam saltern in prima intentione, oportet esse orationem, si meritoria, si im- 
petratira sit futura, meutemque spiritnaliter refectura. — Ibid. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. I.] not necebsaby in the ohxtboh of bomb. 11 

have God served by Roman catholics. Well, but if God need not be wor- 
shipped but in purpose only, and the intention may serve without the act, 
yet sure it must be an actual intention, or at least a purpose to worship God. 
If it be not the worship of God that they need intend, divine worship is 
clearly abandoned, both in deed and in purpose ; if it must not be actual, 
there need be actually no thought of worshipping God. But I cannot discern 
that they count either of these necessary. They declare plainly that an 
actual intention is needless ; in this they generally agree, though they differ 
in the terms by which they use to express it. They call it an habitual, or 
a virtual, or an implicit intention, in opposition to that which is express or 
actual ; so that actually either to worship God, or to have an intention of 
worshipping him, is more than needs. But since they will not have it actual, 
let it be what sort of intention they please otherwise, yet sure the thing 
intended should be the worshipping of God ; so that they may be said to 
worship in purpose, though they think it needless to do it in deed. Whether 
they count this necessary, may be best discerned by their own expressions, 
which they use in> some variety. Commonly, they say, a virtual intention 
may serve. 1 Now this is not an intention, indeed, to worship God ; but sup- 
poseth a former act, by virtue of which one is said to have an intention when 
really he hath none. As they call that a virtual intention to worship when 
a man had a purpose to attend, though he do it not at all ; answerably, a 
virtual intention to worship will be a purpose or thought to have such a 
purpose, though he never have it. Let those who can apprehend how they 
may be said to worship God so much as in purpose, by virtue of a purpose 
to worship him, which they have not, but only intend to have, without effect. 
But it may be there is no such intention needful with them, for custom may 
serve to this purpose (Soto). The precept for attending the performance of 
divine service canonically includes two things :* first, that at the beginning 
of prayer every one mind what he is going to do. But for this former it is 
enough that it be done by virtue of some former intention and custom, as if 
one, when the sign is given for prayers, go, as is the custom, to the choir ; 
by this he satisfies the precept. Now this he may be accustomed to do, 
without any thought of God, or of worshipping him ; yet by virtue of that 
custom, wherein God is quite neglected, he will have their virtual intention 
to worship him ; all the intention that they require, that is, plainly none at 
all, unless by virtue of neglecting God he may be said to mind him. 

Or an habitual intention may serve, they sometimes tell us. Sylvester 3 
oxpresseth it thus, after Paludanus, he is bound in the beginning of the 
service to have an intent to perform it, so that the service may be from his 
reason, and not from his imagination only, i. e. he must go about it like a 
man, and not like a beast. But lest it should seem too hard for a man to 
go about their service, with an intention so much distinguishing him from a 
brute, he adds a favourable gloss. 4 This is to be understood, saith he, 

1 Ad horas canonical recto pronunciandas requiritur propositum intendendi et atten- 
dendi, et snfficit yirtuale. — Martin. Navar. Manual. Confess, cap. i. num. xiii. ut c. 
xxv. n. cr. edit. Antwerp, an. 1608 ; Jac. d$ Orajffys. Decision. Anrear. 1. ii. c. li. n. iv. 
edit. Antwerp, an. 1596 ; Sylvest. sum. v. hor. n. xiv. 

* Preceptam attentionis in divino officio canonice persolvendo, dno includit : vide- 
licet, ut orandi initio quisque attendat quid agere aggreditur— quia vero ad prins 
membrom satis est, nt virtate alicujus precedent™ intentionis et consnetndinis fiat, nt 
ai quis dam signam ad horas datur, ad chorum de more vadit, — per Hind satisfacit 
pnecepto. — De Juttitia et Jure, lib. x. quaest. v. art. v. Edit. v. Lugdun, an. 1582. 

* Quantum ad intenttonem vel attentionem, qnilibet ad officinm obligates tenetnr 
in principio officii habere intentionem satisfaciendi, ita quod officinm ab intellectu et 
non ab imaginatWa proficiscatnr ; secundum Petr. de Pal. 

* Quod intellige acta, vel habitu sen virtute.— Sum. v. hor. n. xiv. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



12 REAL WORSHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

either in act, or habit, or virtue ; so that if it be but an habitual intention, 
it may suffice. 1 Navarre explains it by this conditional (and others with 
him), if one be agked, why he takes his breviary, he would answer, that he 
doth it to say service. 9 Now hereby we are told, that rather an habitual 
than a virtual intention is expressed ; and they acknowledge that such an 
intention is not sufficient 3 for a human act, much less therefore for an act 
of worship. Since then they think that such an intention will suffice, a 
purpose to worship God is not needful with them, unless they can make 
divine worship of that which is less than human ; or will have the brutes to be 
catholic worshippers. They tell us also that this habitual intention is in 
those that are asleep.* So Scotus, the first founder of this distinction (and 
herein that which they call virtual agrees with it ; indeed, Aquinas 5 saw no 
cause to distinguish them ; and 6 others, who affect Scotus his subtlety, use 
the terms as if they were distinct, yet confound them in their instances). 
And thus, when all the worship which they think needful is shrunk up into 
an intention, yet that intention is no other than they may have in a dead 
sleep, when they dream of no such thing. So that their souls need be no 
more concerned in worshipping God, either when they are at service, or when 
they are addressing themselves to it, than if their church were in mount 
Celius with the seven sleepers. When they are coming to it (as we see here), 
they need have no more purpose to worship God than if they were asleep ; 
and when they are at it (as we said before), they need no more attend to what 
they are a-doing than if they were not yet awake. 

They Bay also an 7 implicit intention will suffice ; which is, as they explain 
it, when a man hath not expressly any thought of praying or worshipping 
God, when he is to read service, but only intends 8 to accomplish the precept 
of the church, or to perform his task, or to do as he is wont to do. As when 
a man first takes orders or enters into a monastery, understanding that the 
church enjoins all in that capacity daily to recite their canonical hours, if 
he then have an intention to perform this task, to do as the church requires, 
or as others of that quality are wont to do, and accordingly say his hours as 
the fashion is, though he have not once a thought of God or worshipping 
him all his life after, either when he is going to service, or when he is read- 
ing it, yet that first intention may suffice, yea, it is of such sufficiency that 
any other act of mind or heart, either in worship, or in order to it, becomes 

1 Ibid, c xxv. n. cvi. Juxta ea qu» post alios, presertim Majorem, scripsimus. — 
Vide Joe Chaff, ibid. 

1 Navar. explicat virtualem intentionem per illam conditionalem, quia si interro- 
garetur quare accipit brevarium, responderet se id facere ad recitandum. Veruntamen 
hoc modo magis explicatur habitualis qoam virtualis intentio. — Suarez, 1. iii. de Orat. 
c. iii. n. vi. 

* Actus autem humanns non potest esse ab intentione tantnm habituali, at omnes 
suppommt, et per se constat — Idem, 1. iv. de Horis, c. xxvi. n. iii. Actns inde proce- 
dens non est humanus, et deiiberatus.— Mcllarm. de Sacramentis, L i. c. xxyii. p. 92, 
edit. Lugd. an. 1599. 

4 Nee habet tantnm intentionem habitualem, qnod talem habet dormiens. — Scotttt. 
m. iv. dist. vi. quest, vi. Qualis etiam in dormiente inesse potest. — Bellarm. ibid. 

5 iii. qnsest. Ixiii. art. viii. 

Macor. Navar. Soto. Graff, g. 

T Jo. Macor. Navar. in Soar, de Orat. 1. iii. o, iii. n. vi. 

* Certnm imprimis est, satis snperqne esse, si in principio accedatur ad recitandnm 
cum proposito implendi prssceptnm, etiamsi in disenrsn orationis in mentem non veniat, 
satis enim est qnod non retractetnr, quia manet virtus prioris attentionis. Pneterea 
ut censeatur qnis accedere ad recitandum cum proposito implendi pneceptum, satis est 
quod ex consuetudine quadam velit illam actionem tanquam expletivam sui muneris 
et obligations, vel quod in actu exercito (ut sic alcana) velit earn facere, ut solet, quia 
eo ipso vnlt illam at impletivam preecepti. Ita sumitnr ex Macor, Navar. et aliis. 
— Idem. 1. iv. de Hor. c. xxvi. n. vi. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. I.] not nxcessaby in the chubch of bome. 13 

needless ; it is of such admirable efficacy, that by virtue of it they can wor- 
ship God, when they mind no such thing as God, or worshipping him, 
no, nor ever intend it otherwise. Let us suppose that they thought it requi- 
site to renew this implicit intention frequently, yet would it not necessarily 
amount to a purpose of worshipping God, for not only their task, and what 
they are wont to do, but the precept of the church, may be (as we shall hear 
them by and 1 by declare) accomplished by acts of wickedness, which sure 
cannot be acts of worship, nor a design to do them an intention to serve 
God ; yea, they may satisfy the church's injunction for divine service, though 
they have an express intention not to fulfil it all the while, as 1 Arragon 
and their divines of greatest reputation determine. So that if the church did 
enjoin them to worship God, yet no intention to worship him would be need- 
ful, because they can satisfy the church with a contrary intention. Finally, a 
sinful intention will serve their turn ; this passath for their common doctrine.* 
If a man intend principally his own praise or worldly advantage, and so 
design to serve himself, and not God, this cannot with any reason be counted 
an intention to worship God ; yet such a design will suffice for the worship 
they require, and it will be substantially good in their account, only a 
little tainted with a venial speck, which, though it may hinder it from being 
meritorious of eternal glory, yet he that never otherwise intends to pray or 
worship cannot be damned, and so will be saved notwithstanding. In short, 
the Lord requires the heart in worship ; without this, nothing else can please 
him, nothing in his account will be a real honour or worship of him, but 
only in appearance and fiction. The Romanists teach, that God need not 
have anything of their hearts in their service, not any one act or motion 
thereof, while they are at it, only some sort of intention before, while they 
are going about it ; but this no act of will or heart neither, but only a virtual, 
or habitual, or implicit something ; they have minced it so small, that an 
ordinary eye cannot discern in it so little, as a purpose to serve God ; yea, 
in fine, they have reduced it to that which is worse than nothing, and if the 
heart must be cumbered with any such thing as an intention about serving 
God, yet a sinful intention may serve, this satisfies their holy church and 
her precept fully ; she doth not, she cannot, require any more for God, what 
burdens soever in other cases she lays upon the consciences of men. But 
though the heart, and every act of it, be thus discharged from any concern 
in their service, yet it may be they will have the mind more engaged. One 
act thereof, and but one (mental attention), they seem to require ; and it is 
true some of them make show of calling for it, but as soon as ever it appears 
it is dismissed immediately as needless, for they conclude generally, that a 
purpose to attend will serve, though they attend not, and this purpose too 
by their handling (as we have seen) comes to nothing or worse. But suppose 
they did (though they do not) account an intention to worship God needful, 
and that actual, express, and well qualified, yet they confess 4 an intent to 
worship or wait on God is not to worship him really : no more than a man 
is sober when he is drunk, because he intended to be sober. But they leave 
us no ground for this supposition, yet ascribe as much to their intention, 
and more than the best imaginable will bear, after they have reduced it to 

1 Soto. Canns. Medina. Cordoba. Navar. Covarrnv. Bonacina. infra. 

* In Suarez, ibid. n. viii. et torn. iii. disp. lxxxiriii. sect iii. There are near thirty 
doctors produced for this by John Martinez de Prado, a Dominican ; torn. ii. Theol. 
Moral, c. xxx. q. yiii. sect. i. n. i. 

* Haec est communis sententia— omnes fatentnr. — Idem, 8ua. 1. iii. de Orat c. iii. 
n. r., Tide infra. 

* Licet yelle attendere, non sit attendere in re, ut vere dixit Cajetanns.—-&t<ar. de 
Orat lib. iii. c iv. n. 7. 



Digitized by 



Google 



14 BEAL W0B8HIP 07 GOD [CfiAP. I. 

as bad as nothing. However, since all the worship they count necessary is 
included in this purpose, and all their pretensions depend on it, they are 
concerned to have it thought to be something, and they will seem cautious 
about it, as a thing material, so this proviso they lay down. 1 It must not 
be changed into a contrary purpose ; if that should fall out, it will lose its 
wonderful virtue, and not make those worshippers who mind not what they 
are doing when they should be praying. But there is no danger of this, nor 
need they be solicitous about it, for (as they tell them) they change not their 
purpose, though they do. nothing that they intended, or do what is quite 
contrary to it, viz., though if they purposed to attend, yet they attend not at 
all, but turn their minds to other things, if they act cross to the supposed 
intention ; yet, so long as they assume not a contrary purpose, they must be 
thought to mind what they are about, though they mind it not one moment ; 
and there need be as little care, as there is danger of changing their purpose, 
for* carelessness cannot do it. It cannot be changed, unless a man design- 
edly, and on set purpose, will turn his mind from what he is about to other 
things. Since then a person who doth not mind God, or anything that con- 
cerns his worship, when he seems engaged in it, doth not worship God at 
all, as is evident in itself, and they confess it, in case he mind not this on 
set purpose ; therefore, though he doth not worship God at all, yet he wor- 
ships him as much as the Romanists require, unless he wills not to worship 
him on set purpose ; yea, though he voluntarily mind nothing that concerns 
a worshipper, though he deliberately and willingly let his mind run upon 
other things, yet so long as he is so regardless of God, and what he is about, 
as not to take notice of this extravagancy, he fulfils the precepts of the 
church, and minds divine service as much as is required.* Thus Cajetan, 
Soto, and others ; so that by their doctrine, if they do not worship God and 
voluntarily neglect it, yet they do as much as the church enjoins, so long as 
they take no notice that they do not worship him. And as they may volun- 
tarily employ their minds about other things, when they should be worship- 
ping, so may they on set purpose busy the outward man about other employ- 
ments, when they are saying their service. They can perform their best 
devotions while (to give their own instances) they are 4 washing themselves, 
or putting on their clothes, or mending pens, or laying the cloth, or making 
beds, or anything else which requires no more attention. Nor dare they 
count this a venial fault, because the* Dominicans are enjoined by the rules 
of their order to say their service while they are 'doing something else. 
That which would spoil the devotion of others gives no impediment to theirs, 

1 Facillimum huic precepto obedire, nam nihil aliud exigit, nisi quod quia animo 
vacandi Deo boras inchoet, et in contrarinm animus iste non mutetur, dum exsolrit 
divinum officium — Cajetan. ram yerb. hone Canon, edit. Lngdun. An. 1544. 

s Mutari autem in contrarinm est impossible, ex inadvertentia. — Cajetan. ibid. 

3 Si quis advertit so cogitare hsec vel ilia, quae debent esse extranea tunc a sua 
meditatione, scd non adrertit quod ab officio Dirino distrabitur ; quamvis voluntarie 
ea meditetur ; non tamen yoluntarie animus ab officio divino distrahitur : ac per hoc 
animns vacandi Deo a principio officii habitus, non est mutatus in contrarinm. — Cajetan. 
ibid. Etsi ultro et yoluntarie alia cogitet (ut bene ait Cajetanus) quousque inspiciat se 
distrahi, semper reputatur inadrertenter divagari, atqne adeo excusatur ab omissione 
pnecepti de attentione, impletque adeo subinde orandi mandatum.-~Sbfo, ibid. p. 341. 
Sic explicant Cajetan. Soto, presertim Medina ; vide et Gabriel in Suar. iii. Thorn, 
torn. iii. disp. Ixxxviii. sect. iii. 

4 Hujusmodi sunt4avare manns, se induere, pennam temperare, aut id genus similia, 
qui quidem actus quandoque non sunt peccata neque yenialia (verbi gratia) in ordine 
pnedicatorum. — Joe. de Graff, ibid. 1. ii. c li. n. x. Talis est actio vestiendi se, yel 
lavandi manus et ora, Tel sternendi mensam, aut lectum. — Fill. Tract, xxiii. n. 260. vid. 
Soto ubi supra ; yid. Bonatin. Diyin. Offic <L i. q. iii. p. 2. sect. ii. n. xii. 

• Vid. infra. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. I.] hot neoessaby in tsb ohuboh of bomb. 15 

and good reason, for how can that be disturbed that is not, or lessened 
when it is already nothing ? This is to worship God after the Roman mode, 
when neither body nor mind is taken np with the service, bat both delibe- 
rately employed about something else. 

Bat that by their principles they need be no better worshippers, will yet 
be more manifest if we view their doctrine concerning attention more dis- 
tinctly. Aquinas and Bonaventare (whom the rest follow) give an account 
of three sorts hereof, according to the severals which may be minded in prayer. 
The first is attention to the words, so as not to err in pronouncing 
them. 1 
The second, to the sense of the words. 
The third, to the person prayed to, and the tilings prayed for. 
Bonaventare calls attention to the first superficial, and that to the second 
literal (we may as well call it human or rational), that to the third spiritual 
(divine or Christian attention others call it). 9 

Now (which is to be observed as that which unveils the whole mystery), 
they hold that any one of these is sufficient, not only the third or the second, 
but even the first, though it be the worst, and of least importance. 80 
Angelns,' Sylvester, 4 Cajetan,*Bellajrmine,' Tolet, 7 so Aquinas, Soto, Navar, 
so all of them, it is (they tell us) the common doctrine universally received. 9 
And this clears ail, and leads us directly through their reserves and conceal- 
ments, and the ambiguity of their expressions (apt to mislead an unwary eye, 
and abuse a charitable mind, loath to think them so bad as they speak them- 
selves) into the open view of their irreligious (not to say atheistical) doctrine. 
This makes it very evident that with them it is not needful either to worship 
God or intend it. For since they agree that any one of the several sorts of 
attention is sufficient, the first, which concerns the bare words, is enough on 
their account, and the other are needless. It is not requisite that they should 
mind either the things to be prayed for, or the God they should pray to, or 
the sense of the words they pronounce ; it will suffice that they mind the 
words, to them senseless, and therein the empty and insignificant figure and 
Bound. Now, words without sense are in themselves neither good nor bad ; 
no worship, sure, can be imagined in them ; they are no better (but less 
tolerable) in the mouths of men than the sound of brutes. And the mere 
figure and sound of letters can make men no more worshippers than con- 
jurors ; yet such is all the worshipping and praying that they count necessary. 
Bat if they had a mind to supererogate, and their Catholics were to do more 
than their duty, «. *, act as becomes men in their service, taking the sense 

'Sciendum tamen quod triplex est attentio, qnes orationi vocali potest adhiberi : una 
qnidcm qua attenditur ad verba, ne aliquis in eis erret : secunda qua attenditur ad 
ieninm verborum : tertia qua attenditur ad finem orationis, sc ad Deum, et ad rem 
pro qua orator. — Aquin. xxii. q. lxxxiii. a. xiii. 

' Opnsc. de process. Religionis, 1. yii. c. iii. 

' Qaocunque istorum modorum adsit intentio, non estinefficaxoratio ad satisfaciendum. 
& l ego dico nee ad impetrandum vel reficieudum. — Sum. Angel, v. oratio. n. xi. 

* Quacunque harum adsit, oratio non est censenda inattenta. — Sylvut. Sum. v. orat. 

B.71. 

6 Una istarum attentionum eufficit. — Cajetan. Sum. ibid. 

4 Quselibet vero harum trium sufficit, — JBeltarm, de bon. Operib, 1. i. c. xviii. p. 1026. 
Edit. Lugd. An. 1599. 

7 Secunda attentio non est necessaria — Tertia etiam attentio non est necessaria. — 
Tola, in struct. 1. ii. cap. xiii. p. 449. 

* Consequenter D. Thomas, Cajetan, Soto, etssspe Navar. ssserunt, quamcunque ex 
dictis attentionibus sufficere ad probitatem orationis et implendum praceptnm. — Suar, 
de Orat. TocaL L iii. c. iv. n. xviii. 

* Communis est, quia omnes dicunt minimum attentionem sufficere. — Idem, ibid. 
VOL.111. p 



Digitized by 



Google 



16 SEAL WORSHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

along with the words, yet the third sort of attention, which concerns God, is still 
unnecessary, there need be no application of the mind unto God in their prayers. 
Surely in any religion but that which will have men abandon both sense and 
reason in matters plain and obvious to either, God would not be thought to 
be worshipped when he is not at all minded. By their common doctrine now 
mentioned (wherein all sorts of their authors conspire), first their minds may 
in their divine service not only depart from God by natural or inadvertent 
vagaries, but they may dismiss them from God on set purpose ; for they may 
voluntarily and upon deliberation decline in their service what is more than 
enough ; and the attendance of the mind upon God in prayer is plainly with 
them more than enough, seeing they declare that their attending to the bare 
words alone is sufficient. If they mind but to pronounce the words entire, 
no more is needful ; God may be left out of their minds during their whole 
service ; and they may be as much without God in their worship as others 
are said to be without him in the world, deliberately and out of choice. They 
leave us not to rely for this upon consequences, how evident and undeniable 
soever ; they stick not to declare * that thoy may without sin voluntarily abandon 
the better sorts of attention, viz. both that which is rational and that which 
is spiritual. This will be no fault at all, if done upon a reasonable account ; 
for example, if anyone decline these, that he may not tire his head therewith, 
or anything of like nature. 9 It seems reasonable with them not to trouble 
their heads with minding God, or what becomes men in their worship of him. 
The reason is, because they are not obliged to serve God as well as they can. 3 
It is a received maxim amongst them, that they are not bound to do their 
best. 4 The third sort of attention is better than the second, and the second 
is better than the first (that is worst of all) ; but when there are better and 
worse ways of serving God before them, they may choose the worst. The 
worst attendance of all, it seems, is good enough for God, even that wherein 
he is not at all regarded. This doctrine is so common, that I find but two 
who demur on it, and one of them (Cajetan) but drawn in by consequence* 
Only Navar, though he, as the rest, counts the first and worst sort of attention 
sufficient, yet thinks it may be a venial fault to retain it, so as voluntarily to 
exclude or hinder the better. Yet both 6 these hold that they may voluntarily 
want the better, and may without fault turn their minds from God to other 
things, so long as they observe it not, or if they do observe it, yet so long also 
as they do not reflect upon it as a vagary. And both maintain 7 that any one 

1 TJt adverterem sufficere attentionem ad verba, vel ad sensum verbornm— ex quo fit 
at recitaDS divinum officium, non teneatur roeliorem attentionem quserere, sed satis- 
facerc, quamlibet ex dictis eligendo. — Bonacin. divin. off. disp. i. q. iii. p. 2, sect ii. n. 5 
cum ran Ilia aliis. 

s Inferturnrimo quamcunqne attentionem ex dictis sufficere, ut oratio sit honesta. Et 
siquidem voluntaria omissio melioris attentionis sit rationabilis, ut si quie nolit attendere 
ad perfectiorem, ne caput defatiget, vel quid simile, non impediet quominus honesta 
sit. — Vid. Suarex, de orat. 1. iii. c. iv. 

8 In eo modo orandi nullum est peccatum per se loquendo, et ex vi naturalis legis, oh 
solum defectum voluntarium melioris attentionis — quia homo non tenetur orare meliori 
modo quam potest, &c — Idem ibid. 

4 Vid. Melch. Canum Praelec. de pcenitent. part. iii. p. 841. edit. Colon. Agripp. an. 
1606. 

_. 8 Angel, sum. v. Orat. n. xi. ; Sylvest. sum. v. Orat. n. vi. ; Navar. ibid. c. xxv. n. 106 ; 
Graff, ibid. 1. ii. c. Ii. n. 9; Molanus Theol. Pract. Tract, iii. c. viii. n.xiv. 

6 Cajetan. supra Navar. c. xxv. n. 106. 

7 Quod possit quis sine peccato orare dum se induit, ant aliam similem actionem 
excrcet— quae actio, licet admittat inferiorem attentionem, tamen sine dubio irapedit 
perfectiorem, et maxime spiritualem et el e vat am. Non licere tales actiones exercere, 
estfalsum, et contra usum omnium piorum; et Cajetan, et Navar, etiam fatentnr. — 
Suarex, ibid. n. xii. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. I.] not necessary in the church of bomb. 17 

may pray whilst he is dressing himself, or is taken up with any other like 
employment. And snch action, though it be consistent with the worst atten- 
tion, yet undoubtedly (they say) it hinders the better, especially that which is 
spiritual and elevated. So that herein these authors are either reconciled to 
the common opinion, or fall out with themselves. And that such employments 
(though inconsistent with spiritual attention, t. e. with minding God) are law- 
ful while they are at their service, is not only the sense of these two casuists, 
but to deny it is against the usage of all the pious (it seems the Roman piety 
is without regarding God even in his worship). Ail the Dominicans are par- 
ticularly obliged to it (as we saw before), and have a visible demonstration 
for it from the ancient form of their dormitories. 1 Thus one way or other 
all agree that God may voluntarily be neglected in their worship without sin. 
Secondly, As it is not necessary by their doctrine to worship God, so neither 
is there any necessity to intend it. When they have encouraged all, even 
their religious, not to pray at all, by assuring them they need not mind God 
at all, whilst they should be praying to him, yet they would persuade them 
notwithstanding that they may pray by virtue of a former intention. The 
vanity of this is shewed already (where we prove both that this is not enough, 
and that indeed they require not so much) ; but because it is the only pre- 
tence that such can be worshippers of God who think it needless to mind 
him, even in the most solemn addresses amongst them, it will not be amiss 
to see it again put quite away by their own doctrine. What must be de- 
signed in that previous intention, upon which, not only the efficacy, but the 
reality, of their prayers depends? Must they intend, when they are going 
about it, to mind the things they are to pray for, or the God they should 
worship, or the sense of the words they utter ? No ; as it is not necessary 
to mind any of these when they are at their worship, so neither is it needful 
to intend it beforehand : it will be sufficient if they do but intend to mind 
the senseless pronounciation of the words, and neither God nor anything 
else which becomes Christians, or men in acts of worship ; nothing but 
what brutes or birds are eapable of, the mere uttering of the words. This 
is very manifest by their common doctrine, now before us, concerning atten- 
tion in prayer. Attendance to the words without the sense is sufficient, but 
they need not purpose beforehand to have any sort of attention more than 
that which is sufficient ; for they will not imagine there is any need of a 
purpose to do that which is not needful to be done ; and they declare ex- 
pressly this is all which is requisite, that they come to their service with a 
purpose to have any sort qf attention, that is sufficient ; 8 telling us withal, 
that attendance. to the bare words will suffice. So that in the issue the 
worship of God (his and our greatest concern in this world) is reduced to 
this : there is no need to mind God, and so not to worship him at all, 
either actually or virtually, since it is neither needful to do this, nor intend 
it. He is not worshipped in that remote and minute way which they call 
virtual (which is not the doing of it, but a purpose only to do it), but by 
virtue of a former intention ; where this intention is not, it can have no 

1 Dixerim forsan venial iter, quoniam non semper est peccalnm, immo in ordine nostro 
praceptum nobis est, ut surgentes officium Virginia dicamus : et at antique indicat dor- 
mitorii dispositio : inter indnendnm se fratres illud inchoabant. — 8oto f ibid. 1. x. q. v. 
art. v. Graff, ibid. 1. ii. c. li. n. x. 

1 Attentio necessaria consistit in babendo a principio horarum proposito actnali, vel 
virtuali ad eas attendendi, etpostea actualiter, aut virtaaliter attendendo aliqua atten- 
tione sufficient, quae est triplex, &c. — Navar. ibid. c. xxv. n. clxv. Vid. supra, ad 
impkndum proceptnm orandi vocaliter snpradicti anthores assernnt, sufficere atten- 
tionem ad literam. — S. Thorn, Cafctan. Sotu*. Gabriel, Vatauez. Optuc, Moial p. 444. 
dab. ?. 



Digitized by 



Google 



18 BEAL WOBSHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

virtue ; but with them there need be no intention to mind God, and so by 
their doctrine it is not necessary to worship him one way or other. 

Thirdly, Since with them it is not needful to mind anything in their 
service, for which they can be counted worshippers, nothing but the words, 
it will not be very material to take notice what attention they must give to 
these ; yet seeing the senseless recital of the words is all that they would 
have them mind in divine service, one would think that this should be 
attended to purpose, at least actually. No ; it is enough if their attention 
be but virtual, t. e. if they have a purpose to mind them, when they are 
going about their worship, and change it not while they are at it, though 
then they mind them not j 1 for as they generally hold that attention to the 
words is sufficient, so none question but a virtual attention thereto will 
serve. 8 It may seem strange that one should be said to attend when he 
attends not, but they will satisfy this with something that is as odd ; they 
would have them think their heedlessness is excused by being more heedless, 
and bo the more careless they are in their worship the better. For if they 
mind not what they are doing, when saying divine service, yet if they do 
this without reflection, and take no notice that they mind it not at all, they 
therefore mind it well enough. 8 Such is the attention which the strictest of 
their authors require and judge sufficient ; even such as is as good as none, 
and about that which is nothing worth. Now, this doctrine hath such an 
atheistical aspect, that they (who profess themselves to be, and would have 
the world think that they are worshippers of God) seem concerned not to 
expose it commonly barefaced. And indeed they give it some disguise, when 
they declare so much for attention of mind in worship, as that which is of 
the substance of worship, so essential thereto, that without this it is no 
worship of God, no praying at all, but a mere clamorous noise, yea, a mock- 
ing of God, and taking his name in vain. 4 The Jesuits forbear not fre- 
quently to acknowledge this. Who would not think hereupon, that they 
count it most necessary for the mind to attend God in worship ? Oh ! but 
the vizor falls off, when we understand that attention of mind to nothing else 
but the bare words, stripped of their sense, and all respect to God, is enough 
with them, and that virtual only, and in purpose, though they never actually 
mind so little. They themselves assure us that the attending to the words 
only (if that were to be done indeed) is no attending God ; for they make 
these distinct things, and will have one of them suffice without the other ; 
and it is against the resentments of all religion, and common sense, too, 
that God should be said to be worshipped when he is not at all minded. 
And therefore, in fine, when they teach (as the best of them do, so that it 
passeth for their common doctrine) that superficial attention in their service 
is sufficient, they declare plainly enough, that in the church of Borne there 
is no need to worship God, no, not for their religious, in that which they 
call divine service. 

But if we would have a plainer acknowledgment hereof than is needful, 
we may have it from those who declare that no attention of mind is needful 
in worship, and these are the greatest part of their authors, which I find 

1 Est an tern attentio ilia Yerborum— virtaalis, cum incepit animo dicendi officiam, et 
attendendi, et postea non mutat aninram, qnamdin non attendat. — Tolet. ibid. I. ii. c. xiii. 

9 Actualis vel virtualis intentio sufficit ex omnium sen ten ti a ad implendum procep* 
f am hoc — Suar. de hor. 1. iv. c xxvi. n. iii. D. Thorn, quern omnes sequuntnr, &c. 
Supra. Bonacin. torn. i. divin. offic. disp. i. q- iii. panct. ii. n. xr. Communis Doctoram 
sententia. 

* Cajetan, Soto, et alii, supra, 

4 Vid. Vasqnez. de Adorat. 1. ii. disp. viii. c* xii. n. ccclxi. et c xr. n. cccxcvi. 
Suarea, de orat. 1* iii. c. iv. n. ir. et n. r. et 1. iv. c xiv. n. 12. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. L] not necessary in the ohuboh of bomb. 19 

alleged in this question (taking none into the account neither, but those who 
are ancienter than the foundation of the Society). They determine, without 
distinguishing that all attention is needless, actual, or virtual. If the words 
are pronounced entire, and no external action admitted to hinder that, it is no 
crime with them, if as nothing else, so neither the bare words be further 
minded, but the thoughts be quite dismissed from them. Sylvester, the 
master of the sacred apostolical palace, and their prime champion against 
Luther, in his book dedicated to Pope Leo the Tenth, determines expressly, 
that to pray with attention in their canonical hours is not required by God's 
law. 1 If he had said, the church had not required it, he had spoken within 
compass, and said no more than many others before and after him ; but he 
says that too, for having told us that Hostiensis, Antoninus, Summa Rosella 
do all hold, that the church enjoins, not attentiveness, but only saying the 
service, he adds, that they say true as to this, that attention is not under 
the precept of the church. 1 Of the like persuasion are Durandus, Paludanus, 
Angelas de Clavasio, and others. For attention, as they say, is not a com- 
mand of their church, but a counsel only, which may be neglected without 
sin.' Others, who make the best of it, deliver it thus. The church do pot 
command internal acts, no more than judge of them, therefore requires not 
attention in worship ; the precept is fully accomplished without it, by the 
external act alone; the want of attention is no mult, unless upon the account 
of the natural precept, and in reference to that it is no worse than venial. 4 
They are herein opposed by some later casuists and Jesuits (however these 
come to be counted more licentious). Bat the differing parties fully agree 
in making it needless to worship God. For both hold, that they need not 
mind either God, or the matter, or the sense of the words in their service, 
either actually or virtually, and both conclude that the words without the sense 
(and all else for which they can be considerable) need not be minded actually. 
All the difference is about a virtual attention to the bare words, whether 
the want of that (which is no attention indeed) be a mortal crime. It is 
just as if when they had concluded it lawful to murder a man, they should 
fall into a hot debate whether it were a deadly crime to disorder his hair. 
But so it becomes those who make no scruple to destroy religion body and 
soul, to make a zealous stir about the slightest appurtenances of it. Some- 

1 Attente orare in horis canonicis, non est de jure divino, Sam v. horce. n. xiii. 

* Sed iBti licet veram dicunt, quantum ad hoc, quod attentio non est sub prsscepto. — 
1dm- Ibid. 

* Glericum qui distracto ammo horas recitat, non peccare mortifere aiunt Durandus, 
Paludanus, Angelas, Sylvester, et alii quid am non improbabiliter : quia attentio (in 
cap. dolentes de celebr. miss.) est in cousilio ; quia cum ecclesia in tern os animi actus 
non puniat, mentis attentionem non videtur prsecipere. — VidoreL add. Toll. 1. iii. c xiii. 
Glossa tenet quod sufficit dicere ore, licet non corde, et cum ea concurrunt multi Can- 
onist©. — Sum. Angel, v. Oratio. n. ix. 

* Evagatio qu» est advertentis et solum secnnduxn actum interiorem, licet sit temer- 
aria et gravis forte : non tamen est mortals, nisi propter contemptum ; quoniam ecclesia 
non babet judicare de interioribus actibus mere. Propter quod minister ecclesi® licet 
dieendo officium aliud cogitet, non videtur transgressor prascepti ex natura facti. — 
Angel, sum. y. hor®. n. xxrii. Sic. et Sylv. sum. t. hor. n. xiii. Non tenetur autem 
quoris prsscepto esse attentus, sed sine culpa mortal! potest evagari, etiam a proposito. 
— Idem, ibid, n. xiv. 

Non est peccatum mortale sine attentione recitare, etiamsi ex pura negligentia, et cam 
advertentia fiat ; ita Hostiensis, Jo. Andr. Anchoranua, Antoninus citans Umbertum 
et alios. Rosell, Summa Pisana, Angelic., Durandus, Paludanus, Sylrest., Turrecre- 
mata, Medina, in Snares 1. ir. de Horis Can. c. xxvi. n. i. et ii. 

Qui officium divinum voluntarie distractus recitat prsscepto satisfactt. Joh. Valerus 
alleges for this Aquinas, Paludanus, and twenty other doctors. Vid. Acacium de Velaeco 
torn. ii. res. mor. ?. hora* re* liv. 



Digitized by 



Google 



20 KEAL WOBSHIP OT GOD [CHAP. I. 

thing must be done with some shew of conscience, too, about its appendices, 
that the world may not think they retain nothing of it amongst them. And 
yet how palpable is the irreligion of these sophisters, who will have it a 
damnable crime to neglect their empty words, but no fault at ail wholly to 
neglect the great God, even when, if ever, the whole soul should attend him. 
Here is evidence too much, that the church of Rome, so far as we can know her 
sense by her doctors, the most, and best of them, if she think it fit that 
God should be worshipped, yet thinks it not needful that he be minded, t. *• 
though it be convenient to pretend worship, yet it is not necessary to wor- 
ship him indeed. Medina is so ingenuous as to tell us, that since the 
church requires not attention in their service, she doth not oblige them to 
pray, when she enjoins them to say their canonical hours. 1 So that all in 
the Church of Borne are discharged from any obligation to worship God at 
all, even in their most solemn service ; they need not pray when they are at 
their church prayers. Not only he, but all of them, must acknowledge this, 
who will yield to that reason or authority which they count best. Their 
law saith, God is not prayed to with the mouth without the heart ;* and it 
is a natural and evident principle (as themselves tell us) that vocal pro- 
nouncing of the words is not prayer, unless it is done with some attention; 9 
whereas most of them say no attention is requisite in their service ; and 
that virtual attention which the rest are for, themselves say, is no attention 
indeed, no more than the purpose is the act when not performed. But 
what then becomes of their pretences to worship or devotion ? May they be 
wholly without this ? Medina easily resolves this difficulty : though he 
who useth their service hath no devotion, yet the church in whose words he 
prays, and whose minister he is, brings her devotion. 4 So that the church 
brings devotion still, though none in the church, no, not the clergy, not the 
religious have any. The church prays effectually, in the words of those 
who say service, though these should blaspheme God in their hearts, while 
they utter the words of a prayer, and they pray in the person of the church 
by their common doctrine. So that though they be in mortal sin (suppose 
atheists or debauchees) their prayers prevail in regard of the church's holi- 
ness. 6 Happy persons they are, as ever any were in a dream, who can 
pray effectually when they pray not at all, and be devout with another's 
devotion, and why not saved too by the church's holiness 9 But, then, 
since this is applicable to all particular persons, what is that church, by 
which they may have such advantages ? It must be something not made 
up of particular persons, something abstracted from subsistence, and refined 
above the grossness of any reality ; and the structure, their devotion and 
worship must be answerable, and as much beholding to imagination for 

1 Praceptum ecclesia non obligai homines ad orandum, cam pracipit septem horas 
recitare. — De Oratione, q. xvi. ibid. 

* Nee oratur Deus ore sine cordc. — C. Cantantet, d. xcii. 

* Naturale et evidens principium est quod vocalis prolatio, non est oratio, nisi com 
aliqna attentione fiat — Suar. de Horie. Can. I. iv. c. xxvi n. xiii. 

* Qnod si minister non apponat derotionem, ecclesia apponit, cnjns verbis orat et 
minister est. — Ibid, 

6 Si ille est in statu peccati mortalis, nihil meretur, vel satis facit, et tamen vera 
implet praceptum, et manus sunm, solvendo pensum orationis sua, vereque impetrat, 
sen impetrare potest, non tarn attenta conditione person® sua*, quam spectata ecclesia) 
sanctitate in cujus nomine orat.— Suar. ibid, c xviii. n. ix. vide Bellarm. de Mieea. 1. ii. 
c xxrii. p. 837. Quatenus nomine ecclesia offertur prodest quia sanctitas ecclesia 
supplet red t anti 8 defectum. — Bonaein. de Offic. Divin. disp. iv. punct. i. n. 3. Dignitas 
orationis sumenda est ex dignitate ecclesia, cujus nomine offertur et retitatar, non ex 
dignitate improbi mini«tri ita.— -£. Thorn. Navar. Nugnue. Soto. Medina. Covarravius, 
et alii apttd Carolum Macignim. Bonaein. ibid, punct. n. xii. 



Digitized by 



Google 



CSAP. I.] NOT NECESSARY IN THE OHUBCH OF BOMS. 21 

a being. Not to disturb their fancies farther, it is enough that they acknow- 
ledge (what cannot be denied) that they are not obliged to worship God in 
their divine service ; being there is no worship without attention, and no 
attention with them necessary, or only that which is in effect none. 

But it is no wonder they make attention at their divine service not neces- 
sary, since, being in Latin, it is, to far the greatest part concerned in it, 
impossible. The first sort of it, which they call superficial attention, none 
are capable of effectually but those that are well acquainted with that lan- 
guage, so as not only to understand, but duly pronounce it, which few of 
their monastics are ; indeed, it is not the talent of many of their priests. 
The lowest degree of attention, saith Soto, none can have, but he that 
knoweth the tongue. 1 The second, which they call literal attention, fewer can 
arrive at, it is only for expert divines. To attend to the sense is not for all 
Latinists, but only for those that are expert in divinity 1 (saith tho same 
author), which is so far from being the attainment of monastics and com- 
mon priests, that many of the chief of their clergy cannot pretend to it. It 
was necessary for them to conclude (since they will have their own way, 
whatever the Scripture saith against it), that it is no sin for the clergy not 
to understand what they say when they say service, though they confess 
they can have no relish of what they understand not. 1 As to the third, 
which they call spiritual attention, they cannot mind the things prayed for, 
who know not what they are, and apprehend nothing of the contents of their 
prayers. Nor can they mind the God that is to be prayed to, when they 
know not whether they pray to God or no; for they understand not to whom 
the prayer is directed, to God or to a creature, to an angel or a saint, to a 
man or a woman. 

Now, seeing attention to what they do at their service is impossible to 
most and unnecessary to all, it may seem superfluous to shew that with them 
reverence and devotion is also unnecessary. (And what religious worship 
there can be without these, let those who have any tolerable notion of leli- 
gion judge). 

For reverence and devotion are included in attention, or necessarily depend 
on it, and unavoidably fall with it. No man will imagine that there can be 
any devotion or reverence toward God when he is not so much as minded, 
when he is not before their eyes, when the mind is voluntarily turned from 
him and wholly taken up with thoughts which are inconsistent with the ob- 
servance of him. And this is the plain import of that non-attention which 
they allow in their service. When the mind departs, the heart follows it 
(since 4 it moves by its conduct and acts, not otherwise), and when these are 
gone, the man is morally absent, and worships God no more, nor hath any 
more devotion or reverence for him (if these be so much as moral acts) than 
if he were not in the place where he is worshipped. And seeing (as 6 them- 

1 Prima pnta attentio ad rerbornm proUtionem, inflmus est attentions gradus : 
qnem habere non potest, nisi qui linguam norit. — De Ju$t. ei Jur. L z. q. r. art. v, 
p. 340. 

8 Secundns autem gradus pnta ad sensum attendere, non omnibus Latinis congruit, 
nisi Theologin peritis. — Ibid. 

• Indignum enim est, nt altissima tractetmjsteria, et eoram ignarus exist at: nullum 
entm gustum inde potest pereipere. —Tolet, ibid. L i. c. xciii. 

4 Bellarm. de Baptism, 1. i. c. xi. p 244. 

* Opus ergo advertere, nt dicatnr moraliter pnesens esse rei qn» fit. — ToL ibid. 1. vi. 
c ri. 

6 Cnm exterior enltns sit signum interioris culms.— Aquina$ ii. 2, q. xcir. art. ii. 
Ea qnss exterius aguntur sunt signa interioris reverentia. — Angel, sum. r. adora. n. iii. 
Sine quo (sc. submission^ affectu) nota exterior non essetadoratioetcultus. — Vaequez 
de Adorat. 1. ii. disp. viii. c. xii. n. ccclxi. Nee signum nisi ex affectu tali (interior!) 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



22 SEAL W0B8HIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

selves tell us) outward acts in worship are not considerable, but as signs of 
inward motions, all external shows of devotion or reverence, when there is 
none of these in the soul, will be bat hypocritical significations, denoting that 
to be there which the Lord discerns is not there, and so tend to affront him, 
instead of approaching him with reverence, worship, or devotion. But there 
is no need of a proof where the thing is confessed ; they tell us plainly that 
neither reverence nor devotion is necessary. 

Reverence (saith De Graffiis, in his time the grand penitentiary at Naples) 
consists in this, that the body be in a composed temper, otherwise it signifies 
an incomposed mind ; they ought, therefore, reverently and humbly to pray, 
for such prayers penetrate the heavens. But this is only counsel and advice ; 
it is not commanded, as he tells us immediately. 1 Such reverence, saith he, 
is not required by any precept ; though the service be said irreverently, yet the 
command is satisfied. 1 Here is encouragement enough for irreverence, inward 
or outward. All the danger follows, 2 but possibly it may be a venial fault if 
the irreverence be great, according to Pope Innocent. And if great irrever- 
ence will in the pope's judgment prove but a small fault, they may venture on 
great as well as little freely, for neither pope nor penitentiary thinks any much 
concerned to avoid a venial sin. Sylvester tells us 3 that irreverence is not al- 
ways mortal ; but will it ever be so, or when ? It is not so when, instead of 
worshipping God, 4 they take his name in vain, how severe soever the terms 
be in which the Lord hath forbidden this, and thereby signified the heinous- 
ness of it. Yea, that irreverence to God, which is injurious to his divine 
majesty and excellency, may not be big enough to be counted mortal ;* unless 
it be so outrageous as to destroy the majesty of God, or some of his perfec- 
tions, it may be venial. The little account they make of reverence is the 
more considerable, because, as themselves describe it, it compriseth all love 
and observance of God. 

For devotion, Aquinas tells us, 7 as to the fruit of spiritual devotion, he is 
deprived of it who doth not attend to the things he prays for, or doth not 
understand ; so that devotion is lost (by the oracle of their schools) on a 
double account, both when prayer is not attended, as it needs not be with 
them, and when it is not understood, as it cannot be. He that is negligent 
both as to attention and devotion offends venially. Thus Cardinal Cajetan, 
after he had told us that devotion consists in every holy affection. 8 So that 
he who through negligence wants all holy affection (whatever is included in 
attention or devotion) incurs but a slight fault; and it may be not so much. 

nasceretur, adorationis opus esset, ted commentitium, sen irrisionis potius nota judi- 
caretur. — Idem. ibid. c. xv. n. cccxcvi. 

1 Non tamen talis reverentia est de pracepto, ita ut si minus reverenter officium 
dicatur, tamen procepto satiafit. 

8 Verum possit esse peccatnm reniale qnando magna est irreverentia, jnxta Ionoc 
in c. i. de Celebr. miss. — Ibid. 1. ii. c. lii. n. x. 

9 Nee valet did quod est ibi irreverentia, quia ipsa semper non est mortale.— Sum. 
v. baptism iii. n. vi. 

4 Qui orat sine attentione, et qui laudes Deo canit, nihil de illo cogitans, in vanum 
nomen Dei assumit, at non propterea mortaliter peccaU — Sttar. de J warn. 1. iii. c xri. 

* Irreverentia qua? fit Deo non implendo promissionem jura tarn, non destruit aliquod 
attributum Dei in se t etiam in affectu hominis, ergo non est unde ilia irreverentia ex 
suo genere tanta sit, ut minui non possit usque ad venialem culpam ex levitate materia. 
—Ibid. n. xvii. 

6 Consistit reverentia : 1, in dilectionis affectu ; 2, in obtemperationis obedientia, 
Ac — Angel Sum. v. reverentia. 

7 Quantum ad fructum Bpiritualis devotionis, privatur qui non attendit ad ea qus> 
orat, sen non intelligit.— Cbm*n*tf. in 1 Car. xiv. fol. c. 

8 Qui vera negligenterse habet circa executionem attentionis et devotionis venialiter 
peccat.— Sum. v. Uor. Can. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. I.] not negbssaby in thx chtjbch of bomb. 28 

There ought to he devotion (aaith Cardinal Tolet), and he sets it oat hy love 
to God and desires of seeing him, hat adds, if this be wanting without con- 
tempt, it is no great sin. 1 Whether he thought it a little one, he saith not ; 
bat if he had so hard thoughts of it, the Jesuit is more severe than those of 
other orders. Graffiis, after he had described devotion, concludes, 2 He that 
wants devotion sins not, not so much as venially it seems. Lopez and Metina 
in him censures 3 that opinion as false and cruel which will have actual devo- 
tion requisite for receiving of the eucharist, though that devotion be no more 
than an actual consideration that they are there to receive Christ. Indeed, 
they generally count devotion needless there, where, if ever, it would be 
counted requisite. To 4 be destitute of it and attention too, at the eucharist, 
is either but a small fault or none at all. Sylvester saith inward devotion is 
not enjoined by the church, 6 but as to outward devotion, he will not exempt 
it from the command ; and what that is, he lets as understand by the un- 
devoatness which is forbidden : when they make sport with one another 
for a great part of their worship, so as to scandalize others and disturb 
the priest. 6 It seems they may be as devout as their church would have 
them when they play the wags one with another at divine service, so that 
their sport be but thus qualified ; if it be not so uncivil as to offend the 
people, or so boisterous as to disorder the priest, or so long as to take 
up a considerable part of their worship, their church, who requires no in- 
ward devotion at all, will not burden them much, we see, with that which 
is outward. Bo little devotion serves their mass, their divine service re- 
quires no more. Devotion there, saith he, is not commanded. 7 Others, 
amongst which the same author names Hostiensis, Antoninus, and Summa 
BoseUse, hold that in the orders for divine service, 8 the bare saying of it 
is commanded, but all that consists in devotion is no more than counsel 
(which by their principles may be neglected without sin). The ground of 
their persuasion is considerable ; to enjoin devotion (say they) 9 had been 
to lay a snare for men, and impose intolerable burdens on them ; so that 
it seems the church had been wicked and unmerciful, if she had but obliged 
their clergy and religious to be devout in their worship. And by this reason, 
neither God nor man can make devotion a duty to any sort of Roman 

1 Debet esse devotio, ut animus noster inflammetur amore Dei, quem laudamus ; et 
ardeat desiderio Tidendi quem fide cernentes preconiis extollimus: quamvis si haec 
desit absque contemptu, non sit peccatam mortals — Ibid. L ii. c. xiii. 

* Qui autem hac (sc. devotione) caret, non peccat — Ibid. n. zi. 

9 Quarto animadverterlt contra opinionem Cajet. asserentis ad dignam sumptionem 
bnjns sacramenti requiri actualem devotionem, A.«. actualem considerationem qua 
considerat acta se snscipere Christum ; ut ejus fmctum percipiat, sine qua actuali de- 
Yosione peccatum mortale esset Christi corpus sumpsisse : falsam esse et durissimam 
banc opinionem. — Lopez. Instruct, par. i. c. xi. q. lxxx. 

4 Facillimum est homini, ita distrain, ut nullam actualem attentionem, vel devotionem 
habeat ; ant omnino sine culpa, aut certe ex levi culpa, qua non satis est ad impedi- 
endum fructum sacramenti — Suar. in Thorn, iii. torn. iii. disp. lxiii sect. iii. Vide 
Durand. Paludan. Antonin. Soto. Leduma. Chtkarinum, ibid, sect ii. 

* Interior tamen devotio, qua in attentione consistit, non cadit sub humano pra- 



cepto. — Sum. t. Mis| ii. n. vi. 
• Qua aliqui pro notabili pi 



parte missss nugantur cum socio, scandalizantes alios, et 
sacerdotem vexantes. — Ibid. 
7 Ibid. y. negligentia. Si ista negligentia esset circa omissionem horarum, esset 
mortalis : secus, si circa omissionem devotionis in dicendis boris, quia ilia devotio non 
est sub pnscepto. 

9 Alii dicunt quod sub pnscepto ibi cadit boras dicere : csatera vero, qua in devotione 
consistent, suadendo dicuntur. — Ibid. Hora. v. n. xiii. 

* Quem sensum primo videtur habuisse Host. Et sequitur eum tanquam benig- 
niorem Arcbi. et Sum. Rosel. Quia ecclesia non injicit laqueum, nee homines alligare 
debet onehbus importabilibua. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



24 RBAL WORSHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

catholics ; hereafter we most not wonder if they neither enjoin nor observe 
it. And though their reason may be singular, yet the opinion is the common 
doctrine, since all are discharged from devotion or reverence, who are not 
obliged to attention. Such, therefore, and no other, is the worship which 
the church of Rome makes needful for the clergy and religious. Such as it 
can be, without attention, without holy fear or affection ; it is not the thing 
they call it, it deserves not the name of worship, or the title of holy or reli- 
gious ; it must be a profane and irreligious exercise, it can be no better 
without reverence, and without devotion ; it cannot but be without these, 
whilst it is without attention, which they oblige all to neglect, by declaring it 
needless. Durandus maintained that images 1 are not to be worshipped pro- 
perly, but only abusively, that is, as they explain it, though worship be ex- 
hibited before, or about the image, yet the mind of the worshipper is far 
from it. This, his opinion, is now damned, as little less than heretical ; 
being, in their account, no less than a denial that any worship is to be given 
to an image, yet this abusive worship is all that they make necessary for 
the God of heaven ; for requiring no attention of mind, no devotion of soul 
in their service, they allow both mind and heart to be far from him, while 
they do something before or about him which they call worship. So that 
what worship they count intolerably too little for a senseless image, not to 
say a detestable idol, they think enough in conscience for the true and living 
God. I have not observed that any idolaters in the world were ever so gross 
and stupid, as by their avowed doctrine thus to advance what they look 
npon as a mere image, and so to debase what they took to be the true God. 
However, hereby it appears, that they count no worship at all needful for 
God, since worship without the heart will, by their doctrine, serve the turn, 
which, 1 in reference to an image, is, with them, no worship at all. It is not 
true honour or worship, but fiction and mockery. This is their own cha- 
racter of such worship when images are concerned, and under it I leave their 
divine service. 

Sect. 2. Let us in the next place view their mass. This is for the people, 1 
and is the only publio worship enjoined them in any of their days for 
worship. They call it 4 the chief part of their religion, and this summons 
us to expect that herein, if at all, they will shew themselves religious, 
and worship God indeed ; however, they think not themselves obliged to it 
in their divine office. But all expectation hereof is quite blasted when they 
tell us,* that less attention is required at the mass than at their canonical 
hours; yet so they commonly determine, and their reason is, because 

1 Quod est incidere in opinionem Durandi ab omnibus damnatum, dicentis, imagioem 
non proprie, sed abusive adoiari, non enim alia ratione illam vocavit abusivam adora- 
tionem imaginis nisi quia licet fiat coram ipsa vel jnxtaipsaro, tamen animus adorantis, 
ut sic, longe est ab ipsa. — Suar. torn. iii. disp. lxxxi. sect. viii. p. 1075. 

* Quamvis exterior actus rationem adorationis non babeat, nisi ut est ab interiori, 
sen ut manat a predicto affectu, nam si ab illo non oriatur ; non est adoratio, sed irrisio 
potius. sen fictio qusddam. — Idem. torn. i. disp. li. sect. i. p. 757. 

8 Sola missa communiter est in prsacepto. — Cajetan. Snm. v. /est. Est communis 
sen ten ti a, vide infra. 

4 Bellarm. 1. i. ; De Missa, c. i. p. 679. 

5 Attentionera vero qurn necessaria est sub prsscepto ad audiendam Missam, dicimus* 
non esse tantam quanta est in officio Divino. — De Oraff. ibid. L ii. cap xxxiv. n. 8. 
Neque in audienda missa requiritur tanta attentio sicut in recitatione borarum — Lopez. 
ibid. c. Hi. p, 271. Ut Soto, et Navar etiam annotant, minor attentio in missa neces- 
saria est, quam in horis canon icis recitandis. 

6 Quia oratio est actio magis rationalis, quam ilia moralis prsssentia, quse necessaria 
est ad implendum praeceptum de audienda missa*— Suar. torn. iii. disp. lxxxviii. sect, 
iii. Ex quo fit majorem attentionem requiri ad boras quam ad missam. — Ita Nug<m* t 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Chap. I.] not necessaby in the ghtjbch of bomb. 26 

prayer is a more rational act than that moral presence required at mass. So 
that their hearing mass is a less rational act than that which is performed 
without understanding, and requires less attention of mind, than that to 
which none at all is actually needful. And we cannot yet apprehend how 
that can be divine worship, which is so far from being reasonable service, or 
how God can be thought to be worshipped, when the soul which is to wor- 
ship him doth not take any notice of him. The servant of servants at Borne 
would not think himself honoured, if the holding out of his toe were not re- > 
garded by such as have access to him. But Roman catholics may, it seems, 
mind God less at their mass, than one that minds him not all, and yet wor- 
ship him well enough after their mode. 

Besides, all inward worship is clearly discharged, for when they teach 
that the mass is for the people, the only worship on the Lord's days, or any 
other day set apart for worship, they tell us expressly, no inward worship is 
the duty of those days, external worship alone is commanded. 1 So Aquinas, 
Gajetan, 1 so Navar, so de Graffis, so Lopez, Dominicus a Soto also, who 
asserts it with many reasons, amongst which this is one, because the church 
requires no other than this external worship, and if God had required more, 
the church had not been fida divini juris interpret, a faithful expounder of 
the divine law, which rather than they will yield they will admit anything, 
though it be that God should never haw any true worship amongst them. 

Particularly and expressly, they deny all acts of contrition for sin to be 
the duties of mass days. So Sylvester,* Summa Roselto, 4 Melchior Canus,* 
and all the other authors last mentioned.* Likewise, all acts of love to God, 7 
Bellarmine, and in him Aquinas, 8 so Navar and Pope 9 Adrian, de Graffis, 10 
and Soto, 11 who would maintain this with many arguments, one of the chief of 
them, he calls it wgentissimum argwntntum, is, 12 that this would be to ensnare 
souls, and cast them into grievous straits, if so harsh a duty as an act of 
love to God, were enjoined so frequently. Another is, 1 * that all the com- 
mands of God, as to the substance of them, may be fully accomplished 
without love to God, and therefore this. « 

It is good divinity with them that we are not bound to worship God out 
of love. The mass, saith Navar, 14 which we are commanded to hear on those 
days, and nothing else, may be heard well enough without any sueh act of 

8. Antoninus, Navar Sylvester , Grafius, Sotus, Angdut, Barthol. ab Angtlo, Henriq. 
in (et cum) Bonacin. de Sacrament, disp. iv. q. nit. panct xi. n. 20. 

1 Ex pnocepto colendi Deum homo tenetur duntaxat cultnm externum ei exhibere., 
— Petr. a 8, Joseph de prsecept. i. art. v. Aquinas xxii. q. cxxii. art. iv. ; Cajetan. 
sum. v. fest. p. 306; Navar. cap. xiii. n. ii. ; Lopez, c. lii. p. 266; De Graff. 1. ii. 
c. xxxiii. n. viii. ibid.; Co-varravius ver. resol. 1. iv. c xix. n. ri. 

• Cum ergo ecclesia cultum hoc precepto inclusum perinde sno statuto exprimeret 
— et hoc suo'prsBcepto ad cultum nos tan turn aritet, palam est jure divino non esse 
illic alium contentum ; quonium alias nisi ilium expUcaret, non fnisset fida juris Di- 
rini interpres Soto de Just, et Jvr. 1. ii. q. iv. art. iv. 

• 8um. v. Domin. n. viii. * V. Feri». 

• Prelect, de Pcenlten. pars. iv. p. 864. 

• Cajetan. ibid. ; Soto. ibid. ; Navar. c xiii. n. xvii. ; Lopes, c lii. p. 271 ; De 
Graff, ibid. 

7 De Cult. Sanctorum, 1. iii. c. x. p. 1609. 

• Cap. xi. n. xix. &c. xxii. n. vii. • Ibid. w Ibid. " Ibid. 

u Esset enim hoc Christianorum animos irretire, et in arctissimasangustias conjicere i 
nempe quod tarn crebro ad rem tarn arduam teneremur. — Ibid. 

14 Ejusmodi prscepta non obligant ad charitatis modum, sed possunt quantum ad 
subatantiam operis, extra charitatem impleri. — Ibid. 

14 Nam missa quam in illis diebus precipimur audire, recte audiri potest, sine tali 
amore actu concepto, unde rari vel nulli se hujus omissionis accusant. — Cap. xi. n. vii. 
at Fest. Vide Suar. L ii. c. xvi. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



26 REAL W0BSHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

love. So Bellarmine, 1 we are not bound on these days by any particular 
precept not to sin, or to have any act of contrition, or any act of love to God. 
What, not one act of love to God ? No ; he will prove it. One of his argu- 
ments is, 2 because the church hath determined the time and manner how 
divine law is to be observed in keeping this command, but the church no- 
where requires inward acts ; she thinks, it seems, that God may be served 
sufficiently with the mass, without any sense of sin or love to God. And 
thus all those other graces and affections that flow from repentance, or love, 
or necessarily depend thereon, as filial fear, spiritual desires, delight in God, 
&c, will be no duty on their mass days, their mass hath nothing to do with 
them. Confessions of sin there may be well enough without godly sorrow, 
and petitions without desires, and praises without complacence or ingenuous 
gratitude, because all is well enough without love to God, or grief for offend- 
ing him ; and that on all these days wherein they are obliged to hear mass. 

If you would see anything of the worship of God in the mass, it is as if 
you look for the life and nature of a man in a picture ; and such an one as 
will not so much as shew you his colour or figure, but very rudely. 

The precept for observing mass days, as Sylvester tells us, 8 requires not 
the end, that is, waiting upon God, nor what is necessarily requisite thereto, 
but the hearing of mass. Not waiting on God, but hearing mass i These 
are distinct things, and disjoined in the sense of the Roman doctors, the 
one is commanded, the other is not ; so that they may duly hear mass all 
their lives, and yet not wait on God one moment : the former they must do, 
the latter they are not obliged to regard, nor anything that necessarily be- 
longs to it. Navar 4 asserts this, and would prove it by reason, and the 
authority of Aquinas, herein generally followed. In short, if there be any 
worship required in the mass, it is merely external ; and that, disjoined from 
the inward service of the soul, is but a mere shew or visor of worship, as 
they themselves confess in their lightsomer intervals. Well, but is it worship 
in any sense ? Is there anything religious required of the people herein ? 
For this they tell us it is enough, if it be a human act, no more is eqjoined,* 
the precept obligeth not, but to hear, so that it may be a human act, 6 saith 
Soto and others, 7 and if it suffice that it be a human act, it needs not be 
religious. Let it be deliberate, that is enough to make it a human act ; and 
then, though there be no religious motion or intention in it, the precept is 
fulfilled. Sylvester confirms us herein: the precept, saith he, is given unto 
men, and therefore the work must not be the issue only of the imagination, 
which is common to us with beasts, it must proceed from deliberation, which 
requires some attention. 8 So that there is something more required of one 

1 Non tenemur in diebus festis ex precepto peculiari, ad non peccandum stye ad 
actum contritions, vcl dilectionis DeL— Ibid. 

8 Ecclesia determinavit tempns et modum obsenrandi jus divinum de observation* 
prssceptorum : at ecclesia nusqnam procipit actus illos interiores. — Ibid. 

8 Non est simpliciter de fine, t. e. ipsa vacatione circa Deum, vol necessario requi- 
sitis ad illam : sed de abstinentia a servilibus, et anditione miss®. — Dominic, r. n. viii. 

4 Quamvis finis hujus pracepti sit, nt homo Deo vacet, ipsoqne fruatur, et in eo 
quiescat, nt docuit S. Thomas. Qnando tamen finis procepti est alind a re prncepta, 
tnnc non cadit sub preceptum, sicut idem. S. Thomas. Commnnitur receptus, c xiii. 
n. ii. p. 198. 

* Neqne tale proceptum obligat ad alinm actum interiorem, quam ad ilium qui 

Sropter ezteriorem est necessarius, scil. vere audire missam ea attentione, ut sit actus 
umanus.—&>to. ibid. p. Ii. 

8 Prasceptum audiendi missam non obligat nisi taliter audire ut sit actus humanus. 
— Idem. 1. x. q. v. art. v. p. 341. 

7 Sat est, quod sit actus humanus— Jae. de Qraff lib. ii. c. xxxiv. n. yiii. Satis 
est, sit actus humanus. — Lopez, c lii. p 271. 

8 Prcsceptum datur hominibus, ideoque oportet ut non procedat opus ex sola imagina- 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. I. J not necessary in the ghttbch of home. 27 

that goes to mass than of a beast ; but that is before he comes there ; if he 
advance but to it as a man, he may be excused even from human acts, when 
he is at it, he needs neither exercise his understanding nor his senses. He 
needs not understand it, 1 that it is far from being a duty, they have made it 
impossible; it is no sin either for priests 3 or people not to know what they 
do, so reasonable is their service. The Latin makes it unintelligible enough, 
but if it were in a language less known, if in Mosarabic or Greek, 3 those who 
are present without any but their mother tongue fulfil the precept. As 
Victorel tells us, 4 after Soto and others, he need not see what is done, 6 he 
may do all that is requisite at the mass blindfold ; he needs not hear it, as 
Cajetan and others tell us,* and this is much, he is enjoined only to hear 
mass, and yet doth all that he is enjoined if he hear it not, if not one syl- 
lable of it reach his ears ; it seems, with them, to hear is not to hear. Just 
by the same figure that they say they worship God, when in truth they do 
not worship him at all. 

He needs not be sensible of anything about it ; to hear mass, saith Tolet, 
is not to use any of his senses about what is- done in the mass. 7 And if this 
be their worshipping God, a man may worship him as much as the church 
of Borne requires, not only without reverence and devotion, without heart 
and affection, but without the use of sense or reason. A brute may do more 
at mass than they require their catholics to do. No wonder that church 
enjoins no attention, devotion, or reverence, nor counts them needful (as 
we have already manifested), for can there be any pretence to require these, 
when both sense and understanding are superseded ; or can there be any- 
thing that deserves the name of worship without these ? 

They themselves cancel anft overthrow all their own pleas and pretences 
for their offering God anything of worship in the mass. For, they say, he 
doth not worship there who is not present ; and they cannot deny that in 
God's account he is absent whose mind is not present. And yet they jus- 
tify voluntary departures of mind and heart, when they would be worshipping ; 
and those who would not seem to do this do it really, when they conclude 
it no fault to employ themselves about other things when they are at mass. 8 
They allow them to say their hours (and so neglect the mass, out of a neglect 
of their divine office), or to recite what is enjoined them by way of penance 
(and so prefer a punishment before the chief part of their religion), or other 
voluntary performances (so they may do what they will rather than mind 

tione, qua communis nobis est cnm bestiis, sed ex deliberations quae attentionem requirit, 
&c. r. hora. n. xiii. vid. Angelas v. hor. n. xxvii. 

1 Nemo teneatur ex preecepto audire, et minus intelligere verba sacerdotis, quia satis 
est rel ex longinqno missanti adesse. — Navar. c. xxi. n. viii. 

* Cleric! vel laici qui divinis intersunt, si non intelligunt qua dicant, non peccant. 
— Jac. de Graf. 1. ii. c li. n. xii. 

* Si andiret missam Mocaravem, compleret. — Lopez, c. xlii. 

4 Qui Grsecam missam audiret satisfaceret prsecepto, etiam si non intellipcret. — 
Addit. ad. L vi. c. vii. ToL instr. Vid Bonacin de Sacram. d. iv. q. ulc panel, xi. n. xii. 
et ilii plures. 

6 Non est videre ea qua? in xnissa aguntur. — Tolet. 1. vi. c vi. 

* Utrum autem audiatur vel non, utrum sit missa propria vel non. sub prsecepto non 
cadit.— CajtU Sum. v. Fest p cccvi. ; Navar, e. xxi. n. viii. supra. De Graff. 1. ii. c xxxir, 
n. viii. Satis est preesentem esse missse, ad impletionem prsecepti. licet non audiat sacer- 
dotem ; secundum Sotum. Lopes, ibid. Bonacin, ibid. n. xx. ibi S. Antonin. JSugnus, 
Navaf. SylveeU Henrique Graff. Sot Angehu. Barthol. ab Angela. 

7 Secundum Antoninum, non est necesse sentire et distincte audire verba missa*, &c 
Sylvett. v. miss, ii n. vi. Audire Sacrum— non est uti aliquo sensu erga ea qua in 
missa aguntur, 1. vi. c. vi. 

8 Sponte inter sacrum audiendum, vana cogitantem, prsecepto satisfacere— affirmant 
Sylvest. Jo. Medina, I'aludanue, Azov, in Victorel. addit. Tol. 1. vL c. vi. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



28 SBAI* W0B8HIP OF GOD [C/HAP. I. 

what they are about). 1 They know they cannot do two things at once, 
especially in divine worship, which should take up the soul. Though in 
their worshipping, where the soul is not concerned, they may attend a 
hundred acts at once ; as much as they are obliged to mind the mass, thatj 
is, actually not at alL They admit them not only to read or write what 
they please, but also to sleep part of the time, so that they take not too long 
a nap. 2 It should not last above a third part, or half the mass (for that is 
pars nolabilis*) ; if it be but less than that, it passeth for nothing. 4 Or if 
they be too brisk to sleep, they may entertain themselves with familiar chat.* 
Medina concludes that he who is at mass may spend the whole time in dis- 
course about other things, — merchant affairs or making bargains, — and yet 
fulfil the precept. They must, it seems, demean themselves at mass alto- 
gether as religiously as at the exchange, and no more is required. Suarez 
would have the discourse neither so long nor so serious, there should be 
some intermissions to attend. But what attention can he mean? He 
(with the rest) tells us that to the mass less attention is requisite than to 
their divine office ; and to that office, he and they say, a virtual intention is 
sufficient, and this is the least of all that can be. So that to the mass leas 
attention than the least of all will suffice ; and this, to common apprehen- 
sion, is none at all. Others of them (as we saw before) will have no atten- 
tion of mind needful for their office ; and so with them, none will serve the 
mass. Their catholics may have their choice here, and satisfy their devo- 
tion at mass either with the attention of this doctor and some other late 
authors, whieh is none at all ; or (if this seem too much) with that of their 
ancienter doctors, which is less than none. And what must they attend to who 
need neither hear, nor see, nor understand what is said or done ? It would 
puzzle one as subtle as himself to tell one how he can attend to that which 
is neither offered to his senses nor his intellect. And therefore the Jesuit, 
though he seems more strict, yet herein is less rational than Medina, and 
not so consistent with himself or their common doctrine. Also he would 
not have the discourse at mass so grave and serious as that of merchants : 
it should be more light, more idle than that about trade and business. 7 It 
seems the levity of the stage suits with the mass better than the seriousness 

1 Vera resolutio est — posse quem eodem tempore 6atisfacere precepto de audienda 
missa, et de dicendis horis canonicis, aut aliis votis, juratis, vel in psenitentiam injunc- 
tis, roodo non adeo tint rei intendat, ut alteri necessariam attentionem adimat, quod 
fieri potest, cum nemo teneatur ex praecepto audire, et minus intelligere verba sacer- 
dotis Naaar, c. xxi. n. viii. 

Vid. Adrian, de satisfact. q. vii. ; Medina, tract, ii. de peeniL ; Cajetan. v. fest.; 
Soto. iv. dist. xiii. q. ii. art. i.; Lopez, c. lii. in Victorel. ibid.; besides the Jesuits, 
Tolet Suarez. Sa. Azorins. Comitolus, &c. 

So they may bear three masses at once, when said in one church at the same time, 
and thereby satisfy when their penance is three masses, as Bonacin. and in him 
Rodriquez, G raffias, Scortia, and others. — De sacrament, disp. iv. q. nit. p. xi. n. xiii. 

* Peccat mortaliter— in aliqua ejus parte notabili colloquendo, pingendo, scribendo, 
dormiendo. — Nov. c. xxi. n. vi., parvitas in omni materia excusat a mortal i, n. ii. 

8 Secundum Archidiaconum, preccptum non observat, qui partem notabilem amittit, 
puta medietatem aut tertiam partem ; secus qui modicam.— Syfo. v. miss. ii. n. i 

* Modicum enim pro nihilo reputatur — Cajet, v. fest. 

* Nonnulla modica misceantur colloquia. — Lopez, a lit. p. 271. 

e Medina docet, siquis missse interest, semper tamen confabulatur, aut alia negotia, 
futura cum merca tori bus tractat, nihilominus implere praeceptum — In Suar. torn. iii. 
disp. xviii. sect. iii. Bespondetur autem ex Cajerano, una cum Soto, quod snfficiat 
missa? esse praesenteni, unde qui longe stat, earn non audiens, vel cum alio loquena, 
non propterea est prtecepti transgressor. — Corradut in resp. quasst. 198. 

7 Qui voluntarie confabulatur — non aati&facere, nisi vel confabulatio esset discon- 
tinue partim scil. loquendo, partim attendendo, ut commnniter fieri solet ; vel non de 
re seria, sed levi, &c— Idem, ibid. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. I.] not nbobssaby in the ohuboh of bomb. 29 

of the exchange. Answerably, if their discourse be not decent, nor the sub- 
ject of it very modest, the mass will comport with it, and the church's pre- 
cept will bear it without a breach. 1 And no wonder, since it hath been the 
custom of that church (as many of their writers inform us 1 ) to sing not only 
profane, but filthy, songs at high mass ; and that to the organ, that the people 
might not only be refreshed by their own private immodest discourse, but 
edified more effectually this way by the louder voice of the church. And 
how, we learn by a grave cardinal (though little herein more rigid than 
others), who tells us that the hearers were thereby excited to what was pro- 
fane and filthy, as experience witnessed. 3 And still notwithstanding any 
pretence of reformation, tunes to the organ at divine service or mass, though 
lascivious and very profane, will pass for a small fault (in the judgment of 
those who seem most severe in the case) if either the matter be slight, or the 
intention good, or the actors inconsiderate. 4 Here is provision enough, that 
the scenes in their mass may not be dull and heavy. Yet further, they may 
laugh and be pleasant, and when the music (which sounds not always) doth 
it not, they may make themselves merry in the height of their worship. But 
this with some caution : their talk and laughter may break out into such 
noise, that possibly it may prove a sin of irreverence. 6 Here is some show 
of danger, but it will vanish presently ; for if it should be a very loud extra- 
vagance* and the irreverence great, yet great irreverence may with them be 
but a smaM fault, and they have the authority of the pope to warrant this. c 
Nor must this seem strange to us, since they will not have all contempt of 
God criminal ; that which is material may be venial, and it is not formal, 
unless besides the contempt of God there be also an intention to contemn 
. him. 7 Such is the most solemn worship in the Roman church, and so is 
God worshipped amongst them ; and that not by the unwarranted presump- 
tion of the profane multitude, but by the rules and conclusions of those who 
direct their worship and guide their consciences. Here we may see in the 
mass the religion of Roman Catholics ; they call it the chiefest, the best 
part of their religion, that we may not look for anything better amongst 
them, nor anything religious, if it be not found here ; yea, it is all (better 
or worse) that the people are obliged to in public (and in private their church 
doth not trouble them with any). 6 He that views it well, and believes he 
hath a soul, and that there is a God, must have little or no regard of either 

1 Soto in iv. dist xiii. q. ii. art. Hi., dicit qnod licet indecentia sint colloquia inter 
audiendam missum, non tamen propterea fit transgressor prscepti. — Ibid. 

* Cornelias Agrippa, de vanit. scient. cap. xvii. j Cajetan. sum. v. ; Organ. Soto. 
de just, and jur. 1. x. q. v. art. ii. p. 336; Navar. cap. xiii. n. lxxxvii.; Lopez, cap. H. 
p. 283. 

8 In cujus signum, audientes ex illo sono excitantur ad ilia profana seu turpia, ut 
experientia testatur : ita quod non est inficiationi locus. — Cajetan, ibid. 

* Canticus — ratione som quia est lascivus aut valde scecularis — potest esse venial is 
culpa, vel ratione mate rise minim®, vel ex bona intentione vel inadvertentia, ut 
Cajetanus dixit, in Suar. de horis can. 1 iv. cap. xiii. n. xvii., materia parva — si organ- 
ista loco Kyrie Eleuon, cantilenam profenam organo canat. — Villalobus, in Dian. v. 
blasph. n. ir. 

6 Sed possent voces et risus in tantum prorumpere, quod esset peccatam irreverentia 
et scandali. — Lop*x y c. Hi. Soto in iv. diet. xiii. quest, ii. art i. 

6 Jac. de Graff. 1. ii. c. lit supra. 

7 Contemptus ille qui continetnrin irreverentia Deiperse,et ut talis est, non semper 
est formalis sed materials, qni non semper sufficit ad malitiam mortalem. Nos autem 
loquimur de contemptu formali, quo ipsa Dei irreverentia intenditur. — Suar. de Juram, 
]. iii. c xii. n. iv. and vi ; vid. Cajetan. Sum. v. contempt ; vid. Bonacin. de legibu*, disp. 
ii. q. iii. p. 5, n. x. 1. xv. 

8 In qua (sc miasa) pracipua para religionis nostra. — Bellar. de miss. lib. i. cap. i. 
p. 679. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



80 BBAL WORSHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

if he do not bless himself from it, as a thing which hath nothing of religion 
but the name, and that merely usurped. A religion which needs nothing, 
by the doctrine of its chief professors, that is either godly, or so good as 
human ; no regard of God at all, so much as in one thought of him ; nor 
any act of reason, yea, or of sense, either about anything religious or divine, 
yet allows a free exercise of both about that which is profane and irreligious ; 
he that counts this religion indeed, must stifle the common notions of reli- 
gion and Christianity ; and he that, understanding it, makes choice thereof, 
had need first be very indifferent, whether he have any religion or none. 
Had the ancient fathers talked after this senseless, lewd, extravagant rate 
concerning the worship of God, how would Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian 
have triumphed over them I Nay, they might justly have challenged them 
to have instanced in any one that bore the name of a philosopher, that ever 
treated of the worship of God with so little reverence and discretion. Had 
such loose and wild doctrines been broached by the first teachers of Chris- 
tianity, the heathens needed not have raised so fierce a persecution against 
it, they might with ease have hissed it out of the world. 

But this is not the worst : they encourage that in the mass which they 
cannot but condemn as wicked, and maintain that the precept for hearing 
mass may be satisfied by such wickedness. Melchior Canus to this objec- 
tion (that the command of God or the church cannot be fulfilled by sin) 
answers according to the opinion commonly maintained amongst them, 
that he is no transgressor of the precept who to the act enjoined, and good 
in its kind, adds something sinful. 1 He supposeth that the act commanded 
by the church is some way good ; but withal, that the precept may be satis- 
fied, though it be done wickedly, and that by their common doctrine. Whether 
the circumstances may be venially or mortally wicked he saith not, but leaves 
us to understand it of either. Dominions a Soto tells us expressly, that 
though wbat is added to the act 1 enjoined be a mortal wickedness, yet the 
precept may thereby be satisfied substantially. With these divines of greatest 
reputation amongst them, concurs Navarre,* no less renowned (and none of 
them Jesuits) ; The opinion of Antoninus (which he is disproving) presup- 
poseth, saith he, that by a sinful act, especially if it be a mortal sin, the 
command of the church cannot be fulfilled ; but that this is false we have 
largely proved. He would have us know that he hath fully demonstrated 
that the precept for hearing mass may be entirely accomplished by deadly 
crimes. This is the judgment of the most eminent doctors amongst them, 
such as are not of the Society, and (if they will believe their famous bishop 
of the Canaries) the common doctrine in the Roman church, and by this 
the world may judge what a church it is, what her religion, what her worship, 
what her precepts for it are, when all that she requires for that worship, 
which is the principal part of her religion, may be satisfied by acts of wicked- 
ness, such as are mortal and damnable to the worshippers, and most (of all 
others) dishonourable to God, whom they pretend to worship. And let those 
that are seduced, or may be tempted by seducers, seriously consider whether 
they can wisely trust their souls to such a conduct, or be safe in such a com- 

1 Nos cum communi opinione in prsesentia teneamus, non esse transgressorem pro- 
cepti, qui actui, bono ex genere suo, quem lex praecipiebat, appoint aliquant malam 
circumstantiam.— ifefect. <U pcenit, part iv. p. 936; vid. Bonacinum de legibu*, disp. i. 
q. i. punct. ix. n. i.; ibi. & Thoma$, Soto, Navar, Medina, et plures alii. 

* Quamris simul habeat propositum aliud mortale, satisfaciet prsecepto quantum ad 
substantiam.— Ibid. 1. x. q. v. a. 5. 

* Non tamen est tenendum illud Antonini— quia prsesupponit, malo, pmsertim 
mortali, non posse adimpleri pneceptum, quod esse falsum, late probavimus, c. xxi. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. L] not necessaby in the ohubch of bomb. 81 

mnnion, where there is no more tenderness for the salvation of souls than to 
be satisfied with such a worshipping of God as will confessedly damn tbem. 

Sect. 8. Thus much for the manner of their public worship, all of it, 
whoever amongst tbem it concerns, whereby it appears that they count it not 
necessary that God should have any real worship from them. This will be 
further manifest by what they teach concerning the end of it. 

They maintain that it is lawful for their clergy and monastics too (who 
profess perfection) to serve God for their own ends, viz. to get preferment, 
or compass a dignity, or gain some worldly advantage, and so to prostitute 
the honour and worship of God to such low, earthly, sordid designs, as re- 
ligious persons would never appear to own, but that irreligion is grown too 
monstrously big for its vizard. He that riseth to their morning service for 
this end, that he may have his daily dividend, if it be not principally for this, 
he sins not. So tbeir glossa ceUberrima, the two popes Urban and Cosies - 
tine, determine that it is lawful for their clergy to serve God in their churches 
for this design, and hope to get ecclesiastical dignity ; in Navarre. 1 But 
then this great casuist (of so high esteem among them, that he was sent for 
from Spain to Rome, to give advice and direction to the old gentleman there, 
that cannot err) understands (after Aquinas and Jo. Major, 1 as he pretends) 
the principal end to be something else than others do. It is not that which 
so much moves the agent, as that without it he would not be drawn to act 
by any other end ; and accordingly he will have the premised testimony to 
be understood.* So that one of their perfectionists, who riseth to morning 
prayer for this end, that he may have his dividend, and would not stir 4 out 
of his bed to attend the worship of God for God's sake, or any other end 
beseeming a religious person, if the consideration of his daily allowance did 
not rouse him, yet he serves God so well herein as that he is sinless, and 
not so much as venially tainted. Likewise the clergy who address them- 
selves to the worship of God, moved thereto more by hopes to gain prefer- 
ment and dignity than any respect to God, yet they sin not ; that is, they 
worship God well enough, though they respect themselves and their own ends 
more than him ; or, which is all one, though thejr serve themselves rather 
than God, whom they are to worship. They are all concerned to maintain 
this ; for he tells them, if such acts of virtue or worship were vicious, 6 all 
their acts in a manner would be stark naught, since there are extremely few 
amongst them that are purely done for God. They are a church in the mean- 
time that worthily profess godliness, since nothing is done, or needs be done 
by them, even in the worship of God, for him, so much as for themselves ; 

1 Glossa ilia celeberrima ait peccare qnidem earn, qui surgit ad matutinas preces 
principaliter propter distributiones qnotidianas, non autem ilium, qui surgit principaliter 
nt Deo inserviat, et minus principaliter, et secundario, ut eas lucre tur — Urbanus papa 
et Coelestinus detcrminarunt licere clericis servire Deo in ecclesiis ob spem ascendendi 
ad dignitates illarum. Imo, Qelasius dixit eos ad hune ascensum spe majoris com modi 
compellendos — Glossa recepta dicit expresse per ilium textum, licere clerico servire in 
ecclesia ad qussrendam aliquam dignitatem, modo principaliter ob id non serviat, &c, 
cap. xxiii. n. ci. 

* Ut probavimus, non est bona definitio ilia Bartoli, qua definit causam principalem 
esse causam qua cessanie cessat effectus. — Id. ibid. 

Ut aliquis finis sit principalis, non sufficit quod ille non fieret sine illo, sed oportef, 
quod pluris vel tanti sestimetur ac alius nni6, propter quem ille fit. — Id. c. xrii. n. 209, 
&c. xx. n. xi. p. 459. 

9 Per supra dictos textus et glossas, qua* habent locum etiam in his, qui non servi- 
rent, ecclesiis vel pnelatis, nisi sperarent beneficia, c. xxiii. n. ci. 

4 Surgens ad matutinas ob distributiones, alias non surrecturus. — Ibid. 

6 Alioqui enim omnes fere actus nostri essent vitiosi -, quia pancissimi fiunt pure 
propter solum Deum, et solam virtutem, &c — Ibid. p. 590. 

vol. in. Q 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



82 REAL WORSHIP OF OOD [CHAP. L 

and, indeed, Sylvester deals ingenuously when he tells us plainly, without 
the cover of any pitiful shift, that it is no sin to serve God principally for 
their own profit. 1 * 

Moreover, and yet worse, they teach it is no sin to worship God for an end 
that is in itself a sin, if it be not principally intended. It is lawful by their 
doctrine to preach, to pray, say mass, &c., for praise of men (though Christ 
will have those that designed it, as Cajetan* notes, even when he is excus- 
ing this, to have no better reward), or for vain glory (though they reckon 
this amongst capital crimes 3 ), only he must not make so wicked a thing his 
chief end, and then he is innocent enough, though sin against God be his 
design in worshipping him. It is no sin, yea, it is meritorious, to do these 
things, viz. to preach, and say mass, and to do other things of like nature 
principally for God, and secondarily for vain glory and praise of men, aptly 
directed as our end. Thus Navarre determines after their great saint and 
doctor, Aquinas. 4 Now he had taught us before, that these acts of worship 
are but done secondarily (and so unlawfully) for these criminal ends, when 
they so much sway a man as that he would not worship God unless he were 
excited by them ; and that vain glory is not his principal end, even when he 
is so much influenced thereby as that he would not pray or preach, &c. If 
this were not his motive, this in the judgment of others, as he acknowledged, 
is to make sin his principal end, and to advance wickedness above God, even 
when he pretends to worship him. 6 But let us not interrupt this great 
doctor in his way, it is foul enough as himself makes it; for hereby a man 
may serve God, and that meritoriously (after the Roman mode), though he 
never would let him have an act of worship, if pride and vain glory did not 
set him a-work. He would never pray or preach, Ac, if he were not more 
moved to it by sin, and out of regard to some wickedness, than out of respect 
to God. 

Further yet, they hold it is but a venial fault to worship God principally 
for vain glory, and other designs of like quality. 6 Aquinas, as he is repre- 
sented by Sylvester, determining that it is no mortal sin to serve God prin- 
cipally for vain glory, if that be one's chief end actually only, and not both 
habitually and actually. Sylvester declares it as his own persuasion, that 
it is both against Aquinas and the truth to hold it is a mortal sin, when 

1 Licitum est etiam aliquid operari principaliter propter propriam utilitatem. — Sum. 
v. charitas. n. 5. And that of Navar is plain enough : Diximus quod falsum est, esse 
mortale facere ordinata ad cultum principaliter ob bona temporalia, cap. xxiii. n. 14, 
p. 655, &c., xiii. n. 14. Solet circa hanc voluntatem inquiri, an debeat esse honesta ; 
et specialiter, an voluntas confitendi propter hnmanum motivum, scilicet inanem 
gloriam, vel commodnm temporale, sufficiat ad valorem sacrament! : nam in cieteris 
sacramentis certum est sufficere; in hoc— affirmant, Soto. diet, xviii. q. 3. art. in.; 
Navar, c. xxi. n. 40. Negant enim illam voluntatem ex illo fine, esse peccatnm mortale, 
scd veniale tantum: quod non repugnat valori sacramenti. Qua sententia, per se 
loquendo, vera mihi videtur. — Suarez, torn. iv. disp. xx. sec. iii. n. 4. p. 273. 

* Sum. v. prsedicat. p. 480. 

8 Aquinas, xxii. q. 132, art. i. ; (in eo) Gregorius. xzxi ; Moral, numerat inanem 
gloriam inter septem vitia capitalia. — Ibid. art. iv. 

4 Nullum autem peccatnm immo meritum est facere ilia (viz. concionare, missam 
celebrare, precari et id genus alia) principaliter propter Deum, et secundario propter 
vanam gloriam, vel laudem hnmanam, in finem aptum relatum per ibi dicta post 
S. Thomam. c. xxiii. n. 13. 

6 Ex quo infert quod mortale est pnedicare aut missam celebrare, et hnjusmodi, 
propter inanem gloriam, quod verum est solom ut dicit S. Thorn. Si in ca ponatui 
nltimus finis, ita quod ipsa intenditur principaliter actu et habitu, seens si actu tantum, 
ut iste intendit. — Sum. v. vana gloria, n. 2. 

6 Ex quibus patet, quod Sum. Ang. contra. S. Thorn, et veritatem dicit, quod est 
mortale, quando, ea qua ordinate sunt ad Dei gloriam, facit ad gloriam suam, ut 
sacrameuta et Scripture sacree.— i6itf. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. I.] not necessaby in the ohuboh of bomb. 83 

those things which are ordained for the glory of God are used principally for 
a man's own glory. He instances in the sacraments, saying mass, the 
Scriptures, and preaching. 

Cardinal Cajetan declares himself thus in one instance, which involves 
the rest : l It is hat venial to preach for vain glory, or hopes of a gainful 
alms, signifying that he means such vain glory as Christ condemned in the 
pharisees, when he told them this was like to be ' their reward.' 

Navarre 2 affirms, that to preach, or say mass, or pray, and such things as 
are instituted for the honour and worship of God and the salvation of souls, 
for vain glory principally, or more than principally, is but a venial fault ; and 
that such as gainsay this (who are but two) have been confuted by others, 
and by himself after them. These are the chief of their doctors, whom the 
rest commonly follow (and none of them Jesuits), who unanimously assert 
this. Now it is not necessary with them for any man to avoid a venial sin, 
since by their doctrine a world of them can never damn a man ; and there- 
fore it is not necessary for any papist to worship God otherwise than prin- 
cipally for vain glory, or ends equally criminal, i. e. it is not needful for them 
to worship him at all ; for no man can imagine that he is worshipped when 
he is in the highest degree dishonoured and affronted; and what greater 
affront can be put upon him than under a pretence of worship to debase the 
great God, and thrust him lower in our designs, not only than ourselves and 
earthly trifles, but lower than sin, the vilest thing on earth, yea, or in hell ? 
and this is evidently done when vain-glory (a capital sin) hath the pre- 
eminence of God in addresses to him, and is regarded as principal ; when 
the Lord of heaven and earth hath no regard at all, or only in a lower place. 
It is not worshipping of God, but a horrid impiety, for men to serve them- 
selves instead of God, but more intolerably impious to worship sin ; and that 
hath the worship and is honoured in the place of God which hath the highest 
advancement, and is principal in religious addresses ; yet no better than this 
is all the worship which, by the Roman doctrine, is necessary from their 
catholics. 

In short, whereas by their doctrine of non-attention, formerly examined, it 
is so evident that they discharge themselves from all real worship, as they 
have no colour to hide it, no shift to evade it, but a supposal of some pre- 
vious attempt to serve God when they are addressing themselves to their 
service; this, their last reserve, they themselves rnin, by their doctrine 
concerning the end of worship ; for they teach, besides what is premised, 
that a man who comes to mass or divine service, with a purpose not to wor- 
ship God, but to serve his lusts, doth satisfy the precept. We are not 
obliged, saith Soto, to hear mass but only so that it may be a human act, 
which it may be, though there be a sinister intention in it ; 3 yea, though the 

1 Veniale antem si vane propter gloriam ant spem qusastuarise eleemosynro pnsdi- 
caretnr ; receperunt enim mercedem suani. — Sum. v. pnedicat. p. 480. 

* Peccat, qui res principaliter institutas ob honorem Dei et cultum ejus, et salutem 
animarum, principalis, vel eque principaliter ob vanam gloriam facit ; quale est con- 
cionari, missam celeb rare, precari et id genus alia secundum Abulensem et Angelum, 
quod post alios efficaciter confutavimus, dicentes esse solum veniale. c xxxiy. n. xiii. 
p. 654. 

Dicendum est intentionem bonam simpliciter non esse de substantia orationis vocalis. 
Itaque si quia habet intentionem orandi, et ex ilia proferet verba de se sufficientia ad 
orandum, et consentanea laudi, vel reverential divin», licet hoc faciat ex intentione 
laudis hum ante, vel alicujns commodi temporalis in illud principaliter intuendo, vere 
orat, quamvis non bene orat. H»c est communis sententia.— Talis oratio est sufficiens 
ad implendum preeceptum ecclesiasticum recitandi horas, nt omnes fatentur. — Suar. de 
Orat. 1. iii. cap. iii. n. v. 

9 Proceptum audiesdi missam non oblijat, nisi taliter audirc, ntsit actus humanus; 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



84 BEAL WORSHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

thing intended be a sin, and that highly criminal, for he adds : l If one attend 
prayer, though he do it for vain glory (that is a small matter to stick at), 
yea, though it be with a purpose mortally wicked, yet he fulfils the precept 
substantially. Such are the commands of the church of Rome for her most 
sacred worship. They may be fully satisfied by deadly wickedness ; there 
needs no purity of heart or hand for her devotions ; a design damnably evil 
will serve the turn. That of Antoninus, saith Navarre, 3 is not to be main- 
tained, that he doth not satisfy the precept who comes to church principally 
to look on a handsome woman, or to talk with her, or for any other sinful 
thing. If a man, in going to mass, designs to satisfy his curiosity, or his 
lust, or anything else which is wicked, that church is so good-natured she 
will be satisfied with it, and think her precept for worship well observed, and 
you must believe (if you can) that she is a good Christian church that will 
have Christ worshipped at this rate. He adds reason for it. 3 A man 
may come to church for a wicked end, and yet hear mass well enough 
there. 

Bonacina 4 instances in several sorts of wickedness, whereby the command 
for worship may be fulfilled. This is one amongst the rest : if a man go to 
church on purpose to gaze on or to lust after women lecherously, he satisfies 
the precept, and for the general rule vouches not only Sotus, Navarre, 
Medina, and others of greatest reputation in their church, but also their 
angelical Saint Thomas. 

I need not censure these things. Let those that are impartial consider 
the premises, and see if this be not their sense, that the people in the papacy, 
by its order, do not, or are not obliged to give God any real worship in public, 
and by their leaders are taught and encouraged, instead of worship, to pre- 
sent him with gross wickedness. If the measures of religion may be best 
taken by its worship, what can any indifferent person judge of popery, where 
a service so palpably irreligious is the best and the most excellent worship 
they have ? If this were duly considered, I think it alone might be sufficient 
to reduce those that are deluded, and to secure those against temptations 
who are not yet ensnared. 

Sect. 4. There is another public exercise which Christ makes as necessary 
as any evangelical service whatever, and that is, preaching and hearing the 
word of God. But the Romanists are not of his mind in this. 6 The mass 
is commanded, but not preaching, saith Sylvester, and he one of the order of 
predicants. Accordingly hearing mass is commanded, but hearing sermons 

qnalis esse potest, etiamsi aliud simul ad sit sinistrnm propositum. — De Just, et after. 
1. x. q. ▼. art. v. 

1 Quod si quis attente oret, quamvis id faciat adjunctam habens vanam gloriam, imo 
qnamvis simul habcat propositum aliud mortale, satisfaciet pnecepto, quantum ad sub- 
stantial!); ita ut non tcneatur officium iterare. — Ibid. 

8 Non tarn en est tenendum lllud S. Antonini, scilicet, eum qui ecclesiam adit prin- 
cipaliter ad videndum, aut alloqnendum fseminam pulchram, aut ob aliud quod vis 
illicitum, non satisfacere huic pnecepto, cap. xxi. n. vii.; with him concurs Medina. 
Addendum his est pravam intentionem adjunctam voluntati audiendi missam, non esse 
contrarian) impletioni hujus pracepti. Itaque quamvis quis eat ad ecclesiam ex 
libidinosa intentione videndi faominam, vel etiamsi officio misssBrum eadem intentione 
assistat, tarn en si non cxcludat voluntatem implcndi hoc pceceptum, et sufficienter sit 
attentus, implet illud. — Ita Medina in Suarez. torn. iii. deep, lxxxviii. sect. iii. 

8 Potest quis malo fine ecclesiam adire, et bene in ca missam audire. — Ibid. p. 469. 

4 Qui ecclesiam adit causa videndi, vel etiam concupiscendi libidinose fsBmina* — 
satisfacit —De legib. disp. i. q. i. p. 9, n. i. 

6 Cum missa sit sub prseccpto, non praedicatio. — Sum. v. domin. n. vVu. Audire 
mis am est in pnecepto; audire autem concionem non ita.—- Suar. xiii. torn. iii. disp. 
lxxxviii. sect. i. vid. v. ii. defess. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. I.] not necessary in the ohuboh of bomb. 85 

is only matter of advice (saith another 1 ), which may be neglected without 
imputation of sin, and if observed is an act of supererogation. 

They conclude it no duty in such circumstances where it would be counted 
necessary, if ever ; it is no duty on the Lord's day, 8 or any other time set 
apart for the public worship. Mass must be heard then, but no need to 
hear a sermon. If it were any man's duty in their account, it would be so 
in that case when one wants the knowledge which is necessary to salvation, 
and hath opportunity to get it by hearing ; but even then they declare him 
not obliged. Sylvester propounds the case in these terms: 8 Doth he sin 
mortally who is ignorant of those common things which are necessary to sal- 
vation, and may hear sermons, but doth not ? He answers, He so sins who 
omits it out of contempt, or with notorious scandal, but not always when it is 
out of negligence ; because, according to Aquinas, 4 negligence is not mortal, 
unless something be omitted which is under precept, or with contempt ; 
adding, such negligence may possibly be a mortal sin, but when it is so, it 
cannot be determined. It seems no man can tell when it will be a crime for 
a person damnably ignorant to neglect the means of instruction ; but more 
briefly and positively he resolves it elsewhere, that he is not commanded to 
hear a sermon upon the Lord's- day ; although he be ignorant of those things 
which are necessary to salvation, because he may otherwise satisfy the pre- 
cept for learning. 

Sect. 5. As to the sacraments, and the worship in them, the despatch may 
be quick. There are none considerable here but baptism and the eucharist, 
for their other five are not of divine appointment, nor the worship of God, 
but their own inventions ; and therefore, how needful soever they count them, 
thereby they make no true worship necessary. But indeed none of them 
are in their own account necessary to salvation, save only penance, and that 
we shall meet with hereafter. What worship they shall have in the eucharist 
is sufficiently discovered by what they are satisfied with in the mass, where 
we have found them contented with none at all, or that which is worse than 
none. Neither do they account this sacrament simply necessary, for although 
it be required that they communicate once a year, yet that is but by human 
law or custom, as they teach. The sacrament of the eucharist, saith Canus, 
is not a sacrament of necessity. 6 

1 Audire pnedicationera in festis non est de pnecepto sirapliciter, patet per preedicta; 
ac etiam nullo jure cavetur, sed solum de missa.— Sum. RoeelL Dominic, n.iv. 

* Jac. de Graff. 1. ii. c. xxxiii. n. viii., xvi. Sotus et Covarruvias, Navar. c xxi. n. i. 
Missa audienda diebns festis ex pnecepto, non tamen concio, non preces fundendse ; non 
exercendus alias actus cnltus divini, ex pnecepto (excipe diem paschatis, quo sumenda 
est eucbaristia). — VictoreU ibid. ad. 1- iv. c. xxv. p. 693. 

Dico nullum esse pneceptum, quod obliget in rigore, ac per se, ad audiendam con- 
cionem in die festo. Ita supponnnt ut clarnm doctores omnes, et constat ex communi 
usu, et scnsu fidelium. Item qnia nullibi extat boc praeceptum, pneterea est optimum 
argument am, quia si fideles tenerentur audire concionem sacram, pastores ecclesi» 
tenerentur providere, nt omnibus diebus dominicis et festis fieret concio in ecclesia. 
Pastores autem ad hoc non tenentur, nee de facto ita fit. —Suar. 1. ii. do fest. c. xvi. n. vi. 

8 Qusetitur, utrum peccet mortaliter, qui ignorat communia necessaria ad salutem, 
et potest audire pr»dicationein, et non audit ? Et dico quod sic, si hoc facit ex con- 
temptu vel ex scandalo notabili : non autem semper si oroittit ex negligentia, quia, 
secundum S. Thorn, xxii. q. liv., negligentia non est mortale, nisi omittatur aliquid, 
quod sit sub pnecepto, vel ratione contemptus, v. prtedicat. n. vi., qnando hoc sit, non 
potest sermone determinari. — Ibid* 

4 Etiamsi talis habeat ignorantiam necessariorum ad salutem, quia alias potent im- 
plere pneceptum de addiscendo, v. dominie, n. viii. 

6 Sermo est de eucharistise sacramento, quod non est sacramentum necessitatis, 
pars. v. relict, de p®nit. p. 892. Many of them count it not necessary by virtue of any 
divine precept, and so not requisite, jure divine Est prima opinio negans esse prae- 
ceptum jure divino, quam tenuit Alexander Alensis, D. Thomas Carthusianus, Palacius, 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



86 REAL WORSHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

For baptism, if they account any worship necessary, it most be either in 
respect of the administrator or the baptized ; as to the former, none with 
them is needful. For by their doctrine it may be validly administered by 
any man or woman, or one that is both j 1 yea, or by a child, by those also 
that are strangers, or enemies to all Christian worship, by Jews, pagans, or 
infidels of any sort, by such as worship not the true God (as Sylvester tells 
us out of Aquinas, Paludanus, and their church's law) ; by such as believe 
that baptism is good for nought, and minister it in scorn ; by such as believe 
that it is not a sacrament, that it hath no spiritual virtue, and intend not, 
while they baptize, to administer a sacrament, but only think to do as the 
church does, although they acconnt that to be nothing at all ; so Aquinas 3 and 
Pope Innocent saith it will be effectual, though the baptizer neither know nor 
believe what baptism is, but counts it a trine ; though he neither know what 
the church is, nor minds to do what the church doth, but means to do the 
contrary. No other worship is necessary upon the account of the ministers, 
but what might be expected from such as these. Nor any more upon the 
account of the persons baptized. For as to the adult (there being no pre- 
tence in reference to infants), they think it sufficiently administered by force 
to those who would not endure it, but for fear of death 9 if they did not 
yield ; to such as make all the resistance they can, 4 and offer foul injury to 
the sacrament, and defile the water ; to those who receive it, not for the 
purpose for which it is intended, but for quite 5 other ends than ever it was 
designed for ; yea, to those that are frantic, and never had the use of reason, 
or are 6 stark mad, and that in the height of their madness; to those 
also 7 that are fast asleep, if they had a mind to it when they were waking. 
Since they think it duly administered to such as these, they cannot count 
any worship necessary herein upon the account of the partakers, but what 
such as these now mentioned may offer. 

Sect. 6. For fuller and more particular satisfaction, it is observable that 
they divide their sacraments into some for the dead and some for the living. 
Those for the dead are baptism and penance. As to these two, some count 
no disposition requisite 8 but only a willingness to receive them. Others, who 

Bonavcntura, Gabriel. Sylvester, Ferrariensis, Cajetati. in Snares, torn. iii. diap. lxix. 
sect. i. p. 879. 

1 Sum. y. baptism, iii. n. i. Secundum omnea doctorea, precipue S. Thorn ct Pet. 
de Pal, omnia homo dare potest haptisma — si sit clericus aut laicus, vir ant mulier, ant 
uterque simul, t. a. Hermaphroditus. 

Etiamsi esset infidelis, i.e. Judsous ant paganus. 

Dicit S Tho. quod quamvis ille qui non credit baptisma esse aacramcnturo, aut 
habere aliquam spiritualem virtutem, non intendat dum baptizat conferre aacramentum, 
ttimen intendit facere quandoque quod facit ecclcsia; etiamsi ilmd reputet nihil esse. 

8 Ibid. n. ii. Innocentius dicit, quod baptismus habebit effectum, etiamsi ba ptisan a 
nee sciat nee credat, quid sit baptismus, sed hoe reputet trufam, et etiamsi non sciat 
quid sit ecclesia, nee gerat in mente facere, quod facit ecclesia: immo si gereret con- 
trariuro, scil. non facere quod facit ecclesia, sed tamen facit et formam servat, &c 

8 Id. ibid. iv. n. x. Si con sen tit quia per minas vel pcenas habendo voluntatem co- 
actam, coactione conditionali, eligendo scil. potius baptizari quam mori vel aliud pati, 
et n. iii. Si oporteat eoa ligari. 

4 Vei etiam si faciant injuriam aacramento, ut mingendo in aquam vel hujusmodi 
et, n. z. Si baptizetur infidelis non quia credat sed ut aanetur, vel careat fcdtore, aut 
vexatione diabolica — aut propter qussstum, ut faciunt crebro Judari. 

6 Si vero usum rationis nunquam habait, baptizatur in in tent ion e parentnm, &c. 

6 Si autem usum rationis habuit aliquando, sed non quando baptizatur, propter 
phrenesim vel amentiam vel dormitionem et hujusmodi, rcquiritur intentio quae pr»- 
fuerit, tempore usus rationis, n. iii. 

7 Dicit de dormientibus quod ratione periculi baptizari posaunt, si prius in iis ap- 
paruit voluntas baptismi : aicut de amentibus dictum est. 

8 Scotus, quern sequitur Sylvester, sum. v. confess, i. n. xxiv. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Chap. I.] not necebbabt in the ohubch of rome. 87 

would seem to be more severe, count attrition sufficient, which is a slender 
dislike of sin, not as it is an offence to God, bat oat of some other considera- 
tion, human, natural, or servile. And the lowest degree of this possible, 
and that despatched in a moment ; and this moment need not be while they 
are at these sacraments, but either before or after. 1 Their penitents * may 
make their confession with laughter instead of grief, yet have as much grief 
at their sacrament of penance as they require ; this is past doubt with them. 
So that it is their common doctrine that no good act, or motion at all, no, 
not so little and low as that of attrition, much less any ingenuous reverence 
or devotion, any act of grace or holy affection, is needful while they are at 
the sacrament, either of baptism or their penance. 

The sacraments of the living are their other five : confirmation, orders, 
matrimony, extreme unction, and the eucharist. These, they say, were 
instituted for the increase of grace ; this is their proper effect ; and that 
they may have their effect, there is not requisite in the partakers any actual 
dispositions at all, not the least inward act or motion that is good ; no, not 
so little as that of attrition, which, in their account, is of all others 3 the 
least and lowest disposition. And well may they count it so, since the best 
sort of it, with them, is but the issue of servile fear, which, as such, is below 
the least degree of moral goodness ; and so far from being supernaturally 
good, that it is morally evil, as we shall see hereafter. All that is needful 
is only that the partakers be in a state of grace (such as a priest may put a 
sinner into who is impenitent, and never truly contrite), though he shew it 
not by any act in the sacraments, where, if ever, it should appear. Tbat 
the sacraments may confer an increase of grace, they only require an habitual 
disposition, i. e. that they be received in the state of grace ;* this is the judg- 
ment of Aquinas and Scotus, whom the rest generally follow. So that, to 
partake worthily of these sacraments, no actual disposition, no act of reve- 
rence or devotion, not any inward motion (such as should be in true wor- 
shippers), is more required or expected than in the senseless statues which 
they idolise. Their souls need act or move no more as worshippers of God 
herein, than if they were neither Christians nor men ; than if they were so 
far from having grace, as to have no souls. Yea, these sacraments may be 
valid, and duly celebrated as their church requires they should be, while 
the partakers are not only void of all good motion towards God, but while 
their souls are in motion against him, and all that is divine and sacred. 
Their minds and hearts may, during the celebration, be taken up with acts, 
not only of folly and vanity, but of pride, or lusts, or revenge, or infidelity, 
or atheism, or what is most contrary to the most holy God and his worship, 

1 Soar. torn. iv. dUp. xx. sect iv. n. xxix., Sylvester, ibid. 

* Judicandum non erit dolore carere ob risum, potuit enim domi de illis dolere, et 
postea ad sacrament am accedens, actualem poenitentiam non addncere. At ad valorem 
et fractnm percipicndam sacramenti confessionis non reqniri actualem dolorem. scd 
virtuatem sufficere veram esse sententiam qnis dnbitet? — Jo. Sanctius, select, disp. 
xxxi. n. viii. 

9 Kst minima et imperfectissima dispoaitio qu» in ordine snpernatarali reqniri 
potest. 

4 Ut sacramenta conferant angmentnm gratia solum reqnirnnt habitnalem gratise 
dispositionem, id est, qnod in statu gratia? recipiantur. Hsec est sententia D. Thorn. 
Scot! et aliorum in Suar. torn. iii. disp. vii. sect. iv. All that is required to put them 
into this state, and free them from conscience of mortal sin (and so to give them all the 
disposition necessary for the eucharist, and so for the other sacraments) is their ritual 
confession : yet even this they may neglect lawfully, or without any great fault, as 
divers amongst them (and those Dominicans) determine. Cajetan. sum. v. communio. 
Furaus v. Palo dan us, Sylvester in Ledesma de eucharist. c zi. Jo. de la Cruz de 
eucharist, q. v. concl. ii. ^ 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



88 BEAL WOESHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

aid yet partake as well as the church requires. 1 ' For the precepts of their 
church, concerning the administering of the sacraments, and all other things 
by her enjoined, may be entirely satisfied by acts of wickedness ; so noto- 
riously holy is that church, by the report of their chief writers. 

Sect. 7. If they count any of their sacraments more worthy of holier 
treatment than that now mentioned, it will be the encharist ; for this they 
count more worthy than the rest, and have it in such veneration, as not only 
to worship Christ in it, but to worship it even as Christ himself ; and there- 
fore here, if ever, they will judge it requisite to shew themselves worshippers 
indeed. Yet for all this, whatever worship of this sacrament they count 
needful, they conclude no true worship of Christ necessary ; no, not so much 
as the least inward act of reverence, devotion, or honour ; for this is their 
common doctrine,* that besides the disposition of habitual grace, there is no 
precept so rigorous as to require any actual disposition for the worthy re- 
ceiving of this sacrament, so as that the omission of it can be a mortal sin. 
In this all their divines agree ; so that any one may partake worthily of this 
sacrament, and be free of mortal guilt, without any actual reverence or devo- 
tion, any act of grace or holy affection, while he is communicating. This 
one maxim (wherein they all ooncur) quite stifles the spirit of Christianity, 
and bereaves it of its life and soul ; it leaves nothing that can honour or 
please Christ, or be of any advantage to souls, needful in any Christian 
duty. For no good motion of mind or heart, being needful in the celebrat- 
ing of this sacrament, which requires it more, they cannot imagine it neces- 
sary in any other duty of less consequence ; and the want hereof being but 
a venial fault, there is no more necessity to have it, than there is to avoid 
a venial sin, which they make nothing of. In this very case, they hold that 8 
a venial sin, even in the act of communicating, will not hinder the effect of 
the sacrament. Yea, it may not be so much as a venial fault, if the vagaries 
of the mind, which exclude attention and reverence due to such a religious 
act, 4 be natural. But will it not be more than so slight a fault, voluntarily 
to abandon every good motion in the celebrating of this sacrament ? No ; 

1 Praeceptum adimpleri potest per actum ex aliqua circumatantia malum; ita S. Thorn. 
Medina, Navar, et alii in Bonac. supra. 

Nam alia prsacepta sacramentorum turn in aliis materiis, impleri peasant per actum 
peccaminosum. — Soar, ibid, disp. lxx. sect, iii., after Cordoba, Soto, Covarruvius, 
whether it. be less or more wicked is all one, disp. lxxxviii. sect. iii. 

* Prater disposition em gratia* habitual is, nullam actualem requiri ex rigoroso prae- 
cepto ad dignam sumptionem hujus sacramenti, ita ut ilhus omissio peccatum mortale 
sit. In quo conveniunt omnes frheologi. Et a fortiori patet ex eo, quod supra dixirau*s 
ad effectum hujus sacramenti nullam actualem dispositionem requiri. — Ibtd. disp. lxvi. 
sect. i. 

Those who seem to require some actual devotion, yet count it but a venial fault to 
want it, Alexander, Antonin, Sylvester, Paludan, Cejetan, in Vasques in iii. torn, 
iii. disp. ccri. c i. Not only attention and devotion are accounted needless for com- 
municants, but sobriety, and the use of reason: for they teach, that not only young 
children, and such as are half fools ; but also persons so frantic, as it will be necessary 
to have them bound, and those also who are possessed of the devil, and whom be has 
seized on for their enormous wickedness, may partake of this sacrament, and have it 
duly administered to them, and that even when they are blaspheming. — Jo. Sane. 
disp. xxxviii. Imo licet arreptus quis sit a daemon e ob mores depravntos, et quia 
▼iveret in lenocinio,— non minus talibus ministrare tenebitur parochus eucharistiam, 
n. vii. Proterea ministrare tenebitur parochus licet videat obsessum, sive insanum, 
blasphemantem, n. viii. 

8 Peccatum veniale actu concomitans sumptionem hujus sacramenti, non impedit 
gratisa et charitatis augmentum; ita de Thorn. Alensis, Gabriel. Adrian, Soto, 
lledesma, Victoria, Corduba, Concil. Trident., seas, xiii.; vii. Suar. ibid. disp. lxii. 
sect. iii. 

4 Excusabitur tamen.homo, ab hujusmode culpa veniali, si fortasse ex naturali tan turn 
distractione hujusmodi atteutionem omittat.— Ibid, du»p. Ixvii. sect. i. 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



Chap. I.J not necessaby in the chubch of home. 89 

to decline every good act of mind or heart, and that voluntarily, it can be 
no worse ; 1 if it be without contempt, it will be no mortal fault, and that 
also in the judgment of all their divines. Bat though there be not any good 
disposition in the soul towards Christ, in partaking of his supper, yet is it 
not necessary that vile and wicked dispositions should be excluded ? No ; 
there is no more need of this than the other. The mind and the heart may 
actually entertain such as are sinful, without any more danger than it rejects 
those that are good. It is but a slight fault 1 to communicate out of osten- 
tation and vain glory, and so to nourish pride while he should be feeding 
upon Christ, and to design his own honour without any act of reverence for 
Christ ; he may let his thoughts run out upon vanity, or entertain his soul 
with vain delights, without the least motion of love, or delight, or desire for 
Christ, without the least act of faith in him ; and may be pleasing himself 
with sin, instead of grieving for it, when he hath the greatest advantage to 
look upon him whom he hath pierced. And all this he may do without any 
guilt that need be repented of or regarded. This is all the worship and 
honour that it is needful their souls should give to Christ, even in the sacra- 
ment of his body and blood ; who will have others cursed to hell, and burned 
beforehand, for not giving divine worship to a wafer. But this is not all ; 
their church will be satisfied with greater indignity offered to Christ than 
this ; for they teach, that those who communicate unworthily, to such a 
degree as they count sacrilege (and that so heinous, as they question whether 
it be not as tolerable to cast that which they count their God to be devoured 
by dogs, or throw it into the dirt to be trampled on ; and 8 many of them 
are positive that it is greater wickedness than murder or adultery, or that 
uncleanness against nature which is most abominable), 4 do fully satisfy tlje 
precept of the church for this communion. Thus Soto, Corduba, Covarru- 
vius, and others, alleged by them. And this is all derived from their St 
Thomas, that maxim of his so generally received ;* the law commanding 
an act enjoins the substance of it, but not the manner. By which we must 
understand, that the church would have the thing done, but regards not how 

1 Talis culpa (scil. voluntaria carentia actnalis dispositionis) non est mortalis, secluso 
con temp tu ; ex omnium sententia. — Ibid. disp. lxiii. sect. iii. 

8 Dicendum videtur, si peccatum veniale sit aliquando circumstantia ipsins actus 
communicandi, peccatum esse veniale sic communicare, v.g. si quia communicat prop- 
ter osteutationem scu vanam gloriam; vel certe si actu sit in ipso peccato veniali, ut 
in vana aliqua cogitatione aut delectatione, et ea ratione accedat distractus, et sine 
debita attentione et devotione. — Ibid. disp. Ixvi. sect. i. Ostentation and vain glory are 
here counted venial faults, because they are directly opposite to the act of communicat- 
ing: and so is outward irreverence, vain prating, and gestures, inconsistent with 
modesty, while they are at the sacrament, for the same reason. But other sins, not so 
opposite to the act, as studying a lie, or revenge, or detraction (or uncleanness, or any 
the like in venial degrees), while they are communicating (though the distraction there 
be voluntary, and all holy fervour be thereby hindered) are no faults at all in reference 
to the sacrament. — Jo. &anc disp. xxiii., alleging for it Scotus, Richard us de St. 
Vict. Maior, Adrian, Margarita Casuum, Soto, Marcella, Ledesma, Vivaldus, Coriol- 
anus, and divers others, n. xx., xxi. 

3 An hoc peccatum sit gravius homicidio — aut adulterio, vel omnibus peccatis contra 
naturam: quid am enim theologi ita existimant, ut Gabriel. Petr. Soto, Ledesma, 
Dominic. Soto. — Suar. ibid, sect. ii. 

4 Dicendum est eum qui voluntarie suscipit sacramentum eucharistife, etiamsi indtgne 
sumat, implere praeceptum communicandi ; etiamsi alias peccet mortaliter per sacri- 
legiura indignsB sumptionis. Ita tenet in specie Corduba, in genere Soto, Covarruvius, 
qui alios referunt. — Ibid, disp Ixx. sect. iii. 

6 Ratio autem sumitur ex principio generali quod tradit D. Thorn, i., ii. q. ci. art. 
ix., quia lex prsscipiens actum, prsecipit substantiam ejus, non autem modum. Ibid, 
vid. Bonacin. and in him, besides the principal of the Society (Azorius, Valencia, 
Suarez, Sanchez), Aquinas, Sotus, Navar, Medina. Qui vero indigne, et sine devotione 
communicat tempore paschatis, satisfacit praecepto de leg, d. i. q. i. p. 9, n. ii. et iii. 

Digitized by LrOOQ IC 



40 BEAL WORSHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

they do it, whether as Christians or as atheists. She is indifferent as to 
devotion or sacrilege in her catholics, having something else in design than 
to he concerned in the honouring of God, and the happiness of men, which 
so mnch depends upon the manner of worshipping. It is too plain to be 
denied, that such a treatment of holy things (to use their own words) is not 
at all for the worship of God, or the salvation of souls, but opposite to both ; 
yet their church's precept is entirely thereby fulfilled. So that, if God have 
no worship, and men no salvation, yet the church is satisfied. This and 
other outward acts must be visibly done, that the world may not think but 
they have something like religion amongst them ; but though, instead of 
the worship due to the divine majesty, they perform the acts of it in such a 
manner, as no less dishonours and provokes him, than the crying sins of 
murder or sodomy, their church hath full contentment ; it is all she requires. 

Thus we have surveyed the church service amongst the Romanists in the 
several parts of it, and cannot discern any real worship therein to which they 
are obliged ; but rather that all such worship of God in public is, by their 
rules and orders, rendered either impossible or unnecessary. 

Sect. 8. Let us inquire, in the next place, whether they count it needful 
that God should have any worship from them in private ; and this we may 
discover by what they determine concerning meditation, reading the Scrip- 
ture, and private prayer. For meditation, the casuists speak little of it, 
nothing at all (that I have met with) of its necessity ; it is like they reserve 
it for their contemplative persons, as a degree of perfection to which others 
need not aspire. 1 The perfectionists themselves may waive it, but when they 
will be so over good as to supererogate, and do better than God commands 
them, if they judge it necessary at any time, sure it would be on those days 
when such acts are most proper and requisite. 1 But they conclude it no duty 
upon the Lord's day, or any other devoted by them, as they pretend, to the 
observance of God. For they generally agree that no inward worship is then 
required, and meditation is discharged by name ;* now if they need not 
think of God on his own day, or any other, wherein a particular observance 
of him is requisite, it is ground enough to conclude they do not count it 
needful to think of him at all. Who can imagine that they judge it neces- 
sary to think of God at any time, who count it needless to have God in their 
thoughts when they are at his worship ? 

Sect. 0. As for the reading the word of God in private, they are so far 
from esteeming this a duty, that they will scarce excuse it from a crime : all 
that can be obtained for it is only a toleration (as a thing that passeth under 
an ill character), and that but in some places, and there but for some per- 
sons, with more restriction and caution than the public stews are tolerated 
by their holy bishop in Borne. So much friends are they to the word of 
God, or so little do they judge it a friend to them. They are the best 
catholics in their account who do not desire to look into it, or to understand 
from God what he would have them to be ; they think it advisable 4 that no 
mortal should be acquainted with more of the Scriptures than is in the mass, 
where they can understand nothing, and need hear nothing of it at all. 

1 Si patres, theologi — meditationem laudant et consilium, non tamen docent esse 
omnibus praeceptam. 

8 Ecclesiasiici, clerici, religiosi non tenentur ex vi eui status et juris divini, ad nunc 
raeditandi, recogitandi, aut men talker orandi usum.-^FtU Suar. de Orat. ment- 1. ii. 
c. ir. n. vii. ; Navar. Enchirid. de Orat. 1. xx. n. Ixi. 

8 Neque prssctpitur cultus divinus interims qui in meditando et colendo Deo eon- 
sistit — Navar. Manual, c xiii. n. ii. Non prsecipitur cultus divinus interior, qui in 
meditatione intcriori de Deo consistit — Lop.z, c xlii. p. 266. 
Consil. de Stabiliend. Rom. sede, p. 6. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. I.] not neckssaby in thb church of bomb. 41 

Sect. 10. For private prayer, it is either vocal or mental. * That which 
they call vocal, they generally count not necessary by any law, either of God 
or nature, or the church ; and so all praying with families is quite cashiered 
from the rank of Christian duties. There to call upon God's name together 
they are not concerned, though some think the heathen are. They count it 
not a duty to say so much as the* Lord's prayer (if they understand but 
otherwise what is to be prayed for). This is the common opinion in Suarez ; 
nor do they think an* Ave Mary (though these are the prayers most in re- 
quest with them) more needful. They are not obliged to say it when the 
public sign is given at night for that purpose ; nor need they use any vocal 
prayer at all* no, not so much as on the solemn days for worship. 4 

But is mental prayer a duty when the other is not used ? So it seems ; 
but the question (as in all affirmative precepts) is, when ?• Lessius thinks 
it should not be put off above a month or two ; that would signify too much 
neglect of our salvation. It seems those that pray but once in two months 
do not much neglect it ; but this Jesuit is too strait-laced. That opinion is 
probable enough, saith one of the greatest casuists of this age, which as- 
signs three times for prayer, once when we come to the perfect use of reason 
(suppose 7 when they think him capable of lasting, about twenty-one years of 
age) ; and again at the point of death, and in the interval, when we are 
obliged to love God (that is, once in five or once in seven years). But is 
not this Jesuit too severe also ? It may be those of other orders will not 
oppress us so much, or wish us so unlike to atheists as to have us pray once 
in seven years. The Jesuits, though accounted most licentious, yet seldom 
exceed, and sometimes fall short herein of their other divines. Sylvester, a 
Dominican of greatest reputation amongst the casuists, thus determines the 
question after Aquinas. 8 When one first comes to the use of reason, he 
should pray for God's assistance ; (videtur) he is not peremptory that he 
must, and speaks but conditionally too ; for he adds, If he be thus inspired, 
otherwise he is not determined to that time. When then ? 9 Why, the pro- 

1 Vide Suarez de Oration. 1. iii. cap. Ti. n. iii. 6, 8, ut ibi Medina. Uldericus dicit, 
ad orationem vocalem ex divino pracepto non tenetur ; sed ex statnto ecclesi®, qure 
ministris suis missas, et horas canonicas indixit, vel etiam ex injnnctione confessoris, 
et hoc sequitur sum. confes. et Pisa in Sylv. Orat. v. n. viii. ut Angelus sum. Orat. v. 
n. xx. 

* Videtur tamen sufficere si quis sciat— quod debemus a Deo petcre omnia bona cor- 
poris et ammoe, et hnjusraodi, licet nesciat pater noster. Idem v. scientia. vide sum. 
Angel, v. scientia, et Snares, ibid. n. viii. 

8 idem multo magis dicendnm est de salntatione Angelica Tel Salve Regina. — Idem 
ibid. n. xi. 

4 Diebus antero festis neqne est obligatio ad orationem vocalem, n. xiii. ; nee in prin- 
cipio aliquarum actionnm, n. xiv. ; nee bora prandii, ne clericis quidem, n. xvi. Rec 
quando datnr signnm publicum, consuetudo recepta est ratione devotion is, non obliga- 
tions, ibid. 

5 Addit Lessins obligari nos, ut non ronlto tempore abstineamns ab oratione : ut 
verbi gratia, ad mensem unum vel alteram : alioquin esset signnm magn» negligent!© 
propria) salutis in Fill, t xxiii. 1. ii. n. xliv. 

• Videtur tamen satis probabilis ea sententia, qua? tria tempora assignat : primnm 
est circa initium morale perfecti disenrsus, secundum articulus mortis : tertium aliquo- 
ties in vita : ut diximns de pnecepto charitatis. — Idem. n. xliii. vide tr. xxii. c. ix. n. 
cexc. et tr. vi. c. viii. n. ccviii. In univer&um intra annum non videtur obligare, quo- 

. libet septennio est probabile. 

7 Communiter theologi tenent quod usque ad vigesimum ; alii vtgesimum primum, cx- 
cusantur (a jejunio). — Secundum alios ad xxv. annum, sum Angeli. v. jejunium, n. xv. 

8 Quod tempus videtur determinatum, quantum ad instans quo quis incipit uti ra- 
tione, in quo tenetur se dirigere et ordinare in Deum : ctf ut videtur, ejus auxilium pre- 
cari, si hoc suae menu inspiretnr. — Sum. v. orat. n. viii. 

9 Alias vero determinate non potest, sed divina providentia ad hoc movet, quando 
est necossarium. — Ibid. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



** B*AL W0B81HP OF OOD [CHAP. I. 

vidence of God .moves him to it when it is necessary. Thus he leaves it, 
and nnds no other time, when a man is obliged to pray once for himself, but 
when he sees has soul in greatest danger, » which, it may be, he will never 
!!!' w . • ™ mmo . n , doc f*"e "» yet worse ; thereby we are not bound to 
pray but in the article of necessity, and that is, when we are in such ex- 
tremity as there is no other remedy for us :» if we judge that we can any 
way else obtain what we would have, we need not pray. The law of God 
or nature makes it not then our duty. They help us to understand this by 
two instances ; the one to shew when it is requisite to pray for ourselves, 
the second when for others. When a man falls into most grievous tempta- 
tions to impatience, or to lust, if there can be no other remedy against it 
but the grace of God, to be obtained by prayer, then it may be his duty.* 
Jint it seems if he can rid himself 6t it any other way, or but think he can, 
then, though the temptation be never so violent or dangerous, he needs not 
pray. The other is, when a man at a distance sees two ready to fight a 
duel, and makes account there is no remedy but the help of God for parting 
them then he is to seek it (which is not the case of one in a thousand), yet 
it perhaps he can any otherwise more help them than by praying, he may 
let it alone.* So that private prayer needs not be their daily practice, nor 
used as a Christian exercise in ordinary, but in extremity only, and cases 
otherwise desperate, and as the last remedy, and when there is no 
other indeed, or in their apprehension ;» it will not be a duty, but in 
such circumstances as do very rarely, if ever, concur. 4 They are not to use 
it as their common repast, but as physic; not for prevention neither, but 
when they are already surprised with extreme danger. And if such extremity 
occur not once in seven years, they need not pray for so many years ; nay, 
perhaps it may not befall them, or they may not be apprehensive of it while 
they live, and then they need not pray at all. This is not my inference 
only ; it is their own, and acknowledged to be the consequence of their com- 
mon doctrine. Thereby there is no divine precept for prayer which can 
oblige any directly ; only by accident it may happen sometimes to be a duty, 
but such an accident as few may meet with.' It is said expressly that from 

• Idem'dirZ™^ f^™ *? *** tentwio "«. <* Puerto anim» mm.-Ibid. 
nullum^d ~%u? ' ,U ° V • preCeSBd Deom **» P"»«rmisit eo tempore, in quo 
n^0^l!^^^? iu ^^ ttm ^ MtM ' M ^' tm - Tuncenimlexdirlna 

Ub nolimn. „~ **i l ' "J"!***--" «q»«ti mentem Paludani et Sylvestri. 
liUdtatauK <5£ a ? 1 T, de ,1 ?? ui in graviwiman. tenutionem impatient!* ant 

l ^^^x^^x:^ ttm ^^ totitm tap ™"' pnBterqnam 

aliucfe^ dmSii.r'™" iDt °T duo ?. in dueUo wnwrturos menus, existimat nnllum 
* Z iSZlStoZl 8 \ spe . c,a,e . auiil «««■ M oratione impetrandum ad dirimendom 
illud dueHum injustum, u h,. en.m casibus id a Deo petere tenetur—Aawr. cap. xiii. 



ali^rTmSS! * '** ^^ *""*' * d D * Um fundere - et tem P° re ' in <.*> nMam 

o U« Z if 8nai . 8alntl . 8 aut P™™i esse videtur, secundum Sylvestrum ; eadem 
f„"i P 08 """ 1 »n.tcntat.one impatient!*, aut libidinis, cui ridetur nullum 
uliud suppetere remedium nisi oratio, Ac—Lopa, c. Ui. p. 272. 
.««m """""P"" wntentia, quod obligat solum pro articulo necessitatis. Duplex 
Z?a?m„» I* 8 !.''" commun ,' ter P r °P° nit »' : Prima est propria ipsus hominis, ut si aliqua 
tentatione vehementer pulsatur, quam sine auxilio divino vincere non potest. 

nn «it^.! S i i ^ e - eM,tftSprOX « ln L ul „* i 1" is vWeataliquos ad ducllum properare, nee 
SUE c • xxxvt ,mpedlre — D - Tho - Pal ^^- Sylvut. #<war. Abulau, „«fe Suar. 1. i. de 

» On! 1°/.? PMSOt a,iter melius, qnam per orationem suffragan— Sulvnt. ibid 
trine ^rhufatuL^H^il'lr baVingackn0wled «^ th » » "• the '' common doe- 
^t mrtoSIlL^- e,t ° ' lgare qa * 8i per acciUen8 P ro P ter »««sitatam contingen- 
Secvidem l^Z^Z^T" 1 ■ en ? ret illara vehcm entem et urgentem tentationem. 
uec vmeret proximum in smnli necessitate, nunquam teneretur orare. 

Digitized by ^jOOQlC 



Chap. I.] not necesbaby in the church of home. 48 

thence it follows, 1 that many may pass their whole lives without ever praying 
to God, and this without any great fault. It should he said, without the 
least fault ; for where there is no obligation, there is no duty at all ; and 
then no sin, great or little, in the want of performance. 

This is some of their church's sense ; but they speak it more fully who 
tell us that mental prayer is to be reckoned amongst counsels 3 (which none 
are obliged to observe), and this by the common consent of Aquinas and 
their other doctors. And accordingly, that there is 3 no divine precept, or of 
natural law, of itself obliging to mental prayer, meditation (some peculiar 
engagements or occasions set apart, wherein mental prayer is not concerned) ; 
and this is counted so certain, that to teach the contrary is temerarious, be- 
cause against the common use and sense of the whole church. So that they 
are not far from the sense of the church, who (without excepting public or 
private, mental or vocal), deny 4 that there is any divine precept in special 
for prayer. And these are not only their modern divines, but some of the 
ancienter also, particularly Alexander Alensis* (the prime of all their school 
doctors), in strictness seems to deny that there is any proper command by 
divine law for prayer, taking it properly, but only in a most large sense, as 
any pious act or good desire may be called prayer. And those who would 
not seem to like this in general, yet allow it when they come to particulars, 
since they teach that the precept obligeth not at any such particular time or 
occasion, when it would oblige, if ever. There is no command, they tell us, 
which binds them to pray in private at any set time whatever. • They are 
not obliged to pray when they first come to the use of reason, 7 nor on com- 
mon days afterwards ; not the least prayer, not a paternoster, not once a- day, 
no, not at their meals; 8 even their clergy need not do it ; nor on holidays 
neither, 9 no, not when they have quite neglected their service in public ; 10 nor 
on their fasts, though Scripture still joins these, as all Christians who minded 
religion were wont to do of old. Their fasts are no more religious for prayer 
or any holy exercise than the abstinence of their cattle ; nor to prepare them- 
selves for sacred or solemn employments, for their sacraments of penance, 
or else for the eucharist (though this would but trouble them once a-year) j 11 not 
at the beginning of any service or undertaking whatever. To pray at such 
times and occasions is mere matter of counsel, 12 which none can be blamed 
for neglecting ; nor when a man hath vowed and solemnly promised to God, 
and sworn too, that he will pray, even then, if it be but a little prayer, 15 it 

I Posse nt ergo multi totam vitam sine oratione transigere, absque gravi peccato. — 
S'tar. 1. i. de Orat..cap. xxx. n. 

* Vide Jo. Sane. disp. vii. n. x. 

8 Nullum invenitur prseceptum divimim, sen nature lis juris obligans perse ad menta- 
liter orandum, meditandum, seu rccogitandum. Quod ita censeo verum, ut contra- 
ry um sine tcmeritate doceri non possit, quia est contra communem usum, et sensum 
totius ecclesis. — Suar. de Orat. 1. ii. c. iv. n. v. 

* Quid am negant dari prseceptum divinum speciale de oratione. — Ibid. t. c xxviii. n. i. 

5 Alex. Alensis in rigore videtur negare proprium priecertuui jure divino datum de 
oratione proprie sumpta, sed solum largissime, prout pia operatio vel bonum deside- 
rium dicitur oratio. — Ibid. 1. xxviii. n. ii. 

6 Idem ibid. t. i. c. xxx. n. iv. 7 Ibid. n. ix. * N. v. and vii. 

9 L. Hi. c. vi. n. xvi. n. xii. 

10 Antoninus, Adrian, infra. Navar. cap. xxi. n. vii ; Bonacina de Sacrament, d. iv. 
q. ult. p. ult. n. xvi. ; ibi. Barthol. ab Angelo, et alii communiter. Qui non potest aut 
non vult, miss am eo die (festo) audire, non tenetur recitare alias orationes. 

II Nulla obligatio orandi in principio aliquarum actionum. — Suar. ibid. xiv. 
u Hajc omnia esse cons ilia, n. x?. et xvi. 

u A mortali excusantur — qui precationem angelicam, et alia similia parva polli- 
centur, etiamsi juramento, aut voto id ipsum confirmassent. — Navar. c. xviii. n. vii. 
Secundum alios. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



44 REAL WOBSHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

will be but a small fault to omit it for all this. In short, which compriseth 
all, there 1 can be no certain time assigned (unless the hoar of death) in 
which, by any precept of religion, we are bonnd to Worship God, or seek his 
help by an act of prayer, as in like case is said of an act of contrition and 
love to God. So Bonacina ; no time for prayer certain, none determined ; 
but, as they conjecture, perhaps it may be a duty, when they apprehend 
themselves under grievous and dangerous temptations, and judge there is no 
remedy but prayer. This, or none at all, is the time for it by their common 
doctrine ; and this is in effect to say, it is a duty at no time, for no person. 
For those under temptation may not apprehend it dangerous, or a remedy 
needful, as all will be ready to do who either regard not temptations, or are 
pleased with them, or what they lead to. And neither these nor any else 
con judge there is no other remedy but prayer, if they believe their doctrine, 
which offers them divers other remedies, and those more relied on than this. 
To mention none else, almost any of their sacramentals (of which they have 
multitudes) will serve their turn, even a little salt,* conjured after the mode 
of holy church, may do it. Thus we see these catholics secured from all 
divine obligations to pray while they live. But they have another way to 
do it ; for, if any apprehend themselves in dangerous temptations, and also 
that there is no other remedy against it but prayer, they determine* that if 
such be ignorant that it is then a duty, or if they know it, but do not con- 
sider it, they are excused from sin, though they then neglect to pray. Now, 
the people may well be ignorant that they are in such case obliged, when 
their learned men scarce know it. And for those that do know it, the vio- 
lence of the temptation (and the case supposeth it violent) may leave no 
place for consideration. However, no man considers this or other things 
unless he will, and so it will be no sin to neglect prayer at that time, when 
only they count it a duty, unless he list. Yea, 4 though the ignorance or in- 
considerateness be culpable, and through his own default, yet the neglect of 
the duty which is thereby occasioned they can excuse from sin. Besides, 
if 8 they should both know and consider that prayer is then their duty, yet 
they teach that the omission of it is then no special sin, t. e. no other sin 
than that which they should seek to avoid by praying ; whereby they plainly 
declare that there is in their account no special precept for prayer, no, not in 
that case wherein alone they would have it thought a duty; otherwise they 
would judge it a special sin then to neglect it. 

Sect. 11. But though their catholics be thus sufficiently eased of all obli- 
gations to private prayer all their lives, by virtue of any divine command, 
it may be there is some precept in the church for it. Can she be content 

1 Non potest aliud certum tempus asaignari in quo ex procepto relipionis teneamur 
Deum colere, et auxilium ab co per actum oralionis implorare, ut in simili dictam eat 
de actu contrition is et charitatis. — Bonacina, torn. i. divin. offlc disp. i. q. ii. p. 1, 
n. xii. 

8 Exorciso te creatura salis, &c. I conjure thee, creature salt —that thou mayest be 
hallowed — to drive away all the temptations of the devil. 

8 Quando tentationea ingruunt cum periculo succutnbendi, tunc enim medium ad 
peccatorum veniam et auxilium impetrandum adhibendum eat — quanquam a peecato 
multi excusantur, ignorantea, vel non advertentes ad hanc obligationem. — Bonacina, 
divin. offic. disp. i. q. ii. p. 1, n. xii.; ibi. Medina, Navar, Malderu, Sylvester, et alii. 

4 Utrum excusetur a peecato, qui proceptum aliquod non implet ob inadvertentiam, 
vel ignorantiam, qua) ipsius culpa contigit ? — Bespondeo excusari a peecato. — Idem <U 
Peccat. disp. ii. q. viii. p. 3. n. xxviii. ibi. Clavis fiegia et alii. 

5 Scientes vero et advertentes graviter peccant, utpote negligentea medium ad vin- 
cendas tentationes— omissio tamen orationis tunc temporia non babet malitiam die- 
tinctam ab eo peecato auod cavere tenemur. — Idem, de divin. offic d. i. q. ii. p. i. 

xii. ; ibi. (besides the chief of all the Jesuits), Medina, Sylvester, Navar, Malderaa. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. I.] not negkbbaby in the chubch of some. 45 

that they should live bo much without G-od, or any acknowledgment of their 
dependence on him, more like atheists than Christians ? Yes, there is not 
anything for private addresses to God amongst all her precepts ; she is too 
indulgent to trouble them with any such thing ; she requires not of them the 
least prayer, or such as are accounted best, not so much as a Paternoster : 
there is no ecclesiastical precept for this, to make it so much as a venial 
fault, not to use it, says Medina, 1 not a Salve Regina, no, nor an Ave Mary. 
They have indeed a special respect to this last, and prefer it ten to one be- 
fore any other (though they might use this every minute, without ever praying 
once to God all their life). And Pope John XXII. ordained, that thrice 
every evening the bell should sound, that every one might say an Ave Mary 
thrice ; and since it is grown a custom (and a church custom usually stands 
for a law with them), that not only at evening, but at noon and morning, 
too, a bell should sound for the same purpose ; so that this, if any, is under 
injunction. There is a fair show for it, but it is no more than a show, for 
they assure us this is a voluntary devotion, and hath nothing of obligation 
in it. 3 Those that never use this and such prayers, it is, they say, a shrewd 
sign they do not live well ; but the omission thereof is no special sin with 
respect unto any precept either of God or the church. 

And is not this a very pious concession that they are pleased to grant, 
. that for a man never to say his prayers, is a general bad sign that he does 
not live as he ought, though they will by no means allow it to be any spe- 
cial sin. Oh the piety and tenderness of this mother and head of all 
churches ! 

If, for all this, any of them should conceive themselves obliged to pray 
sometimes ; or if, without such opinion, they should find some season for 
private prayer, though God (as they dream), and the church (as they know), 
hath prescribed none ; as when a confessor enjoins it for penance ; or out 
of voluntary devotion, when they have a mind to supererogate, and do better 
than God requires, upon which accounts some of them may be found now 
and then very busy with their beads ; yet in these cases there is by their 
principles no more need to worship God in their private than in their public 
prayers, where (as we have shewed) they account no actual observance of God 
at all necessary. As for the prayers enjoined them by way of penance, 
these are not necessary for them, but as their punishment ; and then they 
pray not, for that is an act of the soul, but this is a suffering of the outward 
man. The church as (they say) it cannot judge of inward acts, so it cannot 
order them to be penal. And the malefactors here being their own execu- 
tioners, as there is no need, so there is no fear that they will punish their 
souls, but leave them untouched, unconcerned, whatever their lips, or 
fingers, or beads may suffer, by that grievous penalty of praying. But it 
were well if God did not suffer more by such abuse of his name and wor- 
ship, than those malefactors, who count it a suffering to do anything like his 
service. And it sounds not well that prayer must pass for a punish- 
ment. It is, as Damascene defines it, and they after him, the ascent of the 
mind unto God. 3 Now, is the approach of the soul to God a punishment ? 
One would think the devils should think better of it ; for the misery of hell 

1 Nullum esse de hac re pr&ceptnm etiam ecclesiasticum vel rab veniali. — Medina cU 
Orat. q. x., in Soar de Orat. 1. iit. c vi. n. vii. Solum tradidit Christus form am, non 
xero dedit prseceptum obligana ad exercitiuni, n. v. 

* Consuetudo recepU est ratione devotionis, non obligations — si h»c nunqnam 
recitet, magnum indicium est, ipsum non recie vivere, etiamsi omissio ilia specialc 
peccatum non sit. — Idem. ibid. 

8 Oratio in genere sumpta est ascensus mentis ad Deum, et hoc essentialiter includit. 
— Idem. ibid. c. iv. n. iv. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



46 BEAL WOESHIP OF GOD [CHAP. I. 

is distance from God, without hopes of having access to him. But they can 
solve the difficulty well enough, for they mean not to do any such thing as 
praying in the case, hut only to suffer some thing which they call so. Their 
care and pains is ahout their beads, not their souls ; if they keep but count, 
and bring in the full tale which the confessor enjoins ; though in as many 
crowns and rosaries as there are Ave Maries in each ten thousand times 
over, they have not one thought of God, nor the least motion of mind or 
heart towards him ; yet they give full satisfaction, and undergo all they were 
adjudged to. 

In their voluntary prayers there is less worship required than the other, 
if there can be less than none. For when they need not use such prayers 
unless they please, they may do it as they list; 1 it being no duty enjoined, 
the manner of the performance is arbitrary, and wholly at discretion. Hence 
those who think something (of some sort) of attention requisite in commanded 
prayers, count none at all necessary in these ; no, not that which is super- 
ficial, not so little of that as they call virtual. So that, if herein they mind 
nothing at all, wherein worshippers at prayer are concerned, not so little as 
the bare words ; yet they acquit themselves well enough, yea, if this neglect 
of all be wilful, 3 and the mind not only run of its own accord, but be sent 
away and employed about something else on set purpose, it will be at worst 
a slight fault. 

Sect. 12. In this fashion they would have us suppose that God may be 
worshipped, when there is neither inward nor outward observance of him. 
Inward he hath none, when the mind is departed from him, and the heart 
with it. Outward he hath none, unless merely in show, when the mind 
directs it not to, and designs it not for him ; which is never done, when he 
is not minded. In fine, by the doctrine of the Romanists (to say nothing 
of the idolatry or superstition of their service), it is unnecessary that God 
should have any real worship, either public or private ; unless God can be 
said to be truly worshipped, without the love or fear of God, without acts 
of wisdom or affection, without reverence or devotion, without sincere or 
honest intentions; or with designs of wickedness ; without knowing what 
they do, or heeding what they are about ; without mind or heart, yea, or 
body either, unless in mere show ; this is apparent by the premises. The 
people (as they think) worship God well enough at this rate ; their leaders 
teach them no more is needful ; their church, by confining their service to 
an unknown tongue, makes it necessary for their divines thus to teach, and 
unavoidable for the people to worship, no otherwise. Now, what a church is 
this, or of what religion, that maizes the real worship of God, and of Jesus 
Christ, to be needless, and takes an effectual course that he shall have none ? 
Let those who are of their communion, or tempted to it, consider it seriously, 
and in the fear of God. Is it the way to salvation to be without religion ? 
Is there any religion, indeed, where it is made needless to worship God 
really, when worship is as essential to religion as a soul is to a man ? They 
may, by joining with them, greaten a party, and promote the interest of a 
faction, which carries on other designs under religious pretences, without 
regard of God, as to his worship and honour, or to the souls of men, as to 
their happiness, and the true way to it ; but if they follow the conduct of 

1 Orationes voluntarin — com penitus omitti possent, consequiturqnod evagatio mentis 
tollens attentionem non inducit peccatum mortale. — Qraf. part. i. 1. ii. c, li. n. xi. 

9 Ubi a u tern libero et citra obligationem oratur, sola est culpa venialis indecenter 
orare ; quare distractio etiam meditata, nisi contemptio adsit, nunquam erit mortalis. 
— Soto de Jxut. 1. x. q. v. art. v., in sin ; Graff, p. 1, 1. ii. c H. n. xi. ; Gabriel, ibi. Angel, 
y. hnr. n. xxvii. ; Bonacin. dc diviu. offic disp. i. q. lit. p. 2, sect. ii. n. vil, ibi. Maldarus 
et alii. 



Digitized by LjO0QlC 



Chap. II.] not necessary in the ohuboh of bomb. 47 

the Roman doctrine, and worship God no otherwise than these would have 
them ; they may be of the Roman profession, and yet of no roligion. If a 
man have a mind to trouble himself with none of the realities of Christian- 
ity, and yet to pass for religions enough, in the opinion of so mnch of the 
world as is papal, and will hang his soul upon so common reputation, popery 
is contrived to allure and gratify him ; and he may safely venture on it, if 
damnation be not dangerous, or if he can escape it by an opinion or show of 
worshipping God, and being religious without morality. 

CHAPTER II. 
Christian knowledge is not necessary for Romanists by their doctrine. 

Sect. 1. Knowledge is the foundation of almost all that is saving : of 
faith, holiness, obedience, worship. It is the groundwork, without which 
scarce a stone can be laid in the whole structure of salvation. No saving 
faith without it, Rom. z. 14. There can be no love to, or hope in, an un- 
known object. There can be no fear, no desire of what we know not. There 
can be no true worship of God, unless that of the Samaritans was such, 
' who worshipped they knew not what.' There can be no obedience with- 
out knowing whom, what, why, and for what end we obey. In brief, without 
knowledge there is no eternal life, John xvii. 8; nothing but ruin and 
eternal destruction, Hosea iv. 6, 2 Thes. i. 

Yet for all this, popery decries knowledge, as that which is unnecessary 
for the people, and extols the want of it, as that which is essential to their 
faith (Bellarmine saith, faith is better denned by ignorance); 1 as that 
which is the mother of their devotion ; (so others declare it), as that which 
is the excellency of their obedience ; none comparable to that which they call 
blind obedience, as Cardinal Cusanus tells us. 2 

It sufficeth the people to know that their church hath knowledge ; and 
their sight is good enough, in that their teachers have eyes ; so one of their 
authors : In matters of faith, the people ought not to see with their own 
eyes, but the eyes of their superiors. 3 They need not know what they pray 
for, nor what they are ta believe, nor what they are to do. 

1. They need not know what they are to pray for, or to whom, or whe- 
ther they pray or not ; all is muffled up in an unknown language, and they 
are to venture at they know not what, nor how, nor whither. No wonder if 
they direct the Lord's prayer to saints, male or female ;* and say Our Fatlier 
to the virgin mother, and, in like manner, direct Ave Maries to Christ, as if 
they took him to be a woman, or to be with child (and with himself too), to 
be the fruit of his own womb ; or to be his own mother, which the words so 
applied signify. This ignorance is the dam of such devotion, such as is both 
horrid and blasphemous to the highest degree of horror ; and yet their great 
clerks will countenance it. The wisdom of their church hath thought it fit, 
that they should not be so wise as to understand what they do, when they 
are serving God. The Council of Trent fulminates a curse against those 

1 Per hoc fides distinguitur contra scientiam, et melius per ignoran tiara quam per 
notitiam definitur, 1. i. dc justif. c. vii. p. 706, sect, judicium. 

* Consummata et perfectissima obedientia. — Infra. 

9 Laicos, ad dogmata fidei quod attinet, non propriis sed prolatorum suorum oculis, 
videre oportet. 

4 Vid. Navar. de Orat. c x. n. xxxvi., et c. xviii. n. xxxii. ; Spotsw. Hist. I. ii. p. 92 
Molanus Theol, pract. tr. iii. c ix. n. vi. 

VOL. m. B 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



48' CHBISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, [CHAP. II. 

who hold that the mass ought to be celebrated in a known tongue ; that is, 
they curse those who approve not that mode of service, which the apostle 
condemns as barbarous, 1 Cor. xiv., such as is not fit for God or man ; they 
curse those who will not offer a blind sacrifice, or blindfolded. 1 As if one under 
the law ought not to have seen whether that which he offered were a hog or a 
sheep ; whether he sacrificed a lamb, or cut off a dog's neck; whether he pre- 
sented an oblation, or offered swine's blood. They think not only the people, 
but even the clergy unconcerned, to know what they say when they speak 
unto God. The clergy (saith Jacobus de Graffiis), or the laity, when they 
are at divine service, if they understand not what they say, they sin not. 2 
It is so far from being their duty to serve God as Christians, that they need 
not act as men in his service. If the words be but said, though with no 
more understanding than magpies are taught to sound them, it is as reason- 
able service as their church requires ; what God requires of them is no mat- 
ter. 3 They expect not that any should understand their service but expert 
divines, as Soto tells us. 4 Now it is a very small part of their clergy that 
pretends to be divines, and a small part of those few that are expert therein ; 
it is an attainment which most of their bishops fall short of. Their common 
priests are sufficiently qualified with the art of reading, nor need they be 
masters of that neither ; the mass-book is almost taught to read itself. For 
in the missals established by Pius the Fifth, and recognised by Clement the 
Eighth, every syllable is diversely marked, whether it is to be sounded long 
or short. What do we speak of clergy or priests ? It is not necessary for 
their popes to be able to understand, or to read their common prayers ; them- 
selves spare not to divulge this. It is manifest, saith Alphonsus a Castro, 
that many popes are so illiterate, that they are utterly ignorant of the gram- 
mar. 5 It seems he may be universal pastor,. and the teacher of the whole 
world, who hath not learned his grammar ; and the infallible guide of all 
mortals, who understands not his own language, wherein the articles of faith, 
their laws, ceremonies, and church service is delivered. And is it not ver^ 
much that two things so different as ignorance and infallibility, should have 
the good hap to meet together in the same person ? 

Sect. 2. Secondly, they need not know what they are to believe ; they tell 
us they are obliged, under pain of damnation, to believe whatever the visible 
church of Christ proposeth, as revealed by almighty God. Now, their church 
proposeth for points of faith so revealed, not only what they have in Scrip- 
ture, but what they have by tradition, or by the custom of the church in 
former ages, or by the consent of the fathers, or by the decrees of councils, 
or by the determination of popes, ex cathedra, whereby points of faith become 
infinitely numerous, beyond all account which the learned amongst them can 
give, either to satisfy themselves or others ; yet all must be believed, and 
that under pain of damnation, whenas it is but a very small part of them 
that can be commonly known. The articles of the creed called the apostles', 

1 Omnis sermo qui non intelligitur barbarus judicatur. — Jerom. in 1 Cor. xiv. 

In Navar de horis. — Canon, cap. xiii. n. iv. They are directed to address themselves 
to God or the virgin Mary thus: Grant, O Lord, or Lady, what I ask, though I know 
not what. 

8 Clerici aut laici qui divinis intersunt, si non intelligunt quad dicont, non peccant, 
1. ii. c. li. n. xii. p. 291. 

8 Quid hoc sit intellipere debemns nti humana ratione, non qnasi avium voce 
cantemus. Nam et meruli, psittaci et com et picas et hujusmodi volucres, ssepe ab 
hominibus docentur son are quod nesciunt, scienter autem cantare non avi sed bomini, 
divina voluntate concessum est.— Augutlin, in Ps. xviii. exposit. secunda, p. 103, t. viii. 

4 Supra, 1. x. q. v. art. v. 

* Cum constet plures papas adeo illiterates esse ut grammaticam penitus ignorent, 
1. i. advers. H teres, cap. iv. ed. Paris, 1534. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. II.] how needless in the boman chtjbch. 49 

are not the hundredth part of those points that must be believed by all that 
will not be damned ; and yet they generally conclude that it is not necessary 
for the people to know all of those few articles. How to believe the rest, 
and it may be five hundred times more, which they know nothing of, nor 
ever once came into their thoughts, they must make what shift they can. 

However, they need not know all the articles of the small creed, as the 
chief of them teach. Not all, saith Aquinas, 1 but what is sufficient to direct 
to the last end ; not all, saith Scotus, 2 but the gross things, as that Christ 
was born and suffered, and others belonging to redemption ; not all, saith 
Sylvester, 3 and many with him, but those particularly for which the church 
hath public solemnities; not all, saith Bonaventure, 4 but those which we have 
notice of by the church solemnities, or acts of the priests, and these in him 
are four, that of the nativity, passion, resurrection, and remission of sins, 
to which he adds another, which the sign of the cross teacheth, and wherein 
Angelus follows him ;* so that the half and more needs not to be known, for 
they reckon fourteen in all. 

Others there are who require not this little, nor think it needful to know 
these articles more than implicitly, that is, without understanding them ; so 
Gulielmus Parisiensis, and Altissiodorensis * in Bannez. Summa Rosellae, 
after others, 7 holds it enough for the simple, and perhaps all discerning 
people, to believe that God is the rewarder of the good, and punisher of the 
evil. A compendious creed, truly, and that which will never trouble the 
conscience of a Turk or a heathen ; the knowledge and faith of a barbarous 
infidel is enough, it seems, to make a papal Christian. Accordingly, others 
teach, that such as are educated amongst catholics, and are ignorant of the 
' Trinity, are excused from the explicit knowledge thereof, especially if they 
want a teacher. So Bartholomew, Medina, and Immanuel say, who gives 
this reason for it : We cannot say that an infinite number of Christians, 
otherwise good people, do perish, that scarce know anything aright of the 
mystery of the Trinity and incarnation ; yea, judge perversely of these points 
if you ask them. 8 And yet, without the knowledge of the incarnation of 
Christ, there is no knowledge of the creed or of the gospel. Sancta Clara 
is of the same mind too, and quotes others for it. 9 

1 Nee tamen necesse est ctulibet ezplicite credere omnes articnlos fidei, sed quantum 
sufficit ad dirigendum in nltimum finem, dist. xxv. q. ii. art. i., vid. Sylvest. v. fides. 

* Maxime ad ilia quae sunt grossa ad capiendum, sicut quod Christus natus est et 
passus, et alia qu® pertinent ad redemptionem — Vid. Sta. Clara, probl. xv. p. 94. 

8 Ut que solemnizantur in ecclesia quantum ad omnes catbolicos, v. fides, n. vi. 

4 Quas cognoscere potest ex ipsis solemnitatibus, qnas ecclesia celebrat, et actions 
sacerdotnm, iii. dist. xxv. n. xxvi. 

5 De nnitate et Trinitate quam ex signatione noscere possnnt, cum dicunt in nomine 
Patris et Filii, &c item de nativitate, passione et reaurrectione quae festa predicant: 
et remissione peccatornm quam ex acta preebyterorum noscere possunt. — Sum. v. 
fides, n. Tit 

• If a man were demanded whether Christ were born of the Virgin, and whether 
there were one God and three persons, he might sufficiently answer, I know not; but 
I "believe as the church holds.— Barm, in xxii. q. ii. art. viii. sect, dubitatur. 

7 Dicens quod si mplicibus, et forte omnibus laicis discernentibus et adultis, sufficit 
credere Deum esse pnemiatorem omnium bonorum, et malorum omnium punitorem. 
Alios autem articnlos sufficit credere implicite, credendo scil. verum quicquid ecclesia 
catbolica docet. — Post, die 1. i. in Sylv. v. fides n. vi. 

Baptista Trovamala herein followed Peter Casuille, and says this is « fidet mensura ad 
quam quilibet. tenetur, et qua sufficit simplicibus et forte omnibus laicis. 1 — Sum. Rosel. 
v. fides, n. i. 

8 Quid enim dicemus ne perire infinitam Christianorum, alioquin bonorum, multitu- 
dinem, qui de mysterio etiam Trinitatis, et incarnationis, vix quidquam norunt recte, 
imroo perverse sentiunt, si interrogas?— v. fides, n. 1. Ila Fcrr. Medina, \. c. xiv. sect. ii. 

8 Deus, natura, gratia.— Problem, xv. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



50 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, [CHAP. U. 

So that by this doctrine a man needs not know the persons in the God- 
head, nor the incarnation of Christ, upon which his birth, life, death, 
resurrection, and intercession depends, which are the sum of the gospel ; 
yea, he may not only be ignorant of these truths, the knowledge of which, 
if of any, is necessary to salvation, but he may have false and perverse 
apprehensions of them, and yet be secure from perishing. According to 
Soto and Medina, 1 he that is ignorant of the incarnation and Trinity, because 
he was educated in the mountains, without a preacher to instruct him, will 
be saved if he die in grace, which they suppose he may have without know- 
ledge, for an implicit faith, that is, without knowledge, will then serve his 
turn. Secundum doctores nobiles, as noble doctors conclude, saith Lopez, 
so that they may have eternal life without knowing the true God, or Jesus 
Christ whom he hath sent. Ignorance hereof will be invincible, that ifl, both 
inculpable in itself, and sufficient to justify the criminal issues of it, if they 
want a teacher, that is, not only if it be not possible, but if it be difficult or 
inconvenient to have one. 3 

The cardinals of the Inquisition at Borne 3 will have such confessors allowed, 
who hold that persons are capable of absolution, and so supposed to be in a 
state of salvation, how palpable soever their ignorance might be of the mye- 
teries of faith ; nay, though out of pure negligence they know nothing of 
the mystery of the blessed Trinity, or of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. Medina teacheth, that if one when he is dying acknowledge that he 
hath been very negligent to learn Christian doctrine, and would not hear it, 
and thereby wants the knowledge of the mystery of the incarnation and 
Trinity, xmd the articles of faith, yet to deny him absolution would be impious : 
so Lopez reports him, 4 and himself says, 5 such an one is to be absolved. 
Here is encouragement, more than enough, to live and die in gross ignorance, 
and those who have a mind to continue without the knowledge of God under 
the name of men, or of Christ, under the profession of Christians, have a 
general warranty by their doctrine to do it. 

For the former sort of their divines, who seem to require a knowledge of 
some articles, do indeed make no more knowledge necessary than those who 
require it not. For when they explain themselves, commonly such a know- 
ing is sufficient, as is without understanding, a dark conceit, that such things 
there be, though they apprehend not at all what they are. Such mysterious 
subtilties their doctors are pleased with, as they have a sort of faith without 
knowledge, or any thought of what they believe ; so a knowledge without 
understanding. 

Scotus 6 thinks they have sufficient knowledge of the Trinity, three persons 
and one nature, who can neither apprehend what a person or a nature is. 

1 In 4 sentent., Sum. lot. Ixxv. p. 2, quando qnis laborat ignorantia invincibili fidei 
explicits incarnationis et Trinitatis, quia cum esset educatus in montibus, caruit prse- 
dicatore ipsum de ipsa instruente secundum veram sen ten ti am, cum sola fide implicita, 
hoc est sine explicita, salvabitur, si moriatur in gratia, ad quam assequendam secundum 
Doctores nobiles sic ignoranti explicrtam satis est cum ceteris requisites fides implicita. 
— Lopcz % c. vii. p. 45. 

8 Vid. Sylv. ignorantia. n. 5 et. v. impossib. Impossible dicitur, 1, quod simpliciter 
fieri non potest ; 2, quod fieri potest sed cum difficultate. Juridice dicitur, 1, quod non 
potest fieri juste; 2, quod non potest fieri commode. 

8 Addit. to provincial Letters, p. 100, &c, c. ii. n. zvii. 

4 Instruct, c. vii. p. 45. 

P. 50, Talis est absolvendus. 

6 Qui non possit concipere quid est natura et quid persona, non est necrsse quod 
habeat actum explicitum, de articulo pertincnte ad essentia, et personarum Trinitatcm 
distincte, siennt habent clerici literati, sed sufficit talibus credere, sicut ecclesia, credit. 
— . VicL Sta. Cta. ibid. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. II.] how needless in the roman chubch. 51 

- Accordingly, Bonaventure saith, 1 the people may know the Trinity by cross- 
ing themselves, since they do it in the name of the Father, &c. ; and by the 
festivals, they may know the rest which is necessary to be understood. And 
when it is argued, that there are few, bat such as are expert in divinity, who 
know how to distinguish and number the articles of the creed ; and therefore, 
if all were bound to know them distinctly and explicitly, id est, to know 
what they mean, few or none would be saved, which is an extreme cruel 
saying ; he in his answer grants it all. 2 

Bellarmine 3 seems to make some knowledge of the articles of the creed 
necessary, but what it is he signifies elsewhere, when he tells us that experi- 
ence witnesseth that the greatest part of the faithful, and in a manner all the 
country people, are so far from understanding the mystery of the Trinity, and 
the incarnation, and other such points necessary to salvation, that they scarce 
apprehend anything besides the mere sound of the words, and vet are de- 
servedly counted believers. 

So cardinal Tolet requires in those that are to be absolved, a kind of ac- 
quaintance with some prime articles of faith, but signifies it will be sufficient 
if, hearing them rehearsed, 4 they can tell us which is an article, and which 
not; and this they may do by the sound, though they understand nothing of 
the sense. 5 De Graffiis is confident, that a confessor may make an ignorant 
person understand all that is necessary to salvation by making the sign of 
the cross. And Angelas, who wonld have three or four articles of the creed 
to be known, yet concludes, if one can answer this or that article decently, 6 
Quod sic, it is so; it will be sufficient for him, though be know not the 
creed. 

Sylvester pretends to make more knowledge requisite than Bosella, but 
yet he determines 7 that mere want of knowledge is no sin ; that it is not a 
sin to be ignorant of what he ought to know, but upon the account of negli- 
gence ; that negligence to know things necessary to salvation may be a mortal 
sin sometimes, but when, it is hard to tell, yea, impossible. So that here is 
encouragement enough to continue carelessly in ignorance of things necessary 
to salvation, and to neglect saving knowledge ; for when this is a mortal sin, 
no man can tell, and a venial fault no man needs avoid. In short, they 
not only justify simple ignorance, how gross soever, but that which has a 
worae character, ignorantia prava disposition™ : and count it no crime, not 

1 Possunt nosse ex ipso acta consignationis, cousignant enim in nomine Patris, &c 
Cogooscere possent ex ipsia solemnitatibus.— IbicL n. xxvi. 

* Ibid. n. xxvii. 

8 Et sane ita esse, experientia testator, enm maxima pars fidelium, vel propter seta- 
tern pnerilem, vel propter sexum muliebrero, vel propter ingenii babitadinem, vel propter 
imperitiaro literarnm, et scientiarum, qaales snnt pene omnes rustici, non solum non 
intelligunt mysteria Trinitatis, et incarnationis, et similta necessaria ad salatem, sed 
vix quidqnam animo concipiant, prater sonum verboraro ; et tamen inter fideles merito 
numerantar. — Dejuttif. 1. i. c vii. p. 705. 

4 Sciat respondere ease mandatum vel articnlnm, quss snnt; non antem esse, qua non 
sunt — Instruct. 1. iii c. xvii. 

* Decis. p. 1, 1. i. c. xxiv. n. iii. vid. infra. 

6 Idem possit did de aliquo qai nescit Credo parvwn, tamen si interrogaretur Dens 
est nnns ? respondent, quod sic — et sic de eteteris respondent, quod sic Quod sufficeret 
sibi, licet nesciret profatum Credo. — Sum. v. scientia. 

7 Privatio ipsa scientia secundum se non est peccatum v. ignorant, n. 8, est peccatum 
ratione negligent!© — /"Wd Negligentia addiscendi necessaria ad salatem, qu» ali- 
quando est mortale, licet hoc judicare sit difficile.— v. Acedia, n. iii. Non potest 
sermone determinari. — v. Prctdicat. n. vii. supra. 

Ipsamet ignorantia vincibilis non est formatter peccatum nee commissionis, nee 
omissionis, &c. — Bonacina, de peccat. d. ii. q. viii. p. 3, n. xxxi. After Corduba and 
many others. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



52 OHBISTUN KNOWLEDGE, [CHAP. IL 

only to want the knowledge of the articles of faith, hat, out of ignorance, to 
entertain opinions contrary thereto. He that believes an heresy, saith 
Navarre, 1 out of simplicity or ignorance, because he thinks the church holds it, 
and is ready to relinquish it when the truth shall be discovered regularly, he 
sins not mortally. And with Alphonsus a Castro, no kind of heresy is a 
sin, if it be out of ignorance and without pertinacy ; 2 if their teachers instil 
such errors into the people, and they, through ignorance, receive impressions 
contrary to points of faith, and follow such guides blindfold, therein they 
sin not Yea, I say more, saith Angelas, 3 Sometimes such an error may 
be meritorious ; for example, one hears a famous preacher or a bishop preach 
some error, and he simply believes it, with a mind to be obedient to the 
faith, but ready to be reduced, for things are to be judged of by the inten- 
tion. But sometimes it may be a venial fault, 4 as when an old woman 
believes the Trinity to be one woman ; and because she thinks the church 
so holds, therefore believes it. 

To recite the names of those who assert that the people, through igno- 
rance, may safely follow their teachers in errors, would be tedious, they are 
so many. For shortness, let us take Sancta Clara's word, who tells us,* It 
is now the common opinion of their schools and doctors, that people erring 
with their teachers or pastors, are wholly excused from all fault; yea, many 
times by so erring materially, for this Christian obedience which they owe their 
pastors, they merit. So that ignorance of points, whose belief is with them 
necessary to salvation, is bo far from being a sin, that it can render heresy 
sinless, yea, make the entertaining of damnable errors to be a meritorious 
belief. 

We cannot expect that knowledge should be accounted necessary, where the 
worst sort of ignorance hath such excess of honour and privilege. It is no 
more necessary, nor more of it, according to their principles, necessitate pra- 
cepti, by virtue of any command, than we have shewed out of their best 
writers. But then the necessitas medii, needfulness as a means or way to 
life, that is none at all ; for as the same author tells us, and brings us 
abundant evidence of it, it is the common doctrine of their more grave divines, 6 
that men may now be saved ; and the more common tenet of their schools, 7 
that they may be justified without the explicit belief, and so without the 
knowledge of Christ himself. So that those who hold the knowledge of 
Christ unnecessary to salvation are many, and their most grave divines; 
those that count it unnecessary to justification, are the greatest number of 
their doctors : put these both together, and there will be few left amongst 
them, and these little considerable in comparison, for number or gravity, 
but such as judge the knowledge of Christ needless to bring men into a saving 

1 Idem ibid. n. ix. Si pro simplicifate ant ignorantia id credit, quia sibi videtur 
ecclesia ita tenere, et est paratus errorem deponere quandocunque veritatem fuerii 
edoctus — nee peccat mo^taliter regulariter 1. xi. n. xxii. p. 141. 

8 Lib. i. advers. Hares, c. ix. 

8 Immo plus dico, quod aliquando talis error possit esse meritorias, ut pats, aliquis 
audit aliquem prodicatorem famosum, vel episcopum prsedicasse aliquem errorem, ct 
simplex ciedit animo obediendi fidei, paratus tamen corrigi. Nam ex in ten ti one opera 
judicantur cum voluniate. — De sent, sxcom. sum. Angel, v. fides, n. vi. 

4 Aliquando cum peccato veniali, ut puta, vetula credit Trinitatem esse unam fsBmi- 
nam : et quoniam credit ecclesiam sic tenere, sic credit. — Id. ibid. 

5 £t videtur hodie communis seiltentia scholarum et doctorum, quod laici errantes 
cum suis doctoribus aut pastoribus omnino ob omni culpa excusentur, immo multoties 
sic materialiter errando, ob actum obediential, quam pastoribus suis debent, merentur 
Problem, xv. p. 99. 

6 Pntem plane banc esse sententiam doctoris, et communem. — Ibid. p. 90. 

7 Et base est communior in scholis. — Ibid. p. 89. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. II.] how needless in the boman ohuboh. 68 

state; for this, it will not be needful to be Christians, unless any can be 
Christians without the actual belief or knowledge of Christ. 

Sect. 8. Thirdly, They need not know what they ought to do ; they may 
be, without sin, ignorant of what the Lord hath made their duty. Adrian, 
Corduba, Herrera, determine, and it is the more common and received 
opinion, that men may be inculpably ignorant of the law of nature and the 
ten commandments, as Sanota Clara informs us. 1 But, then, since they 
need not know the rule, what have they to follow ? Why, the direction of 
their teachers ; and these they must follow blindfold, right or wrong. It is 
one of the qualifications required in the obedience of others, but especially 
of the religious, which they would have us think to be best of all, that it be 
blind ; 2 nor should fear of going wrong move them to open or use their own 
eyes, for if they do wander out of the way of God after such guides, yet they 
are right, and do their duty. Those who managed the conference 3 for the 
Romanists at Ratisbon, anno 1601, maintained that the people are so sub- 
jected to the government of their teachers, that if they err, the people may 
and ought to err with them. And they are not only excused from all faults, 
when they thus wander with their teachers, but their obedience to their 
pastors hexein is many times meritorious. This is the judgment, not only 
of Valentia, Angles, Vasquez, but the common determination of their schools 
in Sancta Clara. 3 It seems a man may deserve eternal life by leaving the 
way to it, and may come to heaven meritoriously by wandering from it. 
What a strange thing is it, that they will not let their catholics be certain of 
salvation, since they cannot miss it, no, not by going out of the way that 
leads to it I When they follow their guide into the ditch, yet they are safe ; 
but that is a small matter : by being willing to be led by such as see not, or 
mind not the way, they merit, and spring up to heaven marvellously, even 
when they are felling from a precipice, and tumbling headlong after their 
leaders. 

The same author tells us* that some doctors ascribe so much to the in- 
struction of pastors, who have care of the flock, that if they should teach that 
now and then God would have them to hate him, a simple parishioner is bound 
to believe them. All think not fit to give so broad instances ; but whether 
all have not warrant to do it by their common tenet, let others judge. 

However, if the people (content to trust, and not to see, what so much 
concerns them) suffer themselves to be deceived, they sin not, their ignorance 
will save them harmless. 5 And what would any impostor desire more than 
to have those whom he hath a mind to abuse to the uttermost, possessed 
with such a confidence, that however they be deluded, it will not hurt them? 
Now what an admirable expedient is ignorance for the children of this king- 
dom, when by virtue of it the leaders may carry the people whither they 
list without suspicion, the people may follow in the dark without danger ! 
No wonder if ignorance be nourished in them by all means, when they are 
not concerned to know whether that which they are led to be good or evil, 

1 Communior tamen et recepta sententia post Adrianum, et est nostri Corduba et 
Herrera et aliorum communiter, quod potest dafi ignorantia invincibilis respectu legis 
naturae et decalogi. — Probl. xvi. initio. 

* Obedientiam csBcam, promptam, fortem, esse par est, de his conditionibus in obe- 
dient ia religiosa pnesertim requisitU bene. — P. L. Victord* ibid. ad. 1. viii. c. xiv. 
p. 11, 8. 

8 Hungerus, Velserus, Hannemannus, Oretzerus, Tannerus. 

4 Vid. supra. 

Immo aliqui doctores tan turn tribuunt instructioni pastorum, quibus incnmbit cura 
oviuno, quod si docerent hie et nunc, Deum Telle odio haberi, quod teneatur parochianus 
nidi* eid credere. — Ibid. Probl. xr. p. 97. 



64 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, [CHAP. II. 

just or unjust, against God, or for him ; whatever it be, they ought to obey 
at a venture. They need not so much as know whether their leaders have 
power to require what they enjoin. 1 

If they be in doubt whether that they are led to be against the law, jet 
on they must go, for they all agree here to drive them. Secundum omnes* 
saith Sylvester, if he doubt of this, whether it be against the command of 
God, yet he is bound to obey, he may venture safely, It seems that is no • 
danger which the apostle speaks of, ' He that doubteth is damned,' Rom. 
xiv. 28. They allege 8 an express text for this in their law, which will cany 
it against the apostle. 

And as that evil which God forbids may be done by him that doubts lest 
God hath condemned it, so 4 that good which he hath enjoined (if salvation 
can be had without it) may be neglected when superiors will have it so ; 
their canonical text saith it, 6 which must be regarded whatever becomes of that 
other, * Whether it be better to obey God or men, judge you/ Acts iv. 19. 

Yea, if they be past doubt, that what is required is against God, if they 
think, if they believe it to be against his command, yet if they believe it but 
upon weak grounds, 6 yea, or if upon probable grounds (if they be not more 
certain thereof than they ought to be of their salvation), they are to suppress 
their own judgment, and will be excused for the goodness of such obedience, 
i.e. for obeying men rather than God, and that against their own judgment 

Such art is used to persuade the people, that they need see nothing they 
are to do further than their leaders would have them ; if they doubt or if 
they believe, if their eyes be opening or if they be opened, they must shut 
them close, and obey men blindly, without discerning what God forbids or 
requires. And it is not for nothing that they deprive them of their eyes, for 
thus they can make them grind. Such ignorance is the way to have them 
in more subjection, and that they account the most perfect obedience, which 
is next to brutish, without knowledge, and without judgment ; that they need 
not have, and this they must not use. A judgment of discretion must by no 
means be left the people, that is a point they would maintain against us ; hot 
as to their own followers, they put it out of question beforehand, for by 
keeping them without knowledge, they leave them no judgment, but such as 

1 Non oportet quod sciat id ab eo juberi posse. — Nan. 1. xxili. n. xxxtH. 
Affirmant in omni dnbio parendam esse pneposito. Bonarent. Palndan. Sylrest 
Angelas, Sotus in Vasquei, in 1, 2 torn. i. disp. lxvi. 1. ix. 

* Secundum omnes si est de hoc dubius (illud esse contra legem Dei) — tenetur obedire. 
— Sylvest. v. consc. n. iii. Et generality r ubi est dubius an debeat obedire necne, tenetur 
obedire. — Idem. t. relig. tL n. vi. Quid si prselatns prsecipiat aliquid quod consriemia 
subditi dictat esse contra legem Dei ? Resp. secundum Bonaventuram quod tenetuream 
deponere, nisi clarum sit illud fore contra legem Del — Sum. AngeL t. Conseieat. n. u. 
Quid debet facere inferior, qoando dubius est, an quod ei prsacipitur est peccatum? dico 
debet obedire. Ita tenet Sylvest. et habetur hoc expresse. 

8 xxiii. q. 1. Can. quid culpatur ubi statuitur, cum non est certum, superiornm 
factum esse malum, esse obediendum : in dubiis enim debet inferior credere auperiori. 
— Tokt. Instr. 1. viii. c. xv. 

4 Immo aliquando etiam bonum, sine quo potest ease salua, propter obedientiam 
debet omitti. — Sylv. v. obedient n. 2. 

6 11. q 8. quid ergo, ibid, 

• 8i vero opinatur, ita quod nescit, nee dubitat, sed credit, distinguendum eat: quia 
si credit ex levibus, tenetur tale judicium deponere, Ac , et obedire : et similiter si 
credit probabiliter, et excusatur propter obedientiss bonum. — Sylvest* v. consc. n. 3. 

Si non scit pro certo sed ex levi et temeraria credulitate, tunc ad consilium sui 
prcelati, deponat. Si vero habeat credulitatem probabilem et discretam, quamvis non 
manifestam et evidentem : tunc propter obedientiam, faciat quod sibi prsscipitur, 
quoniam tenetur in tali dubio, et propter bonum obediential excusatur. — Sum. AnceL 
v. consc. n. 2. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. II.] how needless in the soman chubch. 55 

one may pass on colours in the dark. " Ribera expresseth their sense signi- 
ficantly, 1 All who are to obey, especially religions persons, ought to have no 
head of their own, ♦. e. they are to obey as if they were without eyes or 
brains. So he explains this worthy expression, non suo sed reetoris mi con- 
tilio dueL Let me bnt add the pregnant words of Cardinal Ousanus, which 
comprise all that I charge them with in this particular, 9 No man (saith he) 
can be deceived by an ill pastor ; if thou say, Lord, I have obeyed thee in 
him whom thou hast set over me, this will be sufficient for thy salvation ; for 
thou by obedience paid to a teacher whom the church tolerates, cannot be 
deceived, although he command what is unlawful. Wherefore the opinion 
of the pastor binds thee upon thy salvation for the good of obedience, although 
it be unjust ; for it belongs not to thee to take notice whether it he unlawful 
or not, neither hast thou leave not to obey if it seem unlawful to thee, for 
that obedience which is irrational' is the most complete and most perfect 
obedience, to wit, when one obeys without the use of reason, as a beast obeys 
his owner. A speech fit only for the mouth of the beast and the false prophet. 

The sum of their doctrine concerning ignorance is little less than this : 
they need not be men as to their obedience ; they need not be Christians as 
to the knowledge of Christ ; they need scarce be either as to their worship. 

Sect. 4. The ground of all this is, that they judge the knowledge of the 
Scriptures unnecessary, in a manner, to all sorts ; yea, count it necessary to 
keep as many as they can possibly from acquaintance therewith. They are highly 
concerned for this, even as much as those who have villainous designs, and 
would accomplish them without observance and control, are concerned to shun, 
the light. They know full well the Scripture condemns popery ; we may well 
say they know it, when themselves confess * that both their worship and their 
doctrine is contrary and repugnant to Scripture, and allege this as the reason 
why they would have as little of the Scripture, as can be, known to any. 
From their own mouths we have the reason why they would never have suf- 
fered the Bible to be exposed in a vulgar tongue, if it could have been avoided. 
The protestants' translations made that impossible, and the papists among 
them, who had a mind to look into the word of God, might have made use 
of these; if no other had been provided. To prevent which they were forced 
to translate it, and yet their own translations (which are so strange a disguise 
of Scripture) they dare not trust to the common view ; they are in the index 
of forbidden books put out by Pius the Fourth, and an unpardonable sin 
they make it for any to read them, but such as can procure a licence for it 
from a bishop or inquisitor ; that is, none but those who, they are confident, 
will not be moved by what they meet with there against popery. And yet 
(as if so great restraint were too much liberty for so dangerous a thing as the 
word of God), in the after edition of the index, by Clement the Eighth, he 
declares that no new faculty is granted to bishops or inquisitors to grant any 
licence for reading the Bible, since, by the mandate and usage of the church 
of Borne, and the universal inquisition, all power of granting such licences is 

1 Omnes qui parent, et prsesertim religiosi homines, debent esse sine capita, Com- 
ment in Amot, p. 269. 

* Nemo decipi potest efciam per malum prawidentem : si dixeris, Domine, obediyi 
tibi in prepoeito, hoc tibi aufficiet ad salutem : tn enim per obedientiam quam facia 
pnepceito quern eocleeia tolerat, decipi nequis, etiamsi pneceperit injusta: quare 
sententia pastoris ligat te pro tua salute propter bonum obediential, etiamsi injusta 
fuerit : nam ad te non attinet cognoscere quod sententia sit injusta, neo conceditur 
tibi nt non obedias, si tibi injusta videatur : obedientia irrationalis est consummate, 
obedientia et perfectiasima, scilicet quando obeditur, sicut jumentum obedit domino 
gna JSput. 2 ad Bohcmo* et Eicitat. 1. ii. et vi. 

a Conail. de stabilienda Rom. sede, p. 6. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



56 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, [CHAP. II. 

taken away. 1 So far are they from thinking the knowledge of the Scriptures 
needful for the people, that they count it heresy to affirm the Scripture ought 
to be in a language which they know (how can it be less than heresy to think 
that needful to be known, though it be the revelation of God, which discovers 
popery to be an imposture ?). It is a sin from which they shall never be 
absolved, if they read anything of the word of God in a language which they 
understand, without a licence from a bishop or inquisitor, by Pius his rule ; 
and no bishop or inquisitor hath any power to grant any licence, by that of 
Pope Clement. 

Knowledge of the Scripture is no more needful for monks than other 
people ; it is equally necessary that they should be ignorant of the word of 
God ; they are under the same restraint, and are no otherwise permitted to 
read or buy it. 2 Ignorance is proper for this kind of creature, they are for 
contemplation, not for knowledge/ It seems they may employ their heads 
in contemplation of they know not what. To be sure they need neither 
sacred nor any kind of literature. A monk may be illiterate (say they) they 
have that privilege by their canon law, there quoted by Sylvester and others,* 
and they generally make use of this indulgence ; for their clergy, six parts 
of seven, need no more to be acquainted with the Scripture than the black 
art. The four first orders are sufficiently accomplished, if they are able to 
read 5 (according to the Council of Trent) ; the two next should understand 
Latin, i. e. the words, but not the matter, yet no necessity of either ; it is 
not of necessity to their sacrament of order 6 that any below a bishop should 
.have the use of reason when he enters into orders. 

Yea, their priests need not have any knowledge -of the Scriptures. It is no 
part of their qualification ; 7 nor doth their office, by the Roman constitution, 
require it; all that belongs commonly to a priest is only to say service and 
to say mass ; 8 there are infinite numbers made priests merely to read mass (as 

1 In indice recens edito jussu dementis 8, circa prodictam quartern regulam — 
nullam per banc impressionem et editionem de novo tribtri facultatem episcopis vel 
inquisitoribus, aut regularium superioribus concedendi licentiam legendi biblia in 
vulgari lingua edita ; cum hactenus mandato et usu S. R. £. et universalis inqui- 
sitionis, sublata eis fuerit facultas concedendi hujusmodi licentias in Azor. Instit. 
Mor. pars. i. 1. viii. cap. xxvi. 

9 Regulares vero, non nisi facilitate a prselatis suis habita ea legere aut emere poe- 
sint. Index lib. prohibit, a Con. Trid. iv. regula. i. ita Pius iv. Sublata est regula- 
rium superioribus facultas concedendi licentiam. — Ita Clemen, viii, id. ibid. 

8 Contemplatione magis indigent quam scientia.— Sylv. v. (Jlericus. ii. n. 1. Graff. 
1. i. c. xv. n. 5. 

4 Potest monacbus esse illiterates, ut. not. per gloss, xvi. q. i. ca. legi versic. in- 
structs. Graff, ibid, facit quod legitur xvi. q. i. ubi dicit Joann. quod sufficit monacbo 
si sit bonus, licet sit illiterates.— -Sylvtst. ibid. 

6 Nam in minoribus constitute, sufficit scire legere, et commodo pronunciare ; et 
juxta Cone. Trid. Sess. xxiii. c. xi. Saltern Latinam linguam intelligere diacono, et 
subdiacono sufficit intelligere quro Latine legit, licet mysteria non ita calleat, Tolet. 
Inst. 1. i. c. xciii. 

6 Ordines autem majores etiam presbyteratum posse conferri infantibus, est com- 
munis doctrina theologorum et canonistarum, 8. Tho. Bonavent, Richard, &c. — Idem. 
ibid. cap. lxi. 

S. Tho. tenet et probat quod in solo Episcopate requiritur usus rationis in susci- 
piente de necessitate consecrationis Episcopalis. — Sylv. v. ordo. ir. n. i. vid. Angel, v. 
ordo. iii. n. i. 

7 A d Presbyteratum sufficit scire canones communes pamitentiales et crotera de 
quibus dist. xxxviii. quae ipsis. Sylr. v. Cleric, ii. n. i. Graff. 1. i. c. xv. n. 6. An- 
gel ub reduces their canons to twenty (none of which have any ground in Scripture). 
— 8um. v. confes. vi. n. v. 

9 Primum et secundum officium (viz. divinum officium et misaam celebrare) com- 
mune est omnibos, reliqua vero, qu» ad praxim pertinent, non nisi iis, quibus ex 
munere particulari incumbunt. — Tol. ibid. 1. i. c iii* 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. II.] how nkkdlbss in thb boman chuboh. 57 

Poljdore Virgil tells us) ; x and this they may do completely, though they 
cannot so much as read without a fescue, such as the missal hath ready for 
every syllable. 8 

But if the priest have a special cure, and so be a preacher or confessor, 
yet may he be both good enough without any acquaintance with the Scrip- 
ture ; he may preach the gospel after the Boman mode, without knowing the 
word of God ; for with them it belongB both to deacons and monks to 
preach ; yet those need not understand anything of Scripture, and these 
must not read it in a language they understand, without a licence. 3 

The priests in Scotland were accounted sufficiently qualified, who, it is 
said, did think the New Testament to have been composed by Martin 
Luther.* 

The priests even in Italy, if they had more notice of the author, yet 
scarce more acquaintance with the contents of the New Testament; they 
never read it, and were much more ignorant thereof than the silly women 
amongst the Taborites, as iEneas Sylvius, afterward Pope Pius II., writes. 5 

Knowledge of the Scriptures was not counted necessary for their preachers, 
either regular or secular. 6 The chief of their regulars were the Franciscans 
and Dominicans. In the rule of friar Francis, approved by several popes, 
the Minorites (one sort of preaching friars) are, amongst other vices, to avoid 
learning, if they were illiterate. 

And those of the Dominicans (the order of friars predicant) who were 
rude and illiterate, did preach notwithstanding. 7 

As for their other doctors or teachers, that which they are bound to know 
is, the rudiments of faith (such as our children, who can scarce read, will 
give an account of. 8 

The papacy had no doctors or divines more eminent than those of the 
Sorbonne ; yet they seem little beholding to the Scripture for their divinity. 
Robert Stevens in the last age, conversing with those doctors, would be 
asking in what part of the New Testament such or such a thing is written, 
but had such answers returned. They had read it in Jerome, or the Decrees, 
but what the New Testament was they knew not. 9 

For a confessor he is sufficiently qualified, according to Aquinas, Bona- 
venture, and Albertus, as Sylvester collects, if he have but read and under- 
stand (not the Bible), but Antoninus his book entituled Defecerunt, unless 
he be a mere natural or presumptuous fool ; and neither will doubt of any- 
thing (when he knows nothing), nor inquire of others. 10 So that he may be 

1 Sunt autem infiniti, qui tantum celebrandis missis, quas dicunt, operam dant, et 
ejus rei causa sacerdotes sunt, perinde quasi in ea omne consistat officium — De invent. 
rer. 1. iv. c. vii. 

* Sacerdos in quantum deputatus est ad officium divinum tenetur scire tantum de 
Grammatica, quod eciat verba congrue proferre, et accentuare, et quod intelligat saltern 
literaliter qu» legit — Graff, pars. ii. t. i. c. xi. n. xix. 

8 Angel, sum. v. prodic. Sylvest sum. v. Diaconus, n* iii. ex Paludano. Oratian. 
in Navar. c. xxvii. n. 259. 

* Hist, of Ch. of Scot. 1. ii. p. 76. 

6 Pudeat Italia) sacerdotes, quos ne semel quidem legisse constat novam legem : 
apud Thaboritas viz mulierculam invenias, qu© de novo et Teteri tostamento respon- 
ded nescit. Comment de diet, et fact. Alfcmsi regis lib. ii. Apophtheg. xvii. 

6 Et non curent nescientes literas, literas discere. 

7 Illi rudes et illiterati prodicabant. — Urtpergent in Cent. xiii. Magd. cap. vi. 

8 Si vero sacerdos est doctor, tenetur scire saltern rudimenta fidei. — Graff, decis. 
pars. ii. 1. i. c. xi. n. xix. 

9 Se illud apud Hieronymum aut in decretis legisse ; quid vero novum Testamen- 
tum esset, ignorare. — Rob. Steph. Retp. ad Ceneur. Theol. Pari* in Prafat. 

10 Secundum istos sufficientem credo, qui attente legit et intellexit Defecerunt : nisi 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



68 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, [CHAP. II. 

a complete confessor and guide of consciences, who knows nothing of Scrip- 
ture, and little else, if he have hut the wit to discern his own ignorance, and 
a will to learn of those that are wiser, when he can meet with them. Thus 
we see a Roman priest is furnished for all points of the office, common or 
special, without any acquaintance with the word of God. 

As to hishops, they seem to agree, that some knowledge of the Scripture 
is requisite in them, and some venture to say a full and perfect knowledge 
of the Old and New Testament, signified by their mitres, the two horns 
whereof mystically demonstrate, that they understand the two Testaments both 
alike. And, indeed, since their prelates, secular and regular, have honour, 
power, and plenty by the papal contrivement, and hopes of more and greater 
than other professions can offer, their interest ties them so fast to it, that 
they may trust them (if any) with the sight of the word of God securely, 
and not fear that any discovery of popish corruptions, through such a 
medium, will make any impressions on them to their prejudice, or move 
them to believe, or act anything against that which is so much themselves ; 
there is no such danger in admitting these to some acquaintance with Scrip- 
ture, as others, who have no expectations from religion, but for their souls 
and eternity. Nevertheless, their rules which seem to make this knowledge 
necessary for bishops, are rather counsels than precepts, they are cautious, 
and will not press this too much (for conscience enlightened sometimes 
proves too hard for secular interest). And their prelates may be easily dis- 
pensed with, if they be ignorant of Scripture, or have little notice of it. It 
is one of Sylvester's and Angelas's questions, whether an ignorant bishop sin 
mortally, if in his ordination, being asked whether he understand the whole 
Bible, he should affirm he does ? l This he so resolves after Richardus a 
Sancto Victore. If the bishop be so ignorant, that he knows not in general 
the commands of God, the articles of faith, what are virtues and vices, and which 
the sacraments, then he so sins, he lies perniciously: leaving us to judge that 
he doth not thus lie, when he solemnly affirms, that he hath as much know- 
ledge of the Old and New Testament as the church of Rome requires in a 
bishop ; if he do but know the creed, the ten commandments, which are 
virtues and vices, and which are sacraments, and have but some general 
perception of these. They will not have the bishops burdened with too much 
Scripture learning, since every child they confirm should have no less than 
this. This may pass for perfect knowledge of the Scripture, and of an 
episcopal pitch with those who count it no imperfection to be ignorant of 
that which, they say, 9 doth more hurt than good, for so they were wont to 
blaspheme the Scriptures, or the Holy Ghost, whoseinspiration they are. The 
bishop of Dunkeld 3 thought he had enough of it, when he said, I thank God 
I have lived well these many years, and never knew either the Old or New 
Testament. I content me with my portuis and pontifical (History of Church 

sit ant naturaliter stultus, ant praasumptuosus, ut non sciat dubitare, vol nolit inter- 
rogare.— £yfo. Sum. v. Confessor, iii. n. ii. vid. Tol. ibid. 1. iii. c. xv. 

That which a Confessor is to know is, which sins are mortal, which venial. Now 
this they cannot learn from Scripture, as themselves go near to acknowledge (Valent. 
torn. ii. disp. vi. q. xviiU, and so no need of Scripture for them. Vide AngeL sum. 
t. confess, iv. n. iii. ; Sylvest. ibid. 

1 Utrum peccet mortaliter Episcopns ignorans respondendo in ordinatione sua cum 
interrogator uirum sciat novum et vetus Testamentum ; quod scit. Resp. secundum 
Rich, quod sio. si est ita ignarus quod nesciat in generali, mandate, Dei, articulos fldei, 
virtutes et vitia, etiam sacramenta, quoniam tunc mentitur pernitiose. — AngeL sum. 
v episc. n. xxvi. ; Sylv. ibid. n. v. 

8 In indice lib. prohibit. Regal, iv. Pii. iv. 

8 Putant psccatum esse si scriptures legerint, et in lege Domini meditabundos, quasi 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. II.] how needless in tee boman chubch. 59 

of Scotland, lib. ii. p. 66). The bishops in other countries thought them- 
selves bound in conscience to be as ignorant of the Scriptures, when they 
counted it a sin to read them. 

Yea, he that wants a sufficiency of this knowledge, though so very little 
or nothing be sufficient, may be dispensed with upon the account of some 
other quality. As for example, charity, they say, will make up want of 
knowledge in those who have not sufficient to make them capable of any 
place or dignity amongBt them. 1 Yea, they may be dispensed with, though 
they have no better qualities than in Gerson's time, when he tells us, there 
were none anywhere that were good, or approveable for doctrine or practice, 
but all chosen were both carnal persons, and ignorant of spiritual things. 9 

So he in the fifteenth age ; and about the same time Clemangis says there 
were scarce any advanced to the pontifical dignity, who had so much as 
superficially either read, or heard, or learned the Scriptures ; or who, had 
ever touched anything of the Bible, except the cover. ' Quotusquisque hodie 
est ad pontificate culmen evectus qui sacras vel perfunctorie literas legerit, 
audierit, didicerit ; imo qui sacrum codicem nisi tegumento tenus unquam 
attigerit.' — De corrupt. EccL Statu. 

In the age after, wherein the Council of Trent was held, we have (in 
Papyrius Masson de Episc. Urbis) the character of the Boman prelates, by 
Pasquil begging the next cardinal's cap, as being more capable thereof than 
the bishops then created. 

Si imbelle Bum atque rude marmor, 
Gomplure8 quoque episcopos creari 
Ipso me mage Saxeos videbis. 

And the same age, in the Council of Trent, where (as they boast) was the 
flower of all the Boman prelates in Europe, very few of the bishops had 
knowledge in theology, 3 as father Paul tells us, yet these had only decisive 

garrulos inutilesque contemnunt. EspencsBUS in 1 Tim. digress. 1, ii. c. ii. p. 180, et 
in Tit. e. i. p. 486. Edit. Paris an. 1619. 

1 Magnitudo charitatis supplet imperfectum scientise. — Sylvett. sum. v. ; Cleric ii. 
n. i. 

9 Nullibi episcopos bonos et opere et doctrina praditos eligi ; sed homines carnales 
et spiritualium ignaros. Oerson declar. defect. Eccles. 

* The bishops, amongst whom very few had knowledge in theology. Hist. Counc. 
Trent, lib. ii. p. 179. It is not strange they had no skill therein, for the Italian pre. 
lates, who carried all in that council, being many more than two to one, neither studied 
nor read the Scriptures, lest the word of God should seduce them from popery ; nor 
was divinity their study, but the civil and canon law, as one of them informed Espen- 
Cttus. Memini Episcopum Italum nobilem, nee vero imperitum, mihi dicere, conter- 
raneos suos a studio theologico deterred, et quodammodo abhorrere, ne sic finnt 
heretici, quasi vero hsereses ex scripturarum studio nascantur.^-Quam igitur artem 
vestrates (aio) profitentur ? juris (ait) utriusque, sed in primis canonici. — In Tit. cap. i. 
p. 486. 

Dudithius, an eminent bishop in that convention, calls the prelates who prevailed 
there, indoctos et stolidos, sed tamen impudentia et audacia utiles. — Epist. ad Max. ii. 

Tea, the whole Sorbonne determine that it is not requisite to inquire concerning those 
who sit in council, ntrum sint docti et utrum habeant scientiam sacrarum literarum. 
In Juel. Epist. de cone. Trid. sect. 22. 

Duarenus, who writ while that council was sitting, lets us understand how ignorant 
all their bishops then (few only excepted) were of the Scriptures, not only in Italy, 
but other countries. Hoc seculo episcopates et sacerdotia indoctissimis hominibus. 
et a religione alienis, deferri solent ; hodie episcopi nostri (paucis exceptis) sacrarum 
literarum scientia cceteris ex populo longe inferiores sunt.— Do sac. Eccles. ininist. 
et Benef.. lib. i. cap. xi. in sin. 

Some thought it strange, that five cardinals and forty -eight bishops should so easily 
define the most principal and important points of religion never decided before. 
Neither was there amongst these prelates any one remarkuble for learning; some of 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



60 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 9 [CHAP. II. 

voices in that council, and all was concluded by plurality of their votes ; 
when far the major part understood not the matters concluded, so that the 
articles of the Roman faith were voted blindfold. And yet all must be 
damned who believe not these points of faith, when those who made them 
so were ignorant of them, and knew not what they did when they decreed 
them. Such is the Roman charity and knowledge; so burning and shining 
are their best lights, they will have all burned here, and in hell, too, for 
not believing that which the council (for the greater part of it) under- 
stood not. 

But sure, the knowledge of the pope must be transcendent, especially as 
to the Scripture ; his place and office requires it, being accounted the head 
of the whole church (which ought to have good eyes), and teacher of Chris- 
tians (as much or more than Peter was), and judge in all controversies which 
concern religion, and interpreter of all difficulties in Scripture, and a more 
lively oracle of God than the Scripture itself in the things of God. Yes, 
say they, the pope ought to have far more knowledge than any other, being 
the president of the whole Christian commonwealth, 1 so de Graffiis. But, 
then, he adds, as to him the presumption of the law is enough for all this, 
and that presumes that all is in the cabinet of the pope's breast (as it may 
well be presumed, that a skill beyond that of all physicians is in a bold 
mountebank), although indeed what is quite contrary may prove true.* 
Accordingly the pope may be all that they style him, without the knowledge of 
a novice in the Scripture, without any such acquaintance with it, as to pre- 
tend to the name of a divine (though acquaintance with it be expected from 
none but divines), and many that have the name have little or nothing 
of the thing. The popes think not themselves concerned at all to trouble 
their heads with divinity. If he be but a canonist (as Peter no doubt was), 
he is the apostle's undoubted successor, though he be no more a divine than 
his chair is, or can make him, and why may not the chair inspire him with 
knowledge as much as holiness ? s Pope Innocent the Tenth, in our days 
(since they have been more concerned for the reputation of the Vatican 
throne, than, as before, to let monsters of debauchery and ignorance ascend 
it), declared that he had never studied divinity, nor was it his profession. 4 
Pope Clement the Eighth began to study it when he was very old, and then 
not to much purpose it seems ; for he could not at last decide the question 
that he had studied, how much soever their church was concerned in it. 

None can understand their church prayers but expert divines, as Soto tells 
us ;* he means the matter of them indeed, but popes need not understand 

them were lawyers, perhaps learned in that profession, bat of little understanding in 
religion ; few divines, but of leas than ordinary sufficiency. — Hut, of Council of 
Trent, 1. ii p. 168. 

1 Papa debet habere longe majorem scientiam aliis, cum sit propositus curlse toti 
Christianas reipublicro. Pro eo tamen sufficit prasumptio juris, quoad papa priesuini- 
tur habere omnia in scrinio pectoris.— Oraff. 1. i. c. xt. n. iii. 

* Licet de facto quandoque possit contingere contrarium ; cum memoria hominis sit 
labilis. id. ibid. 

Quum hoc tempore nullus sit Rom©, qui sacras Uteres didicerit, qua fronte aliquis 
eorum docere audebit, quod non didicerit ? — Arnulph. in Concil. Rkem. 

8 The study of the laws, the canon law especially, is the nearest way (breve com- 
pendium) to the highest dignities in their church, even the popedom itself, scarce 
anything being left for divines but curacies. Theologis nihilo pene prater curata, 
quie vocant sacerdotia, reliquo facto, as Espencsus informs us in Tit. c. i. p. 486. And 
the prelate or pope that hath studied the laws needs no divinity, because the law is 
learning enough ; immo jurium (aiunt isti) bonus interpres theologia non eget : cur 
ita ? quod in jure omnes discipline includuntur. — Idem, ibid. p. 487. 

4 S. Amour, part. iii. cap. 12. * Castrens. haer. c. iv. edit. Paris, 1684. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. II.] how needless in the boman chubch. 61 

the words neither ; for many of them do not who pass for lawful popes, and 
such can neither understand the subject nor the words of the Bible, for it is 
in Latin ; and, if Alphonsus deceives us not, many of them have not gone 
so far as their grammar ; l yea, very many of them have been so ignorant as 
they could not speak their own name in Latin. Yet such knowledge of 
Scripture is enough in the Boman account for the infallible interpreter of 
Scriptures, the supreme judge in all matters of faith, and the teacher of the 
universe. When we are ready to wonder at this, they stop us presently by 
telling us that God did make Balaam's ass speak. * 

They seem to grant as much stupidity in a pope as can be imagined, but 
then the miracle of making an ass speak does partly answer that objection. 
Had the bishops of Borne anciently been such ignorant, dull creatures, as 
many of their later popes, and yet adored at that rate, the heathens might 
have had some colour for charging the Christians with worshipping an ass's 
head. 

As for the people, they are so far from obliging them to get knowledge, 
that they either make it impossible for them to attain it, or encourage them 
never to look after it. They cannot attain it bat either by reading or hear- 
ing. They must not read the Scriptures (as before), and they cannot, or 
need not, hear. If the priests be ignorant (as they are allowed to be), 8 they 
are not able to instruct them ; if they be able, they need not preach ; that is 
sub consilio ; or the people need not hear, no, nor inquire of them in private ; 
no, not those that are most ignorant. The further they are from all know- 
ledge, the .more excusable, if they take no care nor pains about it. Sancta 
Clara makes this query : * Are they not bound, at least to some diligence, to 
free themselves from this ignorance ? He answers, if it be one who hath no 

1 Adeoque plerique, literarnm ignari sunt, ut vix sciant nomen suum Latin e expri- 
mere. — Platina in Jul. i. vid in Johann. xxiv. 

8 Bosius de sign. 1. xvi. a ix. 

8 The generals of the regulars and others declared to the faces of the bishops in 
the Council of Trent, that the bishops and curates had wholly abandoned the office 
of a pastor, so that for many hundred years the people remained without sermons in 
the church, and without the doctrine of divinity in the schools. — Hist, of Council of 
Trent, 1. ii. p. 169. 

And there also against the regulars and friars (the only preachers beside those who 
had abandoned the office) it was a general complaint, that though they were severely 
forbidden to preach and teach, yet they assumed the power. And so the flock re- 
mained without either shepherd or hireling, because those preachers knew neither 
the need nor the capacity of the people, and least of all the occasions to teach and 
edify them. Besides, the end of these preachers is not to edify, but to take alms, 
either for themselves or their cloisters, which, that they may obtain, they aim not to 
benefit the soul, but to delight the ear, and soothe men in their pleasures, that thereby 
they may draw more profit ; and the people, instead of learning the doctrine of Christ, 
learneth either novity, or vanity at the least. That it is a clear case that they 
exhort the people to nothing but to give ; — Ibid. 

How these things were reformed by that council, in the prelates, who would have 
the other severely forbidden to preach, appears by Espencaeus. Quotusquisque prselato- 
rum majorum minorumve populum suum docere videtur ? an illi ipsi decreti hujus 
authores unquam docuerunt, quorum exemplo alii ad docendum aliaque munera sua fa- 
cienda excitarentur ? Ludimusne in re adeo sacra ? an potius hac decretorum specie 
rcformationem poscentibus illudimus? Quid emendationis sperari potest a nobis, 
nostra tarn recens edita non observantibus ? — In 1 Tim. 1. ii. c. ii. p. 179. 

4 Petes annon teneantur saltern ad faciendam diligentiam, ut ignorantia talium ex- 
pungatur ? Ad quod dico, primo, quod si aliquis fuerit, qui nullam de his notitiam 
habeat, unde moveretur ad quterendam de illis doctrinam, certum esse, nullam requiri 
industriam et sollicitudinem, saltern si nullatenus dubitavit : quia non tenetur ad id 
quod est impossibile, est autem impossibile, quod quis queerat aliquid, quod nunquam 
ipsi in mentem venit.— Ut recte Angle* Probl. xv. p. 95, vid. Bonacin. de peccat. d. ii. 
q. viii. p. iii. n. iii., &c. 



Digitized by 



Google 



62. TO LOVE GOD ("CHAP. III. 

knowledge of these things which may move him to seek instruction, it is 
certain that no diligence or care is required of him, especially if he do not 
at all doubt, i. e. if he he confident that he knows well enough, and his 
ignorance makes him so senseless that he discerns it not. His reason is, 
because he is not obliged to that which is impossible, and it is, not possible 
that one should seek that which never came into his mind (as Angles also 
determines with him) ; so that if knowledge never came into his mind, there 
is no need that it ever should come there, and he is not bound to take the 
least care or pains to make way for it. 



CHAPTER III. 

Their doctrine makes it needless to love God. 

Love of God, or, as they had rather call it, charity, is in their account, as 
they seem sometimes to express themselves, of greatest moment. Regene- 
ration and spiritual life, they say, consists in it ; without it no man is in the 
state of grace, or favour with God. This is the righteousness whereby they 
are justified, and their sins pardoned, i. e. abolished (for that is pardon with 
them), and their souls sanctified (for justification and sanctification is all one 
in their reckoning). This is it which is the life and spirit of all other graces 
and virtues, say they, without which the best of them are dead and unactive 
things, and deserve not the name of virtues. 1 And though they look not 
for heaven unless they deserve it by their own works, yet their works, they 
say, are of no worth without this ; 2 yea, their indulgences will not avail any- 
thing without it. 3 So far, therefore, as love to God is unnecessary, so far 
regeneration and spiritual life, a saving state and reconciliation with God, 
justification, pardon, all graces and virtues, all their own good works or their 
church's indulgences, are unnecessary ; no further need of what either God 
or themselves have made necessary to salvation. 

One would think, if they had any desire of heaven or fear of hell, or dread 
of their own purgatory, if they had any design for the salvation of souls, or 
any regard of what is saving, they should be tender in this point above all, 
and not abate any moment of its necessity. But what they do herein, let 
us see. Indeed, they make both the habitual and the actual love of God 
unnecessary. First, for habitual love, they teach, the Lord hath not at all 
commanded us to have the habit or principle of this love ; he nowhere re- 
quires that we should love him habitually. Certainly, saith Bellarmine, 4 
the Lord hath not commanded that we should love him from an infused 
habit, for laws do not require habits. Add to him one of the most eminent 
amongst the Dominicans : 5 there is no affirmative precept for habitual love 
to God, saith Melchior Canus. I need allege no more ; I find none of them 
questions it. 

Now, in that they do not make this love necessary as a duty, they cannot 

1 Nulla virtus nee ejus actus acceptatur sine charitate, quae sola dividit inter filios 
regni et perditionis.— Sta % Clar.probL xxxv. p. 244. 

2 Nam opera quantumcunque moraliter bona, si fiant extra charitatom, in statu pec- 
cati raortiferi, absque dubio pereunt, et mortua reputantur, quantum attinet ad gratiam 
et gloriam promerendam. — Nav. c. i. n. xxix. 

3 Bellarm de pienitent. 1. ii. c. xiv. p. 951. 

4 Gerte non prcecipit ut diligamus ex habitu infuso— leges enim de actibue dantur, 
non de habitibus. — De grot, et lib. arbitr. 1. vi. c. vii. p. 664. 

De amicitia habituali Dei, nullum est praeceptum affirmativum. — Part. iv. reUcC. 
de panitent, p. 870. , 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. III.] is more than needs by theib doctrine. 63 

account it necessary as a means ; for they 1 hold that all means necessary 
to salvation are commanded. So that the habitual love of God, by their 
doctrine, is no way necessary. 

And this they teach not only of the habit of love, bnt of all other graces. 
The precepts of the law are not for habits, saith Soto. 2 We are not, as he 
adds, to pay what we owe from a habit of justice or liberality. 3 When we 
are enjoined to live soberly and righteously, we are not required to do so oat 
of habit, bnt only to do it, saith Bellarmiae ; and these instances they bring 
to shew that we are not obliged to do anything out of a habit or principle of 
love to God. 

Sect. 2. Secondly, For actual love, how can they account the acts of it 
needful, when they make the habits or principle from whence the acts must 
flow to be unnecessary ? But let us view their doctrine about this more dis- 
tinctly. The acts of love are either more foreign and remote, which they 
call imperate, or native and proper, which they call elicit acts. 

For the former, all acts of religion and righteousness, that they may be 
truly Christians, such as the gospel requires in order to salvation ; that they 
may have a real tincture of divine and supernatural goodness, and be ad- 
vanced above the pitch at which heathen or graceless persons may arrive, 
they must proceed from love to God, and be ordered and directed by it. 
This they sometimes not only confess, but assert ; and yet, notwithstanding, 
they teach 4 that it is not needful to perform any such acts, or to observe any 
commands of God out of love to him. 5 The commands of God, saith De 
Graffiis, do not oblige us to perform them in love ; he clears his meaning 
by an instance : for he sins not, nor is punished of God, who gives due hon- 
our to his parents, although he have not the habit of piety (and so though 
he do it not out of such a principle), much less, adds he, doth the church 
oblige any one to observe the command in love ; * for if the end of the pre- 
cept be love, saith Canus, we are not forthwith bound to observe all the 
commands out of love. The reason is premised ; for in the opinion of 
Aquinas and the most grave authors, we are not bound to observe the end or 

1 Aquinas ii. 2, q. iii. art ccxxiii. Ea qua sunt necessaria ad salutem cadere sub 
pracepto. — Ctmu*, ibid. p. 867. Ea omnia qu» necessaria sunt necessitate medii, cen- 
sentur necessaria necessitate precepti, licet non quaecunque necessaria sunt necessitate 
prsBCepti, sint etiam necessaria necessitate medii. — Bellarm. de pcenit. 1. ii. c. viii. p. 
986 ; Suarez. 1. i. de Orat. c. xxix. n. ii., ex D. Thorn, ii. 2, q. ii. art. v. et q. iii., art 
ii. et iii. q. lxviii. a. i. 

* Praceptiones legis non sunt dehabitibus — non enira jubemur persolvere debits ex 
habitu justiti®, aut Sberalitatis ; sed tantum persolvere ad jostum. — Nat. et Orat. 1. i. 
c. xxi. p. 67. 

8 Gum pnecipit Deus ut juste sobrieque vivamus, non imperat ut ieta faciamus ex 
habitu, sed tantum ut faciamus.— De grat. et lib, arb. 1. vi. c. vii. p. 664. 

* TTtrum tenemur conformare voluntatem in modo volendi cum Deo ? Resp. secun- 
dum Alexand. et Lombard in i. diat. xlviii., quod non absolute : quoniam si homo 
honorat patrem suum, non ex charitate, sed ex benevolentia, non peccat : sed tenetur 
conditionaliter scil. si vult mereri vitam ®ternam.— Angel, sum. v. voluntas n. vi. 

5 Pneoepta Dei non obligant, ut perficiantur in charitate : non enim peccat, nee a 
Deo punitur, qui debitum honorem impend it parentibus, quamvis non habeat habitum 

pietatis, ergo multo minus ecclesia obligat quenquam, ut illud impleat in charitate 

Deri*. Aw. part. ii. 1. iii. c. xvii. n. x. p. 176. Non tamen tenemur semper operari 
ex charitate, sed satis est operari ex aliqua honestate morali.— Suarez. 1. i. de orat c. 
xxx. n. iii. 

6 Non enim si finis pnecepti charitas est, tenemur protinus omnia pracepta legis 
implere ex charitate. — Ex D. Thorns, et graviorum autorum sententia, ad finem legis- 
latoris minime tenemur, sed ad media, quse lex finis gratia consequendi preescribit. 
pars. iv. relect de panit. p. 871. 

vol. in. s 



Digitized by 



Google 



64 TO LOVE GOD [CHAP. HI. 

intention of the lawgiver, t. e. of Christ, bnt the means which the law pre- 
scribes in order to it. Soto discgurseth thifl at large, and concludes : Love 
being considered as the universal condition and mode of acting all virtues, 
and performing all obedience, such a mode of acting out of love is not com- 
manded, as when we are enjoined to honour parents, the precept binds ns 
not to honour them out of love to God. 1 This he delivers as the doctrine of 
Aquinas, and finds but' one doctor amongst them of opinion that we are 
bound to do all out of love to God ; but 3 condemns this as false and very 
near the Lutheran error condemned by the council of Trent, because then 
all acts done without grace would be sins. So we must believe (if we will 
not venture to fall under the condemnation of their council) that it is no sin 
not to obey God out of love to him ; that all acts of virtue and obedience 
whatsoever may be performed without sin, though they be done without love 
to God ; that any man baptized may be saved, though he never act out of 
love to God, no, not so much as once while he lives ; though he perform 
not one act of a true Christian while he is on earth. He <can never perish 
for want of love to God in any, or all the acts of his life ; for he will never 
be damned but for sin, and to act without love to God is no sin. Thus their 
chief doctors determine, and this they must all do, in conformity to the de- 
crees of their infallible council, and be deluded infallibly in a matter of no 
less consequence than the way to heaven, believing that they may arrive 
there without acts of love, filial obedience, or ingenuous observance of God 
in anything that he hath commanded, without ever acting as (and so without 
being at all) true Christians. 

Sect. 8. But though they do not transgress other commands, when they 
observe them without love, yet they may violate that special command which 
requires inward acts of love, if at that time when this obligeth they do not 
act out of love. Some of them seem to say this, and we shall see what they 
make of it in the next place. 

The nature and proper issue of love is its internal act, when the heart 
being possessed with a principle of divine love to God in Christ, actually 
loves him above all. If this actual love (the inward act of it) be not neces- 
sary, as there will be no need of the habit (that being but in order % acts), 
so there will be no place for the imperate acts ; for those who would have 
us sometimes observe other commands out of love, yet never think this 
requisite, but when the precept obligeth us to actual love. 4 

Now, whether there be any command for this act of love, or whether it 
oblige, or when, they are not agreed, only in the issue they conspire to make 
the commandment of no effeet. 

Some of them determine that the command to love God with all our mind 
is not obliging ; which is all one as if they should say, There is no command 

1 Actus charitatis consideratur ut est universalis conditio, et modus omnium vir 
tutum. — Modus talis charitatis non cadit sub praecepto ; quod est dicere in hoc pr»- 
oepto, Honora patrem et matrem, non includitur ut sint parentes ex Dei cliaritate 
honorandi : sed quod exhibeatur eis exterior reverentia. — Dejuet. et ntr. 1. ii. q. iii. 
art. x. p. 44. 

* Dionysius Cisterciensis. 

8 Haec autem opinio non solum falsa, verum et errori quam proxima est Trid. 
Synodo Can. vii., adversus Lutheranos damnato, nempe cuncta opera, quae extra Dei 
gratiam fiunt, esse peccata. — Ibid. 

* Neque hoc presceptum universum obligat ad suum ipsius modum, sed quando 
occurrit articulus interne diligendi.— Soto, ibi<L m 

Tenemur secundum Bonaventur. — pro loco et tempore, quum viz. tenemur exire in 
actum charitatis. — Angeli. Sum. v. voluntas, n. vi. : et hoc si habemus cbaritatem ; si 
autem non habemus, non tenemur ad hoc, sed ad sequivalens : quoniam tenemur facere 
quod in nobis est, ut cam habeamus. — Ibid. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. HI.] is more than needs bt theib doctbine. 65 

/ 

for it at all. Thus Stapleton, one of the greatest divines amongst them in 
his time, The precept of loving God with all oar mind is doctrinal, and not 
binding. l 

To the same effect others conclude there is no special precept of love to. 
God. So John Sanctus, 2 There is no special command in the law of God 
for this, bat general, says he. By which he would have us understand, that 
there is no precept in particular for loving God, none besides those com- 
mands that require other things ; which, if they be done, we are discharged 
from any act of love, or inward affection to him. Aquinas is vouched for 
this, and much alleged out of him, 3 to shew he was of this persuasion. If 
there be any special precept for this affection to God, it is that which re- 
quires us to love him with all the heart, and soul, and strength ; but this 
(as Cardinal Cajetan 4 declares) does not oblige to the love of charity. And 
Bannez* teaches, that for natural love there is no special command ; and so 
amongst them they leave no such command for any sort of love to God at 
all. The command to love God with all our hearts, Maldonate 6 will have to 
bejL general, no special precept. 

Others of them confess there is a special command obliging us to love 
God actually ; but they put such a construction upon it, that it signifies little 
or nothing more than if there were no such thing. They say it is requisite 
that we should love God one time or other ; but what time this is needful, 
you will never learn of them ; what period one fixeth, another unfixeth ; and 
while they find no certain time for it, in the end they leave no place for it. 

They all agree in this, that we are not bound to love God always actually ; 
for, say they, the precept for it is affirmative, and such precepts bind not at 
all times. 

But since we are not obliged to love God at all times, at what determined 
time is this required of us ? Are we to love him after we are fallen into sin ; 
is that the article of necessity ? No ; Canus 7 supposeth that this will be 
generally denied, that a man is obliged to love God soon after he hath 
sinned. 

Are we to love him when he vouchsafes some special favour ; when he 
discovers his infinite goodness and amiableness, and makes the most lovely 
representations of himself to us ? One would think, then, if any time at all, 
we should be obliged to love him actually. No, saith the same bishop, 8 and 
he no Jesuit or late casuist, he sins not mortally (i. e. he transgresseth no 
command of God) who loves him not, how much soever he discovers his 
divine goodness, and most enamouring loveliness, unless it be when it is 

1 Hoc proceptum diligendi Deum ex tota mente, doctrinale est, non obligatorium.— 
De Juttific. 1. vi. t. x. 

* Disp. i. n. xxi. 

9 II. ii. q. xliv. ait i. ad. iii., et art. iv. ad. ii. r et art. vi. ad. ii., et 484, art. iii . 
ad. ii. 
4 Comment, in Deut. xvi., in Catherin. adv. Cajet. p;*268. 

* 8anctuB, ibid. 

6 Kespondeo illud non speciale Bed generale praceptum esse. — In Luc. xvii. 10. 

Dr Smith against Pet. Martyr so understands it. And Sancta Clara, quoting him, 
approves it as being agreeable to the sentiment of his great master. — Scotus. probl. 
xii. p. 68. 

7 Pars. iv. relect. de psenit. p. 863. 

8 Nee peccat mortaliter, qui non diligit Deum, quantumcunque divina bonitas pro- 
ponatnr, omni dilectione dignissima, nisi necessitatis articulus intercedat. Idem de 
precepto fidei et spei videre licet. — Meleh. Canus, ibid. 

Idem affirmat, unumquemque quoties insigne aliquod beneficium a Deo oonsequitur, 
teneri ad illud explendum, quod tamen nulla lege, neque ratione efficaci evinci posse 
videtur, et ita non est asserendum. — fiavar, c. xi. n. vii. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



66 TO LOVB GOD [ CHAP. HI. 

necessary to love him. And when shall we ever meet with the time when it 
is necessary, if not in such circumstances as these ? If it be not needful to 
love him, either when we disoblige him, or when he most obligeth us to acts 
of love ; if neither when he is angry with us, nor when he is well pleased, 
when will, when can it ever be needfal ? 

Let us see if any others amongst them can nick this article of time when 
this love will be necessary. Are we bound to put forth an act of love on 
holy days ? So Scotus thought. The time, saith he, for observing this 
command is on holy days ; then we are to recollect ourselves, and ascend in 
mind unto God. He would have had this love to be a holiday habit at 
least, if not fit for every day's wearing. But this is too much (say others), 
nor do they find any reason why this imagination should come in the subtlo 
doctor's head ; Canus saith, 1 without all doubt it is to be rejected, and so 
they do. Scotus herein is borne down by the full torrent of their doctors. 
I find none now tbat will have us obliged to love God so often. 

But since they think it too much to love God every holiday, are we 
bound to love him upon his own day ? No, not once a week neither ;* for 
though the church oblige them to be present at his worship, to mind things 
above, to praise his infinite divinity, and to give thanks for his bounty to- 
wards them, yet in all this they are not bound to any act of love ; and Soto 
gives this reason for it : The end of the commandment (which is love) is not 
commanded. The assertion is hardly so absurd as the reason given for it, 
that the end, which is the principal in moral actions, should not be com- 
manded. This is to say, that the law does not require to be fulfilled ; for 
love, which is ' the end of tbe commandment,' is by the apostle expressly 
said to be 'the fulfilling of the law.' But, notwithstanding all this, in this 
maxim (which is one of their chief engines, whereby they demolish Chris- 
tianity in the practice of those who profess it ; make void the command- 
ments of God, depriving them of their life and spirit, and leave nothing of 
the whole body of religion but the mere superficies), 8 their divines, he tells 
us, unanimously agree with Aquinas. So that, it seems, the worship of God 
may be sufficiently discharged without any love to him. We may serve him 
well enough (as far as the command for his service will havens) without any 
affection. In all acts of worship, there needs not any act of love (by their 
doctrine) in any part, or any of the times of worship, either their own holi- 
days, or the Lord's. They have no more respect to his than theirs, nor for 
him in either, but serve them and him all alike, and think they hallow them, 
and honour him enough, without any motion of love in their hearts, when 
(if ever it were needful in their account) it should be most in motion. Cer- 

1 Libera possum sine omni dubitatione negare.— Ibid, p 871. 

Dura videtur Scoti sententia, a quo recedit Adrianus, nempe, nos, omnibus festivis 
(liebue teneri ad illud, quia nullus est textus, noc ulla ratio, qute id necessario con- 
clude, et ita lion videtur asserendum. — Nav. c. xi. n. vii. Sententia negans neces- 
sitatem hujus actus in die festo, et vera et communis est : et sumitur ex D. Thorn, 
ii. 2 q. cxxii. art. iv., quatenus ait per praeceptum de observation e sabbati non fuisae 
mandatum cultum internum per orationem, vel devotionem internam, nam eadem est 
ratio de amore, ut Cajetan, Navar, Soto, et c»teri communiter. — ISuar. L ii. de feat, 
c. xvi. n, xiii. ; Aquinas, ii. 2. q. cxxii. art. iv. ; Bellarm. de cult. Storum. lib. iii. c 
x. p. 1609 ; Graff. 1. ii. c. xxxiii. n. viii. ; Covarruvias, 1. iv. varia. resol. c. xix. n. vi. ; 
fc>oto, de just, et jure. 1. ii. q. iv. art iv. ' 

* Quauvis finis ecclesiea obligantis nos interesse sacris fuerit, ut superna animo 
meditantes, immortali Deo, turn ob infinitam suam divinitatem, laudes dicamus, turn 
de 8ua in nos beneflcentia habeamus gratias : tamen finis prsecepti non cadit sub pr»- 
cepto.— Nat. el Or. 1 i. c. xxii. p. 67. 

8 Theologi consentienter agnoscunt cum S. Thoma.— Ibid. c. xxii. p. 64 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. HE.] is more than needs by theib doctbine. 67 

tainly those that think not this love doe to God in his worship, think it not 
due to him at all. 

But if it he more than needs to love God 1 once a week, are they obliged 
at least to love him onoe a yeftr, if not at ordinary times, yet upon extra- 
ordinary or special occasions, such as more particularly seem to call for 
some act of love ; when they are to partake of some sacrament, when 
they come to the eucharist, or to the sacrament of penance (as they are to 
do once yearly by their church orders) ? No ; it is not then necessary 
neither. 3 It is false, saith Navarre, that we are hound to fulfil this com- 
mand when we receive any sacrament ; for it is enough that we be not in 
mortal sin, or that we probably believe so, although no such actual love be 
conceived in the heart. We are not bound to that love (saith he) when we 
minister, or receive the sacraments ; because we are not then bound to have 
contrition. Those that make such hard shifts to discharge themselves from 
the obligation of loving God, whenever occasion is offered, will scarce think 
it needful to love him upon no occasion ; and what occasion can we think 
of upon which it will be counted requisite, if not on these already specified ? 
If not after sin, if not upon the receipt of mercy, if not on any day of wor- 
ship, if not in any part of worship ; if £hese be not occasions, for it, who can 
hope they will ever meet with any ? If an act of love be not requisite once 
a week, or once a year, on such an account as would make it so, if any 
imaginable could do it, it will not be a duty in any week, or any year, in a 
whole life ; those that discharge themselves of it in such circumstances, do 
plainly enough discharge it for ever. 

But since they would make a show of finding some time for it (though 
their determinations all along are pregnant with a denial of any), let us pro- 
ceed with them a little further. If an act of love be not due to God once a 
year, yet may it be a duty once in four or five years ? Soto and Ledesma, 
in Filiiutius, ventured to think it may be requisite once in five years ; and 
he gives this reason for it : Because the time is not determined, but left to 
the judgment of the wise ; but (saith he) thus wise divines have thought. 3 

Thus love to God, the greatest duty that we owe the divine Majesty, and 
that which is the sum of all the rest, is left to men's arbitrament ; and if 
two or three reputed wise shall judge that God is to have no love at all, or 
but one act of love in a whole life, that must be the rule ; God and man 
must be determined by it. Man will owe no more, and the Lord must have 
no more. Those of their divines have had the repute of wise, who thought 
it enough to love God once in a lifetime, as well as such who conceive it 
probable that he should have an act of love once in five years, or once in 
seven, for thither it may be adjourned by our author's leave. 4 

The Jansenists charge this opinion upon the late Jesuits, and would have 
all the odium cast upon them ; but they go about to lead us into a mistake, 

1 Vid. Suarez. torn. iii. disp. lziii. sect iii. p. 801, in 3 Thomas. 

* Eadem ratione teneremur implere hoc mandatum quotiescunque aliqnod sacra- 
roentum recipimus— -quod falsum est : satis enim est, ut non simus in mortali peccnto, 
ant probabiliter id credamus, quamvis hujusmodi adeo exoelsum amorem actualem 
aniroo non concipiamus. — Navar, c. zi. n. iz. 

Non tamen ad id tenemnr quoties administramus ant accipimus sacramenta — quia 
non tenemnr tnnc habere contritionem. — Ibid. n. viii. 

• Quia cum determinatum tompns non ait, relinquitur arbitrio sapientum. Sic 
autem sapientes theologi arbitrati sunt, ut Soto et Ledesma, &o. tr. zzii. 1. iz. n. coze. ; 
aliqui pntant satisfied prncepto, si semel in anno eliciatuz actus amoris Dei ; alii si 
tertio quoque anno, alii si non differatur ultra quinquennium. — Petr. a S. Joteph, 
sum. de i. pracept. art. iv. 

4 Tr. vi. n. ccviii. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



68 TO LOTS GOD [CHAP. III. 

if they would have us believe that these, and other horrid conceits concern- 
ing an actual love to God, are confined to that society ; they are too common 
amongst those doctors who are of greatest repute, and judged free from ex- 
travagancies in their morality, and more tenacious of what they would have 
accounted the genuine doctrine of their church. 

There were many in the time of the Council of Trent, when Jesuitism was 
but in its infancy, who held it enough to love God actually but once in a 
lifetime. One act of love, 1 once in a life, which some count enough, saith 
Soto ; and these some, he tells us afterwards, were very many. 

In the time of Francis de Victoria, who lived till the council of Trent had 
sat a year, this was the common doctrine, that a man is but obliged to love 
God once in his life. For upon the question, when the precept for love 
obligeth, he says, ( Neo videtur sufficiens solutio communis, quod tenetur 
semel in vita/ Relect. part iii. n. 11. The common answer, that one is 
bound to it once in a life seems not sufficient ; — he speaks modestly, as one 
loath to dissent from the common doctrine. — That council (who, if it had 
been concerned for God and men's souls, as it was for other things, would 
have appeared in all its thunder against such an error) mends this, as it did 
other matters, by establishing a doctrine which makes it needless to love 
Grod so much as once in a life ; of which hereafter. 

But when is that once ? They leave us at liberty for the time, so it be 
but before we die. Snarez was not alone in this : as he wants not followers, 
so he had many that went before him in this conclusion, and those not 
Jesuits only ; for it is grounded upon the notion which the Romish doctors 
have of affirmative precepts, when the time for their accomplishment is not 
expressed. They teach, that such divine commands, divers of them are ful- 
filled, and have sufficient observance, if they be but obeyed, semel in vita, 
once in a lifetime. Those that are very cautious express it with a totem, 
once aJt least in a whole life, intimating that though more may be better, yet 
once is as much as is precisely needful ; and this they extend to such things 
as, by the Lord's constitution, are means necessary to salvation. 3 There are 
precepts, saith Canus, without determination of time, which oblige us to 
observe them some times, at least once in our life, such as are the means 
necessary to salvation. But in what part of our life must it be, that the 
Lord must have this act of love from us, which is enough once in the whole? 
Why, since neither the Scripture nor the church, say they, hath determined 
the time, there is no reason for one time more than another ; it is left to a 
man's own discretion, 3 to love God when he thinks fit, let him do it before 
he die, and he may take his own time ; so some leave it. 

But Yasquez would not leave it at such uncertainty, so he fixeth the 
period, and that is the period of a man's life ; he determines, the time for 

1 Semel in vita, quod quidam eatis arbitrantur.— De Nat. et Grot. 1. i. c. xxii. p. 68. 

2 Alia vero prwcepta sunt sine determinatione temporis, quad videlicet nos obligant, 
nt aliquando impleantur, saltern semel in vita, ut sunt media ad salutem neceasaria, 
pars. iv. relect de ptenit. p. 968. 

8 Bed qu»ras tandem , quodnam sit tempus illud quo divina charitas obligat ante 
mortem ad habendam Dei dilectionem : hoc est enim, quod oppoeitum sentientcs 
maxime movet ; et noe etiam plurimum torquet, quia non possumus tempus hoc in 
particulari oerto et definite designare — Illud vero tempus, si non sit positiva lege pra- 
Bcriptum, prudenti arbitrio ipsius hominis, vel alterius, qui (ejus conecientia cognita) 
possit auxilium prestare, committendum est. 

Neque aliquam regulam certiorem, aut magis paiticularem assignare possum, tarn 
in hoc precepto, quam in aliis affirmatives, pmsertim circa actus, quia ad Deura 
ordinantur, sola ac nuda ratione naturali perspectis. — Suariz, torn. iv. disp. xv. sect, 
vi a. xx. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. HE.] is more than needs bt theib doctrine. 69 

loving God is when a man is at the point of death. 1 Nor is this the doctrine 
of a Jesuit only ; for before his time, and before the Society was founded, 
it was the common opinion of the Romish doctors ; so Dominions Soto in- 
forms us,* very many hold that the time for the observing of this command 
is at the point of death, that is (as he explains it) when there is not any 
time left for deserving aught of God. Now every act of love being meri- 
torious with them, either they contradict themselves, or by this opinion 
they are not bound to love God actually, till there be no time left for any 
acts of love. We are not by this doctrine obliged to love God, till we can 
live no longer, and are past acting at all. 

But are we then bound to love him, is it then necessary ? May not a 
man be saved, who hath continued without love to God all his life, if he love 
him not actually, neither, when he is a~dying ? For this, observe what 
Aquinas tells us,* that we do not break this command, but fulfil it, so as to 
be free from all mortal guilt, if we do nothing against the love of God, that 
is, if we run not into mortal sin, and so hate him ; as a soldier satisfies his 
captain's command, who, though he get not the victory, yet doth nothing 
against military discipline ; or as Bonaventure explains it, 4 per exclusionem 
affectum contrarii, by the exclusion of the contrary affection, as if it were 
sufficient that he do not hate him. 

Marsilius * (of great renown for learning amongst their divines), will have 
that which the command for love enjoins, to be the keeping of grace and 
friendship with God, and the recovering of it when lost. So that it doth 
not oblige to actual love, but only to the avoiding of habitual enmity and 
hatred of God. 

But what if we hate God, and persist therein ; is it not absolutely neces- 
sary that he should beware of that ? It seems not ; for saith one of their 
doctors, there is no precept that a sinner should not persevere in enmity 
against God ; there is no negative command which forbids him to persist in 
such hatred. It may be you do not read this (no more than I could) with- 
out some horror and trembling ; and I confess, when I found Regiualdus 
quoted for this, I was ready to think it was but the extravagancy of some 

1 Merito ergo diximus esse prsBceptum dilectionis, et solum extrema necessitate 
obligare, sicut prsxeptum contritionis, Bed non quemcunque, sed tantura existentem 
in mortali, non supplentem suam justificationem per sacramentum. — In 3 Th. torn. iii. 
q. xc. art. i. dub. iv. n. xl. So that the command to love God does not oblige any 
but at the point of death, nor any then who are justified, nor any other in the state 
of sin, unless they cannot have the sacrament, 

* Plerique aiunt, tempos hujus pracepti, illud maxima esse, quod est articulus 
mortis. — Ibid. Quando jam nullum superest tempus bene merendi de Deo. — Ibid. 

Besides these many in Soto, others determine with Vaaquez, that love to God is 
never a duty but at the point of death. So Jo. Sanctius ; Hsbc videtur verior sententia, 
disp. i. n. xxi., et Antonin. Dian. alii velint solum obligare in articulo mortis. — Verb. 
CharitaM. And before them, others in Bonacina, alii dlcunt obligare solum tempore 
mortis, i. precept, d. iii. q. iv. p. 2, n. i. And we must take it to be the opinion of 
all, who hold that this precept obliges not, but when we are bound to an act of con- 
trition; and they commonly maintain that none are obliged to this before the 
approach of death, nor any that are in the state of grace then ; no, nor any that are 
in mortal sin, if they will use those other expedients which their general council or 
other doctora have devised, to discharge them from the obligation of a duty, to which 
not only the gospel but the law of nature binds all rational creatures eternally. 

s Qui in vita hoc preceptum non implet (viz. perfected. Nihil contra divinum 
dilectionem agens, non peccat mortaliter, xxii. q. xliv. art. vi. ad ii. 

4 In iii. dist. xxvii. n. lviii. 

6 Marsilius vir profecto inter theologos egrogie doctus, 1. ii. q. xviii., tenet, lege bac 
dilectionis obligari homines, servare gratiam et amicitiam Dei, et perditam recuperare. 
— Soto de Nat. et Orat. 1. i. c. xxii. p. 67. 



Digitized by 



Google 



70 TO LOVE GOD [CHAP. III. 

singularly bold Jesuit ; but upon further inquiry, I find it asserted by such 
whose writings have the greatest approbation of the Romish church. 
Melchior Canus, a Dominican, a bishop, cried up as a most elegant, judicious, 
and cautious writer too, and inferior to none of that order, their angelical 
doctor only excepted, clearly delivers this doctrine, 1 we are not bound by 
any negative precept that we should not be enemies of God, in respect of 
guilt. He adds, for as there is no affirmative precept requiring habitual 
friendship with God, so for habitual enmity against God in respect of guilt, 
there is no negative precept that forbids it. So that to persist in enmity 
and hatred against God, by their approved doctrine, is no sin, it is against 
no command. 

We need not allege the words of any other, since this is the plain and 
necessary consequent of their common doctrine ; and we must take it to be 
the judgment of all, who hold that it is no sin to delay contrition (t. e. repent- 
ance and turning to God) in which both their ancienter school doctors and 
modern divines agree. For while it is no duty to turn to God, habitual 
enmity and hatred of him will be no sin. Now, contrition (and so con- 
version to God) they say may be deferred till death. Indeed, by their 
doctrine it will never be a duty ; for even at death, the last attrition, with 
their sacrament of confession, is all that is needful. 

Sect. 4. However, they make it unnecessary to love God either living or dying. 
For though they pretend that there is a time, some or other, when the precept 
for it is obliging, and make a show as if then unavoidably, he that will be 
saved must have an act of love for God in his heart; yet whenever that time 
comes, in life or death, to which their several fancies have determined it, they 
discover to them many ways whereby the precept may be satisfied, without 
any act of love that it requires ; and those which have a mind to be deceived 
with hopes of heaven, without ever loving God while they live, may have 
their choice which way they will be deluded, for they present them with 
variety. First, a natural love will serve the turn, such as a graceless man 
may have. For Aquinas determines after others, that he that hath no love 
to God may observe the precept of loving him actually, by disposing him- 
self to receive this grace ;' and whereas some think that this great precept 
of loving God, since Adam's sin, cannot be ^fulfilled but in the state of grace, 
Navar asserts the contrary, both upon reason and authority, because a man 
by his natural power, remaining also in mortal sin, may and doth conceive 
God to be amiable above all, and the last end of all, and consequently can 
love him as such ; as also, because there may be a love for God above all, 
without grace, as Cajetan proves; moreover, because St Thomas affirms 
that one may, without grace, fulfil the command of loving God, as to the 
substance of the act, though not as to the meriting of blessedness. 

Elsewhere h& affirms 8 that all the ten commandments, and all other pre- 
cepts, may be fulfilled by him who is in mortal sin as to the substance of the 
act, so as to avoid all sin that would be incurred if they were not fulfilled ; 

1 At ne simus inimici Dei secundum reatum, nullo negativo prsecepto sumus 
astricti. Sicut enim de amicitia habituali nullum praeceptum affirmativum eat, sic 
de inimicitia, qu» secundum reatum est, quasi habitualis, nullum est negativum. — 
Part. iv. relect. de p»nit. p. 870. 

* Non est impossible hoc proceptuni observare, quod est de actu charitatis : quia 
homo potest se disponere ad charitatem habendam, et quando habuerit earn, potest ea 
uti, 1. ii. q. c. art. z. corp. 

8 Contra quod tamen facit, quod homo sola virtute natural), etiam ezistens in 
pccceto mortali, potest concipere, imo concipit, partim Deum esse super omnia dili- 
gibilem, et finem omnium ultimum, et consequenter eum ut talem diligere potest. 
Deinde quod datur dilectio Dei super omnia, sine gratia, ut probat Cajetanua. Pr»- 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. HI.] is more than needs bt theeb doctrine. 71 

and this, according to the judgment of Aquinas, 1 commonly followed, and 
the sense of the Council of Trent. 2 They assign, we see, two ways whereby 
the divine precept may be fulfilled. One as to the substance of the act, so 
as sin is avoided, and the other as to the end of the lawgiver, so as to deserve 
heaven. And they teach that any precept may be accomplished the former 
way by such as are destitute of grace. Now to observe the command of 
loving God, so far as not to sin against it, is all that is required, if Bellarmine's 
arguing be good. If I sin not, saith he, when I love God, without* degree 
of love (in the judgment of St Thomas), certainly I am not bound in strict- 
ness to love him more ; therefore, if I add another degree, I love him more 
than I am bound to do. 4 So that an unsanctifiedman, loving God in such a 
degree as not to sin against the precept of love, hath all the affection for God 
that it requires ; and none will be obliged to any love but such as is natural, 
and may be found in a graceless heart. 

Secondly, An inferior degree of love will satisfy the command, such as is 
far short of what it enjoins. He is no transgressor (saith the oracle of their 
schools) who attains not the intermediate degrees towards perfection, if he 
reach but the very lowest of all. 6 To keep the divine precepts (saith Bellar- 
mine), any degree of love whatsoever is sufficient. 6 Any act of love (saith 
Bannes), how remiss soever, is sufficient to fulfil all the commands of God ; 
neither is there any certain intenseness requisite that one in this life may 
accomplish the precept of love to God. 7 The Lord requires that we love him 
with all our hearts, t. *. with all the affection our hearts can contain ; they 
say that any, the smallest degree, will suffice. He enjoins us to love him 
with all our might, t. e. as much as we can. They say it is enough to love 
him as little as we can ; we need not love him as much as we might if we 
would ; no more is commanded but as little as possible. The lowest degree 
of all will serve ; and if we advance but another step, we supererogate, and 
God is beholden to us for more than is due. 

Their gross mistake about the perfection of obedience in this life entangles 
them in a necessity to maintain this and other impious absurdities. For if 
every just person perfectly observes the law, the least degree must be suffi- 
cient for such an observance ; and when this command, declared with such 
circumstance, of loving God with all our hearts, mind, and strength, doth 

terea, quod ipsemet S. Thomas affirmat posse qnem sine gratia implore praceptum 
diligendi Denm quoad substantiam actus, licet non quoad meritum beatitudinis, cap. 
zi. n. vii ; v. Soto de just, et jur. L ii. q. iii. art. z. p. 44, col. ii. 

1 Univerea ista z. prsocepta et alia omnia, possunt impleri ab illo, qui est in 
peccato mortali, quoad substantiam actus et praocepti, et effectum evitandi novum 
peccatum, quod incurreret si non adimpleret illud, juzta definitionem Aquinaris 
communiter recepti quod Gone. Trindentinum sensit, &c. — Ibid. n. zvii. 

8 Deum ab nomine posse diligi super omnia, virions propriis, sine auzilio gratia) 
(dicunt), Scotus, Cajetan, Nominales, Petr. Alliaco, Ocham, Almain, Major, Durandus, 
apud Vaaq. in i. ii. disp. exciv. cap. i. 

» Qu. 'With one'?— En. 

4 Si non pecco, ex sententia S. Thom», si amem Deum, nisi uno gradu amoris, 
certe non teneor in rigore amplius amare : — ergo si addam alteram gradum amoris, 
amo plus quam teneor. — D* Monach. 1. ii. c. ziii. p. 1162. 

* Non est transgressor prawepti, qui non attingit ad medios perfectionis gradus, 
dummodo attingat ad infimum, 2. ii. q. elzzziv. art. iii. ad secundum. 

Sufficit autem quilibet charitatis gradus ut quis servet verbum, t. e. prsBcepta 
domini.— D% Pwrgat, 1. ii. c. iii. p. 188\. 

T tjuomlibet actum charitatis quantumlibet remissum, eufficere ad implendum 
omnia pra&cepta : neque ullam determinatam intensionem requiri, ut aliquis in hao 
vita adimpleat prroceptum dilectionis Dei, in 2, ii. q. zliv. art. v. 

Dilectionis mandatum in quolibet gradu intensionis impleatur. For this Jo. San. 
alleges Aquinas, and near twenty more of their divines, besides Jesuits, disp. i. n. zzi. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



72 TO LOVE GOD [CffiLP. III. 

especially puzzle them, they are concerned either to deny its obligation, as 
some of them do, or to interpret it so as to make it signify that which is 
next to nothing, as others. All of them are obliged to deface it one way or 
other, that it may not appear to confound them. 

But to go on. If we are not bound to love God save in the lowest degree, 
yet that degree sure should exceed our affection to all other things. No, not 
so neither ; for they tell us commonly we are not obliged to love God more 
intensely than other things. So Cardinal Tolet. 1 Yea, saith he, sometimes 
we more fervently love things sensible and the creatures. Navarre, 2 after 
Aquinas, and their divines, ancient and modern, concur herein. 

It is true, they say, God should be loved appreciatively (as to valuation, 
and in esteem) above all ; but then by all they understand, not simply all 
things, but the worst things of all. In those, the worst of evils, he is to 
have the pre-eminence ; but the creatures are not such evils, and they may 
be preferred before God in most cases. By their doctrine we may prefer the 
judgment of others, or our own, before the advice of God in all matters of 
mere counsel, and to this they have reduced the greatest part of Christian 
duties ; and we may follow our own wills, or the will of others, rather than 
God's continually, and make this the constant practice of our lives in all 
those innumerable evils which they count venial. And so in the most 
instances by far we may love and esteem ourselves and others more than 
God, and yet love him enough, and not transgress the precept. We need 
not love him more than all creatures ; we may love any creature more than 
him, even in way of valuation ; only he is to have this honour, and this will 
be enough, to love him more than deadly crimes, such as declare open hos- 
tility against God. This is all the import of that great precept whish con- 
cerns us in this life, as it is expressed after Aquinas by Soto and others. 3 

Yea, to admit mortal sin, and so to love the creature more than God, in 
that respect in which alone they say he is more to be loved, is not against 
this precept. So Navar informs us. 4 Indirectly, saith he, to love the 
creature more than God is not against this command (of love), because who- 
ever sins mortally, indirectly loves something more than God ; yet such a 
delinquent doth not therefore sin against the precept, because directly he 
doth nothing against it, nor acts what in itself, and in its own nature, sepa- 
rates from God, but by accident, according to Aquinas and Scotus. So that 

1 Quantum ad intensionem vero non tenemur sub prsecepto ilium plus diligere : 
imo aliquando ferventius amamus res sensibiles et creaturas. — Irutr. 1. iv. c. ix. 
p. 614. 

* Cap. xi. n. vi., et cap. i. n. iv. p. 67 ; Gabriel, Major, Jo. Medina, Domin. 
Soto, Navar, Sylvester, Paludanus, in Vasquez, in i., ii. torn. i. disp. cxxxiv. cap. iii. 
n. xiii. 

8 Nihil divine amicitie contrarium admittat, juxta evangelicam vocem, ex toio 
corde, &c., contrarium inquam : quoniam venialia non obstant dilectioni Dei super 
omnia. — De Nat. et Grot. 1. i. c xxii. p. 56. 

Ex toto corde, idem Bit quod nihil cbaritati adverse m mentis assensu ooncipere. — 
Idem de Juet. et Jur. 1. vii. q. v. art. i. p. 244. 

Ut transgressionis delictum quis evitet, satis est ut nihil contrarium charitati 
ejusque preeceptia committat. — Idem, ibid. p. 242. 

Non tamen pecoamus, dummodo nihil divines dilectioni contrarium agamus. — 
Sylveet. v. charitas. n. iii. VicL Bonaventur, iii. disk xxvii. n. lviii. ; Graff. 1. i. c iii. 
n. ix. ; Sta. Glar. probl. xii. p. 67. 

4 Admonernus item indirect© diligere creaturam amplius quam Deum non esse con* 
tra hoc prasceptum, quoniam quiounque peccat mortaliter, indirecte plus diligit aliud 
quam Deum — attamen hujusmodi delinquens, non ideo peccat contra istud proceptum, 
quoniam directe non facit contra ipsum, neque aliquid operatur, quod secundum se 
et suam naturam separet a Deo, sed secundum accidens.-rVuj*a 8. Thorn, et Scotum, 
cap. xi. n. xix. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. III.] is more than needs by theib doctrine. 78 s 

to love the creature more than God, and to shew it in a way which them- 
selves say is most repugnant to the love of God, is no transgression of this 
command. To say he doth nothing against it directly is no salvo, when that 
he doth is all which they count (if they count anything) inconsistent with 
the love commanded. He tells us further, 1 and Lopez after him, that abso- 
lutely to love God, hut so much, or not so much as other things, without 
making any comparison, is not evil. So that if God have some affection 
from us, though we love him less than other things, it is no sin, no trans- 
gression of the precept ; and if this be not transgressed in the instant when 
it calls for performance, it is fulfilled. 

Thirdly, It will suffice, if nothing be done against love, as we heard before 
out of Aquinas. So that when the precept of love obligeth, if we then do 
nothing contrary to that love, we may be excused from the act itself, or from 
acting anything out of love. For that which they count contrary to it may 
be avoided out of fear, or other considerations foreign to love ; and so the 
command may be satisfied at the instant, when (if ever) it requires actual 
love, without any act either of love or from it. 

Fourthly, External acts may satisfy. The precept of love, saith Soto, 2 doth 
not oblige precisely to inward affection, but certainly to some outward act ; 
so elsewhere he explains this loving God above all, by doing his command- 
ments. 3 To the same purpose Maldonate and others. 4 Now if the precept 
of love may be fulfilled by external acts, or by endeavours to observe the 
other commands of God, then it requires not the exercise of the inward act 
of love to him, and so there will be no command for that at all, nor will it* 
be a duty ; and all these other commands may be satisfied without any act 
of love to God in the heart, and we shall love him enough, though we never 
conceive any actual love for him in our souls. 

Fifthly, It will satisfy the precept if a man believe that he loves God 
above all, though indeed he do not. So Lopez.* It is enough to avoid the 
sin of neglecting this precept, for one to believe probably that he fulfils it at 
the time when its obligation occurs. Navarre had concluded this before 
him. 6 He that believes God, probably believing that he is in the state of 
grace, and that his love is a love of God above all, although in truth it is no 
such thing, nor he in such a state ; nevertheless, the precept is fulfilled by 
him, so far, that he is not then guilty of sin for omitting the observance 
of it. He adds this reason for it : Because, without special revelation, no 

1 Licet diligere Deum comparative minus quam ilium, vel ©que ac ilium, sit 
malum : diligere tamen eum absolute, reque vel minus, absque ulla comparatione, non 
est malum, c. xi. n. x., et n. xviii., et cap. i. viii. Ut facile colligat quls ex dicto 
Cone. Trident. 

Lopez, cap. x. p. 217. 

• PrsBceptum dilectionis non precise ad internum affectum obligat, sed eerte ad 
externum opus. — Be Just, et jur. 1. ii. q. iii. art. x. p. 44. Col. ii. Gum vero dicitur, 
Diliges, non tarn exigitur delectio affectus, quam charitas opens. — Molantu. Theol. 
pract. Tract, iii. c. xvi. n. v. 

8 Diligere Deum super omnia, est omnia in ipsum referre, puta, omnia procepta 
ejus facere. — De nat. et grot. L i. c. xxii. p. 57. 
4 In Luc. xvii. 10, p. 486. 

• Vide S. Clara. Probl. xii. p. 68. 

So Bannes concludes that the precept for love is fulfilled by receiving the eu- 
charist once a year. Absque scrupulo credi potest, quod qui digne sumit eucharis- 
tiam semel in anno, adimplet simul speciale prsaceptum charitatis, in xxii. q. xliv. 
art. Yet (as we saw before) it is their common doctrine, that the eucharist may be 
worthily received without any act of love, or other grace, or any actual disposition 
that is gracious. 

• 8atis est ad evitandum peccatnm omissionis hnjos prtecepti, probabiliter quis 
credatj se Ulud implere tempore, quo occurrit ejus obligatio, cap. xl. p. 217. 

Digitized by LjOOQlC 



74 TO LOVE GOD [CHAP. III. 

man can know when he is in the state of grace, as the Council of Trent deter- 
mines ; and so unless we maintain this, we cannot know when we fulfil the 
precept. 1 Thus, though his determination seem strange and desperate, jet 
the ground he proceeds on is a principle of their faith, and ohligeth all to be 
of his persuasion who submit to that council. He declares himself further 
to this purpose : He sins mortally who loves not God at that time when he 
is bound to do it, under the pain of mortal sin, that is, when there is danger 
of death, or necessity of receiving or administering a sacrament, unless he 
probably believe that he hath grace or charity ;' for then be would have us 
believe it is not sin, as his limitation shews. Here we have the times speci- 
fied wherein the precept of loving God obligeth, and these are but two, and 
the latter of them himself expungeth, concluding it false that we are bound 
to love God at a sacrament. 3 So that a man is never bound to love God but 
when ho apprehends death approaching ; no, nor at the point of death neither, 
if then he probably believe that he hath grace and charity, though he have it 
not ; for such a presumption will excuse him from sin if he love not God (as 
all his life before, so) even when he is dying. Thus is the case resolved 
according to their common principles, by the most learned and the most pious 
of their casuists, as Bellarmine honours him, though he was none of the 
Society. 4 

Sixthly, Attrition, with the sacrament of penance, will excuse any from 
loving God actually, living or dying, and will secure him from perishing 
eternally, though he never entertain an act of love for God in life or death. 
•The doctrine of their church obligeth them all to believe this, and if any of 
their doctors seem to say otherwise, they contradict either that or themselves. 
For their church requires nothing precisely to put a man into the state of 
grace and salvation, living or dying, (how long soever he hath persisted in 
enmity against God, how highly soever he hath expressed his hatred of 
him), but only a due partaking of the sacrament of penance ; and he is suffi- 
ciently qualified for such a participation if he be but attrite, that is, as they 
explain it, if he have but some remorse for sin out of servile fear, not out of 
love to God (for that fear as servile is contrary to the love of God 5 ), so that 
for this (which they count sufficient to secure his eternal state), even at last 
gasp, he needs not any act of love to God. And this is not only the opinion 
of particular doctors, but (as I shall shew hereafter) the doctrine of the 
council of Trent, 6 and so not only probable with them, but certain. 

If a man at the point of death, who never had an act of love for God in 
all his life, do then ask his confessor whether such an act be needful for him 
before he<die ; if the priest tell him it is not necessary, he may safely give 
up the ghost, and die as he lived, without any actual affection for God ; for 

1 Addo, eum qtii diligit Deum, probabiliter credens se esse in statu gratia, subin- 
deque suum amorem esse amorem Dei super omne aliud, quamvfe in rei veritate non 
sit hujufimodi, neque sit in eodem statu ; nihilominns tamen adimplere hoc pneceptum, 
quoad effectum evitandi novum peccatum quod admitteretur ob omissionem imple- 
ment! ejus, quoniam sine speciali revelatione scire non potest quia, quando est in 
statu gratia ; ut deflnit Gone. Trident. Et ita nisi hoo teneamus, nequiremus scire 
quando hoc pneceptum impleremus. Cap. xi. n. x. 

8 Peccat mortaliter, qui eo tempore Deum amare negligit, quo sub peccati mortalis 
reatu tenetur, veluti quaudo mortis perioulum, vel necessitas recipiendi vel adininis- 
trandi aliquod sacramentum se obtulit, nisi probabiliter crederet se gratiam vel 
charitatem habere. — Idem. ibid. n. xz. 

8 Ibid. n. viii. et ix. supra. 

4 Martinus, Aspilcaeta, Navarrus, vir doctissimus, et Piissimns. De script. Eccles. 
p. 818. 

5 In quantum servilis est contrariatur charitati. So Aquinas, ii. 2, q. xix. art 4. 
• Seas. xiv. c. iv. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. IV.] is mobe than needs bt theib doctrine. 75 

though he be deluded by his confessor, yet consulting him he has done his 
endeavour, and so his 1 ignorance, they say, is invincible, and will excuse 
him. And the priest mnst tell him that it is more than needs, if he believe 
the council of Trent, since there it is declared that the sacrament, with attri- 
tion (though this include something repugnant to such love), is enough to 
justify, and pass any into a state of grace, and consequently is sufficient for 
salvation. And thus they argue, 8 grace is a sufficient cause of glory ; hence 
whatever it is, without which grace may obtained, that is not necessary to 
salvation ; by which account no act of love (nor of any other grace) will be 
needful for them, that they may be saved. • 

Thus, in fine, here is a religion which pretends to be Christian, but excuseth 
and disengageth all that profess it from the love of Christ ; a doctrine which 
bereaves religion of that which themselves count its life, and quite stifles all 
the spirits of Christianity, chops off all Christian virtues, all gracious acts 
and qualities in this one neck, and leaves nothing but a ghastly carcase. For 
obliging them to neglect love as needless, it makes the rest impossible ; with- 
out it, there can be no saving faith, no godly sorrow, no filial fear, no delight 
in God, no desire to enjoy him, no genuine gratitude. When the life of a 
true Christian should be made up of these, they leave it not possible for 
him to have one act of true Christian virtue, for without love, they say 
themselves, there cannot be any one true virtue. Here is a way to heaven 
for those that never loved God in life or death, a path that pretends to heaven, 
but lies quite cross to the way of Christ, and leads directly to outer darkness ; 
a doctrine that encourageth them to live in hatred of God all their days, 
and in the end sends them out of the world under the dreadful sentence of 
of the apostle, 1 Cor. xvi. 22, * If any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him 
be Anathema, maranatha.' To conclude this head, it is a doctrine which is 
damning, not only meritoriously, but effectually, and will certainly ruin eter- 
nally all that believe and practise it, and hath in it the mortal poison and 
malignity of a hundred such speculative opinions as pass for heresies. 

And beside the danger and horrible impiety of this doctrine, it is ridicu- 
lous to the very highest degree ; for can anything be more senseless, than 
to ask how often a man ought to love his best friend and benefactor ? whether 
once in his life be not enough in all conscience ? nay, whether it be not 
very fair not to hate him ? And, indeed, they state the business all along 
in such a manner, and manage it with such nicety and caution, not as if they 
were afraid lest men should love God too little, but as if all the danger lay 
on the other hand ; and their great care were that nobody should love him 
too much, or love him at all. I do not believe that things so palpably impious 
and ridiculous were ever so solemnly debated by men of any religion what- 
soever. 

CHAPTER IV. 

There is no necessity of saving or justifying faith by the Romish doctrine. 

Sect. 1. That no man can be justified or saved without faith is so evident 
in Scripture, that none but an infidel can question it. The Romanists do 
not express any doubt of it, and yet they make no other faith necessary 
than that which is neither justifying nor saving. They have two sorts of faith, 

' * Sum. Bosel. v. ignorant, n. i. Bonacin. de peccat. diep. iii. q. viii. punct. iii. n. 16. 
Sta. Clara. Problem, xv. p. 87. Doctores commumter. 

* Dicendum quod gratia est sufficiens causa glorise, unde orane illud sine quo 
obtineri potest gratia, uon est de necessitate salutis.— Aquinas in iv. diet. ix. art i. 

Digitized.by Vj( 



76 SAVING FAITH [CHAP. IV. 

one for the unlearned and ignorant, which they call implicit ; the other for 
the learned and more knowing, which they say should he explicit. 

The former, as they describe it, is an assent to some general, including 
many particulars, with a mind to believe nothing contrary thereunto. The 
general is this, that whatever the Roman church (which cannot err) believes, 
is true ; the particulars included are they know not what, for they are sap- 
posed ignorant. Now this, we say, is no Christian faith, and make it 
apparent that it is no such thing. For, first, it is no belief of any one 
particular or article of the Christian faith. It is only a belief of a general, 
which is no truth at all, much less Christian (that the church of Borne 
cannot err, or believe anything but what is true), when the ignorant person 
neither knows what this church is, nor what she believes, nor why he should 
give her such credit. Bo that the act is a blind conceit, unworthy of a man, 
or a Christian ; and the object a general error. 

And then as to the particulars which are necessary for Christians to be- 
lieve, this implicit faith doth not actually believe any of them at all ; if it 
did, it would not be what it is, implicit. It apprehends them not, and 
therefore cannot believe them ; for, as themselves acknowledge, 1 that cannot 
be believed which is not known. To render this clear to us, they thus ex- 
plain it. When 3 a man is asked whether Christ were born of the Virgin 
Mary, and whether there be one God and three persons, and he answers 
that he knows not, but believes touching these things as the church holds, 
this is to believe implicitly ; so that a man may have this faith completely, 
and yet not believe an article of the creed ; and if this be Christian faith, 
a man may have it who believes nothing of Christ. They are believers, 
at this rate, who have a mind to hold what the church doth concerning 
Christ or the creed, though they never know what that is. They know not 
what the church holds, unless the church's knowing be their knowledge ; 
and so believe nothing, unless the church's believing be their faith ; and 
so have no faith to save them, unless it be saving faith to believe by an 
attorney. 

Secondly, As this faith may be without the knowledge and belief of any of 
the particular articles which are necessary to be believed by Christians, so 
(which is yet more strange) it may be with the belief of what is opposite 
and repugnant to the Christian faith. This they acknowledge, and clear it 
to us by instances. A man may be disposed to believe what the church 
holds, and yet may believe that God the Father and God the Son are not 
equal, but one greater and elder than the other, or that the persons in the 
Trinity are locally distant. Such is the virtue of implicit faith, saith Alsten- 
taig, 3 that, if he who hath it believes these errors, or any like them, he would 
be no heretic ; he would not sin, provided he doth not maintain his error 
pertinaciously, and that he believes because he thinks the Church believes 
it. Or such a catholic may believe 4 that the three persons in the Godhead 
are one woman ; it would be but a small fault with Angelas to believe this, 

1 Neque enim credi potest quod non cognoscitur. — Fill. tr. xxii. n. xxxix. 

2 Bannes. xxii. q. ii. art. viii. sect, dubilatur secundo. Sum. Rosel. verb, fides, 
n. i. 

8 In tantum valet fides implicita, quod si quia habens earn falso opinaretur, ratione 
naturali motus, Patrem majorem, vel priorem Filio : vel tres personas localiter diB- 
tare, ant simile quid, non sit hsereticus, non peccet : dummodo hunc errorem perti- 
naciter non defendat, et hoc ipsnm credat, quia credat ecclesiam sic credere. Verb. 
Credere.— Sum. Rosel. v. fides, n. ii. After Pope Innocent and Hostiensis. 

4 Ut puta vetula credit Trinitatem esse unam faeminam, et quoniam credit eccle- 
siam sic tenere, sic credit : et tamen non est heeretica : quia conditional ter credit, si 
ecclesia sic tenet et credit. — Verb, fides, n. vi. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IV.] hot needful bt the roman chvech. 77 

thinking the church believes the same. Or he may believe that Christ is 
not true God and man, and yet not be condemned for it, if the pope believed 
it too. 1 If trusting a priest (who tells him the church holds it) he believes 
anything against the articles of faith, he is excused, saith Sancta Clara, 
after Scotus and Gabriel and others. 2 Though he expressly disbelieve any 
article of faith, yet he may be said to believe it implicitly. 3 So that he may 
believe that the creed or the gospel is not to be believed, he may count it a 
fable (as Pope Leo called it) and yet be a Christian as to his belief, if this 
be the Christian faith* He may be expressly an heretic or a monstrous mis- 
believer, and yet implicitly be a faithful Roman catholic. 

Thirdly, Such a faith as this Jews and Turks and Pagans have, even the 
worst of these, who do but acknowledge a God of truth ; for they believe 
what this God reveals is true, and this generally involves all the particulars 
of the Christian belief, so that if the belief of such a general, without other 
faith as to the particulars, may be sufficient for papists, such infidels may 
pass for as true believers, as Roman catholics. Yea, the faith of such 
catholics will be so much worse than that of these infidels, as it is better to 
believe God's veracity and revelation than to believe the infallibility of the 
Roman church, or the truth of all therein believed. 

Indeed, such a faith was not counted sufficient for Christians, till Chris- 
tians were thought to be something like asses. Aquinas inquires whether 
all be alike obliged to have an explicit faith. He answers negatively, and 
the ground of his conclusion is Job i. 14, ' The oxen were ploughing, and 
the asses were feeding beside them ;' from whence he argues gravely 4 that 
the people, who are signified by asses, are to lie down in the faith of their 
superiors, who are signified by the oxen, as Gregory expounds it. But what 
if the oxen go astray ; what must become of the asses then ? Why, they 
may follow them without hurt, believing that they are right when they are 
in a wrong way (for they must not have their names for nothing). So he 
resolves this difficulty. Human knowledge is not the rule of faith, but 
divine truth, 9 from which, if some of the superiors (the oxen) make defec- 
tion, that hurts not the faith of the simple (the asses), who believe them to 
have the right faith. After these two saints, their best pope and their 
angelical doctor, that we may see we owe not this rare notion (where their 
whole church is so subtilly divided into oxen and asses) to any lower than 
the most eminent amongst them, Cardinal Bellarmine,* their great cham- 
pion, makes use of the same exposition of that text to maintain the suffi- 
ciency of such a faith. 

Stapleton would have us believe that they admit not of this implicit 
faith, save in points of less moment ; but herein he misrepresents them, and 
would delude us ; for it is the common doctrine of the Romanists, that an 
implicit faith in Christ (such as pagans may have, and for which none 

1 Siquia non crederet Christum esse verum Deum et hominem, et idem eentiret 
papa, eum non iri damnatum. Cardin. St Angeli. ad legatoa Bohem. an. 1447. 

* Ruflticua et imperitus qui buo parocho fidem habens, credit aliquid contra articu- 
Iob fidei, excusatur a peccato. —Probl. xv. p. 98. 

8 Licet alicui articnlo fidei diseredat explicite, credit tamen implicite eidem in 
generali fide, &c. t ibid. — Corduba. 

4 Quia videlicet minores qui significantur per asinos, debent in credendis adharere 
roajoribus, qui per boves significantur, ut Gregorius exponit in ii. moral. — Aquinas. 
ii. 2. q. ii. art. vi. 

6 Humana cognitio non sit regula fidei, Bed Veritas divina ; a qua sic aliqui ma- 
jorum deficiunt, non prajudicat fidei simplicium, qui eos rectam fidem habere credunt 
—Aquinas, ibid, ad tertium. 

6 De justific. 1. i. c. vii. p. 706. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



78 SAVING FAITH [CHAP. ^ 

should have the Dame of Christians) is sufficient under the gospel to pass 
any into a justifying or saving state. 1 

This is it which our divines commonly teach, saith Vega, 2 when they say 
the faith of one mediator, either explicit or implicit, is enough for justifica- 
tion. And San eta Clara, 8 with others, tell us this is the more common 
tenet in their schools ; and whereas they make some difference between jus- 
tification and salvation in this point, Bannes helps to remove it. It is 
neither heresy, saith he, nor error, nor rashness, nor scandal, to assert that 
a man may also in the same manner be saved, because justification, being 
the last disposition to glory, it is very probable that he which is justified by 
an implicit faith, may also, by the same faith, without alteration, be saved. 4 

It is true, they say there is a precept for a more express faith, though no 
more than this implicit belief in Christ be needful, necessitate medii. But 
they have so many ways to exempt infidels (even under the profession of 
Christians) from its obligation, that few in comparison will be culpable for 
not observing it. By their doctors they are excused, if they 5 be doll or 
gross-witted. If they be ignorant or impotent, 6 or if their priest or their 
parents mislead them, 7 or if the object of faith be not duly proposed, 8 if by 
slight reasons or by impious persons (then it would be imprudence to believe) ; 
or if they do not doubt of their faith, 9 or if their teachers be fallacious or 
erroneous, or if the proposal 10 be not enforced with reasons, with holiness of 
life, with the confutation of the contrary, and with some wonders ; in short, 
if they have not had sufficient instruction (in this all agree). And this 
alone will excuse a great part of their church, who, for want of such instruc- 
tion, are acknowledged by themselves to be infidels. Thus Navarre delivers 
it. In the whole Christian commonwealth 11 (he means the Roman church), 
there is so great neglect as to this, that ye may find many everywhere who 
believe no more of these things (t. e . of Christ and the most necessary 
articles of the Christian faith) in particular and explicitly, than some hea- 
then philosophers who have only the natural knowledge of the one true God. 

I For this are alleged, AltiRiodorensis, Gulielmus Parisiensis, Kichardus de Media 
Villa, Scotua, Bradwardin, Gabriel, Baptista Tronamala, Vega, Medina, Corduba, 
Faber, Petigianis, Herrera, &c. Victoria, Soto, Canus, Bannes, Alvarez, in Sta Clara. 
Probl. xv. et in Bannes in xxii. q. ii. art. viii. . 

* Vega pro Cone Trident. 1. vi. c. xv. p. 92. 

8 Probl. xv. p. 89, Et haec est commnnior in Scholis, nt declarat et sequitnr Herrera, 
&c. So Bartholom. de Ledesma sum. de sacram. panit. cum ad primam juetificationem 
fides explicits Christ] non requiratur, nt supponimos, tanquam magis prcbabile, et 
commune in scholis, &c. 

4 In xxii. q. ii. art. viii. dub. ult. 

Dicendum quod gratia est sufficiens causa gloria, unde omne illud sine quo obtineri 
potest gratia, non est de necessitate salutis. — Aquinas, in iv. dist ix. art i. vide ; Soto, 
in iv. dist. v. q. unica. art. ii. dub. ult. 

6 Fill. tr. xxii n. xl. et n. Iv. 

' ° Dico secundo obligationem prsedictam esse sub peccato mortal!, nisi ignorantia 
aut impotentia excuset. Communis doctorum. 

7 Probabilis est (ignorantia) quando quis habit fundamentum probabile ; ut dum 
rnsticus credit aliquid, ductus testimonio sui parochi aut parentum — sic doctores Com- 
muniter. — Sancta. Clar. ibid. p. 87. 

8 Quando articuli fidei non modo debito proponuntur ; aut rationibus frivolis, vel ab 
hominibus impiis : tunc enim credere esset actus imprudentie, secundum D. Thorn, 
xxii. q. i. art iv. ad secundum. — Idem. ibid, vid plures in Jo, Sane. d. xix. n. et iv. 

8 Id. ibid. p. 96. 

10 Aragon. in xxii. q. xi. art. ii. dub. ult. ibid. p. 101. 

II In universa Christiana republics, circa haec tanta est socordia, ut multos passim 
invenias nihil magis in particulari et explicite de hisce rebus credere quam ethnicum 
quendam philosophum, sola unius veri Dei naturali cognitione praxlitum. Cap. xi. 
n. xxii. p. 142. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IV.] not needful by the roman dootbine. 79 

But if the precept could reach any through all these securities (which we 
cannot easily imagine), yet there is one way to clear them all of it, so that 
they may live and die infidels, without danger from any command requiring 
faith in Christ; for he that hath not that express faith which is commanded iu 
the gospel, hot only what is requsite necessitate medii, is living or dying, if he 
he sorry for his negligence, and purpose to amend (which may be in their 
sense without true repentance), capable of absolution without any instruc- 
tion from his confessor. 1 And by virtue of that he may live in a justified 
state, or if he die, he passeth out of the world as a very good Christian, 
though he believe in Christ no more than a heathen. 

Sect, 2. Pass we to their other sort of faith, which they call explicit. It is, 
as they define it, an actual assent to the particulars which the church pro- 
pounds as revealed by God. This, with them, is justifying faith, requisite in 
the learned and more intelligent amongst them. As to the object of it, if 
we view it well, it looks untowardly for a thing by which a sinner is to be 
justified. For it is prodigiously extended, and takes in things uncertain, 
false, impossible, impertinent, and ridiculous, as points that must certainly 
be believed unto justification ; for their church propounds as things revealed 
by God (and so objects of justifying faith) not only what is delivered in 
Scripture, but unwritten traditions concerning matters of faith and manners, 
and these, if they will be justified, they must, believe, though they know not 
what they are, nor where to find them, but in the church's unerring fancy. 
She propounds also the unanimous consent of the fathers in several points ; 
and though this never was, or is impossible to be known, yet it must be be- 
lieved by those that mean to be justified. She propounds the decrees of 
councils to be believed as divine truths, when it is acknowledged that the 
design in councils for many hundred years was not to discover truth, but to 
promote the Roman greatness. 2 She propounds also the determinations of 
popes : these must be believed as infallible, when ordinarily they were neither 
persons of common truth or honesty ; and we must be justified by believing 
the dictates of atheists or heretics, 3 of conjurors * or incarnate devils, 6 of 
vicious beasts and wicked monsters ;* for those who cry up his holiness have 
adorned him also now and then with these other sacred titles. 

I know not whether these things are more ridiculous or more horrid ; how- 
ever, letting them pass as they are, let us take their faith at best, and make 
it better than they will have it. Suppose it rested in the Scriptures, and 
had nothing for its object but revelation, such as is truly divine, yet even 
so, they give such report of it as will scarce suffer us to think that they can 
expect to be justified by it. Considered in itself, they count it not worthy 
the name of a virtue. 7 They call it a dead, idle thing ; 8 and though they 

1 Imo in rigore, non tenetur confessarius, etiamsi sanus sit panitens, eum instruere 
ante absolutionem ; dummodo enim doleat de preterita negligentia, et proponat earn 
endationem in futurum, capax est absolutions, sola fide explicita circa mysterianeces* 
sario crcdenda ex medio. — Fill. tr. xxviii. n. lviii. vide Jo. Sane. d. ix. n. xyiii. • 

8 Omnia concilia post Chalcedonense potissimum institute fnerunt, non vtserneretur 
Veritas, Bed nt roboraretnr, defenderetur, atque augeretur semper ecclesiao Bomanro 
potestas, et ecclesiasticorum libertas.— JEneas Sylvius. 1. ii. de gest. can*. Basil, i 
» Canus. loc. Theol. 1. vi. p. 248, 344. \ : . ! < < 

4 Sylvest. ii. Platin. Chron. Martini Poloni. Hildeband. Binno Gatdita. - ■ % 

6 F»x vitiorum et Diabolus incarnatos ; Constan. concil. Sees. xi. art. V. ; Benedict. 
ix. vid. Baron, an. 1084, n. iii. . 

6 Snnt qui scribunt hunc sceleratissinmm hominem, seu monsferumpotin8.t~J 7 &tftRa. , 
vita. John xiii. 

7 Dominic, a Soto, de natur. et grat. lib. xxi. c. vii. d. lxaix. et lxxxi. 

8 Concil. Trident Sess. vi. c. vii. 

VOL. III. . T'-' ' l 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



80 SAVING FAITH [ChAP. IV. 

would have it to be an infused habit, and the gift of God (because the Scrip- 
ture so calls that which is justifying faith indeed), yet they say 1 a mere 
human quality, acquired without any supernatural assistance, may perform 
its proper act and office by actual assent to the whole Christian doctrine. 
They confess it is commonly found in the worst of men (in perditissimis 
hominibus), such as are neither acted nor possessed by the Spirit of God ; 
such as live and die in mortal wickedness, 2 and are damned for it ; ye*, 
some of them confess that it is in the devils. This faith, saith Cardinal 
Contarenus, 3 is not it by which we belive that there is a God, or by which 
we believe that the things are true which God speaks ; for this also is in 
the devils and the most wicked men. Yet at other times this is with them, 
the Christian, the catholic faith, as if it were enough to make them true 4 
Christians and catholics ; but sure they will not seek for their Christianity 
and catholicness in a room lower than purgatory. However, instead of a 
faith which the Scripture calls for as saving and justifying, they commend 
to Christians a faith which hath no connection at all, necessary or probable, 
with salvation or justification. All they have to say is, that it must neces- 
sarily be joined with love ; but when they have said this, they undo it, and 
all by making love itself unnecessary, as we saw before. 

Sect. 8. In fine, they seem little concerned for faith, who hath it or hath 
it not, or how little it be, or how seldom acted. It is not 6 necessary that 
the pope himself should have this faith (though the devils want it not), yea, 
or any other virtue, for ail his ' holiness : ' the body may do well enough, 
though the head of it be an infidel. They are obliged to maintain this, 
because their popes often have been no better. And the body may shift 
pretty well without it too. This may be the true catholic church made up 
of the whole company of believers, when not one amongst them all hath 
faith ; for time was, say they, 6 when none at all had faith, but only one 
woman, and it may be so again. 

As for the exercise of it, Hurtado thinks an act of faith may be requisite 
once in a year ; 7 but the Jesuit may seem to deal unmercifully with them, 
putting them to believe some of their creed once in twelve months. Those 
of other orders would not have them so much oppressed, once in twelve 
years will be enough ; Bonacina 8 saith four or five moments in a whole life 
may suffice for this, and specifies them ; but because this may seem too 
hard, he signifieth withal how they may be eased in a manner of them all. 
For once (though that be at the point of death) an 9 implicit act may serve ; 
at another time or two, the precept for faith doth not of itself oblige to the 
act/only 10 it is requisite by accident ; and so the neglect of it, then, will be 
no special sin, nor need be confessed ; at another time (or more if there 

1 Scotus in ill. disk xxiii. ait. fide humana (quam ipse appellat acquisitam), homi- 
nem posse assentire toti prrodicationi Christian ®. Imo ita inquit, credimus authori- 
tati ecclesiro (quam ipse putat humanam et institutione parentum). — Cui sententia 
adhuc explicates subscribit Durandus q. i. in ii. Bent. d. xxviii. dicens fidem in- 
fusam non esse necessariam, nisi nt facilins credamns. — Sato, ibid, 1. ii. c. viii. p. 81. 

9 Bellarm. de baptism. 1. i. c. xiv. 

8 Fides haac non est ea tantum qua credimus Deum esse, et qua credimus vera ease 
quft dicit Deus, hroc et enim est etiam in damonibus et perditissimis hominibus. — 
Confut. artic. Lutheri. art. i. 

4 Concil. Trident. Sess. vi. c. xxviii. 

6 Non enim fides, interior JRomani pontificis ecclesiro est necessaria, — Canut ; loc. 
Theol. lib. vi. c. ult. p. 844, 

6 Abbas in Sylvest. sum. v. concil. n. iii. 

7 Existimant aliqui preceptum eliciendte fidei obligare singulis annis — verum hoc 
communiter negatur. — Petr. a S. Joseph, sum de i. praacept. art. i. p. 6. 

8 Tom. ii. in . priecept. disp. iii. q. ii. punct. ii. 9 N. xii. 10 N. ix. and xi. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. IV.] not needful by the roman doctrine. 81 

were occasion), ignorance, or want of consideration, may 1 excuse them (for 
these two, though they ruin the greatest part of the world eternally, yet are 
the greatest secnrity of Boman catholics ; and not only exempt them from 
that which is most the duty of Christians, but will not suffer them to sin, at 
least mortally, do what they can). So that, after all, one act of their faith 
once in a lifetime will be enough. I think it sufficient (saith he after many 
others) for those that are rude, to give an explicit assent once to the articles 
necessary to salvation, while they are propounded by their confessor, or 
some other. 2 But how must the confessor propound these articles to them, 
so as they may pass this one act of faith upon them once for all ? Why, the 
best way,* he tells us, is by a mode of forming the sign of the cross, as it is 
described for this purpose by Grafnis, Bellarmine, and other great divines. 
I had the curiosity to see how a confessor can make the most ignorant per- 
sons true believers by the. sign of the cross, and so effectually, as they never 
need more believe than once while they live, and found it lying thus : 4 Let 
the confessor teach him to form the sign of the cross with three fingers, to 
signify the mystery of the most sacred Trinity. But first, it must be drawn 
from the top of the head, or front, to the navel, to shew that the- Son of God 
descended from the highest heavens into the bowels of his mother; then 
draw the cross line from the left arm to the right, so the cause of the incar- 
nation is expressed ; he came from heaven to earth, that we, who were to be 
placed amongst the goats at his left, might be removed to his right hand 
amongst the sheep. This is the admirable expedient. The grave Benedic- 
tine reflecting on it was put into a transport ; for he adds, Behold what 
great mysteries of faith mother church has taught us by one mode of form- 
ing a cross, so that a rude person needs know nothing besides this, even this 
alone may be sufficient for his salvation !* Here is a compendious way indeed 
to salvation, and all the knowledge and faith needful for it. He that can be 
satisfied with it (and give himself up to absurd and ridiculous delusions, 
against all the evidence of God's word), may in few minutes, with once 
making the sign of the cross, get all the faith requisite for a Boman catholic ; 
and when by such admirable conduct of the cross he hath but once believed, 
he need never more trouble himself with faith while he lives.* The precept for 
faith (saith another) obligeth not, but perhaps once in a life ; and it is de- 
livered as the judgment of Aragon Torres, and other their chief divines, that 
of itself it binds not, but when one comes to the use of reason, or if it be not 
then performed, afterwards ; but after one act of faith once put forth, the 
obligation to exercise more acts do rarely, or may be never, occur. Such is 
their faith, and thus you must conceive, if you can, how they live by it. 

1 N. viii. 

* Existimo tamen snfficere, ut isti rudes semel assensum explicit© praabuerint 
articulis ad salutem necessariis, dura sibi proponebantar a confessario, vel ab alio. — 
Ibid. d. xiv. ibi. Malderus et alii. Peter a S. Joseph reduces all the moments and 
occasions where an act of faith may be thought requisite to six heads, and then de- 
clares upon each severally, either that the precept doth not of itself oblige, or that 
they may be excused from sin in neglecting it at any of them. — Sum in i. precept, 
art. i. pp. 3-6. 

8 Bonacin. ibid. n. xvi. 4 Graff, decis. part. i. 1. i. c. xxiv. n. iii. 

5 Ecce quanta nobis fldei nostras mysteria unica formandre crucis ratione mater 
ecclesia docait, ut si nihil preeterea sciret radis homo, vel hoc solum ad salutem illi 
snfficere qneat. — Ibid. 

Prflsceptnm fidei non obligat per se, nisi Bemel forte in vita. Vid. Jo. Sane disp. 
xli. n. xxxii. Advertant preceptum fidei non obligare per se, nisi tempore nsus ra- 
tionis advenientis, vel postea si tnnc non est impletum taliter, quod post semel elici- 
tum actum fidei raro vel fortasse nunqnam ocenrrat, dicta obligatio exercendi actus 
fidei, sic expreese Suarez, Aragon, Sec.— Ibid. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



82 TBUE REPENTANCE [CHAP. Y. 

They can make a life of faith of one act alone in a whole life. No wonder 
they presume that they can so perfectly fulfil the whole law, yea, and pay 
God much more than his due, when they make the greatest commands (the 
sum of the law and gospel) to amount to little or nothing, and instead of a 
hundred, set down, not fifty, hut a fraction, or a cypher ; when, in the case 
before us, they take no more notice of the faith which the gospel calls for, 
yea, make bold in a manner wholly to neglect that of their own making. 



CHAPTER V. 
There is no necessity of true repentance for Romanists by their doctrine. 

Sect. 1. If anything be absolutely and indispensably necessary to salvation, 
it is repentance. Christ himself declares it, Luke xiii. 8. The doctrine of 
repentance from dead works is a fundamental, and so made expressly by the 
apostle, Heb. vi. 1 ; so that without the belief and practice of it, no sinner 
can possibly be saved, nor have any hopes of it, but such as are delusions. 
Thus necessary hath the Lord made it, and yet by the Roman doctrine, it is 
more than needs for any sort of sins. 

As to original sin (the corruption of our natures), those of them who hold 
there is any such thing within us, yet declare that if it be any sin at all, it 
is the least of all sins. Andradius, employed by the council of Trent to write, 
tells us that their divines so determine. Bellarmine saith, 1 that amongst 
all sins it is the least voluntary, and on that account is less than any venial 
sin ; and it must be little indeed, that is less than any venial, for that, as 
another cardinal 2 tells us, passeth for nothing. And that which hath so 
little, or nothing of sin in it, needs no repentance. So Soto 3 concludes, 
a man that hath no guilt but that of original sin, hath no need of any repent- 
ance. Thus they represent original sin as it is in them before baptism, but 
after they axe baptized, they all agree that it is no sin at all. The council 
of Trent hath determined it (and so it is now with them an article of faith; 4 
that in baptism, not only the guilt of original sin is remitted, but whatever 
of it hath anything of the true and proper nature of sin, is totally taken 
away ; and they curse 6 those who hold that it is only pardoned or impaired, 
and not all the sin of it quite abolished by baptism. They say they are be- 
come innocent, pure, harmless, spotless,* without the least speck of original 
sin, and so without any need of repentance upon that account. 7 They are 
so far from being actually obliged to repent of any natural corruption, that 
they cannot be obliged to it, God himself cannot bind any one to repent of 
it. So that if there be in our natures any defectiveness as to the image of 

1 After Aquinas, iii. q. i. art. iv. de amiss, grat. 1. i. c x. p. 226. Inter omnia pec- 
cata minimum habet de voluntaries et ideo minus grave est, in ratione voluntarii, quam 
quodlibet voniale. 

* Modicum pro nihilo habetur, Cajetan. Sum. v. feet, (et scepius alibi) secundum 
quoque commune est, modicum pro nihilo reputari, p. 810. 

3 Uaud tamen huic homini, ulla est penitentia neces&aria. — De Nat. et Orat. 1. ii. 
c. xii. p. 92. 

Contritio cum sit dolor, voluntatis duritiem ex peccato contractam comminuens, non 
proprie est de peccato originali, Aquin. supplem. q. ii. art. ii. ; Sylvest. v. contritio. n. 
iv.; Graff. 1. i. c. iv. n. ii. 

* In Baptismate, non modo remitti reatum originalis peccati, sed totum id auferri, 
quoad veram ac propriam rationem peccati habet, Seas. v. c. iv. 

6 Ibid. ca. iv. 6 Innocentes, puri, immaculati. 

7 Tantum abest obligari qnempiam ad originalis culpte penitentiam, ut neque possit. 
Soto ibid. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. V.] a needless thing in the bohan chubch. 88 

God, any averseness to God and that which is good, any propenseness to 
evil, we are not to take notice of it, or grieve for it as a sin ; for however 
the apostle frequently calls it so, it is none ; no more to be repented of than 
an innocent, harmless thing. Thus original sin is quite discharged from any 
concern in our repentance. 

Sect. 2. There are other evils which make up the far greatest part of actual 
sins, which by their doctrine are but venial. Of this quality are not only 
those which they count small in their own nature, and those which are small 
in respect of the matter of them, but likewise all (how heinous soever as to 
the nature of them, how great soever as to the matter of them) that are acted 
without perfect deliberation, and are not completely voluntary. And by 
favour of their describing this third sort of minute evils, the most enormous 
wickedness that can be acted against God or man, may come under the notion 
' of venial faults (of which hereafter). Blasphemy, perjury, adultery, murder, 
&c, when without perfect deliberation, will be no worse. 

However, these with them are light faults, and lightly cancelled (as they 
tell us) by the bishop's blessing, by holy water, by knocking the breast, by 
saying a paternoster, by extreme unction (so our Rhemists, Aquinas adds 1 ), 
by the eocharist, by any of the seven sacraments," by any sacramental 
unction, by prayer in a holy place ; yea, or by but entering into a conse- 
crated church. 

So that by these and other such means, et si aHqua alia sunt hujusmodi 
(saith Aquinas), pardon of venial sins may be obtained ; yea, any one of 
them will quite 3 abolish the fault, if not the whole penalty, particularly holy 
water, which (as Canus teacheth 4 ) takes away the punishment of sin, and 
also the faults that are venial. No wonder if they determine that the sacra- 
ment of penance is not needful for these, not so much as their ritual re- 
pentance, and that there is no necessity they should be so much as confessed, 
nor any remorse or grief required for them, 6 nor that they should be relin- 
quished so much as in their resolution only. 6 Contrition] is so far from being 
requisite for venial sins, that with them attrition is not needful, for that is 
a dispiicence arising from shame or fear ; but these sins are (in their account) 
neither shameful 7 (it is no crime, they say, to glory in them) nor dangerous ; 
no man can be condemned for them. 6 

1 In Mat. x. 12. 

* Tertia, q. lxxxvii. art. iii. Taoeri citra culpam, multisque atfis remediis expiari 
peasant, Cone. Trident. Sees. iv. can. v. 

8 Vide Aquinas ibid, tertium. 

4 Peccatorum poonas solvit, culpas etiam veniales, De Sacrament, pars. i. p. 752, 
vid. p. 761. 

6 Concil. Trident. Seas. iv. Can. v. 

Ad venialia in confessione ezplicanda teneri, qui aolis yenialibus urgetur — negat 
communis opinio cum D. Thoma. Scoto. Durando. Major. Victorell. ad Tol. L vi. 
c. xi. 

TJtrum peccata venialia necessario sint confitenda ? Reap, secundum Scotum, qnod 
non ; etiamsi nullum habet mortale : quoniam per peccatum veniale etiam in propo- 
sito, homo non potest damnari nee periclitari, et p»nitentia est secunda tabula pro 
periclitantibus, igitur non obligatur ad earn nisi babens mortale. Imrao dicit Petrus 
de Palude in iii. quod nee etiam papa poasit ad hoc obligare. — Angel, sum. v. Con- 
fess, n. xxv. 

Cum dolor de venialibns non sit necessarius, ne eonfeasio quidem venialinm ne- 
cessaria est Canus. pars. vi. relect. de prenitent. p. 956. Secundum S. Thorn, in iv. 
diet. xvii. homo tenetur habere istum dolorem (contritionis) de peccato actuali, non 
de originali— ■ et de mortali non de veniali, quia cum ejus complacentia mori potest, 
ac salvari, Sylvest. v. contrit. n. iv. vid. Navar. c. i. n. xxiv. 

* Non est necesaarium habere propositum nnnquam peccandi venialiter, Navar. c. i. 
n. x. 

7 Cone. Trid. Sess. xiv. 4. 8 Vid. Suarez, torn. iv. disp. xx. sect. vi. n. iii. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



84 TBUK REPENTANCE [CHAP. Y. 

Thus their doctrine giveth them all abundant encouragement to live and 
die impenitently in these sins, in all of them ; for all of them in the world, 
if found in one man together, amount not to so much as one mortal sin. 1 
All the penitence for these that is required by the precisest of them, is no 
more than one act of charity contains, t. e. such a virtual dislike as a man 
may have of that which he was never actually displeased at, no, nor so much 
as thought of. 9 

It may seem strange (the operation of the spirit of delusion not considered) 
how such a conceit could ever possess the fancies of rational persons, and of 
some acquaintance with the Scriptures ; that their sacramentals (holy water, 
and the like trifles) should have the virtue to procure pardon of sins, even 
without repentance. Aquinas would have us satisfied with this, that they 
do not remit sins of themselves, but are said to do it, because they may 
excite that fervour by which they are remitted ;* but this fervour is not re- 
pentance, and whatever it be, it ought to be excited, that it may remit sin, 
since this admirable virtue is ascribed to it on that account. No, say his 
followers, we must understand him so, that it is not always requisite it should 
be excited, but that these sacramentals are instituted for this end. Where- 
fore to receive them as accommodated by the church to this effect is an act 
of repentance, and procures remission of venial sins ; although there be no 
way any excitement of devotion, nor any remembering of these sins, nor any 
dislike of them ; for if this were required, truly they would not be sacra- 
mentals, since this dislike alone would be sufficient ; so de Graffiis after Soto. 4 
Here is pardon of sin by an excitement of fervour, though it be not excited ; 
that must be the implicit repentance, sufficient for the pardon of venial 
sins ; and the explicit very like it, an act of repentance (such as is receiving 
of holy water), without any remembering the sins to be repented of, or 
any dislike of them. They had need believe that these sins are no trans- 
gressions of the law, since they expect to be secured from its penalty by that 
which is no repentance. 

Sect. 8. Hereby it is too manifest that they make repentance needless, 
both in reference to original sin, and likewise to all those which they count 
venial. If they will have it needful for any sin at all, it must be for those 
they call mortal ; but then these are but few in comparison. They have 
reduced them to seven, and none pass for deadly but such as quite extinguish 
spiritual life, and kill the soul immediately. 6 

Well, but is repentance necessary for these ? As to this, divers of great 
eminency amongst them conclude that there is no divine precept for repent- 
ance. God hath not commanded any to repent. Now if he command it 

1 Etiamei omnia venialia peccata simul colligerentur in unum, nunquam efficerent 
id, quod facit unnm lethale peccatam. — Bellarm. de amiss, grat. L i. c. xiii. p. 91. 

* Aquinas iii. q. lxxxvii. art. i. c. 

9 Ideo ista dicuntur speciality dimittere, non quia remittunt per se, sed quia sunt 
excitativa feiroris per quern fit remissio. — D. Th. in iv. art. ad it. dum. 

4 Sed adverte quod responsio D. Thom. quod ideo ista dimittunt venialia, quia exci- 
tant fervorcm, intelligenda est, non quod semper requiratur ilia excitatio, sed quod de 
se haec sacramentalia ad hoc sint institute. Quare ilia suscipere, tanquam ad ilium 
effectum ab ecclesia accommodata censetur actus pseoitentise, et acquirit remissionem, 
venialium, etiamsi nullatenus excitetur ad devotionem, nee memoriam habeat veni- 
alium, vel displicentiam, nam si ilia requireretnr, profecto sacramentalia non essent, 
cum sola displicentia sufficeret. Sotus dist. zv. q. ii. art. i. niodo tunc non habeat com- 
placentiam, Graff, t. i. c. xvi. n. ix. p. 13. Victoria, Canus, Major, Cajetan. Ledesmi 
et alii in Suarez. torn. iv. disp. zii. sect. ii. 

5 The particular sins contained under these seven capitals (as their offspring), the 
people need not trouble themselves about them ; for common confessors are not obliged 
to know whether they are mortal or no. — AngeL sum. v. Confess- iv. n. iii. 

6 Sunt enim theologi et fuerunt, quorum opinione de actu penitentus speciali pro- 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. Y.j a needless thing in the roman church. 85 

not, it is not necessary ; and if it be not a necessary duty, it is no mean 
necessary to salvation. For, as themselves tells us, though all that is com- 
manded be not necessary to salvation, yet all that is necessary to salvation 
is commanded. 1 That there is no special precept which requires repentance, 
was the opinion of their famous Franciscus de Victoria (in his time the great 
master of divinity in Spain), and of other divines, both before and after him, 
as Melchior Canus (sometimes his scholar) tells us. And when that of 
Christ, Luke xiii., ' Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,' is ob- 
jected, they answer the meaning is, They shall perish for preceding sins, 
not for impenitence. By their doctrine there is no danger that any should 
perish for that, though persisted in unto death ; and they had some reason 
to allege Aquinas (the angel of their schools) as of their judgment herein ; 
for he saith plainly, that impenitenoy continued in till death is no special 
sin, but a circumstance of sin.* By this doctrine it is no sin, no transgres- 
sion of any divine precept to be impenitent, or to persevere therein to the end. 

Those who will be concluded by the council of Trent must believe that 
there is no divine precept which requires contrition or true repentance pre- 
cisely, but only disjunctively, either that or what is there declared to be 
sufficient without it. And they must take it for certain that it is not a 
medium necessary to salvation, since that council has determined that some- 
thing else will suffice for pardon without it, and so they declare it expressly. 3 

Sect. 4. But let us take notice of those who seem more severe. Many 
there be who think that repentance is under a divine command, yet these in 
the issue make it no more necessary than the other, who find no precept for 
it For they determine that we are not obliged to repent presently, that it 
may be deferred till the approach or danger of death ; and, in fine, that it is 
needless, even when a man is dying. 

For the first, they teach that a sinner is not bound to repent presently, it 
is lawful to defer it. So their doctors of all sorts, so all the faithful (say 
they), so the whole church. That a man is not bound to repent presently is 
a conclusion, saith Soto, established by the practice and the usage of the 
church. 4 Canus tells us it is his own, and the common opinion, that a man 
is not obliged to repent forthwith ; and this, he saith, is confirmed by best 
reason, viz. the consent of all the faithful, both priests and people ; and adds, 
that to make the precept so rigid as to require present repentance, hath no 
probable reason, no, nor any authority. 

ceptum nullum est ; hanc vero sententiam in priinis suadent testimonio D. Thomro, &c. 
— Canus, pars. iv. relect. de psenit. p. 856. 

1 Aquinas et Beliarmin. supra. Media necessaria ad salutem sunt nobis divino jure 
precepta quod tradit, D. Tho. ii. q. ii, art. v. &c, et est quasi axioma coinmuniter 
receptum. — Suar. 1. i. Be Orat. c xxix. n. ii. 

In hac controversia Preceptor meus olim. F. Franciscus Victoria, vir nostra tetato 

Uteris ingenio, religioneque clarissimus Ibid. Fuere Catholiciquidam, ut refert Jo. 

Medina et Vega, et quidem ex schola, D. Tho. ex quibus fuit Victoria, qui dicebant 
psenitentiara non esse in procepto ullo, idquo ex D. Thorn, videbantur probare, et meo 
judicio satis efficaciter. — Vcuq. in 3 horn. torn. iii. q. lxxxvi. art. ii. dub. ii. n. i. 

8 Permanere in peccato usque ad mortem, non est speciale pcccatum, sed qusedam 
peccati circumstantia, xxii. q. xiv. art. ii. Corp. et tamen si esset de pasnitentia speciale 
praeceptum, ombsio illius specialis culpa sine dubio esset, as they argue in Canus. — 
Ibid. 

8 Contritio proprie accepta, in lege nova, non est necessaria simpliciter necessitate 
medii ad justificationem et salutem, Bonacin. de Sacram. disp. v. q. v. p. 2, n. i.—lbid. 
Petigianus, et alii. 

* Non illico ut homo se ream sentit culpse, panitentiss lege psenitere constringitur. 
Hsec profecto conclusio more et nsu ecclesiae satis videtur constabiiita — Soto in iv. 
dist- xvii. q. ii. art. vi. 

* Ut mea fert et communis opinio, non protinus tenetur homo panilentiam agere. 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



86 TBUE REPENTANCE [CHAP. V. 

Now this doctrine concerning repentance, in this first step of it, where it 
appears more modest and innocent than in its further advance, is yet very 
horrid and desperate. For it is all one as if they had said, that they may, 
notwithstanding any command of God, continue (for some time at least) in 
their hatred of God, and state of enmity againBt him, since that is confessedly 
the temper and state of the impenitent. Besides, it emboldens sinners, and 
giveth them confidence to leave their souls at a desperate venture, presuming 
they may repent time enough hereafter, when they can have no assurance of 
any time at all for the future. And it is the more dangerous, because their 
doctrine takes away all apprehension of danger, leaving them no fear, either 
of penalty or sin, in putting off repentance ; no danger of suffering by present 
neglects or delays, for they are told that they may repent when they please. 
The Lord, saith one part of their divines, is every moment ready to help 
them to repentance ;* or, say the rest, he will help them to it (if they 
please) in the article of necessity, whenever the precept makes it their duty. 2 
And what should hinder them, upon such encouragement, to defer it, even 
to the point of death ? They need not fear that they shall perish, nor need 
they fear they shall sin by thus putting it off. Some of their doctors make 
it no sin at all, others as good as none. Bellarmine determines that it is 
not a sin, but only a circumstance of sin, when the command doth not oblige; 
and that it doth not presently, but only at a certain season. 3 Medina affirms 
that, without all doubt, it is lawful. 4 « Soto saith it is but a venial sin. 6 
Oanus takes a course to reconcile them, he concludes it is no sin at all not to 
repent presently, and that is but a venial sin to will (or resolve) not to 
repent. 6 Now if it be no sin at all, there is no danger at all ; if it be but a 

Atque hfflec assertio non alia ratione potiore ostendi possit, quara qnod fidelium 
omnium consensus facile admittit, &c, nee ant prenitentes in confessione hojus criminis 
&e accusant, aut sacerdotes id carant — Cnm nulla idonea ratio sit, nullave authoritas 
qua praceptum adeo durum asseiatur, &c. — Melch. Canvs. pars. iv. relect. de psenit. 
pp. 862, 863. 

Licet toto temper, quo quis agnoscet se lethali peccato mortuum, de bono consilio 
debeat curare, ut a tarn gravi morbo resurgat, periculumque mortis subitss atque sterns 
effiigiat, juxta illud, Ne tardes converti ad Dominum, et ne differas die in diem. — 
Eccl. v. Noa tamen ad id tonetur pracepto, ad novum peccatum mortiferum obligante ; 
nisi ea temporis parte, qua memorise occurrit quoad usum — secundum communem 
opinionem. Imo neque tunc, ob ea per quse id afiirmavit Adrianus, et ob ea, qu© nos 
addimus. — Navar. cap. i. n. 27 et n. 29. 

Alensis, Bonaventura, Durandus, Aquinas, Adrianus, Angelas, Medina Yigucrius, 
&c, vid. in Suarez. iv. iv. disp. xv. sect. v. n. ii. Praceptum non obligat ad agendam 
psenitentiam statim, etiamsi opportunitas occurrat, sen licet facile fieri possit. — Vid. 
Vasq. in iii. Tb. ibid. dub. v. n. ix. Est verissima opinio praceptum contritionis non 
obligare statim. Alexand. S. Thorn, Angelas. Jo. Medina, Sotus, Durand. Canus, 
Navar. Paludan. Adrian, Viguerius, merito ergo omnes in hoc conveniunt. 

1 Vega in Cone Trid. lib. xiii. cap. xi. Molina, concord, grat. et lib. arb. q. xiv. 
art. xiii. disp. x. Valent. torn. ii. disp. viii. q. iii. Semper quoad se habet opportuni- 
tatem, quia semper est in suo arbitrio positum conteri. Filliuc. tr. vi. c. viii. n. 202. 
Cum quilibet possit ope divina (qua? nunquam [decst] facienti quod in se est) suorum 
peccatorum pamitere, et eorum veniam consequi. — Nav. cap. xxiv. n. 12. 

2 Cum non potest sine conversione vitare peccatum. Bellarm. de grat. 1. ii. c. v. et 
c. viii. Becan. de auxil. grat. cap. vi. Alvarez, de auxil. grat 1. xi. disp. cxii. n. v. 
concl. ii. 

8 Neque enim praceptum de ptenitentia agenda quo vis tempore obligat, cum sit 
affirmativum, sed solum certis temporibus, ut cum versamurin periculo^mortis, cum ad 
confessionem est accedendum (but for this, he says, irritation will suffice, 1. ii. c xviii. 
p. 974), cum Deus peculiari inspiratione ad psenitentiam nos invitat. At extra ejus- 
raodi tempora imps&nitentia non tarn peccatum novum, quam peccati patrati circum- 
stantia est. — De Pcenit. ,1. ii. c. ix. p. 958. 

4 Non est dubium, quin id licitum sit. — De Pcenit tr. i. q. vi. p. 18. 

6 In. iv. dist. xvii. q. ii. art. vi. Relect. de Paenit. pars. iv. p. 866. 

6 Ibid* p. 863, supra. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. V.] a needless thing in the rohan church. " 87 

venial sin, there is very little or none to be regarded, no necessity upon any 
account to repent of it ; and he saith the people never confess this in order 
to repentance, the priests never require it nor regard it ; by the consent of 
all, we are not obliged to it. 

Now, that which a man is not bound to repent of, he may still continue 
in, and so he may still continue resolved to put off repentance ; yes, so 
he may safely, say they, till the article of necessity. 

Sect. 5. But when is that ? Let us next inquire after it, and in the pursuit 
thereof we shall discover the second point I charge them with, That a man, 
by their doctrine, needs not repent all his days, till he be in danger of death. 

This is their common doctrine : since the command to repent is affirma- 
tive, 1 it doth not oblige, but in time of necessity, even as other affirmative 
precepts do. All the question will be, When is this time of necessity, when 
it will be necessary to repent without longer delay ? Now their doctors are 
agreed in no other article of time, except it be the point of death, or when a 
man's life is apparently in danger. There is no other time in a man's 
whole life, wherein it is likely that repentance should be requisite, but they 
deny it to be then necessary, and offer arguments to prove that it is not 
needful in any other, however probable seasons. Let me shew this in some 
instances. 

Is it necessary to repent at solemn times of worship, when we address our- 
selves in a more* particular manner to a holy God ? No, say they, 2 gene- 
rally ; and Canus 3 giveth this reason for it : Though acts of religion be then 
required, yet repentance is not an act of religion, but of revenge. 

Is it needful on days of fasting ? It may seem so, because the main and 
proper end of fasts is the exercises of repentance and humiliation. No, say 
they, it is not needful then ; for if this were the intention of God, or the 
church, in enjoining fasts, yet the intention of the lawgiver doth not bind us. 
No exercise of repentance is with them requisite on their fasts, but what 
they may perform in a dream ; 4 for if they sleep the whole fasting day, yet 
they fulfil the precept for fasting. 6 To their fasts they require nothing but 
abstinence from some sort of meat, not any religious act at all ; and if with 
them the precept for the mass, or prayer, could not be fully accomplished 
without some penitent sense of sin, as it may, yet neither the mass nor 
prayer, public or private, is requisite to their fasts. Yea, in extraordinary 
times for prayer, upon occasion of some great calamity befallen them for their 
sins, they think not contrition for sin needful. The people know not there is 
then any necessity thereof; their confessors and preachers are never wont to 
mind them of this as a thing necessary ; 6 and therefore Lopez saith, he 

1 Quantum autem ad vitandum novum peccatum transgressionis pracepti de contrj- 
tione, tempus est determinatum ad articulum necessitatis : sicut in aliis affirmativis 
prseceptis con tin git — Cajetan, Sum. v. contrit. p. 104. Canus, ibid. p. 863. 

* Aquinas, ii. 2, q. cxxii. art. iv. 

Cajetan, ibid. p. 185 ; Soto de just, et jur. 1. ii. q. iv. art. iv. supra Bellarm. de cult. 
Storum. 1. iii. c. x. supra. Sylvest. sum. v. Domin. n. viii. Graff, lib. i. cap. v. n. xxiv. 
Navar. cap. xiii. n. xvii. Sum. Rosellffl, v. ferisB n. ii. — Lopez, cap- xii. p. K5. 

9 In diebus festis non obligari homines ad apendam psenltentiam ant divino prcecepto 
aut humano, prteceptum enim de colendo Deo, quo festis diebns astringimur, opera 
religionis praescribit: at pcenitentia religionis opus non est, sed vindication is, Canus, 
ibid. p. 864. Ita Cajetan. Soto, Navar, Armilla, Rosell. et. alii communiter, Soar. 
I. ii. de fest. c. xvi. n. xiv. 

4 Ex. D. Thomee et graviontm autorum sententia ad finem legislatoris minime tene- 
mur. — Canus, ibid. p. 871. 

6 Si aliquis dormiret per toturo diem qua observari pnecipitur jejunium, proceptum 
jejunii impleret. — Jo. Sane, disp, ii. n. ii. 

6 Vid. Bonacin. de Sacram. d. v. q. v. p. 2, n. vi. 

Quia non constat privatis hominibus tempore urgentis necessitatis oraturis pro populi 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



88 TBUB BEPKNTANOE [CHAP. V. 

would not condemn any private person that neglects it in these circum- 
stances, and so concludes he after others. As for their common fasts, these 
(no more than their festivals) require not abstinence from acts of wickedness, 
much less repentance for them. 

Is it necessary, when sins are brought to our remembrance, and when our 
minds dictate to us, that they are to be hated and repented of? It seems 
then needful, if ever, seeing a practical judgment obUgeth even in things 
lawful, though they be not otherwise necessary. 1 No, not then ; a man is 
not bound to repent when his sins are offered to his mind, either specula- 
tively or practically. 2 One would think, if a sinner needs not repent, when 
he is mindful of his sins, it could never be needful, since he can never repent 
but when he is mindful of them. 

Is it necessary, when a sinner comes to their sacraments, particularly to 
that of penance ? 3 This must be the time for it (as we may well conceive), 
if there be any time for it at all, in the Romish church. Then a sinner is 
to survey his life, to find out his sins, and as a penitent to make particular 
confession of them, and is to have pardon of his sin, as one that only re- 
pents ; being absolved by a judicial sentence, as valid as if Christ himself 
did pass it immediately. 4 If repentance be not needful, when a sinner is to 
have pardon, then the Lord never required it, nor can it ever be made neces- 
sary by man. 

This notwithstanding, repentance, they say, is not necessary, no, not for 
the sacrament of penance. Attrition will serve for that, which is but a slen- 
der 6 dislike of sin, because it is hurtful to a man's self, without respect to 
God, as it is offensive to him. 6 This, though short of true repentance, is 
sufficient to qualify a man for the sacrament of penance, by the doctrine of 

necessitate, qnod contritio de snis peccatis sit remedium soli tarn ab ipsis adhiberi, et 
quia ignorant id remedii esse necessarium, neqne de hoc tanquam de re necessaria solent 
admoneri a confessoribus vel praBdicatoribus: ideo peccatorem privatum tempore cala- 
xnitati8 magna, qua premitur respublica, orantem Deum pro reipublicre liberatione 
' sine prsBvia contritione, ad peccatum mortale non ideo damnarem, &c, Lopez, cap. xvi. 
p. 97. 

1 Ex hoc autem quod peccata memoriae occurrunt, sicut non tenetur ad tunc con- 
fitendum, ita nee ad tunc conterendum. — Cajetan, sum. v. contrit p. 105. Non autem 
quandocunque occurrit memo rise peccatum tenetur conteri — nee etiam si practice 
occurrunt memori® peccata extra tempus prcecepti, quia tunc secundum Sotum, neque 
displicere, sed neutro modo se habere, non est contemptus. Lopez, cap. xii. p. 85. — 
Vid. Navar. (after Adrian) cap. i. n. xxvii. 

* Non tenetur homo pfflnitentiam agere, quoties peccata memories occurrerint, sire 
speculative sive practice occurrerint. — Canus, ibid. p. 863. 

8 Non tamen ad id tenemur quoties ministramus, vel accipimus sacramenta — quia 
non tenemur tunc habere contritionem. Navar. cap. xi. n. viiL Vid. Lopez, cap. x, 
p. 70. . . . 

Their common doctrine, as we saw before, requires nothing but attntion for baptism 
and penance, no actual disposition at all for their other five sacraments. 

Baptizans autem in necessitate non tenetur ad hoc (viz. contritionem). Sylvest. v. 
Baptism, iii. n. vi. neque Baptizandus. vid. Soto de Nat. et grat. 1. ii. c. xv. p. 101. 

Si attritus suscipit Sacramentum Peenitenti» et Eucharistisa, satisfacit praacepto 
ecclesire.— Cajetan. sum. v. contrit. p. 104, Sacramentum Baptismi et penitential, 
Hcite sumi possunt ab his qui habent conscientiam peccati mortalis, modo habeant 
attritionem qua tollitur obex et complacentia in peccatum commtssum. — Canut, ibid, 
pars. vi. p. 932. 

4 Neque alitor est accipienda vox Bacerdotia peccata condonantis quam vox 
Christi, qui ait paralytico, Mat. vii. Confide fili, remittuntur tibi peccata.— Cote- 
chitm, Trident, de Parnit, 

6 Aquinas asserit attritionem esse displicentiam imperfectam. — Can. ibid. p. 985. 

6 Attritio est dolor peccatorum, non qua ratione sunt offensa Dei, sed quatenua 
nobis nocua. Nimirum quia sunt causa psansa aut in hoc, aut in futuro s»culo.— 
Soto de Nat. et Grat. 1. ii. c. xiv. p. 99. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap, V.] a needless thing in the soman ohuboh. 89 

their ehurch. 1 For they hold the sacrament is not only duly administered, 
bat effectual for all its ends and purposes, when there is no obstacle in the 
receiver ; 2 the obstacle in this case is complacency in mortal sins, 9 the com- 
placence is gone, when sin is disliked or displeasing ont of any respect, 4 and 
so the obstacle is removed by the dislike of sin, which is in attrition. 

Thus comes attrition to be sufficient, and true repentance not needful, no, 
not for the sacrament of repentance. 5 

This is not only concluded by the generality of their doctors, but by the 
council of Trent. And by these particulars we may discern, that repent- 
ance with them is not necessary, at any season of a man's life, and when it 
would be counted so, if they did judge it needful at all, before the ap- 
proach of death. 

Sect. 6. Bat, indeed, there needs no induction of particulars to prove 
this, for they declare plainly, that by the command of God, it is not neces- 
sary to repent till one be at the point of death. This is said to be the judg- 
ment of Aquinas, Soto, Navarre, Durandus, Medina, Cajetan, and others, in 
Suarez. The ground of it is, because the reasons brought to prove that it 
doth not oblige presently, prove it as much of any other certain time in our 
life, except that only when a man is dying.* 

It is to the same effect that others say, the precept does but oblige in 
danger of death or perpetual madness. So Bonacina, and in him (besideB 
Jesuits) Medina, Sotus, Angles, Zerola Pitigianus, Sayrus, Molfesius, and 
others, De Sacram, ibid. n. 5. So that, while a man is like to live, and 
be sober, he need not repent ; but if he be in danger to die, or run mad, he 
should be so wise as to repent first ; but how he shall know when he is like 
to run mad, or that his madness will be perpetual, is a hard question ; and 
till he can resolve it, they will go near to excuse him. And if he can have 
a confessor, though he be at the point of death and distraction too, he need 
not trouble himself with repenting, that proviso they still add (saltern quando 
non adest copia confessarii, cui fiat confessio cum attritions) ; this, indeed, is 
it, that their confessors serve for to save sinners the labour of going to heaven, 
by turning them out of the only way to it. 

However, by this it appears, that any papist hath warranty, by their doc- 
trine, to live impenitently, till he be in danger to live no longer. He need 
not grieve for offending God till he be dying, nor resolve upon that account 

1 Concil. Trident, sess. xiv. cap. iv. ; vid. Cajetan, Navar, Canum, Lopez, snpra 
Bellarm. de paenit. 1. ii. c. ult. p. 974. Sacramenta novae legis conferunt gratiam at- 
tritis. — Canus de Sacramentie, pars. v. p. 797. 

8 Concil. Trident sess. vii. c. vi. Sacramentum gratiam confert omni adulto offer- 
en ti bo, non ponendo obicem. — Cajetan, sum. v. absolut. p. 12; Canus, pars. iii. 
Kelect. de paenit. p. 844 ; Angel, sum. v. confess, vii. Secundum Scotum et S. Thorn, 
si praacedens dolor non suffecisset ad contritionem, &c. 

8 Idem. ibid. p. 982, supra. 

4 Complacentia vero satis tollitur per quemcunque dolorem. — Soto de Nat. et Qrat. 
1. ii. c. xv. p. 101. 

6 That which we, with the Scripture, call true repentance, they call contrition ; 
as for attrition, it is so far from being true repentance, that with the council of Trent 
they all acknowledge it is not of itself sufficient for pardon. Attritio — quamvis sine 
penitentiaa sacramento per se ad justificationem peccatorem perducere nequeat. — 
Concil, Trid. sess. xiv. c iv. 

6 In qua re est multorum opinio hoc prsaceptum (penitential) per se et natura sua, 
tantum obligare pro articulo mortis, ita sen tit D. Thomas et Durandus— et eodem 
modo sumitur haw opinio ex Cajetano, Medina, Soto, Navar, &c Et fundamentum 
— quia supposito, quod pradceptum non statim oblxget ante articulum mortis ; nulla 
est major ratio designandi unum tempus, quam aliud : imo neque est ratio desig- 
nandi aliquod, quia in nullo est vera necessitas: praxseptum autem affirmativum 
tantum obligat pro articulo necessitatis. — Suarez, torn. iv. dLUp. xv. sect. vi. n. ii. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



90 TRUK REPENTANCE [CHAP. V. 

to forsake any sin, till there* be reason to think that he can live no longer to 
commit it. 

What a temptation is here for all wicked persons to turn papists, if 
they could but prevail with themselves to believe in this particular as the 
church believes, against all that God hath declared concerning repentance I 
And since men easily believe what they desire should be true, though against 
the word of truth, how strange would it be if the world did not ' wonder 
after the beast'? 

Sect. 7. But though they excuse a sinner from repenting all his life before, 
yet when he comes to die, do they not then make it needful ? They make some 
show of it, indeed, but it is a mere delusive show ; and they are therein as 
false to their own pretensions, as they are to the souls of sinners. For at 
the approach of death (as at any period before, wherein some of them seem 
to make repentance necessary, yet), even then they abuse them with con- 
ceits, that something else will serve without it. The expedients which they 
have provided thus to delude perishing souls all their lives, and even when 
they are passing into eternity, are many and various ; that those who do not 
like to be ruined one way may be taken with another ; and so, that repent- 
ing, which alone can secure them, may be declined by all. 

First, Repentance without any sensible sorrow for sin, will serve the turn. 
This is the way of Scotus, and Vega, and others. A will not to have sinned, 
though it be without any grief for sin, or without any actual considera- 
tion that he hath sinned, is sufficient for pardon. 1 Such an act of the will 
is the ^essence of that contrition which procures forgiveness, as not only 
Scotus, but Paludanus, Cajetan, Soto, Victoria, and Navarre in Lopez. 2 

Sorrow is not essential to repentance, but an effect ; and such a one as is 
contingent and separable, and doth not necessarily follow it. 3 Correspondent 
to this is their doctrine, who teach, that a virtual repentance is sufficient, 4 
any act whatever, which may be counted penitence virtually, though it be no 
such thing actually, or formally, is enough by their common doctrine ; any 
love to God above all is such a virtual repentance, 6 though without any re- 
membrance of sin ; 6 this is is not only the opinion of Medina, but that which 
is commonly received. Any kind of love will serve for this, though it be 
but natural, and such as may be had without the grace of God, as Navarre 
expresseth it. 7 And the limitation which he would seem to add, that such 
a virtual repentance is but sufficient when there is no time for a formal 
repenting, is excluded by their common doctrine ; for he, and others with 
him, generally teach, that there is no space of time requisite for this, but it 
may be sufficiently despatched in a moment. 8 

And some of their chief divines hold that, a sinner being pardoned upon 

1 In Navar, cap. i. n. iii. 

• Ex mente Navarri, Soti, Paludani, Scoti est, quod contritio quoad suam essentiam 
est iste actus, Nollem peccasse. — Lopez, cap. x. p. lxviii. et cap. vi. p. xxxriii. ; vid. D. 
Thorn. Paludan, Soto, Navar, Ledesma, Cajetan, Concii, Trident, and others in Jo. 
Sane. disp. i. n. viii. 

8 Pei supradicta constat (contritionem) non esse dolorem essentialiter ; sed causam 
ex qua, et aliis ad id necessariis, nascitur dolor, si aliunde non impediatnr. — Nav. ibid, 
n. xiv. 

4 Sufficit actus qui licet non sit pronitentia talis formaliter, est tamen virtualiter 
secundum Scotum communiter receptum. — Ibid. n. v. 

6 N. xxx. 

6 I mo quilibet amor Dei, quo plus quam omnia alia diligitur, videtnr virtualis 
peccatorum paenitentia, secundum communem quam sequitur. Jo. Medina, ibid. n. ?. 

7 Cap. xi. n. vii. p 188, supra. 

8 Cap. i n. xxxviii. Penitudo momentanea — ad remissionem peccati jnxta com- 
munem sufficiat. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. V.] a needless thing in the soman chtjbch. 91 

this virtual penitence, if be remember bis sins afterwards, is not bound to 
repent of then. So Corduba, Sotns, Vega, Bonacin. ibid. d. v. q. v. p. 2, 
a i. 

Thus we have repentance sufficient to salvation in the Roman church without 
any sorrow, without any sense or remembrance of sin. And how can they count 
any more sorrow for sin necessary, who hold that no prudent person doth con- 
fess his sins to a priest, but he detests them formally or virtually, 1 and 60 
some way sufficiently ; when it is known to be their common practice to 
confess sins, without any sorrow or detestation thereof? Yea, even in the hour 
of death, asking God forgiveness, without any remembrance of sin or actual 
repentance, is enough for pardon. So Joseph the Minorite teacheth, favour- 
ing their conceit (as Lopez observes) who think it repentance enough, to beat 
their breasts, and say, ' Lord, have mercy/ 2 Nor doth such pernicious pre- 
sumption find encouragement only in the Minorites' divinity. Pope Clement 
the Eighth contributes more to it when, in his indnlgences sent to Poland, 
he promiseth pardon to any one whoever that is dying, if he have but the 
name Jems once in his thoughts, though he cannot express it. i 

As there can be no true repentance without sorrow for sin, so neither 
without resolution to forsake it ; and yet they teach, repentance may be as 
well without this as the other. A virtual resolution may serve, i. e. such a 
purpose to abandon sin, as he may have who never thought of leaving it. 3 
Navarre tells us that the sufficiency of such a purpose is learnedly and 
magnificently asserted by Vega. 4 He himself explains it and defends it, 
without any limitation, but that, the vanity whereof appears before ;* and 
telle us the council of Trent requires not a formal purpose, but thinks 
that sufficient which is only virtual. 6 And their divines whom they call 
Nominate, deny that any purpose to forsake sin is necessary to repent- 
ance, as Soto informs us. 7 So that by the doctrine of all sorts of divines 

1 Nullus est adeo imprudens qui tempore confessionis peccata sua non detestatur 
fonnaliter vel virtualiter. — Major et Victoria in Lopez, c. xvii. p. 100. 

2 Sufficere ad contritionem, tunsionem pectoris, aut prolationem Miter ere mei — cap. 
u'ii. p. 90. Instants mortis, pra angustia tollente recordationem peccatorum, si quia 
toto oorde petat veniam, Bine actuali psnitentia, per orationen justificabitur. 

3 Non est necessarium ad remissionem peccatorum formale propositum vitandi 
peocatnm. — Vega. Condi. Trident, 1. xiii. cap. xxi. 

* Cap. i. n. vi. Sicut actus, qui est prenitentia virtualis, sufficit, ita eadem ratione 
snfficere videtur, quod earn comitetur id, quod est propositum virtuale confitendi, satis- 
fariendi, et amplius non peccandi, n. xi. 

6 N. xii. ; vid. Suarez, torn. iv. disp. xx. sect. iv. 

6 Graves doctores existimant sufficere virtuale propositum, ita Major, Almain, Vega, 
Medina, Petrus, Soto, Navar, Adrian. — Idem. ibid. disp. iv. p. 8, d. ii. 

7 Ex nominalibus quidam addubitant, nam in ratione contritionis necessarium sit 
propositum cavendi a vitiis in futurum. Atque id negant Soto de natur. et gr. 1. ii. 
c. xiv. p. 99 ; vid. Canum, Cordubam qui refert Durandum, Paludanum, Capreolum 
et Antoninum, pro tali sententia in Suarez, torn. iv. disp. xx. sect. ii. n. vi. Non 
ease necessariam detestationem efficacem cum absolute dolore et proposito non pec- 
eandi, sed displicentiam quamcunque, cum velleitate non peccandi, sufficere ad 
valorem sacramenti, tenet Cajetan, Victoria, Canus, Ledesma, Sicut Paludanus, 
Sylvester. — Ibid. sect. iv. Aquinas, Capreolus, Thorn. Hurtado. — Tom. ii. tr. ult. 
a. 501. 

Neqne oportet, ut confessor sibi pereuadeat, et judicet etiam probabiliter, ita esse 
fatnrum ut panitens a peccando abstineat, sed satis est, ut existimet tunc habere talc 
propositum, quamvis post breve tempus illud ait mutaturus. Ita docent omnes 
siuctores. — Idem, disp. xxxii. sect. ii. n. ii. p. 426. 

geotus in iv. diet. xiv. q. ult. art. iii., and Sylvester after him, sum. v. confessio, n. 
xxiv., hold that neither sorrow for sin, nor resolution against it (no, not so little as 
they ascribe to attrition) is needful ; but that a willingness to partake of their sacra- 
ment is sufficient for justification by it. 



Digitized by 



Google 



92 TBUE BEPBNTANOE [CHAP. V. 

amongst them, a repenting, which wants the essentials of true repentance, 
will suffice in life or death. 

Secondly, A repentance or sorrow for sin which is merely natural is 
counted sufficient. The apostle to true repentance requires godly sorrow, 
2 Cor. vii. 9, 10, but they, many of them, think it not requisite that 
it should be godly, no, not in respect of its original. That will serve 
which is not from God, but from nature. Bcotus, a leader of one mighty 
squadron of their school doctors, determines, that such a sorrow may be had 
by the power of nature as will in congruity merit pardon of sin. 1 And 
Adrian, Durandus, with all the Nominate in a manner, take that to be his 
judgment, and are of the same persuasion themselves. The Franciscans 
maintained it in the council of Trent. 3 Aquinas, whom the rest of their 
school divines generally follow, was of that opinion too. 8 And the chief of 
the Dominicans, his modern followers (even those of them who are loath their 
angelical doctor should appear to be so much a Pelagian), do hold, that such 
a sorrow as is merely from nature (without either habitual grace or special 
assistance) is enough to justify him who through ignorance thinks it enough. 
So Canus and Soto in Lopez, 4 from whence Lopez infers, that in their 
account such remorse for sin, as requires special assistance, is not necessary 
to the justification of a sinner ; but that may suffice which is had from the 
power of nature, though the ground of it be but outward disgrace. 6 Thus if 
we will believe the Roman doctors, Thomists or Scotists (the Jesuits, who 
serve themselves of both as they see occasion, I need not mention, since 
of their concurrence herein there is no question), a sinner may be saved 
by such a sort of repentance as is not the gift of God, but the pure issue of 
corrupt nature. ' 

Thirdly, A slight and inconsiderable sorrow (such as falls short of what 
the Scripture calls for) will suffice instead of true repentance. One act of 
grief, they tell us, is enough for the sins of a whole life, one only, there 
needs not two. So Soto, 6 Bellarmine, 7 Ac. One act will serve for all sins 
in general and together ; remembered or not remembered, in which sense 

1 Expresse ipse (Scotus) in iv. diet. xiv. q. ii. ait., quod e* puris naturalibus, cum 
communi influentia, potest esse attritio, qu» sit meritum de congruo ad deletionem 
peccati mortalis — adeo pro constanti ubique habet, quod naturaliter possumus disponi 
de congruo ad justificationem : quam solam dispositionem ipse docet. Atqui 
Adrianus, Durandus, et ferme Nominales, et ita ilium sentire indubie* putant, et 
sentiunt ipsi.— Sato, ibid. 1. ii. c. iv. p. 68. 

* That a man by natural power only may feel a sorrow for sin, which is a 
disposition, and merit of congruity to abolish it. — But. of Covin, of Trent. I. ii. 
p. 198. 

8 Ibid, et Soto, ibid. 1. i. c. ii. Aquinas opinionem oommunem insequutus affir- 
masset, turn quod homo ex naturalibus posset se disponere ad gratiam, turn quod dis- 
positio ilia esset meritum de congruo, p. 66. 

4 Quffistio oritur, an cum attritione oral solum ex viribus naturn simul cum Sacra- 
mento in re, possit prenitens justificari. Et quidem qusBatio est, quro nobis Thomistis 
fncit negotium, propterea quod Bcotus et Canus clarissimi Thomista, videntur hie 
affirmativam tenere, cap.jriii. p. 63. 

* P. 65. 

6 8. Thom. Nugnus, Navar, Victoria, Sotus, Pitigianus, Zerola, Cajet., Palatius, 
Canus, in Bonacina. — Ibid d. v. q. v. p. 6, n. i 

Satis est si pnnitens peccatis omnibus memoratis, unam detestationem applicet — 
In Lopez, c. vi. p. 89. 

7 Neque illud exigitur ut tot sint actus contritionis, quot sint peccata — est conce- 
dendum hominem unica actione peccata omnia, qu» memorite forte occurrunt, detestari, 
atque ob ea commissa dolere : alioquin enim falsum esset, quod paolo ante demon- 
gtravimus, in momento posse hominem convert], et justificari.— Zto PomU t L ii. c xL 
p. 944. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. Y.J a needless thing in the boman chuboh. 93 

they say general repentance will suffice. 1 Their sense de Graffiis thns 
reports : A particular repentance is not required, bat one general will serve, 
extending itself, at least virtually, to all mortal sins, both which he remem- 
bers, and remembers not ; with a will to abstain from all ; this is enough 
for remission of sins. 3 

Farther, this one act of grief needs be bat very little and slender ; the 
very least remorse, in the lowest degree that can be, will serve. 

When they require no sensible sorrow at all to repentance, bat only a 
dislike of the will, or a will not to have sinned, the least and weakest motion 
of the will that way (against past sins) will suffice. 

To the perfection of repentance, a certain slender inward grief is requisite, 
saith Maldonate ; 3 one act of contrition, though it be remiss, is enough, 
saith Tolet. These two are Jesuits, hot speak more modestly than others 
of their doctors. Let us hear Canus : We need not grieve for sin as much as 
we can ; such an endeavour is not required in any other precept for love, 
faith, hope, or righteousness. 4 Yea, they would be foolish precepts, if they 
enjoined a certain degree. But if we need not grieve so much as we can, 
how then ? Why, as little as can be; or if that will not satisfy, as little as 
we will. Qxtantumcunque sit remissa, saith Navarre. 6 Penitence, be it never 
so little, it is sufficient for the washing away of all crimes, according to the 
common sense of the doctors, quantumvis remissa, be it as little as you will, 
says Lopez after Aquinas. 6 No certain degree, none that can be assigned, 
above the least of all, is requisite in Bellarmine, Victoria, &c. 7 But should 
there not be a degree, more than the least, for the more grievous sins ? 
No, no more for them than the less. In honesty we may grieve more for 
the greater, to comply with the advice of God, but there is no necessity for 
it ; it is only matter of counsel, and so left to our pleasure. 8 But must we 
not grieve for sin, as those who conceive it to be hateful above all, and most 
to be avoided ? No, not that neither. 9 Lopez tells us, that neither council 
nor Scripture have declared it necessary to grieve for sin, as that which is 

1 Cajetan, sum. v. contrit, p. 103, 104 ; Soto, dist. xvii. q. ii. art. iii. ; Tol. 1. iii. 
c. xv. p. 516. 

8 Non requiri singularem sed quod sufficiat una generalis, qn» saltern virtualiter 
se extendat ad omnia peccata mortalia, &c , 1. i. c. v. n. v. 

Satis est ut concipiat generalem ejusmodi paenitudinem qu» virtute se extendat ad 
omnia mortifica. Navar, c. i n. xxii., quod tenendum est cum Jo. Majore et Cardinale 
S. Sixti, alii communiter — In Bonacin. ibid, punct. vi. 

8 Ad perfectionem paenitentiae requiritur tenuis quidam dolor internus, sum. q. xvi. 
art. i. Contritio una licet remissa, 1. iii c. v. 

4 FrsBceptum de actu fidei et de actu spei homo implet, etiamsi non agat ex toto 
conatu ; ergo et praeceptum de charitate et contritione : non ergo contritio totum 
animi conatum exigit— quod autem nullum ejusmodi esset praeceptum, patet, esset 
enim stultum praBceptum, quod semper invincibiliter ignoratur. — ReUct. de Pons*, 
pars. iii. p. 841. 

6 Quantumcunque sit remissa— satis est ad crimina diluenda, cap. i. n. xxxi. Secun- 
dum mentem communem doctorum. 

6 Secundum, 8. Thorn, quascunque contritio vera, quantumvis remissa, etiam in 
instanti concepta, satis est ad remittenda omnia mortalia, cap. xv. p. 04. 

De Pcenit. L H. c. xi. p. 048 ; Contrit. n. cvi. 

7 Dicendum est ad rationem contritionis nullam definitam intensionem requiri, sed 
8ufflcere substantiam actus, in quocunque gradu fiat. — tiuarez, torn. iv. disp. iv. sect. iv. 
lta expresse, Gabriel, Soto, Medina, Vega, Nevarrus. — Ibid. n. ix. 

Vid. plures in Bonacin, ibid, punct. vii. n. iii. 

* Licet de graviori peccato gravior requiratur paenitentia sive penitudo, hoc tamen 
intelligendum est de consilio et honestate, non autem de necessitate. — Navar, c. i. 
n. xxxi. 

9 Detestari peccatum supra omne malum p»nae, non necessarium.— Cajetan, Navar, 
Vega, in Swires, ibid. disp. iii. sect. ix. n. viii 



Digitized by 



Google 



94 TBUE REPENTANCE [CHAP. V. 

most hateful, and (which is more than all) that the council of Trent requires 
it not. 1 Navarre had said as much before him, only the former thinks it may 
be requisite that the penitent do not expressly or positively form in his mind 
a resolution not to grieve for sin' above all that is hateful. 2 Thus is repen- 
tance reduced in a manner to nothing. In respect of appreciation, it is too 
much to grieve for sin, as that which is most odious ; in respect of intense- 
ness, it is enough to grieve less for it than other grievances; the least degree 
of all is sufficient, and that which is next to nothing may serve. 

Moreover, this one act, so extremely little, may be despatched in a moment. 3 
The least degree of it is enough, but the least continuance is too much ; all 
the repentance that is a sinner's duty may be perfectly finished in the 
twinkling of an eye ; an indivisible instant can serve all the exigencies of it, 
and it may be as soon over as a man can say Peccavi. It is such an act as 
vanishes so soon as ever it appears, and is come and gone before there is 
time to observe it ; they allow not the least space, the least particle of time 
to be necessary for it. And it is so in faith, hope, love, and other virtues ; 
no man ever required any space of time for this ; so Bellarmine, 4 Canus de 
Graffiis f so Navarre, 6 so all in a manner ; for he tellB us it is the common 
sense of their divines. 7 The least penitence that may be, in the shortest 
time that can be, yea, in that which is less than any particle of time, even 
in an instant, is enough to blot out all crimes. And Scotus, for saying that 
penitence despatched in a moment is not sufficient for pardon, had like to 
have suffered shrewdly, every one almost being ready to fall foul upon bim ; 
but his followers have compounded for him, and brought him off with a 
distinction, which makes him say as the rest do, whether he thought so or 
no. 8 And now it passeth currently, that all the sorrow which any need have 
for all his sins may be over in less than a minute, and may be begun, per- 
fected, and ended in less time than you can pronounce the least syllable of 
miserere, and this they restrain not to extraordinary cases, but conclude it 
as common to all. Finally, 

This one little act, so suddenly despatched, need never return : do it 
but once, and no need to do it again. The act, though next to nothing in 
degree, though nothing at all as to continuance, is not necessarily to be 
repeated, or the defect of it to be supplied by another act, though there be 
time and occasion for it ; all exercise of repentance for sin, supposed to be 
thus pardoned, upon any occasion, is altogether unnecessary. Having passed 
one act of grief, so extremely slender and so suddenly over, he needs never 
trouble himself with it further. There is no command 9 that can oblige us to 

1 Nullum concilium, nee sancti, nee scriptura sacra, id supra omne odibile, dolorem 
necessarium esse expressere, c. xv. p. 92. 

* Cap. i. n. xxv. 

8 Sufficit, si fiat in instanti. — Bonacin. ibid, punct. viii. ibi. Nugnus, Molfesius, 
et alii. 

4 Non requiritur certus gradus intensionis, neque mora ulla temporis ad veram 
contritionem — quis unquam in pneceptis fidei, spei, dilectionis, aliarumque virtutum 
istas mensuras excogitavit, &c. — De Pasnit. 1. ii. c. xi. p. 948. 

5 Canus. pars. iii. ; Relect. de Pa?nit, p. 842. 

6 Graff. 1. i. c. v. n. vii. 

7 Secundum mentem communem doctorum, quam explicat, Jo. Major, psenitudo 
circumamicta debitis circumstantiis et supradictis, quantumcunque remissa, et brevis- 
simo tempore, etiam in instanti concepta, satis est ad crimina diiuenda, cap. i. n. xxxi. 
et n. xxii. et n. xxxviii. 

8 Vid. Lopez, cap. xv. p. 94, alii Scotistw videntur Scotum salvare ejus sensum et 
mentem interpretando— nam culpam posse remitti per contritionem etiam remissam, 
et habitam in instanti, non dubitavit, &c. 

Non est praeceptum quod nos obiigat ad earn habendam bis speciatim de eodem. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Chap. V.] a needless thing in the soman ohtjbch. 95 

have it twice for the same sin. Such is the repentance which, in the chnroh 
of Borne, is counted sufficient for salvation even in ordinary eases ; how 
agreeable it is to that which the Scripture makes necessary, let others judge ; 
to me it seems calculated for the humours of those who would be saved with 
a conceit of repenting, without troubling themselves with the thing ; yet this 
is not the worst. For, 

Fourthly, When they have commended to sinners a sort of repentance 
which is not sufficient to save them, they take it for granted that it is insuffi- 
cient, and yet maintain that it is enough, if the sinner do but think so, yea, 
or do not think the contrary. He that thinks he is contrite, saith Soto, 
when he is not, 1 thongh his inward remorse be not sufficient, yet because he 
means honestly, he shall receive justifying grace by the sacrament. Navarre 
tells us that Soto herein followed Aquinas commonly received, and he, 4 after 
Franciscus Victoria, judgeth it to be the plain sense of the council of Trent ; s 
Corduba, Canus, and de Graffiis,* with others, concur herein. As for the 
followers of Seotus, amongst them it is taught,, that whosoever thinks he is 
contrite, hath really obtained pardon ; and therefore none, who make account 
they bring contrition to the sacrament, do by it receive the first grace, because 
they are possessed of it already, by thinking so. well of themselves, 6 as Soto 
reports them. Add but Cardinal Tolet (that we may see how all orders 
conspire herein 4 ), those who come with remorse (which they think to be 
contrition) receive the first grace. He thus explains it : Sometimes a man 
hath some grief for sin which is not sufficient for pardon ; but the sacrament 
being added, he is pardoned. 

Thus, all sorts agree in this conceit, which I know not whether it be more 
ridiculous or pernicious, that a man's thinking he hath true repentance, 
when he hath it not, is enough (at least with the sacrament of absolution) 
to save him. Let any man but delude himself, or be deluded by others, with 
a false conceit that he truly repents, when he doth not; and any priest can 
let him, in his impenitence, into heaven ; if the best of the Roman guides 
may be believed, or those impostors regarded, who hereby make it plain (if 
they did it no other way), that they are given up to strong delusions. 

Fifthly, If a man want that penitent sorrow which is sufficient, yet if he 
signify that he would have it, or that he is sorry that he hath it not, it is as 
effectual as if he had it. The penitent is to be asked (saith Paludanus) 
whether he repent ; and if he do not grieve sufficiently, whether this do not 

—Navar, c. i. n. zzviii. ; vid. Sylvest. sum. v* contrit. n. if. He is not obliged after- 
wards when he remembers his sins, Aquinas, Navar, Sayrus, Angles, Pitigianus, 
Molfesius, &c. — Bonacin, ibid, punct. ii. n. iz. 

1 Tnm enim licet attritio interna non sufficit, tamen quia ille bona fide accedit, 
recipiet gratiam per sacraroentum. — D$ NaU et Oral. 1. ii. o. zv. p. 101. 

* Cap. i. n. zlii. et n. xzzv. 

Quando non habet signa sufficientia doloris, potest et debet interrogare paenitentem, 
an ez animo detestetur peccatum, cui affirmanti credere tenetur. Et hoc idem dicen- 
dum est de proposito in futurum— Ita dooent omnes authores. — Suar. torn. ir. disp. 
zzzii. sect. ii. n. ii. 

9 Victoria, Soto, Ledesma, Vega, Corduba ; in Suarez, 1. iv. disp. zz. sect. i. n. vii. 

4 Quando saltern concipitur ob amorem Dei— cum credulitate quod habeat suffi- 
cientem dolorem, licet revera ilium non habeat, 1. i. o. ii. n. viii. et n. vi. 

5 Neque vero ignoro nominalium quorundam opinionem docentium, quod quicunque 
ezistimat se esse contritum, revere obtinuisse jam veniam, atque adeo quod nullus 
cogitans contritionem se adferre ad sacramentum, per ipsum recipit primam gratiam : 
quin vero jam recepit per suam bonam illam cogitantiam. — Ibid. p. 102. 

6 Aliquando homo dolet de peccato, dolore qui per se non sufficeret delere peccatum, 
et tamen accedente Sacramento deletur.— Jutt. 1. ii. c. xvi. p. 460. 

vol. in. v 



Digitized by 



Google 



96 TBUS BEPENTANOE, [CHAP. V. 

displease him, and whether he would not grieve sufficiently ; l and this (saith 
he) is sufficient, which Sylvester would have well observed, because one ao 
disposed may be absolved (t. e. though he want that repentance which is 
sufficient, yet he hath enough to put him into a saving state) ; and this, he tells 
us, is not only the sense of Peter Paludanus, but of Aquinas and Bonaven- 
tnre, and all their divines. Navarre saith as much, approving it as the opinion 
of all their doctors. 2 And yet this willingness, which they will have to sup- 
ply the want of sufficient repentance, k but a conditional velleity, such as, 
Lopez observes, 3 may stand with aa absolute unwillingness to repent suffi- 
ciently ; such a will as a whore may have to leave the stews when she hath 
an absolute purpose to stay there ; and yet he himself 4 will have such a 
velleity with attrition (which is far from true repentance) to be sufficient in 
the want of it. And this leads us further ; — 

Sixthly, Attrition, though known by the sinner to be short of true repent- 
ance, is sufficient without it, to pass him into a saving state, if the sacrament 
be added. Betwixt contrition (which with them is true or complete repent- 
ance) and this attrition, the distance is great ; they give an account of it in 
many particulars. 5 That is a grief for offending God, this for temporal or 
eternal punishment, as the greatest evil ; that proceeds from filial, this from 
slavish fear ; that cannot be had without supernatural assistance, this may 
be had by the power of nature, say many of them ; that is an act formed by 
grace and love, this an act unformed, destitute of grace and love ; that can 
pass one into the state of grace, with a desire only of the sacrament, this 
cannot, without an actual partaking of it ; so, in fine, that is complete 
repentance, this but a defective remorse, 6 such as was in Antiochus and Judas. 
Attrition, we see by their own account, is very far from true repentance, yet 
being held sufficient for a saving state without it, if the sacrament be added, 
by virtue hereof, repentance is most evidently rendered needless. And such 
attrition they think sufficient for this purpose, as either ariseth from the 
turpitude of sin, as it is disagreeable to reason, or from fear of hell, or appre- 
hensions of temporal punishments and damage, as loss of health, credit, 
estate, &c. The council of Trent admits of any of these. For attrition, by 
their declaration, 7 is either 8 that which proceeds from consideration of the 

1 Secundum Pet. de. Pal. a psenitente requirendnm est, si p»nitet : et si non suffi- 
cienter dolet, an hoc sibi displicet, et vellet sufficienter dolere. Et hoc, inquit, sufficit, 
quod valde nota, quia sic dispositus est contritua vol saltern attritus, ut possit absolvi 
— et est mens S. Thorn. 8. Bonavent et omnium Theologorum. — Sum. v. contrit. n. ii. 

* Cap. i. n. zviii. et cap. x. n. iv. 

8 Secundum doctores et ipsnm Navarrum paenitentia de prtsteritis habetur per 
istum conditionalem actum, Nollem peccasse, sed cum istis conditionalibus nolleitati- 
bus aut velleitatibus, stare potest propositum absolutum de sibi contrario. Ut cum 
nolleitate qua ingruente procella mercator nollet projicere merces suas in mare secun- 
dum, Aristot. stat absolutum propositum eas projiciendi. Et cum velleitate quam 
meretrix in lopanari tenet inde exeundi, stare potest absoluta voluntas ibi manendi. 
Cap. xv. p. 91. 

4 Non sufficit cum Sacramento psnitentifB ad salutem, nisi saltern attritio adsit, 
ibid.— Vide Suarez. 

6 Vide Soto in iv. sent, dist. xvii. p. ii. art. iii. ; Graff. 1. i. c. ii. n. iii. 

6 Idem ibid. C. Judas. 0. Sceleratior ; de pan. dist. iii. 

7 Quinimo minime malum est psenitere solum metu psense, infamise vel alterius 
roali : roodo voluntatem peccandi excludat, luculenter declarat, Concil. Trident. Sees. 
xiv. c. iv. ; Navar. cap. i. n. viii. ; Vega lib. xiii. in Trident, c. xiv. Concedit detes- 
tationem ob metum aliarum psenaruni, esse attritionem, et contineri subprimo membro: 
nam Concilium utrumque conjunxit, scil. ex metu gehennae et psenarum, in Suar. torn, 
iv. disp. v. sect. ii. n. xv. vide Bonacin. ibid, punct. iii. n. iii. ; Zerola. Chamerota, 
Pitigisnus, et alii. ibid. 

8 111am vero contritionem imperfectam, quae attritio dicitur : quoniam vel ex turpi- 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. V.j a needless thing in the roman ohubch. 97 

turpitude of sin, or fear of hell, or other punishment. And such attrition 
is, with the sacrament, sufficient for pardon, as is determined by that council 
in these words : Hereby he makes his way to righteousness ; and although 
without the sacrament, it [attrition] cannot by itself bring a sinner to justi- 
fication, yet it disposeth him to obtain the grace of God in the sacrament of 
penance. 1 So that, by their doctrine, attrition so disposeth a sinner for justi- 
fication, that their sacrament being added, it actually justifies, i. e. puts a 
sinner into a state of grace and salvation. From this sentence of the council, 
as Bellarmine tells us, 2 the truth of what their divines hold is conspicuous, 
viz. that attrition, arising out of fear, is a disposition to justification, and the 
sacrament being added, doth truly justify. How generally they hold (with 
some difference of notion) the sufficiency of attrition with their sacrament, 
we may see in such as give an account of their opinions distinctly (not taking 
any of the Society into the reckoning) : it will be enough but to name some 
of them, since their suffrages, after the determination of a council, are less 
needful. Some are for attrition improved, 3 as Henricus, Cajetan, Ferrari- 
ensis, Petrus, Soto ; some for attrition mistaken for contrition, 4 as Victoria, 
Soto, Ledesma, Vega, Corduba; some for attrition known to be so, 6 as 
Aquinas, Scotus, Paludanus, Oapreolus, Durandus, Adrian, Antoninus, Syl- 
vester, Oanus ; and some 6 for the opinion of attrition without the reality. But 
this is enough to shew that, by the doctrine of their church, attrition with 
the sacrament is sufficient to put a sinner into a saving state at any time, 
living or dying. Thus is true repentance reduced to attrition, and this made 
enough to qualify an impenitent sinner for pardon, so as he cannot fail of it ; 
and yet attrition, of what kind soever, can scarce pass for a good quality. 
That sort of it which is rational (a dislike of sin, because it [is] disagreeable 
to reason), is not so good in their account as that which is servile ; because, 
as such, 7 it is but a mere natural act, and hath no respect to God, and so 
hath nothing in it which looks like godly sorrow. As for that which is ser- 
vile (a dislike of sin only, or principally, for fear of punishment temporal or 
eternal), this is so far from being spiritually good, that it is morally evil ; so 
bad it is, by the authority and reason of their own divines. Thus Gregory, 
Almain, and Adrian conclude, 8 that it is evil to act out of fear of punishment, 
as the next end or motive. It is no better by the reasoning of others, who 
would have us think better of it ; a sinner thereby prefers himself before 
God ; and that sure is a sin (in any, unless they will except ' his holiness') not 
any repenting of sin ; for he that dislikes sin for punishment principally, or 
as the greatest evil, regards more (as themselves argue) that which is evil 

tndinis peccati consideration, vel ex gehenn© et prenarum metu communiter conci • 
pitur, Sess. xiv. cap. iv. 

1 Quo paenitens adjutus viam sibi ad justitiam parat, et quamvis sine p»nitentiro 
sacramento per se ad justificationem peccatorem perducere nequeat : tamen earn ad 
Dei gratiam in sacramento psenitentiae impetrandam disponit. — Ibid. 

* Et de eo loqnuntur theologi, cum dicunt, attritionem ex timore conceptam, dis- 
positionem esse ad justificationem, et sacramento accedente, revera justificare, ut 
pertpicuum est ex concilio Tridentino, Sess. xiv. c. iv. de psenit. 1. ii. c. xviii. p. 972. 

8 Vide Suarez. torn. iv. disp. xx. sect. i. n. v. 4 N. vii. 6 N. ix. 

6 Soto, Canus, Vega, n. 

7 Detestatio peccati quia est contra rationem non est sufBcicns, quia non respicit 
Deum ipsum, nep peccatum, ut est offensa ejus— turn quia ex vi illius motivi non est 
supernaturalis. — Idem. ibid. disp. iv. sect. ii. n. xi. Primum itaqne genus imperfecta? 
displicentto est, cum quis dolet de peccato propter humana naturaiiaque motiva, ut 
quia turpe est et contra rationem.— Camu, Select, de pamit. pars. iii. p. 886. 

8 Nonnuli catholici— operari ex timore tanquam ex fine proximo, judicant esse 
malum, ut Gregorius, Almain, Adrian, Suar. ibid. disp. v. sect. ii. n. iii. p. 65. Vide 
Angel. Bum. v. Timor. 



Digitized by 



Google 



98 TBUE REPENTANCE, [CHAP. V. 

to himself, than that which is evil to God, and so placeth the ultimate end 
in himself, not in God. 1 

Sect. 8. Having thus reduced repentance to a thing no better than we see 
attrition is, as though it were yet too good and too much, they bring attrition 
down to nothing. It is but as they describe it, a dislike of sin, not as that 
is offensive to God, but out of other respects, wherein self-love is most con- 
cerned, and slavish fear is most operative. 2 The least dislike of this nature 
will serve, and in the lowest degree that can be : 3 nor need this continue any 
longer than the least moment. 

And it will be sufficient, say some, though it be but merely natural, 4 
excited by some natural or human motive, without the grace of God, or his 
divine assistance ; so Canus and Soto. Or it will serve if there be but a 
dislike that this dislike of sin is wanting ; 6 so Paludanus, Navarre, and others. 
Or it will be enough if there be a willingness to have it in those who have it 
not, 6 according to the doctrine of their holy men, Aquinas and Richardns 
especially ; or a man's thinking, probably, that he hath it when he hath it 
not, 7 will serve the turn, so Canns and Vega ; or if he neither have it in 
reality nor in conceit, it will suffice, if he be but willing to partake of the 
sacrament ; 8 for so, they tell us, he is virtually willing to be attrite, and this 
qualifies him for pardon, though he neither actually hath attrition, nor desires 
it ; so Scotus, and Sylvester after him. Thus after attrition hath swallowed 
up true repentance, yet it still becomes more lank by their handling, and, in 
fine, shrinks quite away. Bat whether it be little or nothing, it will serve 
to justify them, yea, and that too without their ritual penance ; other sacra- 
ments or rites, with this, will do it. They advance the sufficiency of attri- 
tion, for all the purposes of true repentance, even without their penance. 
This, with the eucharist, will serve ; not (say they) that there is need of true 
contrition, a conceit that he hath it, with this and the eucharist, 9 will pro- 

1 Si psena timeatur tanquam maximum, supremum, pessimumque malum, tunc est 
pravna timor, nam per ilium. prefert homo malum suum, malo Dei : unde in se, non in 
Deo, constitnit finem ultimum. — Idem. disp. i. de spe. sect. iv. n. vi. ; Valmt. torn, iii 
disp. ii. q. ii. punct. iii. 

8 Aquinas ii. 2. q. xix. art. vi. 

8 Nulla intentio vel duratio est de rations contritionis (Gabriel, Soto, Medina, Vega, 
Navar.) et idem est de attritione propter easdera rationes. — Suar. ibid. disp. v. sect 
i. n. vi. 

4 Ad effectum hujus sacramenti eufflcere attritionem naturalem, t. e. solis viribus 
naturffi elicitam : sive ilia sit concepta ex motivo seterno et honosto, ut est fugere 
pens* inferni, vel turpi tudinem peccati, sive ex motivo temporali et indifferente, ul 
est vitare infamiam, vel aliud temporale detrimentum. — Soto et Canus, ibid. disp. xx. 
sect. ii. n. vii. 

6 Satis est, ut quidam dicunt, quod p»nitens displicentiam habeat, quod de peccato 
non dolet —Ibid. sect. i. n. ii. 

Su flic it, si quis vellet habere displicentiam, et Dei gratiam cavendi in posterum : 
quia talis est attritio virtualiter, secundum doctrinam sanctorum, maxime, S. Thorn. 
et Rich.— Sylvest. Sum. v. Confess, i. n. xxiv., 

7 Aliqui sentiunt ad hunc effectum uon esse necessariam veram attritionem, in 
re existentem, sed inculpabiliter et probabiliter putatam sufficere, quod sensit Canus 
et Vega. 1. xiii. c. xxxiv. — Suar. ibid. sect. ii. n. ii. et alii in Bonacin, ibid. q. v. p. iii. 
n. vi. 

8 Imo dicitur fortius secundum Scotum, quod sufficit, quern velle taJem displicen- 
tiam non solum formatter, sed etiam virtualiter, earn volendo in sua causa, t. *. in 
sacramento paonitentise justificante, quia in iv. dist. xiv. q. ult. in art. ii. tenet, quod 
ad consequendam gratiam per hoc sacramentum, non requiritur attritio : sed sufficit 
voluntas suscipiendi hoc sacramentum, Ac. — Sylvest. ibid. 

Imo aliqui Doctores asserunt hoc valere (viz. attritionem putatam) etiamsi omissa 
sit vera attritio ob negligentiam in prioparatione facienda. — Bonacin. ubi supra de 
psenit. d. v. q. v, sect. i. p. 8, n. vi. 

9 Aquinas xiii. q. lxxix. art. i. ii. in Tol. 1. vi. c. xvi. Halensis in Victorell, ibid. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. V.J a needless thing in the soman ohuboh. 99 

care him pardon. This, with extreme unction, will serve, as Sylvester 1 tells 
ns ; yea, this may be enough without any sacrament at all, as if a man in 
mortal sin, and so (with them) not in the state of grace, be killed, because 
he is a Christian, while he is asleep. If he was attrite, and willing to suffer 
before, by virtue hereof his sins are pardoned ; so Cajetan, .Sotus, and 
Lopez 1 after them. 

In short, the mass may serve their turn ; for divers of them hold that this 
being offered for such as are attrite, by virtue thereof (ex opere operatd) im- 
mediately, and without more ado, they have pardon of mortal sins and 
habitual grace ; so Catharinus (in Canus, loc. Theol. 1. zii. o. xiii. p. 693) 
and others. 

Here is competent provision made that sinners may perish securely, and 
never look after true repentance, living or dying. There is but one thing 
which may seem to give some check to this great encouragement. These 
administrations, whereby they will have the impenitent saved, depend upon 
a priest ; and the sinner may be in such circumstances (though this be very 
rare) wherein a priest cannot be had ; and then, if he should chance to die 
without contrition, he will perish. But this need not disturb any in their 
course of impenitence ; for in case of necessity, where a priest cannot be 
had, another may serve in his stead ; though he be a laic, confession may 
be made to him, and God will supply the want of a priest ; so Aquinas (in 
iv. dist. xvii. q. iii. art. iii.) ; or he may have the eucharist administered to 
him without a priest ; and it is their common doctrine that the eucharist 
justifies one that is in mortal sin if he be attrite, and thinks but himself con- 
trite ; yea, he may administer it to himself with the same effect in case of 
necessity. Divers of all sorts amongst them are of this opinion. The autho- 
rity of Aquinas is alleged for it (iii. q. lxxxii. art. iii.), and Cajetan in Mat. xxvi. 
The example of the Queen of Scots (commonly produced), who, having the 
sacrament by her, administered it to herself, is highly approved by all. 

Thus far Satan has prevailed with them to promote the damnation of 
sinners, by hardening them in impenitence, even when the interest of their 
priests seems a little concerned. But what if a catholic sinner, relying upon 
such impostors, still neglect true repentance, and death to surprise him so 
suddenly as to render these other devices unpracticable ; is not his case then 
desperate ? No ; he may have as good hopes of salvation as other catholics 
have, a probable ground for his hope (and none must have any certainty). 
Such a ground is the judgment of their angelical doctor, who declares that 
if one sick desires penance, and before the priest comes he dies, or is speech- 
less, the priest may look on him as if he had confessed, and may absolve him, 
being dead (Opuso. lxiii. de offic. Sacerd.). Accordingly Clemens Yin. absolved 
one whom he saw falling from St Peter's church in Borne (Molfes. t. i. tr. 7. 
c. v. n. xlviii.) ; so that any may be absolved, i.e. pardoned and sanctified 
(for the sense of the priest's absolvo is, I give thee grace which pardons thy 
sins, Impendo tibi gratiam remissivam peccatorum ; ut communiter doctores ; in 
Jo. Sane. disp. xxvii. n. xviii.) even after they are dead, if they did but desire 
confession before. Now, those amongst themselves who do not desire con- 
fession while they live, are such only as will not have salvation if they might 
upon the most trivial terms, and so none need fear damnation, how impenitent 

Soto d. xii. q. i. art. iv. dicit hanc esse D. Thorn ae sententiam, et omnium. Suarez 
says, omnes theologi ita docent, torn. iii. disp. lxiii. sect. ii. 

1 Sum. v. Bacram. n. iv. Navar. juxta opinionem, S. Thorn, communiter receptam 
c. xxiii. n. xiii. this may (as they say of all their sacraments) ex attrito faoere con- 
tritum, infundendo gratiam primam, ut communiter tenent omnes, in Jo. Sane. d. xxvii. 
n. viii. 

* Cap. xii. p. 83. Et hoc videtur sentire D. Thorn. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



100 TRUE REPENTANCE, [CHAP. V. 

soever otherwise they live and die, but such as are worse than any devil 
now in hell. And who can accuse them as too rigid, if they make true re- 
pentance unavoidably necessary for such as these, since this doctrine makes 
it needful for none besides ? 

All these ways any man may be saved without true repentance, if he will 
believe the Roman doctors (thoagh, if we believe Christ, he shall certainly 
perish that repents not, whatever course he takes besides). Any of these 
are probable, and may be by their principles (having grave doctors, more than 
enough, to authorize them) safely followed ; but that of the council's pre- 
scribing is infallible, and will not fail to secure those who practise it, if any- 
thing in their church may have credit, nor can fail to ruin those who follow 
it if the word of God may be trusted. Thus, while they would increase their 
party by having it thought that in their way scarce any Roman catholic 
will be damned, they take the course (in this as in other particulars) that 
none who will follow them can be saved, unless salvation be for the impenitent. 

Sect. 9. By this it is also manifest that the charge brought against them in 
the three last articles for making saving faith, love to God, and true repentance, 
needless in life or death, is not founded only upon the opinion of their private 
doctors, or the greatest part of them, but hath that which they count the 
surest ground of all, the determination of a general council confirmed by the 
pope. For if attrition be sufficient, as that council declares, then true re- 
pentance is not necessary. If grief for sin, out of slavish fear or shame only, 
without any love to God, be enough, then love to God is needless ; and if 
love be not needful, then faith, which works by love, and is the only saving 
faith, is needless, till there be no time for it to work. 

But is it credible that they who sometimes seem to lay so great stress 
upon these graces, as necessary to salvation, should contradict not only the 
Scriptures, but themselves, and make them needless, not only all a man's life 
before, but even when he is dying ? Sure, they must have some device to 
supply, in pretence at least, the want of these, if not before, yet at the point 
of death, and will substitute something in their stead of supposed equivalence 
to them. Indeed, they are fruitful in inventions tending to ruin souls and 
subvert the doctrine of salvation ; and one particularly they have in this ease, 
and that is, what we before mentioned, their sacrament of penance. When 
a man is near death, if he be attrite and confess his mortal sins to a priest, 
and be absolved, by virtue thereof he hath remission of sins, and together 
therewith infusion of grace, particularly of faith, hope, and charity. Thus 
they come to have grace in a moment who lived graceless all their days before, 
and had died so if such a rite had not been provided for their relief. By 
virtue of this sacrament, love is planted in their heart, and their faith in 
God ; and sorrow for sin is formed by love, and becomes saving, so that if 
they die presently in that state, their salvation is secured. But what if they 
live, must not these habits be afterwards exercised ? must not there be some 
act of contrition in those who never had any before ? No ; by their doc- 
trine there is no necessity for it, though there be no true actual repentance 
without it. The question is in one of their greatest divines, Whether in the 
law of grace, after justification obtained by the sacrament of penance with 
attrition alone, there remain any obligation to have contrition ? l And it is 
resolved that there is no such obligation, and that this is the judgment of all 

1 An etiam in lege gratia, post obtentam juatiflcationem per sacramentum p»ni- 
tentiae cum sola attritione, maneat haec obligatio habendi contritionem ? Dicendum 
est, per se loquendo, non manere in lege nova obligationem banc post prsedictam 
justification em. Itasentiunt omnes, qui putant sacramentum paenitenti» justificare 
cum sola attritione cognita. — Suarez, torn. iv. disp. xv. sect. iv. n. xii. et xiii. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Chap. V.] a needless thing in the soman chubch. 101 

those who hold that the sacrament of penance doth justify with attrition 
alone, known to be so ; and these are the most for number, and the most 
considerable for authority in their church and schools, Aquinas and Scotus 
both, whom the rest most commonly follow, concurring in it, besides their 
great council. 1 

Sect. 10. This, then, is the doctrine of their church, introduced there in- 
stead of that of the gospel. The habits must serve to save them without 
their acts, and the sacrament of penance will help those that are attrite to 
those habits. Here is all the hopes they have for sinners whom they have 
encouraged to continue all their days without repentance, saving faith, or love 
to God, even to the very article of death. If this sacrament do not perform 
all this for them, they will not deny but they are certainly damned. But 
what ground have they for this, upon which their everlasting estate depends ? 
None at all but their own opinion, and the opinion of such men as them- 
selves, without any support from the word of God. If their own word will 
secure them for eternity, they are safe enough ; otherwise, trusting to this, 
they are lost for ever ; the whole weight of their salvation hangs upon a 
spider's web, spun out of their own conceits. For this sacrament of 
penance, upon which all depends, is a mere invention of their own ; there is 
no divine institution for it, it was never authorised by God, he never pro- 
mised anything to it, or any part of it upon their terms, much less any such 
thing as they expect. 

And who but they who are under the power of strong delusions would 
trust to anything for salvation without a word from him who is the abso- 
lute disposer of grace, and the sovereign Lord of life and death ? Some of 
themselves acknowledge that their sacrament of penance 3 was never instituted 
by Christ. And many 3 of them hold that the material parts of it have no 

1 Aquinas, Scotus, Paludanus, Capreolus r Durandus, Adrian, Antoninus, Sylvester, 
Canus, ibid. disp. xx. sect. i. n. ix. Corduba, Vega, Sotus in Vasquez. (Corduba 
docet, quod qui justiflcatus est Sacramento pa?nitenti», cum contritione tantum exis- 
tiraata, non tenetur eorundem peccatorum contritionem veram habere ; et earn aperte 
coUigere licet ex Soto. Et ita Vega) in iii. Thorn, q. 86. a. ii. d. ii. n. xi. 

9 Glossa quarn nonnulli Canonist® secuti sunt. Erasmus, B. Rhenanus, Bonaven- 
tura, Alexander Alensis, Hugo Victor, Jansenius, in Suarez, torn. iv. disp. xvii. sect, 
i. n. ix. 

8 The essentials of this pretended sacrament are with them its matter and form. 
The matter of it consists in contrition, confession, and satisfaction ; each of these are 
acknowledged by their own authors to be unnecessary any way, or at least by Christ's 
institution. Contrition, and therewith true repentance, is dismissed as unnecessary 
to this rite, not only by their other doctors, but by the council of Trent, and another 
thing assumed instead of it, as we saw before. Satisfaction is as unnecessary in their 
account There is no need either that the priest should enjoin it (D. Thomas, Petrus 
Paludanus, Petrus Soto, Victoria, Ledesma, Cajetan, Navar, ibid. disp. xxxviii. sect, 
iii. n. ii. et iv.) or that the conn* tent should submit to it. Scotus, Gabriel, Medina, 
Sylvester, Amilla, Navar, Hostiensis, Panormitan, Cajetan. ibid. dist. xxxviii. sect. vii. 
n. i. Thus all material in it is reduced to confession, and so the rite has almost lost 
its name, being now commonly styled the sacrament of confession. Yet confession 
is acknowledged not to be of divine institution by all their canonists. Sunt inter 
catholic?* quiputa.nl nullum esse divinum prcBceptum de confession*, ut omnes decretorum 
interprets % et inter scholasticos, Scotus, Maldonat. Sum. q. xviii. art. iv, and their 
best divines deny the necessity of it as to this rite. Hunc modum Secretce confessionis non 
esse de necessitate hujus sacramenti. Ita docent frequentius scholastici. Alensis, D. 
Thomas, Major, Richardus de Sancto Victore, Paludanus, Soto, Adrian, Richardus, 
Medina, Pet. Soto, Vega. Castro, Cajetan (Christum non instituisse auricularem con- 
festionem), Canus. Et nunc censeo hone doctrinam certam ex concilio Tridentino, vi». 
neque in institutions posuit Christus Dominus modum secretce confessionis. Suar. ibid, 
disp. xxi. soct. ii. n. ix. p. 290. 

Yea, the form of it (their mode of absolution) is denied by their divines, who hold 
that the priests cannot forgive sins properly as to the fault and eternal punishment. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



102 " TBUE REPENTANCE, [CflAP. V. 

such institution. Now, to trust to any device of man for spiritual effects of 
so high a nature is impious folly ; but to lay their salvation on it is prodi- 
gious madne/ss. They may with as much reason expect the infusion of 
grace from the sprinkling of holy water, or the cleansing of a soul at death 
from the guilt and stain of sin by a priest's spittle ; the Lord hath given 
them no more ground to expect any more from the one than from the other. 

But I need not insist upon anything which they may have the confidence 
to deny. It will be plain enough by what they cannot but acknowledge, that 
neither pardon nor grace can be expected from their sacrament of penance as 
ordered by them. For they assert that pardon and grace are always in- 
separably conferred together, so that he hath no infused grace that hath not 
pardon. 1 And it cannot be denied but that pardon «an never be had without 
true repentance ; in Scripture nothing is more evident ; he therefore that 
comes to the sacrament of penance with attrition only, and so without true 
repentance, he gets thereby nothing at all ; neither pardon, which cannot be 
had without repentance, nor infused grace, which is never had without 
pardon ; neither love, nor faith working by love, nor godly sorrow, nothing 
that is saving, unless he can have it without God, or against what he hath 
expressly declared. Se that if he comes to their sacrament in a damnable 
condition, he certainly dies so, for any relief that rite will afford him. And 
therefore their doctrine, which encourageth sinners to live all their life with- 
out saving faith, or love, or repentance, in confidence that this rite will help 
them to these graces when they are dying, is a damning imposture ; and 
their sacrament of penance, a most pernicious trap to draw sinners (as they 
set and bait it) out of the way of salvation whilst they live, and to plunge 
them into hell when they die, without any apprehension of their danger till 
there be no way to escape it. 

Sect. 11. Hereby they manifestly declare themselves to be enemies to 
Christianity and the souls of men. For what more effectual course could 
they take to destroy these, and root out that, than by concluding it certain 
(as certain as they would have a decree of the council of Trent accounted), 
that though sinners neglect the great duties and acts of Christians, and live 
in any wickedness opposite to the rule of Christ, yet the church hath a 
device to save them, and by it they may be sure to escape hell without true 
repentance ! What is this but to declare that the most damnable neglects 
and practices shall never damn them? Though they never repent thereof, the 
church hath a trick to secure them notwithstanding. What is this but to 
proclaim that the laws of God and the rules of the gospel are unnecessary 
impositions, without the observance whereof salvation may be had ? The 
knowledge of Christ, explicit faith in him, actual love of him (which com- 
prise all the rest), as they teach, are not necessary as means, salvation may 
be had without them. And as for a necessity hereof by virtue of any pre- 
cept, that is not considerable, but in reference to the danger of not observing 
the precept ; and there is no danger in this, though the neglect hereof were 

Qui negant potestatem tlamvm extendi ad remisrionem culpa morfalia. So Magister 
Bentent, Hugo, et Richardus de Sancto Victore, Alensis et Bonaventura, Gabriel, 
Major, Supplementum Gabr. Medina, Adrian, Petr. Soto, Altisiodorensia, Abulensis. 
— Ibid. disp. xx. sect. i. n. iii. 

1 Unde in ipsa justifications cum remissione peccatorum hoc omnia simnl infos* 
accepit homo per Jesum Christum cni inseritur, fidem, spem, charitatem. Concil. 
Trident. Sees. vi. c. vii. Gratia non prrecedit sed simnl infunditur enm remissione 
peccatornm. Bellarm. de penitent. 1. o. p. 954. 

Sperare a Deo remissionem peccatornm sine psenitentia — modus prsBsumptionis 
conjunctus cum hnresi. Pet. S. Joseph. Dei 1 prrecept. art iv. Aquinas, Arragon, 
Bannes, Malderus, et alii in et cum Bonacin. in 1 procept. q. iii. p. l v n 4. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



CHAP. VI.] A NEEDLESS THING IN THE EOMAN CHURCH. 103 

in their account a mortal sin, no more than in venials (or no sins at all), if 
it will not damn those who never truly repent of it. So that plainly by ex- 
cusing sinners from repentance, they make all sins safe and all duties need- 
less ; and give men assurance that they may live and die impenitently, in 
the neglect of all, even the most important duties, and in the practice of any, 
the worst, wickedness, and yet be saved. There never was any heresy 
broached in the world more monstrous and pernicious than this which the 
council of Trent hath brought forth; it hath all the damnable wickedness, 
both as to judgment and practice, that ever was or can be on earth, in the 
bowels of it. It promotes the birth, the growth, the continuance thereof; for 
it promiseth safety to impenitency therein, yea, salvation too, by a knack of 
a very easy use and new invention. It hath in it the venom of all damning 
opinions, practices, and neglects ; for that which makes them all deadly is 
impenitency ; nor would they without this be finally and unavoidably destruc- 
tive. But this would have impenitency itself swallowed. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Their doctrine leaves no necessity of holiness of life, and the exercise of 
Christian virtues. 

Sect. 1. Holiness of life is needless by the popish doctrine ; though the 
Lord hath made this every way necessary, both as a duty which he indis- 
pensably requires, and as a means without which he ordinarily will save no 
man. It is declared necessary both ways at once, Heb. xii. 14. The papists 
indeed boast much of it, and seem sometimes to lay great stress on it, as if 
they would have it to be a character of the true church ; concluding theirs 
is the only true church, because there is no holiness to be found in the world 
but amongst them only. Thus they pretend it to be of greatest consequence ; 
but this is but to serve another turn, the design is not for holiness of life, 
for their doctors count that more than needs. And really they are extreme 
good husbands here, and make a little holiness go a great way ; for it is 
enough to denominate the universal church holy, if there be but one holy 
person in it. So Oosterus : How many soever of its members be dead and 
impious, so long as there is any one man that retains holiness, the church 
must be called holy. 1 And then to make this one man holy, one act of 
virtue is enough, and that a very slender one too; for, saith Bannes, any 
one act of charity, how weak soever it be, is enough to fulfil all the com- 
mandments of God.* Now, he is doubtless a holy man who fulfils all those 
commandments. Further, this one act he need but do once, and that not 
all his life; he may defer it till he die, if he have no mind to trouble himself 
with it in any part of his life before, as we have already shewed. Yea, and 
he may be excused from it when he is a-dying too, as well as whilst he lives, 
if he can but get a priest to absolve him; and the priest must absolve him, 
if the dying man give but any sign which may be interpreted a desire of it. 3 

1 Tametsi ejus plurima membra flint emortua et impia, non amittit tamen sancti 
nomen, quamdiu vel anus pietatem ex animo oolens, retinet sanctitatem. Enchirid. 
liii. c. viii. Possibile est, quod tota fides remaneret in uno boIo : et verum esset dicere, 
quod fides non deficit in ecclesia. — Abbot in Sylvest. v. Concil. n. iii. 

* Quilibet actus charitatis, quantumlibet remissus, sufficit ad implendum omnia 
praecepta. In ii. 2, x. q. xliv. a. v. 

8 Vide above forty doctors for this in Jo. Banc. disp. xliv. n. xxxiv. Sacramenta 
baptismi et absolutions posse conferri, etiam iis qui in periculo vitiB sunt, licet ip>i 
vi morbi oppressi non habeant usum rationis aut sensuuin : modo constet eos antea 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



104 HOLINESS OF LIFE, [CHAP. VI- 

And their sacrament he mast have, and he absolved absolutely, when 
speechless and senseless, if any can but witness that he desired confession, 
Antonin. iii. part. tit. 10, cap. ii. ; Sylvest. v. confess, iii. n. 16 ; Paludan. 
dist. rri. q. 2. a. 2. concl. 2. Tea, if he did not desire it, nor ever give 
any sign of repentance, he may be conditionally absolved, Rituale Pauli. 5. 
And though he have lived wickedly without restraint all his days, if at last 
gasp he be attrite, and have but (though it never appear) the virtue of Judas 
(only hoping better, t. e. presuming more, than he did), by virtue of such 
absolution he will be as certainly saved as other good catholics ; though the 
other unfortunate wretch, for want of a priest (as virtuous as himself), to 
absolve and give him hope, was unhappily damned. 

See here a most compendious way to be holy ! Who can imagine any 
other but that such principles as these make holiness of life extremely 
needful? But, more particularly, we may discover how necessary they 
judge it, by what they determine concerning the necessity of exercising 
Christian virtues, and the forsaking of sin. There is no need of either of 
these by their doctrine. 

Sect. 2. It is not necessary to live in the exercise of such virtues (though 
one would think that religion could not be Christian which obligeth not the 
professors of it to Christian virtues, and excuseth them from the most proper 
character of true Christianity), yet those who have the confidence to account 
themselves the only true Christians do this. For they teach that the acts of 
these virtues are required by affirmative precepts, and such commandments 
oblige not at all times ; no, nor always when there is occasion and oppor- 
tunity for the exercise of them, but only in the article of necessity ; and 
when this is, it is not certain, there is no determination of it, it must be left 
to discreet men to judge ; and being left to men, either they find no time 
for it at all, or none that will signify it needful to live in the exercise of such 
virtues. To exert an act of virtue once a year, or once in many years, or 
once in a whole life, or at the hour of death, is far enough from the daily 
exercise of Christian virtues, or an intimation that it is needful in their 
account who so determine. But indeed their church is more indulgent, and 
assures them all (that have no more regard for their souls than to believe it), 
that at the hour of death one act of slavish fear (though themselves count 
not that so much as a moral virtue 1 ), with confession, will excuse the neglect 
of every Christian virtue all their lives, and make their way at last into 
heaven, though they never had one act of virtue, any one character of a 
Christian, all their days. A pleasant doctrine indeed, and greedily to be 
swallowed by those that have an antipathy to a holy life, if the gospel and 
the doctrine of Christ concerning hell and heaven and the way to it could be 
counted but fables* 

Sect. 8. They reckon but three theological or divine virtues ; all the other 
they call moral, of which the divine are the foundation, and so all the rest 
must stand or fall with them. 2 Now, two of these three they make needless 
desiderasse ejusmodi sacramenta — BeUarm. de effect. Sacrament 1. ii. c. viii. p. 121. 
Actus charitatis semper requiritur ad jnatiflcationem, seclusis tamen sacramentis : 
sacramenta autem in non ponente obicem, eundem habent effectum, quem haberet 
charitas et contritio sine sacramento. Canns, Relect de pamit. pars. iii. p. 844. Thus, 
though an act of charity or repentance be requisite always where the sacraments can- 
not be had, yet the sacraments in him that gives no obstruction (as he does not who 
has neither the use of sense or reason) have the same effect that love to Ood or re- 
]>entance would have, without the sacrament, u c the sacrament will justify and save 
them who have no act of love to God, or true repentance. 

1 Aquinas, ii. 2, q. xix. 

* Virtu tes theologicse qua sunt circa ultimum ffnem — sunt causae omnium aliarum 
virtutum. — Aquinas, ii. 2, q. clxi. art. iv. ad primum. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VI.] not needful in the boman chubch. 105 

(as is before declared), and without these two, hope, which is the third, is 
so far from being needful, that it is not possible to have it, as themselves 
acknowledge. 1 A lively hope with them is needless till they be dying, and 
then it can but be like the giving up of the ghost. 2 For to all that follow 
their doctrine, and look after no more than that makes necessary, their hopes 
at last can be no better, no other, than the expectation of such a pardon of 
sin, as a priest can give to an impenitent person, one to whom the Lord 
did never give hopes of pardon. And this is a hope than which despair 
itself is more hopeful ; for this leaves no sense of danger (which despair 
retains), and so leaves no desire nor endeavour to avoid it, even when they 
are sinking into bottomless misery. Hope is no more needful with them 
than a house is to him who thinks himself concerned to dig up the founda- 
tion of it, and counts it enough that he hath a castle in the air. And when 
they have left nothing that can be a real ground of hope, they found it upon 
that which is worse than nothing, their own merits ; that which is incon- 
sistent with the free grace of God and the merits of Christ, without which 
sinners are hopeless. 8 It is a conjecture, founded upon a delusion, upon 
merit, which no man can have, and themselves say none of them know they 
have, and so upon they know not what. Oh wretched hopes, that have not 
so much for their foundation as the sand, that have nothing to bear them 
up but a proud and groundless fancy, that we might count ridiculous, if it 
were not too horrid to be the matter of sport. Can they blame those who 
doubt whether they will be saved, when they themselves have no better hopes 
of their own salvation ? 

How much they are concerned for hope they declare, when they tell us 
that the precept for hope does but of itself oblige, when the soul is tortured 
with the more grievous assaults of despair. 4 It seems, unless they be vio- 
lently tempted to despair, they need not hope. This rarely falls out as to 
any, and is scarce the case of one in a thousand, so that there is not one of 
a thousand in popery who need have any hope in God, or of mercy from 
him. No, not any at all, as others teach ; for the command for hope is 
satisfied both by grief for sin, and also by a purpose against it (Dian. after 
others, v. Spes.) So that either of these, or both at least, will supersede all 
acts of hope for ever, and make them needless. And indeed he that con- 
siders what sorrow and purposes they count sufficient, may believe them when 
they teach that these leave them without hope. 

Sect . 4. The next in excellency to the divine graces, by their account, 6 is 
humility, and for this their doctrine makes excellent provision, as a virtue 
most necessary, by quite sweeping away the true ground of it. It leaves 
them without sense of any sinfulness, weaknesses, or unworthiness, to make 
or keep them humble. Being baptized, by virtue thereof all the sinfulness 
of their natures is not only pardoned or weakened, but quite washed away 

1 FideB et spes — sine charitate, proprie loqnendo, virtntes non stint, nam ad ratio- 
nem virtutis pertinet, ut non solum secundum ipsam aliquod bonum operemur, sed 
etiam bene. — Aquinas, i. 2, q. lxv. art. iv. 

1 Tempus quo obligant prtecepta fidei et spei esse idem, quod tempus charitatis. — 
Fill. tr. zxii. n. ccxciii. 

8 Actus spei est expectare futuram beatitudinem a Deo, qui quidem actus perfectus 
est, si fiat ex mentis qura quis habet, quod non potest esse sine charitate. — Aquin. i. 
ii. q. lxv. art. iv. c. Propria certitudo spei est ex mentis. Certitudo qua? non est 
presumptio, ex mentis est, et mentis se comitatur. — Alex. AUntu. q. Ixy. in iii. 

4 Quando graviores desperationis impetus animum vexant. Victorel. ad Tol. 1. iv. 
c. vii., and Bonacin. (with others) in i. prscep. d. iii. q. iii. p. 2, n. ii. 

6 Post virtntes theologicas — humilitas est virtutum excellentissima, et potiasima. — 
Aquinas, ii. 2, dxi. art. v. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



106 HOLINESS OF LIFE, [CHAP. VI. 

and utterly abolished.. So that they are pure, immaculate, innocent, even 
as our first parents were in the state of innocency ; not anything left in the 
least that can be truly counted sin. 1 So that it would be very absurd and 
irrational for them to be humble under the sense of any remaining sinfulness, 
since they believe really there is none. But if they sin mortally afterwards 
(for venial sins they make no account of, and think that the Lord herein is 
such an one as themselves), they may be presently restored again by their 
sacrament of absolution to a perfect righteousness, without the least mixture 
or allay of what is faulty ; a perfection short of heaven, because not so firm 
and fixed, but not wanting a hair of what is due, having not only all the 
parts, but every degree of what is required for their present state. 2 And by 
the power hereof they can fully and perfectly fulfil the whole law in every 
precept, without any culpable defect ; they can fulfil it very easily, facili et 
parvo negotio? Yea, they can do much more than the law requires, or the 
Lord hath made their duty ;* so far are they bereaved of all sense of any 
weakness that might humble them. And their righteousness is not only 
spotless, but meritorious ; there is such a transcendent worth and sufficiency 
in it, as they improve it, that they need not, at least after they are justified, 
ask anything of God but what they fully deserve at his hands. All that God 
doth for them is but the paying of his debts ; his bounty is prevented, hie 
grace is quite excluded ; it is not in his power to bestow any free gift ; all is 
due to the meritorious excellency of their performances beforehand. They 
can merit the first grace 5 in congruity, 6 the second grace by way of con- 
dignity ; and heaven and glory is as due to them as a penny for a penny- 
worth, or hell is due to proud, presumptuous sinners. God would be unjust, 
and not pay what he oweth them on their own just account, if he should not 
let them have all the glory of heaven and eternity. They can merit the 
pardon of mortal sins before they have grace ; 7 pardon of venial sins before 
or after ; they can merit the continuance of grace while they have it, and 
the restoring of it when they have lost it. 8 They can merit not only for 
themselves, but for others ; and deserve for them not only pardon, but grace ; • 
such grace as will enable them to set up and merit heaven for themselves. 
They can merit not only habitual grace for them, 10 but the divine assistance, 
whereby the Lord works it. They can merit for them not only while alive, 
but when they are dead, and by their merits bring them out of those tor- 
ments which are equivalent to the pains of hell, but only for the continuance, 
which their deserts hinder from being everlasting. 
Here is a doctrine as proper to nourish humility as poison is to make a 

1 Concil. Trident. Sess. c. supra. 

* Soto de Natur. et Grat. 1. iii. c. iv. p. 134 ; Bellarm. do purgat. 1. ii. c. iii. p. 1881, 
de justiflcat. 1. ii. cap. x. p. 704. 

8 Idem. cap. i. 

4 Fossumus facere plus quam debemus, si consideremus legem nobis a Deo impositam, 
et proinde possumus facere pins quam debemus.— Idem de Monach. 1. ii. o xiii. 

Vid. Soto ibid. 1. ii. c. iii. p. 65 et 66 ; Bellarm. 1. ii. de peanit c. xii. p. 946 ; 
Sancta Clara. Deus. Nat. Gr. Probl. xxi. p. 126. 

6 Cone. Trident. Sess. vi. ca. xxxii. and ca. xvi. 

7 Potest homo nondum reconciliatns per opera penitentiro impetrare et mereri de 
congruo gratiam justificationis. — Bellarm. de just. L v. 

8 Reparationem post lapsum et perseverantiam usque in finem, non cadere sub 
meritum de condigno, sed solum de congruo. — Idem, ibid. cap. xxii. tit. 

9 Sicut certum est non posse unum alteri ex condigno gratiam mereri, ita non du- 
bium est, posse id ex congruo fieri. — Idem, ibid. cap. xxi. 

10 De congruo potest unus alteri mereri primam gratiam, non solum sanctificantem, 
sed etiam primum auxilium supernaturale, et alia dona. 8. Thorn. L 2, q. cxiv. art 
vii. ; vid Fill. tr. xxi. n. ccccxcviii. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. VI.] not needful in the bohan chubch. 107 

man fat and healthful ; however, this, as that, is apt to swell them big, and 
mount them upon the heights of boasting and glorying. It is far below per- 
sons of such dignity to receive eternal life at God's hands as a poor man 
receiveth an alms i 1 absit, far be it from them ; it moves their indignation to 
think of it, that they should expect eternal glory for God's sake. They will 
not so disparage themselves as to have it in such a beggarly way ; they will 
have it for their own sake, as that which they fully deserve, or else be without 
it. They will have it in a way more glorious, becoming persons of such 
transcendent worth, as conquerors and triumphers, 2 as a laurel which they 
have sweat for, and is due to their merit. The Lord must treat them as 
persons of such high quality, and in a way that suits their honour. Now it 
is much more honourable, saith Bellarmine, to have a thing by his own merit 
than another's gift (though God be the giver). 1 And the Lord (adds he), to 
honour them, would have them get heaven by their own deserts. Oh 
humble doctrine, and that which is as like the gospel as the apostle St Paul 
was to the king of pride. Can they think humility needful, who, plucking 
away the true grounds of it, instead thereof instil those principles, than which 
hell can scarce hatch any prouder ? 

Sect. 6. As for those virtues which concern men, they are all comprised 
in love, that love which affects others as capable of eternal happiness, and so 
desires it for them. Thus they describe Christian love (as for human or 
natural, we are not here concerned in it), and tell us it is this the Scripture 
speaks of, John zv. and Col. iii., and cannot deny but it is called for in the 
New Testament most frequently, and with greatest importunity ; and yet their 
doctrine makes it needless. We are not bound, saith Sylvester, 4 to be moved 
with love towards any men whatsoever, but only in preparation of mind, if 
necessity occur. This seems to dissolve the obligation of this great com- 
mand, and turn it into a mere counsel ; for in these very terms they describe 
a counsel to us, 6 and thereby distinguish it from m obliging precept. But 
are we bound to love our brother when there is necessity ? No, not when 
he is in such necessity as is extreme, and consequently never ; for though it 
be requisite that we help him in that condition, yet we sin not if we do not 
help him out of Christian love ; it is enough to avoid sin if we relieve him 
out of natural affection. Thus Navarre. 6 And this holds not only in the 
external necessities of others, but also in those that are spiritual ; only he 
saith that it very rarely falls out that one can relieve spiritual necessities 
without this Christian love ; but he tells us also, 7 that a Christian is rarely 
in such necessity. So that though it cannot be done without Christian love 
but very seldom, that will not make such love a duty at any time, because 
the external act needs not be done but seldom. Yea, if the external act also, 
whereby we should relieve the soul of our brother, be neglected, it is with 

1 Absit ut justi vitam ©ternam expectent, sicut pauper eleemosynam. 

* Tanquam palmam snis sudoribus debitam. 

8 Magis honorificum est habere aliquid ex merito, quam ex donatione. 

* Motn dilectionis — nee tenemur moveri ad quoslibet homines, nisi secundum pre- 
parationem animi, si necessitas occurreret. — Syhwt, v. charitas. n. iii. ; Sum Rosd. v. 
charitas. n. v., both of them in the words of Aquinas. 

6 PraBceptum diffcrt etiam a consilio — quia consilium non est de necessitate ad sa- 
lutem, nisi secundum praeparationem animi, si oporteret (S. Tho.) i. 2. q. cviii. — Idem. 
ibid. y. preceptum. n. i. Gratian et Aquinas in Navar. cap. xx. n. xxi. 

6 PutamuB non peccaturum eum, qui hunc amorem charitativum non conciperet 
erga eum, qui earn pateretur extremam necessitatem vitre corporeae, si modo alio, amore 
naturali, inferiore divino, ei opitularetur. — Navar. cap. xiv. n. ix. ; Lopez, cap. liii. 
p. 274. 

7 Cap. xxiv. n. ix. Raro tamen ejusmodi necessitatem patitur Christianas, quum 
per contritionem absque alia ope ealvari poasit. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



108 HOLINESS OF LIFE, [OHAP. VI. 

them no great matter. For as Cajetan determines 1 that weakness of mind, 
which withholds ns from those things which are profitable to our neighbour, 
especially for the salvation of souls, though it be grievous, it is but a venial 
fault. In short;, whatever be the circumstances of our brother, yet we may 
be excused from loving him indeed, if we do but think we do it. For 
Navarre 2 and others tell us that he who honestly thinks himself to be in the 
state of grace when he is not, may satisfy this command for Christian love 
by some other kind of affection, so that it is enough to think that we have 
this love when we have it not ; and this is confirmed by a reason a fortiori? 
because it is so in our obligation to love God. Thus one dangerous error is 
grounded upon another, and by such arts we are discharged from all Chris- 
tian affection to God or men. But we need not stay longer here. All 
necessity of this love they quite take away, by making it needless to love 
God, the connection between these being indissoluble by their own account. 4 

If any will not rely upon consequences, Cajetan tells them, 9 that the 
command to love our neighbour as ourself, obliges not to a love of charity, 
i. e. that special love which was always thought, till the Roman doctors 
taught otherwise, to be the great duty required of all Christians by the 
gospel. By the doctrine of Aquinas, 6 the precept requires no special 
act of love to our brethren, no formal 7 or internal act at all, nor any ex- 
terior that will signify more than the want of hatred. This is the common 
doctrine amongst his devoutest followers, the Dominicans. 8 Others express it 
thus : 9 There is no affirmative precept for love to our neighbour, no time 
for it ; it is enough that we do nothing against him. Thus, so great a part of 
the whole 6um of the law and the prophets, and all the rules of the gospel, 
leading us to brotherly love and the special expressions of it, are snapped off 
short ; and we reach all that they oblige us to do, by doing nothing. We love 
them well enough, though we neither will nor do them good, if only we do 
them no mischief ; or do, no more for them than may be done without inward 
affection, or any Christian charity. 

Sect. 6. It would be tedious to pursue this in all particular virtues. The 
generals which they acknowledge will serve for the rest. They confess l0 

1 Pusillanimitas quando retrahit ex aliis utilibus proximo, et procipue saluti ani- 
raarum ; licet veniale sit, grave tamen est. — Sum. v. pusillan. p. 485. 

8 Lopez, cap. liii. p. 275. Satisfacit preocepto de diligendo proximum, qui extra 
statum gratiee, putans se verisimiliter in eo statu gratire esse. 

8 Videtur nobis non peccare neve ilium, qui bona fide credens se esse in statu 
gratise, cum tamen non sit, adimplet praoceptum de diligendo Deum ex charitate, 
quando ad id est obligatus ; ita a fortiori satisfacere videtur prcecepto de diligendo 
proximo ex charitate, qui extra statum gratise, illud implet, putans verisimiliter se 
in eo esse. — Navar. ibid. 

4 Amor supernaturalis et divinus seu charitativus, vel charitas infusa, qua proxi- 
mum amamu8, est ejusdem generis et naturoo, cujus est amor Dei charitativus, seu 
charitas; secundum S. Thorn. Nam licet objectum materiale amoris charitativi 
proximi sit idem proximus, objectum tamen formale, sive ratio vel causa amoris, est 
ipsa divina et infinita bonitas, quse nihil aliud est quam ipse Deus — ut idem S. Thorn, 
explicable ibi a Gajetano. — Idem, ibid n. vi. Charitas est dilectio qua diligitur Deus 
propter se, et proximuB propter Deum, vel in Deo. — Pet. Lombard, dist. xxvii. Dilectio 
proximi nihil aliud est quam quidam Dei amor. — Soto de Jutt. 1. vii. q. v. a. i. p. 242 ; 
vid. Suar. torn. iii. disp. lxxxi. sect. viii. p. 1078. 

s Catherin. annot. adv. Cajet, p. 268. 

8 II. ii. q. xv. a. viii.; Quodl. iv. art. xxiv. ad. i. 

7 Suar. de Charitate, disp. v. sect. iv. n. iv. ; Jo. Sane. disp. i. n. xxi. 

8 Vid. Acacium de Velasco in Guinen. p. 139. 

9 Vid. Vasquez in 3 torn. iii. q. xc. art. i. dub. xl., dilectionis proximi ex charitate, 
cujus prrecepti affirmative ego nullum tempus video. Satis est nihil contra ipsum 
facere.— Vid. Jo. Sane. disp. i. n. xxi. 

10 Cognitio apprehensiva praeexigitur quidem ad fidem. — BiUam. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. VL] mot needful in the soman chuboh. 109 

that knowledge mast go before faith, and that faith 1 is the foandation of 
charity, and that charity, or love to God, which hath its rise and being from 
faith, 2 is the form and root of all virtues. They all agree in it, nor is it only 
evident by their own confession, but also by the nature of the things them- 
selves, that other virtues depend upon knowledge, faith, and love, for their 
being or exercise. For example, without love to God proceeding from faith, 
there can be no delight in God, nor desires to enjoy him. Delight and 
desire are but love in several postures ; desire is love in its motion, and 
delight is love in its rest. There can be no delight 3 in enjoying that which 
we love not, nor can the enjoyment of it be desirable ; so, also, there can 
be no filial fear without love, for love is essential to it, and thereby it is dis- 
tinguished from that which is slavish. Ingenuous fear springs from love, 4 
and is nourished by it, and increaseth or declines with it ; it cannot be, nor 
act, but when and where love is, and is acted. So that together with love, 
the fear of God and the acts of it are cashiered ; even all due reverence of 
him, and care not to offend him. 

It is their common doctrine, 1 that there is no special command, either for 
servile or filial fear of God; so that the want of it need neither be confessed 
nor repented of.* 

So likewise there can be no hatred of sin, or sorrow for it, as it is an 
offence or dishonour to God, 6 nor any true virtue at all without love, nor love 
without faith, nor faith without knowledge. Now, these radical graces being 
rendered needless by their doctrine, as I have declared before, they hereby 
stub up all the rest by the roots, so that neither sprig nor bud thereof can 
be expected. To tell us, after this, that they count any exercise of Christian 
virtue needful, is as if a man should take the spring out of his watch, and 
then persuade us seriously that he counts it very necessary it should still go, 
and the wheels be always in regular motion. 

Sect. 7. But let us stay here a little longer, and observe how their prin 
ciples, concerning love particularly, disengage all from any exercise of virtue, 
and every act that is truly Christian. They take notice in virtue of a good 
ness that is merely moral, such as may be found in heathens; and of a good 
ness that is divine and supernatural, such as ought to be in Christians 
This latter, they tell us, is derived from their end, when in the exercise of 
them they are referred to God as our supernatural end, and acted for his 
sake, 7 with an intent to please him. They declare, further, 8 that they cannot 
be thus referred to God without affection for him, nor done with a design to 
please him, unless they be done out of love to him ; and so must be at least 

1 Fides est fundamentum spei et charitatis. — Idem. Fides generat spem et spes 
charitatem. — Aquinas, i. 2, q. lxv. art. iv. 

* Charitas est forma et radix omnium virtutum. — Aquinas, ibid. q. lxii. art. iv. 

8 Spiritual e gaudium quod de Deo habetur ex charitatis dilectione oritur. — Aquin. 
ii. 2, q. xxviii. art. i. 

4 Timor castas sive amicalis quo timemus ne sponsus tardet, ne discedat, ne off en - 
damus, ne eo careamus, timor iste de amore venit.— Mag. sentent. iii. diet, xxxiv. 
Timor ex amore generatur. — Bonavent. iii. dist. xxxiv. n. lxxxiii. Quanto aliquis plus 
habet de spiritu amoris, tanto plus habet de spiritu timoris.— Idem, ibid. n. lxxxvii. ; 
vid. Aquin. ii. 2, q. xix. 

6 Licet nonnulli existiment dari speciale prsaceptum horum timorum, ita ut eorum 
defectu speciale peccatum committatur; oppoaitum tamen docetur communiter, 
longeque est probabilius. — Pet. S. Joseph, de i. prrocepto, p. 55. 

8 Nulla virtus est vera virtus Bine charitate. — Aquinas. 

7 Vid. Navar, cap. xiv. n. vii. 

8 Con venit inter omnes, ut opus referri debeat in Deum, ut flnem supernatnralem, 
si futurum sit meritorium vitse ©teniae, at opera virtutum casterarum non referuntur 
in Deum, ut fin em superuaturalem, nisi a charitate imperentur et dirigantur, &c. 
—Bellarm. de Justific. 1. v. cap. xv. p. 958. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



110 HOLINESS OF LIFE, [CHAP. VI. 1 

imperate acts of love, that they may he Christian acts, and anything better 
than nature in the heathen might reach. And yet they conclude, as appears 
before by variety of testimonies, that we are not obliged to observe any com- 
mand, or act any other virtue oat of love to God. They find no time at all, 1 
when we are obliged to this, unless it be when we are bound to have an in- 
ward act of love to God ; but when this is, they never agree, except in this, 
that it may be never. For those who seem to say that it should be some- 
times, though but seldom, or but once for all, in other words signify it need 
not be at all, since they assign something else which may serve instead of it, 
whenever it may be thought requisite. Thus, according to their rule in inde- 
finite precepts, their wise men have determined, if their school doctors, or 
casuists, or their council of Trent, will pass for wise. Now, being thus 
discharged from doing anything out of love, they are thereby exempted from 
all Christian acts, and any other Christianity, as to the exercise of virtue, 
than honest heathenism. It is true, they hold they cannot be saved without 
meritorious acts, and cannot well think them meritorious if they be no better 
than merely heathenish : they should, one would think, have some Christian 
character upon them, and this of love particularly, 2 that they may merit salva- 
tion; and if they disengage their catholics from this, they make it not needful 
for them to be saved. But I cannot help that, seeing they will have it so. 

If they think there is no necessity their catholics should be Christians, as 
they do when they make no act truly Christian needful for them, they con- 
clude it is not necessary for them to be saved, unless they believe that such as 
are no Christians can be heirs of salvation. Their church, pope, or council, 
or whoever it is, must provide them some other heaven, since that which is 
prepared for Christians they need not ; no one step of the way to it being 
needful for them. All the necessity laid upon them by the popish profession 
is not for salvation, but for something else ; they must be Roman catholics, 
but they need not be true Christians ; they must be the pope's subjects, but 
they need not be Christ s disciples ; and this, and the rest, because they need 
not learn of him one Christian act while they live. 

Sect. 8. Moreover, all exercise of virtues, opposite to acts in their 
account but venially evil, is with them unnecessary. And v this goeth near, 
not only to discharge all acts of virtue which are required of Christians, but 
such also as were found even in pagans. This is grounded upon their doc- 
trine concerning venial sins ; these with them are not necessarily to be 
avoided, being either not prohibited by any command, as most of them hold, 
or by no command necessary to be observed, as some of them had rather 
express it, and therefore no need that the virtuous acts opposite to them 
should be practised. Upon this account no exercise of virtue will be neces- 
sary but what is consistent with the vicious acts contrary thereunto, in any 
degrees of wickedness which they think venial ; no acts of temperance, sin- 
cerity, righteousness, truth, or faithfulness, chastity, liberality, &c, will be 
needful, but what is consistent with all the intemperance, hypocrisy, unright- 
eousness, perfidiousness, &c, which by their docrine is venial. So he may 
be temperate who still loads his stomach till he vomits, and is daily half 
drunk ; he may be sincere enough, though he always design to seem better 
than he is, or good when he is not ; he may be a man of truth and Roman 
faithfulness, though his constant practice be telling lies, or breaking promises, 
or swearing falsely, so all be but in venial measures ; he may be just enough, 

1 Non obligat pro semper, Bed certis opporttmisque temporibus ; extra qu© ideo 
tempore, non est cur obligemur, caetera ex charitate priBstare. — Soto de JtttU L ii r 
q. iii. art. x. 

* Vid. Bellarm. supra. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. VI.] not needful in the eoman church. Ill 

though in all his dealings he be continually wronging others in lesser matters. 
He may be chaste enough, though he be unclean in thought, word, and deed, 
venially ; and he may be liberal enough, though he constantly practise all 
the covetousness which is opposite to every degree of liberality, so it be no 
worse. He may be religious enough, though his soul never actually worship 
God, and devout enough without any inward devotion, and reverent enough 
though greatly irreverent, even in the worship of God, and though at other 
times he be still profaning the name of God with vain oaths and divers sorts 
of blasphemies ; holy enough also, though he never have one act of inward 
holiness, no, not on those days which either God or themselves have made 
holy ; and, in short, he may be godly enough, though he never love nor fear 
God till he die ! Some of these particulars are plain by the premises; the 
rest will appear so when we present their account of venial sins. So that, 
though a man were so far from expressing any Christian virtue, that he 
should be instead thereof continually acting the contrary sins in all de- 
grees not mortal, yet he would not be condemned ; for by their doctrine, 1 
all the venial sins in the world that a person can be guilty of, though every 
hour, every minute of a whole life, how long soever, should bring forth one 
or other of them, cannot possibly damn him. And since whosoever shall 
not be condemned will be saved, which themselves also maintain, conse- 
quently he that, after baptism, acts not one virtue divine or moral, whose 
whole life hath nothing of a Christian in it, but less and worse than a pagan, 
will yet be saved. Thus may they be deluded who trust their souls in this 
infallible church ; they may be true catholics, though they be not Christians, 
so much as to one religious act, and may pass currently to heaven though 
they never move one foot in the way. Such a thing we must take Chris- 
tianity to be, and with so ghastly and frightful a face will it look upon the 
world. If popery have not thus far abandoned it, and obtruded upon us a 
changeling, instead of what Christ left us, there will be no lineament of 
virtue in the visage of it, not one of necessity ; nor needs there be more in 
the lives of those who would be counted the only true professors and faith- 
ful embracers of it. 

Sect. 9. They have other ways to make the exercises of Christian virtues 
unnecessary. They do it especially by turning the commands of God into 
counsels. Of those things that are required in Scripture, some, they say, 
the Lord only adviseth and commends, others he commands and enjoins : 
those which he adviseth, they call evangelical counsels, the other are divine 
precepts. Now, the precepts, they say, are necessary to be observed, some- 
times at least ; the counsels are not needful to be observed at all, any man 
may be saved without complying with them, they are matters of supereroga- 
tion, more than we need to do. So that all those virtues which they make 
but matter of counsel, are unnecessary, the acts and exercise of them more 
than needs. And those which they make so expressly, are not small nor 
inconsiderable in themselves, and in consequence little less than all. Many 
of those admirable rules which Christ giveth us in his sermon on the mount, 
wherein the singular and divine excellency of that religion to which he calls 
the world is so very conspicuous, they will not have to be laws obliging all 
Christians, but dissolve the obligation of them by declaring them mere 
counsels, though they were ratified by our great Lawgiver with those univer- 

1 Etiamsi omnia peccata veniaiia, sinrol colligerentur in unum, mmquam efficereiit 
id, quod facit unum lethale. — Bellarm. de Amiss, Oral. 1. i. c. xiii. p. 91. Non est 
me® mentis hie asserere, quod veniale possit fieri mortale per multiplicationem 
actuum venialium, etiamsi in infinitum multiplicarentur. — Lopez, cap. ii. p 12. 

VOL. III. X 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



112 THB XXBBOISB OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES [CHAP. YI. 

sal sanc^ons : Mai vii. 21 1 * Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he which doth the will of my 
Father which is in heaven.' And ver. 26, ' Every one that heareth these 
sayings of mine, and doth them not, shall be likened onto a foolish man who 
built his house upon the sand.' Maldonate giveth that as the account why 
he is said, chap. v. 2, then to * open his mouth,' because he 1 never before 
propounded that sublime doctrine of evangelical perfection. Of this nature, 
in their account, 9 is trusting in God, such as frees us from solicitousness 
about the things of this life, chap, vi 81, 84 ; sincerity of intention in doing 
good, such as is enjoined, ver. 1 ; patient digesting of injury, such as is 
commanded, ver. 89 ; relieving others freely, such as is required, ver. 42 ; 
innocent communication, such as is specified, ver. 87 ; avoiding occasions 
of sin, such as are meant, vers. 20, 80 ; exemplary walking, intended 3 ver. 
14 ; poverty of spirit, ver. 8 ; spiritual mourning, ver. 4 ; Christian meek- 
ness, ver. 5. The three last, saith Soto, 4 are trinum consUiorum votum. 
We must take them to be peculiar concerns of votaries. Righteousness, 
likewise, 5 as to earnest desires after it, ver. 6 ; mercifulness, 6 ver. 7 ; purity 
of heart, 7 ver. 8, as it is the height of charity ; peacemlness 8 also, ver. 9 ; 
love to enemies, ver. 44, more pressed by Christ than the rest, vers. 45-48 ; 
and before popery, taken to be the proper character of Christians, but with 
them it is no duty, 9 nor anything of like nature : as that, Prov. xxv. ' If 
thy enemy hunger, feed him, 1 &c. Yea, 10 acts of mercy are no more our 
duty, for these are another instance of the same author immediately adding, 
et reliqua praeepta tniserioordia ; not only that, Prov. iii. 4, ' Honour the 
Lord with thy substance,' but all the rest 'in Scripture of like nature. 
So likewise, not only magnificence and magnanimity, 11 but humility also, 13 
with sincerity of conversation, and Christian simplicity or plain dealing. If 
these be not enough, all good works are in danger to become no duties. Domi- 
nicus a Soto tells us, 13 there are three kinds of good works to which all Chris- 
tian offices are reduced : one respects a man's self, the quelling of his own 

1 Quod nunquam ante, sublimem illam de evangelioa perfections doctrinam pro- 
posuisset. — Comment, in Mat. p. 99. 

I Vid. Joh. de Combis. in compend, theol. 1. v. cap. lxz. ; Lndolph. de vita 
Christi, par. ii. cap. zii. ; Angel, Sum. v. et v. priecept. n. zvii. ; Sylvest. Sum. v. 
prroceptum, n. ii. ; Soto de Just. L ii. q. iz. art. iii. ; Navar, o. zziv. n. v. ; Soto de 
Nat. et Grat. 1. iii. c. ii. p. 126 ; Jo. Sane, disp. vii. n. z. 

8 Unde statim Christus in solenni ilia legis promulgatione, ante necesaaria pre- 
cepta propoauit perfeotorum conailia ; Beati pauperes spiritu— beati qui lugent, et bis 
similia, fit ideo subdit, Vos estis luz mundi: quasi quibus competit non solum 
justitiam vulgariter colore, sedegregie usum etiam rerum licitum abjicere. — Idem, ibid. 

4 Quod si trinum hoc consiliorum votum, quod nno hoc loco stabilitur, &c. — Idem, 
de Juet. et Jur. 1. vii. q. v. art. i. p. 248. 
* Idem, ibid. a Ibid. » Ibid. ■ Ibid 

9 Quso ad cumulatiorem virtutum perfectionem ornatumque attinent, sub forma con- 
silii admonet, qualia rant ilia que pertinent ad inimicorum dilectionem, Prov. xzr. 
Si esurient in i miens tuns, ciba ilium. 

10 Et reliqua praecepta misericordi®, ut cap. iii. ; idem, ibid. 1. ii. q. iii. art. ii. p. 57. 

II De magnificentia et de magnan imitate, non fueruot danda pnecepta, sad magi* 
consilia — Aqirinas, ii. 2, o,. czl. art. ii. ad primum. 

ia Dico virtu tea evangehcas dici Mas, quae colliguntur ex consiliis erangelicis traditis 
a rhristo Domino— ducentes hominem ad perfectionem supra communem bonitatem — 
potissimum sex: 1, Paupertas spiritus ; 2, Castitas rirginum; 3, Obedientia, pnesertim 
religiosa; 4, Hnmilitas, qua ita auimi nostri comprimitur elatio, nt ad altiora non *e 
erigat ; 6, Psnitentia, qua pro commissis culpis Deo satisfacimns ; 6, Simplicitaa, qu» 
posita est in qnadam facilitate et sinceritate mornm, juxta rationU praascriptum.— JftZJ. 
tr. xzi. n. exciv. exev. 

18 Vanam gloriam a tribus operum generibns expulit, ad qu» cuncta officia reducun- 
tar — ex his enim tribus, eo quod opera rant rapererogationis, solent homines muudi 
auram ambire. Ibid. 1. ii. q. ix. art. ii. p. 66. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



BAP. VI.] NOT NBEDFUL IN THE ROMAN CHUBOB. 113 

pleasures, signified by fasting ; the other respects the love of oar neighbours, 
of which kind is alms-deeds ; the third respects God and divine worship, de- 
noted by prayer ; and all these three with him are works of supererogation. 
When they come to an account in particulars, they vary not : as to what 
concerns ourselves, 1 to abstain from our lawful pleasures, even when they 
may be an impediment to holiness, is but advice, we need not follow it. 
Also, to avoid worldly cares, to be content with food and raiment, not to be 
eager after superfluities, not to be too solicitous for the body, not to affect 
dignities, are but matter of counsel by their common doctrine, in Jo. Same, 
disp. 7. n. 10. 

As for the concerns of God, s no inward worship in public is under com- 
mand, nor any outward, but the mass ; and for the hearing of that, no 
divine precept. No more are we obliged to worship in private ;• meditation 
is reckoned among counsels of perfection. 4 Vocal prayer is not enjoined by 
God, and so all public prayer in Christian families and assemblies are under 
no divine injunction. Mental prayer may be a duty, 6 when it is our duty to 
love God ; but when that will be is not 6 well known. So mental prayer 
will be a duty, nobody well knows when. But this is a Jesuit, who 
minces the matter too precisely. In the judgment of Aquinas, 7 and 
the generality of their doctors, mental prayer is under counsel only. And 
it is the more considerable, because they tell us that in mental prayer all the 
internal acts of religion are comprehended ; so that hereby the very soul of 
religion, is dismissed, as a thing of no necessity among Roman catholics. 
And since in all worship, public or private, they will have spiritual attention 
and devotion to be but matter of counsel (without which all that they call 
worship is but a cipher, or a blot rather), they leave no worship of God at 
all necessary. Cardinal Tolet gravely distingnisheth* of a sanctifying the 
Lord's day and all other holy days, for which presence at mass and abstain- 

1 Licitis voluptatibus abstinere ad consilium continent!© attinet — Idem, ibid. art. 
iii. p. 67. Consilia vero ea rescindunt, qu» etsi licita sint, nee charitati prorsus 
inimica, tamen nonnnUa rant ad culmen progredientibus obstacula, L vii. q. t. art. i. 
p. 242. 

• Ex prscepto colendi Denm homo tenetur duntaxat cultum externum ei exhibere. 
— 5. Joseph. Sum. de i. precept, art. v. 

Attentio ad Deum non est neceasaria. This is commonly asserted, even when it is 
acknowledged that all inward worship is included in it. Sub hac autem attentione ad 
Deum includitur omnis interior re verentia et cultus. omnis oratio et petitio, ut eleganter 
deecribit. Gregorius z. in e. Decret. de immunitat. Bccl. in vi.; Snares, torn. iii. disp. 
Ixxxviii. sect. iii. p. 1146. Solus exterior cultus cadit sub hoc prsacepto — sola missa 
communiter est in prtecepto. Utrum autem audiatur (missa) vel non— sub pracepto 
non cadit. — Goi'stan, Sum. v. test. 

8 Meditatio Scripturarum — perfectionis instrumentum. — Soto, ibid. 

4 Uldericus. Sum. confess, et Fisan. et alii in Sylvesk— v. Orat. n. viii. supra. 

• Supra. 

• De prsBcepto diligendi Deum et aliorum, nempe fidei et spei— -non satis certo con- 
stat quando obligent, et quando yiolentur. — Fill. tr. xxii. n. ccxevii. 

T Ut orent mentaliter — solum sub consilio — tit tenet D. Thorn, ii. 2. q. xxxii et com- 
muniter, doctores, Jo. Sane. ibid. Oratio mentalis, in qua omnes actus interni religionis 
comprehenduntur. — Suar. de Orat. 1. ii. c vii. n. x. 

• Adverte, festum posse sanctificari, et posse bene sanctiflcari. Ad sanctificandum 
duo sunt necessaria— id est, sacrum andire — et abstinere ab opere servile et prohibito, 
1. iv. c xxir. p. 686. ad bene autem sanctificandum, ultra hoc, aliud est necessarium, 
puta, ut qui est in mortal!, tunc conteratiir, et ad Dominum converti studeat : qui vero 
est in gratia, divine vacet contemplation^ et bonis operibus, uterque autem a novo 
peccato abstineat. Adverte tamen, quod homo tenetur sub mortali ad sanctificandum 
festum, sed non tenetur sub mortali ad bene sanctificandum. 

Ita solum obligor ad ilia duo in festo prostanda, non ad flnem, quamvis consilium 
sit optimum, omnia ista exequi in die festo, vid. Soto, Navar. Cajetan. qui nobiscum 
sentiunt— Ibid. p. 687. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



1 14 THE EXEBCI6E 07 CHBISTIAN YIBTTJBS [CHAP. VI. 

ing from servile work is sufficient, and of a sanctifying them well, to which 
it is necessary that he who is in mortal sin should he contrite, and turn to 
God ; and he that is in grace should give himself to divine contemplation 
and good works, and both of them should abstain from new sin ; yet observe, 
saith he, that a man is bound under mortal sin to sanctify the day, but not 
to sanctify it well ; and after concludes : So I am only obliged to these two 
things, viz., presence at mass, and avoiding servile works ; but not to the 
end, to wit, sanctifying it well, although it be very good counsel to perform 
all the other upon this day. Thus with him it is no necessary duty to which 
any are obliged on Lord's days, or any other days for worship, to repent of 
sin and turn to God, to meditate on divine things, and do good works, and 
abstain from any wickedness. All these, it seems, are only matters of counsel ; 
and herein, he saith, Soto, Navarre, and Cajetan concur with him. And if 
they be only counsels on all these days, the world will scarce find a day 
when they will be duties. However, with them, to do a thing is commanded, 
to do it welt is not necessary. On all the days which either God or them- 
selves would have kept holy, it is mere counsel either to do that which is 
good or to think of it, either to be sorry for past wickedness, or not to com- 
mit more. And since it is no more on the holiest, it may seem not so much 
as a counsel on profane and common days. The means of honouring God 
being thus by them made unnecessary, no wonder if they discharge us from 
the due use of them. 1 Pious sedulity (diligence for heaven and our souls) 
is but matter of counsel ; we need not trouble ourselves with it. No more 
scarce with anything else, for 2 the shunning of idleness is but counsel, yea, 
and such as doth not oblige the monks themselves, though they will have 
none else obliged by counsels. In reference to them, Soto says, the avoid- 
ing of idleness is not commanded. 

Acts which concern others are either those of righteousness or charity ; 
for the former, how favourable they are we saw before ; they 8 discharge us 
from such desires thereof as Christ encourageth to the uttermost, Mat. v. 6; 
the latter they make corporal or spiritual. That mercy or charity which 
affords outward relief, even their religious 4 are not obliged to; nor need 
others exercise it by giving anything,* no, not to those that are in greatest 
necessity, how much soever themselves have, how extremely soever others 
want. Spiritual relief, in affording of which the exercise of mercy consists, 
they give an account of in many particulars, viz. advising those that want 
counsel, teaching the ignorant, comforting the dejected, correcting offenders, 
remitting offences, bearing those that are burdensome, and praying for 
others. Now, all these (and as many more belonging to the other branch) ' 

1 Pia sedulitas inter consilia recenset Htmnsous in Catechism, ad finem Sum. Aqain. 

* Evitatio otii non est in pracepto. — Soto, ibid. 1. vii. q. v. art. ii. p. 243. ad fin. 

8 QusBcunque vnltis ut faciant yobis, &c, Soil, necessario, aliter consilium est, 
Angel. Sum. — v. Prceceptum, n. xvii. 

4 Eleemosynas erogare non est in religiosis virtus. — Soto, ibid. 

8 In quibus vero duobus non est de pracepto subvenire donando; sed satis est sab- 
venire com mod an do vel mutuando. — Navar. cap. xxiv. n. v. Non semper est necesse 
donare, sed tunc solum, eum egenti neque per mutuum, neque per venditionem, neque 
alia ratione succurri potest — quamvis hsec doctrina vera sit, et non solum a S. Thoma. 
in ii. 2, q xxxii. art. vi. sed etiam ab aliis Theologis communiter tradi soleat — BeUarm, 
de bon. Vperib. 1. iii. c. viii. 

Console, castiga, remitte, solare, fer, ora. 

6 Misericord! a seu eleemosyna sive sit spirituals, quae melior est corporali, sive sit 
corporalis, est de consilio ; vel saltern non de pracepto obligante ad mortale, excepiis 
duobus casibns. — Idem, ibid. Subvenire necessitatibus proximorum corporalibus, sicut 
propriis necessitatibus, pertinet ad consilium. — Vid Aquin- Quodl. iv. art. xxiv. ad. i 
Aiisericors cor proximi necessitatibus communibus prrestare, infelicesque eventus 
eorum condolere — consilium. — In Jo Sane. disp. i. n. i. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VI.] mot needful a the romam chttrch. 115 

are no necessary duties, or, which is all one in effect, under no preeept 
obliging to mortal guilt, ezeept in two cases only, saith Navarre, and those 
two concern only corporal relief ; so that all the other duties, which we owe to 
the souls of men, are left arbitrary, as mere matters of advice without exception. 1 
That of the apostle, 1 Peter ii. 18, for subjection to governors, is with them 
a counsel ; no more is that rule of Christ for church discipline and govern- 
ment, Mat. xviii. 15-17, * If thy brother shall trespass against thee,' Ac. 

Mortification can scarce with them be so much as a counsel, for their 
doctrine will have nothing in us to be mortified ; that which is to be so 
treated is sin in us, but they maintain that in a just man there is no sin 
after baptism. Carnal concupiscence itself is sinless ; it is natural to us, 
and so innocent. 3 That which is in us by nature, they say, is neither 
worthy of praise or dispraise ; hence they conclude, he is blind who will say 
concupiscence is a sin. They grant it induceth us to sin, but it is no more 
sin upon that account than hearing, seeing, or other of our senses ; than 
gold, or honour, or beauty, or anything else that may draw us to evil ; and 
so, plainly, we are no more bound to mortify it (if sin only is to be mortified) 
than we are obliged to ruin our senses, to destroy gold, or to spoil the beauty 
of a handsome woman. And the same must be said of other vicious habits 
contracted by a continued practice of sin ; for though they call these vices, 
yet vices with them are no sins, no more than virtues are duties. * The law 
of God is not concerned in any habits ; as it commands not those that are 
good, so it forbids not those that are vicious, and no reason to mortify that 
which is not condemned by the law. However, they retain the word, but 
little else we meet with in them about this great concern of a Christian, and 
a very odd object they find for it, instead of that which the Scripture assigns. 
It is the natural body that is to be afflicted and macerated, not the ' body of 
sin ;' and so they are not concerned to get the work of the devil destroyed ; 
it is the work of God that must be mortified. They may be excused if they 
make not this so much as a counsel. But they say the maceration of the 
body is in order to the bridling of concupiscence. It seems, as innocent as 
it is, it may need a curb, yet they take care to leave it loose enough, for 
those severities which should hamper it, they say, are not commanded. 
Afflicting of the body is under no precept, 4 saith Soto and Sylvester. Having 
told us out of Aquinas that a vow is properly of a work of supererogation, ac- 
ceptable to God, he adds, the maceration of the body, as such, for the brid- 
ling of concupiscence, falls under vows. 5 And so, how unruly soever the 
flesh is, they may choose whether they will use the bridle or no ; yea, if the 
priest should be so rigid as to enjoin severities of this tendency, the sinner 
needs not submit to them. 

Nor will they have us more engaged against the world than against the 

1 Gk>8*a in loc. 

* Concupiscentia carnis naturalis nobii est — Igitur cam ea qu» nobis insunt a nature, 
nee lande digna sint nee vituperio, quis vel csbcus, dixerit concupiscentiam illara esse 
peccatum? nisi forsan material iter ante baptiamum. Ut superius explicatum est. 
Revera qua ratione id dixeris, seqaenter compulsas confiteberis, et visum, et auditum, 
et reliquos sensus qui nobis post peccatum Ada) instrumenta sunt delinquendi, delicta 
et ipsos esse. Quin vero et aurum et honores, et muliebrem formam, et quicquid nos 
pellicit, pellitve ad malum. — Soto, de nat at grat Lie. xii. p. 24. 

8 De nabitu constat non esse peccatum : How they would prove it, see in Suar. 1. in. 
de Juram. c. vi. n. i. Non sufficit habitualis affectus seu dispositio ad peccandum, sed 
rcquiritur actualis affectus seu dispositio, ut peccatum reipsa contrahatur.— Itonottna, 
de peccat. disp. ii. q. iii. p. v. n. Hi. alii, communiter. 

4 Afflictio corporis non est in precepto, de just et jur. 1. vii. q. v. art. ii. Mortifi- 
cationia operibus sedulo esse addictos, consilium, in Jo. Sane* disp. i. n. i. 
• * Sum. v. Votum. i* n. iv. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



116 THE EXERCISE OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES [CHAP. VI. 

flesh. All the evils of the world are by the apostle reduced to three heads, 
1 John ii. 16 ; hut the oracle of their schools tells us that to relinquish 
these three wholly, 1 as far as we can, belongs to evangelical counsels. 
Soto herein follows him, and tells us 2 that Christ left this unto every oi e 
under counsel. So to be crucified to the world, and to get the world 
crucified to us, Gal. vi., is matter of advice with him ; nor are we obliged 
thereto in reference to those things, 3 or lusts, which very much endanger 
our souls. 

Self-denial also hath the same measures from them. Bellarmine, by those 
words of Christ to the young man, Mat. xix. 21, * Follow me/ understands 
self-denial, explaining it by Mat. xvi., ' If any man will come after me, let 
him deny himself.' It is nothing else, saith he, but to renounce one's own 
judgment and affections, and to accommodate himself to the judgment and 
will of others. This the young man should have done, but it was not his dn ty ; 
it was only a counsel of perfection, as he and all of them conclude, to subject 
himself thus to the will and judgment of Christ. He distinguished indeed, 
and will have submission to the will and judgment of Christ in things neces- 
sary to salvation, to be a common duty enjoined, Mat. xvi. and Luke ix. ; 
but such a subjection of our wills and judgments to Christ, in things not of 
themselves necessary to salvation, to be only a counsel, 4 it is advice for 
those alone that would be perfect. This is bad enough, for thus it will not 
be a duty to subject ourselves to Christ in most things, or to deny ourselves 
in anything which is not in their sense a deadly evil. But Soto, than whom 
there was no divine more considerable in the council of Trent, advanceth 
farther, and concludes that self-denial, not only which is required, Mat. xix., 
Luke xviii., but that also commanded, Luke ix., Mat. xvi. (which the car- 
dinal understood to be a subjecting of our willB and judgments to Christ in 
things necessary to salvation), is but a counsel ; and tells us 6 for a man to 
deny himself is by vow to give up his liberty to another's will ; and so 
Christ nowhere enjoins other self-denial than what their perfectionists volun- 
tarily oblige themselves unto by vow, and the main duty of Christians is 
confined to cloisters, that self-resignation wherewith Christ should be hon- 
oured being transferred to an abbot. 

There is one thing more remains which Christ requires of those who will 
be his disciples, that is, Christians (and but one where he gives us the sum 
of all), and that is suffering for him. It would be strange if, when they have 
eased themselves of the rest, they should leave their catholics obliged to this. 
The device of evangelical counsels had not been so useful a tool, though it 
freed them from the rest of Christ's yoke, if it would not have served to cast 
off the heaviest part of it ; but hereby they can cast off sufferings greater or 

1 Hfiec autem tria totaliter derelinqaere secundum quod possibile est, pertinet ad 
consilia evangelica. — Aquinas, 1. ii. q, cviii. art. iv. Corp. 

1 Temporalium tria sunt genera, scil. concupiscentia carnis, concupiscentiaoculorum, 
et superbia vitas — animos vero ab illis promts evellere, non est cunctis, immo neque 
znuHis in hoc seculo possibile. Quare sub consilio Christus id cuique reliquit, at qui 
capere possit, caperet. — Ibid. 1. ii. q. ix. art. iii. p. 67, vid. Jo. Sane. disp. vii. n. x. 

Hue eoim (viz. ad votum religionis) attinet Paulinum illud verbnm ad Gal. vi. Mihi 
absit gloriari nisi in cruce Domini, &c., per quern mihi mundus crucifixus eat, et ego 
mundo. — Ibid. 1. vii. q. v. art. i. p. 242. 

8 Non possunt non multa alendro charitati creare pericula. — Ibid. 

4 Solis iis consulitur qui volunt esse perfecti, de qua agitur, Matth. xix. Luc xviii. 
-De Monach. 1. ii. c. ix. p. 1161. 

5 Luc. ix. — Idem est se hominem ipsum abnegare, quodpropriam libertatem alteiius 
arbitrio voti nexu subdere. — Ibid. p. 248. Abnegare seipsum, est propriam voluntatem, 
per quam homo est homo, abnegare: quod revera, nisi obligatorio voto alteri earn mc 
tradas, ut in tua non supersit facultate eandem rursus tibi usurpare, fieri non poteM. — 
IbicU art. iv. p. 247. 



Chap. VI.] not needful in the boman chttboh. 117 

less. Martyrdom they reserve for those who receive the truth in love ; for 
themselves it is only a counsel, * when it serves for nothing more than the 
glory of God and the advancing of the faith ; and this according to the judg- 
ment of Aquinas. If it be no more than an opportunity of manifesting the 
divine glory and edifying the church, it is a work of supererogation, and of 
no necessity, saith another. Parting with other things for Christ is no more 
a duty ; s to ' forsake brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or 
children, or lands, for Christ's sake,' Mat. six. 29, is not a duty of any Chris- 
tian, but only such as profess perfection. Such forsaking all for Christ, to fol- 
low him, is more than needs ; it was so in the apostles. 9 In short, taking 
up the cross is more than is commanded, when it is joined by Christ with 
self-denial, and following him, as the best character of his disciples, Luke ix. 
They take it to be but matter of counsel, and so quit themselves of the full 
character of Christians at once. 4 

If there be any virtue left, requisite for the practice of a Christian, which 
this engine hath not yet demolished and brought to discretion, by working it 
otherwise, it will make clear work. The least degree of virtue, they say, is 
all that is necessary ;* none can be assigned above the lowest (in faith, hope, 
love, repentance, or other virtues) which is enjoined. Now that which is 
lowest of all is next to nothing, and that which is no more can act no farther ; 
so that all exercise of virtue which their doctrine makes needful, is either 
nothing or next to it. All growth in grace with them is needless,* for the 
first degree they attain is not only a sufficiency, but all the perfection that is 
necessary ; 7 what is more may be profitable, but not simply needful. The 
first and least degree of virtue in every kind satisfies the precept, and that 
being satisfied, requires no more. So all other degrees will be but under 
counsel ; it will be no duty to look after more than the least, nor will the 
grossest negligence as to endeavours for more be any sin. 

And since increase of virtue is by the exercise of it, where the increase is 
not necessary the exercise is needless. Further, no act of virtue in any 
degree is requisite, but only in the article of necessity ; for then only affir- 
mative precepts oblige ; at all other times they bind no more than mere 
counsels, nor then neither, unless it can be known when this article occurs. 
Aud how shall it be known ? The Scriptures have not declared it, they say, 
nor counsels neither. Why, they have a rule in the case. 8 Things not deter- 

1 Est autem solum in consilio, quando ex eo nihil amplius quam Dei gloria, yel 
fidei exaltatio consequitur; secundum mentem ejusdem doctoris. — Navcar. c. xii. 
n. xl. ; Lopez, c. xli. p. 224. Si adost solum opportunity manifestandi Divinam 
gloriam et tedificandi ecclesiam, martyrium est supererogationis t et non necessitatis. 
Angel, sum. v. charit. n. v. Sjrlvest. sum. v. Martyr. Secundum Bonavent. et S. 
Thorn. Sum. Rosel. v. charitas. n. x. 

■ Mat. xix. Omnia qui reliquerit Domum vel fratres, &o. Vide quam cunctis 
rebus eum denudet, qui optaverit esse perfectus. — Soto, ibid. art. ii. p. 244. Religio— 
nihil aliud significat, quam quod Christus evangelicum adolescentulum docuit : Si vis 
perfectus esse, vade et vende, &c. Et sequere me. 

* Et quod subinde Petrus subjunxit : ecce nos reliquimus omnia, et secuti sum us 
te. — IbuL art. iii. 

4 De voto obediential intelligit Luc. ix. Si quis vult post me venire, abneget 
semeipsum, et tollat crucem suam quotidie, et sequatur me.— Ibid art. i. p. 243, vide 
art. iv. p. 247. 

6 Bellarm. de prenit. 1. ii. c. xi. supra. 

9 Nisi forte in religioso, qui tenefor habere propositum proficiendi : quia nullibi 
est praeceptum, ut istam curam habeamus, sed consulitur tantum.— St/tow*, v. peccat. 
n. iv. &c. 

1 Perfectio una necessaria ad esse, altera necessaria ad bene esse, quae consistit in 
consiliis. — Bellarm. de Monach. 1. ii. c. xii. p. 1168. 

8 Qu» indefinite relinquuntur a lege, arbitrio boni viri sunt definienda. — Navar. 

Digitized by VjOvJV? IC 



118 THE EXEBCISE OF CHRISTIAN VTJtTUKS [CHAP. VI. 

mined are left to the arbitrament of an honest man ; and bo it is left to every 
man's will who can suppose himself honest. If he never find time for any 
aot of virtue, he will not be obliged to any ; or if he will be so cautious to 
consult their divines in the case, some of them declare that such a virtuous 
act is rarely needful, nor can they certainly tell when ; others conclude there 
is no necessity of it at all. Now he may follow which please him best, even 
those, if he list, which discharge him from all obligations to the acts in 
question ; and this he may do safely, not only by their doctrine of pro- 
bability, but by the determination of their oracle. The council of Trent will 
secure him, though he never perform one act of virtue all his life, nor repent 
thereof at his death, by a fine device, which is neither repentance, nor a 
virtue ; of which before. 

Besides, all acts which have more than moral goodness seem by their 
doctrine to be under counsel, and all acts supernatural and truly Christian 
more than needs. They are not truly Christian unless they be done out of 
respect to God, with an intent to please and honour him, as the apostle 
requires, 1 Cor. z. 80. But this rule, as Soto tells us, 1 taken in that sense 
which is nearest to the letter, that all be actually referred to God, is but a 
counsel. But may not a virtual intent to glorify God be necessary, though 
an actual respect thereto be but advice ? No, not that neither ; for without 
such a virtual reference, the acts we speak of may be morally good (as they 
say they were in those that knew not God), and so no sin. Now in any 
degree above this (viz. wherein they are more than not sins, or anything 
better than merely inculpable),^ they are works of supererogation, if their 
great cardinal be not mistaken. 

There is yet another maxim pregnant for this purpose. The mode of 
virtue falls not under the precept ;* that is, we are not enjoined to act in a 
virtuous manner, or as becomes virtuous persons, viz. out of a virtuous habit 
or principle. Aquinas, who delivers and maintains this maxim, explains it 
by this instance : He is neither punished by God nor men as a transgressor 
of the precept, who pays his parents due honour, though not out of a habit 
of piety. 4 Such honour, though it be no act of that virtue (piety they call it) 
from whence proceeds what we owe to parents, doth satisfy the precept, so 
that the person is free both from sin and the punishment. Accordingly 
Soto: We are not commanded to pay what we owe out of the habit of 
righteousness or liberality, but only to pay it to the full. 6 By this one 
instance he would have us judge of all other precepts concerning virtues. 
The habits, i. e. the virtues, need not be exercised. Let the thing be done, 
and it is all the command of God requires, though it be not done out of a 
virtuous principle, nor be any act or exercise of it. So Bellarmine : When 
God commands that we live righteously and soberly, he commands not that 
we do this from a habit, but only that we do it. 6 The external acts which 
pious, sober, and righteous persons do are requisite ; but the exercise of any 
virtues therein, whether they concern God, others, or ourselves, is not com- 

1 Potest tamen accipi in sensu, ut sit consilium : et hie videtur propinquior litem, 
scilicet sive comeditis sire bibitis, &c, omnia acta referatis in Deam. — De nat. et grot. 
1. i. c. xziii. p. 60. 

1 Si addam alteram gradum (viz. prater earn qao non pecco) eo modo facta actum 
8npererogationis et consilii. — De Monach. ]. H. c. xiii. p. 1162. 

• Modus virtutis non cadit sab prsBcepto neqne legis divine peqae legis hamansd. 

4 Neque enim ab homine neqne a Deo punitor tanqaam precept! transgressor, qai 
debitam parentibas honorem impendit, quamvis non nabeat habitom pietatis, i. ii. q. 
c. art. ix. c. 

6 De nat. et grat. lib. i. c xxii. p. 57, snpra. 

6 De grat. et liber, arbitr. L vi. c. vii. p. 664, supra. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Chap. VI.] not needful in the eoman chubch. 119 

manded. 1 The habit is that which they count the virtue. Since, therefore, 
they say that nothing need be done out of habit, they thereby declare that 
no exercise of virtue is enjoined ; nothing that we do need be the act or issue 
of a virtuous principle ; this will be but matter of counsel, and not under any 
obliging command. Indeed, they make the exercise of virtue universally 
needless, since they declare it not requisite in all those cases where, if in any 
at all, it would be needful ; they find no necessity for it, either in worship or 
common conversation; all may be done very well, without any act of grace 
or virtue. They may pray effectually ; they may celebrate or hear mass 
meritoriously (and these are the sum of all their ordinary worship) ; they 
may partake worthily of all their sacraments ; they may obtain all the effects 
of sacraments or sacramentals (these are evident by the premises) ; they may 
satisfy all the commands of God, and precepts of their church, so as to free 
both from sin and punishment, in the judgment of Aquinas and his followers ; 
yea, they may merit too, not only other things, but grace and glory. This 
is the point more stuck at than the rest, but the 2 gravest of their authors 
maintain that it is sufficient for merit that a man be in the state of grace, 
though he do not act it ; and this state consists but in that imaginary grace 
to which a priest can help an impenitent sinner. It will be hard to divine 
for what ends the exercise of virtue can be by them counted needful, since 
without it all the ends specified may be accomplished, the chief not excepted. 
However, here is enough to enter the exercise of virtue amongst mere counsels. 

If we should take into this account all these rules in Scripture, the trans- 
gression of which is by their doctrine but venial, as Scotus, Gabriel, and 
others would have us (Scotus et Gabriel, asserunt peccata mortalia esse 
contra pracepta ; venialia vero contra conrilia, Yasq. in i. 2, torn. i. disp. 148, 
c. iv. n. 7), the number of counsels would swell infinitely, and all conscience 
of the exercise of virtue would be in a manner stiffed under that notion ; but 
of venials hereafter. They have, without this, yet another expedient ready 
to do them universal and effectual service this way ; for by their principles 
any one may turn what divine precept soever pinches him into a counsel, 
and make no more conscience of it, if he have but some doctor's opinion for 
it ; Ad praceptum non teneris, si te non teneri probabilis Doctorum est sententia 9 
Medina, Soto, in Yictorell. ad Sa. v. dubium, n. 2. Yea, though he have 
but the opinion of some one doctor, that is enough to secure him, as Angelus, 
Sylvester, Navarre, Sairus, Yictorel (ibid, and in Jo. Sanct d. xliv. n. lxi.), and 
above twenty of their authors conclude (vid. infra). So far is it from being 
the singular conceit of some Jesuits ; yea, though that doctor therein be 
opposed by all others. — Idem, ibid, after Lorca, Yillalobos, and many more. 

Not to be tedious ; where Christ intimates, Mat. v. 19, that some of the 
commands are greater, and some less, the great commands some of their 
writers will have to be evangelical counsels, because they are better, more 
meritorious, and tend to greater perfection ; s others will have the less com- 
mands to be such counsels, because they are not necessary to be observed. 
Now betwixt these two, both the great commands and the less will be dis- 
solved into counsels, and what then becomes of the exercise of Christian 
virtues ? If this be but matter of counsel, there is no necessity that any 
should trouble themselves about it. For this is the difference, saith Aquinas, 

1 Per Tirtatem intelligimns habitant bonam Nov. c. xxiii. u. i. 

1 Non desant gravissimi aathores, qui sentiant, omne opus bonum hominis justi, et 
habitn charitatis praditi, vita ©tern© meritorium esse. — Bellwrm. de Justis. 1. r. c. xt. 
p. 957. 

Ad meritnm imperiam charitatis non est neceasariam proprie et in rigore t sufficit enim, 
at ab babente charitatem proficiscatar. — Vid. Suar. torn. iv. disp. xxxvii. sect iii. n. Hi. 

• Yide Soto.— Ibid. L iii. c iu 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



120 TBB EXEBCISE OF OHBI8TIAN VTRTTJXS [CHAP. YL 

betwixt a precept and a counsel i 1 a precept imports necessity ; counsels are 
left to the free choice of him to whom they are given, so that he may mind 
or not mind them, as he lists. If he observe them not, there is no fear of 
penalty, either eternal or temporal. 2 There is no punishment, saith Bellar- 
mine, if a counsel be not observed. 8 They all maintain this. Not one of 
their divines will yield that God may punish any one for acting against his 
counsel, though of the highest importance. And no wonder, for by their 
doctrine he no way sinB mortally or venially that doth not observe it Though 
it may seem strange that it should be no sin to neglect counsels given us 
from heaven, and not to follow the advice of the all-wise God, yet it is past 
all doubt by their principles. A neglect of counsel is no sin at all. 4 It is 
not only no sin to neglect these counsels at other times, but also when God 
calls us to comply therewith by divine inspirations and motions of his Spirit ; 
to disobey these calls, and resist these inspirations, is no fault at all. 
Cardinal Tolet is rejected as too rigid for counting it so bad as a venial 
fault, not to yield to these divine inspirations (Jo. Sane. disp. vii. n. iv.). 
So that if the great God calls to us, either by his Spirit or by his word, or 
both together as our counsellors, we need not regard it ; we may resist both, 
and yet be innocent. Herein others concur. Aquinas himself counts it no 
sin to neglect counsels, even against conscience dictating that it is good to 
follow them (2 sentent, dist. xxxix. q. ill. art. iii. ad. vi.). They may refuse 
the observance of them with some contempt ; a presumptive contempt (t. e. 
a continued neglect thereof) passeth without control as innocent. A nega- 
tive contempt hereof is justified as either a small fault or none at all.* And 
some of them exclude not a positive contempt of these counsels of perfection, 
but allow a contemptuous neglect of them as sinless. So Angelus, after 
their law and gloss, and their Saint Antoninus. 6 They may glory in their 
neglect of these divine counsels, and make their boast thereof. This will be 
but a slight fault at most ; for they may glory in anything but mortal crimes, 
and this is not so much as venial. It will be no worse if they not only 
neglect, 7 but abandon them with some abhorrence too. They may bind 
themselves by oath not to observe them ; it will be but a small fault at worst 
to swear, and call God to witness that they will not follow his counsels. So 
they commonly determine ; 8 and if they be true to their oath, it will be no 

1 Prsoceptum importat necessitatem, consilium autem in optione ponitur ejus, cui 

datur, i. 2, q. cviii. art ir. 
' Consilium si non senretur, nnllam habet psnam. — De Monach. lib. ii. c vil 
* Operari vero contra consilium, licet altissimum, peccatum non cat : nullus enim 

Theologorum concedit fractionem consilii puniendum fore a Deo. — Jo. Sane. difj>M\.n.y. 

4 Intcrmittere consilium, nullum peccatum est. — Vega, de Justific. L xiv. c. xii. 
Nee ullse (leges) divine consultorin etiam ad reniale obligant ; Ifavar. c. xxiii. n. xlix. 
&c n xxi. n. xliii. Inobedientia ant est contra consilium, et tunc si sit consilium per- 
fections, non est peccatum, fylvest v. inobedient n. it Ut enim optime ait Snares, 
operari contra consilium, nulla nee minima Christi offensio est. — Jo, Sane. ibid. 

5 Contemptus negativus est peccatum mortale, si Dei lex quam violat, est prsjcep- 
tiva : aut veniale, vel nullum, si est consultoria tan turn. — Sylvester, v. contempt n. iii. 

6 Si vero non contemnit antoris potestatem, sed observantiam consilii sen exhorta- 
tionis : et sic solum peccat venialiter, si consilium est reverentiae — si vero est consi- 
lium perfectionis, nee etiam venialiter peccat ; et tuno est perfections quum licite 
potest dimittere, Sic Archi. vi. dis. et sic intellige Gloss, et jura qua alligat— Sum. 
v. contempt, n. i. omittere rem levem ex contemptu formali non est mortale.— Vide 
pluree in Dion. p. 3, tr. 6, ref. 72. 

7 Et ex hoc patet, quid dicendum de eo qui attediatus abominatur divina et spiri- 
tualia : quoniam nisi sint necessaria ad salutem, et ea demittat, vel deliberate dis- 
ponat dimittere, non peccat mortaliter. — Angel. Sum. v. accidia, n. i. 

8 Non est peccatum mortale per se loquendo jurare aliquid contrarium consilii, 
Glossa, Tabien, Cajetan, Navar, c. xii. n. zvi. Antoninus, Soto, et alii in Suarez, de 
Juram, 1. iii. c xviii. n. vi.— Graff. 1. ii. c. xv. n. vi. et c. xviii. n. xi. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. VI.] hot keedful in the bomam chubch. 121 

fault at all. 1 So that if we be loath to believe that they abandon holiness in 
the exercise of Christian virtues, as a thing superfluous, and more than needs 
under this notion of counsels, to put us out of doubt they are ready to swear 
it, and their doctors assure them they may do it safely. 

Sect. 10. But if all this were otherwise, and any exercise of virtue were 
needful by their doctrine, yet would there be no necessity of it, but only 
during the pope's pleasure. For by their principles, if the pope should de- 
termine that any virtue were a vice, all Romanists are bound in conscience 
to conform to his judgment, and virtue must be avoided as if it were a vice 
indeed. Bellarmine, their chief champion (who is wont with so much confi- 
dence to deny, or with so great artifice to hide or disguise anything in popery, 
which may render his party either odious or ridiculous), delivers himself 
plainly to this purpose. If the pope, saith he, should mistake in commend- 
ing vices, and forbidding virtues, the church would be bound to believe those 
vices to be good, and those virtues to be evil, unless she would sin against 
conscience. 3 The cardinal would have us think, that he proceeds herein upon 
an improbable supposition, and that the pope cannot thus mistake, as to 
commend vices, or forbid virtues ; but the world knows, that this is so far 
from being impossible, that he hath already actually done it, and this in 
such instances as may well persuade us, that it is not only possible, but 
likely, that there is not any virtue, but (if occasion serve, and his interest 
requires it), he may forbid it, and declare it a sin, yea, and bind the church 
in conscience to avoid it, as if it were a vice. 

He may do it with as much demonstration of reason, holiness, and infal- 
libility, in any case, as he hath already done it in too many.* Since, then, 
that church hath so far subjected all the conscience and reason they have 
onto him, as they cannot without sin but believe him, if he should deter- 
mine that light is darkness, and good is evil, he may take away all con- 
science of virtue, and the exercise of it, whenever he pleaseth ; there will 
be no need of any act of virtue for any papist, if he list but out of his chair 
to say so ; they cannot, without sinning against conscience, practise any, if 
he do but the same thing in the rest as he hath done in a great many 
already. 

This is enough to shew how needless they count the exercise of Christian 
virtues, and so how unnecessary they make all holiness of life ; but it will 
be yet more evident, if their doctrine allow them to live in a course of sin, 
and make it not necessary to forsake wickedness, and abandon such evi 
ways as are condemned by the holy God. For continuance in sin is as in- 
consistent with holiness of life, as it is with hopes of salvation ; and this is 
as clear in Scripture as if it were described with a sunbeam, 1 John iii. 8, 
Acts iii. 26, 2 Tim. ii. 19, Gal. v. 16, and 19, 20, 21, 1 Cor. vi. 11, 9, &c. 
Notwithstanding, by their doctrine it is not necessary to forsake sin ; this 
will be manifest, if we take notice, that there are many sins that they count 
virtues, and so not to be avoided ; and many which they call sins, but think 
it not necessary for the salvation of any man to abandon them ; and many 
sins also, which they have made to be no sins at all. 

1 Hujusmodi jnramenta sine peccato otservare possint. — Naoar, ibid, 
9 Si autem Papa erraret prsecipiendo vitia, vel prohibendo virtutes, teneretur eecle- 
sia credere vitia esse bona, et virtutes malas, nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare. 
— De Rom. Pontif. lib. iv. cap. v. p. 721, sect, secunda. 

* He may bind the catholic church in conscience to believe a lie, and to call pood 
evil, and evil good. This is to speak home : and now let Bellarmine say a worse 
thing of antichrist if he can, and shew us what the gates of hell can he imagined to 
design or attempt more destructive to the Christian church and religion, than what 
he supposes the pope to have full power and authority from Christ to do. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



122 MANY CHIMES [CHAP. VII* 

CHAPTER VII. 
Many heinous crime* are virtues, or necessary duties, by the Roman doctrine. 

There are many horrid sins which they have transformed into virtues, or 
count high strains of piety and devotion ; and thereby are so far from being 
concerned to forsake them, as they are obliged to live in the practice 
of them. I might instance in blasphemy, idolatry, perjury, robbery, mur- 
der, Ac. 

Their blasphemies, in ascribing the peculiar excellencies of the divine 
majesty and the prerogatives of our Lord Jesus Christ to the blessed virgin, 
and other creatures, and to their popes (though divers of them, as them- 
selves acknowledge, were monsters and incarnate devils), have been suffi- 
ciently discovered by others, and therefore, designing brevity, I here waive 
them. 

For the same reason, I will not insist upon their idolatry in invocating 
saints, adoring the host, and worshipping images ; only as to this last, let 
me observe what is less taken notice of, that their own doctrine, before 
opened, quite shuts out the best, and only considerable, plea they make 
use of, to excuse themselves from this crime. It is their common doctrine, 
that the same worship is to be given to the image and the exemplar, id est 9 
the worship of God to the images of the Trinity, the worship of Christ to a 
crucifix, or a cross, or the image of the cross. They also define idolatry to 
be, a giving the worship of God to any thing else besides God. Who would 
imagine but they had hereby fastened the charge of idolatry upon themselves 
unavoidably ? Yet they make account to escape by pleading that the wor- 
ship they give to images is transient, not terminative, id est, it stays not in 
the image, but passes from it to the exemplar, the mind of the worshipper 
directing it to God. There is .no need to ask what ground they- have to 
imagine, that their giving the worship of God to an image transitively, is 
not idolatry ; it is enough that they acknowledge it to be idolatry, if it be 
not transient, since whatever they pretend when they are pinched, yet they 
count it not requisite that their worship should pass from the image unto 
God, but think it safe to let it stop where it first fell, and terminate in the 
image. For they confess it passeth not to God without an act of the mind 
directing it to him. This is not, nor can be, when in the worship God is not 
minded ; and they generally agree (as was shewed before) that they need 
not mind God in their worship. So the result of their own doctrine is, that 
they need be no better than idolaters. I know not what they will say here, 
unless, as Cajetan, that a virtual termination will suffice, id est 9 when they 
have an intention to terminate their worship on God, without doing it 
actually, and indeed. But if no more be necessary, the worship need not 
pass to God really, but may rest in the image, and actually terminate there ; 
and so they will be real and actual idolaters, whatever their intention be. 
Yea, as to that, by their doctrine it is not needful to intend to worship God, 
as we saw before. Answerably in their prayers to saints, before their relics, 
or before an image (which is their usual practice) ; since, by their common 
doctrine, the person prayed to, whether God or a creature, need not be 
minded, the address may be actual to the image, and to that only ; the mind 
not transferring the prayer, so much as by one thought, towards the saint, 
it will terminate in the image, if anywhere, and be as senseless idolatry as 
the most stupid amongst the heathen were guilty of. Thus, what they say, 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap, YIL] are yibtues with them. 128 

many of them do ; by their common doctrine all may do, viz., apply them- 
selves to a senseless image, as though it heard their prayers, and searched 
their hearts, and were no less than God. 1 

Sect. 2. There is another branch of this crime which I shall stay a little 
on, viz., their worshipping of relics. Herein they are so liberal as to give 
religious worship to snch things which they do but fancy to be relics ; yea, 
such as it is absurd and ridiculous to imagine they are relics. For who 
can imagine (at least when he is waking) how they could catch or keep St 
Peter's shadow, or bottle up Joseph's cough, his toilsome breathing, when 
he was at his carpenter's work ? Yet both these, with others of like quality, 
are among the relics which they count worthy of such worship. The shadow 
of St Peter, says one, is not the greatest among relics, and therefore, if 
that be adored, why are not the rest to be honoured and worshipped? 2 
Bellarmine asks, What relic can be imagined to be meaner than the shadow 
of Peter ? * Possibly he might be resolved, near Blois, in France, where 
Joseph's cough is honoured and worshipped as a relic. Baronius ascribes 
much to the shadow of Peter, for he makes it the ground, not only of their 
worship of images, but also of the honour and power of the popes. 4 Who 
can doubt hereafter, but that the weightiest things in popery have a substan- 
tial foundation ? They worship their relics, not only when they are whole 
and sound, but when they are corrupted and reduced to dust, or nothing 
else of them left but the vermin bred in them. Not only the ashes, but the 
vermin too, may be worshipped, though some stick at the latter. Henricus, 
one of their school doctors, concludes, that the relics in the form of dust 
and ashes may and ought to be adored, but not under the form of vermin, 
and gives some reason for it ; but their great Vasqoez rejects this scruple, 
and the ground of it, as vain and frivolous, and concludes they may be 
worshipped as well when they are vermin as when they are ashes. A man, 
saith he, may with right intention, and sincere faith, apprehend a saint, and 
worship him in worms. 5 If the question had been of the little worms in the 
ulcer of St Harry of Denmark, 6 for which he had such saint-like love, as 
when they crept out of his knee, to put them in again, that they might be 
nourished where they were bred ; or of the lice of St Francis, 7 for which he 
had such a holy tenderness (it is recorded as an argument of his holiness), 
that when they were shaked off, he gathered them up, and put them in his 
bosom. I suppose Henricus himself could scarce have denied but those 
sacred creepers (having so near relation to, and being sanctified by such ex- 
traordinary contact of so great saints) might have been adored. 

It cannot be denied but they are liable to gross mistakes about the object 
of their worship here ; and some of them acknowledge, that the people herein 
are deluded with great and detestable impostures. 8 What if the tooth which 
they worship for St Christopher's (as big as a man's fist), 9 should prove the 
tooth of a beast ? or the hair, which they worship as part of St Peter's 
beard, should be the excrement of some malefactor ? or the shift which they 

1 Stint bene multi rudiores qni imagines col ant non at sign a, sed perinde quasi ipsa 
sensum habeant, magisque eis fid ant qnam Christo. — Polyd. Virgil de invent, rer. 1. 
vi. c. xiii. 

1 Umbra vero non est maxima inter alias reliquias, &c— Vaaquet de adorat. 1. iii. 
disp. iii. c. ii. n. viii. 

8 Quae reliquiae viliores nmbra (Petri) cogitari possint ? de imagin. cap. iii. p. 1494. 

4 An. xxxiv. in Spondan. n. lxxyii. 

6 Recta intentione et sincera fide, possit qnis in vermibus sanctum apprehendere, et 
venerari. — I^id. cap. nit. n. cxiii. cxiv. 

6 Engl. Martyrol. Jan. 16. 7 Canns. Loc. Th. lib. xi. c. vi. 

8 Ingentes et detestandro impostor© patefierent. — Cassand. Consult, c. de reliquiis. 

9 h. vives in August, de civil. Dei, 1. xv. c. ix j Dens molaris pugno major. 



Digitized by 



Google 



124 MANY CRIMES [CHAP. YIL 

worship as the virgin Mary's, should he the covering of some harlot ? or 
the dost or the vermin which they worship as the remains of some saints, 
should have been in their original no more holy than a brute or a damned 
sinner ? As great mistakes as these abont their relics, the world has dis- 
covered,, and themselves have been convinced of. Valla, a person of great 
learning and eminenoy amongst them, says plainly, There are ten thousand 
such things (counterfeit relics) in Rome itself. 1 And if the seat of infallibi- 
lity be so well stored with cheats, what shall we think of other places ? They 
say, indeed, they have the attestation of visions, revelations, miracles to en- 
sure them ; but these they have, and produce as well for those that are con- 
fessed to be counterfeits, as for them which they take to be true. So that 
they are proved beyond all question to be all alike : the true ones, as very 
counterfeit as any, and the counterfeit as true as the best. Now, may they 
with safety venture to worship them for all this ? Yes, their devotion is 
maintained to be not only safe, but meritorious, however they be deluded 
about the object of it. They may worship at all adventure, what they take 
to be a relic, though indeed it be no such thing ; and yet be so far from 
idolatry or any sin, that they deserve highly at God's hand by so doing. If 
any man think, says one, that to be a relic of a saint, which indeed is not 
so, he is not frustrate of the merit of his devotion. 3 Yea, a man may merit 
by a mistaken belief, though he should worship the devil, says another.' 
So that they have not only a fair excuse, but great encouragement, to ven- 
ture, though they may happen to worship the devil himself, and not only 
some limb of him, instead of Christ, or his saints, or their remains. When. 
the Lord declares, Dent, xxxii., ' that his wrath should burn to the bottom 
of hell/ for that the Israelites ' worshipped devils instead of God,' they 
might, if Baronius had been their advocate, have come off well enough with 
his plea, fides purgat /acinus. The Israelites believed as firmly as the Roman 
catholics (only they were mistaken), that they did not worship devils, but 
that which was a proper object of worship ; therefore, they were so far from 
the bottom of hell, or any danger of it, that hereby they might merit heaven 
and glory. 

Let me add, that the miscarriages in their mass furnishes them with many 
sacred relics, and their orders about the disasters there create for them 
divers objects of worship, and help them to many right worshipful things 
of the vilest vermin, and that which is more loathsome. If the body or blood 
of Christ (so they will have it to be) fall to the ground, it must be licked up; 
the ground is to be scraped, and the scrapings, reduced to ashes, are to have 
place among the relics. If the blood be spilt upon the altar-cloths, those 
cloths are to be washed, and the sacred wash is to be enshrined. If a fly 
or a spider fall into the blood, it is to be taken out and burnt, and the ashes 
put into the holy shrine. But if the blood of Christ be poisoned, it is to be 
kept in a clean vessel among the relics ; and so poison becomes a very 
worshipful thing. If a mouse, or a spider, or a worm, eat the body of Christ 
. (I must desire pardon for mentioning such horrid things), these vermin, in 
their ashes, are to have the same preferment, and be put into shrines for 
relics. If a priest or other person do vomit up the host, even that (if no 
man's stomach will serve him devoutly to lick it up), being turned into 
ashes, is to he honoured among the relics. All these and more particulars 
are ordained and provided for in the cautels of the mass ; and thereby we 

1 Decern millia talinm reram Rom© sunt.— De Constant, donat. 
1 Si quis putans aliquam esse particnlam sancti, qua non est, merito sua devotionis 
non caret. — Vasq. ibid. cap. nit n. cxiv. 
8 Hokot infra. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VII.] abe virtues with them. 125 

see what order is taken by holy church, that dirty water, the scrapings of 
the ground, venomous or loathsome vermin, yea, the vomit of a weak or 
gluttonous stomach, casting up that which they call Jesus Christ, may be 
enshrined among the relics which they adore. They tender worship to all, 
under the altar promiscuously; yea, their very prayers are so directed 
thereto, that you cannot discern whether it be more to the relics or the 
persons they relate to ; for example, when they say, Oh you that are seated 
under the altar, intercede ye to God for us. 1 For they may as well believe 
that these relics can intercede, as that Christ, or the glorified saints, are 
seated under their altar. 

Sect. 8. Some of them would have us believe that they give not divine 
honour to relics, but a sort of religious worship, which they call dou7Jsta ; 
but the Scripture (and secular authors too, 2 as is acknowledged) make no 
difference between the terms of their distinction, but appropriate both to 
God. And the people make no difference in their practice, as is confessed, 
but worship saints (and so their relics), even as they worship God. And 
their teachers and learned writers encourage them to give that to relics, 
which is divine worship indeed, viz. to put their trust in them, to swear by 
them, to bring them oblations, to burn incense, and pray to them. So they 
are taught to give them the thing which is confessed to be divine worship, 
only they will not give it the name (for though they be real idolaters, yet it 
is not convenient to be called so). Nor is this all : there are a world of 
relics, to which they will have thing and name given, even Xarp /a, expressly ; 
for it is their common doctrine, that the relics of Christ are to have the same 
worship with Christ himself!* And under the notion of these relics, they 
take in (as of the saints also) not only the parts of his body, but all that 
belonged to him, yea, that touched him, or was touched by him. Accord- 
ingly Aquinas (whose doctrine is highly approved, not only by all the 
Jesuits, but in a manner by all their universities 4 ) teaches that not only 
the cross is to have divine worship, because it touched Christ, but all things 
else that belonged to Christ, by virtue of this contact ;* and Damascene 
(whom he quotes) will have all things near to Christ, r£ ayaxi/^iva, wor- 
shipped on that account. 6 It is true they distinguish here ; some things 
touched him innocently, others injuriously. Waldensis seemed loath to grant 
these latter should be worshipped, lest he should be brought to adore the 
lips that betrayed him, or the hands that buffeted him ; but he is run down 
by the stream, both of their doctrine and practice, for the things which they 
worship especially, and will have worshipped as Christ himself, are the in- 
struments of his sufferings. The knife wherewith he was circumcised, the 
pillar at which he was scourged, the cord wherewith he was bound,' the 
twenty-eight steps of white marble, up which he was led, in his passion, to 
Pilate's house ; the purple robe, and the white one too, which he wore in 
derision ; the keys and stones of the sepulchre, the sponge, the reed, the 
vinegar, the crown of thorns, the lance, the nails, and (which may serve for 

1 Pontific. Roman. Sect de coniecr. eccles. 

* Secundum profanos anthores idem significant — BeUarm. de sanct Lie, xiv. 
p. 1463. 

* De fide ease adorandum (signum crucis) adoratione latrio, ricut adorantur spins, 
lanci®, clavi, prosepe et alia reliquiae quk Christum tetigerunt — ita S. Thorn., et alii 
communiter. — Bonacin. torn. ii. disp. iii. q. i. punct. iii. n. vi. 

4 PosseTin. Biblioth. Select. 1.L&L 

5 Cruz Christ! — propter membroram Christi contactum, latria adoranda est — Dicen- 
dum quod, quantum ad rationem contactus membroram Christi, adoramus non solum 
crucem sed etiam omnia quo sunt Christi, par. iii. q. zxy. art iv. 

6 tr«»T« rk Si* itm»UfH9m wp*x»fwfut* — Orthod. fid. 1. ir. c. zii. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



126 MANY CRIMES [CHAP. VEL 

all) the cross, which is, never the less for the loss of so many pieces, as are 
ten thousand times more than the whole. All these (and who can tell how 
many more ?), though they ministered to his pain, or reproach in his passion, 
have divine worship. But the things which they will have worshipped for 
the innocent contact might suffice, being numerous beyond account. To 
waive the rest, Damascene (whom Aquinas follows) of this sort reckons not 
only his clothes, and tabernacles, the cave, the manger, and sepulchre, bat 
also Golgotha, and Sion, and the like, 1 wherein may be included Galilee, 
Samaria, Judea, and Egypt, the earth where he trod in every place being 
(if not deified, yet) sanctified by such contact. There is a divine virtue 
therein, says Baronius, 2 and they were wont to bring earth from those parts 
for the working of miracles. And amongst the relics at Venice they had a 
stone translated from Ohio thither, whereon, it is said, he sat ait Tyre. 9 The 
water also of the River Jordan, at least after it comes to the place where he 
was baptized, and there that was taken up, they say, which is enshrined at 
Cassino. 4 And why not the air too, when it comes to any place, wherever 
it touched him ? And so every element might furnish them with objects of 
divine worship ; and they might have no need to content themselves with such 
petty idols as the heathen had, but have them in such extent and largeness 
as is proportionable to the vast improvement of this kind of devotion in the 
church of Rome. 

Moreover, by virtue of this contact, not only things, but persons, are 
capable of divine worship, and such as touched Christ may be thus wor- 
shipped. The blessed virgin in the first place. Gajetan declares that, in 
secret, where it can be done without scandal and danger, she may have 
divine worship on that account ; and tells us this is the sense of Aquinas. 5 
Later writers determine that she may be so worshipped as Christ himself, 
either upon the account of contact or consanguinity. Upontthe same ground 
Simeon may have divine honour, for he once embraced Christ ; and Joseph, 
his foster father, for he had him oftener in his arms, which their church has 
taken notice of in a prayer on his holiday. The apostles, and seventy dis- 
ciples did probably sometimes touch him, and so, by the same reason, may 
have the same worship with their Lord ; 6 and no wonder, seeing they tell us 
the lips of Judas, for but touching him with a treacherous kiss, may be thus 
worshipped ; 7 the woman also with the bloody issue, and those many of 
the multitude that pressed him, Luke viii. 45. Mary Magdalene especially, 
she has double honour, seeing they worship more bodies than one for hers. 
But this is common, and they had need of a prodigious faith to believe (if 
any pf them believe) that the things they worship are not counterfeit ; since 
the most of them may be convicted of imposture, even by their own practice 
and approved writings. They must either believe themselves deluded, or 
believe that one person had more bodies, and one body more heads than one, 
yea, more than two or three. Many of their most eminent saints are thus 
turned into monsters, but I instance only in those who may challenge divine 
worship upon the common ground of contact. John, who touched Christ 
when he baptized him, had three or four heads, if he had as many as they 

1 Golgotha, Zion, et similia. — Ibid. * Vid. Spondan. An. xxxiv. n. xli. 

* Platin vit. Cffilestin. ii. * Cent. xi. p. 305, Chronic. Cassinen. 161. 

Cajetanus, Cessante (scandalo et periculo) fatetur, posse B. Virginem adorari ado- 
ratione latriae, ratione solius contactus. Alii vero recentiores Theologi, non solum 
ratione contactus existimant, adorari posse adoratione latriro, sed etiam ratione mater- 
nitatis, propter sanguinis conjunction em. — Vasq. ibid. 1. i. disp. viii. c i. n. cxcv, cxcvi. 

6 Sicut B. Joseph unigenitum tuum — suis manibus reverenter tractare meruit et por- 
tare. 

7 Idem. ibid. 1. iii. disp. ii. c. vi. n. lxxvi. rid. infra. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. VII.] abe yibtueb with them. 127 

worship ; for they worship his head in so many several places, and when 
they have it whole in some shrines, yet they will have several pieces of it in 
others. 1 So that Herod had not beheaded him when one head was quite 
cut off; and when the damsel had it in a charger, it might be still on his 
shoulders. Longinus also, who, they say, pierced Christ's side, and had his 
eyes cured with a touch of his blood, must have four bodies, for in so many 
very distant places they worship it ; and yet this their saint had never one 
body, nor being in the world. 2 As for St Christopher (who must needs touch 
Christ too, if, as they say, he carried him over an arm of the sea on his 
shoulders), there was no need to make him so many bodies, since they have 
made him one as big as many, and worship for him an effigies more like a 
mountain than a man. 3 I need not mention those many thousand besides, 
who had an occasion to touch Christ for the space of three and thirty years, 
while he was on earth ; the meanest of these might have divine worship, by 
that doctrine which makes contact a sufficient ground for it. Nor must this 
seem strange, since the very ass he rode on, when it could be done without 
scandal, might upon this account be religiously adored. 1 Yet all these are 
not all that may have the honour of Christ, if we follow their doctrine whither 
it leads us. Hereby not only these persons, but their relics too, are capable 
of divine worship ; for they commonly teach that the relics may have the 
same worship with the persons whose remains they are. 9 Those are in the 
right, says one of their most absolute divines, Doctor Stapleton, who confer 
the like honour on the relics, as on the saints, since from both they hope to 
receive the like advantage. 6 Thus they have hnge shoals of objects fit for 
divine worship : those multitudes of relics which pass for the blessed 
virgin's, and all accounted to be the apostles', and the other persons fore- 
mentioned. They say they have the blessed virgin's hair in several places, 
which is no such wonder, since a monk could shew some of the hairs, which 
fell from a seraphim, when he came to imprint the five wounds in Friar 
Francis his body i 7 Her milk too kept from souring, by a continued miracle, 
sixteen hundred years, and so much of it as if, with their St Catherine, she had 
had nothing but milk in her veins. 8 Nor is this so wonderful, seeing an image 
of hers could let forth of its breast such a liqaor in great plenty. 9 Her 
nails, too, or rather the parings of them (worthy enough of divine worship), 
for the nails themselves she could not spare at her assumption. That one 
story has prevented a hundred other fables. If they had not believed the 
assumption of her body, it is like we had heard of as many bodies of hers, 
in several places, as Geryon had, twice or thrice over, and more heads than 
they were wont to shew of St Barbara* Her wedding ring, 10 too (though 

1 Vid. Folk on Math. xiv. 2. 

2 Vid. Bolland. act. Sanct ad Jan. xiii. p. 912. Jacobus de voragine, cap. xct. 
a Erasmus Colloq. Naufrag. et peregrin. Monti justo par. 

4 Vasq. ubi supra. Those that stick at this believe there is in the ass a sufficient 
ground for divine worship, only they say it is not decent Respondeo cum Suarez con- 
tactum Christi esse causam sufficientem adorationis, aiiquando tamen non expedire, 
vel non decere, ut omnia quo Christum tetigerunt adorentur. Fropterea asina, quae 
Christum detulit non esset adoranda, quia non decet — Bonacin. ibid. 

6 Eadem adoratio tribal potest reliquiis, quae tribuitur person® cujus sunt reliquiae. 
— Idem, ibid, punct. i?. n. iy. 

6 Promptuar. part i. p. 292. 

7 Vid. Vergenum annot in catalog. hsBret. p. 17. 

8 Quid dicturus si videat hodie passim ad qusestum ostentari lac Mario?, quod honore 
propemodum sequat corpori Christi consecrato? — Erasm, Annot. in Math, xxiii. 

• M. Paris, in auno. 1099. 

10 Vid. Rivet. ApoL pro Virg. M. 1. ii c. ix. p. 281. 

vol. in. % Y 



Digitized by 



Google 



128 MANY CRIMES [CHAP. VII. 

they used none in her country), and her attire cap-a-pie, from her veil even 
to her petticoat 1 and shift too. Whether she wore any or no is not material ; 
the archbishop of Chartres 2 wore it, and was thereby inspired with such 
courage in a battle against Rollo, that the dagger wherewith St Michael 
combated the dragon (if he had borrowed it of his neighbours in Normandy) 
could not nave performed braver exploits, nor made greater slaughter, than 
his grace did ; though some will ascribe less to his prowess, because being 
harnessed with such a shift of mail he might think himself invulnerable. 
Her slipper also, and shoe ; yea, the figure also of the sole of her shoe is 
to be adored. 3 Yet this is at a pretty distance from Christ (though its 
prime virtue be from contact), and derives from him, like the feathers of the 
hen which were of the brood of the cock that crowed when Peter denied him. 
They have Simeon's arm (mentioned in the Gospel) at Aken, 4 which hinders 
not but they may have it at Hartsburg and other places too. They have 
not only Joseph's hem, but his breeches ;* and I hope kept less nastily than 
Thomas Becket kept his, which yet were worshipful, vermin and all, and 
that not per accidens (it may be), since it is one commendation of his saint- 
ship 6 that his breeches ran quick. They have some remains of all the 
apostles, though nobody could tell them where divers of their bodies were 
interred, but things of this nature they still have by revelation. And how 
can such as these want revelations, who, in pilgrimage to holy relics, declared 
that a goose carried before them was the Holy Ghost. 7 They have Peter's 
keys, his sword, his staff, his coat, his garment besides, and his girdle ; 
part of his body is at Constantinople, half of it at Borne in one place, and 
yet the whole in another. 8 They have martyred him over again (or some 
other bodies for his), and torn him into more pieces than their St Hippolytus 
was torn with horses. They have his head (or some of it) in seven several 
places in Borne ; only they want his brains, which were reserved in another 
place, and worshipped (or a pumice-stone instead thereof). And there may 
be some mystery in that ; for they speak of some time, under Peter's suc- 
cessors, when their church should have caput sine cerebro. 9 Setting that 
aside, we may be sure they have missed nothing that belonged to St Peter, 
since they could catch his shadow, and hold it as fast as they do his keys. 
And why might not this be done as well as the monk could bring with him 
from Palestine the sound of the bellB that hung in Solomon's temple. 10 I 
have not yet in their sacred lists discerned the lips of Judas, but they have 
his lantern, which shewed him the way to apprehend his Master, and there- 
by perhaps in time they may discover the other. They want nothing for 
this but some of the oil of the candle of the sepulchre, which can light 
itself, and this the monks at Casino can help them to. 11 If they have not 
the ass upon which Christ rode to Jerusalem, they missed it narrowly when 
they caught the palm 12 he then had in his hand (whether he had any or no) ; 
and a worBhiprol relic of the ass some shew ; it is said 19 his tail is enshrined 
in Liguria. And who can think but that may be as proper an object of 
adoration as the hay wherewith Friar Francis his ass was saddled. And 
every hair in that tail may make a complete relic, as worshipful as the 

I Erasmus, ibid. * Gaguinus. 1. y. de gestis Franc 
3 Vid. Rivet, ibid. p. 295. 4 Ranulphns. 1. ▼. c. xxvi. 

6 Erasmus, Annot. in Math, xxiii. 6 Engl. Festival in S. Thorn. Episc. Cant 

7 Aventinns, lib. v. 8 Vid. Reinold. de. Idolatr. p. 69. 
e Ibid. p. 515. ,0 Vid. Vergerium nbi supra. 

II Chronic. Cassinon. lib. iii. cap. xxxviii. in Cent. Magd. xi. p. 305. 
18 Ibid. lib. iv. cap. xxiy. 

18 Vid. D. Hall ; No peace, sect. xxi. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VII.] are virtues with them. 129 

whole ; for by their divinity, 1 the virtue of the whole is in every part. If 
it were but well distributed, this one might serve to furnish a hundred 
shrines, and entertain the devotion of as many votaries and pilgrims as 
come to worship at Loretto. 

Bat I need not insist on such relies as are to have divine worship by 
consequence ; those which they say expressly should be so worshipped are 
enough, and as many as they please to imagine. For though they have no 
good ground . to believe that they have any one true relic of Christ, or the 
least part of one, yet imagination is enough with them, both to give them 
being, and to multiply them in infinitum, and to warrant their worship of 
each of them as of Christ himself ; even such imaginations as interfere and 
confute one another, and are each of them confuted by such miracles as are 
the ground of the whole imposture. The foreskin of Christ is more reli- 
giously worshipped among them than Christ himself; as Erasmus observed. 2 
It is kept and exposed in at least four several countries, 3 and miracles 
brought to confirm the truth of its being there ; and yet while it is seen and 
adored in so many places on earth, some of their chief writers say it is no- 
where on earth, but in heaven ; and must be bo, otherwise the glorified 
body of Christ would be imperfect, and not entire. His shirt, and besides 
that (though he had no other shirt) his coat, which the soldiers disposed of 
at his death, was not found till the year 593 ; 4 yet they had it elsewhere, 
and greatly worshipped it long before in a city of Galatia, says Gregory of 
Tours. 5 It is much that they should have it before it was found, and some- 
thing strange too, that as it was without seam so it should be without rent, 
though afterwards they found it in several places at once, many hundred 
miles distant. They have it in Germany, and they have it in France, and 
they may have it in all parts of the world at once, as certainly as they have 
it there ; but whether they have it or no, that which they take to be it 
must have the same worship and honour with Christ. And we must not 
think it strange that it should be in so many places, since they say it grew on 
his back, 6 and so not unlikely might multiply itself since. About the blood 
of Christ there is no less imposture, and as great idolatry. They pretend 
to have much of it in parcels ; that which Nicodemus saved in his glove, 
that which Longinns brought in a vessel to Mantua, that which Joseph of 
Arimathea brought into England in two silver vessels, that which is kept at 
Venice with the earth it fell on, that which is shewed at the holy chapel in 
Paris, that which is adored at Borne on Easter day, that which may be 
seen in every country where popery hath left people no eyes. Yet the angel 
of their schools 7 (whose doctrine they say was approved by a miracle, and 
which they must not question if they believe their portess) is positive that 
all the blood of Christ that was shed before was in his body at his resurrec- 
tion, and so ascended with him into heaven ; and that the blood which is 
shewed in churches for relics did not flow from Christ's side, but miracu- 
lously from a certain wounded image of Christ. So that the blood which 

1 Eandem virtu tem in exigna parte reliquiarum, qua in toto sit corpore, experiment*) 
probatam. — Baronius. an. lv. 

8 Alibi Christi praputium, cam sit res incerta, religiosity adorant, quam totum 
Christum. Annot. in Math, xxiii. 

3 Vid. Rivet, ibid. 1. i. c. xvii. p. 132, Ac 

4 Baronius. an. 693. 5 Vid. Spondan. an. 593, n. xi. 

6 Ludolphus de vita Jesu. part ii. cap. Ixiii. p. 221. 

7 Sanguis autem ille, qui in quibusdam ecdesiis pro reliquiis conservator, non fluxit 
dc latere Christi, scd miracnlose dicitur cmuxisse de quadam imagine Christi per- 
cussa. iii. q. liv. art. ii. ad iii. An autem extet aliqua portio sanguinis--dissentio est 
inter Doctores ; aliqui enim negant. — Bonacin. ubi supra punct. iii. n. vi. 



Digitized by VjOOQlC 



180 MANY CBIMES [CHAP. Vll- 

they worship as God is no better than that which an image can bleed ; 
and this will scarce prove so good in England as the blood of Hales, which 
(how much soever worshipped) was discovered to be bat the blood of 
a drake. 

They have the reed, the sponge, the crown of thorns, in so many places 
as gives them reason enough to believe they have them in none, and yet 
they worship these in all. We mast imagine (to have such things go down 
smoothly) that they grow more than any thorn hedge does, not only in 
length but in number. And something towards this, Gregory of Tours 1 
writes of those thorns : they are green still, and though the leaves wither 
sometimes, yet they revive again, and flourish. But the old bishop had not 
the good hap to see this, he had it only by rumour ; and such rumours their 
annalist is wont to make much of ; for it is not amiss to abuse others into 
a belief of that which they cannot believe themselves. The lance which 
pierced Christ's side was got into the West before it had left the East (its 
proper place). Otto the Great presented Athelstane, king of England, with 
it and other rarities, in the tenth age. 2 Yet the dominical spear (the same, 
we may suppose, though some question it) was the Bame age in the posses- 
sion of Rudolphus, Duke of Burgundy, 3 of which Harry emperor of Ger- 
many was so covetous, that he threatened the Duke to destroy his country 
with Are and sword if he would not give it him ; and, in fine, gave him a 
good part of his country for it. Much worship it had, and brave feats it 
played then, and I know not how long before, for Charles the Great, they 
say, had it too ; 4 yet for all this it was still in Asia (if anywhere), and not 
found there till two hundred years after, for the Latins having taken Antioch, 5 
were blessed with the revelation of it in St Peter's church (for holy relics was 
the adventure which those knights errant sought, and they were concerned 
in point of honour either to find or make some). But this was confirmed by 
miracle, else it had not been worth a rash. Peter, the finder of it, to prove 
the truth thereof, 6 walked through a mighty fire with the lance in his hand. It 
is like this champion had something of the metal of that hermit's 7 marvellous 
pot, in which, though it was of wood, he boiled his meat constantly, how hot 
soever the fire was, without burning ; but that of the pot it seems was better 
tempered, for that endured many years, do the fire what it could, but the man 
could not long survive that hot brunt, dying shortly after. The nails where- 
with Christ was fastened to the cross were three or four at most. 8 Baronius 
dare not say they were four, though he does not always speak with the least 
in this matter of miracles. These, as the rumour was, being sent by Helena 
to Constantino, lost quite the form of nails, being used for the making of a 
bridle and a helmet for the emperor. In this, Theodoret, 9 Sozomen, 10 and 
Socrates 11 agree, but they tell us not how the nails which pierced Christ were 
known from those which fastened the two thieves to the other crosses. If 
they had foreseen that such things should have been worshipped equally 
with Christ himself, they would have thought this necessary, or rather to 

I Vid. Spondan. an. xxxiv. n. xxvii. 2 Ramilphus, lib. vi. cap. vi. 

8 Luitprandus, 1. iy. c. xii. Otho Frisingensis, 1. ix. c. viii. in Cent. Magd. x. p. 336. 
Vide et Spondan. an. 929, n. ii. 4 Spondan. ibid. 

5 Baron, an. 1099. Bellarm. de imagin, 1. ii. c. xxvil out of Guliel. Tyrius, Paulus, 
jEmilius, Dodechinns, &c. 

8 M. Paris, in an. 1099. 

* Gregor. Turonens. de glor. confess, c xcviii. 

8 Sententiam de tribus tantummodo clavis Christi recentior probavit usus. Spondan. 
an. xxxiv. n. xixv. 

9 Lib. i. c. xviii. ' ,0 L. ii. c. i. 

II L. L c. xiii. %aXi*6V( rt %e) <ri(JXi{>aA.«/«i> rur.ffotf. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VII.] are virtues with them. 181 

have said nothing at all without better ground, lest the nails of the thieves 
might have divine worship for those of Christ's. Gregory of Tours, who 
will have a fourth nail, 1 says one was thrown into the Adriatic Sea, where 
it seems it spawned, and from thence came the multitude of nails which 
were shewed and adored for the true one. (This is as satisfactory as the 
shuffling account which their great annalist gives thereof.) If Constantino 
had lived in times of popery, his horse had been in danger of divine worship 
for his bridle's sake, and his helmet could scarce have defended itself from 
being made an idol ; but seeing his religion was of another strain than that 
now in request with Romanists, it is well if he escape reproach for convert- 
ing that, the counterfeit of which they think worthy of the worship of God, 
to a profane use. However, they would not long endure such abuse, for 
upon a time one of them (whether reassuming its old form or no, I know 
not) skipped out of the bridle (or helmet, as you please, into Constantino's 
sword hilt, and that from thence, sword and all, into these western parts ; 
and that we may not question this, it was given by Otho the Great to 
our Athelstane. 2 But this was nothing to the spear which Count 
Sampson gave to Rudolph of Burgundy, and which Harry the emperor 
(or king, as Baronius calls him) forced from Rudolphus ; for there were 
I know not how many of these nails artificially fastened to the spear, 
say some ; s others will A have it wholly made of them, 4 and then these nails 
had need be twenty times more than ever touched the cross, or else they 
must be such as were fit only for the use of their giant Christopher, whose 
8aintship they make full twelve ells high. 6 For all this they had still many 
of these nails at their shrines and altars. To waive the rest, the bishop of 
Metes, officiating at Tryers 6 for Poppo, who was turned pilgrim, slily filches 
away from the altar one of those sacred nails, conveying another very like 
it into the place; and he had carried it clearly, but that, as ill luck was, the 
holy nail fell a bleeding (and it is like the nail had more tenderness than 
the consciences of those who coined such stories). However, this holy 
bishop, who had so dear a love for relics, must not suffer under the bad 
character of a thief, much less as sacrilegious, for stealing of relics was then 
the practice of the best (and no wonder if theft got reputation, when cheats 
were in so much request). Besides, there was something more than ordi- 
nary in the case, for such thieves, with the receivers, cheated themselves most 
of all, and those that were robbed made account (as they had reason) that 
they lost nothing, but worshipped what was gone, as still in their possession. 
So they at St Dennis believe that they have still the body, as well as the 
name of St Dennis the Areopagite, though Pope Leo the Ninth declared by an 
authentic bull, that it was stolen from thence, and carried to Ratisbon in 
Germany. 7 And no wonder if the French will not be baffled out of their 
faith by the pope ; for is it likely that he who carried his head in his arms 
(after it was smitten off) 8 for two or three miles together, and would not die 
till he came to the place where his body should rest, would not keep it from 
being carried from that place, signalised with such a miracle ? And the 
remains of St Bennet's body were stolen from CasBino in Naples, and carried, 
as they say, to Fleury in France, and the monks there offer proof of it by 
miracles ;• and yet those at Cassino believe they have it, and accordingly 

1 De glor. Martyr, cap. vi. * Rannlphus, L vi. c. vi. 

• Otho Frisinges. 1. ix. c viii. 

4 Sigebert et alii in Spondan, an. 929, n. ii. Lancea ex Christi clavis confecta. 

5 Baptists Mantnan. fast. lib. vii. 

Catalog. Trevirens. in Cent. Magd. xxi. p. 306. T Baronius, an. 1052. 

8 Breviar. Sarum. et breviariam Roman, nov. Lesson, vi. 
Sigebert, an. 763. Vincentins, lib. xxiii. c civ. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



182 MAKY GRIMES [CHAP. VII. 

worship it still, confirming themselves and others in that confidence of 
miracles too. 1 Whereby the world may judge of their miracles, for since 
God works none upon such occasions, to be sure, not for the confirming of 
contradictions, these must be the fictions of cheating knaves, or the feats 
and illusions of Satan. And some of themselves 2 confess that multitudes of 
them are no better as to their original. Indeed, they make such use of 
their miracles, that it is enough to blast the credit of a thing to have a 
miracle alleged by them for it, since it is their common practice to con- 
firm one lie with another, and the confirmation is more intolerable than the 
first fiction, because they will have the divine power interposed, thereby to 
delude the world. 

Not to digress further, they tell us of the oil, or liquor which drops from 
the knots of the true cross. 8 No wonder if this be thought worthy of no lees 
worship than the rest, since they ascribe to it a divine power. Besides 
many marvellous feats, it can cast out devils; for it must be of no less virtue 
than the oil of the sepulchre of St Martin, which, duly administered to a 
man possessed, gave him such a purge that he squirted out a foul fiend 
behind, and voided the devil for a stool. 4 In short, that the cross itself 
should have divine worship is their common doctrine. 6 This at first was no 
more than one man might well bear, but by the good housewifery of that 
church (who scruples no cheats in this sacred traffic) it is retailed out for 
worship in so many pieces, that together would sink a ship of a good burden ; 6 
so that there are many, many cart loads of Roman gods, which are really no 
better than common chips. In all this there is not any one bit, which they 
can upon good ground believe to be part of the true cross. They cannot be 
more confident of any than that piece which, with Pilate's inscription on it, 
they say is reserved and worshipped at Borne ; but that is detected to be a 
counterfeit by Baronius his own words ; 7 for he says, that on the true cross 
the Latin inscription was first (and so the Greek next, and ihe Hebrew last), 
and confirms it by no less authority than that of a pope, Nicholas I. ; whereas 
in that piece at Borne, the Hebrew is first, and the Latin last. By this we 
may judge of the stories concerning the invention of the cross by Helena. 
This now mentioned was a considerable piece of the discovery ; nor would the 
cardinal himself have us believe, that what is said to be sent to Constanti- 
nople, or reserved at Jerusalem, were more real parts of the true cross than 
that at Borne. However, true or false, here is enough, one would think, to 
glut the most ravenous devotion of any Egyptian. But when they will 
have this worship given to the images of the cross, 8 in any matter whatso- 
ever, or immaterial either, they give warranty to turn all things in the world 
into idols, any sticks or straws, yea, a man's own fingers laid across may 
be worshipped by him ; or let him but move one finger across in water, or 

Vide Spondan. an. 1088, n. i. 
1 Aliquando maximum deceptionem fieri in ecclesia per miracnla ficta a sacerdotu 
bus, Nic. Lyran. in cap. xiv. Daniel, Cassander, consult c de reliquiis infra. Vin- 
ccntius, ]. xxvl. cap. xxi. dicit fuisse qnosdam qui qurostua gratia per magiam hroc 
miracnla fieri aperte contestati sunt 

• Spondan, an. 598, n. iv. et an. 633, n. i. 

4 Gregor. Turon. de glor. Confess, cap. ix. Dsemonem per fluxum ventris egessif. 

6 Aquinas iii. q. xxv. art. iv. Asserimns cum sententia communion et in Scholis 
magis trita, crucem colendam esse latria, hoc estcultu divino, &c. — QreUe*' .1 i. c. xlix. 
Es t de fide. Bonacin. supra. 

Fragmentula ligni crucis tarn multa, nt si in acerrum redigantur, vix vel navis 
oneraria vehat. Erasm Annot. in Math. c. xxiiL 

1 Baron, an. xvi. n. riii. 

* Vide Gretser ubi supra. 

Utrnque crux adoratur adoratione latrisd. — Bonacin, ibid. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VII.] abe virtues with them. 188 

oil, or the air, anywhere, and instantly he has of his own creating what he 
may worship as God. 

For those relics to which they give divine worship under another name, 
they are yet more numerous. So that, upon the whole, if the Philistines 
had worshipped not only the god of flies, 1 but the flies themselves too, they 
would scarce have outvied these in numbers. The idolatrous Israelites, who 
worshipped the host of heaven, had a fair company of idols ; but the Egyp- 
tians might have more, who could sow gods in their gardens, and make them 
spring up on their backsides ; but both put together would come short of 
the Romanists herein, both for number and quality, though they of Egypt 
became the scorn of the world for the vileness of what they religiously wor- 
shipped. How they came by so many, when for three hundred years after 
Christ we hear of none, we have an account from their own authors. Out 
of covetousness, says their learned and ingenious Cassander, false relics were 
daily forged, feigned miracles were published, superstition thereby nourished, 
and sometimes, by the illusion of the devil, new relics were revived. 2 So that, 
in brief, to use the language of their own author, the devil helped their 
church to some of them, and covetous knaves to others. This stuff might 
be had cheap, and sold very dear ; this encouraged many to take up the 
trade, and monks are noted as prime merchants for this traffic. They were 
such who, in Austin's time, 9 being employed, as he says, by Satan (whose 
factors they were, and for whom the trade was driven), sold the members of 
martyrs, or what they pretended to be so. He was of the same profession 4 
who declared he came out of Spain into France with relics, which, being looked 
into, proved to be roots of trees, the teeth of moles, the bones of mice, and the 
claws and fat of bears. And they were monks who, as the same author tells 
us, were found at Borne, near Paul's church, digging up bodies, and confessed 
their design was to make relics of them. As for him whom Glaber speaks of, 5 
who furnished France with innumerable relics, it may seem strange that he 
should be counted a cheat when he was thus trading in another country, 
since his stuff had the very same mark which makes their other relics cur- 
rent as good ware, unquestionably good, and than which their best have no 
better ; for he wrought wonders (or the devil for him), and by one carcase, 
which he feigned to be a martyr's, 8 he freed many that were sick from variety 
of diseases ; but I suppose he was not free of the company, and they like 
not interlopers. The court of Borne can furnish altars with holy relics out 
of common graves, and none must count them cheats for it. And if this 
huckster had but procured a commission from thence, he might have transub- 
stantiated the bones in any churchyard, yea, those of a sheep or a hog either, 
into the bones of martyrs or apostles, as well as others. By this we may judge 
what their relics are, the best of them mere cheats; and consequently, how 
criminal it will be to give them worship, the highest of all ; 7 and yet they 
are so far from abandoning this, that it is in a manner the sum of their religion. 

1 3UT 7JD rendered by LXX. B**\ fiwimt. 

1 Araritiss causa ad simplicem populum illiciendam false reliquiea supponebantur, 
et Acta pnedicabantur miracula — nonnunquam autem astu et illusione Damonis ho- 
rainum supentitinne abutentis, per insomnia et visa novae reliquiae revelabantur, et 
ejasdem operatione miracula edi videbantur. — Consult, c. de reliquiis. 

8 Augustih. de opere Monach. c xxviii. Tarn multos hypocritas sub babitu mona- 
cborum usqueqnaque dispersit Satan— alii membra martyram, si tamen martyrum, 
venditant. 

4 Gregor. Turon, hist. Franc. 1. ix. c. vi. 

8 Vid. Spondan. an. 1027, n. iii. 

6 Multos infirmos yarns morbis liberasse. — Ibid. 

7 In bonis qnoque ▼iris, pio selo praaditis, summa quasi religionis in hujusmodi 
reliquiis Ac. — Cassandtr, consult, c de reliquiis. 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



134 MANY CHIMES ("CHAP. VlL 

And bo it is expressed by some of their own communion. The whole of 
religion is almost brought to this, to wit, their religious treatment of relics, 
through the covetousness of priests, and the hypocrisy of monks, fed by the 
foolishness of the people. 1 Thus their great Erasmus, in his Annotations, 
approved by Pope Leo X. his brief. 2 

Sect . 4. Let us see, in the next place, if perjury may not prove as blame- 
less and as necessary. Breach of oaths is no less with them than a virtue, 
or a necessary duty in many cases (of which a further account hereafter). 
Let me now instance but in one. Suppose a prince that has protestant sub- 
jects should, for their satisfaction, give them the security of his most solemn 
oath, that they should not suffer for their conscience either in life, estate, or 
liberty ; that religion does oblige the prince to break all such oaths, or to 
count himself no ways obliged by them, because they are against the laws of 
the church, against that particularly of the general council of Lateran under 
Pope Innocent III., which forbids all favour to be shewed to heretics, under 
the severest penalties, and decrees that favourers of heretics are under ex- 
communication. So that in this case it must be the prince's duty to be per- 
jured, and to break his oath made in favour of his heretical subjects, and 
that by the sacred decree of the church. He must forswear himself, if he 
will not be excommunicated, and consequently deposed, and thereby exposed 
to the violence of every hand ; yea, he puts himself into the state of damna- 
tion, and sins mortally, if he be true to his oath. So Pope Martin V. de- 
clared in writing to Alexander, Duke of Lithuania: 8 Enow, says he, that 
thou sinnest mortally if thou keep thy oath with heretics. Hereby it ap- 
pears that no papists, princes or subjects, can possibly give any security which 
may be trusted, that protestants shall enjoy anything which is in their power 
to deprive them of ; for the greatest securities that can be given in tbiB case 
are engagements of faith and truth, God being invocated for confirmation in 
solemn oaths. But by the principles of their religion they are so far loosed 
from all such bonds that they are not at all to be trusted by any but credulous 
fools, unless it can be supposed that they will act as other men than papists, 
and contemn all the authority of that church, which leaves no hope of salva- 
tion but in obedience to it ; for another general council, that of ConBtance, 
has determined that no faith is to be kept with heretics. In the nineteenth 
session of that assembly, it was decreed that no safe conduct given by em- 
peror, king, or secular prince to heretics, or any defamed 4 for heretics, though 
with a design to reduce them, by what engagements soever they have obliged 
themselves, shall hinder those heretics from being prosecuted, unless they 
recant, 6 though they come to the place of judgment relying upon such 
security, and would not have come otherwise. And it is declared further, 
that one thus bound by promise was not hereby in the least obliged. And 
what they decreed and declared they immediately practised ; for the em- 
peror Sigismund, having given safe conduct to John Hubs, and so engaged 
the public faith and his own honour that he should come and go safe to and 
from the council ; and Pope John XXII., then present in the council, hav- 
ing given his promise and engaged his faith (if he had any) for his safety, 
yet fiie feonour and faith of the emperor was borne down by the principles of 

1 Hoc fere summa religionis vocatur avaritia sacerdotmn, et monachornm quonwdam 
hypocrisi, quos alit populi stultitia. in Mat. xxiii. 

1 Hist, of Couuc of Trent, p. 473. 

9 Sdto te mortaliter peccare, si sefvabis fidem datam htereticis. — Apud Cocklaum. 
. v. hist. Hussitarnm. 

4 Qnocnnque vinculo se astrinxerint concesso. 

6 Etiamsi salvo conductu confisi, ad locum venerint judicii, alias non ventnri, see 
sic prom it ten tern — ex boc in aliquo remansisse obligatum.— In Crab. torn. ii. p. 1111, 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Chap. VII.] abe virtues with them. 185 

. their church, and the pope (as soon as the poor man was drawn into danger 
past escaping) made nothing of his promise, pretending, when he was urged 
with it, that he was overruled ; and so, notwithstanding all the security an 
emperor and a pope had given him, he was first miserably imprisoned, and 
after cruelly burnt to ashes. Hereby the world, protestants especially, have 
this plain and useful admonition, that they must trust to nothing among 
papists (those that will be true to that church), but what will keep them out 
of their power. The principles of their religion (for such are determinations 
of general councils) bind them to observe no faith, or truth, or common 
honesty with those whom they count heretics, no, not when life is concerned. 
Their religion obliges them to violate the most sacred oaths and the most 
solemn engagements of faith and truth, rather than an heretic shall be safe 
in any of his concerns where they can reach him. It is a virtue, a duty in 
that religion to snap asunder all securities (by which the world and human 
society hath hitherto been preserved) to nun a heretic ; no fear of perjury 
or any other perfidiousness must be a hindrance in the case. Nor is per- 
jury so necessary or innocent only when it is mischievous to us, but when 
it does mischief to themselves, and the world also. The practice of their 
popes for many ages may satisfy us herein, and to those who are acquainted 
with history, which gives an account thereof, it is no improbable observation 
that the bloody wars and massacres that have been for many hundred years 
in those places which the papal influence could reach, cannot be imputed to 
anything more, for the most part, than the perjuries of the popes themselves, 
and of those whom they involved in that guilt by discharging them from the 
obligation of their oaths. 

Sect. 5. And this brings me to some other crimes forementioned, robberies 
and murders, which the wonderful power of papal holiness hath transformed 
into Christian and virtuous acts. By the doctrine of their church, to deprive 
those whom they count heretics of their estate and lives is a virtue, and a 
meritorious act. There is too good evidence for this. A decree of Pope 
Innocent III., recorded in the tomes of their councils, by their own writers, 
as an authentic act of the general council of Lateran under that pope, and 
inserted by Gregory IX. into the decretals, which is the law of their church, 
and part of that which passes with them for divine law. There is, there can 
be, no act of their church more authoritative and obliging than such a decree 
as this. There, first of all, * heretics are excommunicated and condemned ; 
and then it is decreed that the estates of those condemned are confiscated. 
But that is not all ; the secular princes or lords are to be compelled (if they 
will not do it otherwise), and bound with a solemn oath, to endeavour to the 
utmost of their power utterly to destroy them all. They are to labour in 
good earnest with all their might to root them all out. * And, further, if any 
temporal lord proceed not to such ruining execution within a year, 9 the pope 
is to absolve those that are under him from their allegiance ; the land is to 
be seized on by catholics, who, having exterminated the heretics, are to possess 
it without control. Here it is plain that, by the highest authority the Roman 
church pretends to (that which is no less with them than divine), the papists 

1 Cap. iii. Concil. Later, rob Innocent, iii. in Crab. torn. ii. p. 047, 948. Excom- 
mnnicamns et anathematizamns omnem hsBresim — condemnantes uni versos hreretiooe 
quibuscnnque nominibus censeantnr — ita qnod bona damnatorum, si laici fuerint, 
confiscentur. 

• Qnod de terris su» jnrisdictionis snbjectis, universos hiereticos ab ecclesia denota- 
tos, bona fide pro viribus exterrninare stndeant. 

8 Ut tunc ipse vasallos ab ejus fidelitate dennnciet absolntos, et terram exponat 
catholicis occupandam, qui earn, extenninatis htereticis, sine ulla contradiction 
poasideant. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



186 MANY CRIMES [CHAP. VjJL 

are bound to destroy all whom they count heretics, and to take possession 
of their estates. And this barbarous decree (which has so much force with 
them, * as the word of God with any) was put in execution in the days of 
that very pope ; for he employed armies against the Albigenses (the prede- 
cessors of the protestants in France), who destroyed above two hundred 
thousand in the' space of some months. 2 It was executed in the age before 
this in France, 3 where so many thousands were treacherously and cruelly 
murdered, that the channels run down with blood into the river ; and this mag- 
nified as a glorious action, honoured with a triumph at Borne, and the un- 
paralleled butchers rewarded with his holiness's blessing. We have known 
it executed in our days upon some hundred thousands of the protestants in 
Ireland, where that bloody tragedy was acted by the pope's excitement and 
concurrence, just according to the tenor of that decree, the Irish papists 
endeavouring, with all their might, utterly to destroy all the protestants, that 
their estates and the whole land might be in the possession of Roman 
Catholics. And in all countries about us, wherever they have been powerful 
enough, or but thought themselves so, they have effected or attempted it. 
Such outrages were and are to be committed by warrant of the Romish 
doctrine. They are bound to act thus by all the authority of that church, 
which not only enjoins this by her decrees, but gives all encouragement thereto ; 
such robberies and butcheries are virtuous, yea, meritorious acts. Those 
that will engage therein to the utmost (as their church requires) are assured 
by the pope, of these indulgences and privileges, which were granted to the 
adventurers for the recovery of the holy land, and these are expressed, in an 
appendix to that council, to be full pardon of all their sins here, and a 
greater measure of glory hereafter. 4 At no less rate do they value the blood, 
and utter destruction of such as we (whom they count heretics) ; with such, 
and no less hopes, do they engage all papists, to endeavour, as far as 
possible, our utter extermination. It is true, there are good-natured persons 
amongst them, as there are amongst other sorts of men, and such as have 
a great aversion to such barbarous cruelty, but their religion tempts them 
to it, not only with hopes of heretics' estates, but of the greatest rewards 
that can be propounded ; yea, and forces them to it, even beyond their 
inclination, with threatenings of the most dreadful import, expressed in that 
decree, which signifies also, that they must act at this rate of inhumanity 
if they will be counted Christians, 6 and must not expect to pass for faithful 
Romanists, unless they will act as monsters. But if it be their duty, as 
they are Roman catholics, and they bound in conscience, as far as their 
religion, and all the power of it, can bind them, to destroy the protestants 
amongst whom they live, and seize upon what they have, why do they not 
fall to work, and make an end of us, that all may be their own? How is it 
that they live quietly and peaceably in this, and some other places ? To 
satisfy us here, they use plain dealing (though we must not always expect it), 
and tell us in express terms they do it not, merely because they have not 
power to do it. Though the church have made it their duty to destroy 
protestants, yet when they are not strong enough to do it, and where the 
attempting of it, because they are a weaker party, would endanger them, 
there they are excused, they may wait the happy hour till they have suffi- 

1 Conciliorum decreta sunt Spiritus Sancti oracula. — StapltL Relect. contr. vi. p. iii. 

* Vid. Jo. Paul, Perin. de Albigen. 
8 Thuanus, Hist. 1. liii. 

* Qui ad haereticorum extermiaiura se aocinxerint, ilia gaudeant indnlgentia, illoque 
privilegio sint inuniti, quod accedentibus in terra sanctae subsidium conceditur, p. 948, 
ibid p. 967. 

* Etiam sicut reputari cupiuut et haberi fldeles, p. 948. 



Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Chap. VII.] are vxbtuxs with them. 187 

eient power, to shew their obedience to the church in executing her extermi 
nating decrees, without apparent hazard of their own interest. So Bannes, 
a Dominican, determines that catholics in England and Saxony are excused 
from rising up against their protestant princes with their subjects, because 
they commonly are not powerful enough, and the attempt in such circum- 
stances would expose them to great danger. 1 Bellarmine speaks it as plainly ; 
if it were possible to root out the heretics, without doubt they are to be 
destroyed , root and branch ; but if it cannot be done, because they are 
stronger than we, and there be danger if they should oppose us, that we 
should be worsted, then we are to be quiet. 2 So that the reason why pro- 
testants in such places are not presently ruined, is because the papists are 
not there strong enough ; "we and others have the privilege to live, because 
they are not yet able to kill us, and to seize on what we have. When they 
have once power enough (or but think they have it), let us look to ourselves ; 
for if papists have any conscience, that anything in their religion can touch, 
they must then destroy us utterly, and leave us neither liberty, estate, nor 
being, unless they will resist conscience, and rebel against the authority of 
that church which they count most sacred and sovereign ; or, which is all one 
in their catholic sense, they must either exterminate us, or be damned them- 
selves. And to deal thus with us would be so far from being a sin, that by 
their most infallible doctrine (the decrees of popes and councils) it would be 
an act highly meritorious, though in the common sense of mankind it be 
robbery and murder. They may become the best catholics, by abandoning 
justice, mercy, and humanity itself, and procure pardon of all other sins, by 
the most detestable injustice and cruelty, and obtain higher degrees of 
glory by such crimes, as (to nse their own expression) deserves all the fires 
of heaven, and earth, and hell. If Satan could inspire all other sects with 
this catholic doctrine, it would be an expedient to satiate his enmity to man- 
kind ; this would turn the world into a shambles, and no sort of men should 
escape unbutchered, but such who could find no party able to force them to 
the slaughterhouse, yet this is the way to heaven, and transcendent glory, 
for those who will follow the Roman con3uct, and believe what passes for 
most infallible amongst them 1 

Sect. 6. There is another crime which passes for an eminent virtue with 
them, and is so esteemed and practised, that is, sorcery and conjuring. In 
the books of devotion published for the use of their exorcists, there are such 
horrid practices in and upon the devil as fully answers the titles of the books, 
one of which is called Horrible Conjuration, and another DevUish Exorcisms. 
He that has not seen them can scarce believe that such things should be 
practised by any that bear the name of Christians ; nor can they be heard 
without conceiving a horror at them. But they have been mentioned by 
others, I will only insist on that which may seem more innocent, but has 
indeed too much of sorcery and enchantment, and that is their sacramentals, 
with things of like nature and supposed virtue. Of this quality is their con- 
secrated water, salt, oil, bread, waxen tapers, branches of trees, roses, bells, 
medals, and Agnus Deis, To such things as these they ascribe marvellous 
and supernatural effects, a virtue to save and sanctify souls, to blot out sins, 
to expel devils, to cure diseases, to secure women in travail, to preserve from 

1 Sequitur prirao excnsandos esse Anglicanos et Saxonicos fldeles, qui non se 
eximunt a potestate snperiorum, nee bellum contra eos gernnt ; qnoniam commnniter 
non habent facaltatem ad hrec belligerenda contra principes, et imminent illis gravia , 
pericnla. In ii. 2 Thorn, q. zii. art. ii. 

* Hseretici — siquidem potest fieri, sunt procnldnbio extirpandi, si antem non possnnt 
qnia sunt fbttiores nobis, et pericalnm est, ne si eos bello aggrediamnr, plnres ex nobis 
cadant qnam ex illis ; tunc qoicscendnm est. — De Laid*, lib. iii. cap. xxii. p. 1319. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



188 MANY CRIMES [CHAP. YJJL. 

burning and drowning. Pope Alexander, in the decrees which they ascribe 
to him, asserts that water, mixed with salt and consecrated, does sanctify 
the people, 1 purify the unclean, break the snares of the devil, and bring 
health to body and soul. The form of exorcising salt, which we have 
in their authorised books, tells us it is exorcised, that it may be to all that 
take it both health to body and soul. 3 The exorcised water is to chase away 
all the power of the devil and root him out. 3 The virtues of an Agnus Dei 
are described by Urban V. in verse, wherewith he sent some of them to the 
Greek emperor. If you will believe a pope, who may be infallible in rhyme 
as well as in prose, 4 it drives away lightning, and all malignancy, delivers preg- 
nant women, destroys the force of fire, secures from drowning, and, which 
is more, destroys sin, even as the blood of Christ does. Befiarmine says* 
they are of power for the blotting out of venial sins, for the chasing away 
devils, for the curing of diseases ; others 6 ascribe to them a power to excite 
gracious motions, even ex opere operate. Now, it is acknowledged, that the 
natural power of these things cannot reach such effects, and that there is no 
virtue in or of themselves to produce them, no more than there is in such 
things by which magicians and conjurors work their strange feats ; nor has 
the Lord instituted them, or anywhere promised to empower them, for such 
purposes, no more than he has promised to make the charm of any sorcerer 
effectual for marvellous operations. Bellarmine confesseth 7 that such 
things have their force not by any promise of God expressed. And Suarez 8 
says the effect thereof is not founded in any special promise of God, be- 
cause, as he had said, it does not appear there is any such promise. And 
they confess there is a taoit invocation of the devil in using things for effects, 
to which they have no power, natural or divine. There is such an, invoca- 
tion of the devil, says Cajetan, 9 when one uses any thing or word as having 
power for such an effect, for which it appears not to have any virtue, either 
natural or divine, for then he tacitly consents to the aid of the devil. And 
so Sylvester 10 after Aquinas ; If the things made use of for such effects ap- 
pear to have no power to produce them, it follows that they are not used for 
this purpose as causes, but as signs or sacramentals, and consequently they 
belong to some compact with the devil ; and this, even the Jesuits will ac- 
knowledge. Thus cardinal Tolet, 11 It is to be generally observed that there 
is a tacit invocation of the devil when a man attempts to do anything by 
that which neither of itself nor by divine power produces such effects. And 
Filliuoius, declaring the several ways whereby a magical operation may be 
discerned, most of which are applicable to their sacramentals, gives this as 
the reason of them all : 12 because when the effect cannot be expected from the 
power of such causes, since they have it not, neither from God, who has not 
instituted them, it follows that it must be expected from the devil, who is 
therein tacitly invocated. They take it for evident, that the efficacy of such 

1 De consecr. D. iii. cap. aqua. 

8 In Balutem credentium, ut Bit omnibus sumentibns sanitas animn et corporis. 

8 Ad effugandam omnem potestatem inimici. 

4 — Omne malignum 

Peccatum frangit ut Christi sanguis, &c. Angel, i. lib. Cserem. c. ult. 

5 De cultu sanct. 1. iii. c. vii. p. 1694. 

6 Tribuitur Thomse, Cajetan, Soto in Suar. torn. iii. disp. xv. sect iv. 

7 Vim habent ejuamodi res non ex pacto Dei espresso. — Ibid. 

8 Non est fundatus in speciali aliqua Dei promissione, quia ut dixi, de tali promis- 
sione non constat. — Ibid. p. 187. 

Sum. verb, divinatio. 10 Sum. v. superetitio. n. x. 

11 Instruct, sacerd. liv. c. xiv. p. 684. 

12 Tract, xxiv. cap. vii- n. dxx. p. 82. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. VII. J are virtues with them. 189 

things is not from God if he did not institute them ; not from God, says 
Filliucius, since he was not the institute*. 1 So Sylvester 3 will have the 
magical signs referred to diabolical compact, because, having no such power 
of themselves, they are not of divine institution, plainly signifying that if 
their sacramentals were not instituted of God, they could be no better than 
what he refers to the devil. Now, what evidence is there that their sacra- 
mentals are of divine institution, and appointed by God for such purposes ? 
They say so, and that is all, and so may the magicians say, if they please, 
and prove it as well too ; for from the word of God, the only proof in this 
case, neither of them have a syllable. The author and original of this 
strange power may hereby be discerned, and the means they use to derive it 
helps the discovery. They have it, they say, by virtue of their exorcisms, 
but if they can consecrate or exorcise a thing into a power which is above 
itself, and yet comes not from God, their consecrations hereby will prove no 
better than conjuring. And, indeed, he that reads but their consecrations 
may have cause to think they are no other ; for instance, their form of con- 
secrating salt in these words : I conjure thee, creature of salt, by the living 
God, the true God, the holy God, that thou mayest be made a conjured salt, 
for the salvation of believers. 3 And the like conjuring they use for the making 
of holy water and other things. There is a charm in Alexander Trallianus, 
a magical doctor, which is exactly like these, in what the form of an en- 
chantment requires, to convey a virtue into an herb for the cure of a disease : 
I exorcise, or conjure thee, by the great Jah and Sabaoth, the God that 
founded the earth, &c. ; take the spirit of thy mother-earth and its virtue, 
and dry up the flux of feet and hands. 4 He that will count this a charm, 
will have no reason to deny but the papists' form of consecration is an 
enchantment; and indeed the common notion of enchantment is applicable 
hereto. They define it to be the conveying of a marvellous power into a 
thing by virtue of the words of an enchanter. Now, it is a marvellous power 
which they will have conveyed by their consecration, since it is a power 
above the natural capacity of the things, and such as enables them for 
spiritual and supernatural effects ; and they think it conveyed by virtue of 
the words of the consecrator, as in the other case by the words of the 
magician, for as soon as the words are pronounced, they believe the things 
so consecrated are endowed with the power. They will say, indeed, that 
they expect the power from God, and use his name accordingly in their con- 
secrations; and so might enchanters and magicians say, with the like 
reason, for they were wont to use the name of God in their charms and 
incantations, as Origen assures us. Many, says he, 5 of the Egyptians, wnen 
they are conjuring devils, insert in their incantations ' the God of Abraham ;' 
and he says, not only the Jewish exorcists did invocate the God of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob, 6 but almost all others who meddled with conjuration and 
magic. Oh, but this virtue comes from the church's prayers, says Bellar- 
mine t By these prayers, I suppose he means their forms of consecration ; 
yet in them there is no praying, but rather plain conjuring, for the words are 

1 Nee a Deo, qui eorum institutor non. est. — Ibid, 

1 Siqua sunt supervacua, cum non sunt divinitus institute, sicut suntsacramentalia, 
el consequents! pertinent ad pacta quaedam significationum cum d»monibuc— Ibid. 

8 Exorcizo te creature salis per Deum verum, &c. 

4 *{*'£" " "*A** fdy* 'I*<W 2*/3«uW, &C. 

Vid. annot in Orig. p. 17. 

6 *o\Xo) r£t Wabirru* taff/wat x(*vr«4 I* rw Xoyttf avr*j r», O 6E02 ABPAAM. — 
Contr. Oelsunu lib. i. p. 17. 

6 &Xkk y&{ fgiStv K*) <r**ra$ rdits r» riit ic«3«i> mat p*yu£f <rg*yp*rtuop.ivuf. lib. iv. 
p. 184. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



140 MANY CKIMKB [CHAP. VII. 

all of them directed to the things consecrated, and not at all to God, as 
is evident to any that reads them. And if they should use some prayers 
besides the forms of consecration, a magician may do so too besides his 
charm, and yet be no less an enchanter. Origen tells us that some invoca- 
tion of God and use of his name is often found in conjuring books. 1 And 
what would it mend the matter for either of them to pray to God to bless 
an enchantment, or make his conjuring effectual ? If the Epheaian magicians 
should have invocated God at the recital of their ygct/t/uara ;' or the con- 
jurors among Jews or Gentiles, in the use of their suframigations and other 
magical tricks ; 3 or the Simonians for their agogima ; 4 or Eleazer in the ap- 
plication of his ring and root; 6 the practice had been no better on this 
account, it would be still, at least, a tacit invocation of the devil, from whom 
alone such virtue must be expected, as is neither in the nature of the thing 
nor from God's appointment ; yea, it would have been worse to make so 
bold with God as to invocate him for the service of the devil. But, indeed, 
popish prayers themselves, as they use them, are as like charms as they can 
look. In their prayers there are barbarous, i. e. unintelligible words (like 
those of the magician in 2. Pausanias), which the people, or priests many 
times, understand no more than the hard words in the charms of conjurors 
were understood : 6 such as Jah f Zebaoth, Elohim, Sadai, or those which 
Cato says were used in a charm, 7 for curing members out of joint; or the 
name Abraham, which though the conjurors in other countries used, yet they 
knew not what it meant, says Origen. 8 They are tied to the same syllables, 
as conjurors are in their charms, and that they may not vary, must, as the 
Persian magician, 9 read all out of a book, yea, though they have it by heart. 
It is not requisite by their doctrine, as we saw before, to mind the God of 
heaven in their prayers more than the prince of darkness. The mere mut- 
tering of the words they count effectual, as in charms and enchantments, yet 
they have no promise from God, that the bare recital of their forms, without 
any inward devotion or attention, shall prevail, more than a magician has, 
that such a pronouncing of the words he uses in conjuring will be prevalent ; 
or more, that the words of a prayer which one carries in his pocket, 10 another 
charm in use among the papists, will be effectual. So that Salmeron had 
more reason than he expressed, to say that their prayers were like the words 
of a charmer. They had need first excuse their prayers from this crime, 
before this will serve to excuse their aacramentals. 

Sect. 7. There is another crime, no less heinous than the former, and yet 
in their account it is a necessary duty and a most excellent service, and that 
is, the destroying of Christ, which by their doctrine and laws of their church 
they are to do daily in the mass. To clear this, take notice of these severals : 
they teach that Christ is really in the mass, not only as he is God (and so 
everywhere), but as he is man, soul and body, flesh and blood, and there 

1 E«t<r»ir«< yi( l» rut p*yt*«7f rvyypipiuttt ctXXagw n Tim&m m SuZ UixXnrtt, mm 
vafaXfi-^'f rev S-uu hi/tart. — Ibid. 

9 Clemens Alexandr. Strom. 1. i. c. xviii. 

8 SvpuKfteiei **i *arahUfMtt xjwprat.—Jugt. Martyr, dial, ad Trypk. p. 91. Edit Steph. 
* Exorcismis et incantationibus utnntur. Amatoria quoque et Agogima apad eos 
studiose exercentnr. — /rename. 1. i. xx. p. lxxvi. 

8 3««rvXj«, \x»* i** ** rfptytlt }li*t — Joseph. Anttq. L viii. c. iL p. 267. 

6 £*(£«(« xai siilafiuif fviirk. — Lib. i. Eliacor. 

7 Cato de re rnstica luxata membra hac cantione sana fieri tradit ; Danata daries 
dardaries astararies, &c— Polyd. Virgil, de Prodigiti> lib i. 

8 clx InrrdfUM U ris Writ • A/3{««p. — Ibid. lib. i. p. 17. 

9 i**hi WtUyifnnt l» rw fa&kiov. Pausan. ibid. Vid. Soto de Justir. lib. x. q. v. 
art. Hi. 

w Vid. flora B. Virg. Paris edit. an. 1526, p. 63. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VII.] ake vibtues with them. 141 

sot only mystically in signs and representations, or spiritually in virtue and 
efficacy, bnt as to the very substance of his body, some say corporeally, others 
after the manner of a spirit ; bnt all say the true substance of his flesh and 
blood is as really on the altar as his body was on the cross when nailed to 
it ; yea, that it is there visibly, and may be (though it be not ordinarily) 
seen. 2. They hold that Christ is truly and properly sacrificed in the mass, 
and his body and blood there offered, as much as any bullock or lamb was 
sacrificed under the law. The council of Trent declares that the sacrifice 
in the mass, and that offered on the cross, is the very same for substance, and 
differs only in the manner of offering ;* and denounces a curse against any 
that shall say that this is not a true and proper sacrifice, or that Christ in 
these words, Do this, did not command the disciples, and priests after them, 
to sacrifice the body and blood of Christ. 2 8. They maintain that in every 
true and proper sacrifice, that which is sacrificed is really destroyed. So 
BeUarmine : To a true sacrifice it is required that what is offered to God in 
sacrifice should be plainly destroyed. 3 And if it be a live thing that is 
offered, that it may be a true and real sacrifice, it must of necessity be slain 
and deprived of life. A true and real sacrifice, says he, requires the true 
and real killing of it, since in the killing of it the essence of the sacrifice 
consists. Hence it clearly follows, and it is their own inference, that Christ 
being truly and properly sacrificed in the mass, he is there really consumed, 
killed, or destroyed ; he is as really consumed in the mass as incense when 
it was burnt for an oblation. The body of Christ, says the cardinal, for the 
honour of God, is laid upon the table that it may be consumed. 4 He is as 
really destroyed as the whole burnt offering was destroyed when it was totally 
burnt. The consumption of the sacrament, says the same author, as it is 
done by a sacrificing priest, is an essential part of the sacrifice ; for it is a 
real destruction of the sacrifice, and is counted correspondent to the burning 
of the holocaust. 6 He is as really killed in the mass, by their doctrine, as 
a bullock that was slain for a sacrifice. If in the mass, says he, there be 
not a true and real killing and slaying of Christ, it is not a true and real 
sacrifice; adding this reason, because the essence of a sacrifice consists in 
the killing of it. 9 So also Doctor Allen says, Christ is killed there indeed, 
and sacrificed to God. 7 And Vega, Christ is as truly slain and offered in 
the sacrament of the eucharist, as he is truly in the sacrament ; 8 and they 
think him to be as truly there as they believe him to be in heaven. Aquinas 9 
favours this opinion, and Gabriel insinuates it ; Soto, Ledesma, Canus, and 
the modern Thomists do plainly deliver it, besides BeUarmine and other 
Jesuits. Canus says they believe that to the perfect sacrificing of an animal 

1 Sera. vi. cap. ii. * Can. i. et ii. 

8 Et omnia omnino, qua in Scriptura dicontor sacrificia, necessario destrnenda erant ; 
si viventia per occisionem, &c. — De Miss, lib. i. c. ii. p. 685. Ad vemm sacrificium 
requiritur, nt id quod offertnr Deo in sacrificium, plane destruatur. — Ibid. p. 688. vid. 
lib i. cap. xxvii. p. 760. 

4 Christi corpus ad Dei honorem super mennam ponitnr nt consnmatnr. 

6 Consumptio qua fit a sacerdote sacrificante— proprie combnstioni holocansti 
respondere censetur.— Ibid, p. 769. 

• Vel in missa fit vera, et realis Christi mactatio et occisio vel non. Si non fit, non 
est vernm et reale sacrificinm : sacrificium enim verum et reale, veram et realem occi- 
sionem exigit, quando in occisione ponitnr essentia sacrificii.— Ibid, p. 760, sect, 
denique. 

7 De Euchar. Sacrific c. xc. xi. xii. 8 De miss. Tbes. xxii. xxiii. 

9 In Suarez. torn. iii. in iii. Thorn, disp. Ixxv. sect. v. Ratio praecipua hujus sen- 
tences est quia de essentia sacrificii est, et praesertim holocansti, nt tota victima con- 
snmatnr — nam hoc sacrificinm est holocaustum, in quo victima debet perfecte con- 
sumi, &c 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



142 MANY OBIMES [CHAP. VIT. 

it ought to be destroyed and slain, if it be truly sacrificed. 1 He says also, 
that the body of Christ, in the mass, is a living and breathing body, even 
the very same that is in heaven, and that it is truly sacrificed. What, then, 
can follow from hence, but that the living and breathing body of Christ in 
the mass is truly killed ? This is not denied, only they say it is an un- 
bloody death. And this indeed is their doctrine, Christ is put to death 
in the mass as he was upon the cross. It is the same death for the sub- 
stance that he dies by the priest, as he died by the Jews and Romans, only 
with some difference in the manner of it : it was a bloody death on the cross, 
it is an unbloody death in the mass, but he is put to death in both. And 
why should they say it is an unbloody death that he suffers by the priest, 
since they profess that his blood is there shed and poured forth, the very 
same blood that was shed on the cross ? 2 This may seem strange, and they 
cross themselves here sometimes ; but nothing must seem strange in the mass, 
for it is such a heap of absurdities and contradictions as ever entered into 
the fancy of any men waking and in their wits ; nor could have entered into 
theirs, if the spirit of delusion and the dream of infallibility had not dis- 
tracted them. However, this they do, and must hold, whatever come of it, 
that Christ is killed or destroyed in the mass. They are as much concerned 
to do it as all their religion comes to ; for if Christ be not really destroyed 
in their mass, they have no true and proper sacrifice ; and they tell us (to 
prove us altogether irreligious), where there is no proper sacrifice there can 
be no religion. 3 Hereby it is very manifest that the office of their sacrificing 
priest is daily to offer deadly violence to Christ ; that Christ in their mass 
is every day slain or consumed, and that the highest devotion of the Romish 
church is the destruction of Christ. It is true, Christ is above their reach; 
whatever they fancy, they cannot offer him this violence, or destroy him as 
they do his members ; but they really design to destroy him when they would 
make a sacrifice of him. And they verily believe they do it, and they do all 
which they count requisite in order to it ; and therefore they are destroyers 
of Christ by their own rule : to will to do it is the same wickedness with the 
doing of it. 4 The horridness of this will be more apparent if we take notice 
wherefore they will thus use Christ. Their church does it for the honour 
of the saints and of his mother. In that part of the mass which is called 
the offertory, they say, We offer thee this oblation in honour of the blessed 
Mary, for ever a virgin, and of all the apostles, and of all the saints, that it 
may be for their honour. 6 So that they sacrifice the Son to honour the 
mother, and destroy the Lord in honour of his servants. If one under the 
law had but offered a pigeon, or the meanest sacrifice, in honour of Abraham 
or Moses, it would have been counted a crime worthy of the worst of deaths, 
for this had been an advancing them into the place of God ; and yet to 
sacrifice the Son of God, that is, to destroy him in honour of a saint of the 
pope's making, is a meritorious act. Further, the priest will not venture 
on such a fact for nothing ; he has no reason to destroy Christ, more than 
Judas had to betray him, without some valuable consideration. He is to 
sacrifice Christ for the living and the dead : for those that are dead, if they 
have bequeathed anything to the church for this purpose, or if their friends 
hire him to do it ; for the living, those that are frugal, may be secretly men- 

i Loc Theol, lib. xii. p. 676, 676. 

* The blood is shed in the mass, but it is shed nnbloodily.— Hart in Retinoid Confer. 
p. 618. 

8 Nulla unquam fuit religio, sine ezterno sacrificio. 

* Voluntas faciendi, et ipsum factum, sunt ejusdem maliti©. 

* Ut illis proficiat ad honorem. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. VIII.] abe vietubs with them. 148 

tioned in the momenta of a common mass for a piece of money, bnt if any 
will go to the price of a particular mass, the priest is ready to sacrifice and 
destroy Christ on purpose for them in particular. 1 In fine, they do not offer 
this to Christ for spiritual respects only, bnt for temporal and worldly ad- 
vantages, and such often as are of no great moment. 2 Christ is to be 
destroyed for the health and safety of any body that is catholic ; yea, for 
the curing of a diseased horse, or the recovery of a sick pig, or the preserv- 
ing of their fruit from frost or a blast. They think it not amiss for such 
matters as these to make a sacrifice of Christ, and to destroy him; it is done 
amongst them many thousand times daily. And though the apostle seems 
to make it a horrid crime for one to ' crucify again the Son of God/ yet for 
them to do that daily which, for the substance of the thing, is as destructive 
to Christ as the first crucifying was, is the principal part and office, and the 
most eminent and meritorious act of their religion. 

These and such like are the prime virtues of the Romanists, most needful 
to be observed and practised ; and if things of such a quality be so far from 
being relinquished, where shall we find anything which God hath made a sin 
that can be thought worthy to be forsaken ? But I have stayed long enough 
here ; let me proceed to the next head propounded, to satisfy us that they 
count it needless to forsake sin. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Crimes exceeding great and many are but slight and venial faults by the 
Popish Doctrine. 

Sect. 1. There are innumerable evils which they call sins, yet they count it 
not necessary in point of salvation for any to forsake them ; but give all 
encouragement to live and die therein, as sins for which they can never be 
condemned. Such are those which they count venial. Let me shew you 
what sins they are which they reckon to be of such a quality ; and thereby 
it will be discerned how far their doctrine gives warranty to sins of all sorts, 
and to continue in the violation of all the commands of God. And this I 
shall do out of their own authors, such as are unexceptionable, declining the 
Jesuits ; and thereby it will be more manifest how little reason there is to 
excuse the practical doctrine received in their church, by charging their 
impious and licentious principles upon the Society. 

To hate God, 3 if it be out of inadvertency, and not with deliberation, is 
no mortal sin : and this they say of actual hatred ; for habitual enmity against 
God is, with them, no sin at all. Acts of infidelity, when they are led 
thereto by fear, 4 or worshipping an idol (such as not only we, but them- 
selves, count idols), are no worse than venial. 5 Unbelief, and perplexing 
distrustfulness of God about the things of this life, is as innocent. To pre- 
sent the body only before God, in all religious exercises, in prayer, the 
sacraments, yea, the eucharist itself, without any actual disposition suitable 
to the nature of the duties, without any good motion in mind or heart ; 
without any inward attention, reverence, or devotion ; without any act of 
faith, fear, love, desire, or any other grace or holy affection, though the want 
of these be voluntary, is but a venial fault. It is no worse, not only to make 

1 Pro incolumitate, says the Missal. Pro bonis temporalibus, says Innocent- III. 
* Pro qualibet necessitate, says Lindanus. 

3 Navar. Manual, cap. xi. n. xviii. 

4 Angel. Sam. verb, fides, n. ix. 8 Idem. verb, solicitad. 
vol. in. z 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



144 WHAT CRIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. Vlll. 

base and earthly things the end why we worship God, bat to make that which 
is a sin our design in any part of his service, yea, to propose it as the chief 
and principal end why we worship him ; though this be no less than to 
prefer sin, and the pleasure of the devil, before God and his honour. 1 To 
make use of a witch to dissolve some witchcraft, is scarce so much as a 
venial sin. And so to nse the devil's assistance instead of God's, and 
employ others disposed thereto to act as witches, and to practise with the 
prince of darkness by a deputy in diabolical arts, is not unlawful. To deal 
with the devil for to get some knowledge by him, or obtain other things of 
him by such converse, is but a venial fault. For example, if an exorcist 
require the devil to satisfy him in some curious questions (such as tend 
nothing to the expelling of him) ; if he believe him not, but does it out of 
lightness and curiosity, he offends but venially. 2 To use adjurations to 
God, or man, or angels, or devils, or irrational creatures lightly, without 
reverence to the name of God, or any necessity, is but a slight fault. 8 

Sect. 2. By virtue of their doctrine concerning venial sins, they have 
formed rules to encourage men in the practice and constant use of all sorts 
of profane and wicked oaths. They 4 acknowledge that the oath is sinful, 
N unless it be made in truth, and judgment, and righteousness ; when that 
which is sworn is not true, or not just and righteous, or not with reverence 
and discretion; yet they teach it is but a venial fault to swear without 6 
reverence or discretion, or without righteousness also, if that be not much. So 
that, though swearing be an act, as they tell us, of God's worship, wherein 
divine honour is given to him whom we swear by, yet this may be done without 
reverence and discretion (as the rest of their worship is), and God may be 
solemnly called to witness that the man intends to sin against him, if it be 
not much ; and this without any great fault. 6 A habit of swearing thus, or 
worse, is no sin, for habits of what wickedness soever are not forbidden. To 
use this habit frequently, so as to swear customarily, almost at every word 
(tertio quoque verbo), unless he regard not at all whether he swear true or 
false, yea, though he regard not that as much as he ought, is no more a 
fault. 7 So to swear 8 out of lightness and vanity, upon any the slightest occa- 

1 Si est aliquis dispositus actaaliter facere aliquod maleficium ut aliud deatruat, 
possum illo oti ad bonum meum. — Petr. Aureolus, in iv. dist. xxxiv. q. ii. ; Angelas, 
Sum. v. superset, n. xiii. 

* Si antem exorcizator imperet daBmoni, ut dicat curiosa, et nihil ad expulsionem 
facientia, non quia illi c red at, sed quadam levitate et curiositate ductus; est peccatum 
grave, licet illud non videatur mortale.— Silvest. sum. v. adjurat. n. iii.; Graff. L ii. c 
vii. n. iv. ; Sotus, de Just, et Jur. 1. viii. q. iii. art. ii. ; Cajetan. et Navar, in Suar. L 
iv. de adjurat. cap. ii. n> ix. 

8 jSi (adjuratio) fiat ad Deum, vel homines, vel angelos, vel dsemones, aut irratio, 
nabilia leviter, i.e. sine reverentia divini nominis, aut necessitate — modo aeptimo 
videtur veniale, sicut et juratio levis. — Sylvest. ibid. n. v. 

4 Vid. Bonaventur. iii. dist. xix. art. ii. ; Angel us, sum. v. jurament. iii n. viii. 

8 Veniale est regulariter dum deest judicium, vel reverentia. — Lopez, cap. xlii. p. 
225. Veniale vero cum non deest nisi judicium, sive reverentia, vel justitia levis. — 
Navar, cap. xii. n. iii. Juramentum assertorium cui deest tantum justitia, quatenua 
contra religionem est, regulariter est veniale. — Est asserlio communis et tacilis. — 
Suar. de Jur am. 1. iii. c. xii. n. vii. 

6 Mains jurandi habitus non est mortale peccatum, quia non est actus. — VictoreL 
ad Tol. 1. iv. c. xxii. p. 681. Prsecepta non dantur de habitibus. — Aquinas, xxii. q. 
xxxi. art. iv. ; vid. Suarez de Juram. 1. iii. c. vi. n. i. 

7 Utrum jurans sine judicio discretionis peccat mortaliter, sicut faciunt illi qui in 
qnolibet verbo jurant? — Si jurat verum, sic non erit mortale peccatum. —Angel. Sum. 
v. juram. iii. n. x. Lopez, et in eo Jo. de la Pinna et Metina, cap. xlii. p. 226, 227 ; 
Cajetan, Sum. v. pwscept. p. 476. 

8 Qui in re levissima, atque inani jurant, sive etiam frequenter, et absque neccssaria 
causa, sicut ementes et vendentes aepe facere novimus, peccant quidem, sed venialitcr 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. YIH.] in the boman ohubch. 145 

sion, without any advantage or the least necessity, is as innocent a practice, 
according to all their doctors. And the common practice of their catholics 
is correspondent to these conscientious rules. You can scarce find any one, 
(says Soto 1 ) who will either begin or end the least discourse without an oath ; 
for they use oaths for ornaments of speech at every word. But should they 
not at least endeavour to leave this custom of swearing ? No, never to 
endeavour; it is but a small fault Although (says one of their most 
approved casuists) he sins venially who swears true without any necessity, 
and so the custom of swearing be*evil and pernicious, yet he sins not mor- 
tally who labours not to break off that custom, because it is but an occasion 
of falling into venial faults. Hereby they have encouragement, not only to 
accustom themselves to this impious practice, wherein so much profaneness, 
irreverence, and contempt of God is expressed, but also never to give it 
over, yea, never to endeavour it. And the reason whereby they warrant 
this, reaches all the wickedness which by those conscientious divines is 
counted venial ; they may commit it customarily, continually, and need never 
go about to do better; all will be but a fault so small as is next to nothing. 
They need not regard in what terms their oaths are dressed. They may swear 
[by the] body or blood of God, by Cajetan's leave ; a yea, though they swear 
by such parts of Christ's body, or such members of the saints, or the virgin 
mother, as are not to be named (per inhonesta membra*), it is but venial, if 
without contempt and scandal, which will make an act, in itself lawful, to be 
criminal. And though they seem to give caution that what is sworn be -not 
false, since this cannot be excused by any artifice from being damnable, yet 
they try what may be done to make this go down as easily as the rest. If 
the thing sworn be false, and he knows it, yet swears it by his faith, or troth, 
or this fire, such perjury is venial, nan peccant mortaliter cum perjurant 
(Angel, after Aureolus v. perjurium). To swear that which is false in jest 
is a harmless venial, by the gloss upon their law. 4 Commonly to swear that 
which is false, without considering whether it be false or no, or whether he 
swear or not, is as harmless. This is the judgment of Aquinas and their 
common doctrine : so that if a man heed not what he does, he may do what 
he will, and, as it were, wink a damnable crime into a slight fault. By this 
expedient he may swear false as commonly as true without any considerable 
hurt. This is enough, one would think, to render their worse sort of swear- 

tantnm, si Veritas non defnerit — Graff- 1. "• cap* xv. n - ▼. J Sotas, ibid. L viii. q. i. 
art. iii. ; Sylvest. ibid. v. juram. ii. n. viii., secundum omnes doctores. 

Juramentum assertorium cui inest Veritas aufficienter cogitata et cognita, solumque 
illi deest necessitas vel utilitas, nunquam est in individuo peccatnm mortale, dummodo 
absit comtemptne. Assertio est communis omnium theologorum et summistarum. — 
Suar. 1. iii. de juram. c. xii. n. iii. 

1 De Justit. et Jnr. ibid. p. 270. 

Non tamen peccat mortaliter, qui non conatur ejnsmodi consnetudinem evitare, eo 
qnod ipsa non est occasio nisi labendi in venialia. — Pet. a 8. Joseph, de ii. prsecept. 
art. i. p. 85, approved by the doctors of Paris. 

3 Dicere ad saoguinem Dei, vel ad corpus Dei, sive invocando sive resonando in 
rixa ant turbatione, — peccatnm est grave, non tamen mortale, quia non contra, sed 
prater Deum est. — Sum. v. blasphem. p. 49. 

8 Qui per Christi inhonesta merobrajurat, si contemptns desit et scandalnm, venialiter 
tantnmmodo peccare credendus est. — Gfraff. 1. ii. c. xiv. n. x ; Sylvest. Sum. ibid. n. x. 

4 Gofredus asserit perjurium jocosum esse peccatum veniale : et Angelas v. Perjar. 
non esse amplius quam veniale jurare falsum jocandi gratia, — Solennin, gloss, cap. 
veniens de jure jur. et gloss, in c. unum. nunc. 

6 Coromuniter jurare falsum, non considerando an illud sit falsum, vel an juret, non 
est amplius quam veniale ; secundum S. Thorn, et communem opinionem. — Navar, c. 
xii. n. vi.; Lopez, c. xlii. p. 226; Graff, lib. ii. c. xvi. n. vii. 

Scotus, iii. dist. xxxix. art. i. dicit com man iter concedi, quod nnicum perjurium 
leve, non est peccatum mortale. — In Suar. 1. iii. de juram. cap. iv. n. i. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



146 WHAT CRIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. VIII. 

ing, perjury itself, practicable in ordinary, with ease and safety. Yet, as an 
overplus, they add, he that swears what is false through gross or careless 
ignorance, thinking it to be true, though if he use due diligence, he sins not 
at all ; yet if he used some diligence, but not enough, he offends no more 
than venially, if Aquinas or the common doctrine may be credited ; for this 
is it, saith Navarre. 1 And that, which way soever a man turn himself, he 
may have liberty to be perjured, they teach that he that swears the truth, 
believing it to be false, and takes notice that he swears, but minds not what 
he swears, sins not mortally ; or if he nekher regard the one nor the other, 
but does both without consideration, it is only a little fault, 3 unless this 
inconsiderateness was wilful and out of contempt, for then perhaps it may be 
worse upon the account of contempt ; probable error will excuse perjury from 
mortal guilt, as if one appeals, thinking there is reasonable cause for it, 
though he has sworn before not to appeal. So Panormitan. and Angel. 
Sum. v. Perjur. 

He that hears a thing from a person of credit, may swear it is true, only 
not in court, unless he express his reason (Bonacin. torn. ii. disp. iv. q. i. 
punct. iii. n. vii). But as if it were not sufficient for a man to swear false 
himself, they conclude he may without harm draw others to do it also; for, 1, 
they say he may induce others to swear, when he is not satisfied whether 
they will swear true or false; that is the opinion of Aquinas and their common 
doctrine * Further, he that knows another will swear false, may yet put him 
upon it, if he be a public person ' y that is also the opinion of Aquinas, and 
commonly embraced by their doctors;* yea, moreover, any one whosoever 
may put him to swear whom he fears, or knows will forswear himself, if he 
be disposed to swear. 5 Let us see in the next place, whether they may not 
be as perfidious in promissory oaths, as they may be false in others, and 
upon as easy terms : in all cases, good, or bad, or indifferent. He that 
swears he will not go to or pass by such or such a place, though he do it 
for no end that is honest or profitable, sins not mortally if he go contrary 
to his oath. He that swears he will do a thing lawful, and does it not, sins 
but venially if it was a, small matter; 7 this is the common opinion which 

1 Qui per ignorantiam quam crassam vel supinam vocant, jurat falsum, credens se 
jurare verum, quamvis si debit am adhibet diligentiam, nihil peccat, si tamen aliquam 
adhibet, scd non quantam debet, non amplius quam venialiter delinquit, secundum 
eosdem, c. xii. n. vii. (Aquinas, Soto et alii in Suar. ibid. c. v. n. iii.) 

8 Qui jurat verit ate m credens esse falsum quod jurat; si quod jurat advertit, non 
advertendo se jurare illud, vel contra advertit se jurare, non advertendo quid jurat, 
ncn peccat mortaliter. Si autem neque hoc neque illud advertit, immo utrumque sine 
deliberatione et consideratione facit, peccat quidem, sed tantum vcniale leve. — Idem, 
ibid. n. vii. * 

8 In Suarez. Jurament. I. i. c. xiv. n. ix. 

4 Ibid. n. x. et xi. ; Richard de St. Victor, in Angel, sum. v. juram. iii. n. xi. 

5 Non credo tamen mortaliter peccare eura qui dat juram en turn, etiam ut persona 
privata, illi, quern scit falsum; quum ille est jam dispositus jurare. — AngeL ibid. 
Qraff. ibid. c. xvi. n. x. ; Turrecremata in cap. quamvis. xxii. q. i. p. 161. 

6 Non peccaret mortaliter contra faciendo, quia jura mentura esset vanum, juxta 
Cajetanum et mentem St. Antonini. — Nav. c xii. n. xii. ; Graff. 1. ii. c xv. n. vii. et 
c. xviii. n. iii. 

7 Ubi minimum est quod promittitur, tunc non observare, non erit saltern mortale 
peccatum — Idem quando id quod jurat est indifferens, ut notat D. Ant. de JButrio. 
idem, ibid. S. Antonius, Sylvest. Sotus, Corduba, alii in Suar. ibid. c. xvi. n iv., et in 
Navar. ibid. n. x. Tenendum videtur cum communi, peccare quidem venialiter, qui 
juramcntum de re parva et levi non implet, non autem mortaliter, quod ipsum de 
voto rei levis dicemus. Cum parva res est pars minima materia) juramenti, non 
implere potest esse vcniale — ut qui promisit non ludere, et parum temporis in parva 
quantitate ludit. — Cajetan, Covarruv ., Corduba, Philiarchus in Suar. 1. iii. c. xvi. 

Quando C8t tota materia, est veniale. Antonin. Silv. Angel, de Butrio, Graff. Soto, 
Navar. Joh. Andr. Hostiensis, Panormit. Aureolus.— Z&u*. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VIII.] in the roman chtjbch. 147 

Navarre attempts to prove with several reasons. As if a woman swears she 
will give her children apples to quiet them, and gives them none ; or swears 
to chastise them, and does it not (which are Cajetan's instances, though he 
vary from the rest in the general conclusion) ; or if a man swear he will say 
an Ave-Mary, and says- it not ; l or swears to say a Pater-Noster, or to give 
a small matter, and gives it not ; 2 or not to take place of his friend, and yet 
does it ; or to game no more, and plays a little : in such cases any breach of 
promises, confirmed by oaths, is but a small fault ; and consequently it will 
be no worse in all matters, not only small but great, for the obligation of an 
oath rises not from the quantity of the matter sworn, but from the concern 
and interest of God in an oath, he being invocated therein as witness. Now 
this is always the same, whether the matter be less or more ; and so if they 
be not obliged to keep oaths in less matters, neither are they bound in 
greater. But by their rules of conscience they are set at liberty to break all. 
He that swears to give a whore one hundred crowns for the act of fornica- 
tion, is only bound to give her that part of it which persons of his condition 
are wont to give such women, because a prodigal engagement confirmed by 
oath obliges only to that proportion in which there is no profuseness (Bannes 
et alii in Diana, v. promiss.). If a man swear to be true to a whore, and 
she to be faithful to him, so as to entertain no other, the oath doth not 
oblige either of them to such honesty (Idem, v. juram. n. z). Whether 
the matter be small or great, when one is drawn by fear, or brought by law 
to swear, if he break his oath that is promissory, he sins but venially (Pet. 
Aureolas, Joh. Andreas, et multi alii ; et placet Angel, sum. v. Perjur. n. vii.). 
He that swears he will not observe some evangelical counsel 9 (that which is 
not only lawful, but excellently good, and better in their account than what 
the law of God requires), offends but venially ; so their authors generally. 4 
And yet to these counsels they have reduced a great part, almost all, which 
God has made our duty, as we shewed before ; so that a man may call God 
to witness, that he is resolved not to do what he has made his duty. As 
for one to bind himself by oath that he will not lend to his neighbour, nor be 
surety for any, nor give alms to any in great necessity, nor do any of those 
important things, which they count works of supererogation, is but a small 
venial. 5 Such oaths, they say, do give obstruction to the Spirit of God, yet 
they may be kept without sin. He that swears he will return to prison 
and does not, is no more guilty, if he was not duly imprisoned. 6 He that 
swears he will commit any sin if it be but a venial, offends but venially ; 
this is the common doctrine, well declared by Cajetan and Navarre, as he tells 
us. 7 As if a man should swear that he would never use to speak without an 

1 Idem. idid. c. xviii. n. vii. 

9 Graff, ibid. n. xiv. et n. xvii. 

8 Qui jurat se non facturum aliquid ad quod non tenetar, est tamen secundum se 
melius faoere quam non facere ; si forsan erit aliquid ad consilia evangelica pertinens ; 
neque S. Thorn, neque S. Antoninus dicunt hoc esse mortale. Cajetanos, Jo. Tabienna, 
et glossa communiter recepta, tenent mon esse lethale. — Hav, ibid. c. xii. n. xvi. 

4 Cajetan. sum. v. perjurium, p. 464, perjurium secundum quid incurritur. Graff, 
ibid, c xv. n. vi. qui jurat eleemosynam non dare, vel alliud supererogationis opus 
non facere, venialiter tantummodo peccat : et c. xviii. n. xi. Nov. ibid. vid. plures in 
Suar. ibid. cap. xviii. 

* Docuit S. Thorn, hujusmodi juramentis Spiritui sancto apponi obstaculum. — 
Idem, Navar. ibid. 

• Qui juravit redire ad carceres, si career est injuriosus, non tenetur redire — est 
verura quando vult evadere illud quod indebite sustinet, et sic ut evadat jurat, non 
intendens se obligare. Angel, sum. v. juram. v. n. xxxvii. ; Nav. ibid. c. xii. n. xviii. ; 
Graff, ibid. c. xviii. n. xxv. secundum glossam communiter approbatam. — Sylv. sum. 
v. juram. iv. n. xxvi. 

1 Cum jurat quis, se facturum aliquid qucd solum est illicitum venialiter; non 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



148 WHAT CRIMES AEE VENIAL [CHAP. VIII. 

oath, or never avoid any of those horrid acts which they mince into venials. 
To call God to witness that he purposes thus to dishonour him, is, it seems, 
no great contempt of him, or else a great contempt of God with them is but 
a trifle. This is to threaten God to his face, and call upon him to take 
notice of it, that they will do these evils against him. Soto and others say, 
it is such a threatening of God when they swear to commit mortal sin, and 
no difference can possibly be here discerned, but that the one is a threatening 
God with a greater evil, the other with a less ; however, this is their common 
doctrine, Assertio posita communis est. They give as much liberty for 
fraudulent oaths, whereby God and man are abused ; to swear with equivo- 
cation or mental restriction, so as those to whom oath is made are deluded, 
is with them, in many cases, not so bad as a venial evil, of which in due 
place. To take an oath outwardly, 1 without an intent to swear, is bat a 
small fault, though it seem a mocking of the divine Majesty, and is cross 
to the end of an oath, if it be unduly required. 80 they determine also in 
case one swear without an intention to oblige himself. Angelas inquires, 
whether he sins who takes an oath with a mind not to be obliged ; he tells 
us 9 Panormitan affirms, that if he be a perfectionist (id est, a votary) who so 
swears, he sins venially, otherwise not ; but himself says, Whether he be 
perfect or imperfect, he sins not so much as venially, and proves it by their 
law. He takes an oath, which in its own nature obligeth, without an inten- 
tion to be obliged ; he calls God to witness when he is deluding men ; he 
abuses the name and authority of God for a cheat ; and yet offends but 
venially, whoever he be, says one ; and sins not at all, says another, but then 
he explains it : Understand this when in swearing, he had a mind to use an 
oath for reverence to God, but not for obliging himself.* So that must be for 
reverence to God which mocks him, and he must be invocated in a way that 
is most obliging, without any intent to be obliged. And further, to prevent 
falseness (where there is nothing but fraud), he must swear with a mental 
reservation. For example, I promise thee an hundred (pound), with this 
inward reserve not expressed : If I be bound to pay it ; for such conceal- 
ments, says he, are lawful, and quotes their church law for it, as allowing 
that, which all other laws of God or honest men condemn. 4 It is plain by 
the premises that their doctrine encourages the Roman catholics to venture 
upon all sorts of oaths, in many cases, whether they be rash, or injurious, 
or fraudulent, or false, as slight and trivial faults. No more do they make 
of perjury, though it be frequent and customary. If more evidence be 

enim exit tunc amplius; qoam veniale secundum commanem sente,ntiam a Cajetano 
optime et a nobis explicatum. Navar. ibid, n iii. Cajetan, sensible that this ie cap- 
able of great aggravations, mentions some, but concludes : Though it seem, and be a 
grievous sin, yet it is but a venial. Undo grave videtur et est hoc peccatum, son 
tamen mortale. — Sum, v. pexjur. p. 464. 

1 Sotns in Suar. ibid. c. xvii. n. vi. quando juramentum injuste exigitur, vel quoties 
voluntarie, et sine obligation^ et sine alio n oca men to vel injuria tertii, non esse 
mortale, Soto tenet, et multi scqnnntur. 

Juramentum simulatum, etiamsi promissorium sit, intrinsece non continet peiju- 
rium, non grave peccatum ; si absque injustitia et ex honcsta causa fiat. Conclusio 
est communis. Angelus, Navar. Lud. Lopez, in Suar. ibid. n. xii. 

* Dicit Panormitan. quod, si est homo perfectus, peccavit venialiter ; sed ego dico, 
quod nee perfectus nee imperfectus peccaverit etiam venialiter.— Sum. v. jurament. v. 
n. ix. 

8 Intellige hoc quum jurando habet animum solum inducendi*juramentum ad re- 
verentiam Dei, non ad obligationem suam.— Ibid. 

* Etin mente habuit aliquam circumstantiam debitam qua verum jnrabat; puta, 
Fromitto quod dabo tibi centum, cum ista subauditione, scil. Si sum tibi obligatus ex 
debito : licet hoc non exprimat ut hujnsmodi, quoniam sic utitur simulatione licita quod 
licet- ut in c utilem xxii. q. ii. ibid. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. VIII.] m the boman chuboh. 149 

desired, take notice only of the determination of Dominions Soto (a grave 
and learned doctor, and one who was a principal divine in the council of 
Trent). He having premised something concerning the heinonsness of perjury, 
that the Lord forbids it, with a particular emphasis more than other sins ; 
that it is a greater crime than murder, and is most grievously punished 
both by God and man ; l his tatnen non obstantibus, all this notwithstanding, 
he lays down two conclusions, in which he maintains perjuries of all sorts, 
id est, both in promissory and assertory oaths, to be no worse than venial :' 
1. Every assertory oath, though it be vain and unlawful, and in a sort per- 
jury, is not a mortal sin, but oftentimes venial. 2. There are many promis- 
sory perjuries (promissoria perjuria) which are no greater faults than venial, 
and reduces these perjuries to four general heads (under which many thou- 
sands of particular cases may be obtained), and all must pass for venial. 
Then, for customariness of sach perjuries, how commonly, how often soever 
a man is guilty thereof, that makes them not mortal ; he speaks of some 
mentioned by Scotus, who thought that a light perjury was no worse than 
venial, but if it were customary, it would be mortal ; but he confutes this 
opinion by a principle generally received, 8 that a multiplication of the same 
acts, do not change the nature thereof, that is, ten thousand venial acts do 
not make one mortal sin ; and concludes, 4 if the perjury be but venial (as it 
may be by his determinations now mentioned in many thousand instances), 
how habitual and customary soever it be, it is not thereby mortal ; so that 
if a man, how talkative soever, should never speak while he lives but with 
an oath, or such perjury as he here excuses, yet all the perjuries of a whole 
life would not be a mortal sin. 

Sect. 8. They determine in their schools, 5 that of all sins those are the 
greatest and most heinous, that are against the theological virtues and reli- 
gion. Of those against religion (which are counted sacrilege), there are three 
degrees ; and in the highest of all (containing crimes against the deity and being 
of God), as the most grievous, they place perjury, blasphemy, and the sins 
against the Holy Ghost (and those in the same rank with these), yet for practice 
how little they make of perjury we have seen. Blasphemy meets with the 
same measures ; they teach it may be but a venial fault in any of those cases 
wherein they describe it : whether by denying God's infinite perfections, his 
wisdom, goodness, justice, providence, &c. ; or by charging what is reproach- 
ful to him, as injustice, partiality, impotency, cruelty, ignorance, &c. ; or 
by ascribing his incommunicable excellencies to others, as calling a friend 
our God ; or attributing the divine perfections to the devil ; or else, by way 
of detestation, decrying, renouncing, cursing God, with imprecations against 
his blessedness or being ; or else by way of derision, &c. Now it will be but 
a venial fault to blaspheme the divine Majesty in such a manner, (1) when it 

1 De just, et jar. 1. viii. q. ii. art. iii. p. 269. 

1 Non omne juramentum assertorium, licet sit vanum atque illicitam, et subinde 
qnodammodo perjurium, est peccatum mortale : sed crebro veniale. Plura sunt pro- 
missoria perjuria qu» non sunt gravioris culpsB quam venialis. — Ibid. 

8 Cum rrequentatio actuum non sit distincta ab ipsis actibus, non est per se peccatum 
ultra numerum multiplicatarum actionum : consuetudo speciem juramenti nee mutat 
nee aggravat. — Ibid. p. 270, col. ii. 

4 Si pcrjurinm merit leve ut veniale— quantumcunqne fiat ex habitu et consuetudine 
non efficitur mortale. — Ibid. 

Juramentum prolatum sine advertentia formali — non est in se novum et proprium et 
speciale mortale peccatum, propter solam pejerandi consuetudinem, etiam non retrac- 
tatum. D. Thorn. Bonarent. Duraud. Major, Scotus, SylvesL— A r avar. in Suar. 1. in. 
de jurament. c. vii. n. iii. 

6 Vide Suarcz, torn, iii* disp. lxvi. sect. ii. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



150 WHAT CRIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. YJLLL. 

is out of lightness of mind j 1 or (2) when it is sadden from passion ; so 
Sylvester 2 after Aquinas. And Navarre 3 after Angelas adds, that it is not mate- 
rial though the passion be without just cause, or in gaming, or from drunken- 
ness, or any unlawful employment, such passion and excess will be so far 
from being great sins, that they will lessen the greatest. Or (8) when it is 
from wicked custom, with contempt of one's own salvation ; 4 when one is so 
habituated in the practice of reproaching God, that blasphemies break from 
him without observance or consideration. So Cajetan and Sotus, and Navarre 
after Sylvester. Thus, by their rules, the more a man sins in the most 
horrid instances, the less will his sin be. To blaspheme God customarily, 
may be a slight fault, when to do it rarely will be a most deadly crime. 
Here is a course described, to make such blaspheming of God, as a soul 
that has any sense of his majesty, can neither think nor speak of without 
horror, to be familiar and practicable without danger. Let him, then, blas- 
pheme God at first out of levity or passion, he may do it thus customarily 
with safety; and the oftener he does it, the more he secures himself; for 
when he hath so perfected this habit of wickedness by custom, that blasphe- 
mies will issue from him without his notice or observance, he may, when he 
is not heated by passion, reproach God at every word while he lives, and 
breathe out his soul with blasphemies when he dies, and yet be saved, for all 
this will amount to no more than such faults as never endanger the soul of 
a Roman catholic. There needs no more to make mortal sins venial but 
to get the perfect habit of them ; that is, if a man be but wicked enough, 
there is no great danger. 

Sect. 4. For flie sanctifying the Lord's day, or any other which they count 
holy, all that is necessary is the worship of the mass only, with abstaining 
from servile works ; this is enough on any festival for the avoiding of mortal 
sin. It is their common doctrine, and there is not anything wherein they 
more generally agree. So it is to be observed, that the total sum of all the 
holiness which is necessary for these catholics, even at those times when it 
should appear, if ever, and all which they are obliged to exercise, consists in 
their being at mass, and avoiding servile work. What holy attendance at the 
mass they count necessary, we saw before ; they may spend the time in sleeping, 
or talking, or laughing, or scoffing : only with some little intermissions, that 

1 Blasphemia, si ex levitate animi, esset tantum vcniale. If a man blaspheme God, 
go it be in jest, that makes it so small a matter that it may pass for venial — Vid. 
Bonacin. torn. ii. p. 211. 

2 Cum qnis snbito ex passione in verba contumcliosa prorumperet quorum aignifi- 
cationem non considerat, et tunc est veniale. — Sum, y. Blasphem. n. iv. ; Aquinas, xxii. 
q. xiii. a. ii. ; Lopez c. xv. p. 262. 

s Neque quidquam ad rem facit, an subitanea ilia ira ex injusta causa originem 
habeat, vel ex ludo, ebrietate, vel aliqua occupatione circa rem illicitam ; secundum 
Angelum. Cap. xii. n. lxxxiv. 

* Si blasphemia procedat ex quadam consuetudine depravata, cum coutemptusalutis 
animae : si inconsideratio sola fuit causa prolationis blasphemies, taliter quod si ad- 
verteret non proferret, non erit mortale tunc secundum Cajetanum ; ita est, et in hoc 
consentit Sotus, Lopez, ibid. Neque satis est ad peccandum mortaliter quod talis in- 
consideratio, ex depravata quadam consuetudine, cum propria) salutis contemptu, Tel 
ex culpa lata procedat, juxta Sylvestrum, dummodo ilia inconsideratio prolationis 
talis blasphemies causam dederit — Navar. ibid. ; Cajetan. sum. v. blasphem ; Qratf. 
1. ii. c xix. This caution rejected as impertinent. — Suar. 1. iii. de Juran\ n. vii. c vii. 

6 Licet cum abstinentia a servilibus, solius miss» cult as sufficiat in festo ad evitan- 
dum mortale peccatum. — Cajetan. sum. v. fest. p. 316. Kegula generalis est, hoc 
proceptum colendi Denm in die festo, quatenus affirmativum est, non obligare ad ex- 
ercendum intra ilium diem alium actum divini cultus, sive internum sive externum, 
prater missam. Assertio est communis. Ratio, unica est, quia ecclesia nihil aliud 
procipit — Suar. 1. ii. de festis, c. xvi. n. i. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. Yin.] in the roman ohuboh. 151 

they may stand at the gospel, and kneel at the consecration, and bow at the 
elevation ; but therein no inward act being necessary, all the holiness requi- 
site lies in their legs, which should be ordered as the priest gives the signal ; l 
yet even this they are not obliged to, who neither hear nor see what is 
done ; and it is not needful, at the mass, for any of the people so much as 
to use their senses. When the mass (which may begin at break of 
day, or before) is despatched in such a holy manner, with such attend- 
ance as would scarce be counted civil, at least sufficient, at a stage-play, 
they may spend the rest of the day according to this beginning. 3 Those 
(says Cajetan) who, after mass, vainly consume the rest of those days in 
sports, in jesting, in idle vagaries, in hunting, in seeing shows or plays, and 
anything of this nature, 9 by such acts, because they are not servile works 
(upon which account, they say, that no other acts of wickedness are a pro- 
faning of these days, or a breach of that precept), they incur no mortal sin. 
But then he (who is more precise herein than the generality of their divines) 
brings an after reckoning. Yet, says he, hereby, because they neglect that 
divine worship for which these days were instituted, they sin greatly.* How can 
that be, since he said immediately before, that they sin not mortally ? Why, 
there is a latitude in their venial faults, some are great and some less; and so 
with him, to neglect all worship but the mass is a great sin of the little size. 
He gives the reason, because hereby they give not to God the things that are 
God's, and as much as in them lies make the festivals of Christians ridi- 
culous, according to that Lam. i. 7. So that, by him, those who, after 
morning service, spend this day in such pastimes, they rob God of his due, 
and they render Christians, in their pretences to the sanctifying of the Lord's 
day or others, ridiculous to the world ; and yet this is but a venial sin ; or 
at worst, but a great little fault, not so great as any man need fear ; no, not 
be who is most afraid of damnation. Navarre adds another reason why it 
should be a sin, though but a venial, to consume these days but in recrea- 
tions ; because in such employments many mortal sins occur, according to 
Antoninus, who says, The blindness of Christians is to be lamented with 
the tears of all men, who more grievously offend God, on the days appointed 
for his worship, than the whole week besides. 6 Notwithstanding this is 
their way of sanctifying the Lord's day, and all other times for devotion 
of their own ; with profane and irreligious divertisements, such as render their 
pretences to religion ridiculous (as the cardinal notes), accompanied with 
such debaucheries, as make their holy days the profanest of all others. It 
is but a venial fault at most (for many count it not so much), to consume 

1 Vide Bellarxn. de miss. 1. c p. 837. 

9 Secundum Paludannm semper licet missam facere, ita at finis misses incidat in 
initium aurora. — Vid. in/ra. 

8 Qui festos dies post missam vane consumunt lad en do, jocando, otioseque vagando, 
aut venando, spectaculis intendendo, et hujusmodi, licet ex ipsis operibus, utpote non 
serrilibus, mortale non incurrant, Sum. v. fest. de actibns corporalibus musicae — ut 
agitationibns corporum, quae in saltationibns, choreis et tripudiis finnt. Vid. Angel. 
Sylvest. Rosall. Abnlens. Suarez, 1. ii. de fest. c. xxvii. n. iv. Aliqui add ant, si totus 
dies festns, etiam audita missa, in his actibus consumatur, graviter peccare, quia festa 
Christiana ridiculo exponuntur — non intelligent autem esse mortale, sed vepiale, ut 
disserte declarant — non refert qnod intentio est vana, vel turpi*, vel principalis. — IbidL 

4 Ex omissione tamen divini cultns ad quem festa instituta sunt graviter peccant ; 

2uia non red dan t qua? sunt Dei Deo ; et quia quantum in se est, ridiculo exponnnt 
Christiana festa: juxta illnd, Yiderunt earn hostes, et deriserunt sabbata ejus. — Ibid. 
ArmiU. v. fest. n. xxiii. 

* Quia in hnjnsmodi oceupationibus, multa occurrunt peccata mortalia, secundum 
8. Antoninum; ubi ait omnium lachrymis deflendam esse Christianorum csecitatem, 
qni gravius Deum offendunt diebus festis ejusdem divino cultui dedicatis, qnam tota 
hebdomada ad vitam parandam institata. Cap. xiii. n. xv. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



152 WHAT CRIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. YiU. 

the whole day herein without any other religions act, or exercise of any sort 
whatever. They need hear no sermons, nor attend their vespers, nor use 
any prayers, public or private, nor read the Scriptures, nor sing the praises 
of God, nor meditate on him ; nor have any one act of love, or contrition, nor 
any other act of inward worship at all, nor of outward either, but only part of 
the mass. 1 This will serve for all, so highly divine and religious a service it 
is ; though they declare themselves not obliged therein, either to mind God 
or divine things. Yea, though they hear mass (when nothing else is need- 
ful for the sanctifying of the day) out of contempt for the day ; yet the pre- 
cept is satisfied. But if they be not at mass on those days (though presence at 
mass may make all other holy duties unnecessary in other cases, yet) should 
they not make up that defect with some other prayers or religious exercise, 
lest God should have no service at all, nor show of it, in public or private, 
on those days which alone are set apart for that purpose ? No ; if they ne- 
glect mass, either upon reasonable or damnable occasions (to wit, if they 
spend the time when they should be at it, in any other wickedness), yet 
are they not obliged to prayer, or any other act of worship, on those days 
afterwards. 2 This is the doctrine, not only of their famous Navarre, bat 
of Pope Adrian, and their St Antoninus, with others. Yea, after all other 
holy exercises are cashiered as needless on any of their holy times, the mass 
itself may be dismissed too for company. And because all their religion ne- 
cessary for the people consists in this, at all times, when anything religions 
is by their doctrine needful for them, it will not be amiss to observe how 
easily they may be excused' from this. Thereby we may discern of what 
moment it is in their account to have nothing at all of religion amongst 
them. Cardinal Cajetan will satisfy us herein : he determines that it is no 
mortal sin to neglect the mass on a reasonable occasion, though it be but 
such an occasion as is not urgent. 8 Yea, he says, it is but a venial fault to 
omit it, upon no sufficient reason, and universally it is no great fault to 
neglect it, if a man thinks really he may be excused from hearing it, or if, 
besides his intention, out of some negligence it be omitted. 4 Yea, they may 
be excused by custom ; for so, he says, maids are excused from hearing mass 
till they be married (and their mothers, too, who are obliged to stay at home 
with them), because so is the custom. 6 If so were the custom, it seems, all 
the rest might be excused. So many ways, at least, may these catholics be 

1 Vid. supra cap. i. et Suarez. 1. ii. de fest c xvi. et Victorell. infra. 

Qui audit missam in contemptum diei festi — satisfacit procepto. — Bonacin. torn. ii. 
disp. i. q. i. punct. ix. n. i. 

* Qui absque excusatione, ut peccando mortaliter, omisit sacrum, non tenetur eodem 
die aliis actions colere et orare Deura; ergo multo minus tenebitur qui excusatur : est 
ergo optimum consilium, nullum tamen est latum ea de re prseceptum, et latins docent, 
Navar. cum Antonino, Adriano, et aliis. — Suarez. torn. disp. lxxxviii. sect. vi. p. ult. 

8 Quia sola missa communiter est in procepto, ideo sine rationabili causa, omittere 
missam in festo, peccatum mortale reputatur. Et hie esto prudens, admittendo pro ra- 
tionabili causa omne motivum rationi human® consentaneum, etiamsi non fuerit ur- 
gens. — Ibid. p. 304, Angelus v. Feria, n. xlii. ; Citans Richardum, quodl. i. q. xix. 
JSegat omissionem missre in die festo esse peccatum mortale, nisi ex contemptuformali 
vel virtuali fiat, quod etiam affirmavit Sum. Kosellss. v. miss, et Turrecremata, Suar. 
ibid. sect. i. initio. Sequitur posse pontificem in hoc procepto (de missa audienda) 
dispen 8a re, cum ccclesiasticum sit. Only to dispense with one, that he should not all 
his life hear mass, when no reasonable occasion hinders him, is not expedient — Idem, 
ibid, in fine, vid. Bonacin. infra. 

4 Quamvis si minus sufficiens sit ratio, peccetur venialiter. Et universaliter sic est, 
quando quia bona fide putat se excusari ab auditione misssa, et ideo omittit illam. — 
Cajetan. ibid. Et simile est, si pianer intentionem ex aliqua negligentia missa omitti- 
tur. — Ibid. 

6 Hinc enim excusantur puellaj. non cuntes ad missam, quia sic est consuetum.— 
Ibid. p. 305. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VIII.] in thb boman chuboh. ^ 158 

excused from all their religion ; by custom, or necessity, or opinion, or (which 
alone may suffice) by an insufficient reason ; it will be but a venial fault at 
most, together with all religious exercises, to omit the mass too ; and that 
at those times when alone (if ever) they are obliged to them. Such being 
their doctrine, we need not wonder if religion be starred to death among 
them ; the life of it cannot be sustained (no more than God can be honoured 
by mankind) without some acts of worship and religious exercises in ordinary 
practice. Their teachers assure them that they are not ordinarily obliged to 
any of these on common days ; and to none of them all, but the mass, on their 
days of worship ; nor to any religious attendance on God or their souls, in 
that ; nor to any attendance on it at all, but what they may decline, without 
mortal sin. If the life of religion be preserved amongst any, without its 
necessary supports and proper nourishment, it must be by a miracle ; but 
they seem so far from regarding the life or the power of it (on which the 
honour of God and the salvation of souls depends), that they are not con- 
cerned for the carcase of it, in exterior acts ; no, not that of the mass 
(when they have reduced all to that), further than the fear of a venial sin 
will oblige, ten millions of which cannot, as they teach, damn a man. As 
for servile works, abstaining from which they make the negative part of this 
precept, the avoiding of these is but that we may with more leisure attend 
on divine worship ; it cannot be expected they will much insist on the means, 
when they have so overturned the end. In short, they determine that they 
who do any servile or forbidden works on the Lord's day, if they do it not 
with a design to profane it, offend but venially. 1 Thus, if they never all 
their life perform one religious act which God has commanded, on his own 
day or others, they scarce sin venially ; or, if they neglect that, which them- 
selves have made the religious duty of these days, they mafy do it without 
greater fault or danger. And for the negative part, if they consume these 
days in servile works (without an intention needlessly perverse), or, which 
is worse, in profane divertisements ; yea, or in acting the most enormous 
wickedness (as we shall see in its place) ; yet by their doctrine they do no- 
thing against this precept, or nothing which any of them need regard. Thus 
their doctrine of venial sins is improved to possess them with a conceit, that 
they, may make what breaches they will upon the commandments of God, 
without doing anything at all (or anything dangerously) against them, and 
so to render all sorts of ungodliness practicable with safety. We have seen 
it in instances against precepts of the first table ; let us see if those who 
make so bold with God, in the duties which more immediately concern him- 
self, will be more tender as to those which respect man. 

Sect, 5. The duties which children owe their parents (to instance, for brief- 
ness, only in those which the Lord hath made the exemplar of the other, 
and by which we may pass a judgment on the rest), they reduce to these 
three : reverence, love, and obedience. In reference to the first, they con- 
clude that those who have no more respect for their parents, than to count 
it a disgrace and a shame to be their children, if it be for the inconve- 
niences of a sinister opinion, or such like cause, sin not mortally ; and the 
fault may be less still, if the parents consent to it expressly, or tacitly, to 
avoid some inconvenience. 3 It seems the command calls for no such reve- 

1 Sive id quod committitur, sit opus servile, sive ab ecclesia prohibitum, si vero nee 
intentio fait violandi festum — non incorritur peccatum mortale. — Cajeton. ibid. p. 310. 

1 Filius qui — sibi dedecori et contumelia futnrum esse existimaret se pro filio illorum 
haberi — si absque contemptu id facit, ad vitandum aliquod incommodum sinistra 
opinionis, vel ob aliam hujusmodi causam, non peccaret mortaliter, maxime si parentes 
tacite vel expresse in eo consentirenu — Navar, c. xiv. n. xii. ; Graff. L ii. c. li. n. xii. ; 
Lopez, c. liv. p. 279. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



154 WHAT CHIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. Yill. 

rence from children ; but they may be ashamed of their parents if they be 
poor and low in the world. Children may curse their parents, if they do it 
but with their lips, and this whether they be alive or dead, the offence is 
but venial. 1 And, indeed, they allow parents to give their children occasion 
enough to curse them, when they will not have them obliged, under mortal 
sin, to teach them any more than the sign of the cross, the small creed, and 
paternoster * nor teach them these in a language they understand. 8 How- 
ever, parents may come even with their children, and if they lov6 and re- 
verence their father and mother, so much as to curse them, their parents 
may curse them again, upon as easy terms, only they should not desire mis- 
chief to them in their hearts, though their words express that desire. 4 When 
parents curse their children, having no inward desire of their mischief, it is 
never a mortal sin, says Soto 6 (and it may seem strange, considering the 
account of it immediately added) : Although it be indeed a wicked custom, 
and not at all for correction ; besides, that the heat of cursing often raises 
anger into hatred, and so alters the mind, that they often desire that all the 
mischief imprecated may befall them ; besides, the appellation of the devil 
can scarce be excused from a mortal evil, for it is a kind of blasphemy and 
scandal to wish eternal death to any. Yet all this, it seems, may be excused 
from deadly sin, though not very easily. 

For love, they may rejoice at the death of their father, because of some 
outward advantage they gain thereby ;• they may accuse their parents of 
heresy, though the effect of that will be a cruel death to those who gave them 
life. 7 As to obedience ; in things that pertain not to paternal government, it 
is no mortal sin to disobey them. 8 In any things whatsoever it is but a venial 
fault to disobey them, out of negligence or sensualness ;• and so there is room 
enough for a continued disobedience while they live. In matters of great 
importance, where, if ever, disobedience would be mortal, they exempt it from 
such guilt. They may enter into a monastery before they are at age, though 
their parents charge them not to do it ; 10 they may dispose of themselves in 
marriage without their parents' consent, because, according to Aquinas, in 
the choice of their condition they are not subject to their parents, and their 
parents' concurrence herein is for decency, not out of necessity. 11 Not only in 

I Films qui ex animo maledicit, sive vivis, give jam sssculo defanctis, si tamen ore 
terms tantum maledicit, non amplius quam venialiter offendit. — Navar, ibid. 

• Sylvest. Sam. v. scicntia; Graff. 1. ii. c lviii. n. xiv. Ea qua) parentes tenentur 
facere sub peccato mortali, at filii addiscant, est sigaum crucis, et Credo parrura, et 
Paternoster. 

8 Navar, cap. xi. n. xxii. 

4 Idem. cap. xxiii. n. cxvii. 

5 Cum parentes filiis maledicunt, nullum intus habentes mali desiderium, nunquam 
est peccatum mortale: quam vis consuetude* profecto pessima est. — De Just, et Jur.L 
v. q. xii. art. i. ; Graff. 1. ii. c. lviii. n. xx. 

6 Navar, c. xv. d. x. 

7 Si Alius scit patrem eue h®reticum. et non solum sibi ipsi, sed et aliis prava sua 
d oct rin a nocere potest, debet eum accusare. Alexand. Alensis secundum eum Graff. 
1. ii. cap. lv. n. -viii., quamvis tenetur filius ad denuntiandam hseresim patris, et ad 
testificandum de ilia. — Nov. c. xxv. n. 1. 

8 Idem. ibid. c. xiv. n. xii. 

9 Circa rem familiarem — in necessariis ad salutem, sicut sunt spectantia ad bonos 
mores — est veniale non obedire ex negligentia vel sensualitate.— &yfe*tf. Sum. v. filius 
n. xxv. 

10 Quffiritur, utrum intrare possint pueri vel puelta in anno pubertatis ? Et dico quod 
sic, etiam parentibus probibentibus. — Sylv. v. relig. i. n. xii. 

II Utrum filius potest nubere sine liceutia patris ? Reap, quod sic, tarn masculus 
quam ftsmina: quamvis non expediat. — Angel, sum. v. filius n. xxiv. 

In electione status filius vel filia, non subjicitur parentibus, secundum S. Thorn, xxii. 
q. civ. art v. In Tabienna. v. filius n. xiv. ; vid. Aquin. iii. q. xlv. art. v. addit. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. VIII.] in the boman church. 155 

things of great consequence as to this life, but in matters necessary to their 
salvation, it is but a venial fault if they disobey them ; so it be not oat of 
contempt, that is, ont of obstinacy and pertinacionsness. Thus Sylvester 
and others. 1 De Graffiis is more particular herein : a son should not be dis- 
obedient to his father in things which belong to the family, and his salvation, 
as in avoiding pernicious company, and unlawful games, and whores ; he 
should not disobey him herein out of contempt, by which (says he) I under- 
stand obstinacy and pertinaciousness, so that not to be obedient (herein) out 
of inconsiderateness, or negligence, or sensuality, would be venial. 2 They 
encourage a maid not only to dispose of herself in marriage without consent 
of parents, but also to give up- herself to uncleanness. If she willingly be 
deflowered, they conclude it is no injury to her nor to her future husband, nor 
to her parents. Their reason is, because she has the disposing of her own 
body, and so may use it freely, for the satisfying of lust, though not lawfully ;* 
yet lawfully too so far that they will have this lewdness to be no wrong at all 
to the parties most concerned, herself or others. If she be unchaste herein, 
yet not unrighteous, she owes not so much obedience to her parents as to 
keep herself honest ; nor have they authority to oblige her not to be a whore, 
no more than not to be a nun. By this we may take an estimate of the 
honour which other superiors must expect, by their rules of morality. I 
must not descend to other particulars, fearing tediousness. 

Sect. 6. They hold that he breaks not the sixth (in their account the fifth) 
commandment, who desires, or procures, or does any mischief to another's 
soul. 4 It seems it is no murder to kill the soul. It is a rule with them, that 
sins in heart, word, and deed are of the same kind. 80 they yield to Christ 
in this, that anger and hatred may be a kind of murder ; yet they think fit 
to exempt these, for the most part, from mortal guilt. When there has been 
such hatred and enmity betwixt two, as neither of them will be induced to 
speak to the other, yet both are to be absolved (says de Graffiis) when there 
is such indignation that will admit of no affability or converse. 6 It is a fault, 
says Cajetan, for the inordinancy of the passion, yet commonly venial. 7 They 
would reconcile us to auger when both the measure and the effects of it seem 
intolerable, when it is so extravagant as that it both burns excessively within, 
and flames out no less in external significations of its excess, yet. such an 
excess is a small fault. 8 It will be as harmless, though it be revengeful too, 

Aquinas. Paella sicut potest monasterium ingredi absque parentum consensu, cum fit 
persona libera, sic et nubere, vid Gratian. Petr. Lombard, et alios in Espencao de 
Clandest. matrim, c. ix. et x. 

1 Sum. t. Alius n. xxv. 

* Inobedienti® crimen Alius incurrit in lis quad pertinent ad res familiares, et ad 
salutem anima), ut fugere noxia sodalium contubernia, Judos prohibiten, et meretrices, 
modo non obediat ex contemptu. Per contemptum hie intelligo, obstinationem et per- 
tinaciam animi ; unde non obedire ex inadvertentia, aut negligentia, vel seosualitate, 
esset veniale. — Sylv. v. fil. q. xxii.; Nav. c. xiv. n. xii.j Graft. T. ii. c. lv. n. xv. 

8 Pet. a S. Joseph, de vi. prsecepto art. i. (et alii). Cum ilia habeat dominium in 
suum corpus, non parentes, vel futurus sponsus ; ideoque ilia possit libere, licet non 
licite, eo uti ad explendam libidinem. 

4 Non autem (infringit illud) qui vult, procurat aut operatur detrimentum animro 
at ipsummet concilium sensit. — Nav. C. xy. n. i. 

6 Aquinas, i. 2, q. lxxii. art. vii. 

6 Graff. 1. ii. cap. Ixxi. n. vi. 

7 Peccatum est propter inordinatam passionem : et communiter veniale. — Sum. v. 
indignatio. 

8 Quando est inordinata quantum ad modum irascendi, non babet ex suo genere, 
rationem peccati mortalis. — Sylvest. v. ira. n. iv. Potest a recta ratioue ita discordare 
quantum ad modum irascendi puta, quia nimis ardenter intus quis irascitur, aut 
secundum exteriores motus nimis excandescit. Et sic si excessivus modus sit nudus, 
pecCatum est veniale. — Cajetan, Sum. v. ira. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



156 WHAT GRIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. VJJL1. 

if it seek not a great revenge ; yea, a man as innocently seeks and takes the 
greatest revenge, if he do it inconsiderately. 1 This they deny not when they 
tell us withal that the passion may he but venial when it makes a person in- 
considerate ; so that a man may destroy all that he is angry at if his passion 
be bnt quick, and great enough. To desire that he whom we count onr 
enemy were killed, or to rejoice that he is murdered, if it be for some good 
that ensues upon it, is no crime. 8 No more it seems than it is for the can- 
nibals to delight to have others killed ; it is for the good they reap thereby, 
they have the advantage to feed on them. They will scarce be able to per- 
suade one that it is unlawful to act what he may lawfully desire ; yet they 
count it no sin to desire the death not only of those that are mischievous, 
and do or may do them hurt, but of such as are innocent ; nor only of 
strangers, or of such they count enemies, but even of their nearest relations. 
A woman may desire the death of her daughters because they are unhand- 
some or poor, so that she cannot marry them according to her mind ; and 
the reason (which must clear this from guilt) is, because this is not a hatred 
of enmity to their persons, but only a haired of abomination as to their 
unhandsomeness and poverty. Thus she may hate her own children to any 
. degree of abhorrence, so far as to will them the grandest evil in this world, 
death itself, because they are not rich ; or because they are not comely ; she 
may kill them, so far as her mind and heart can do it, upon this account, 
and sacrifice them inwardly to her covetousness, or ambition, or curiosity, 
and this very innocently. An affecting to kill one's enemy without consent 
is but a venial fault with Cajetan. 5 If he actually kill him, so it be done 
indeliberately, he does no great harm. The rule received by them without 
exception will warrant it, surprise and inconsiderateness excuses from mortal 
sin. 4 Thus, if a man kills any he meets with, without any deliberation at 
all, through natural hastiness, drink, or passion, it is no mortal sin ; yea, it 
may be done as easily, with some deliberation, if that be not full and per- 
fect ; and there are so many things which they tell us of to hinder it from 
being full, that killing of others may be a common practice, with little or no 
fault. But when it is more voluntary, there are more cases, wherein they 
make murder no sin at all, than so much as a venial fault, of which in its 
proper place. 

Sect. 7. Proceed we to the next command. Some of their doctors have 
determined that fornication is not intrinsecally evil, nor forbidden because it 
is evil, but only evil because it is forbidden. So Martinus a Magistris, and 
after him Durandus, held that fornication is not condemned by the law of 
nature as a sin deserving eternal death, but is only prohibited by a positive 
law, 6 Dent, xxiii., Eph. v., and so it will be no worse, nor deserve any more 
than a venial fault, since a positive law neither- adds to the penalty nor 
makes it a greater evil, but only declares the native evil of it more expressly. 
Not only fornication, but also adultery, even in the clergy, has passed 
amongst them as a lesser sin, and is so expressed in the pontifical law. For 

1 Posset est veniale, propter imperfectionem actus, quia scil. pravenit deliberationem ; 
vel est de aliquo modico, ex S. Thom. — Sylv. v. ira n. iv. 

* Licet mihi op tare, ad bonum, mortem alicujus. Idem v. maledicit ; Mortem alicui 
optare possumus, licet nobis constet viam perditionis ingressnm ire. Soto, de Just, 
et Jur. 1. v. q. xii. art. i. ; Navar, c. xxi. n. xxv. ; Lopez, cap. lxiv. p. 321, 322. (Bon- 
acin. t. ii. de leg. disp. iii. q. iv. p. alt. n. vii.) 

8 AfFectus ad occidendum inimicum absque consensu rationis, Sum. v. Votum. 

4 Inferre notabile damnum in proximi personam — subreptio et inconsideratio ejus 
quod agcrediebatur ipsum excusare possit a mortali — Navar. c. xv. n. viii. 

5 Affirmat Martinus — quod fornicatio non est sua natura mala, et ideo prohibita, 
imo vero ob id tantnm est mala, quia prohibita, nempe lege veteri — et eidem applaudit 
Durandus, iv. dist. xxxiii. q. 2. — Soto de Just, et Jur. 1. v. q. iii. art. iii. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VIII.] n? the bohan chubch. 157 

some crimes clergymen were to be deposed, for others the bishop might dis- 
pense with them, to wit, when they were lesser faults. Amongst these lesser, 
Pope Alexander III. reckons adulteries; bat for adulteries, says he, and 
other lesser crimes, the bishop, after they have done penance, may dispense 
with the clergy. 1 They teach that for a whore, though she be a married 
.woman, or a nun, to seek or receive a reward for prostituting herself, is but 
a venial fault, if any, only they differ how she should have it. Some say as 
a gift or gratuity, 2 but others as a hire, legally due in justice ; s by which it 
is evident that either they must think such uncleanness not to be intrinse- 
cally evil, or else that it is as warrantable to seek and receive rewards for 
other such acts of wickedness (as for slandering, robbing, assassinating men, 
or firing houses, &c). The use of matrimony before the marriage be 
solemnised, if it be without contempt, is no mortal sin, says Cajetan, 4 be- 
cause neither the violation of rules nor of custom, through the weakness of 
passion, can be mortal. Others concur with him herein. Nor do Antoninus 
and John Tabienna much mend the matter, who will have the first act to be 
a sin, bat none of the rest after. He or she who first contracts marriage 
with one privately, and after with another publicly, sins not mortally, if they 
lie with the former without scandal, but is bound to live with the latter, the 
church commanding it, if there be no danger of coming together.* As though 
they could cohabit together as man and wife without such danger t This is in 
effect to determine they may lie with both, and they that have a mind to it 
may have warranty from the master of sentences for the latter, and from the 
master of the sacred palaces, 7 and others, for the former. A woman whose 
chastity is attempted with some force, 8 though she cry not oat, though she call 
not for help when it may be had, though she make no resistance at all with 
any part of her, though she do not so much as any way move to hinder it, 
yea, though she take natural pleasure in the act, yet if her will do not delibe- 
rately consent (though they say in any court she could not in such circum- 
stances but be presumed to consent), she sins not mortally ; thus Soto with 
others. They confess that a woman can scarce ever do this and be honest, 
and yet give this encouragement to all to do it. 9 Here is a way to have all 
women corrupted that are but attempted with eagerness, if the rules of those 
who have the guidance of their practice and consciences be bat complied 

1 Decretal 1. ii. tit. i. c. iv. de adulteriis vero et aliis criminibus, quce sunt minora, 
potest episcopus post peractura psenitentiam cam clericis dispensare. Alexander III. 
Salenlitano Archiepiscopo respondens de adulteriis at aliis criminibus minoribu?, 
episcopo cum clericis psenitentibus dispensandi jus fecit. — EtpenccniSy de digam. 1. ii. 
c vii. p. 714. 

2 Medina, Navar. c. xvii. n. xxxix. 

8 Cajetan Soto de Just. 1. iv. q. vii. a. i. Graff. L ii. c. cxxiii. n.ii. 

4 Si tamen desit conteiuptus, non est peccatnm mortale consummare matrimoniam 
ante benedictionem : quia nee statuti nee consuetudinis violatio ex infirm itate passi- 
on um, infert peccatum mortale. — Cajet. Sum. v. Matrimon. An gel us, v. debitum. Sylvest. 
(after Aquinas and others) v. debet, sect. xi. 

Navar. cap. xvi. n. xxxviii. pro Cajetano videtur textus Cone. Trident. 
. * Non tamen peccaret qui absque scandalo earn (rem) haberet (cum priori), tenetur 
aufem posteriori convivere, ecclesia id jubente, si absque periculo habendi rem cum ea 
vel eo, id facere potest. — Idem, ibid. n. xxxix. 

6 In iv. dist. n. xxviii. 7 Sam. v. debitum. n. xiv. 

8 Neque clam ore se defendere — suis propriis membris se defendere sed immota 
manens nihil agat — etiamsi de acta ipso delectationem aliquam per ci pi at, modo ncque 
in ipsum actum, neque delectationem voluntate deliberata consentiret. Nam talis 
delectatio non esset volant aria sed naturalis — quamvis quoad forum exterius pre- 
sumeretur consensisse. Soto, de Just, et Jur. lib. v. q. i. art. v. p. 141 ; Navar. cap. 
xvi n. i. : Graff. 1. ii. c. Ixxvii. n. x. ; Vega in Jo. Sane disp. x. n. xvii. 

9 Credo paucas honestas repertum iri, quae aliquo modo non resistant, saltern sine 
clamore, &c. — Ibid, 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



158 WHAT CHIMES ABB VENIAL [CHAP. Ylil. 

with. Impetuous last may make the essay upon any without fear of so much 
as a check or any resistance, and those who are engaged by the laws of 
nature, God, and man, to make opposition, may innocently give place to it 
without struggling ; yea, they may be chaste enough though they yield to 
such lust with pleasure, so it be no more than sensual, and these delights be 
not jumbled together in practice, which in the doctrine of their teachers is 
sufficiently distinguished and parted for them. They bid fair also to make 
that uncleanness to which persons are drawn by the power of courtship and 
insinuation pass as innocent ; for they say that is no sin which is involun- 
tary, aud that is not voluntary to which we are necessitated ; and Cajetan 1 
tells us (in a case much akin to this) that our passions, excited by exterior 
persuasion, do, as it were, offer us violence ; after he had informed us that 
what whores extort by flatteries more than their hire is an involuntary gift, 
the mind being this way necessitated ; and sure flatteries in reference to the 
act, as well as the reward, may as much necessitate, and make the one as 
involuntary as the other ; further, if man or woman need neither force nor 
importunity, but be ready to commit uncleanness without more ado, one 
may without sin invite them to it. Self-pollution is no mortal sin in any 
that desire it may befall them in their sleep for the ease of nature * nor is it 
a sin to be pleased with it when it is past for a good end, 8 and so Aquinas, 
Paludanus, and the common doctrine ; nor to be pleased with it as future, 
if the pleasure do not cause it, nor to be pleased with it when it befalls 
them awake, 4 if the pleasure be but sensual, aud not rational. Under the 
favour of this distinction they may act uncleanness, either natural or against 
nature, and that with delight too ; for though the lower faculties take plea- 
sure therein, yet if the superior either check it, or run not into a full com- 
pliance therewith, they are safe. They encourage them to venture upon, 
and continue in, such occasions of uncleanness, as those who think it need- 
ful to avoid the acts cannot but judge necessary to be abandoned. They 
that eat hot meats, such as provoke and cause uncleanness, or otherwise eat 
excessively, if they do it not with such an intention, but to satisfy their 
gluttony, or for other cause, yea, though they doubt uncleanness will be 
the issue of it, offend but venially. 5 Carnal touches, 6 used for sensual plea- 
sure, without designing the act of uncleanness or the delight of it (though it 
be confessed that of all other occasions this leads most directly and most 

1 Passion e 8 nostra ab extrinseco suasore illatee quasi vim facinnt — meretricum blandse 
valde extortiones supra debitam mercedem — omnis si mi lis actio cansans involantariam 
dationem rci suce quia non minus necessitatur ex hujusmodi humanus animus, &c — 
Sum. v. restitut. p. 609. 

Ex sententia Cajetani (et Navarri) sequitur licitum esse invitare ad fornicationem. 
etim qui paratus est alios fomicari ; in Vasq. opusc. moral, dub. iii. p. 24. 

2 Antoninus, Sylvester, Cajetan. in Navar. in Lopez, c lxxiv. p. 262, tenent quod 
ita licet cupere et ita complacere. — Vid. Navar. cap. xvi. n. vii. 

8 Ibid. S. Thomas, Paludanus ut communes asserunt non esse peccatum complacere 
sibi de preterit a pollutione ob sanctum finera. Vid. Sylvest. v. pollutio ; Post-placentia 
non faciat preeteritara pollutionem esse peccatum. 

4 Non est autem peccatum saltern mortale, pollutio ilia, qua? incipit evenire alicni, 
dum dormit, et finitur postquam est experrectus, si voluntas superior, sive rational is 
deliberata, in illam non consentiat, qua m vis sensualitas ea delectetur, &c. — Navar, ibid, 
n. viii. et Card in. Turrecremata. 

5 Non esse peccatum mortale, comedere nimis, ant calida edulia, ob qnod pollutio 
everrit, dummodo non comedat ca eo fine, scd solum ut sues gulae eatisfaciat. — Navar. 
c. xvi. n. viii. Si non intenditur, sed quid tale fiat propter gulositatem aut aliam 
causam, cum dubio tamen secuturro pollutions, esset veniale. Sylv. v. Pollut. Lopez. 
cap. lxxiv. p. 354. 

6 Martinus de Magistris, Gabriel, Ja veil us, Navar, Soto, Nider, Antoninus, et alii in 
Sancb, 1. ix. de matr. disp. xlvi. n. vi. et Bonacin. torn. i. p 318. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. Yin.] in the boman chttbch. 159 

dangerously ta the consummation of the act), yet are they bat venial faults 
with many of their writers. To go to the place or company where is danger 
of sinning mortally, by reason of the sights, persuasions, opportunities, or 
anything of this nature, though it be done without any cogent necessity, is 
not a mortal sin with them ; and the reason is, because it rests in the man's 
free will not to ski mortally, though such occasions of sinning be offered. 1 
Filthy discourse, when it is out of lightness and curiosity, without any other 
ill design, or when it is merely for the pleasure taken in the obscene talk, 
without any further intention, is no worse than a venial fault.* The filthi- 
ness which the apostle forbids, Eph. v. 4, Bellarmine, 3 understanding 
thereby filthy words, will have it be but a venial ; and the same he deter- 
mines not only of filthy talking, but scurrility ; and Cardinal Cajetan* be- 
fore him, says, in its own nature it is not a mortal sin, though he describes 
it to be shameless mirth ; and Alensis 5, refers it to lascivious affection ; and 
in Angelus *-, it is a provoking others to laughter either by idle or obscene 
words. A woman sins not mortally, who, being moved with the affection of 
a little vain-glory, without any other deadly intention, does paint or adorn 
herself, although she believe that some who see her in such a dress will be 
inflamed with mortal last, when it is certain also, that without any disparage- 
ment or inconvenience, she might abstain from such a garb ; yea, though she 
so trick up herself, that some may be induced to love her honestly but car- 
nally, or with a dishonest affection either, only not beyond the bounds of 
venial uncleanness. 7 This being their doctrine, no wonder if Christian parity 
be abandoned in their practice. Navarre 8 tells us there iB such a deluge of 
unbridled luxury amongst them who are so near a kin, that he dares not 
express it ; and amongst the married and unmarried, amongst virgins conse* 
crated and unconsecrated, that divine and immense goodness may send upon 
them a horrible deluge of all calamities, not only corporal, but spiritual. 
And because it is not lawful for one to take the profession of a nun if she 
.have committed uncleanness before, he says that there are few grown up 
that without caution can be lawfully consecrated for virgins. 9 

1 Ire ad locum sive ad societatem, ubi est periculum peccandi mortaliter,. propter 
aspectum> persuasiones, commoditates, aut aliqnid hujusmodi, non est ex suo genere 
peccatum m or tale, licet sine urgente necessitate fiat, ad peccatum incautelre spectet. 
Hsec est Cajetani, et probatur, quia in suae libertatis arbitrio restat non peccare mor- 
taliter, etiam pssesentibus tali bus occasiombus. — Lopez., cap. xx. p. 112.. 

* Antoninus de Graff. Cajetan. et alii in Sanch. ibid. n. xxxix, Cajetan. Navar. 
Graff. Rebellus (in) Bonacin. torn. i. p. 318, n. xviii. 

8 De Amiss. Grat. 1. i. cap. ix. p. 78. Docere volebat tria posteriora (turpia 
verba, stultiloquia et scurrilitatem) debere quidem esse aliena ab ore sanciificato 
fidelium, non tamen ex genere suo talia esse, quae excludant ab haweditate Christi 
et Dei. 

4 Scurrilitas qua homo ad risum provocat inverecunde — non est mortalis ex suo 
genere. — Sum. v. Scurril. 

5 Secundum Halensem refertur ad lasciviam affectionis. — Angelus. Sum. v. Scurril. ' 

6 Non peccat mortaliter ab hoc solum mulier, quae vanse glonae et venialis desiderio 
tacta, absque alio fine mortali se fucat et ornat, licet credat aliquos, qui ipsam sic 
fucatam et ornatam videbunt, in ejus concupiscentiam mortal em exarsuros. Attamen 
certum est, earn absque incommodo verecundise, et dedecore suo, posse ab hujusmodi 
ornatu temperare. — Navar. cap. xiv. n. xxvii. 

7 Non autem (peccat mortaliter) si facit illad, ut ametur honeste, licet carnalitcr — 
imo neque si id facit quo ametur inhoneste, sed non mortaliter, ad luxuriam videlicet 
tan turn yenialem. —Idem c xvi. n. xiv. 

8 Cap. xvi. n. iii. — Diluvium tam effrenatas luxuries, etiam inter cognatos adeo pro- 
pinquos et affines, ut non and earn us exprimere, et inter conjugates et vi.gines tam 
sacratas quam non sacratas, &c. 

9 Ob quod forsitan paucse grandiorum sine cautela licite consecrari possunt —Ibid. 
vol. hi. a a 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



162 WHAT CHIMES ABE VENIAL [ChAP. V1LL 

not much to rob Christ of his honour in all their good works, and so com- 
mit the worst kind of robbery (the highest sacrilege) in their best acts, 
arrogating that to them which is Christ's peculiar satisfaction and merit. 
And then, that the charitable thief, if he become rich, is not bound to restore 
what is stolen, is the common opinion. 1 Also, one may steal money from 
another, rather than he shall venture it in gaming ; 2 for it is good divinity 
with them (whatsoever it was with the apostle) that one evil may be done to 
hinder another, and that not only in other sins (as friar Joseph would limit 
it), but such as are intrinsecally evil ; 3 for example, if one be about to com- 
mit adultery, it will be a lawful, a holy act, to beseech and persuade him 
to commit fornication. Or nearer the matter in hand, if one be ready to 
steal an hundred pounds, I may advise him to steal fifty, and so persuade 
to a mortal sin with some moderation. They think it not only lawful to 
persuade a thief to a smaller robbery, but also to accompany and assist him 
therein. Further, a woman, if her husband be profuse, may against his 
command take away his goods, and conceal them to provide for the future. 4 
If a man be distracted, or if he be absent, his wife may spend more of his 
estate than he would do if he were sober or present (Bonacin. ibid). Finally, 
they all agree, that to steal anything, of what value soever, inconsiderately, 
that is, without full and perfect deliberation, is but a venial trespass. And 
how he can be obliged to restore it, by their principles, I understand not ; 
since they hold that no man is bound to make restitution but for a mortal 
k offence. 6 If in a matter that is weighty, the fault 'be venial, for want of full 
consideration, it will not be so much as a small fault, not to make restitu- 
tion, how much soever be stolen inconsiderately. 6 By these and such like 
rules, they have opened a way to make thievery, Bmall or great, practicable, 
without any sin or danger, but what is small and inconsiderable in their 
account. Scholars, and those who count good books their treasure, are by 
their doctrine exposed more particularly, for they teach, that to take away 
heretical books from such as have not licence to read them, is no theft 
(Bonacin. de restit disp. ii. q. viii. punct. i. n. i.) ; so that it will be no 
fault at all to rob one of the best part of his library, how valuable soever. 

They open as wide a gap, and give as much encouragement to cheating, 
and like unconscionable practices. They teach there is no necessity to be 
regulated in bargaining, by the just value of things ; but they may sell for 
as much as they can extort, and buy answerably ; and this they take for a 
general rule, a thing is worth so much as it can be sold for. 7 Hence Syl- 

c. xvii. n. cxviii. If a man be in mortal sin, his wife may take of his goods privily, and 
give them away in alms for his conversion. — Bonacin. de restit disp. ii. q. x. punct. ii. 
n. ix. 

1 In Navar. ibid. * Antoninus quern sequitur Nav, ibijj. n. v. p. 282. 

8 Licet inducere ad minus malum, paratum jam ad majus malum ; ut si quis proponit 
interficere, aut adulterari quis, licet ei persuadere percutere aut fornicari, contra fra- 
trem Josephum, qui limitat banc sententiam ad peccata qua non sunt intrinseca mala ; 
eed censco sententiam hanc generalitcr esse tenendam, prout earn tenet Navarrus, et 
Cajetanus, Lopez, pars. i. cap. lviii. p. 297 ; Adrianus, Cajetan. Sotus, quos sequitur 
Navar. cap. xiv. n. xl. 

Luxnrioso sancte consulitur ut non adulteretur, sed fornicetur. Cajetan. sum. v. 
Tyrannis. Medina, Sotus, Adrian existimant — non tantum licere suadere minus furtum 
latroni, sed etiam ipsum comitari, imo etiam adjuvare. in Vasq. opusc. Moral, p. 24, 
dub. ii — Bonacin. de rest. disp. i. q. ii. punct. vii. n. ix. 

4 Sylvest. v. furtum. n. xv. ; Navar. cap. xvii. n. cliv. ; Graff. 1. ii. c. xcii. n. xxvi. 

5 Adrian, iv. de restit. sam. ad viii. ; Sylvest. v. culpa, q. iv. in Fill. tr. xxxii. n. 
xxxii. 

Sylvest. et alii ibid. 

7 Justum pranium reputatur quod absqne fraude extorqueri potest. — Ita\ Banner 
Medina, Arragon, Villalobos, Bonacina, et alii in Dian. i. p. tr. viii. res. Iv. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. VUL] in the soman church. 168 

vester concludes it lawful for any one to sell as dear, and buy as cheap as 
he can ; ! which, unlimited, gives liberty to all to prey upon one another, 
without equity or conscience. So one may buy a thing of great value, a 
though he knows it, and the owner understands it not, for a small matter ; 
nor needs he declare it, when he apprehends that it is much more worth, 
since that may be inquired of others. 3 They conclude, that false measures 
and weights may be used, though the buyer be hereby deceived and damnified, 
and the custom itself to be a corruption ; yet they are excused who use 
them, if they do it for their own security, or for moderate gain, as if in case 
they should give full measure, the price would be greater, and consequently 
they would have few or no customers.^ So, by their rules, they may further 
deceive those that deal with them, by selling one thing for another, or 
adulterating what thoy sell ; and so cheat them not only in the measure, 
but in the quality, yea, or the substance of the commodity. Instances 
hereof we have in Soto. Corn or wine, when it is more worth than the set 
rate, the merchant may sell it by false measure, thereby to get his price. 5 
If a man have very good wine, but people, if they did not take it for Rhenish, 
would not give so good a price for it, he may sell it at the rate they would 
give for Rhenish, though it be not. 6 So he may mix his wine with water, 
and sell it for pure, taking but a just price ; 7 as, for example, in case wine 
were so dear, that scarce any would buy it at the price it is worth, he may 
mix it with water, and sell it at the rate they will give. 8 So cloth or silks 
may be sold for that of such a country which is most esteemed, though it be 
of another. 9 These conclusions, he says, are collected out of Aquinas ; and 
to complete these cheats, he tells us, 10 that if perhaps the seller should lie 
too, in these cases (for example, if he should affirm that to be Rhenish wine 
which is not, or that to be pure which is adulterated, or that to be full 
measure which is short of it, &c.) it would not be a mortal sin. And Syl- 
vester determines, that a man with perjuries and lies, denying the badness 
of his commodities, or making them better than they are, the lies, if they 
do not much damnify the buyer, are but venial. 11 They allow persons also 
to deceive those who entrust them to dispose of their estates or goods ; as, 
if one be employed to sell what is another's at a certain price, if he sell it 
for more, he may keep the overplus to himself ; yea, say some, 13 though he 
had a reward for his pains in selling, yet he may retain to himself the over- 
plus of what is sold. 13 

1 Res tantam valet quantum vendi potest — et secundum hoc licet cuilibet cariua 
vendere, aut vilius eroere quantum potest. — Sum. v. Emptio. n. x. 
* Vid. Cajetan.— Sum. v. Emptio. p. 138. 

3 Emptor non tenetur ei explicitc affirmare quantum valet : quum faabeat alios, unde 
possit inquirere et scire.— Ibid. 

4 Tabemarii dantes vim mensuram dirainutam secundum Arc. Don excusantur: 
quia decipinnt et damnificant emptores, non obstante contraria consuetudine, que est 
corruptela : nisi hoc faciunt ad suam indemnitatem, vel lucrum moderatum : puta, 
quia si dare nt plenas, oporteret pretium augere. ut consequenter nullos aut paucos in- 
venirent emptores.— Sylv. Sum. ibid. n. xx. ; Vid. Soto, de just, et jur. lib. vi. q. ill. 
art. ii. 

6 Soto, ibid. p. 198. 8 Ibid. 

7 Eadem ratione, et aqua possit vinum diluere. — Idem, ibid. * Ibid. 
9 Idem, ibid. 

10 Forsan venditoris mendacium in talibus casibus, si alioqui prodicto modo servetur 
justitia, non est pernitiosum. — Idem 9 ibid. p. 199, quern sequitur in his omnibus, Tol. 
instr. 1. viii. c. xlix. 

11 Sum. ibid. n. xxii. 

u Si accipit certo pretio vendendum, retinere potest id quo plane illud vendiderit, 
nisi excesserit pretiam rigorosum. — Navar. c xxiii. n. xcvii. 
18 Angel. Sum. in Sylv. ibid. n. xxv. 



Digitized by 



Google 



164 WHAT CKDCfcS ABB VENIAL [(/HAP. YllL 

Farther, Panormitan 1 takes notice, that their canon law allows of deceit, 
if it be not extended beyond half the worth of the thing bargained for (that 
is, if a man be not cozened of above fifty per eent. in a bargain). But then, 
to salve the reputation of the law (which he, like a true canonist, says was 
formed by the instinct of the Holy Ghost), he will have it understood of 
deceit in the thing, not of fraud in, the persons, and others after him ; bat 
Sylvester, who sees no ground for that, uses another shift : he says it may 
be understood, either of deceit in the thing or fraud in the persons, which 
their law tolerates, but approves not. 9 Cajetan grants so great deceit is 
lawful by human constitution ; but says, it is condemned by the law of God. 8 
And so we leave this shameful deceit, lawful by the pope's decrees, but 
damnable by God's word. 

Sect. 9. Let us see, in the next place, what truth may be expected in 
popery, or those that profess it ; and whether their rules tend not to leave 
neither truth in the world, nor amongst themselves, by giving liberty to all 
falseness and lying in words and deeds. A lie, as they define it, is an as- 
serting of what is false, with an intent to speak falsely, and to deceive others. 4 
Now they teach that to deliver what is false, 5 if not on purpose, though it be 
without any care whether it be true or false ; if it be a fault, is such as 
needs not be regarded, unless where it is in testimony or upon oath (and 
there they will excuse it too, by and by), because this is but a material lie, 
and not in its formal perfection. But then a perfect lie, with a design to 
speak what is false, and to deceive the hearers, is as innocent, if it be for 
pleasure or in sport, — ridentem dicerefalsum quia vetat ? — to make a sport of 
violating truth, or in offering it such injury to please himself or others ; 
any one may do it out of habit, and make a practice of it, and tell lies when 
he list, out of mere pleasure to be telling lies ; 6 yea, or out of malice, 7 
(though that be the highest aggravation of sin). An officious lie is with 
them as harmless, they have warrant enough for the most complete and per- 
fect lies, when they are of any advantage to some, and no hurt to others, 8 
how much soever truth be injured, or others deceived thereby. So that 
their true catholics need leave no place for truth, either in their heart or 
words, when the excluding of it from both will, without hurt, serve either 
their pleasure or profit. However, herein they use true and plain dealing, 
in letting the world know that, in these cases, they are never to be trusted, 
either in matters of conversation or religion. This being their principle, 9 

1 Dicit etiam Panormitan quod jura Canon ica permittentia deceptionero usque ad 
dimidium, intelligi debent quando venit deceptio re ipsa, in Silr. ibicj. n. ix. 

8 Ego dico quod loquitur in foro contentioso, sive deceptio sit ex re, sire ex dolo : 
non quia ilium approbat, sed quia tolerat. — Ibid, 

8 Jure humano dicitur licitum decipere citra dimidium justi pretii: sed lex domini 
immaculata est, &c— Sum. ▼. emptore. 

4 Aquinas, ii. 2, q. ex. art i. 

• Si dicatur falsum sed deait voluntas dicendi falsum — non est mendacium propria 
aut perfecte, et si diligentia esset adhibita, non esset peccaturo, et si non sit adhibita, 
est veniale, ii. 2, q. ii. c. homines in Sylv. — Sum. r. mendacinm. n. i. 

8 Quod sit sola mentiendi libidine quod proceditex babitu ; nam mendax ex eo quod 
talis est secundum habitum ipso mendacio gaudet, ir. Ethic. — reducitur ad jocofcam, 
cum sit delectabile mentienti. Idem ibid, nee mendacium erat mortale ut in jocoso et 
officioso, ibid. n. iii. 

7 Contingit tamen propter imperfectionem actus esse veniale peccatum ex malitia : 
ut si quis vana mendacia eligit dicere ex intentione hujns mali, quod est vane mentiri, 
et non propter aliud. — Cajetan. Sum. v. malitia. 

8 Officiosum (mendacium) quod sine alicujus injuria dicitur, ut alicui prosit, et hoc 
etiam est veniale. — Cajet. ibid. v. Mendac 

9 Lex de non mentiendo jocose aut officiose sine darano alterius — (ejus) transgressio 
est solum venialis, secundum omncs Catholicos. — Navar. c. xxiii. n. v. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. Vlli.] in the boman church. 165 

received by all catholics, and universally acknowledged, we need not wonder 
that it hath been their common practice in several ages, and that they make 
no conscience of it still, to counterfeit false miracles, to forge false stories, 
to shew false relics, to divulge false visions and revelations, to obtrude on 
the world supposititious writings, to corrupt the monuments of former times, 
and expunge out of them all the truth that makes against them, to make 
even the dead speak lies, or disguise the truth. For all this falseness is 
officious ; it serves the interest of the church ; it is to commend her doc- 
trine, and to maintain her authority over men's consciences, and it does the 
world no hurt ; for it is (they say) the duty of all men, and would be their 
advantage, to entertain her doctrine, and subject themselves to her autho- 
rity. Now if the rest of mankind, Jews, Turks, heathens, had retained no 
more conscience nor reverence for truth than these catholics ; if upon their 
supposition (that their way was the best) they had proceeded by their rules 
and methods to broach any lies for them, or falsify any records against them, 
who sees not that this, had been a direct course to have left no truth at all 
in the world, nor means to come to the knowledge of it ? Yet this practice 
with the Romanists (so great friends are they to truth) is but a venial fault. 
Did I say they count it so bad 9 I do them wrong ; it is a great piece of 
piety to make lies for their religion, as some of themselves do acknowledge 
it has been accounted. 1 To proceed, there are five or six several sorts of 
lies (that they may have room enough still to avoid truth) which they may 
make their practice without danger. 2 It is the pernicious lie only that need 
be avoided, that which wrongs others, and is against justice ; and thus no 
violation of truth, no injury to it, how great soever (so tender they are of it) 
will be a crime, unless, withal, it be against justice ; and a lie (be it as gross 
as can be) will not of itself,* and in its own nature, be more than venial, but 
only by accident, when it so falls out that it does mischief. And it may be 
as innocent to tell lies as truth, and as criminal to speak truth as lies. 
There will be no difference as to mortal guilt in their own nature, and by 
accident they may do hurt alike. However, considering that truth and their 
religion are so much at odds, the world is obliged to them for being so in- 
different as to truth and lies, and that these have no more the preference. 
But then, though none but pernicious lies need be shunned, yet not ail of 
this sort neither ; they give liberty to tell mischievous lies, as many and as 
oft as you please, so the mischief they do be not great, though it prejudice 
others in/spirituals or temporals ; or though ye do the greatest mischief that 
can be done, 4 yet, if you cud not intend it to be great, or if you should not 
or did not observe and consider that it would be so, in such cases even per- 
nicious lies will be harmless venials. They may, by their rules, lie to the 
prejudice of others in soul, body, or estate, and that deliberately, and with 
design to do it, provided the damage be not great ; but when it will be great, 
their casuists cannot well determine. This is not confined to a point ; there 
is a fair latitude, and liberty enough given for less or more, it is much left 

1 Fuernnt qui magna pietatis loco ducerent mendaciola pro religione confingere. 
Ludovicns Vives, et Espencaras — Com. in Tim. 1. i. c. xi. p. 166. 

2 Sylvest. ibid. n. v. 

• Mendacium si aliam non habet macnlam quara falsitatis, non est genere sno 
mortale; patet, quia neque est contra religionem (Komanam) neqne contra justitiam. — 
Soto, ibid 1. y. q. rii. art. ir. p. 168. 

4 Mortalis autem est omnia, et sola ilia, qnie fit animo notabiliter nocendi in bonis 
spiritualibns ant tempo rari is, quamvis non noceat, et ilia qo» fit nocendo notabiliter, 
ant dando cansam ita nocendi sine tali animo, adverteudo tamen, ant advertere debendo 
per iliam notabiliter nocere, ant cansam notabilis nocnmenti dando, alias non, quamvis 
injuria grarissima sit juxta men tern. S. Thorn, declaratam utrobique per Cajetan. — 
Navar. c. xviii. n. i. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



166 WHAT CHIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. VIII. 

to discretion ; and if he do much mischief instead of little, the liar cannot 
be charged with mortal guilt ; for who can condemn any for transgressing 
bounds that are not set ? And how can they think that any injury done by 
lying can be great, who count it better than innocent (as we saw before) to 
abuse the world with lies in point of religion ? Sure if the injury be not 
great there, any will be small. And in other matters, they have fair leave 
to do great hurt by lying ; so they do it but by degrees, and be not so hasty 
as to do it all at once. Take but an instance of it in commerce. 1 To use 
lies, says de Graffiis, in -bargaining, to get a good price, or; the using of them 
to deceive others in a little, is but a venial fault, though it were a daily 
practice. Hostiensis thought that this lying to cheat others, if it were their 
continual practice, might prove mortal ; but he is confuted by the common 
judgment of their doctors, who hold that a venial, how much soever multi- 
plied or continued, can never become mortal. We see they may lie, and 
deceive those that deal with them, if they wrong them but a little at once ; 
this they may do daily and continually, and so in time, that little will be 
much, yet the sin will be no more ; the pernicious lie, which does great 
injury, will be as innocent as any. 

Others teach that lying is venial in trading : for example, if one affirm 
falsely that his wine is so many years old, or of such a country, which, if 
the buyer know to be a lie, he would not buy it at all, or would not give so 
much for it, this seems no mortal sin, provided, all circumstances considered, 
it be as good, and as much worth, or not much less (Bonacin. de contract. 
disp. iii., q. i., punct. ii. 7 sect, ii., n. vii.) ; or if the sellers affirm with a lie, that 
the thing cost so much, or was sold to others at such a rate, that they may 
draw the buyer to a rigorous price ; by thus lying, for the most part, they 
sin but venially, and regularly they are not bound to restitution ; because 
such lies are customary, and men commonly know that these are the tricks 
of sellers, to which those who deal with them give no credit ; and for the 
same reason the same must be said of buyers, who affirm (falsely) that they 
bought the thing cheaper, or had it offered them for less, that they may 
get it at the lowest rate (Idem ibid., disp. iiL, q. i., punct. iv., n. xxzi.) after 
others ; yea, if they not only lie, but swear false too with some equivocation, 
they may be probably excused from mortal sin, if no great damage be done 
thereby to another. But though they have no more regard of truth in com- 
mon conversation, or in commerce, yet it may be expected that they will be 
more tender of it in judgment and courts of judicature, since they cannot 
but acknowledge that the perverting of truth in judgment is destructive of 
human society, and tends to throw the world into confusion. Notwithstanding, 
they maintain lying there also, and that in many cases; I shall but mention 
some of them. 1. To lie in court, if the end of it be but delight, 2 is harm- 
less ; also, witnesses may lie there seriously, if they do it not as witnesses, 
and in matters judicial f and the judge too, 4 if he lie not as a judge. Fur- 
ther, they may bear false witness in favour of another * a false testimony for 

1 Mendaciis uti eo fine in venditione, ut pervenire possit ad jus torn pretium, vel 
ipsis nti tan turn ad decipiendnm in modico, peccatum vcniale est, quamvis illis assidue 
utatur : licet Hostiensis dicat esse mortale, si assidue fiat, quod falsum est, quia veniale 
do se, quantumcunque mnltiplicetnr et continnetur, nunquam fit mortale, nt doctores 
no tan t, &c. — Gaff. 1. ii. c. cxviii. n. x. 

Excusari tamen a mortal i eum qui utitur amphib61ogia in contractu cum juramento, 
&c — Idem. torn. ii. disp. iv. q. i. punct. xii. n. vii. ubi Sayrus et alii. 

2 Durandus et Sylvester. — Ibid. n. v. 

8 Navar. secundum Cajetanum, cap. xviii. n. iii. 

4 Moitalia sunt judicis ut sic mendacia, reliqua sunt per accidens et ideo venialia. — 
Cajetan. Sum. v. Mcndac. 
• Testimonium falbum in favorem proximi, non est mortale: nequc adco quando 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. VIII.] in the boman ohuboh. 167 

my neighbour is not mortal with them ; and the reason is, because the pre- 
cept forbids false witness aqainst another, not for him. And upon the same 
account, Soto says, a false testimony may be excused, when it is to hinder 
one from doing injury. Likewise, when the matter in judicial process, is not 
of great consequence, a lie is venial, whether it be for or against another. 
So Navarre, 1 and in him Ledesma (whom he calls the glory of the Dominican 
order), with Soto (of the same order and no less renown), maintain that no 
lie is mortal in any court exterior (that of the judge) or interior (that of the 
confessor), which is but venial out of court ; so that if the lie be not signally 
injurious, it is not mortal, however or wherever it be delivered, though by a 
witness in a trial before a judge in the face of the country. Moreover, it is 
as innocent in all those cases, wherein the liar is not obliged to speak truth, 
which are not few. A lie, says Sylvester, 2 in judicial matters, is pernicious 
and mortal, because it subverts the truth of judgment, which tends to the 
ruin of the universe. But then he adds, this is to be limited to things in 
which the liar is bound to speak the truth, and not extended to any other. 
Now they hold, there are very many cases in which they are not obliged to 
speak the truth, no, not in courts ; and in all these, by their common doc- 
trine (not that of the Jesuits only), either they may lie plainly, or (which is 
all one as to the justice of the practice, and as to the subverting of judgment) 
secretly, by equivocation or mental reservation. Antonius Corduba deter- 
mines, that a person otherwise virtuous, being unduly interrogated, whether 
such a thing was done, which confessed might endanger him, he and the 
witnesses too, if they cannot otherwise evade (by saying, I know not, or I 
remember not), 3 may say, though it be false, that it was not done, with this 
reserve, to discover it unto thee, and says, such interrogatories may be an- 
swered or evaded, by any, with equivocal words in usual form ; 4 so that he 
is not bound to tell the. truth, though he be sworn to declare it. Navarre holds 
that not only virtuous, but any person whatever, may so answer in like case, 
denying that to be done which was done, secretly meaning, in such a month; 
and this he asserts after Gabriel, Paludanus, Adrian, Yincentius Justinianus, 
and Lopez 6 after him. Sylvester 6 concludes, when the process is not judi- 
cial, or the accused not subject to the judge, in this case mentioned, or any 

dicitur, nt idem impediatur injuriam facere : quoniam neque hoc est contra ipsum 
Prseceptum, Ex. xx. sob ilia forma constituitur ; Non toqueris contra proximum tuam 
falsum testimonium. — Soto, ibid. L v. q. vii, art. iv. 

Victorias viaum est non esse damnandum de mortali falaitate — qui ut aanm tneatnr 
innocentiam, utitnr testibus se nltro offeree tib as ad testificandum, falsum jurando. 
— Vide Lopez, pars. ii. c xliv. p. 264. 

1 Concludendo nullum mendacium esse mortale, eo solo, quod, in judicio exteriori, 
vel interiori dicatur, quod extra illud dictum tale non esset.~ Navar. cap. xviii. n. iii. 
Censeo in judicio mendacium circa rem ad id pertinentem leviasimam tamen contingens, 
non esse mortale crimen quod — ostendunt. Domin. a Soto, Covarruvius, Navar. 
Graff. 1. i. c. xiv. n. vi. et 1. ii. c. cxliii. n. vii. 

8 Mendaciam de his qua? ad judicium pertinent est perniciosum et mortale : quia 
subvertit veritatem judicii, quod tendit in perniciem univereitatis, quod limitatur quan- 
tum ad ea, in quibus qui mentitur, tenetur dicere veritatem, non aliter. — Ibid. n. iii. 

8 Liceret aibi et testibus injaste interrogans sic respondere, (quando tunc respondere 
Nescio, Non recordor non prodesset), Non furatus sum, intelligendo, ad jure revelandum 
tibi. — alias tenemur per verba, et modos aasuetos, licet eequivocos, injuste interrogans 
respondere. — Lopez, cap. Ii. p. 264. 

4 Angel. Sum. v. Confess, n. i. 

6 Intelligendo intra se quod istovel illo mense non fuerit res furatus — Navarri opinio 
testimoniis Gabriel Adriani, Falndens et Vincent. Justiniani, rata babetur. — Ibid. 

6 Quum juridice non procedet, 4 vel quia accusatus non est ei subjectus simpliciter vel 
in hoc casu, aut quaennque alia causa, tone licet mendacium sic illicitum, non est ta- 
men mortale. Immd non erit etiam veniale, si respondendo cautelose, et ut aiunt So- 
phiaticc, dicat aliqoid falsum, apud sensum judicis, et apud snum verum ; quia eo casu 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



168 WHAT CHIMES ABB VENIAL [CHAP. Vlll. 

other cause whatsoever, though a lie be not lawful, yet it is not mortal*; yea, 
it will not be so much as venial, if answering cautiously, and, as they say, 
sophistically, he speak that which is false in the judge's sense, 1 and true in 
his own, since not being under him, he is not obliged to speak truth in his 
sense ; and alleges Henricus de Gandavo, with his reason for it. Soto allows 
him to use equivocation. Oajetan permits him to deny his complices though 
he had them. If the judge demand of a priest upon oath, whether he 
knew such a thing by confession ? 2 Aquinas, and all the doctors conclude 
that he may swear he knows it not, though it hath been confessed to him, 
because he knows it not as a man ; and according to Vervecellus, if he cannot 
otherwise decline the judge, he may answer he knows nothing, with this 
inward reserve, as a man; and in this Richard, de Sancto Vietore, Bona- 
venture, Scotus, and Panormitan agree ; yet Angelas thinks, when he swears 
he knows it not, it had better be with this reserve, to discover it, because it 
cannot be denied, but that he knows it as a *ton;* but this, says Sylvester, 
is said against the judgment of all his doctors, and against the canon law, 
understood according to their common doctrine, because the priest is there 
said to know it as God. This needs no aggravation ; a priest rather than 
speak the truth (though the discovery of it may be necessary to secure a 
prince or a nation from ruin), 4 may with mental reservation delude authority 
and blaspheme God, and lie and swear falsely in open court ; and be justified 
in all, by the authority of the chief saints and doctors that church has had, 
and such as she gloried in, before Ignatius had any disciples. 

But, though truth suffer so much by them in civil things, it may be she 
may find sanctuary in their divine offices, and be secured there frt>m such 
shameful violations ; no, even there she is prostituted before their altars, in 
their pulpits, and at their penitential tribunals ; their liturgies have been 
stuffed with fables, and lies made both the ground and part of their public 
devotion ; their own writers 6 take notice of plain lies recited in their dairy 
prayers. 4 And what store of them there were in the whole, we may guess 
by a part. Peter Abbot of Cluny 7 declares, that in a church-hymn in praise 
of Saint Bennet, though reading it cursorily, and not marking all, yet he found 
cum non sit ejus subditus^non tenetnr dicere veritatem ad ejus intentfonem. Rationem 
dictorum assign at. — Hen. de Qan. Sylv. Sum. ?. accueatio. n. x. 

1 Licet ei uti fflquivocatione, Soto de just. 1. v. q. vi. art. ii. Adrian dicit, talem ream 
posse dicere Non feci, et Cajetan. Opusc. xri. q. v. Dicit posse respondere se non ha- 
buisse complices, quamvis habuerit, in Tol. Instr. 1. v. c WiiL 

Non tenetnr respondere etiamsi jurasset dicere veritatem, secundum Henr. de Gand. 
— sed dicetne mendacium? Reap, quod non, sed utetur aliis verbis duplicibus et 
simulatis. — Angel. Sum. v. Confess, n. i. 

2 Quid si judex instate vei exigit juramentnm a sacerdote an per confession em sciat 
aliquid de tali facto ? Et dico quod secundum S. Tbo. et omnes doctores, ascerdos si 
ab eo quaeretur, de aliquo absente, an aliquid sciat quod audivit in confessione, jurare 
potest, se nescire illnd : quia non scit illud in quantum homo-— secundum Vervec, si alio 
modo iniquum judicem declinare non potest: respondere potest se nihil scire, quia subin- 
telligitur ut homo — et consent! t Rich. Bonav. Scot. etPan. Sylvest v. confessio iii. n. vi 

3 Quod ejus dictum est contra omnem doctrinam suorum doctorum et contra C. Si 
sactrd. inteliectum juxta communem doctrinam: quia ibi dicitmr sacerdos hoc scire at 
Deus. 

4 Certum est obligationem hujus precepti tantam esse, ut in nullo casu, et propter 
nullum finem, etiam pro tuenda tota republica ab ingentimalo temporal! aut spiritual), 
violare illud liceat. Ita docent theologi omnes contra unum Altsiod ; tenet D. Tho. S. 
Bonav. Richard, Scotus, Durand. Palud. Major. Capreol. Gabriel, Alensis. Adrian. 
Medina, Viguer. Sylv. et alii summistas, omnes Pet. Soto, Domin. Soto, Navar. Cover- 
ruv. Simanca. Cajetan. Ledesma. in Suar. torn, xxxiv. disp. xxxiii. sect. i. n. ii. 

6 Vid. Espenc. com. in 2 Tom. c. iv. digr. xxi. 

Nuper Raphael. Volateranus, ausus est scribere dolendum, aperta in horis Canonicis 
legi mendacia — Ibid. p. 424. 

7 .Nosti quantum me pigeant falsa in Eccleaia Dei cantica, quantum nugge canons 



Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Chap. VllL] in the boman church. 169 

twenty-four lies at least. Borne reformation hereof was thought requisite, 
for shame of the world ; hut though the old sore smelt noisomely even to the 
sense of those amongst themselves who had any ; yet it must be touched 
tenderly, and not all the corruption let out, lest nothing at all of the old 
service should be left. Melchior Canus (a bishop from whom better things 
might be expected than most in the Council of Trent, where he sat) acknow- 
ledged, some years after, that there are things read in their church-service 
that are uncertain, counterfeit, frivolous, and false too; but yet he thought 
it not advisable to have this thoroughly purged. Those that attempt it, in 
his account, want prudence ; they cure a sore nail, but mischief the head ; 
they bring in grave stories instead of what were false, but they change the 
church-service so far from what it was, that scarce any show of the old religion 
seems left in the daily prayers, whereby he lets us understand what their old 
religion or religious service is, since so little or nothing of it would be left, if 
no lies or forgeries*were left therein. Another learned bishop of their church, 
who survived the Trent Council, and all the orders there made for reforma- 
tion, not only complains still of false and foolish things there, but of some- 
thing worse too, in these words : If the Bishop of Lyons, 1 says he, who 
declared that he had corrected superfluous, and ridiculous, and blasphemous 
things, in their missals and antiphonaries, were now alive, and did behold 
them, oh, with what terms would he set them out ? for our prayers are 
defiled with most filthy corruptions ; but the rest will admit of no reforma- 
tion through the fault of the bishops. He signifies' that there was something 
worse in their service-books than that idle, false, ridiculous, and blasphemous 
stuff which that ancient bishop, Agobardus, corrected in the old missals and 
antiphonaries ; declaring expressly that their prayers now were polluted with 
most filthy corruptions, and that without hope of amendment. Nor is truth 
more secure amongst them in the pulpit, though that (where it bears any 
sway at all) is its throne. A preacher may lie, by Cajetan's leave,* if he 
does it not as a preacher, or in things which belong to him as such. In 
other matters, it seems, he may take his liberty, and lying when he is 
preaching, will be but venial, unless it be scandalous. He may lie in the 
pulpit if he can do it wittily, he may mix his sermons with false stories, 3 (if 
they be facetious) to please his auditory, that is commonly a venial. 4 He 

mihi odibiles, inter qnas, nam plurimse sunt — mendacia ad minus xxiv. canticum id, 
citato percurrens ammo, reperi — Ibid. p. 423. 

In res sacras banc quoque mentiendi licentiam irrepsisse, sen potius aperte invectam 
esse. — Ludovic Vive*, 1. ii. de corraptis artibus, Etpenc. in 1 Tim. digr. 1. i. c. xi. p. 156. 

Qnse in Ecclesia legi solent— quanqnam nonnulla ex his incertasunt, apocrypha, levia, 
falsa — Loc TUol. 1. xi c v. p. 911. 

In his prudentia desideratnr. Quidam namque dam redaviam enrant, capiti inoom- 
roodant, videlicet historias graves pro apocryphis redd ant quidem, sed divinum Ecclesia> 
officiam usque eo prater solitam immutant, at vix alia antiqus religionis forma in 
qootidianis preeibus relicta taa% videatar. — Ibid. p. 910. 

1 Epi8copas ille Lvgdvnensis qaia dixit se in missalibns et antiphonariis supeiflua, 
levia, falsa, ridicula, blaspheme phantastiea malta correxisse ; si nunc viveret et ea 
conspiceret, Deu mimmortalem ! quo ea nomine depingeret? sunt (enim) preces (nostra) 
turpissimis mendis conspurcata : com. in Tim. i. 1. i. p. 157. — EspeaccBus, in the words 
of Lin dan us. 

* Sum. v. mendacium, p. 437, Omne mendacium predicatoris contra veritatem spee- 
tantem ad predicatoris officiam (est mortale)— quoniam base tantum sunt predicatoris 
ut sic — mendacia reliqua sunt per accidens, et ideo venialia: nisi ratione scandali 
aliud occurrat censendam. 

9 Qussritur atmrn sitpeccatam mortale predicatori mentiri in am bone? et dico quod 
non, in eis quae non spec tan t ad doctrinam, pata, sidicat aliqoa jocosa. — Sylv. v. Men- 
dac n. iv. ; Graff, k ii. cap. cxliii. n. v. ; 8. Thorn, in opusc. iv. precept, viii. 

4 Immiscere predicationi facetas fabellaa delectandi gratia quod B. Ambrosius 
reprebendit, quia non debent, in tarn gravi actione de rebus tarn arduis qualia sunt 

Digitized by LjOOQlC 



170 WHAT GRIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. YIII. 

may tell a tale in his sermon, 1 or anything ridiculous, if he do it with some 
wit, this is commonly no worse than venial ; no, nor so bad, if it be done 
succinctly, to make the people merry, so the mirth be honest. He may lie 
too, as a serious divine, and instil false doctrine into the people, without any 
fault but what is venial, if it be done without contempt or scandal, so Summa 
Angelica, and Bosella, with others, conclude. 2 They limit it, indeed, to 
matters under counsel, but this does not much straiten them, for practical 
divinity being the most proper subject for sermons, and virtues, with Chris- 
tian duties (and the opposite sins), being, by their common doctrine, in a 
manner all reduced to counsels, some way or other (as we have shewed 
before) ; they have liberty enough left them to do nothing else bat lie instead 
of preaching. But in any matters of divinity whatsoever, speculative or 
practical, enjoined or but advised, they may lie at as easy a rate, if it be but 
done out of a fluent faculty, or without danger and design of doing signal 
mischief. 3 Their practice publicly allowed, has outdone their rules; for 
these, though licentious enough, must have now and then some show of 
modesty and caution. Sylvester takes notice of those who held it was no 
mortal sin to lie in the pulpit, 4 and acted accordingly, and thought themselves 
concerned, only to avoid such monstrous lies as the people would smell out. 
But this cautiousness was not always thought needful ; he that reads the 
legends, which served the people heretofore for sermons, will find there mul- 
titudes of such stories, so absurdly, ridiculously, horridly false, as may fully 
convince him that the spirit which acted them was seven times worse than 
that which inspired Ahab's prophets ; and where they are now disused, it is 
not with any acknowledgment that such notorious lies were not fit to be 
preached, but for shame of that part of the world which they could.no longer 
delude and abuse. And, even after their reformation, they could not quite 
leave their old habit ; their priests since, have this testimony from one of 
their own doctors : The law, says he, ib perished from priests ; for history 
they recite fables ; for serious things, jests ; for truth, lies ; for the power of 
God, feigned miracles, not to say the prodigies of devils. That such doc- 
trine should have some confirmation is no more than needs ; they provided 
such as was answerable to it, such are their false miracles, which their (now 
mentioned) Espencseus calls, devilish prodigies. And false relics, or mira- 
cles, they allow to be shewed or published ; 6 it is not a mortal sin with them, 

di vina verba, immisceri jocosa et ridicula. Commaniter tamen est hoc veniale. — 
Cajetan. sum. v. predicat. p. 481. 

* Qui concioni fabulam et facetias, aut aliquid ridiculum miscet, peccatquidem jaxta 
S. Antoninum et Cajetanum, scd commaniter non plusquam ventaliter, jaxta eundem, 
imo non semper venialiter, ut cum ad hilaritatem. honestam breviter dicuntur, at 
trad it Augustin. Triumphus. — Ncmar. c. xxv. n. cxlii. 

8 In pertinentibus ad doctrinam ten en t Sum. Angel, et Rosell. quod non sit mortale, 
nisi ratione scandali vel con tern puis doctrine annexi : vel nisi in his qua sunt de necessi- 
tate facienda, intellige etiam omittenda, secus si ex conailio. — Sylvest. v. Mendac. d. iv. 

8 Peccat qui mentitur in materia fidei, sacns scriptuise vel morum — quod limitat 
Cajetanus, non procedcre quando id fit per solum multUoquium, vel alias sine ammo 
et periculo noccndi notabiliter. — Navar, c. xviii. n. iv. 

4 Credunt non esse mortale mentiri in ambone, nisi ut ill! dicunt, predicant maximas 
falsitates, qua? deinde a ssecularibus deprehendnntur. — Ibid. 

6 Vcrum lex periit a sacerdotibus ; recitant pro historia fabulas, pro seriis joca, pro 
veritate mendacium, — pro virtute Dei fictitia miracula, ne dicam portenta D»monioram. 
— Espencceuf, Serm. i. De officio pastorum. 

After he hath premised something of the preaching and writing of false miracles, he 
adds : At facilias AugesB stabalum, quara talibus fabellis multorum turn libros, turn 
conciones repurges, in 2 Tim. c iv. digr. xxi. p. 424. 

Peccat qui utitur falsis reliquiis aut veris, causa turpis quaestus. Navar. cap. xviL 
n. clxiz.; Graff. 1. ii. c. ex xxi v. n. xxx. Idem die de illo, qui ntitur falsis reliquiis, si 
causa turpis qusestus fiat, id est, eo fine aliquid accipiendi pro ostensione earum. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. VIIL] in the soman chubch. ' 171 

unless it be done for filthy Incre, and it is not filthy lucre, if it he done prin- 
cipally for a good end, and less principally for gain. 1 

And now I cannot devise where there can be any expectation that they 
will be restrained from lying, nnless in their sacrament of penance, that is, 
in their account, the holiest rite, wherein the partakers have liberty of speech. 
Here they confess sin, and profess to do it with a sincere abhorrence of it, 
as before God, in order to pardon, which they then expect. One would 
think, in this act, at least, they should count themselves obliged to be far 
from such a crime as offering violence to truth ; but hereby it appears that 
truth can in no wise be fastened to any part of their religion, they let us 
know that there is nothing so holy amongst them where they will not find a 
place for lying and deceit, and that wherever they have liberty of speech 
they must have leave to lie. It is the common doctrine that they may lie 
in confession, 2 which yet they say is directed principally to God, and they 
look upon the confessor's chair as the divine tribunal. The coafitent may 
deny that ever he committed those venial sins which he is guilty of,* or 
affirm he is guilty when he is not, 4 or he may deny either venial or mortal 
sin to his confessor, if he be not sufficients Or he may deny that ever he 
acted those mortal sins which he has committed, if he has confessed them 
to another. 6 And thus he may without mortal sin delude and cheat his 
confessor, even when he is upon his knees before him, and looks upon him 
as God and not as man (for so they are taught to do, as we said before). 
To this purpose, when their purpose is too shameful to be made known to a 
sober priest, a person may have two confessors ; 7 one a lewd fellow like him- 
self, to whom he may, without shame, confess the worst debauches ; and the 
other more civil, to whom he may confess his lesser sins, denying, if he be 
asked, that he is guilty of any greater. And as they may abuse their con- 
fessors with plain lies, so likewise with equivocations. Joh. Sanchez (no 
Jesuit) offers us several instances (Select. Disp. ix.) He that is not able to 
make restitution, may affirm he has done it, if he think his confessor be 
ignorant, and would not absolve him without it. He that is accustomed to 
some wickedness, and thinks the confessor would not absolve him if he con- 

1 Navar. ibid. 

* Angelas, v. Confess. Sylvest v. Confess, i. n. ix. Nav. c. xxi. n. xxxvii. Graff. 
1. i. c. xiv. n. vi. Covarruvius. Pet. Soto in Victorell. p. 530. Bannes, Salonias, &c. 
in Fill. tr. iv. n. xlir. alii in Suar. torn. iv. disp. xxii. sect. x. 

Circa eas circnmstantias, qu» nnllo modo pertinent ad materiam confessionis — non 
eat peccatnm mortale miscere aliqnod mendacium, sive affirmando sive negando ; sed 
eat veniale gravius quam esset simile mendacium extra ilium actum. In hoc con- 
veniunt omnes doctores citandi (viz. Bichardus Faludan. Bod a vent. Cajetan. Ledesma, 
Armilla, Angelus, Sylvest. Soto, Navar. Pet. Soto). — Idem. ibid. iii. et vi. 

8 Navar. ibid. n. xxxvii. Soto in opuac. de secret memb. ii. vii. Sylvest. ibid. Est 
certnm mentiri in materia non necessaria negando factum, non esse peccatnm mortale, 
in quo etiam omnea conveniunt quos statim referemus (viz. jam laudati). — Suar. ibid. 
n. iv. 

4 Mendacium affirmativum de peccato veniali — non esse peccatnm mortale per ae 
loquendo, hoc est secluso scandalo et contemptu, tenet Angelus, Sylvester, Soto, Petrus, 
Soto, Navar. — Idem, ibid. n. vii* 

6 Sylvest. ibid, vel affirmando. — Idem in Suar. ibid. n. x. 

6 Non peccare mortaliter, ut diiimus, confitentem negantem se admisisse peccatum 
mortale, alias legitime confessnm. — Navar. ibid. n. xxxviii. 

7 Unde sequitur non peccare mortaliter eos, qui ne suam existimationem honestam 
amittant, confessario cuidem familiari suo confitentur omnia peccata sua, etiam ob- 
acacna, et postea alteri probo et gravi solum leviora, quod de se non est malum, et si 
finis venialia fuerit, peccatum veniale erit, et si mortalia, mortale, et si bonus, qualis 
frequenter est, sanctus et probus, immo interdnm necessarius. Idem ibid. n. xl. ; rid. 
Sylvest. ibid. n. viii. ; Bonacina (et in eo Victoria cum aliis), torn. i. disp. v. q. vi. sect, 
ii. punct ii. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



172 WHAT CRIMES ABB VENIAL [CHAP. Viil. 

fessed it, may with equivocation deny it is his custom ; to this sense, I have 
no such custom, not absolutely, but which I will confess at present, n. vii. ; 
yea he may deny it, though he believe the priest would absolve him, n. viii. 
Also he that is in the next occasion to sin, which he cannot avoid without 
great inconvenience or scandal, may, using equivocation, deny it, n. iz. Or 
if the penitent be known to the confessor, who well understands that he has 
a sister with whom he commits uncleanness, not removed out of his house, 
and so will not believe but he is in such occasion to sin, he may feign him- 
Belf to be another, changing his voice, habit, name, country, and the like, 
without plain lying, yet using equivocation (n. x. after Navarre) ; yea, though 
he be a religious person he may do thus, and deny his order with equivoca- 
tion (Ibid). And as the penitents may thus delude their confessors, so 
tbey may have their satisfaction on them, and delude them likewise ; pre- 
tending to absolve them when they neither do it nor intend it (Idem. disp. xxxv. 
n. i., n. vii. and viii. ; Antonin. Dian. resol. v. equiv). Let the world judge 
where we may be assured of truth and honesty in Romanists, that walk by 
these rules (which the holiest of their doctors give them), since they think 
not themselves obliged thereto in any of the cases specified. If by their 
doctrine they may without danger be false to private persons, to magistrates, 
to their priests, to their God, where can they have credit ? If they may 
practise lying and deceit in common conversation, in commerce, in doctrine, 
in worship, in courts of justice, and before that which they count God's 
tribunal, where may they be trusted ? 

Sect. 10. They give as much liberty to violate faith as truth, and no less 
encouragement to perfidiousness and breach of promises ; either where faith 
is engaged mutually, as in compacts and agreements, or singly, as in pol- 
licitations. They distinguish perfidiousness as they do lying, and accord- 
ingly make the like decisions for both. There is a pleasant perfidiousness, 
another which they call officious, and a third pernicious. To be perfidious 
merely for delight is venial ; to deal perfidiously, if it be for the advantage 
of any, and no great hurt to others, is as harmless ; and they have ways 
enow to make that which is pernicious pass for innocent. Cajetan gives 
this reason why the two former sorts of perfidiousness are but venial : be- 
cause from a simple promise no duty ariseth but that natural duty of not 
telling a lie ; for in each is a moral duty, without which moral honesty can- 
not be preserved ; and both are reduced to the same virtue, to wit, that of 
veracity ; and both respect others, being for the society, and advantage, 
and conversation of mankind. 1 One would think those who regard natural 
duty, moral honesty, or veracity, and human society, should for this reason 
rather judge both to be great crimes, than either of them petty faults. But 
let us take notice of their rales for conscience in this matter: To make a 
promise without an intent to be obliged, is but venial, 2 if no great hurt be 
done or intended to others. He promiseth, but while be is doing it intends 
not to perform, though he make others believe so, nor to be obliged to it 
by that which should engage any one who has faith and honesty ; and yet 
offends but venially. If all men should take the liberty which this rule 
gives Roman catholics, 3 human society would disband ; all confidence on 

1 Perfidia quidem jocosa et officios*, venialis ; quoniam ex aroplici promissione non 
nascitur majus debitum, quaro nit natnrale debitum non mentiendi: nam utrnmque 
debitum est debitum morale, sine quo moram honestas salvari nequit: et ad eandem 
virtutein reduci creditor, soil, ad virtu tern veracitatis : et ntramque ad alteram est, pro 
convictu, utilitate et convereatione humana. — Sum. v. perfidia. p. 4G0. 

* Navar. c xviii. n. vi. : Sylvester, v. pact iv. ; Angelas, Sum. v. pactum. 

3 Nisi fide stet respublica, opibas non stab it. — Liv. iii. doc 1. i. Fides h»c non solum 
ad justitiam attinet, verum est ipsissimum justitise fundamentam. — Cicer. i. de off. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. VIII.] m the boman ohuboh. 178 

promises and assurances vanisheth, thereby I can never be sure of another, 
nor he of me. That which Navarre, after many others, determines elsewhere, 
does it more folly. He that promiseth anything outwardly without any 
intention to promise, if he be asked whether he promised, he may deny it, 
understanding that he made not any promise that was obliging, and he may 
swear it too. 1 He may promise, and yet not intend to promise, and so 
cheat ; he may deny that he promised, and so lie ; and swear that he did it 
not when he did it, and so be perjured innocently, because he promised as a 
perfidious knave. Sylvester inquires, whether one by a promise alone or a 
compact be obliged in conscience ? He answers he is bound, under pain of 
mortal sin, if it be of important matters ;' signifying that in other matters 
it is no mortal sin to break promises or agreements. And Navarre expresses 
their common opinion when he tells us, that the violation of a promise in a 
small matter is not mortal, though it be venial. 8 But why should perfidi- 
ousness be a crime in great things and not in lesser ; since it is no less per- 
ndiousness in one than the other, and faith and truth is equally violated in 
both ? The reason they give is, because in great matters there is injustice ; 
great wrong is done, and so by accident perndiousness becomes criminal ;* 
from whence it follows, that perfidiousnese, how great soever, without the 
addition of injustice, is bo crime ; a man may be as treacherous and faith- 
less as he will, if he be not withal unjust too, there is no danger. And so 
the world must believe that they would oblige men to be just, though not 
to truth or faithfulness ; as if those who may by their rules without scruple • 
be false and faithless, will make any conscience, or find any more reason, to 
be just and righteous. However they teach that they who promise but 
small things, and perform not, are excused from mortal sin, though they 
confirm the promise with an oath or a vow. 4 Whether the thing promised 
be -little or great, if it be an internal promise, though an oath be added not 
to revoke it, yet it obliges not, but may be revoked without mortal sin. 
(Panormitan. Jason. Rebellm et alii cum Bonacin de contract, disp. iii., q. xii., 
punct. ii., n. i. and iii.) Yea, if it be made in the form of a vow, yet when 
it is of a thing indifferent or less good ; as if a man inwardly promise to 
marry such a woman, and promise it to God, too, it does not oblige him 
(Idem, ibid., n. ii.). And how can it be expected they should be faithful as 
to any engagement to man, who think they are not bound to observe truth 
or faith with God, how much soever concerned, either as a witness (in oaths) 
or as a party (in vows) ? Well, but when the matter is of great importance 
may they not then break promises, bargains, or compact, may not perndi- 
ousness, which themselves account pernicious, pass commonly for an innocent 
venial ? Yes, they have ways enough ready to make this current at so easy 
a rate. The worst perfidiousnese in the world may be excused from mortal 

Feriret convictus bam an as et fides, si sibi persuaderent bom Inns, in promises frangere 
fidem, el verba dare non esse genere stto plasquom veniale. — Lopez, p. ii. c. xxx. 

1 Qui promisit exterins aliqtrid absque intentione promittendi, si interrogator, an 
promised t, negare potest, intelligendo, se non promisisse promissione obligante, et sic 
etiam jurare. Vid. Navar. in c. humana awes xxii. <q. v, q. i. et ii. pro hac doctrina 
adducit S. Thorn. Scotnm, Psiudan. Ricard. de Sancto Yictore. Major. Adrian et alios. 

* Qussritur utrura ex sola promissione sive ex pacto, quis obligetur in conscientia : 
et dico quod sic, sub peccato mortali, in rebus scilicet alicujus importantira. — Ibid. 

8 Nee violatio promise® rei exiguas erit mortalis, quamvis renialis sit. c. xviii. n. vii. 
Soto, Canus, Victoria, Sylvester, in Lopes, pars H. e. xxx. 

* Quando non per se est perfidus, non incurret mortale, nisi per accidens, hoc est, 
propter notabile nocumentum seu scandalara. — Cajetan. v. perfidia. 

6 A mortali excusantur qui — parva poliicentur (et non implent) etiamsi jnramento, 
aut voto id ipsum confirmasscnt, secundum eos quos sequimur (viz. Antonin. Sylvcst. 
Soto). — Navar. c. xviii. n. vii. c xii. n. x. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



174 WHAT CBTMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. VIII. 

guilt, according to Cajetan, through ignorance of the fact, or through forget- 
fulness (if one forget to he honest, he may be innocently a knave) ; or out 
of confidence in him to whom he is engaged (the good nature of one party 
concerned may be a warrant to the other to break faith with him) ; or for 
any cause which he thinks reasonable. 1 He need have said no more than 
this, any one may violate all truth and faith, not only when there is some 
reasonable cause, but when there is any that seems but so to him, when 
anything will seem so to him who is disposed to play the knave. This is 
enough to license a world of perfidiousness ; but this is not all. Sylvester 
after others tells us a man is not obliged to perform promise or compact, if he 
had not a mind to oblige himself thereby, yea, or if he had a mind to dissemble 
(to feign that he is engaged when he did not mean it) ; for, says he, though 
he offend, yet he is not obliged, unless there was a cause from some com- 
mand which of itself would oblige him ; as for example, if he bad promised 
clothes to his father, and he is now starving for cold. 1 In such a case 
(would ye think it ?) one may be bound to keep his promise, to wit, when 
he would have been a monster if he had not done the thing though he had 
never promised it t He tells us elsewhere, that a promise does oblige when 
it is made to a city, or an university, the clergy, the church, or the poor of 
a certain place, in case it be for some cause, to wit, for the honour of God, 
or the like ; but if there be no cause it does not bind, though it be made to 
those fore- mentioned ; and it does not bind, when it is made to any other 
besides those, though there be cause for it. 9 Others 4 maintain that a pro- 
mise or compact does not oblige in conscience to performance, if the cause 
why it is made be not expressed; so Panormitan, Angelus, and Rosella, 
with others. So that if a man forbear but to mention the eause (which is 
most commonly done, and may be always) ; though he bind himself with 
ten thousand promises or covenants, he may with a safe conscience break 
them all, by their rules. They hold that the firmest promise does but bind 
under venial guilt. (Cajetan, Armilla, Rebellvs, Garzias, in Bonacin. ibid., 
n. xii.) Or if it did of itself oblige further, yet he that intends to bind 
himself no otherwise, may break any promise without any more than venial 
guilt, whether the matter be small or great which is promised (Ibid., n. xii.). 
Lopez, that a promise may bind under mortal guilt, concludes it requisite 
that he who makes it should have a mind to be so bound by it ; and so in 
promising (as he says), unless there be an oath to confirm the promise, or 
a writing, as is usual, they are not thought to oblige themselves to mortal 

1 Excusatur a m or tali — ex parte forma, hoc est quia non per se, sen ex intentione 
peccatnm illud fit — sed ex oblivione, aut ignorantia fucti, ant ex fiducia qnam accipit 
de eo cni promisit, aut ex causa qua? sibi videtnr rationabilis. — Sum. v. perfidia. 

8 Est theologorum doctrina (quod obligator) si habuit animum se obligandi ; secns 
si habuit animum essendi liber usque ad redditionem : vel si habuit animam fingendi: 
quia licet peccet non obligatur tarn en, nisi subeaset causa de se ex pracepto obligans : 
puta, si promissa est patri vestis, et frigoribus alget. — Ibid. n. iv. Alias si non habuit 
animum obligandi, non tenetur sub poena mortalis peccati ad pactum nudum servandara : 
nisi subesset causa qua) ad hoc obligaret de necessitate precepti, puta, promisi patri 
meo vestem, qui moritur ex frigore, quoniam tenetur quamvis non habuerit animum 
obligandi se. — Angel. Sum. v. pactum, n. iv. 

8 Utrum a litem quis obligatur ex pollicitatione ? et dico quod sic, quando poll ice tur 
civitati, universitati, clero, ecclesise, vel pan peri bus alicujus loci, et ex causa: puta, ad 
honorcm Dei et hnjusmodi: secns si fiat prsadictis sine causa: vel alii a a prsedictis 

etiam cum causa : quia non obligatur, nisi prsetextu promissionis aliquid casperit. 

Ibid. v. pollicitatio. Ita et eisdem verbis. — Angelus. Sum. v. pollicitatio. 

* In Sylvest. ibid. v. pactum, n. iv., Promissio sive pactum obligat in conscientia 

hoc autem Sum. Ang. et Kosell. et est limitatio Coll. quern sequitur Panor. quando ex- 
primitur causa proraittendi. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VIII.] in the boman chuboh. 175 

sin ; and by this, says he, a multitude of scruples is removed. 1 And he 
says true, for hereby a man may without any scrapie break any promises 
that are not under his hand or oath. 2 Bat what if he had no mind so to 
oblige himself by his oath or writing ? Why, then, by his own rule, he is 
no more bound by his written or sworn promise than by any other. To 
this purpose he concludes again, that he who promises in word, without 
mind or intention to oblige himself, is not bound in conscience to perform 
it ; 3 and this is their common doctrine. So that if a man intend not to be 
honest, he need not be so, whatever he promise. These rules observed are 
more than sufficient to excuse men from all faith and honesty in contracts 
and promises of all sorts ; to fill the world with cheats and perfidiousness ; 
to take away all confidence and security from men in dealing one with 
another ; to ruin human society ; and to render Boman catholics less con- 
scientious, and more faithless and intolerable to mankind, than sober 
heathens ; nor are they more like the rules of Christianity than those which 
bid defiance to it. 

Sect. 11. Hitherto, thus much of deceit and lies, in word and promises, 
&c. Hypocrisy is a lie indeed ; both are equally sinful. Aquinas, 4 after 
some of the ancients, asserts that it is all alike to lie in deeds as in words : 
as that is a composing of words, so this of acts, to signify and make one 
believe what is false : both are used as instruments of deceit, and it is all 
one which way* you cozen another, so he be but cheated, as it is all one 
whether you kill a man with a sword or an axe, as they express it ; and both 
by their doctrine are made venial. Sylvester inquires whether to make a 
false show of sanctity be a sin ? 5 He answers that if it be for the honour of 
God, and the profit of others, it is no sin ; but if it be to palliate his own 
wickedness, and that he may be accounted good, then it is a sin, because it 
is a false ostentation of sanctity. But so is the other too, which yet with 
him is no sin ; either both must be acquitted, or neither. So Cajetan* will 
have it to be evil, though the end be good ; because we must not do evil, 
that good may ensue. But they agree, and it is their common doctrine, that 
bare hypocrisy, when one feigns he is good and is not, or better than he is, 
is no mortal evil, though it hath the force of a lie, 7 and be designed to deceive 

1 Ut sit vera requiritur primo qnod adsit animus in promittente, dam promittit, 
obligandi se ad mortale. Et sic inter promittendum, nisi adhibuerit jnramentum p ro- 
missionis confirmatorium, vel scripturam nt pro more hominum contiogit, fit ut non se 
censeant obligare ad culpam mortalem. Hinc tollitur scrupulorum multitudo. — Pars, 
ii. cap. xxx. p. 175. 

* Promissio obligat nisi non habuisti animum te obligandi, sed solum proposuisti 
facere. — flavor. Garzias in Sa. v. promiss. Vix autem quis promittentium obligari in- 
tend] t, nisi juret aut faciat instrumentum. — Idem, ibid. 

8 Qui dum aliquid promittit verbo tenus, animo et intentione se obligandi caret, non 
fit reus in conscientia obligationis promissi — Idem, ibid. p. 176. 

Secundum cum muni ter theologos, nemo ex quacunque promissione obligator, nisi 
qui habuit animum obligandi se. — Angel. Sum. v. pactum, n. iv. 

4 Paria esse factis aut verbis mentiri, rid. Navar, cap. xviii. n. viii. 

Non solum in verbo, sed etiam in facto, mendacium coosistit, cum in utroque sit 
eadem intentio fallendi, uterque eequaliter peccat, quia verbum et factum assumuntur 
ut instrumentum fallendi : nee refert quantum ad peccatum, verbo, nutu, vel facto 
mentiri; sicut nee quantum ad homicidium, uti gladio vel seenri. — Sylvest. Sum. v. 
mendacium, n. v. 

5 Sum. v. simulatio n. iv. Ut pallietur iniquitas, et ipse bonus putetur, quod est 
peccatum— ad honorem Dei, etproximorum sedificationem — et hoc non est peccatum. 

6 Si finis Hie sit bonus (puta, ad sedificationem aliorum) nihilominus peccatum est, 
quia non sunt facienda mala ut bona eveniant. — Sum. v. bypocris. p. 340. 

7 Solummodo intendit simulare se bonum sen meliorem quam sit, et hoc hypocrisis 
si nuda sit, licet non sit peccatum mortale, est tamen peccatum, quia mendacii vim 
habet. — Cajetan, ibid. Sylvezt, ibid. Navar. c. xviii. n. viii. 

vol. in. b b 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



176 WHAT CHIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. VEX 

others, 1 otherwise it would not be so bad as a venial, 2 Although he delight 
in thus playing the hypocrite, it will not be worse ; this is but vanity, not 
wickedness, unless it be for an end mortally wicked, such as will make an 
act, otherwise indifferent, to be criminal. But if he made this false and 
deceiving show for an evil -end, 3 to wit, for vain glory, so long as it is not 
made his last end (to wit, his God), such vain glorious hypocrisy will be no 
worse ; for though the sin, says Cajetan, be here doubled, yet the double sin 
is but a single venial. And if he do those works which are naturally 
ordained for the service of God with an intention not to serve him/ bnt for 
glory from men, it is but such hypocrisy, and that with some extenuation ; 
it is not so bad explicitly, seeing the intention to deceive is but implicit. 
They have a reverence for hypocrisy as a holy art : they honour it and their 
church with the same title, both being holy alike (so much alike, some will 
think, that it is hard to know the one from the other). They extol their 
great saints from their holy hypocrisy. It is amongBt the commendations 
of Saint Dominic himself. Yincentius, Bishop of Beauvois, in his praises, 
spends one chapter upon this subject, de sancta qw hypocriri, shewing that 
it was not only the practice of their saint, but that he commended the holy 
thing to his brethren, the friars predicant. Hypocrisy being such a holy 
quality in their account, and a special ornament of their greatest saints, no 
wonder if they be so far from branding it as a crime, that they declare it 
meritorious. A religious person that feigns himself to have more holiness 
than he hath, that others may be edified, sins not, but rather merits (so 
Bosella v. Hypocr. n. i.) Thus they give us warning not to trust any shows 
of sanctity or mortification amongst them, since they are so far from count- 
ing it a sin, that they conclude it meritorious even for their religious to 
deceive others, with hypocritical ostentation of what holiness they have not. 
Indeed the Romanists are concerned to speak favourably of hypocrisy, and 
treat it with kindness ; for since they require no more truth and sincerity in 
their dealings with men, and make no more than exterior shows of piety (if 
so much) needful in the worship of God, and yet would be accounted the 
best or only true Christians on earth ; if they should condemn hypocrisy as 
a mortal sin, that religion and righteousness, which their church counts 
sufficient, would be branded by themselves as damnably criminal* 

Sect. 12. Disgracing and defaming others to their face by contumelies, or 
behind their backs by detraction ; reproaching them with charges true or 
false, to the impairing or ruining of their esteem or credit (though some of 
them say this is worse than theft or robbery, and others make it worse than 
adultery ; and in the canon law such are called murders ; yet) is allowed 
under the notion of a venial in so many cases, that he who is addicted 
thereto may satisfy his humour fully in the practice of it without scruple. It 
is a maxim with them that the quality of sins in words is regulated by the 

1 Facere opera quibus bonus appareat, cam non sit, sine intentione ostendendi te 
bonum, non est etiam veniale, juxta mentem omnium. — Idem, ibid. 

* Alias erit veniale, puta, cum in ipsa fictione delectetnr, — magis vanua videtux 
qnam mains. — Sylvest. ibid. 

8 Si autem finis ille sit vana gloria, non tamen ita quod in ea ponatur ultimas finis, 
peccatum est veniale quidem sed duplicatum — Cajetan, ibid. 

4 Qui opera ad Dei servitium naturaliter ordinata (ut sunt jejunium, oratio, eleemo- 
syna) facit ex intentione non serviendi Deo, sed ob gloriam humanam, bypocrisis pec- 
cutum incurrit formaliter, implicite tamen. — Cajetan, ibid, p* 841. 

Nonnunquam etiam fratres suos admonui&se, ut aliquam ostenderent virtutis appar- 
entiam in abstinentiis, vigiliis, verborum ac gestorum disciplina, quum apod saeculares 
essent ; et sic eos sancta quadam bypocrisi, ad fidei reverentiam, et virtutis amorem 
propensity invitarent.— Specul. histor. 1. xix. c. cv. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. Ylil.] in the roman chubch. 177 

intention. 1 It is this that gives this sin, and others besides, their formality 
(which Cajetan often inculcates) ; and without that they are no sins, or bnt 
venial. Hence he tells us that the contempt of our neighbour is a mortal 
sin, speaking formally, that is„ with an intention of contemning him ; for no 
man formally contemns another, bat he that despises him, that he may 
despise him ; so no> man is a detractor formally, bnt he that backbites, that 
he may backbite ; and no man is formally contumelious bnt he that speaks 
reproachfully that he may reproach. 2 So that if he intend not thus to sin,, 
let him say what he will against his neighbour, he is not guilty of the sin 
formally and in deed. Accordingly he tells us that materially (i. e. without 
intention of dishonouring another) contumelious words may be spoken, either 
without any sin, or any but what is venial.* It is true, some of them say 
words may be a crime, if they grievously defame a person, though they be 
uttered without a design to do it; but then withal they allow of such 
reproaches as venial, which are of no better consequence, but tend to disgrace 
him effectually. To reproach him with natural defects of mind, or body, or 
birth, is regularly but venial. All agree in this, says Sairus : To charge him 
with ignorance, to say he has little wit and small judgment, to call him a 
fool, or an hermaphrodite, or a bastard, though the charge be false. To 
report one to be infected with the French disease is but venial, because that 
is no great disgrace. (Pet. Navar. Sairus, et alii commmniter in Bonacin. 
ibid. n. ix.) 4 Also to charge him falsely with any wickedness which they 
count venial.* Thus they may calumniate any man, and without crime 
charge him falsely as a blasphemer, a thief, a liar, a perjured person, a 
cheat, &c, since they count these in many degrees venial; and if they be 
consistent with the honour and reputation of Roman catholics, yet others, 
either Christian or heathen, will think their credit blasted with such imputa- 
tions. Likewise to revile one in such terms as may signify either great or 
lesser crimes, to accuse him as one greatly proud, covetous, wrathful, or 
anything whatsoever which may denote either the natural inclination and 
first motions or the outward acts, this is not mortal, because the hearers 
are to put the better construction on it.* And here is liberty enough to 
calumniate in such terms as may ruin any person's reputation, upon a pre- 
sumption that all who hear the slander will be always so wise and good as 
any rarely are. Or if a man be noted for wickedness already, you may 
charge him with crimes that are not known, and yet offend but venially, be- 

1 Aquinas, et Alexander Alensis, in Sylv. Sum. v. contumeL d. H. 

1 Hinc patet quod contemptus proximi est peccatum mortale formaliter loquendo, 
hoc est ex intentioue contemnendi. Nullus enim formaliter contemnit proximum, 
nisi qui spernit proximum ut spernat proximum : sicut nullus detrahit formaliter, 
nisi qui detrahit ut detrahat, &c. — Cajetan, Sum. v. contemptus, 

8 Materia liter (hoc est non ex intentioue dehonorandi) possunt verba contumeliosa 
etiam absque ullo peccato dici. — Ibid. v. contumelia, Soto de Just. 1. v. q. x. art. ii. 

4 Lib. xi. c. vi. n. iv. 

Detegere falso defectus naturales, puta quod est luscus, claudus, mancus, gibbosus, 
ignarus, et alia hujusmodi, quae non pertinent ad bonam famaro morum, non est suo 
genere, nee regulariter mortale. — Navar, cap. xviii. n. xxiii. Vid. Bonacin. de restit. 
disp. ii. q. iv. punct ii. 

• Imponere vel detegere veniale, non est de se mortale. — Idem, Navar % ibid. n. xxiv. 
Sylvest. Sum. v. detractio n. ii., non esse mortale in bis qua) sunt modicaB importantise, 
ut yenialia qua commnniter non infament secundum Antoninum, et Angelum, Sum. v. 
detract, n. ii. ; Pet. Navar, Arragon. in Bonacin. ibid. n. vi. et alii commnniter. 

6 Qui ex loquacitate profert ea, quae et pro mortali et pro veniali possunt accipi, ut 
dicendo talis est magnus, superbus, avarus, iracundns, vel hujusmodi, quae sumi possunt 
et pro naturali inclinatione et motu primo, non peccat mortaliter ; quia audientes debent 
in meliorem partem interpretari. — Sylvest secundum Antoninum, ibid.; Angelas, ibid. ; 
Graff. 1. ii- cap. exxxvii. n. xxvi ; Pet. Navar, Sairus, Arragon, et alii communiter in 
Bonacin. ibid. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



178 WHAT CRIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. YIIL 

cause yon cannot hurt his reputation, which is hurt already ; l as if, when a 
man has dangerously wounded himself, you might give him more wounds 
and despatch him, when life and fame are of like account ; or yon may 
charge those falsely for committiug a crime when they did it not, if it hath 
been their practice before ; 2 or you may charge them with any crimes that 
are secret, if they be less than those that are known ;* as if one had been 
guilty of murder, you may accuse him of theft, and if he hath stolen, yon 
may accuse him of fornication, and if he be a heretic you may charge him 
with anything, since with them nothiog is worse than what they count 
heresy. .Or you may accuse others of any wickedness, which such sort of 
persons seem to make nothing of, as some young men of fornication, and 
others of adulteries/ Further, any terms tending to defame others may be 
used in passion, such as hinders full deliberation, for these will excuse blas- 
phemy against God, much more the worst reproaches of men ; or yon may 
do it in jest, with moderate facetiousness, when the reproach is set off 
neatly ;* then it is a virtue with those who learn their divinity of Aristotle 
rather than the apostle, and think if a man hath wit he needs herein have 
no conscience. Or you may do it out of levity or pleasure in tattling, unless 
the words be so exasperating as to occasion some other deadly evil ; 6 or it 
may be done by way of recital, suggesting what tends to blast them as re- 
ported by others ; 7 or when the defamer is not believed, or gives no just 
cause of belief ; 8 or for correction, for they may defame others to amend 
them and reform them by making them worse than they are. 9 Or through 
some want of cautiousness, as amongst women and persons of inferior rank, 
who vent what reproachful language comes next, how injurious soever ; lQ or 
when their reputation does hurt, and may seduce others, to defame them is 
absolutely lawful, eos defamare esse licitum, absolute respondet Adrianm in 
Soto, ibid. q. x. art. ii. Or (to add no more) if one accuse others whom 
they think he ought not, though he impute nothing to them but what is 
true, they may charge him with false crimes ; this will be no worse than a 
venial fault (Bannes, xxii. q. lxx. art. ill. p. ii.) Thus, as in other cases, bo 

* Si ille cui dksit habebat earn pro scelerato : quia jam infamatus erat apod earn de 
alfis, et si non de istoy — Angelus, ibid. Idem est in mortalibus notoriis, secundum 
Archiepiscopum, quia non lseditur Cam a jam l«sa. — SylvesL ibid. 

* Mentitus est meretricem tali nocte admisisse lenonem, eo casu non rcstituere famam, 
non est peocatum mortale. — Graff, ibid. n. xxii. secundum Cajetanum. Excasatur a 
peccato mortali, qui aliquem infamavit cum secundum suam existimationem ilia non 
es6et infamia.— Ibid. 

8 Idem esset in criminibus mortalibus etiam occultis, si sunt minora notoriis, sicut 
non est infamia notorio homicide et furi, quod sit fomicatus — Sylveet. ibid. 

4 Si sunt personam quarum famam simplex fornicatio in nullo leedit, ut javenes sse- 
culares — quod simile est de adulterio apud multos. — Graff, ibid, (jnxta Cajetanum) 
n. xxviii. 

5 Respondetur quod convitiari, secundum Arist. iv. Ethic, c. viii., eatenus est 
virtntis Eutrapelis, quatenus intra li mites modcratas facetise continetur: qnando scil. 
urbanitatis vennstas in convitio adest. — Soto de Just. 1. v. q. ix. art. ii. p. 172. 

6 Si antem ex animi levitate loquendive libidine ore labatur in gumma, si propter 
aliquam causam non necessariam fiat : peccatum est plurimum veniale. — Idem, (bid. 
q. x. art. ii. ; Cajetan, Sum. v. contumcl. 

7 Idem esse (veniale) secundum Scotum, quum ex loquacitate dicuntur infamatoria 
recitative — Sylvest. ibid. Cajetan. in xxii. q. Ixxiii, art ii. 

8 Quoties non dedit justam causam credendi, vel non fuit ei adhibita fides. — Graff, 
ibid. n. xxiii. 

9 Ncc qui per fraternam correctionem aliquem infamavit, et ad majorem emendam, 
&c. — Idem, ibid. n. xxiv.; Soto, ibid. q. ix. art. ii. 

10 Ubi vero ronnullus est cautelse defectus, plurimum, consuevit esse veniale, ut swpe 
inter mulierctilas continpit, et homines infimae classis, qoi invicem se convitiis consper- 
gunt, ut iu buccam veniuut. —Soto, ibid. Graff, ibid. n. ix. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. VIII.] in the roman ohueoh. 179 

when anything is said or writ to the disparagement of their chnrch or them- 
selves, how justly and truly soever ; if they fix upon the authors the most 
odious imputations that can he invented (such as Bolsec and Cochleus would 
have fastened upon Luther and Calvin), and divulge them with a design to 
delude the world into a belief thereof r though their own consciences tell them 
there is not a syllable of truth therein, yet they incur no fault thereby that 
a good catholic need fear or make conscience- of. This is not only the opi- 
nion of the Jesuits r but the common doctrine of Aquinas his disciples, as 
Ledesma, a Dominican, assures us ; and so we may spare those more than 
twenty doctors, which, Caramuel says, assert it. Hereby they give warning 
to mankind, that they are no more to be trusted in their charges against 
their opposers r to vindicate the reputation of themselves or their church, 
than such persons will be trusted in a court which openly sentenced them to 
the pillory for false testimony ; yea, in this maxim they have as good as set 
themselves upon a pillory, and done that justice to the world as to fix this 
inscription upon their own foreheads, We are they who declare it no crime 
to calumniate most odiously and falsely whoever speak ill (how truly soever) 
of us and our church. These are some of their methods for destroying the 
honour and reputation, of others, without any fault which they regard ; they 
deliver them in great variety, 60 that every one so disposed may serve him- 
self of such as suit his humour. And as a man may defame others, so he 
may do the same good office for himself, 1 not only by blazoning his secret 
wickedness, but by charging himself falsely with crimes he never acted ; thus 
to impair or utterly ruin his own credit, is* but regularly a venial fault, ac- 
cording to Adrian and Sotus and others ; for prodigality is but a venial, and 
this is but to be prodigal of one's credit. 

Sect. 13. Flattery also (that falseness of every sort, even the vilest, may 
not miss of their favour and encouragement) is reconciled to common prac- 
tise under the notion of a venial. To praise one for the virtue which he 
has not, or the good that he does not, is little or no fault.? To extol the 
good he does above measure and desert, is as innocent ; yea r when a man is 
to be praised for a good work, though you know he will thereby be trans- 
ported with deadly pride, such as will destroy his soul,, yet you should not 
desist, but may and ought to lay aside the sense of his future ram, because 
(says Cardinal Cajetan) there are twelve hours in the day, and a man may 
in an instant be illuminated and changed by divine mercy. 3 To applaud 
one for his sins, if they be not mortal, is as harmless, when it is out of a 
design to please the sinner without ruining him, or to gain some advantage 
by such flattery ;* so that when it is both wicked and sordid at once, yet will 

1 Detegere propria peccata vera et secreta, et imponere sibi falsa,, sno genera et rc- 
gulariter non est nisi venial e ; quamvis per illud notabilicer fama todatur, ant omnino 
amittatur, ut M agister Sotus explicnit, et mulio ante Adrianns sensit. Navar. cap. xviii. 
n. xxvii. et xxiv. et xxviii. Prodigalitas regulariter non est peccatum mortale, ut S. 
Thorn, et detectio proprii peccati non est injustitia, sed prodigalitas fame. — Ibid. 

8 Est adnlatio prima, quando quis adulatur, vel attribuit alicui bonum virtutis, quod 
ille non habet. Secunda qnando niminm vel ultra debitnm extollit bonum, quod habet, 
et ntrumque istorum est veniale. — Qraff. decis. pars. ii. 1. iii. c iii. n. v. 

8 Qoum aliqnis debet ex officio aliquem de oono aliqno opere laodare, etiamsi si 
sciat laudatum in snperbiam mortalem se elaturum, non tenetur propterea desistere a 
debito officio : potest tamen et debet deponere hujusmodi scientiam de future rnina 
illius, quia daodecim hone sunt diei, et potest in instanti homo illuminari, et mutari a 
divina miserecordia — Cajet. Sum. v. adulatio. 

4 Est autem peccatum veniale qnando vel landatnr aliqnis de malis venialibns, vel 
de bonis, sola complacendi intentione absque ruina, vel etiam ob aliquam utilitatem 
consequendara, vel non impediendam, ut de se patet. — Cajetan, ibid. Qraff. p. 1,1. it. 
cap. cxxxviii. u. i., clxi.; Aquinas ii. 2, q. ex v. art. ii. ; Sylv. v. adalat. n. iv. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



180 WHAT CRIMES ABE VBNIAL [CEAP. VlJLL 

they scarce count it a fault. There is no more hurt in giving flatterers re- 
ward and encouragement. Sylvester inquires if this be a mortal sin ? l and 
in him Aquinas Answers No, unless a man affect, as Herod, to be extolled as 
a god, or design and desire to be magnified for mortal crimes. Bat it is a 
virtue to give consent to false flattery., as when a woman who is secretly an 
adulteress is praised lor faithfulness to her husband, that scandal may be 
avoided and others deluded, by a good opinion of her.* And so we may 
understand how the praises of the -church of Borne for her faithfulness to 
Christ come to be a virtue. Or if one be not in so -complacent a humour as 
to flatter others, he may curse them at as easy a rate, for it is but a 
venial fault to curse in words 8 (if not from the heart) any thing, any person, 
one's own father not excepted ; to imprecate any mischief or misery to 
them ; to wish God's curse on them, or an ill end might befal them, or the 
devil might have them. 4 And when he as at it he may curse the devil too. 
It is no sin at all if it be for his fault, and gives the devil but his due. 8 
Cursing may be one's usual practice as innocently. 16 It is scarce so bad as 
a venial, when •cursing is used for honest recreation/ And he may curse 
the irrational creatures or the elements, and if he do it with his mouth only, 
or with both mouth and heart, without respect either to God or man, in 
these cases it is only a venial fault. 4 

Sect. 14. I have been long in viewing their account of venial sins ; the 
pernicious use made of it to corrupt the whole body of practical Christianity, 
and to give liberty to the acting of all sorts of wickedness, with this modifi- 
cation, will excuse me. They venture hard to leave an a manner no mortal 
sin, and so none needful to be avoided. This will be further manifest by 
what they determine concerning those few sins which they style mortal or 
capital ; they are reduced, in their ordinary reckoning, to seven. Borne of 
these they conclude to be in their own nature, or regularly venial ; in others 
of them they state the mortalness so high, that those who will be satisfied 
with wickedness which is not rare and prodigious, may live in the sins, and 
not reach the mortalness, and so wickedness which is deadly," in their specu- 
lative account, may be practised without mortal danger. 

1 Utrura dare adulatoribus sit peccatnm mortale? etdicit S. Thorn, ii. 2, q. clxviii. 

2uod non : nisi nimius appctitus vanse glorias — sicut delectabatur Herodes, quum ei 
)ei et Don hominis laudes dabantur : vel nisi intendat quia et capiat laudationem 
de peccatis — Et hoc est quod dicit Alexand. de A lis, quod tale peccatnm est ista 
datio, quale adulatio propter quam dat, id est si venialis veniale, &c — Sum, t. 
adulatio. n. vi. 

2 Imo virtus est consentire landi, sive se false laudanti, de virtute tamen suo statui 
necessaria, exempluxu de uxore occulte adultera, quae de fidelitate laudator, non eo 
intuitu ut laudetur, sed ut per bonam opinionem, quam alii habent, 6candalum evitetur. 
— Qraff. 1. ii. cap. cxxxviii. n. ii. ; Navar. cap. xxiii. n. xiii. 

3 Ore tan turn maledicere non est mortale, nt communiter maledicnnt parentes fiHis, 
et coloni, et muliones bobus, et mulis. — Idem, ibid. n. cxvii. 

* Vid. Soto de Just. 1. v. v. q. xii. art. ii. ; Navar. ibid. 

5 Peccat qui maledicit diabolo ratione suae naturae, quia ilia bona est, et a Deo facta ; 
secus si ratione suae culpae, et tradit S. Thorn, modo nee plus nee aliter quam meretur. 
— Idem, ibid. Cajetan. sum. v. maledictio. 

6 Quum malo usu hujusmodi profert et est veniale peccatnm. — Cajetan. ibid. 

7 Contingit tamen inquit (S. Tho.) quod aliqnando sit veniale — vel propter affectum 
proferentis, dum ex levi motu vel ludo — talia verba profert, quia peccata verbornm ex 
affectu penaantur. — Sylvett. v. maledict. n. iii. Sit veniale— quod ex leyi motu sen 
lusu. — Soto, ibid. Aliqnando etiam culpa veniali carere possit, ut si fiat joco et ludo, 
vel causa recreationis honestsa, 

8 Si posnitens dieat se maledixisse creaturam irrationalem vel elementa, interrogare 
debet confesBarius maledixeritne ore tan turn, vel ore et animo, nulla ratione Dei vel 
proximi habita, quia in his caaibus est tantum veniale peocatum. — Qraff. 1. ii. c. lxxii. 
n. iii. ; Navar. ibid. n. cxvii. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. VIII.] in the boman church. 181 

Covetonsness is one of these capital crimes, which in general they heavily 
aggravate, and inveigh against, as most pernicious ; yet when they come to 
direct conscience, and give particular rales for practice, it is shrank into a 
harmless venial. Covetonsness, says Cajetan, simply and absolutely, is not 
a mortal sin in its own nature, because it is not against, but besides charity. 1 
To deliver themselves more distinctly, they consider this sin, either as it is 
opposed to liberality or to jastice ; as it is opposite to the former virtue, 
they generally determine it is but a venial fault ; so the same cardinal, As it 
is contrary to liberality, and signifies an inordinate desire of money, so 
commonly it is a venial sin. 8 Thus Navarre, 8 and Sotus, 4 and all after ' 
Aquinas. 5 So that by their doctrine, if a rich man should be so sordidly, 
so monstrously tenacious, as not to perform one act of liberality to himself 
or others, in all his life, yet would not this be a mortal sin, since the vice, 
which is opposite to all liberality, and wholly exclusive of it, is but a venial 
fault. Only when it is opposed to injustice, 6 it may be a mortal sin, that is, 
when a man gets riches by unjust practices and methods, or detains what 
he has unrighteously. Thus covetonsness, however it comes into the account 
of mortal sins, yet it will stand there as a cipher, and signify no such thing, 
unless injustice be added to it. Let a man have the most extravagant 
passion for riches, let him be as greedy as hell or the grave, and penurious 
as the worst of misers can be, yet if he be not withal a thief, or a cheat, and 
attempt not to get or keep an estate by fraud or violence, there is no guilt 
upon him that he need regard. In their sense only thieves and robbers, 
extortioners or cheats, are covetous, when covetonsness is a crime. 7 They 
speak of covetonsness as little worse than an indifferent thing. Injustice 
added to an act, otherwise lawful, will make it criminal, and this vice will 
be no crime upon easier terms. But is covetonsness a mortal sin, indeed, 
with them, when it is accompanied with injustice ? They would seem to 
say so sometimes, but then they unsay it again in their other decisions. They 
allow men to gain unrighteously, and to keep what they have so gained. 
They declare them not obliged to restitution of what they have got by sinful 
practices, yea, and such as are most abominable. I have shewed before 
what unjust and fraudulent methods of gaming 8 they encourage under the 
favour of venial faults ; let me here instance in gaming only. This with them 
is venial, 9 though it be not only of an ordinate, but of an excessive desire of 
gaining, if there be no other mortal ingredient ; yea, though not only the 
subservient, but the principal end be lucre, and so that which is only for 
recreation be turned into a trade. And this is not only the opinion of some 
particular doctors, but seems to be the persuasion of them all ; for, says 
Navarre, we see in all parts of the world, all sorts of people play for great sums 
of money, and the greatest part of them principally for gain ; and yet the con- 

1 Simpliciter et absolute non est peccatum mortals ex suo genere, quia non est con- 
tra, sed prater charitatem. — Sum v. Avaritia. 

9 Ut contrariatur liberalitati, et sio significat inordinatum appetirum pecuniae : et 
sic commqniter est peccatum veniale. — Ibid. 

9 Cap. xxiii. n. lxx. 4 De Just. 1. iv. q. v. art. ii. p. 112. 

5 22 q. cxviii. art. iv. 8 Qu. 'justice'?— Ed. 

7 Ut opponitur justiti®, et sic significat in justam voluntatem accipiendi seu retin- 
endi alienum, et est manifesto mortale peccatum, et juxta hunc sensum, usurarios, 
fures, latrones, negotiators fraudulentos, &c, avaros dicimus. — Oajttan. ibid, 

8 Qu. • gaining ?'— En. 

9 Multi ludo, qui recreationis causa licitus et sanctus est, abutuntur, ut negotiatione 
ad lucrum — ludunt principaliter propter lucrum. Et hoc semper est peccatum : quo- 
niam est dare operam turpi lucro, si tamen nulla alia deformitas immisceatur, non est 
peccatum mortale. — Ccy'ekm, sum. v. ; Ludere. p. 410 ; Ncwxr* cap. xx. n. iii. ; Lopez. 
pars. ii. c xxxi. p. 183* 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



182 WHAT CHIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. Vlll. 

feasors absolve them, though they signify no intention to give over the 
practice, which they could not do, if there were any mortal sin in it. 1 And 
such gaming is allowed, even that which they call diabolical, 3 in any place, 
though in their account sacred; 8 at any time, for whole days, even the 
holiest, that little time excepted which will suffice the people to hear the 
chief parts of the mass ; or in any person, even their cloistered pretenders to 
perfection, so they omit not divine service. Their mode of devotion needs 
be no hindrance, for with them it is lawful to make a game of their prayers. 
Lopez inquires (an licitum sit ludere preces sacras) if it be lawful to play at 
prayers. He says it is the practice of devout persons, and that Navarre 
seems to approve it, part ii. c. xxxii. ; so does Bonacina after Navarre, 
Rebellus, and others, De restit. disp. ii. q. iii., punct. i. n. viii., and not 
only at Ave Marys, but other prayers also, and that it will be no irreverence 
against God to play with their prayers, if they do it reverently, Ibid. To 
say nothing that their clergy and monks may be spectators of games, and 
shows that are mortally wicked, if they continue not a long time at it, and 
yet offend but venially .* They teach further, that it is not needful to restore 
what is wickedly gained. 6 Sylvester, after others, says, that filthy lucre 
(that is, dishonest or shameful gain) is not necessarily to be restored, it is 
but matter of counsel. 8 But he that hath lost much at unlawful games may 
take another course for his satisfaction ; for pope Adrian and others allow 
him to steal it from him that has won it, Vid. Lopez, ibid. Or to save him- 
self the trouble of stealing, he may refuse to pay what he loses ; or if he 
have bound himself by oath to pay it, not only the pope, but any bishop 
may release him from the obligation of his oath, and that without the cita- 
tion of the party. So Navarre, Corduba, Sotus, Penna., et alii in Bonacina, 
ibid, punct. iii. n. ii. Yea, they will not have those obliged to make resti- 
tution who have received anything for acting enormous wickedness, for 
example, a judge for passing an unjust sentence, or a witness for false testi- 
mony and perjury, or a man for satisfying the lust of a lewd woman, or any 
sort of woman for prostituting themselves, or an assassin for murdering, 
or a rogue for firing houses or towns, all are comprised in this conclusion, 
that which is unjustly received, freely of the giver, where there is wicked- 
ness on both parts (as in giving, so in receiving), is not, by virtue of any 
command, to be restored to any. 7 Only (for the encouragement of covetous- 

1 In omnibus mundi partibus cujusque ordinis laicos vid emu 8 magnani pecunia- 
rum summam, et maxiroam eonim partem principaliter propter lucrum ludere, et a 
confessariis, sine proposito nunquam ita ludendi, absolvi ; quod facere nequirent, si in 
eo mortaliter peccarent. — Navar. ibid. n. xi. 

8 Quanta utrum et quomodo ludus diabolicus alearis sit peccatum ? et dico quod 
hie ludus non est peccatum, vel est veniale quum luditur aliquid modicum, &c. — SylvetL 
sum. y. ludus. n. iv. 

8 Navar. ibid. n. iii. 

* Peccat clericus vel monachus qui ludum mortaliter malam spectat, si multo tem- 
pore spectat, secus si parvo. — Navar. ibid. n. xiv. 

5 Nullus tenetur cum fam® periculo r«m alterius restituere. Est communis sen- 
tentia. — Cajdan. v. rettit. Navar. c xix. n. xc. (Tol. 1. v. c. xxvii.). This will go near 
to excuse most, if not all : dicitur non posse— qui commode non potest. — Cap. xvii. 
n. lvi. 

6 Non tamen necessario tale turpe lucrum est restituendum ; secundum Rodofred, 
sed de consilio solum.— Sum v. Emptio, n. x. ; Vid. Lopez, ibid. 

7 Acceptum voluntarie ab alio, ita ut ab utraque parte admittittur turpitudo, nulli 
est de precepto restituendum, S. Antoninus Monaldus, Angelus, Sylvester, (in) Navar, 
c. xvii. n. xxx vi. et n. xxx. Sensit Thorn, et Cajetan, quod quicquid turpi ter accipit 
contra legis prohibitionem — ut in Simonia — lucro meretricis (et idem diceret de datis 
et acceptia ob alia quecunque crimina), quod non sit restituendum, nee pauperibua 
Vid. Vatq. opu*c. moral, p. 134, dub. ix. n, lxxxiv. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. YIII.J in the Roman church. 188 

sess, and injustice together) where money is given for the perpetrating of 
such crimes, if they be not acted, it is to be restored ; but if the wickedness 
be done, the villanous actor may conscientiously detain it. As the judge 
that receives a bribe for a false sentence, if he pass a just one, he is obliged 
to restore, but not if he make an unjust award. 1 And a witness, if he 
receive money for a true testimony, is bound to restore it, but not for a false 
deposition. 2 He that is promised a reward for murdering a man, may not 
receive or keep it before he kill him, but after the murder is done, he may 
take it (and need not restore it) upon the account of his labour and hazard 
in killing him, and because therein he has done a fact profitable and delight- 
ful to him that hired him, Idem ibid. n. v. ; Pet. Navar. et alii. So an 
astrologer, who takes money for telling things which he cannot know but by 
the help of the devil, is not bound to restore it, after diligence and pains to 
get the devil's assistance therein, because that diligence and pains (with the 
devil) is valuable, though it prove ineffectual. But he that pretends but to 
this skill, and makes no use of the devil, is bound to restore, Pet. Navar. et 
alii cum Bonacin. ibid. n. x. And that the poor may be cut off every way by 
covetousness, whether it be with injustice or without it, though they say 
what is received for the perpetrating of wicked acts, may be restored to the 
poor ; yet it is a rule with them that restitution to the poor, in this, and 
other cases, is only a counsel, not a command, 3 so that he who is hired to 
do villany may restore what he received to the poor, if he will, but if he will 
not, he needs not ; be may conscientiously enjoy the fruits of his villany, 
and the poor have nothing. In short, not only disquietment of mind through 
the tumult of worldly distracting cares, and the restless agitation of a 
covetous humour, 4 but also hardness of heart against the poor, and unmerci- 
fulness to them in their distress (the natural effect of extreme covetousness) 
is as innocent as its cause, no worse than venial, unless when one is obliged 
under pain of mortal guilt to afford relief. 5 And when is that ? Only in 
extreme necessity, 8 when the starving man may sell his own child to get 
bread ; 7 or when it will be lawful to steal from him who would otherwise 
part with nothing; 8 or when he may be compelled by law to part with some- 
thing ; 9 then his heart must relent so far as to let go what he cannot keep ; 
but it is like he may never meet with such a case while he lives, and then 
the miser is excused ; no moment of his life need be embittered with one 
act of charity ; he may enjoy the felicity of a petrified heart all his days, 
and not suffer by one dint in it. Or if he should unhappily meet with one 
in such extremity, yet may he escape without giving a farthing ; it will be 
enough to exchange or to lend ; yea, he may be excused from either giving 
or lending, 10 if it be but likely that any other may do it. 11 In fine, this 

1 Quando malum ob quod datum fait, non consequitur, ut si datum est judici quo 
inique judicaret, et recte judicavit, &c, datori, et non paupnribus restituendum est ; ut 
doctisaimus Medina, efficaciter probat. — Navar. ibid. n. xxx. p. 295, et c. xxv. n. xlv. 

* Peocat qui mercedem accipit, ut verum testetur, cum obligatione restituendi ei 
qui dedit ; et qui accipit, ut falaum testetur, sine tamen necessitate restituendi. Vid. 
Bonacin. de rettit. disp. i. q. iii. punct. ii. n. vi. et punct. iii. n. viii. 

8 Est regula Vervecelli, recepta a 8. Antonino, Angel. SyWest. et ab aliis compluri- 
rais, quod restitutio, quae non est facienda alicui certae persons, sed pauperibus, non 
debetur ex procepto, sed solum ex consilio. — Navar. ibid. c. xvii. n. xxx. 

* Cajetan. sum. v. inquietudo. 

5 Per duritiam cordis, et inquietudinem mentis peccant qui non subveniunt pauperi, 
quoties tenentur de precepto obligante ad mortale— alias enim haec venialia tan turn 
sunt. — Navar. c. xxiii. n. lxxvi. 

6 Idem. cap. xxiv. n. v. 7 Idem. c. xxiii. n. xcv. 

* Vid. supra. 9 Glossa communiter recepta. — Ibid. n. lxxiy. 
10 Idem ibid. n. xcv. u Idem. c. xxiv. n. v. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



184 WHAT CBIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. Vlli- 

unmercifulness, which admits no compassion for the distress of others, is 
scarce ever mortal, unless it become so (accidentally) by some other mortal 
acts, and so there is no need to confess it as a sin. 1 How well does this 
indulgence to such monstrous coTetousness as quite swallows up at once 
Christian charity, mercy, and liberality, become those who cry up themselves 
as the Bole assertors of the necessity of good works ? 

But that they may not be partial, they shew themselves as favourable to 
the crime in the other extreme : pure prodigality is no mortal sin, because 
it is a less fault than covetousness, contrary to liberality, which iff manifestly 
of itself no mortal sin ; and the reason of both is, neither of them is against 
charity to God or others, but only besides it ; so Oajetan and others. 3 So 
Navarre : prodigality (including both that of a man's credit and his estate) is 
regularly no mortal sin ; 3 and this after Aquinas. 4 

Sect. 15. Pride is another capital crime ; they style it the queen of mortal 
sins ;* but then they will have it advanced so high before it be mortal, that 
the proudest person amongst Christians can seldom reach it. And so all 
pride which is not of an extraordinary size, and such as is rarely found, 
must pass for venial. In Aquinas it is an aversion to God, in that he will 
not be subject to him and his will ; not upon other accounts (to wit, desire 
of pleasure or profit, Ac.), but out of contempt ;• so Cajetan also, and others 
after him. 7 Navarre says they make it an actual contempt of being subject 
to God ; and adds, thanks be to God, this is but found in few Christians, 
though all are truly proud. 8 So that mortal pride, by that account which 
the oracle of their school and his followers give of it, is rarely to be found 
in the Christian world. It is questionable whether Scotus did count that 
pride mortal which Aquinas judged to be so ; he says, few learned men know 
in what degree it is deadly, and others are not bound to know it. 9 However, 
Cajetan ventures to tell us what pride is venial, and his account is worth our 
view. It is thus at large : He that shews himself so irreligious and ungrate- 
ful, as if he had not received all from God, is proud (says he) in the first 
kind ; for of a like effect the apostle says, What hast thou which thou hast 
not received ? why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received ? whereby 
glorying, as the effect, the inward pride is manifested, as though he had not 
received it. Likewise when one is so affected as to be secure concerning the 
good he hath, or querulous for the good which is lost, or wonders that he is 

1 Quia brae fere nunquam sunt mortalia nisi conjungantur aliis actibos mortalihus, 
non sunt neceasario confi tenda, quia satis est confiteri ilia mortalia, quae per predictam 
duritiam et inquietudinem admittuntur. — Idem, c. xxiii. n. lxxvi. 

8 Prodigalitas non est mortale peccatum si pura est : quia minus peccat-um est, qaam 
avaritia liberalitati contraria ; quum si pura est, constat non esse mortalem. Et 
utri usque ratio est quia neutra, agit contra charitatem Dei ant proximi, sed prater 
illam. — Cajetan. Sum. v. Prodigal. 

8 Cap. xviii. n. xxriii. * xxii. q. cxx. art. ti. et iii. 

5 Ipsa vitiorum regina, superbia. — Qregor. moral, xxxi.; Aquinas, ii. 2, q. clxii. 
art. viii. 

6 Ex parte aversionia superbia habet maximam gravitatem, quia in aliis peccatis 
homo a Deo avertitur vel propter ignorantiam vol propter infirmitatem, sive propter 
desiderium cujuscunque alterius boni. Sed superbia habet aversionem a Deo ex hoc 
ipso quod non vnlt Deo et ejus regulae subjici — cujus natus est Dei contemptus. — 
Aquin. xxii. q. cxlii. n. vi. 

' Sum. v. superbia, vid. Sylvest. v. superbia. 

8 Requirunt uterque Thomas communiter recepti ad ejus essentiam actualem con- 
temptum subjiciendi se Deo et legi ejus— cum id (Gratia Deo) pauci Christiani faciant et 
vere omnes aliquo modo superbiamua, c. xxiii n. v. certe paucissimi Christiani, &c. n. vi. 

9 Quilibet tenetur vitare omne peccatum mortale, tamen non tenetur scire in quo 
gradu superbia est peccatum mortale, quia nee multi experti sciunt. — Scotus, in bt. 
Ular. Probl. xv. p. xciv. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VIIL] in the bomah chuboh. 185 

not beard of God, this is the second kind of pride, because such a one makes 
account that such things are due to him. But he that prefers himself before 
others, and is prone to spy in his mind or fancy the defects of others, or to 
excuse bis own naughtiness and to aggravate that of others, has a third sort 
of pride, when he will have himself to be great as if he alone were great. 
Further, be who caring little for the heavenly country, for the members of 
Christ, for the expiation of bis sins, passing his days as one dreaming or 
scarce awake, has a fourth kind of pride ; for he presumes he is a heavenly 
citizen, a friend of God, a son, a member, when such negligence and care- 
lessness are no evidence of his favours, the love of God, where it is, producing 
(those) great things. And likewise in reference to his neighbour's crudeness 
of mind, and incompassionateness to others, counting injuries intolerable, 
impatience, not enduring to be slighted, indignation, and the like, do shew 
that the man thinks better of himself than he is, &c l So great a litter of 
this monster he exposes to our view, telling us its issue is much more 
numerous ; and then strokes all gently over, calling them venials. These, 
says he, and many others, are a sort of imperfect pride, and are com- 
monly venial sins for the imperfectness of them, since they occur in the 
manner of passions, without injury to God or others.* Tet (that we may be 
the more amazed to see all this pass for a little fault) such sins, he adds, 
binder spiritual life exceedingly, being of the stock of pride, when it is 
written that God resists the proud. As for that pride which they count 
mortal, and grown to its full height, Aquinas out of Gregory, 8 and others 
after both, 4 give an account of it in some particulars. The prime are these : 
When one thinks that good he has is from himself; when he thinks that 
what he has from God is for his merits ; and when he boasts that he hath 
what he has not.* If their great Azpilcueta could see none of this most 
deadly crime amongst Christians, having the merit of congruity and con- 
dignity before him, either his sight failed him, or his church was not visible. 
Others, with his eyes, can see not only mortal pride, but (as deadly a sin) 
infidelity, where this is part of a creed. 4 To make up one article of two deadly 
sins, must be a sure mark of the only church. Seriously, finding so many 
of their authors on this head, charging the opinion of merit, with mortal 
pride ; and therein following not only the greatest of their doctors, but the 
most infallible of their bishops, I have wondered why they did not either 
make that none of their faith or this no such sin. What salvo they will find 
against deadly sin, when it is in their faith, I know not ; but if part of their 
belief had proved arrogance (though that sounds like the worst of pride), 
they might have come off well enough, for arrogance is a venial sin, except 
in some rare cases. It is, says Cajetan, 7 frequently venial, when without 

1 Sum. v. superbi*. 

2 Sunt autem h»c et multa alia, qu® imperfecta sunt snperbi®, communiter veni- 
alia peccata propter imperfectionem actus, dam per modum passionum occurrunt 
absque injuria Dei et proximorum. Impediunt autem hujusmodi peccata valde vitam 
spiritualem : utpote ex genere superbiie existentia : quum scriptum sit, Superbis Deus 
resistit. — Ibid. p. 648. 

* xxiL q. cxlii. art. iv. 

4 Angelus, v. superb. : Sylvest. v. superb. ; Navar. c. xxiii. n. vii. alii communiter. 

• Secundum hoc sumuntur du® primes superbi® species, scilicet cum quia a seme- 
tipso habere fflstimat quod a Deo habet, vel cum propriis meritis sibi datum desuper 
credit. — Sic est tertia species superbin, cum scilicet ahqais jactat se habere quod non 
habet. — Aquinas, ibid. 

6 Credere id (viz. predfcta) in genere est actus— infidelitatis. — Navar. ibid. n. viii. 
In universali dicere — bonum aliquod habere a se et non a Deo, vel suis meritis, hoc 
pertinet ad infldelitatem, et est mortale peccatum infidelitatis. — Angel. Sam v. superbia. 

7 Est autem frequenter venialis arrogantia dum absque prejudicio proximi astimat 

Digitized by LjOOQlC 



186 WHAT CRIMES ABB VENIAL [CHAP. Ylll. 

prejudice of others a man values himself as having more knowlege, or good- 
ness, or authority than he hath ; and again, It is a sin, but it is not mortal, 
unless when it usurps against God ; as the king of Tyre, when he said, I am 
God (now none are observed to do this except the pope, who has the law in 
his own hand), or against others by tyranny (which is so odious as all dis- 
claim it; and affecting it is no worse than affecting to kill men without con- 
sent, which with him is not deadly 1 ), or unless it be made one's ultimate 
end (which none will own). Accordingly, Angelas determines that arrogancy 
is commonly a venial fault, unless upon the account of something else that 
is mortal, as when it arises from mortal pride ; but that (as he and others 
define it we heard before) is scarce to be found amongst Christians. 2 

Sect. 16. Ambition was wont to be counted a deadly crime ; the world 
and the church too has reason to judge it so, since the most of their 
miseries and ruins may be imputed to it ; but the church of Borne and her 
champions are concerned not to think so ill of it, stUo curia, in the sense of 
the court it may pass for venial. Angelus inquires whether ambition be a 
mortal sin ?' He answers negatively, it is not so simply, but may be so in 
respect of its end, and so may anything in itself lawful be, if its end be 
criminal ; or it may be so, if the thing affected be a crime, but that is acci- 
dental, and still ambitiousness, the inordinacy of the affection is excused, 
and may transgress all bounds if the honour and power affected be lawful. 
Thus Cajetan, he will yield it more than venial, 4 when one will be honoured 
for a crime, or would be counted a god; accordingly, it is resolved by Syl- 
vester, 6 with Navarre, regularly an inordinate appetite or greediness of honour 
exceeds not the bounds of a venial fault.* Indeed, if pride and ambition had 
been branded as damnable, two cardinal virtues had been concerned, and, 
which is more, the Vatican throne, both in its foundation and supports. 

Sect. 17. Vain glory is another capital crime in their account, and preg- 
nant with many others. They define it to be an inordinate affecting of human 
glory, and yet determine, that an inordinate affecting of praise, or favour, or 
honour, or reverence, or glory, is but regularly a venial sin ; 7 only it may 
happen to be mortal in some case, as when one would inordinately have 
glory from others for a deadly end, or for a mortal sin, or that which he makes 
his last end ; in all other cases this capital evil is but a slight fault. Ac- 
cording to their common doctrine, Cajetan will have it to be mortal then 
only when one glories in mortal sin 8 (but to glory in venials they count it a 
small fault), or sets his ultimate end in vain glory. Angelus 9 collects out of 

quis 86 plus sciential, ant bonitatis ant anthoritatis habere, qnam habet. Snm. v. arro- 
gantia. Peccatum est qnia contra rectam rationem est Sed mortal e non est nisi vel id 
quod sibi usurpat, sit contra divinam reverentiam : nt Rex Tyri, Ego Dens Snm. aut 
contra proximum : nt tyrannis, vel finis ultimus in hujusmodi elatione ponatnr. — Ibid. 

1 Ibid. v. vovendi condit. 

8 Utrum sit mortale peccatum ? Resp. quod sio, quum ex tali saperbia vel conton- 
tiono fit qua) sit mortalis— alias communiter peccatum veniale erit. — Sum. v. arro- 
gantia. 

8 Utrum ambitio sit peccatum mortale? Resp. quod non simpliciter sed pro 
ration e finis — vel secundo rati one rei qua* appetitur. — Sum. v. ambitio. 

* Non est autem mortale peccatum, nisi vel ex parte rei in qua appetitur honor: 
puta, si quis vult honorari ob crimen aliquod; vel ex parte finis— quia vult haberi ut 
Deus. — Cajetan. v. ambit. 

6 Sum. v. Superbia. n. vii. 

6 Quamvis regulariter, appetites inordinatus honoris, non excedat metas culpa 
venialis, cap. xxiii. n. xv. 

7 Appetitus eorum etiam inordinatus regulariter est venialis, Ac. — Idem ibicLn. ix. 

8 Solum peccat mortaliter, qui gloriatur de aliquo quod est peccatum mortale: 
secundo qui ponit suum flnem ultimum in gloria humana. — Sum. v. glor. van. 

Colligo ex Alex, in ii. 2, et Thorn, ii. 2, q. cxxxii. et Henr. de Gandavo in qnod 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. VIIL] in the boman chubch. 187 y 

Alexander and Aquinas, that vain glory of itself imports not anything con- 
trary to the love of God or man. Aquinas himself says, that if love of 
human glory, though vain, he not perfectly repugnant to charity, it is not 
mortal. 1 And Sylvester delivers this as the sense of their oracle, that the 
desire of vain glory in its own nature is not mortal. 2 Angelus concludes, 
that this may be a man's end in all things but the Scripture and the sacra- 
ments ; s but this limitation is too strict in the judgment of their doctors 
which are of greatest repute : for they determine, that he who does those 
things which are principally instituted for the honour and worship of God, 
and the salvation of souls, for vain glory as his chief end ; as for example, he 
that in preaching, or praying, or celebrating, makes vain glory his principal 
end, and aims at nothing higher, sins but venially. 4 Angelus had made it 
worse, but others had confuted him effectually, and Navarre after them. 
Aquinas, the angel of their schools, was, it seems, of this persuasion, that 
vain glory may be actually our principal end in worshipping God, without 
any mortal sin : for Sylvester tells us, that Angelus did contradict, not only 
the truth, but St Thomas, in saying it is a mortal evil, wheD> those things 
which were ordained for the glory of God, are done principally for a man's 
own glory, as the sacraments and the Scripture. 5 And they are highly con- 
cerned to maintain this, for, says he, if this were a mortal sin, the whole 
clergy in a manner were in an ill condition ; 6 he means they were in a state 
of damnation : so that it was high time for the Boman doctors to form a 
divinity of new maxims, since those of Scripture and antiquity left them in 
a damnable condition. One would think, that to count it but a peccadillo, 
to make vain glory the cause or motive without which a man would not 
preach, or pray, or perform any worship, should be a prodigious thing for 
any that calls himself a Christian ; but he that will allow it, under no greater 
censure than that of a 'petty fault, to be the principal end of worship, and 
the great concern of salvation, advances it higher. 7 He that takes a church 
living or spiritual benefice, principally for honour or temporal profit, offends 
but venially, unless he be unworthy because of his ignorance or other defect. 8 
So that in their church, for any or all of them, from the pope to the meanest 
officer, to make honour and profit their chief end in taking the charge of souls, 

I. i. q. xxi v. Quod vana gloria de se non dicit aliquid quod sit contra charitatem Dei 
ant proximi. — Sum. v. van. glor. n. i. 

1 Inanis gloria non est mortale peccatum, nisi charitati perfects adversatur.— 
Aquinas, ii. 2, q. cxxxii. art. iii. 

* Intendit ergo S. Tho. quod appetitus vana gloria ex suo genere non sit mortale. 
— Sum. v. van. gl. n. ii. 

8 Si aliquid aliud quod non pertinet ad divinam Bcripturaxn vel sacramenta propter 
gloriam faceret, peccaret venialiter. — Sum. ibid. 

4 Navar. cap. xxiii. n. xiii, supra. Quamvis eximius vir ille Angelus teneat, con- 
cionari, missam celebrare et alia principaliter divino cultui dedfcata facere propter 
honorem aut inanem gloriam, esse mortale, contrarium tamen tenendum est, ut 
latiBsime deraonstravimus. Idem c. xxi. n. xL vide Soto, in Suarez. supra. 

5 Contra S. Tho. et veritatem dicit quod est mortale quandb ea qua ordinata sunt 
ad gloriam Dei quis principaliter facit ad gloriam suam, ut sacramenta et Scripture 
sacra.— Sum. u. van. glor. n. iv. 

6 Alias si is qui gloriatur de sacris vestibus, aut cantu divinorum, vel conditione 
theologica, actualiter nullum alium finem intendens, peccaret mortaliter, totus pane 
clerus esset in malo statu. 

7 Vid, Navar. c. xx. n. xi. et c. xxi. n. xl. et c. xxxiii. n. ci. 

8 Peccat qui accipit beneficium ecclesiasticum spirituale principaliter propter 
honorem aut utilitatem temporariam ; secundum S. Antonin. Quod limito procedere 
in eo qui est eo indignus ob ignorantiam, vel alium defectum. Nam supra diximus, 
quod falsum est esse mortale facere ordinata ad cultum divinum principaliter ob bona 
temporalis— Idem, c. xxiii. n. xv. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



188 WHAT CBIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. Till. 

or other place or employment, which concern the worship of God, or the 
the salvation of the people, is so slight a thing as needs never trouble them ; 
ten thousand faults of this nature, ten thousand times over, wonld never 
hazard their souls. These two last conclusions will help us to discern of 
what complexion popery is, upon what it is founded, for what ends they may 
think it safe to maintain it, and persist in it, without or against any conscien- 
tious or spiritual consideration : and why they may make religion all along 
serve a worldly interest and truckle under it. There is no danger in all this ; 
it is a harmless venial by their doctrine, to thrust the great God and his glory 
into an inferior place, below their honour and profit, even in those things 
which they say were principally instituted for his sovereign honour; this is 
a fault with them next to nothing. If they should, in the worship of God, 
aim at him in the first place, and at their own glory and profit in the next, 
there might be some danger lest they should too much oblige him : for thus 
to join God and their carnal interest together, as their end in any religious 
concern, is a meritorious act, according to Aquinas. 1 Further, 3 vainglorious 
boasting, though it be with irreverence to God, and injury and scandal to 
others, if that be not much, is only venial, according to Aquinas and Alensis. 
And a man may vaingloriously praise himself for something that is good, 
though it be fake, or something that is evil, if it be not deadly , s and yet 
offend but venially, when he does no great mischief to others. 

Sect. 18. Aversation to, or grief at, spiritual and divine things, is another 
capital crime in their reckoning, which is called acedia. The object is God, 
as to man's friendship and communion with him, and the spiritual acts and 
duties requisite thereto ; the act they express by sloth, and loathness to 
meddle with these things, coldness, tepidness about them, not caring for 
them, nauseating and accounting them a grievance. This some of them do 
not deny to be a mortal sin, but they will have it mortal only upon such 
strange terms, that any one may have a great aversation for God, and the 
things of God, without danger of deadly guilt ; for they define it by an 
aggrievedness at what is spiritual and divine, quatenus est divinum, as it is 
divine, and not otherwise ; 4 not because it is laborious or troublesome to 
the flesh, or any impediment to its pleasures, which are Aquinas's words ; 8 
but under that formality, in that it is divine, as his followers understand it. 6 
So that the greatest disaffection to spiritual things, if it be because they 
are unsuitable to corrupt nature, not agreeable to the flesh, its ease and 
pleasure (which is the common and ordinary cause of it), if it be not 
on an account that rarely falls out, as they acknowledge, and which a man 
can scarce ever deliberately be subject to ; 7 it brings him not under this 

1 Nullum autem peccatum, immo meritum est, facere illaprincipaliter propter Deum, 
vel quia honesta sunt et sancta, et secundario propter gloriam, vel laudem humanam 
in finem apttim relatum. — Idem. ibid, post Sanctum Thomam. 

8 Peccat qui per jactantiam se ant suoa laudat cum irreverentia notabili Dei, ant 
cum injuria vel acandalo proximi notabili : alias enim solum est veniale juxta S. Tho. 
receptum. Alexand. Alens. — Idem. ibid. n. xvi. 

8 Idem ibid. n. xiii. Cajetan. sum. v. jactantia, Angel, sum. v. van. glor. n. i. 

4 Definiri potest, esse vitium inolinans ad tristandum de bono spirituali divino, 
quatenus est divinum ; secundum mentem utriusque Thorn® ii. 2, q. xxxv. art. ii. 
Navar. cap. xxiii. n. cxxiv. Tristitia de bono spirituali in quantum est divinum. — 
Sylvest. sum. v. Acedia, n. i. 

* Non prout est laboriosum vel molestum oorpori aut delectationisejus impeditivum. 
xxii. q. xxxv. art. ii. 

6 Navar. ibid. 8ylvest. ibid. 

7 Feccatum est valde grave, genereque suo mortale, cum deliberato, et advertente 
animo adinittitur, quod raro videtur contingere. — Navar. ibid. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap, Vlll.] m the soman church. 189 

guilt. So Cajetan tells us, If a man, not as to his affection, bat in effect, 
be grieved at this, viz., that he is to be a citizen with the saints, and one 
of God's family, because he little cares for the happiness of this divine 
friendship, neglecting to attain it, because he gives up himself to other 
delights, he is not guilty of this sin. 1 Angelus, that he may discover when 
this disaffection to spiritual and divine 'things is mortal, and when venial, 
tells us, that when it consists in the omission of things not necessary to sal- 
vation, it is venial ; a that is, it is little or no fault, if all the duties of real 
worship, all the acts of grace and Christian virtues, are omitted ; for we can- 
not yet discern that they account any of these necessary to salvation, and 
by flie premises it appears they do not. It is venial, says Sylvester, when 
a man counts the doing of it grievous, but yet omits not what he is bound 
to. 3 Angelus expresseth it more significantly : By this it appears, says he, 
what is to be said of him who counts grievous, and abominates divine and 
spiritual things, since unless they be necessary to salvation, and he declines 
them, or is deliberately disposed to decline them, he sins not mortally. 4 
So that spiritual and divine tilings (all that they account not necessary ; that 
is, all in a manner which is requisite lor a Christian) may be abhorred, 
without any mortal guilt ; and herein the two sums agree well enough, though 
they seem to-be at some odds. It is false, says Sylvester (not limiting it to 
things necessary) that abominating of spiritual things is always a mortal 
sin. 6 Accordingly he determines, that rancour against those who would 
induce us to spiritual things (that is, would draw us to God, or the things 
of God), is a venial fault. 6 It is no mortal sin (say others) to conceive an 
indignation and loathing of those who persuade to what is spiritual (so as 
not to endure to hear or see them), whether preachers or others. We see 
by this (as by other instances) that sins so stated, as they are scarce ever 
practicable, they can be content to have them counted mortal ; but common 
provocations, and such of which there is most danger, must pass for venials ; 
yea, there are some amongst them who will have this capital crime, though 
it have such a deadly aspect, both in itself and in its effects, to be no mor- 
tal sin. — Laisius Turrian. ibid. sect. iii. n. ii. 

Sect. 19. Anger stands in their general account as another capital crime. 
I have touched it before ; but here let us see how criminal they make it, 
when in particulars they bring up their reckoning. It is considered in 
respect of the mode or degree, and the tendency or effects of it. As to the 
degree of it, how high soever it rise, to what excess soever it transport one, 

1 Si vero de boo (at sit civis sanctorum et domesticus Dei, &c.) non tristatnr 
secundum affectum, sed secundum effectum, quia parum de hujusmodi amicitiee bono 
curat ; negligens adipisci illam, quia vacat delectabilibus humanis, peccatum Acedia 
non incurrit.— Cajet. sum. v. Acedia. 

* Aut (consistit) in omissions eorum quae non sunt necessaria ; et sic est veniale 
peccatum. — Sum. v. Acedia, n. i 

Si omittit ea qua sunt de necessitate salutis, peccat mortaliter : si vero alias debita, 
peccat venialiter. — Cajetan. sum. v. Inconst. 

a Est autem veniale, quando homo quidem in operendo atiaxliatur, sed taxnen ea ad 
quae tenetur, non omittit. — Ibid. n. ii. 

4 Et ex hoc patet quid dicendum de eo qui attsdiatus abominatur divina et spiri- 
tualia : quia nisi sint necessaria ad salutem, et ea dimittat, vel deliberate disponat 
dimittere, non peccat mortaliter. — Sum. ibid. 

5 Falsum est, quod dicta abominatio (spiritualium) semper sit peccatum mortale.— 
Sum v. malitia. 

Rancor i.e. displicentia hominum inducentium ad spiritualia et est veniale. — v. 
Acedia, n. vr. 

Neque mortaliter peccat, qui fastidiam, indignationem, et quandam aversionem 
concipit in eos, qui spiritualia consulunt, ut in concionatores, aut alios. — Bonacin. i. 
prsecept. d. iii. q. iv. p. ult. sect. i. n. vi. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



190 WHAT CRIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. VIII. 

inwardly or outwardly, it is not in its own nature mortal, unless it be so ve- 
hement as to bear down both lovo to God and man, 1 and leave the passionate 
person neither, which yet it will not do, though it sally out furiously into 
curses or blasphemies against God or man, if this be but merely verbal, as 
we saw before. 2 The tendency of it, that which it leads to, is revenge ; and 
as to that, it will be venial if the revenge be but little, or it may be great 
when it can be taken legally ; or it may be great and illegal too, if the pas- 
sion be but quick and great enough. The more excessive it is, the more 
mischief it may do, and be innocent, if the passion prevent deliberation when 
it comes, and hinder it while it stays ; both it, and the effects of it, how 
horrid soever, will bo venial.* So that, if one be angry enough, he may 
blaspheme God, renounce Christ, perjure himself, kill or burn whom or 
what he will, with little or no fault. Thus, by their doctrine, this capital 
crime seems more like a virtue than a vice, since the greater is the better ; 
or at least the less it has to do with reason, the more excusable and venial. 
Other extravagant passions meet with as favourable measures. Indigna- 
tion, which makes a man disdain others, as unworthy of his conversation or 
affable treatment, it is commonly venial. 4 Audaciousness, in itself, is no 
worse ; nor excessive wrath and immoderate fear, because they are not con- 
trary to charity, but exorbitant from the right measures of reason. 5 So inti- 
midity or foolhardiness is venial, when it proceeds from tolerable foolish- 
ness ; but the folly may be so great, that the fault will be none. 6 Also 
incontinent desires, or lusts ; love likewise, whether of the flesh or the 
world. 7 Of the former, thus Angelus : Immoderate self-love, when one ex- 
cessively seeks the delight of the body and ease of the flesh, it proceeds from 
luxury, yet it is commonly venial, when it causes not other mortal acts or 
neglects. 8 As for love of the world, to love it for necessity, is no sin, and 
to love to stay a long time in the world, for the pleasures of it, is but a 
venial fault. 9 

Envy is another capital crime, and in general they inveigh against it, as 
a devilish wickedness ; 10 yet when they come to give particular rules for con- 

1 Attenditur ordo rationis in ira — ut scil. motus iraa non immoderate fervescat 
in ten us vel extcrius, qui ordo si pnctermittatur non erit sine peccato — Bed non erit 
mortale ex gen ore suo : sed possit esse mortale peccatum, puta si ex vehementia imp 
excidat a dilectione Dei vel proximi. Angel. Sum. v. ira. n. i. ; Sylveat ibid. n. iv. 
Cajetan. Sum. v. ira. 

* Navar. c. xxiii. n. cxvii. et alii supra. 

8 Passiones nisi ad deliberatum consensum vindictaa inducant, veniales sunt. — 
Cajetan. v. rixa. Possit esse venialo propter imperfectionem actus, quia prsevenit 
deliberation em. Sylv. v. ira, n. iv. Angelus, ibid. 

4 Indignatio (qua ex ira afficitur homo proximo tanquam indigno sua affabilitate, 
conversatione et hujusmodi), peccatum est propter inordinatam passionem ; et com* 
muniter veniale.— Cajetan. sum. v. Indignatio. ; Sylv. v. Indignatio. ; Angel, sum. v. 
diligere. n. ii. 

Audacia si pura est, communiter est peccatum veniale : sicut immodcrata iracun- 
dia, et immoderatus timor ; quia non contrariantur charitati, sed a recta exorbitant 
rationis regula. — Cajetan. v. audacia. 

6 Veniale autem peccatum hoc est, quande ex stultitia excusabili procedit — tantaque 
possit esse stoliditas, quod nullum esset peccatum. 

7 Idem, ibid. v. Incontinentia. 

8 Amor sui est, quum quis nimis diligit seipsnm, quserendo delectationes corporis 
nimis, et quietem carnis, et procedit ex luxuria, quod est peccatum mortale solum, si 

propter eum non implet prsecepta aut facit contra : aliter communiter est veniale 

Sum. v. Amor sui. 

9 Diligitur ad necessitatcm, et sic non est peccatum — est etiam diligere mnndutn, ue. 
longo tempore velle stare in mundo propter deh'cias, et 6ic est veniale peccatum. — 
Idem, ibid. v. diligere. n. iii. 

10 Soto de Just, et Jur. 1. iv. ar. p. 176. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VIII.] n* the boman chubch. 191 

science and practice, they leave room enough for the entertainment of it in 
the hearts and lives of their catholics. The general notion of it is an exces- 
sive grief at the good of others, bat all are acquitted from mortal quiet 1 who 
grieve at others' good, because it may be prejudicial to themselves, or be- 
cause they want it* So far a man may envy all in the world who have more 
worth, honour, or power, or prosperity than himself. This may be good or 
evil, but evil in no other degree, than the desire of temporals, 2 which, when 
it is excessive, is of itself, by their doctrine, but venial. Or they may grieve 
at others' good, because they think those who have it unworthy of it. 3 Grief 
or indignation at the outward happiness of others, upon this account solely, 
is of itself a venial fault with Aquinas and Cajetan. But why evil at all ? 
The reason is because, since that which is grieved at is neither an evil of sin 
or punishment, it seems in a manner to reprove God, and to grieve, as 
though there were injustice in the dispenser of these things. All the envy 
in the world may find shelter and security in these decisions, as a harmless 
venial. If this last-mentioned be not envy, what is ? why, a grief at the 
good of others, as it lessens and obscures our proper worth or excellency. 
But he that thinks others more unworthy, and himself far better, will think 
it a lessening and obscuring his own worth to have it so overlooked, and 
that which they distinguish and mince in speculation, will go down together 
in practice. However, two limitations they add, which will commonly ex- 
cuse envy : it must be betwixt equals, 4 and so grief at the prosperity of in- 
feriors, or superiors at least, will be acquitted ; also, if it be for little things, 5 
it is venial. Now all temporals are little things to him who has the eternal 
in his prospect ; so way is made to acquit all envy for outward prosperity, 
which yet they make the only object of envy. 6 And if envy, upon a small 
ground, may be excused as a little fault, envy upon a great occasion will be 
excusable, as less; except when they derive the sinfulness of an act from its 
exorbitancy as to reason ; that will be less sinful which is more unreasonable. 
They might as well have concluded directly, and without circumlocution, as 
Lorca the Dominican doth, that envy is no more a mortal sin than vain- 
glory or covetousness, which they count venial, unless heightened with some 
suoh circumstance as will make an act otherwise good to be a deadly evil. 7 

Sect. 20. Intemperance, which they call Quia, comprising both gluttony 
and drunkenness, may well pass for a cardinal crime, yet both together, by 
an after reckoning, make but a poor venial. 8 They define it an inordinate 
appetite of eating and drinking, viz., to excess, not for necessity, but for 
pleasure. This, when it is excessive every way, in the charge, the time, the 
quality, the pleasure, the quantity, is not in its own nature a mortal sin, 

1 Qu. "guilt?"— Ed. 

* Si vero sit circa temporalis, potest esse cum peccato vel sine, eo modo, quo et ap- 
petites temporalium.— Sylv. sum. y. Invidia. Ut si mediocris homo tristetur quia uon 
est rex, quia non est papa : et hoc veniale est ex se. — Vid. Cajetan. v. Invid. 

3 Idem, ibid. n. ii. Quia indiguus est tali bono, hujusmodi indignatio, ut dicit S. 
Thom. et Cajetan, mala est et ex se veniale; nam cum id, de quo dolet, nee sit ma- 
lum culp©, nee psenae, videtur quodammodo arguere Deum, et dolere, quasi injustitia 
sit ex parte datoris. In Tol. 1. viii. c. Ixy. 

4 Invidia qua homo tristatur de prosperitate alterius similis sen sequels.— Cajetan. 
sum. ▼. Invid. 

5 Nee etiam (est mortale) si bonum de quo dolet, sit quid minimum. — Sylv. ibid- n. 
ii. ; Cajetan, ibid. 

Fossunt magna videri non aspicientibus aterna. — Idem, ibid, 

6 Cajetan. ibid. 

7 Vid. Bonacin. i. prsecept. d. iii. q. iv. p. ult. sect. ii. n. iii. 

8 In general with them, all sins against temperance and modesty are regularly 
venial— Vid. Nav. 

VOL. III. C C 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



192 WHAT CRIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. VIII. 

according to the doctrine of Aquinas, though it be a capital vice, and the 
cause of many other. 1 But then it may be deadly by accident, if it be griev- 
ously hurtful to the body ; a so it becomes those to determine, who are more 
tender of the concerns of the body than of the soul. Yet that we may 
understand how the pleasure of sensuality may be preferred before either 
soul or body, they tell us, that if the damage done to the body by intem- 
perance be not grievous, or if it prove so great, yet if the glutton do not 
observe it, or if the great prejudice done to his health be not so frequent 
that he is bound to observe it, it will be venial still. 3 But Cajetan troubles 
us not with this respect to health, but concludes it may be venial (and of a 
large size sometimes), not only when it brings upon us other inconveniences, 
but other sins, and particularly when it is prejudicial to health. 4 He has 
but one case wherein it will be more than venial ; then only is it mortal, 
says he, when this pleasure in eating is a man's chief end, and his belly his 
god ; 5 that is, when for the pleasure of it, he not only transgresses all rules 
of temperance, but has no regard of any command of God, or the church, 
as if a man will steal to play the glutton, &c. It seems this sensual lust 
will never be criminal, unless one be bo much at its devotion, as to contemn 
God, 6 and make nothing of any other wickedness to gratify it. And though 
there be no danger here, but when one makes his belly his god, yet there is 
no great danger of that, since a man may be a perfect epicure, like the rich 
glutton in the Gospel, and yet escape. When one, says Angelus, for delight 
of his appetite, resolves to give up his whole life to such (gluttonous) plea- 
sures as Dives, &c., this is near to mortal sin. 7 It seems, then, it is not 
deadly, but only near it ; though it brought the epicure not only near hell, 
but into the torment of its flames. Yea, further, if intemperance proceed 
to beastliness, and pollute not only the soul but the body loathsomely, if 
the glutton load himself with more than he can bear, and so burden nature, 
that it is forced to ease itself in nasty ways, this will be no more a fault 
Intemperance, says Navarre, is regularly venial, though without any profit, 
and out of design, one stuff himself so full with meat and drink, even to 
vomiting. 8 If he eat so much till he vomit, on purpose that he may be at 
it again the sooner, and so may be still gormandising, it is no worse. Un- 
cleanness, says Angelus, which is the issue of intemperance, when one pro- 

1 Dico secundum S. Thorn. (2, ii. q. cxlviii. art. i.) et secundum mentem ejus in 
multis locis, quod (Gula) non est mortale ex suo genere, licet sit vitium capitale, id est, 
ex quo vitia multa nascuntur.— Sylv. v. Gula. n. ii. 

1 Quaudo quis scienter comedit vel bibit, in grave corporis nocumentum, secundum 
S. Thorn. Idem, ibid, 

3 Si hoc (grave nocumentum) fiat inadvertenter, non est mortale, nisi adco fre- 
quenter fiat, quod tenetur ad vert ere, sicut de ebrietate dictum est. Similiter nee si 
nocumentum sit modicum. — Idem. ibid. 

4 Frequenter autem est veniale, et quandoque valde grave, ut cum delectatio cibi 
allicit ad comedendum usque ad vomitum, aut alia inconvenientia, et similiter cum 
inducit ad alia peccata : puta ad nimium sumptum, vel ad nocendum propria? sanitati, 
et ad quaccunque alia peccata. — Cajetan. v. Gula. 

6 Tunc solum est mortale, quando delectationem cibi habet quis pro ultimo fine, 
juxta illud : Quorum Deus venter est : hoc autem cognoscitur ex hoc, quod homo ob 
delectationem in comedendo, non curat transgredi prseceptum Dei aut ecclesise ut si 
propter hoc furetur, &c — /ckm. ibid. vid. Sylv. ibid. Angelus. v. Gula. n. ii. Paratus 
facere quascunque ut earn consequatur. 

6 Sylvest. ibid. 

7 Quum propter talem delectationem appetitus, ducit totam vitam hujusmodi delee- 
tationibus deputare, sicut Dives, qui epulabatur quotidie. Et hoc est multum vicinum 
mortal i. — Sum. ibid. n. ii. 

8 Gula regulariter est venialis, ctiamsi absque utilitate usque ad vomitum, etioni 
intcntum sese quia cibo et potu ingurgitet, ut sentit Cajetan. cap. xxiii, n. cxix. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. VIII.] in the soman ohubch. 193 

vokes himself to vomit, that he may eat the oftener, or when he eats so 
much that he most of necessity vomit, is commonly a venial fault. 1 Cajetan 
more fully : Uncleanness is used for the sin of voiding excrements exces- 
sively, as of meat by vomiting, and the like, proceeding from intemperance ; 
it is frequently a venial sin, since it is neither against the love of God nor 
man ; yet it is filthy, since it brings with it even bodily nastiness. 2 So that 
intemperance, even when it bewrays itself, and vents its filth by all the pas- 
sages that oppressed nature can find in the glutton's body, is but a small 
fault. To be half drank is no mortal sin. So Lopez, 3 after Aquinas; 4 
herein they all agree, says a learned cardinal; 6 take their sense in the 
words of Cajetan.* Drunkenness not complete (when one by drinking wine 
is made too merry, or is disturbed in his fancy, so that the house seems to 
whirl round, or the like effect of intoxication befalls him, but he does not 
quite lose the use of reason), without doubt is a great sin (but not big enough 
to be feared), unless it be done for medicine ; because it is excessive drinking 
in quantity or quality, when fallen into it knowingly or negligently ; but it 
is worse when it is out of design (when one drinks too much, with an in- 
tention thus to disorder himself), because then it is almost mortal (there is 
no danger in all this, since he adds) but yet it is not mortal, since it reaches 
not the complete notion of drunkenness, and is without signal damage to 
reason. So that if a man be not dead drunk, and utterly deprived of the 
use of reason, he falls short of that perfection which is requisite to make 
this a deadly evil. In fine, however the Scripture, ancient Christians, and 
all that are sober, brand drunkenness as a most deadly vice, yet the Roman 
doctors have discovered two admirable virtues in it ; one is that the full dose 
(perfect drunkenness), will make the highest impieties, the greatest outrages 
and viHanies, to be no sins at all. So Angelus, 7 who proves it by the canon 
law. So likewise Bosella, after others. Those of their writers which seem 
most cautious, 8 except culpable drunkenness, as to this only, when such out- 

1 Immunditia est filia gulsB, quum quis provocat se ad vomitum, ut saspius comedere 
possit : vel tantum comedit quod necesse habet evomere, communiter est veniale 
peccatum. — Sum. v. Immunditia. 

* Usurpatur pro peccato inordinate emissionis superfluorum, nt cibi per vomitum, 
et similium ex gula procedentium, et sic ponitur filia gul» ; .frequenter est peccatum 
veniale, utpote nee contra Dei nee proximi dileetionom : turpe tamen, utpote etiam 
corporalem immunditiam inferens. — Sum. v. Immunditia 

8 Quando aliquis bene potatus, ita bene confortatus est capite quod rationis incom- 
poB non est factus, et tamen sibi videtur quod domus moveatur, hrec semiplena ebrietas, 
sicut non est mortalis, licet sit grave peccatum, quia secundum mentem. 

4 D. Tho. et. Cajet. ibid. Ratio non obumbratur, cap. ii. n. xi. xxii. q. cl. art. i. 
and ▼. 

* Quando ebrietas non est perfects, sed imperfecta, qu© turbat aliquo modo rationem, 
sed non omnino, tunc est grave veniale. In his omnes conveniunt. — Tol. Irutr. 
1. viii. c. lxi. 

6 Ebrietas non plena (quando aliquis potu vini redditur nimis lastus, aut turbatur 
in phantasia, dum videtur ei quod domus gyretur, aut hujusmodi aliquid incurrit : 
non tamen perdit usum rationis) peccatum proculdubio grave est, nisi causa medicine* 
fiat : quia immoderatus est potus secundum quantitatem vel qualitatem, et hoc si 
advertentar aut negligenter accidit. Pejus tamen, si ex intentione : est enim tunc 
prope mortale : non tamen est mortale, quia nee attingit ad completam ebrietatis 
rationem ; nee notabile damnum rationis eligitur. — Sum. v. Ebrietas. 

7 Quoad culpam excusat a toto quod fecit in ebrietate, ex quo est sine usu totali 
rationis. — Sum v. Ebrietas. n. iii. 

8 In Sylvest. v. Ebriat. n. v. Tol. 1. v. c. x. Bosella, v. Ebriat. n. ii. 

Actus vel omisBiones contra praecepta contingentes tempore Bomni, vel ebrietatis, 
etiamsi fuerint voluntarii in causa, non denominari tunc peccata, sed tantum effectus 
peccati pnecedentis ; ut late defendit Vasquez, referens pro ea senteutia, Paludan. 
Major, Gabriel, et Adrian. Sura, de Juram. 1. iii. e. vii. n. vii. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



194 WHAT CHIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. Ylli. 

rages are the usual effects of it. 1 So that unless both drunkenness, and the 
criminal issues of it, be customary, this will not be sin, or imputable to the 
drunkard. Hereby they furnish the Christian world with a new argument 
to prove Mahomet a false prophet, seeing he was so greatly mistaken in 
making his law so severe against wine, which, in its greatest abuse, is of 
such sovereign efficacy as to drown so much mortal sin, and to make all 
crimes whatever lose their deadly quality. But that impostor's head was 
not so intoxicated but he might discern that such who are guilty in the 
cause, are chargeable in the effects ; nor was he so much a prophet as to 
foresee, that in after times, anything under the disguise of divinity should 
stumble at this. The other virtue of this sin is, that the moiety of it (half 
drunkenness) will make any the most horrid crimes to be but small faults. 
Weakness of judgment, says one, such as they who are half asleep, or half 
drunk, though it be enough to make a sin venial, yet not mortal. 2 When 
those, says another, that are half asleep, or half drunk, perpetrate any wicked 
thing whatever, since they are plainly under weakness of judgment, they are 
quitted of mortal guilt. 3 So that if any one will but make himself half 
drunk every morning early (and it will be no worse than a venial to do it 
purposely), he may, whatever wickedness he acts, be free from mortal 
sin all his life ; and thus, he that lives all his days like a devil, may escape 
hell notwithstanding, and be saved by being daily half drunk. 

There are multitudes of particular sins which they comprise under these 
seven capitals, and call them their daughters, after Gregory and Aquinas ; 
but they need not be taken notice of as mortal by common confessors, much 
less by their confitents, for such confessors need not know whether they are 
mortal or no, 4 as Angolas tells us after Henricus ; and so must absolve 
sinners, though they never resolve, or think of leaving their sins. 

Sect. 21. By the premises we may see what, and how many, sins may 
pass for venial in the church of Rome, and they have presumed to make 
them so without evidence from Scripture, as even a Jesuit will acknow- 
ledge. 5 The maxims they proceed on therein (though eternal life or death 
depend on it) are purely their own conceits ; no wonder if they leave them 
at great uncertainty. Many sins are believed to be venials which are 
mortal, says Bonaventure, and it is most difficult to discern them. 8 So that 
they have no sufficient direction from any rule, no, not their own ; but they 
are encouraged to venture upon all this wickedness in the dark and blind- 
fold. The instances I have given may serve for a test ; there is a world 
more, nor have I picked out all the worst ; more time and diligence may 

1 An actus mali, quos ebrius facit in ebrietate existens, Bint peccata, si fornfcefar, 
si occidat, &c ad hoc respondent, S. Tho. ii. ii q. cl. art. iv. Cajetan. Sylveat. et re- 
sponsio in his consistit--quando culpabilis fuit ebrietas — qoando non erat solitus 
talia mala facere, nee timebantur, tunc non sunt nova peccata, in Tol. 1. viii. c. lxi. 

9 Parvitas judicii, qualem habent semi-dormientes et semi-ebrii vel adeo turbati, licet 
Bufficiat ad veniale, non tamen ad mortale. — Navar. pnelud. ix. n. zit 

8 Quando semi-dormientes, vel semi-ebrii quidvis patrayerint, cam parvitate judicii 
aperte laborent, et lethali culpa reddnntur immunes. Graff. 1. i. cap. xiv. n. iv.; 
Bonacin. de Matrim. q. iv. punct. vii. n. vi. nbi.; Navar. Cajetan. et alii. Com- 
muniter. 

4 Alia sunt peccata, qua rant fill® peccatorum capitalium, et de talibns non-ordi- 
narins non tenetur scire, ntrum sint mortalia vel non. Bed enratus ordinarius, ut 
episcopus, archiepiscopus et csteri alii superiores tenentur scire. — Sum. v. confeasio. iv. 
n. iii. 

6 Ex Scriptoria divinis qnamvis de mnltis peccatis constat, quod rant mortalia, 
tamen vix de ullis exprease satis videtur constare, quod sint tantum venialia. — Greg, de 
Valent. torn. ii. disp. vi. q. xviii. 

Multa enim creduntnr esse venialia, qua mortalia sunt, et difficillimum est in 
talibns discernere, ii. diet xxiv. n. liii. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. VIII.] n* the boman ohuboh. 195 

discover more as bad or worse. But by these we may discern, that what- 
ever the Lord hath forbidden in his law, they have ways to reduce it to the 
rank of venials ; , for the whole matter of the divine law is, in itself, either 
of less or greater weight : if it be small, or they please to count it so, they 
conclude presently, upon that account, it is not mortal. Whatever appears 
not to be a grand enormity, whether it be against God, others, or ourselves, 
must be venial, according to that of Richard de Sancto Victore. Mortal 
sin cannot be committed by any, but by a grand corrupting of himself, or 
contempt of God, or grievous mischief of others ; all the rest are venial. 1 
Whatever is not, in their apprehension, grand and grievous, is next to 
nothing. Yea, one member of the three is, in a manner, wholly shrivelled 
away into venials. A man can scarce do anything against himself which 
will be big enough to make a mortal sin of. 3 Indeed, it may seem no more 
than requisite to make it no crime for a man to damn himself, when they 
animate him to venture on so many damnable things, as if they were nothing. 
Thus they serve whatever the great God hath forbidden, which they have 
the confidence to connt small ; but if they cannot choose but think it great, 
they have other expedients to level it (according to the exigence of men's 
lusts), and diminish it into a venial. To make it more, they require so very 
much, that a sinner may make shift enough to be without some of it, and so 
escape the mortalness (as they will have him dream) though he practise the 
wickedness. That any sin may be mortal, there must be judicium integ- 
rum,) an entire judgment, 3 not distracted, not weakened, not disturbed, as 
they prove out of their canon law. Also, there must be perfect deliberation ; 4 
it is venial (how grievous soever otherwise) where there is not perfect de- 
liberation. If, by any means, deliberation not only in itself, but in its per- 
fection, be either prevented, and the thing be done before the mind take 
due cognizance of it, or hindered while it is under debate, it cannot be 
mortal. And that deliberation may be perfect, there must be a sufficient 
presenting of the evil in its object and its circumstances. 5 If the mind only 
consider the advantage or pleasure, and not the sinfulness and danger, it is 
but a semi-deliberation, and not full enough to make a sin mortal. Besides, 
it will require time to perfect it, 6 and here they may favour the sinner as 
much as they please, by determining what time is sufficient for human 
frailty ; but if he be in haste, and do not stay this time, because he is so 
forward to sin, he will but sin venially. Finally, there must be full consent 

* Mortale non potest a quoquam committi sine grandi corruptione sui, aut contemptu 
Dei, aut gravi lssione proximi ; et reliqua omnia esse venialia.— Vid. St. Clar. Probl. 
xiv. p. 83. 

* Quando sunt contra bonum proprium tantum, sunt magna ex parte venialia. 

* Ad constituendum peccatum mortale judicium integrum requiritur, Navar. cap. 
xvi. n. viii. Ad constituendum peccatum mortale integrum judicium requiri debet, 
cap. i de delict, pucr. Graff. 1. i. c. xiv. n. iv. Requiritur plena advertentia, et non 
sufficit semiplena, qualis in semiebriis, semidormientibus, et eis qui alio distrahuntur ; 
ut Cajetan, Navar. et alii communiter cum Bonacin de Matr. q, iv. punct vii. n. vi. 
p. 318. 

4 Vid. St. Clar. Probl. xiv. p. 79, et Tol. 1. iv. c xii., Cajetan. Sum. v. delect, mores. 
p. 112. 

6 Veniale ex imperfectione opens, licet in re gravi, ubi deest perfecta deliberatio, 
vel presentatio sufficiens maliti® in objecto, Ac— St. Clar. ibid* 

6 Per sufficientem deliberationem intelligit (Bonaventura) tempus sufficiens ad 
deliberandum postquam ratio advertit.— Sylvest. v. Consens. n. i. Intelligitur si 
advertentia sit satis deliberata. Nam si est motus surreptitius, adeo ut sit subita 
deliberatio, non autem plena, poterit esse veniale (perjurium) : scilicet si tempus non 
suppetebat ad plene deliberandum. — Soto de Jtut. lib. viii. q. ii. art. p. 271. Sufficiens * 
advertentia et deliberatio non habetur sine discursu : discursus autem in tempore fit. 
— Suar. de Vot. L i. c. ix. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



196 WHAT CRIMES ABE VENIAL [CHAP. \H1. 

of will. If the inferior and sensual part take never so much complacency in 
a wicked thing, yet so long as the superior takes no notice of it, there is no 
harm ; it is certainly no more than a venial. 1 Or if the superior part takes 
cognizance of it, and be some way inclined to the wickedness, yet that may 
not make it criminal, for every inclination is not sufficient for this purpose, 
but full consent of will, such as is perfectly deliberate ; neither is a tacit 
and constructive consent sufficient.* A neglect to repel or suppress the 
delight in sin, with some reluctancy of reason, is with Bonaventure con- 
structive consent, which, in the opinion of many doctors, is no mortal sin. 5 
Now if there be not a concurrence of all these, the horridest crime that can 
be perpetrated will be a venial. If a man should blaspheme God, or curse 
Christ, or renounce the faith, or murder his own father, or ravish his own 
child or mother, or fire cities and countries, yet if he did it not with sach 
perfection of judgment, deliberation, and consent as is expressed, it would be 
a petty fault. And he may be easily furnished with many things, which will 
any of them so weaken this as not to hurt him. Ignorance, drowsiness, 
disorder by drink, inconsiderateness, negligence, forgetralness, precipitancy, 
natural or accidental, levity, passion, custom or habit, and the like, will 
serve to excuse any wickedness from mortal guilt. Let me but add one 
more (which serves to make clear work) : the opinion of their doctors, one 
or more, will make any crime not to be mortal to him that follows it. Any 
person upon this ground may venture upon the most deadly sin as if it were 
venial. It will be no more dangerous, for he is to be absolved, by their 
doctrine, though he declares that he will not forsake such a sin. The con- 
fessor ought to absolve him, though in his own opinion, and the judgment 
of other divines also, it be a mortal crime. 4 This is their common doctrine, 
delivered by multitudes of their writers ;* so that hereby a fair way is opened 
to leave no mortal sin in the world, at least in the consciences of ail that 
will regard their doctors. In the mean time, the far greatest part of sins the 
world is guilty of are, by this and their other maxims, become peccadilloes, 
and they bid fair for all. The principles, by virtue of which they have done 
so much already, a little improved (though extended no further than they 
will reach), would go near to leave no deadly sin at all. To be sure, he that 
will regulate himself by their maxims, may act any wickedness in the world 

1 Contingit igitur delectari ad apprehensionem delectabilis, ante adveroionem delec- 
tationis, et hoc est sensualitatis, et absque dubio est veniale peccatum. — Boiuwentura, 
ii. dist. xxiv. n. lxxiv. 

1 Vid. Bonavent. ibid. n. lxiv. 

8 Negligentia repellendi complacentiam, cum displicentia rationis de ea, secundum 
Bonaventur. est consensus interpretative : quod non est mortale peccatum secundum 
raultos magistros. — Sylv. v. Consensus, n. i. Necessaria est positiva complacentia— et 
non sufflcit consensus interpretative. Cajetan. et alii in Bonacin. ibid. n. viii. ; vid. 
Jo. Sane. disp. xxi. n. iii. et ibi. ; Adrian. Cajetan. Armilla. Navar. D. Thorn. D. 
Bonavent. et xxx. alii. 

4 Si peenitens nollet agnoscere tale quod peccatum, nihilominus abeolvat earn, &c, 
quia ex quo ille credit opinionem quam sequitur esse veram, innixus authoritate pro- 
babili, non videtur peccare mortaliter : et sic debet absolvi,— Sylvert. secundum Gof- 
redum. v. Confess, iii. n. xi. Si diversitas esset inter doctores, et pamitens ex aliqua 
rationabili causa vult adhcerere uni opinioni, non est sibi denegenda absolutio : sed 
suae conscienti» relinquenda. Caveat igitur confessor, ne sit pneceps in dando sen- 
tentiam de mortali, ubi sunt varia opiniones doctorum. — Angel. Sum. v. Confess, iv. 
n. iii. et xiii. 

5 Gofredus, Antoninus, Roeella, Armilla, Angelus, Sylvest. Conradua, Ledesma, 
Soto, Medina, Navar, in cap. xxiii. n. xxxi. et in Suarez. torn. iv. disp. xxxii. sect. v. 
et Victorel, 1. iii. c. xx. 

Near fifty of their authors aro produced for this by Jo. Sancius, diBp. xxxiii. n. liv. 
pp. 228, 224. — Vid Bonacin, et in eo alios, torn. i. disp. v. q. vii. punct iv. n. xxvi. 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



Chap. VIILJ in the BO man chuboh. 197 

without fear of deadly guilt. And hereby it appears plainly how very need- 
less holiness of life is in that church (which pretends to a monopoly of all 
the holiness on earth), since by their doctrine they may not only neglect 
acts of piety, righteousness, and common honesty, but may live securely in 
practices opposite to, and inconsistent therewith. They may continue in 
customary blaspheming of God, in common swearing and perjuries, in per- 
fidiousness to God and men ; in a neglect of all that is acceptable in divine 
worship ; in a total profanation of all time which is indeed, or in their ac- 
count, holy ; in impiousness and disobedience to parents or superiors ; in 
divers degrees of uncleanness and murder ; in variety of cheats and stealing ; 
in unfaithfulness as to breach of promise and compacts ; in all falseness and 
lying, everywhere, and upon all occasions ; in slandering or detraction, in 
covetousness or prodigality, which they wUl ; in unmercifulness and out- 
rageous passions ; in pride and ambition ; in vain glory and hypocrisy ; in 
flattery or cunning ; in gluttony and drunkenness, Ac. ; in sins against God 
and man, against godliness, righteousness, mercy, charity, — in any of these, 
a little modified in all of them, and many more than I can reckon. They 
may persist in them impenitently to the death, and yet (if impostors may be 
trusted rather than the word of God) not fall short of salvation ; their doc- 
trine gives them encouragement to hve in them without conscience, and die 
iu them without repentance. It takes off the motives which might work 
upon either fear or love (the main principles of such motions in us) to for- 
sake them. They are taught by their best authors that these sins may 
stand well with their love to God ; that they do not so much as impair the 
habit of charity j 1 that they do not hinder the increase of grace, or the 
effects of their sacraments ;» that they do not stain the soul ;• that they 
hazard not God's favour thereby; that they displease not God, that 
they are not against his will ; 4 that they are consistent with a perfect 
fulfilling of the law; 5 that they have not perfectly the nature of sin ; 6 
that they are not against the law, but only beside it ; 7 or if they be against 
it in any respect, as some of them think, 8 yet against no precept, the ob- 
servance of which is necessary for salvation, or not against the end of the 
law, 9 which is charity ; that they are but as specks or motes, 10 we may look 
on them as nothing, 11 that without the interposal of mercy they are such in 
their own nature, 13 as ought to be passed by, they deserve pardon. 13 They do 

1 Ex consensu omnium neque tolhrat neque minuunt habitum charitatis.— Bellarm. 
de Amiss, grat. 1. i. c. xiii. p. 91. 

2 Actuate peccatum veniale non esse obicem in eucharistia fdocet) D. Thomas, 
u nde a fortiore idem diceret de catena sacramentis qu» minus digna sunt ; de Bap- 
iismo affirmat Scotus, — frequentiores Theologi. — Suar. torn. iii. disp. vii. p. 182. 

8 Aquinas propria loquendo peccatum veniale non cauaat maculam in anima, i. 2, 
q. lxxxix. art i. 

4 Bonavent. ii. diet, xlii.; Soto de nat. et gr. 1. i. c. iv. p. 182. 

5 Neque obstant quominus justi, perfect! etiam dicantur. — Soto, ibid. 

6 Non habet perfectam rationem peccati. — Aquinas i.2, q. lxxxviii. art. i. ad primum. 

7 Non est contra legem sed prater legem. — Idem, ibid. Lombard ii. Sen tent 
(list. xxxv. Bonaventur. ii. diet, xliii. Scotus a quo vocatur consilium, quod in- 
fringitur per peccatum veniale, in St. Clar. ibid. p. 79. Bellarm. de Justine. 1. iv. 
c. xiv. 

8 Durandus, Major, Vega. Ratla. Herrera. 9 Estius. Becaau. 

10 Isti ergo vitiorom atque lapsunm quotidian! ncevuli, licet Christiani hominis vitam 
quasi pulvisculo aspsrgaot, haadquaquam tamen defoodant tarpiter. — Lindanus. 

11 Modicum pro nihilo oensetur. — Cajetan. 

" Bellarm. De Amiss, grat 1. i. o. xiv. p. 95. 

u Veniale ex se venia dignum, Aquinas i. 2, q. lxxxviii. art i. Veniale dieitur quod 
e%t venia dignum, Bellarm. ibid. p. 8 1. — Cajetan. 
Estius, ii. sent, dist xlii. sect vi. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



198 WHAT OBIMES ABE TEKIAL [CHAP. VIII. 

not (as they teach) deserve eternal punishment, and the Lord (as they 
blaspheme) would be unjust, 1 if he should condemn any for them. 60 that 
not only as long as God is merciful, but while he is just, the practice of 
these sins is safe. Neither love to God, nor fear of his displeasure, nor 
dread of hell, nor desire of heaven, nor a design for perfection, need move 
them to abandon any one of these sins. They need not fear, how much 
soever they multiply or abound in them ; if they should commit millions of 
them in a day, and continue the practice all the days of a long life, this 
would not damn them ; for all the venial sins in the world, if they meet in 
one man, would not amount to so much as one damning sin. 2 They may 
commit them not only out of ignorance or infirmity, but with a high hand 
out of contempt. 3 They may praise themselves or others for them, 4 they 
may boast of and glory in them, 6 they may perpetrate them out of malice.' 
They may be so far from resolving to leave them, as it will be but a small 
fault, to bind themselves by oath to commit them, 7 and call God to witness, 
that they will thus sin against him. They may die with resolution to continue 
therein, 8 if they might live ; yea, they may breathe out their souls with 
delight and complacency in these sins, and yet be saved. 9 To conclude, 
mark how they may act and multiply, and persist in them, and then view 
the nature and quality and number of them, or guess thereat by the severals 
premised ; and then suppose a man living after the rules of these conscien- 
tious doctors and casuists, and taking but part of that liberty which the 
Roman divinity allows, such a man would pass for a good catholic with 
them, and be holy enough, according to the holiness left among them, and 
made necessary by them ; yet, even by the rules of heathen morality, he 
would appear little better than a monster. So faithfully do they retain, and 
so much dp they regard the rules of Christ in forming the maxims of their 
new divinity, that sober heathenism would be ashamed thereof; and so like 
is practical popery to true Christianity, in that wherein the reality and 
triumphant splendour of it consists, innocency and purity 1 If an atheist 
had a mind to render the Christian name odious, and to represent Chris- 
tianity with a black and detestable visage to the sober part of the world ; if 
he had a design to make men believe that Christ was a minister of unright- 

1 Negamus — posse Deum juste punire peocatum quodlibet, etiam veniale, poena omnium 
gravissima, quad est mors aeterna. — Bellarm. ibid. p. 92, et de Purgat. 1. i. c vii. p. 1359. 

* Etiamsi omnia peeoata venialia simul colligerentur in nnum, nunquam effioerent id, 
quod facit unum lethale.— Bel&zrm. ibid. p. 91. 

8 Non quasi ipse contemptus et vilipensio venialiom sit mortale — quia nullibi est 
prssceptum ut istam curam habeamus, sed coosulitur tantum, Sylvest v. peooat. n. iv. 
Peccare venialiter ex oontemptu infra limites venialia, non est peocatum mortale. — 
Cajetan. Sum. v. contemptus, Lopez, cap. i. p. 8, Metina, ibid., Graff. LL c xiv. 
n. viii. ibid., Aquinas ii. 2, q. cvii. art. iii. 

4 Navar. cap. xxii. n. xiii. et xvi. 

5 Secus etiamsi gloriaretur de re peccati venialis solum, qnoniam sic non esset 
mortalis vana gloria, Angel. Sum. v. van. gl. n. i., Cajetan. Sum. v. glor. vana. Est 
mortale cum — laudant alios et jaotant de peccatis mortalibus qua? feceruut, secus esset 
de veniali, quoniam non est contra Deum. — Angel, v. Jactanlia, n. i. 

6 Contingit tamen propter icoperfectionem actus, esse veniale peocatum ex malitia : 
ut siquis vana meodacia eligtt dicere ex intentione hujus mali, quod est vane meotiri, 
et oon propter aiiud. — Cajetan. Sum. v. malitia. 

7 Juramentum de peccato veniali peocatum est, si tamen fiat cum proposito implendi 
illud, son est mortale, Cajetan, Soto, Antoninus, Sylvest. Tabien. Navar. in Suar. de 
J a ram. 1. iii. c. xix. n. iii. 

8 Potest quia dum moritur, habere voluntatem permanendi in peccato veniali — 
Pillarm. de Purgat. 1. L 0. vii. p. 1359. 

9 Potest quis mori in oomplacentia peccati. — Idem. ibid. cap. x. p. 1870. 

Cum venialis complaoentia potest mori ac salvari.— Sylvest. Sum. v. Contritio. o. iii. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.J in the bohan chubch. 199 

eousness, and the gospel a licentious doctrine, tending to debauch mankind, 
he would need no more, but persuade them that the maxims of the Roman 
divines were conformed to the rules of the gospel ; but then, if he should 
attempt to prove this conformity, he might as easily demonstrate that dark- 
ness is light, or the Alcoran the Christian gospel. 



CHAPTER IX. 
Many enormous crimes are no sins at all in the Roman account. 

Sect. 1. I proceed to those sins which they will have to be no sins, but 
need not stay long here, having given a large account of those which they 
make venial ; since betwixt these, and no sins, there is little difference in 
their doctrine, and none in their practice. I need not stay to shew how it 
is no sin with them to vilify the Scriptures (the written word of God), or to 
rob him of the sole glory of his mediation, and to give much thereof to others, 
in all its parts and specialities, merit, satisfaction, intercession ; or to put 
their trust in others besides God, for things which he alone can give, and 
for which he only is to be relied on, and this not only in saints and angels, 
but their images, and their imaginary relics. And how it is no sin in their 
account to abide in ignorance, unbelief, impenitency, or to live without the 
love and fear of God, and the exercising of other graces ; by what is already 
premised this is sufficiently manifested. 

To resist the inspirations of God, 1 drawing us to the observance of his 
commands, or withdrawing us from wickedness, is no special sin, i. e. we 
contract no other kind of guilt thereby, than if we had sinned without any 
such inspirations to withhold us from it. Thus it will be no fault at all to 
quench the motions of God's Spirit, inducing us to turn to him, to love him, 
to repent, &c., or dissuading us from blasphemy, perjury, adultery, murder, 
or any other crime. 3 And yet if a man be ready to commit any wickedness, 
it will be no sin for another to invite him to do it. Thus far men may pro- 
mote all sin in others, and resist the Spirit of God, moving against it. As 
for evil spirits, they conclude it no sin, for good men, by special instinct or 
revelation, to make use of the ministry of devils; 3 they tell us that to 
apply themselves to devils to know, 4 or obtain any thing of them, is to have 
some familiarity and society with those damned spirits (unless it be the 
better to expel them out of the possessed), yet they teach it is no sin to 
inquire of the devil in a possessed person, what his name is, and wherefore he 
vexes that person, and what devils are his associates, and the like. But he 
must not believe the devil, though he tell him (for this would be as bad as 
necromancy) ; 6 yet if he believe him not, none can tell how the devils answer- 

1 Si tamen oontingat speciales inspirationes dari a Deo, quando se offert ocoasio fran- 
gendi aliquod praeoeptum, et homo resistens iospirationibus pr»ceptum transgrediatur ; 
nollo modo speotale peooatum oommittit, quia re&istit inspirationi.— -Jo* Sane select, disp. 
▼ii. d. xi. p. 86. 

* Ex sententia Cajetani et Navar. in Vasquez, Opuso. moral, dub. iii. p. 24. 

* Sylvest. Sum. v. adjurat. n. ii. 

4 Si quis eos adjuret — ad aliqnid ab lis sciendum, ant ad aliqood obsequium per eos 
OODseqaendnm, est illioitum 1. quia hoc pertinet ad qoandam societatem, vel familiarita- 
tem cam ipsis. — Sylvest. Sam. v. adjure, n. ii. Licite adjuramus id omnibus ut de cor- 
pora expellatur, utputa, quod suum nomen fateatur — similiter ut dicat causam vexandi 
bominem — licet non credamus, &c. 

6 Quod si ei crederet, ut neoromantioi, credo esse mortale, quia pertinet ad amicitiam. 
— Ibid. n. iii. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



200 WHAT CRIHE8 ABE [CHAP. IX. 

ing him in those inquiries can contribute any thing to his expulsion. 
They declare also, that it is lawful to use adjurations to the devils who 
possess no person, not to assist those that do, or to apply themselves to the 
great devils, to cast out the less. 1 

Sect. 2. So far we see (and further) they may deal with the devil ; how 
they may deal with God we saw before. Though the whole body of popery 
be corrupt, yet there is nothing more leprous than their worship. They 
think it not needful that it should be conformed to the divine rule in any 
thing, either as to the end, or manner, or matter, or object, yet it is tran- 
scendency good in their own eyes, no sin in it, even when there is nothing 
else. For what sordid and wicked ends they think it fit to worship God, 
we have discovered already, and also in what an irreligious manner. To 
this latter, let me add, what I meet with in Angelus, when he is inquiring, 
whether attention or devotion be necessary in their divine service (a strange 
question it might seem among any called Christians, if their divine service 
were the worship of God), he tells us their gloss maintains that it is suffi- 
cient to say it (their service) with the mouth, though not with the heart, and 
that many other canonists agree therein. 2 Thus it seems they understand 
the pope's law for divine worship ; so as to approve that in plain terms 
which Christ expressly, and the prophets before him, condemns ; so as to 
declare to the world, that the church of Borne makes no other worship neces- 
sary, than what Christ hath openly branded as vain, false, and hypocritical, 
Isa. xxix. 14, and Mat. xv. 7-9. 

The sense of their divines agrees so well with the canonists, and as little 
with Christ (though it be expressed in other terms), that the contradiction 
to him is not so open though it be as full. Angelus himself, 3 and Sylvester 
after him, with others, determine that wandering in one that observes it, 
when it is but as to the inward act r though it be temerarious and grievous, 
is not mortal unless it be out of contempt, 4 the plain English of which is this : 
the departing of the mind and heart from God in worship, willingly and wit- 
tingly, how great soever it be, is a small fault, if any, unless to this neglect 
of God a greater contempt be added, whereas the contempt of God herein is 
very great. His reason is that which others give, because the church is not 
to judge of mere inward acts ;* and therefore, if a minister of the church, 
when he is at service, mind something else, he seems to be no transgressor 
of the precept by that act. 6 

He tells us out of Aquinas (what we saw the rest of them do before) that 
they need not continue actually attentive in worship, but only virtually, 

1 Hoc etiam ratione non solum licet adjurare dsemones non obeidentes, ne adjuvant 
obsidentes : sed etiam superior*!, ut expellant inferiores. — Id, ibid. 

8 Quoad attentionem vel devotiouem, Quaritur utrum peooent mortaliter non dicentes 
officium devote et studiose ? Resp. Glossa tenet, quod suffioit dioere ore, licet non 
corde, et cum ea ooncurrunt multi Canonist® in c dolentes. — AngeU Sum. v. horse, 
n. xxvii. 

Similiter non peoeat mortaliter qui verba quidem dicit, sed ad ilia non attendit: 
quoniam cum prroeeptum de dioendo horas sit de jure poaitivo, non refertnr nisi ad ea, 
qua) sub judicio humano cadere possnnt : et ista sunt qua ezeroentor per actus exteriorea, 
Don autem interiores. Et boo idem videtur volnisse Scotus in iv. — Hostiensis etiam. 
— Idem. Pet. de Palud. Sum. Rosel. v. Horse- 

8 Verb. Horte. n. xxvii. supra. 

4 Evagatio autem advertentis secundum actum interiorem solum, licet sit temeraria et 
gravis forte, non tamen est mortale. nisi propter contemptum. — Sylv. v. bora. n. xiti.; 
Kosella. v. horse ; secundum Petr. Paludan. 

5 Quia ecclesia non babet judicare de actions interioribns mere. — Uterqut. ibid* 

6 Propter quod minister ecclesia?, licet dioendo omoium alind oogitet; non videtur 
transgressor proscepti ex natura facti. — Angelus, ibicL Rotetta. ibid. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. IX.] no sins in theib account. 201 

id est, if they intend to perform service when they are going about it, that 
will make them pass for attentive enough all the while, though their minds 
be carried away after other things when they are at it, and never heed the 
worship in hand. 1 This is the common sense of their authors, as if they 
should gravely tell us that a man who goes into company with some intent 
(actual or virtual) to be sober, but presently rails to his cups, is overcome 
and continues drunk divers hours, yet he may be said to be sober all the 
while he is drunk, by virtue of his first intention. And so we should wrong 
the Romanists if we did not think they would have as much of true worship 
and religion in their service as that man has of sobriety all the time he is 
dead drunk. 

Sea. 8. But there is not any more horrid abuse of divine worship than 
that which they are guilty of in reference to its object ; for besides what 
they determine concerning divine worship to be given to other things besides 
God, it is no sin with them to worship the utensils of their worship, the 
vessels, books, tables, linen, and priestly vestments, being once dedicated to 
divine service, and made holy by the charm of a consecration./ Antonius 
Corduba says they are to be worshipped for themselves, 2 and in the judg- 
ment of Clychtovius they are to have a worship distinct from his worship, 
to whose honour they are dedicated. 3 Yasquez will have them worshipped 
relatively (as images, to whom he gives divine adoration) with respect to 
him in whose service they are used. 4 

It is no sin to worship the word Jesus, whether it be pronounced or 
written, and some will have honour given to the word for itself ; so Corduba 
and others. 6 Some will have the word worshipped together with him that it 
signifies, as the image and the exemplar are both worshipped together, so 
that they will have the word Jesus to be worshipped as the image of Jesus/ 

It is no sin to worship the accidents of bread and wine in the eucharist, 
where the object worshipped is not only Christ there, nor is it the substance 
of bread and wine (for they say there is no substance left), but that which 
they worship is the colour, figure, or taste of the elements. The colour, 
when there is nothing that is coloured ; the tartness, when there is nothing 
that is tart ; the roundness, when there is nothing that is round. To these 
wonderful (not to say monstrous) accidents, some will have a single wor- 
ship due, 7 but that, the very same worship that is due to Christ, and besides 
that divine adoration, which is common to them with Christ, will have also 
a proper worship given without reference to Christ ; bat all of them agree 

^ ] Tune videtur manere secundum virtutem, qaura accedit ad orationem cum in ten - 
tiooe aliqoid impetrandi, vel Deo debitum obsequium reddendi : etiamsi in prosecutione 
weos ad alia rapiatur. — Idem. ibid. 

^ Adverte tamen quod inteotio debita et aetualis, si adsit in principio vooalis orationis, 
licet postea mens evagetur (nisi talis evagatio interrnmpat primam intentionem per 
contrariam intentionem) sio est meritoria et impetrativa oratio voealis sine attentione, 
per virtutem prima intentionis.— Jdm. v. oratio, n. x. ; Rosella, v. hora ; Scotus, ibid. 

* Yasquez de adoratione 1. ii. disp. viii. c. x. n. occxlii. Posse secundum se, oultum 
deferri rebus sacris, sic dooet Antonius de Corduba, et alii recentiores. 

* Vasis et aliis rebus sacris inanimis concedit oultum aliquem, distinctum a cultu ii- 
lias, in oujns bonorem dicat® sunt. — Idem, ibid. o. ii. n. ooolx. 

4 Ibid. c. x. n. ccoxliv. 

6 Ipsi etiam voci secundum se, oenset honorem aliquem tribui. — Ibid. n. occxliL 

Simul— cum Christo quern signifloat vox ilia.— Ibid. n. cccxliii. Idem quod de 
imagine, de voce qnoque Jesus et aliis rebus inanimis, manifesto sequitur, et quamvis 
dioeremns, quia imagines exemplaribus substituuntur, ideo cum ipsis adorari ; quia au- 
deat asserere, vocem Jesu$*at soriptam aut prolatam, in locum significati non subrogari 1 
&o. — Ibid. n. ccoxliv. 

7 Alii vero recentiores— eodem modo de speciebus sacramentalibus atque de ima- 
ginibus docent : nempe eas adorari posse eodem motu, et adoratione latrto cum Christo 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



WHAT CHIMES ABB [CHAP. IX. 

that they are to be adored with divine worship, and some say that this ado- 
ration is terminated on them, as the worship of the exemplar upon the 
image. 1 They will not only have the manger wherein Christ lay, and the 
thorns wherewith he was crowned, and the spear that wounded him, to be 
worshipped, bat the picture of these when they are but painted ;* they are 
to have the same worship which the true cross has, that is, divine adora- 
tion ; and so are natural thorns or a common manger or spear to be wor- 
shipped, when they are made use of to adorn the cross or to set off the 
passion of Christ, as they are wont theatrically to represent it. 

It is no sin to worship anything that Christ touched, or that touched 
him, how injuriously soever. Therefore, they teach that the ass upon which 
Christ rode is to be worshipped. Hereby it appears, says Vasquez, how 
rightly the ass upon which Christ did ride may be worshipped, 3 and that the 
very lips of Judas (that traitor and devil as Christ calls him) for kissing 
Christ, when he betrayed him, for that very act wherein he shewed himself 
a traitor and devil, are to be worshipped. 4 If they had but that traitor's 
lips they would reverently and devoutly kiss, that is, adore them ; and it is 
strange if they have them not among their sacred relics, since they say they 
have the foreskin of Christ out off at his circumcision, 6 and his very counte- 
nance impressed by him upon a white cloth, 6 for one would think these as 
hard to come by ; however, in diverse places they worship something at a 
venture which they count so. 

It is no sin to worship the imaginary blood which flows from a crucifix or 
image of Christ, when it is wounded, for they, being given up to believe tbe 
most ridiculous lies, do believe that such blood hath issued from a mere 
picture or image, 7 they keep it as a most sacred relic, 8 and it is to be wor- 
shipped with the same worship they give to Christ himself. 9 

sub ipsis conteDto : posse etiam secundum se, propria adoratioDe ooli, quae son referatnr 
in Christum ibi eontentum siout in terminum proximum adorationis : sed taoquam in 
motivum remotum, sicut do imaginibus, et de nomine Jetu, doeuerunt. — Idem, ibid, o. ii. 
n. ceolx. 

1 Band em adorationem qua Christum ibi colimus, ad eas terminari, dioendum est (at 
docet Claudns Cello, vi.) Sed per accidens, sicut adoratio ezemplaris in imaginem 
quoque terminator. Id expresse tradit Algelus. 1. ii., de Euch. c. ill—Idem, ibid. 

2 Si autem pingeretur sacrum prasepium, vel lancea, vel spinea corona, vol aliquid 
simile, non minus quam ipsa crux in veneratione esse debere. Id vero quod de picture 
▼el sculptura dicimus, de iisdem rebus oaturalibus dicendum esset, si in ornamentum 
crucis, et monimentum passionis, vel alterius mysterii, publico ponereutur, &c. — Idem, 
ibid. 1. iii. c. vi. disp. ii. n. Ixxiii. 

8 lode etiam constat, quo paoto recto possit asinus, oui Christus insodit, adorari.— 
Ibid. n. lxxvi. 

4 Nil tamen obest, quominus aliquis sincera fide, et recta intentione, affectum etaoi- 
mum solum in Christum in tendons, labia Judo, et alia qu» injuste Christum tetigerunt, 
reverenter osculetur. — Ibid. 

5 Ex dictis infertur Christi praeputium et sangninem relictum in tenia, sivo sit sub 
forma sanguinis, sive sub alia, non secundum se, hyperdulia, sed ex affeotu latriss circa 
Christum eodem motu adorationis cam ipso, siout alias ejus reliquias, adorandum esse, 
ut notavit Corduba et Sylvest.— Idem, ibid. disp. iv. n. cxxv. 

^ e Antiqua etiam traditione constat vultum sanctum Domini, tempore passionis suss in 
Hnteo expressum fuisse. Qualis Romro— et in Hispania ostenditur — Taurius vero ma«- 
na cum veneratione servatur, et nee minori religiono oolitur sindon, qua Christus io 
sepnlohro fuit involutus : cui impressam reliquit sui corporis figuram. — Idem, ibid. L ii. 
disp. iii. c. i. n. xxix. » Vid. Aquinas iii. q. liv. art. ii. 

8 One at Berytus, in Syria, pierced by a Jew, related in a book ascribed to Athana- 
sius falsely (as Bellarmine confesses, de script. Ecoles. p. 78), of which our author, L ii. 
disp. iii. o. i- n. xxix. 

* Idem dicendum de sanguine, qui ex aliqua imagine Christi fluxit, nisi quod ille non 
ratione con tact as, sed representation!* tantum adorandus est.- Idem, ibid. 1. iii. disp. iv. 
C ii. n. cxxv. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no sins- in their account. 

It is no sin to give divine worship to any man, not only the saints in hea- 
ven or holy persons on earth, but any men whatever in the world (the 
wickedest not exceptod), may, together with God, have divine worship, as 
the image has with the exemplar, since every man is the living image of 
God. 1 This is not only the doctrine of Vasqnez, but of Alen6is, of Wal- 
densis, and of Cardinal Cajetan, only in the practice of this there must be 
caution ; for Albertus Magnus and Aquinas say there is danger lest a man 
being of more excellency than an image, divine worship should be given him, 
not for God's sake but his own dignity, but where tins danger is not, thej 
would not deny but any man may be so worshipped, even with divine wor- 
ship ; so that if Paul and Barnabas, with the Lycaonians, 2 Acts xiv., had but 
proceeded with the caution of these doctors, and taken care that those people 
should so worship them only for God's sake, they might lawfully have ad- 
mitted the worship offered them, though they (not learned in this kind of 
doctrine) chose rather to be stoned than so honoured. 

It is lawful to worship not only rational creatures, but anything else in 
the whole world, whether living or lifeless.* Any beast or creeping thing 
may be worshipped as the image of God, which they hold is to be honoured 
with divine worship ; so that not only the planets, stars, the queen, and the 
host of heaven may be thus adored (for which the Lord condemns Israel and 
Judah as idolaters), but the vilest creature that lives on earth, a fly, or a 
frog, or a serpent, or a toad may be thus worshipped ; yea, meaner crea- 
tures than any that have life, any inanimate thing whatsoever, though it be 
but a wisp of straw. That is our author's own instance : whereas, says he, 
the Wickhffites object that Christians who worship images may as well wor- 
ship a wisp of straw (medulum straminis). 4 The same Leontius (upon 
whose authority he grounds all) would as freely grant this of a bit of straw, 
as he does it of everything else in the world, so far is it from being counted 
absurd ; yea, they may worship not only vile, but sordid things ; and not 
only God, but angels and saints in them, quavis alia res mundi; anything 
whatever in the world, whether lifeless, unreasonable, or rational, may 
rightly have divine worship with God. 8 And this is not only the judgment 
of their famous Yasquez, but of Cardinal Cajetan, and in consequence, of 
them all ; for those great wits well discerned that the adoration of other 
things, approved and practised by the Romanists, could never be defended, 
without extending their principles to such a latitude. Thus it is manifest 
that whatsoever the apostate Israelites adored, or the Egyptians worshipped, 
or the Laplanders do worship, or the grossest and the most ridiculous idola- 

1 De homme, qui est viva Dei similitude) et imago, neo aliqua institutions in cultuni 
Dei dedicate, docent Alexander, Waldensis et Cajetan, eum posse esse adorationis ma- 
teriam, sicut de imagine picta dixerunt : hoc est, iu illo et per illom ita Deum adorari 
posse, nt ipse etiam homo, eodem motu, et signo snbmissionis colatur, sicut imago cum 
exemplari : atque, idem de angelo dioere debent. — Ibid. disp. i. c L n. iv., et cap. iii 
n. xvii. 

* Ubi periculnm non esset, non negarent adorari posse sicut imaginem pictam. — Ibid. 

9 Quams etiam alia res mundi site inanima, et irrationalis, sive rationalis, ex natura 
ret et secluso periculo, rite cum Deo, sicut imago ipsius adorari potest. Hanc opinionem 
tradit Cajetan 2, ii. q. ciii. art. iii. ad dnb. iv. Id docuit Leontius. — Ibid. o. ii. n. v. 

4 Frustra igitur W iolifistsB objiciebant Christian is imagines colentibus, ipsos quoque 
modulum straminis adorare posse — idem enim Leontius, de modolo stramtnis, quod de 
quacunque re mundi, libenter fateretur ; tan turn abest, ut absurdum judicari debeat — 
Ibid. n. x. 

5 In brutis animantibus et rebus sordidis, Deo exhibere notam snbmissionis, primo as- 
pectu indecens apparet : id tamen non obest, quominus suapte natura in qualibet re 
mundi Deum ipsum adorare liceat : imo et sanctos homines sen angelos, si eos cum re- 
bos illis cogitatione nostra possimus conjungere. — Ibid. n. xi. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



204 WHAT CRIMES ABE [CHAP. IX 

ters in the world, ever made an idol, all that, with much more and worse, 
may lawfully be worshipped by popish principles; there never was any 
idolatry so absurd or horrid in the world bat may have patronage or 
excuse by this doctrine. 

And now heaven and earth being furnished with their idols, one would 
think they need go no further, but be satisfied, without seeking hell for any, 
yet there is an inquiry which reaches that too. It is a question amongst 
them, if the devil should appear in a beam of light, or the form of a crucifix, 
whether that apparition may be worshipped ? l Antisidorensis, Alexander, 
Aquinas, Marsilius, Adrian, and others, will not allow it should be wor- 
shipped, unless conditionally, and with a condition expressed; but Vasques 
is for adoration hereof absolutely, no condition expressed; 1 and he has 
those who are otherwise minded at a great advantage, because they conclude 
for worship absolutely in a parallel case ; for they will have a consecrated 
host to be worshipped without condition, though the devil were in it, or 
lurked under it ; and if thqy think he would be worshipped in the former 
without the interposal of a condition, he will be worshipped in the latter, 
where they will have no condition to exclude it. I conclude this with what 
Holcott determines : a man may merit by a mistaken belief, although it so 
fall out that he worship the devil. 3 

These decisions were necessary to justify their devout persons who have 
met with such adventures. A great part of popery is grounded upon visions 
and apparitions. These were much affected and admired by their reputed 
holy men, and women too, who were admired and adored for them. Satan, 
in the darkness (wherein this mystery did best thrive), had the advantage 
to put store of cheats upon them. Many monks and hermits (says a Lapide) 
were deceived by him. Particularly, among the rest, Yalens the monk was 
thus deluded, the devil frequently appearing to him as an angel. In fine, 
Satan in an apparition feigned himself to be Christ, and the monk went, and 
for Christ worshipped the devil (Idem in 2 Cor. xi. 15). They are con- 
cerned to plead for that worship, which had the same original with much of 
their religion. 

Sect. 4. For oaths or perjury, I will only instance in those which are 
fraudulent. First, they determine that he who takes an oath, and intends 
not to swear, the oath binds not, it is no sin to go against it. 4 

Secondly, when a man intends to swear, but intends not to be obliged^by 

1 An sit peccatum adorare radium lumints, vel speciem croci6xi, sob qua Ifomon 
delitescit. — Ibid. disp. i. c v. n. xxx. ; vid. Bonacin. torn, ii disp. iii. q. i. punct, it. 
d. ▼. 

' Quart nee oonditionem expresse addere oportet, at recto et legitime adoratio fiat ; 
et multo minus ea exprimenda est, quando Eucharistiam adoramus ; at optima tradunt 
Alexand. S. Thorn. Bonaventura : qui cum dioant, necessariam esse expressam oondi- 
tionem, quando adoratur Christus in specie crucifixi, ubi Demon delitescit : affirmant 
tamen, earn non esse necessariam, ut adoretur in hostia conseorata. Idem aensit Ga- 
briel. Quinimo, ut Cajetan, Hosselanus et Claudius Sainotes, dooent, male faceret qui 
adderet oonditionem, ut securus adoraret — Ibid. n. xxxhr. 

3 Hominem posse mereri per fidem erroneam, etsi oontingat ut adoret diabolnm. — 
Refer t. Humphed de vita Jucl. p- 120. 

4 Quid ergo si quis exterius juret proferendo verba, et tangendo evangelia, intns ta- 
men non habeat jurandi animum ? Respondetur in illo casu, non esse verum sed fictum 
juramentnm. Sed nunquid in conscientia qui sic jurat, tenebitur adimplere f Respon- 
detur minime quidem, &c. — Koto de Just, et Jur. 1. viii. q. i. art. vii. p. 262; Qraf. de- 
cis. aur, K ii. c. xvii. n. v. Ut obligationem inducat necessariam eat, ut ab intentione 
jurandi procedat, hoc certnm est apud omnes. — D. Thorn,, Cajetan, Soto, Covarruvias, 
Panormitan^ Glvsta in Suar, 1. ii., de Jurament. c vii. n. ii. Neoessarium est at in- 
tentio jurandi sit sufficienter libera. Communis est. — Idem, ibid. n. iii. 



Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



6HAP. IX.] NO SINS IN THEIB ACCOUNT. 205 

swearing, there he is not obliged, bat may lawfully break it, as the ancienter 
casuists and school-doctors generally determine. 1 

There is real evidence for the practice of this from the conclave ; for, as 
their excellent historian tells as, in the vacancies of the see, the cardinals 
use to compose certain capitulations to reform the papal government, which 
all swear to perform if they be assumed to the popedom, though it appear 
by all precedent examples that every one sweareth with a mind not to keep 
them in case he shall be pope ; for so soon as he is elected, he saith, he 
could not bind himself, and that he is at liberty by gaining the papacy. 9 
This was remarkably exemplified in Paul IV., who, resolving to break one of 
the capitulations he was sworn to a little before, and some of the cardinals 
being ready to put him in mind of his oath, he declared in consistory, that 
it is an article of faith that the pope cannot be bound, and much less can 
bind himself, that to say otherwise was a manifest heresy, 3 and threatened 
the inquisition to any that hold it. It seems it is damnable error, deserv- 
ing something like a hell upon earth, to believe that his holiness intends to 
be honest whatever he swear. It is true, every one has not the privilege of 
a pope to have it counted heresy for any to believe that he can be bound to 
keep any oaths, or ever to intend it ; but all have this liberty by their doc- 
trine, that they may take oaths without any intention to keep them, and 
are not bound to keep them if they do not intend it. 

Thirdly, to elude an oath, and deceive those who give it, or are concerned 
in it, by equivocation, or other artifice of words, yea, or by mental reserva- 
tion, is no sin, and that in many cases. 4 As when a man has no mind to 
swear, and thinks he is not bound to do it ; when he is drawn to it by force, 
or induced by fear, or brought to it by importunity ; or when the judge is 
incompetent (as they count all that are heretics or excommunicate, and that 
have not lawful jurisdiction), or if the judges are competent, yet when they 
proceed not juridically. 9 In these and other cases, either for avoiding harm 
or inconvenience, 6 or when it may be for their advantage in any respect, they 
think it lawful to use these methods of deceit in swearing. Indeed, the 

1 Tenet S. Bonaventura quod universaliter non obligat juramentum, si jurans 
animum se obligandi non habuit. Sylvest. jurament. iv. n. xix. vid. plures ibid. n. 
vii. et n. xvii. Nee qui sic jurat, peccat— Angelas v. juram. v. n. ix. et Sylvest. v. 
juram. iv. n. vii. Qui jurat com intentions non se obligandi, non obligator ex vi 
juramenti. Ita — D. Thorn. Bonaventur. Scotus. Gabriel. Richard. Sylvest Angelus 
Medina. Gutierrez. Navar. Gloss. Felintis. Abbas. Jo. Andr. in Soar. I. ii. de juram. 
e. vii. n. ix. Hos et alios vid. in Bonacina. torn. ii. disp. iv. q. i. punct. vii. n. iii. 

a Hist, of Counc. of Tr. L i. p. 71. * Ibid. 1. v. p. 396. 

4 Si judex juram en tarn exigens talis (competens) non fuerit, vel esto quod sit com- 
petens, interrogat tamen contra juris ordinem, vel est alius homo privates, qui per 
metum aut importunitatem jnramentum extorquet, tunc jurare poterit quod secundum 
suam me ntem est verum, falsnm autem, secundum mentem alterius, cui exbibet jura- 
mentura. Sicuti fecisse B. Franciscnm ferunt, qui rogatns qua perrexisset qnidam 
homicida, respondit, non transisse iliac, intelligens, per ill as manicas.— Cum Adriano ; 
Qui sic inique interrogator, potest optime respondere, qnod nescit, intelligendo, non 
eo modo se scire, quo illud dioere teneatur. — flavor, cap. xii. n. viii. 

5 Vid Navar. c. xviii. n. lvii. 

9 Qui aJio sensn jurat qnam alter intelligat, non peccat, modo jnstam habeat causam 
ita jurandi — justa autem causa ntendi his verbis (amphibologicis) est necessitas aut 
utilita3 corporis, ant honoris, aut rerumfamiliarinm — Ex quo sequitur, non esse illicitom 
uti verbis amphibologicis, addendo restrictionem aliquam in mente retentam, qnoties 
aliquid incommodi, vel injuriaa nobis impendet loquendo ad mentem interrogans, 
adest enim justa causa ita loqnendi. — Bonacin. torn. ii. dis. iv. quest i. punct. xii n. 
ii. iii. iv. » 

Ejusmodi autem ®quivocationibus uti, addito etiam juramento absque causa, non 
est peccatum mortals, modo ne id fiat in frandem tertii, aut in judicio, dum judex 
juridice interrogat. — Ibid. vid. Dian. v. asquivoc. 



Digitized by 



Google 



206 WHAT GRIMES ABB [CHAP. IK. 

reason they give to justify the practice in these cases, will make it as lawful 
in any other ; for they say what is so sworn is true in their own sense/ 
though not in the sense of the hearers, and so they will have it in strictness 
to he neither lie nor perjury, nor any mortal sin, even when there is no 
honest nor reasonable occasion for swearing or promising in this fraudulent 
manner. 

And that you may perceive the Jesuits are not the prime masters of these 
arts, I shall instance in other authors who were either before them, or not 
addicted to the Society. 

For equivocations, or other sleight of words in swearing, they are justified 
by multitudes of their writers, 1 viz., Sairus after Aquinas, and their Gloss, 
Paludanus, Gabriel, Johannes Major, Adrian, Hen. Gandavensis, Angelus, 
Sylvester, Soto, &c. The instances which Soto gives may serve for a test ; 
as for example, when one instead of saying I swear, uses a word which sig- 
nifies another thing, but so pronounces it as the difference is not discerned ;* 
or if the word God in the language wherein the oath is taken may signify 
some other thing, he that swears may mean something else by it, when he 
that gives the oath understands the God of heaven ;* or if the oath be formed 
in this order, I swear to you to pay so much money, he that swears may mean 
not to pay him but some other, when he to whom the oath is made, under- 
stands it intended for himself. 4 Such an oath, says Soto, is true, just, pru- 
dent, because then simulation is profitable, 6 having said before that it is 
lawful, with such fraud to deceive one who forces him to swear, since he who 
puts him to swear hath no right to do it ; 6 and these fore-mentioned are the 
very same instances which Sanchez uses 7 , by which we see the Jesuit was 
not the inventor hereof, but learned them of a Dominican. 

Of mental reservations, justified by their chief authors, who were no 
Jesuits, instances might be given in abundance ; 8 for example, if a man will 
have his wife swear that she is not an adulteress, though she be guilty, Bhe 
may deny it with an oath, and swear what is false in his sense, if it be true 

Videtur esse communis sententia juramentum simulatum, id est, cum justa et pro- 
denti amphibologia factum, non obligare. £>. Tho. Cajetan. Soto. Abbas. Tabiena. 
Covarruviaa. Navar. in Suar, 1. ii. de juram. cap. viii. n. ii. Juramentum autem dolo- 
sum cum inju8titia obligare— sed tantum secundum proprium sensum. — Scotus, Bona- 
vent. Richard. Gabriel. Sylvest. Angelus. Antoninus. — Ibid. n. v. 

1 Licet jurare cum sequivocatione. D. Tho. Scotus. Paludanus, Richard. Major. 
Adrian. Navar. Covarruviaa. Sylvest. Gloss. Ibid. 1. iii. cap. ix. 

8 Si injurius ille nequam sic rogaret, juras mihi tantam numerare pecuniam ? et 
alter responderet, sic uro (absque J.) non esset peccatum mortale, sed simplex men- 
dacium : quia forte tunc nihil ureret. — Soto, ibid. p. 268. 

8 Item si Dei nomen, lingua ilia qua fit juratio, diversum quoque aliud habniaset 
significatum, liceret, illud intelligendo, dicere, Testis mihi est Deua, quamvis alter 
Deum coali intelligent.— Ibid. 

* Aut si altero interrogante, juras mihi numerare pecuniam ? alter responderet, 
Tibi juro numerare, non esBet sensus, numerare tibi, hoc est solvere aut tradere, sed 
tibi juro apud me pecuniam recensere, quandoquidem numerare utrumque significat. 

8 Quare tale juramentum esset verum, justuzn et prudens, quoniam tunc simulatio 
(quoniam absque falsitate fieret) utilis esset. 

6 Quando vero vi illata petitur, licitum est ea fraude petentem deludere. — Ibid. 
Similis est sequivocatio quam in verbo est ponit Glossa in cap. neque ii. 2, q. ii. et 
quam in nomine sororis notavit Glossa in c. ult. ii. 2, q. ii. 

7 Opp. Mar. 1. iii. c. ii. n. 87. 

8 Navar. Sylvest. Angelus. Lud. Lopez. Tabien, Armilla, Ac. And among those 
who seem to dislike it. Soto fatetur licitum esse alicui jurare, se nescire quod revelare 
non potest, aut non tenetur; subintelligendo, nescio ut tibi dicam — quando judex non 
potest legitime interrogare de occultis, recte illi responderi, Non feci, subintelligendo 
publico. Ac. Et ita etiam concessit aperte Cajetan. et Adrian, in Suar. — Ibid. cap. x. 
n. art. iii. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no sins in thbib account. 20? 

i 

in her own, by the addition of some secret reserve. 1 If a man swear to 
give another a hundred crowns with this inward reserve. If he owe it him, 
he sins not, though he swears false in the sense of Aim who is to have the 
money. 9 A woman who, because of some secret impediment, will not live 
with her husband, and is excommunicated for it, she at the point of death, 
that she may be absolved, being put to swear, that if she recover, she will 
live with him, may swear it absolutely in show, with this conditional reserve, 
If she may do it without sin ; yet if she do it not, she is not forsworn ; so 
Sylvester and Navarre, according to the determination of Aquinas and Jo. 
Major. 3 He that in the time of pestilence comes to a town where the officers, 
before they admit him, will have him swear that he came from no infected 
place, though it be not true he may swear it, if he think himself have got no 
infection. 4 If you have not a mind, or are not bound to give or lend any- 
thing in yonr possession which another desires, you may lawfully swear that 
you have it not, with this inward reserve, that you have it not, to give or 
lend. 5 If a- man threaten to kill a confessor, if he will not tell him, whether 
bis wife hath confessed her adultery to him, though she have confessed it to 
him, yet the priest may absolutely say and swear that she has not, with this 
reserve, So that he should be bound < to tell it.* He that is examined upon 
oath concerning crimes that he knows, and swears to declare all he knows, 
may, concerning some that are not known to others, though they be to him, 

1 Sylvest. sum. v. jurament. iii. n. ii. Navar. cap. xii. n. xviii. Quia id injuste agit, 
potest ilia jurare, quod secundum suam intentionem verum est, falsum autem juxta 
mariti men tern. Et Angelus v. juram. iv. n. i. Nam cum talis inique a tali confes- 
sionem exigat, poterit jurare secundum suam intentionem, quod verum est : licet 
secundum intellectual audientis sit falsum, secundum Rodo. quern sequitur Astensis. 

* Si in aliquo sensu intendebat facere, quod jurabat, licet non in sensu ejus, cui 
jurabat : ut quia juravit dare centum, subaudiendo in animo suo, si debuero : tunc 
non peccat : quia non tenetur jurare secundum intentionem ejus, cum non sit snus 
judex: sed utitor aimulatione licitaquaa licet: ut in c. utilem ii. 2, q. ii. Sylvest. ibid, 
iv. n. vii. Navar. c. xii. n. xiv. Neqne peccaret jnrando, neque etiam non implendo 
amplius quam ipse intellexit; quoniam non tenetur aliquis jurare secundum intentionem 
illius qui perperam ipsum ad jurandum cogit. 

8 Aquinas et Jo. Major, in Navar. c. xii. n. ix. Bylvest. ibid. iii. n. ii. Angelus. 
Sum. v. juram. iv. n. i. Quum quis ex juramento exigit ab aliquo quod ipse non 
potest sine peccato implere ; potest habere intentionem, cum jurat illud facere, scil. 
Quantum poterit sine peccato. Sio et Sylvester. Sic secundum Rich, de St. Victore 
obstetrices non peccabant, licet non respondissent ad intentionem Pharaonis, quia non 
fuit ei data auctoritas ad aliquid agendum contra Deum. Secundum Innocent in c. 
Veniens de curia, in juramento determinato super aliquo singuiari, sic interpretatur 
in foro anim», secundum intentionem jurantis. — Angel, ibid. 

4 Sylvest. v. juram. iii. n. ii. ; Navar. o. xii. n. xix ; Bonacin. ubi supra. 

5 An qui jurat se non habere rem aliqnam ab alio petitam, ut ab ea danda vel accom- 
modanda se excuse t, peccet ? Responded enim debet, peccare si mens ejus verbis con- 
sonat : sed non, si non tenetur ad dandam vel accommodandam, neque respondendum 
juxta mentem petentis, et ea mente juret, quod non habet illam, ad earn illi dandam 
aut accommodandam. — Navar. o. xii. n. xviii. ; Bonacin. ibid. ; idem c. viii. n. six. ; 
Lopez, cap. xxxvii. p. 211. 

* And this they maintain not only in this case, but as to all sins confessed. Quod si 
judex instat vel exigit juramentum a sacerdote, an per confessionem sciat aliquid de tali 
facto ? Dioo qnod secundum S. Thorn, et omnes doctores, sacerdos si ab eo quieratur 
de aliquo absente, an aliquid sciat, quod audivit in confessione : jurare potest se nescire 
illud : quia non soit illud in quantum homo, &c. Sylvest. v. confess, iii. n. vi. Sio 
Angelus. v. confess, viii. n. iv. secundum Scotum et Richardum, Ac. -Graff. 1. i c. zxxiii. 
d, if. For the seal of confession must not be violated ; no, not to secure the soul of the 
penitent, or the life of a king, or a whole commonwealth from temporal or spiritual 
destruction. Yid. ibid. n. iv. et viginti auctores contra unum Altisiodorensem in Suarez. 
torn. iv. disp, xxxiii. sect. i. 

VOL. in. D d 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



WHAT CHIMES ABB [CHAP. IX. 

swear without perjury that he knows them not, with this secret reserve, he 
knows not to discover them. 1 

If one promise to another, or contract with a woman outwardly, without 
an intention of promising, and is demanded of a judge upon oath whether 
he promised or contracted, he may plainly deny it, because he may have 
this sense, I promised not with a promise obliging me ; and he has just 
cause so to answer, because since he cannot otherwise prove his want of in- 
tention, he will be condemned to pay what he owes not, or to cohabit with 
her whom he truly contracted not. 2 A witness, either when he is not inter- 
rogated juridically, or when he has good occasion not to bear witness in 
judgment, as if he fear great damage to himself thereby, may answer, thai 
he knows not, or saw it not, or the like, with a mental reservation ; s he that 
out of necessity, or for any profit, offers himself to swear of his own accord, 
may therein use such fallacy. 4 He that hath good occasion to hide his goods, 
lest they should be seized by his creditors, being for his livelihood, and to 
keep him from beggary, may swear that he has not hid any, understanding 
not any that he could not hide, or any that he is bound to discover. The same 
may the witnesses swear for him (viz., that he hid none), knowing that he 
hid them lawfully ;* such fallacious oaths may be used also in contracts and 
bargaining. Those who cannot otherwise get a just price of the buyer, may 
swear in a sense that he perceives not, that the commodity cost them so 
much. 6 

Here are a few instances, but they have rules (some of them are premised) 
which license it in cases innumerable, so that it may be a common practice, 
and they may use it upon any occasion which they think reasonable. 

These things considered, with others authorised among them, I cannot 
devise what oourse can be taken to bind those who follow their doctrine, or 
to get from them the least security by an oath. They have declared that if 
you put an oath upon them which they think ought not to be imposed, they 
may lawfully deceive you if they can, and put a cheat upon you even in a 
solemn oath. , Contrive then what oath you will for your security, they will 
take it so far as you can judge, as much as any man in the world takes an 
oath ; yet if thejr did not intend to swear {which none can tell but them- 
selves) by taking this oath, they have not sworn, they are not obliged. Or 
if they had a mind to swear as well as to make you think so, yet if they did 
not intend to oblige themselves thereby, their conscience by their principles 
is free, the oath does not touch them ; or if they have a mind to be obliged 
by that oath, yet need they not bind themselves to that it was designed for, 
but to quite another thing, for they may swear in a sense vastly distant from 
what you intend or imagine ; and thus they are taught to do, and it is prac- 
ticable, either by the sly and undiscerned change of one letter in a word, as 
they may pronounce it, which will tarn the sense as far from yours, as burn- 
ing is from swearing, which is plain in a former instance. Or else by the 
ambiguousness of some word in the oath, affording another sense than you 
are aware of, they may fix upon that and leave yours to yourself, and so 

1 Quamvis juret se dicturnm, quod scit, vere respondere potest ae ilia nescire absqoe 
petjurii raetu, intelligendo intra se, illud se noo ita scire nt detegere teneatnr. — Navir. 
c. xviii. n. xvi. cap. xvii. n. cxvi. 

* So Navar. in cap. faamanro aures. ii. 2, q. v. q. i. et iL alleging for this doctrine. 
Aquinas. Scotns. Paludanus. Richard. Major. Adrian, and others. — Vid. Suar. 1. iii,de 
Jnram. cap. ix. n. ▼. 

' Booacin. torn. ii. disp. iv. q. i. ponct xii. Clavis Regia. Navar. et alii.— Ibid. 

4 Idem ibid. 



1 Idem ibid, et alii. 
6 Idem ibid. Savrus. Rebellus et alii. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no sins in thsib account. 209 

bind themselves to nothing yon are concerned for, when yon think yon have 
them fast bonnd to all ; or if snch care be taken that in the oath there 
be no ambignons terms which may give them the advantage to delude yon 
by a sense foreign to your intendment ; yet, do what yon can, they may put 
soch a sense upon it by a mental restriction ; for thereby adding something 
reserved in their mind, to what is expressed in the oath, the sense is quite 
changed, and the thing they swear is nothing at all of what yon would have 
sworn. 

Yea, or if they swear that they will observe the contents of your oath, 
according to the plain and natural meaning of the words, without any equi- 
vocating or mental restriction ; yet at the same time they may mean, without 
any mental restriction that they will tell you of, and so delude you with a 
mental reservation when they are swearing against it. Nor is this an 
imaginary supposition of a thing that they never practised ; for thus their 
priests and others have taken the oath of allegiance, and by this art eluded 
it ;* and so they are instructed, and may do still, and defeat any oath that 
can be devised. Yea, by their doctrine JLhey may do it lawfully, and with- 
out sin ; for in all this juggling they teach that they do not swear false, but 
by the artifice specified, it is true in their own sense, though not in theirs 
who give the oath. Indeed this is a cheat (where God is called to witness), 
nor do they deny it. But they say such deceit is lawful, as in many other 
cases, so always when the judge is incompetent. And that is our case in 
England ; we have none from the throne to the lowest bench that, in their 
account, have any jurisdiction ;* we have none that have power to put an 
oath on them ; they may choose whether they will swear or no, or whether 
they will cheat them all in swearing. No oath which can be given them can 
oblige them, but in their own sense, how distant soever from the true sense 
of the oath or of the imposer of it. This our Roman Catholics were assured 
of long since, by instructions sent them from Borne in Queen Elizabeth's 
time. 8 So that they need make no conscience (if they will follow the best 
guides of their consciences) to practise all their contrivance upon us in oaths 
(much more in promises, contracts, &c), even such as the light of nature 
has ever condemned in the world, as not only impious in point of religion, 
but destructive to human society, and those which tend to subvert the main 
grounds and foundations of it. We can never oblige them by oath at any 
time but when they please, nor any further than they list. We can never 
tell when they swear, though they take oaths, nor when they are obliged, 
though they swear. We cannot possibly know when we may be sure 
of them; when we think them fast, by all the rules that men of con- 
science and common honesty proceed by, yet they can juggle themselves 
loose by the Roman rules at pleasure, and make sport with God and man, 
even in oaths where God himself is a witness, and the greatest of men con- 
cerned as parties. 

Sect. 5. There needs no other demonstration of the irreligion of the 

1 Qnando quia inique interrogat, excladendo omnem sequivocationem, posse interroga- 
tnm uti eequivocatione, apponendo aliquam partionlam in mente, &c. Idem dio de teste. 
Bonaoina. torn. ii. disp. iv. q. i. punct. xii. et ibi plures. Quoties gravis causa ocourrit, 
ob quam licet uti verbis ambiguis, vel mentali restrictione, ejusmodi nsum esse lioitura, 
et si interrogans orgeat, at sine amphibologia, ant restrictione loquaris. Pet. a S. 
Joseph de ii. precept, art. i. 

* Judex haereticua ant schismatious amittit omnem jurisdiotionem. Vide Cone Late- 
ran. sub Innocent. III. in Grab, supra. 

8 Jnramentum pxactum a judice non competente (quales nunc omnes sunt in Anglia) 
in jurisdictione ecclesiastioa, non obligat nisi secundum intentionem jura litis. In Abb- de 
raendac o. p. 40. 



Digitized by 



Google 



210 WHAT CBIME8 ABB [CHAP. EL 

Roman church, and its utter regardlessness of God and the souls of men, 
than their doctrine concerning the observance of the Lord's day, and 
all other which they pretend to be set apart for holy employment. If 
any man would understand what religion is left among them, he may see 
it there in short, and needs look no further, since there he may be satisfied 
that they have no design for the honour of God or the salvation of souls. 
For when they have discharged the people from all duties of religion at any 
other determinate times, 1 and reserved all which they make necessary for 
them to holy days ; yet even on these days, by their doctrine, nothing is 
made their duty to which any regard of God or of their souls is needful. 
All that they are obliged to is only to be present at mass,* no other act or 
duty of religion or worship is necessary ; no internal act at all, 8 nor any 
external, 4 either public or private, but only the mass. And that may be so 
externaljthat neither God nor any divine thing need to be minded in it. For 
this I have produced evidence enough already, let me only add this ; they 
are wont to speak of a three-fold attending at mass (as before was shewed 
at their divine service). One, to what is said and done by the priest, as 
sacred ; a second, to the meaning of what is said or done ; and the third, 
to God and divine things. Now the first of these, they say, is enough, 
though it be the worst of all ;• therefore the second (to regard the meaning 

1 Vide supra, cap. i. 

1 Sola missa oommuniter est in prsscepto. — Cojetan. warn. v. feat p. 304. Missa audi- 
enda diebns festis ex pracepto, non tamen concio, non preces fundendm ; non exercen- 
dus alius acta* oaltas divini ex pracepto (excipe diem paschatis, quo sumenda est 
Encharistia) Victorel. addit ad.Tol. 1. iv. c xxv. 

8 Aquinas, ii'2, q. oxxii. art. iv. — Cajetan. Sum. v. feet p. 306; Soto, dejustit. el 
jur. 1. it. q. iv^art. iv ; Navar. o. xiii. n. ii. Ac. 

No act of love, Bellarm. de cult. Sanct. L ii. e. x. ; Nav. o. xi. n. vii. ; Soto, ibid. Or 
contrition ; Soto, ibid. ; Sylv. Sum. v. Dominic, n. viii. ; Canus relect. de psenit. pars, 
iv. p. 864. Or sincerity ; no need to have that devotion in the heart which they out- 
wardly make show of. No necessity of a good end in their worshipping. For that 
they commonly maintain after Aquinas, that the end of the oommand for worship is 
not under oommand. — Vid. supra. 

4 Not hearing sermons. Sylv. sum. v. Dominic n. viii. Victorel. supra. Nor other 
prayers, private, Sylv. ibid. ; Navar. c. xxi. n. vi. ; vide Suar. de fest 1. ii. c xvi. n. iv. 
or public. Vesperas cssteraqne divina offioia, diebns festis, non aodire, non est peeca- 
tum mortale, neque veniale ; nisi ration© voti aut inramenti. — Graff. 1. ii c xxxiv. n. xii. 
Nemo jure communi regulariter tenetur audire de pr&cepto alia divina officia, etiam 
vesperas.— Navar. o. xxi. n. i. They are not obliged to any prayers but those in the 
mass, whioh indeed are not theirs ; nor need they concur in them otherwise than by a 
virtual wish that the priest may be heard ; Satis est vel ex longuiquo missanti adease, et 
surgendo, genua flectendo, vel alias aotualiter vel virtualiter exoptare, ut sacerdos, qui 
pro omnibus loquitur, orat et sacriHoat, a Deo exaudiatur. — Idem, ibid., n. viii. 

This all the praying of the people (when they have reduced all their religious acta 
to this) in popery. All that the church makes necessary, or leaves possible to them in 
public, which yet is no praying, otherwise than one while he is at Paris, may be said 
to be praying at Rome, because he virtually wishes sucoeas to a priest saying mass 
there ; or than one in their purgatory may be aaid to be praying at the same time in 
heaven, because he would have the supposed intercession of the saints there to be 
successful. 

5 Hsso satis est, licet omnium imperfectissima, Fill. tr. v. n. 214. Snares, having 
premised that he believes there is no dissention or difficulty amongst them concerning 
attention at the time of mass, reckons after Aquinas the three sorts of attention, and 
adds of the first : Haw attentio est infima omnium, tamen sufficiens : quia ilia satis e»t* 
ut ilia miss® auditio sen prflBsentia sit humana, moralis, et ex objeoto religioaa, torn. iii. 
disp. lxxxviii. sect. iii. This being sufficient, the second and third are more than needs ; 
and yet in the third (this exoluded as needless) he acknowledges all inward reverence 
and worship is included. Sub hao autem attentione ad Deum omnis interior reverentia 
et cultus, omnis oratio et petitio inclnditur, ut eleganter deaoribit Oregorius x. in c 
decet. — Ibid. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no sins in thmb account. ' 211 

of what is said or done) ; and the third (to mind God or divine things) is 
more than needs. So that plainly all that is required of a papist, by their 
doctrine, in order to the honour of God and the salvation of his soul, on 
any of those days when these ought to he most minded, is only being pre- 
sent at nfess, without understanding what is said or done, and without 
minding God or anything divine. Such is their worship of God and care of 
souls in the church of Borne ; this is the sum of their religion, when it 
appears set forth to greatest advantage, in its solemn exercises ; he that 
understands it, and can be in love with it, must be under the power of some 
other consideration than that' of God and his soul 

Having seen how these days are sanctified, or profaned rather, by their 
worship, we might view what observance they have in reference to servile 
works. And here they have little but what may be done without sin ; and 
indeed, as they order the matter, it may seem less sin to follow the works of 
their callings than to forbear them, since their abstinence from them is not 
that they may better attend the worship of God (for they think it not need- 
ful to worship him, unless he can be said to be worshipped when he is not 
heeded), but that they may be idle, or worse employed than in their daily 
business. However, whether it be to indulge their ease, or serve their lusts, 
or to make show of some rest (though far enough from a holy rest), they 
will have some works forborne ; but herein they will be regulated by custom, 
not the divine law. 1 Paludanus and others will have them excused who use 
manual labours on these days, if they omit not the mass. 2 And Sylvester 
says, this is reasonable, because custom, the interpreter of laws, will have it 
so. This may so far regulate them, that every province and city must 
observe those days, and those alone, in that manner, and so far only as 
custom requires. 3 Yea, it must so far prevail, that if it were the custom to 
observe these days no longer than till noon, or only till mass were ended 
(which may be dispatched in half an hour, and that before sunrise), the rest 
may be spent in servile works. 4 They account it worse to spend these days 
in servile labour than profane divertisements ; for this, with them, is only a 
venial fault, or none, 6 but that may be a mortal sin ; yet they declare there 
is no sin in the worst but what custom makes (they are like to make con- 
science of it, when their own wills and practices are their rule). This, as 
many other, by their doctrine, which makes void the commands of God at 
pleasure, is but a sin at discretion ; they may make it none when they 
please, and render all days alike, as easily as they can bring up a custom, 
such a one to which nature is forward. 6 

1 Dicendum consuetudine fieri posse, nt aliqua persona licite possint in Die festo 
aliqoa opera servilis, vel alitor in feeto prohibits^ exereere. — Antoninus, Sylvester, Ca- 
letan. Suto, Tabiena, Armilta, Navar, in Suar. 1. ii. de fest c xxxiii. n. xii. 

* Per (Dominicnm) intelligitur generaliter ononis Diet festus de prssoepto, secundum 
Pet. de Pelade, quod sentire videtnr etiam Jo. Andr. et dootores dicentes aliquos in 
Diebns festis excusari, nisi missam omittant. Et est rationabile ; quia oonsuetudo legnm 
interpret, ita habet. — Sum. ▼. miasa. ii. n. i. 

* Unaqunque provincia, ant oiritas, obtervare tenetnr ilia, eo modo, et tantum, qu«, 
qnomodo, et quantum eonmetudo iptiut prawepit obaervari.— -Naoar, e. xiii. n. v. Si 
utnt haberet, ut solum serventnr nsqne ad meridiem, vel usque ad solemnia missarum 
peraota, postea possent opera servilia fieri.— Jcfewi, ibid. 

* Gabriel oum Seoto diount, lioitnm esse inehoare missam, una hora et quarta parte 
alterins ante ortum solis. — Non erit pecoatum hora et dimidia ante ortum solis saerifi- 
care : imo addit Paludanus, et elarius Victoria, posse lioite inohoari missam dimidia hora 
ante orepusouluin, ita nt finis miss© sit snb initiam orepusouli, plus mionsve. Et boo 
est in praxi servandam.— Snores torn. iii. diip. Ixxx. sect. ir. So mass may be ended 
not only before sun-rise, but about break of day, above an hour before the sun is up. 

* Bonacin. torn. ii. disp. ▼. p. 277, *»• xxv. P* 274, n. iii. 

6 Obsenratio Diei Dominion non est de jure Divino,sed Canonioo, ut aiunt oommuni 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



212 WHAT CHIMES ABB [CBAP. IX. 

But no wonder they think not these sacred days violated by working, 
since they teach they are not profaned by any acts of wickedness. Their 
divines generally agree herein. 1 Contrition for sins, and the avoiding of 
other sins, is not enjoined, says Cajetan.* The day iB not profaned by 
fornication, says Soto ; 3 nor by lying, murder, or blaspheming, says Bellar- 
mine ;* nor by any wickedness whatsoever is holy time profaned, but only 
by those opposite thereto, viz. not hearing mass, and bodily labours. " So 
that the days may be sanctified well enough, according to the holiness of 
that church, if after an irreligious presence at mass for half an hour (the 
precept for which may be satisfied without minding God or abstaining from 
wickedness while they are at it), the rest thereof be spent in beastly drunk- 
enness or gluttony, in perjuries, blasphemies, or cursing God or man, in 
murders, whoring, sodomy, or bestiality, or the most enormous debauches. 
And though they are not bound, as they teach, to be at the pains of one 
good act of mind or heart in serving God at the only time set apart for his 
service, Scotus is almost worried by the herd of their divines for seeming to 
think that a good act of mind towards God was enjoined on these days ;* 
yet they may spend their bodies, and toil themselves more in the service of 
their lusts, without profaning them, than in servile works. The reason why 
they hold that no excess of wickedness does profane these days, is be- 
cause wicked acts are not servile works. 8 It seems slavery to Satan, 
and the service of the vilest lusts, is not servile ; whatsoever Christ or 
the apostle thought thereof, John viii. 84, Bom. vi. 16, that is consistent 
enough with the liberty and honour of such Christians as they are. 
However, hereby it is manifest that their religious observation of all holy 
times (and so all the religiousness which that church requires of her 
catholics) is consistent with the lewdest acts of ungodliness and debauchery. 

In fine, God can have no honour from men, nor they salvation from him, 
without religion ; this cannot be kept up in the world without the solemn 
exercises of it ; these cannot (or will not) be performed without time for that 
end ; therefore hath the Lord appointed time to be set apart for these pur- 
poses ; the church of Borne hath reduced all religious exercises, at the times 
appointed by God or themselves, to the people's hearing of mass, and there 
will not have the precept oblige them to any real religiousness, not so much 

ter doctores— et consequents posse oonsuetudine, vol hmnana poteatate abrogari. — 
Bonacin. torn. ii. disp. v. n. iv. p. 272, Sairns et alii ibi. 

1 Cajetao, Soto, Sylvester, Victoria, Navar, Covarruvios et alii, quos refert et se- 
qnitiir Suarez, de fast 1. e. xviii. n. iii., inter quos etiam reeenset S. Thorn, vid. Jkl- 
larm. de cultu sanct 1. iii. e. x. ; Graff. 1. ii. o. xxxiii. n. viii. 

* Non eontinetur sub hoc prsseepto contritio peoeatornm, ceo vitatio alioram peoeato- 
rnm.— Sum, v. feat. p. 306. 

* Non quod per fornieationem violator festum. — De Ju$U et Jur, 1. ii. q. iv. art. iv. 

4 Non enim violator tempna sacram per qusacunque peooata, ted aolmn per ea>, quae 
cpponuntur ipsi tempori aaero, qnalia rant non audire aaerum, et operari corporaiiter. — 
Ibid. 1. iii. ex. p. 1610. 

Secunda opinio assent — peooatom etiam mortale in Die festo oommissum, non habere 
ex ilia temporis cireumstaatia specialem malitiam, qua) in eonfeseione neceaaario aperi- 
enda sit : illam dooent Cajetan, Corduba, Soto, Victoria, Almayn, Sylvester, Armilm, 
Tabiena, Angl., Navar, Govarruvias, Gntier ; pro hao etiam sententia potest' referri. 
1). Thomas in iv. dist. xxxii. art. v. q. i. ; Suarts, 1. ii. de festis. cap. xviii n. iii. ; vid. 
Bonacin. torn. ii. disp. v. p. 274. 

6 Scotus sentire videtur boo nos prsseepto juberi, diebns festis bonum habere mentis 
actum ciroa Deum. — Soto de JutU et Jur, 1. ii. q. iv. art. iv. p. 61. 

6 Nee valet dioere inter ista senriliacomputari peocatum : quia boo falsnm est. — Sulv. 
Sum, v. Dominie, n. viii. Nisi asset opns servile in festis prohibitum, quale non eat pec- 
catnm juxta S. Thomam. in iii. sent. dist. xxxvii. art. v. q. ii. ; Navar. e. vi. n. x. Pro- 
batur a (Jajetano et cceteris— quia opus peccaii ut sio non est servile. — Suar. ibid- u. vi. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. IX.] no sins in their account. 218 

as to a thought of God or any thing divine, yea, or the forbearance of wicked 
thoughts and acts while they are at mass. Thus far is religion (upon which 
the interest of God and man so much depends) sank among them. And it 
most of necessity sink (all but the shadow or froth) in any part of the world 
where these principles prevail. Bat though they declare them not obliged • 
to serve God any better at this, or at any other time, yet they maintain for 
them as much liberty to serve the devil and their lusts, on these holy times 
as any other. Let all concerned judge of the Roman religion and holiness 
hereby ; if there were nothing else by which the measures thereof could be 
taken, this would suffice. 

Sect. 6. In the next place, in reference to heretics, to go no further (for 
that is far enough, since in their charity the far greatest part of Christians 
are no better), all relatives are discharged of their respective duties enjoined 
them by the laws of God or man. Their decretals (the law of their church, 
which presumes to over-rule all other law, natural, divine, or civil) de- 
prives heretics immediately of all due fidelity, right, duty, observance, which 
any whosoever do owe them. 1 They lose all which they have by civil right. 3 
Subjects owe no allegiance or duty at all to princes or magistrates. 3 Chil- 
dren owe no duty to their parents ; 4 they have (by their law) no power over 
them, and this from the first day of their heresy. Wives owe not conjugal 
duty to their husbands ;' and if they knew they were not papists when con- 
tracted, they lose their dowry. 6 Servants are freed from all fidelity to, and 
observance of, their masters. 7 Yea, debtors are freed from paying what they 
owe to heretics, though bound thereunto either by penalty or oath. 8 They 
hereby oblige their followers to make nothing of such duties, without the 
observance of which mankind would become worse than brutes. 

But this may seem a smaller matter to them; they go higher, and allow 
any one to kill a heretic, as though murder were no sin ; they may be killed 
with impunity, says De Graffiis, 9 and proves it out of their church laws. 
Pope Urban II. declared that they are not gujlty of murder who kill any that 
are excommunicate. 10 Now all heretics are excommunicate by the Council of 

1 Ipso jure privates esse haereticoa omni debit© fidelitatis, dominii, obligationis, et ob- 
sequii, quo illis qnicunque tenebantur astricti. — Decretal, Gregor. ix. 1. v, c- alt de 
haeret 

* Amittunt omnia quae juris civilis sunt. Graff. 1. ii. c. xi. n. xii. Privantar jure 
dominii naturalis, oaconomici et civilis. vid. Ovandus in iv. dist. xiii. p. 347* 

8 Eornm vassaUi absolnti sunt a debito fidelitatis et totius obsequii— et idem de vas- 
sallis dominorum, qui contra hsereticos sunt negligent**. Sylveat. ▼. hsereses i. n. xiv. 
Angelus ▼. bsret. n. xv. 

4 Perdunt patriam potestatem, quia non habent filios in potestate. — Oraff. ibid, Pilii 
hereticorum ipso facto quo sententiatum est oontra coram parentes de bseresi, efficiuntur 
sui juris, et effect! intelliguntar a die commissi criminis. — Angel, ibid. n. x. ; Sylvett. 
ibid. 

* Viro debitum reddere non tenetnr. Simanca. Irutit. CaihoL c. xiv. n. xxvii. 

6 Uxores scienter cum hcereticia contrahentes perdunt ipso facto dotem. — Sylvett. ibid. ; 
Angelus. ibid, n. xi. 

7 Et quicunque alii aliqua obligatione adstricti : ut famuli, liberti, et hujusmodi. ipso 
facto liberautur. Ut dicitur et notatur in c. fl. eo. ti. Angelus. ibid. n. xv. Syivest. 
ibid. 

* Omnes bcereticos obligates ex juramento, fidelitate obseqnii, pactione vel promissione, 
Hberri, ita habetur c. ultimo de Hosret. Propterea si ab'quis promisisset haeretiois 
solvere sub pflena vel juramento certo die, non tenetnr, ut notat Glossa ibid. Ego teneo 
quod eo ipso quod estmanifestum in heresin incidisse tales absoluti sunt, quantnmcunque 
sententia non feratur contra eos. Angel, ibid. n. xv. ; Sylvest. ibid. n. xiv. ; Armilla. v. 
hseres. n. xi. ; Ovaudus in iv. dist. xii. propos. xxx. p. 348. 

9 Possnnt etiam impune oocidi. Tacit, fctloss. sing, in Capital. f»lic, &o. — Graf. 1. ii. 
c. xi. n. xii. 

10 Noa enim eos homicidas arbitramur, quos adversus excommunicatos, telo matris 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



214 WHAT CRIMES ABE [CHAP. IX 

Lateran, under Innocent IEL ; and the sentence which lies dormant there is 
roused once a year ; the pope in person denouncing it in a solemn manner, 
and very gravely, with a peacock-tail on either side his head. We in Eng- 
land particularly are under excommunication to this day, and Cardinal Bar- 
barin thought fit, not long since, to give special notice of it in a letter to 
some of the Irish. They forget not how obnoxious we are ; and we may 
remember how much we are obliged by them, that any of us are suffered to 
live, when they may kill us without murder. 

Sect, 7. But we may the better bear with them in this, because they seem 
not very tender of killing one another. A man is not to be punished who 
kills his wife, taken in adultery, and the adulterer together with her. He 
may kill his own daughter in like case, or his sister, yea, or his own mother, 
if his father give order for it ; l and he may do it as safely though these his 
female relatives be quick with child. For the child in the womb (say they) 
being the same morally with the mother, he that may kill the mother may 
kill the child too. Thus a private person may be judge in his own cause, 
and proceed to mortal execution without trial, and sacrifice the guilty and 
innocent both at once, to his own or another's passion, and destroy together 
the body and soul of his nearest relations, and all this with impunity. They 
deliver it for certain, that a mother in danger may lawfully use a medicine 
which tends directly to her cure, though it be probable that it will make her 
miscarry. And because she may take such a course to secure her life or 
recover her health, they conclude it lawful to do this to preserve her state or 
reputation. 3 So that, if a maid or married woman have prostituted herself 
to another's lust, she may procure abortion, when otherwise the crime might 
be discovered, and her life or credit in hazard. 3 Thus neither families, nor 
parishes, nor monasteries need be pestered with natural children, how many 
soever be got ; the shame of their birth, and the pain too, maybe prevented, 
and the trouble and expense of their education avoided, by a receipt approved 
by the Roman doctors, if it be but taken in time. As for the censures of 
their church in this case, or worse, there is no fear, for even a nun got with 
child may procure abortion, and not be excommunicate 4 (so much more 
favourable is new Borne to her vestals than the old was, though their crimes 
be doubled) ; any who are so disposed, have encouragement enough to ven- 
ture upon both. For as to the murder, they are secured from the laws of 
God by this doctrine, which makes it no sin ; from the laws of the church 
by her natural indulgence ; and may be from those of the state, by their own 
private conduct. And as to the whoredom, they may be quitted upon as 
easy terms as they would wish. For the priest, if he get the child, is em- 
powered to absolve the mother, and he need not be so strict as to enjoin for 
penance the avoiding of the sin ; yet for all this, they seem so tender (which 

catholic® eoclesia ardentes, aliqnos eorum trucidasse contigerit — Refert ex Ivo et lau- 
dot Baronius. an. 1059, n. xi. 

Omnis hareticus, sive oocultus sive manifestos, est ipso jure excommunicates. — Hotel. 
v. haret. n. xiv. Quoting their law for it. 

1 Pet. a S. Joseph, de v. pracepto, art. vi. pp. 268, 259. 

9 Videtur etiam satis certum, &c. Idem ibid. art. ii. p. 218, vid. Corduba. Pet. 
Navar. Arragon. Lopes in Fill. tr. xxix. n. civ. 

8 Liceret etiam procurare abortum nondum animatum cum ad famam et statum con- 
servandum opus erit. Basil, de Leon, de ma trim. 1. x. o. xiii. n. ii. Liceret etiam 
famines nupta, aut virgini fornicanti idem effioere. quando nullo alio quasito medio sibi 
consulere posaint, ne crimiue detecto, fama vitaque jaoturam facerent. — Pet. Navar. 
1. ii. ; de Restit. o. iii. diff. ii. n. exxx. 

4 Secundum Sylvestrum, monialis solicitous abortum non est excommunicata, quia nou 
injuriam sibi sed proli facit. Lopez, cap. lxiv. p. 322, vide Nalcum in Bonacin. de 
restit. d. ii. q. ult. p. 7, n. vi. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX. J no bins in thxib account. 215 

may amuse us) of unborn infants in other cases, that they will hare it lawful 
to out up the mother quick, and she obliged to suffer, yea procure it, that the 
child in her womb may not perish unbaptized. 1 Thus their doctrine will 
have them more regard the reputation of a whore than the life of an honest 
woman ; yea the child may perish without regard of its wanting baptism, 
when the credit of a strumpet is concerned ; but a chaste woman must be 
killed in the other case, that the infant in her womb may have it. Yet one 
would think the issue of whoredom in as much danger for want of baptism 
as the fruit of lawful matrimony. 

They teach further, that a man may kill another, either to secure his own 
person, or his goods, or his reputation. In defence of his person, they hold 
it lawful to slay any one ; a servant may kill his master assaulting him un- 
justly, or a monk his abbot, or a subject his prince, or a child his own father. 2 
This is their common doctrine, and thereby there is warranty for it, not only 
to secure one's life, but to avoid a wound or a blow. 8 Any one may do this 
at any time, even a priest while he is celebrating, may kill one that invades 
him, 4 and when he has shed his blood, may go on with his other sacrifice, 
which will be unbloody notwithstanding. If he that assails him be frantic, 
or in drink, yea, or asleep, 6 and has no sense that he offers any wrong, he 
may innocently kill him for all that, whoever he be, if he cannot otherwise 
avoid the injury ; yea, though the aggressor have had the highest provoca- 
tions, by intolerable reproaches, or the loss of his estate, or the defiling of 
his bed ;• yet in this case, he that has given the occasion, and done the 
wrong, may kill the sufferer ; the thief may lawfully slay him whom he has 
robbed, and the adulterer may kill the husband after he has abused the wife, 
or deflowered his sister, or buggared his child. He, may not only kill the 
aggressor, but an innocent person also, to escape himself. 7 As if he cannot 
be secured from Peter, without killing Paul, he may be the death of them 
both ; or state it thus (and they cannot stick at it), if he cannot escape his 
father without killing his mother, he may slay both father and mother at 
once. Thus they may deprive any of life, not only when they are actually 
assaulted, but before any blow is given. When a man perceives one coming 
towards him with his weapon ready, and fears he is not able to deal with him, 
he may shoot him dead at a distance. 8 Nor need he be hindered by the con- 
sideration that killing him in such circumstances (since he is in mortal sin), 
will be the destruction both of body and soul together. Soto objects this 
to himself, but abates nothing of his conclusion notwithstanding. Yea, he 
answers, that to hold it not lawful to kill in this case (with the destruction of 
the slain man's soul too), is both to pervert the law of nature, and to render 

1 Aliqui affirmant non tantum id licere, Bed etiam matrem teneri talera sectionem 
procurare, et ferre, ne illius infans sine baptiamo interest— Pet. a 8. Joseph, ibid. 
p. 220. 

* Bonacin ibid, punct. viii. n. iv. ubi Sylvester, Julias Claras, et alii communiter. 

* Si non possum effugere quin me percntias, nisi tainterflciam, licite te interflcio. 
— Angel. Sam. v. defens. n iv. ; ibi Bartolus, Florranus, Navar. cap. xv. n. iv. ; 
Lopez, part i. c. lxii. ; Pet. a S. Joseph, ibid. p. 221 ; Bonacin. ibid. n. iii. et alii com- 
muniter. 

4 Angel. Sum. v. homicid. iii. n. ii. ; Sylvest. v. homicid. i. n. xiii. ; Graff. 1. ii. 
c Ixiv. n. viii. 

6 Bonacin. ibid. n. v. ibi. Bartolus* Gomez, et alii. 

6 Pet. a S. Joseph, ibid. p. 222 et 280. ; Bonacin. ibid. n. iii. ; ubi Pet. Navar. 
Sotus, Julius Claras, Rodriguez. 

1 Petrus a S. Joseph, de v. precept, art. ii. p. 228 ; Pet. Navar. de restit. 1. i. c. iii. 
n. cxlvii. ; Bonacin. ibid, punct. vii. n. i. ubi Julius Claras. Corduba. Cajetan. et alii. 

8 Graff. 1. ii. & lxiv. n. iv. ; Soto de Just, et jure. 1. v. q. i. art. viii. p. 148. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



216 WHAT CUIUS ABB [CHAP. IX 

the sweet and easy yoke of Christ intolerable. 1 They give further instances 
wherein they will have it no sin to kill a person that has not yet touched 
them ; it is sufficient, in their account, if they know that he is prepared for 
it, yea, or does but design it. In case one be shut up in a house or a city, 
so that he cannot get out, and knows there is one in the town that designs 
upon his life, and waits but an opportunity to execute it, he may prevent the 
designer, and fall upon him unawares, and kill him.* They declare it lawful 
for a man to kill his wife taken in adultery ; but then they allow the adul- 
teress to be beforehand with her husband, and kill him first if she can : she 
may despatch him with the poison prepared for her, or stab him with the 
weapon he has ready, and so secure her adultery by murder, and yet be 
innocent. 1 

They maintain it is lawful to kill others to secure their goods ; so it is no 
sin with them to take away the life of him that would take away part of their 
goods by night or day ; 4 yea, if he that steals makes no resistance or defence, 
but flies, he may be pursued and slain, to recover what he has taken. And 
although the goods may be recovered otherwise, and in a legal way, yet if it 
be not certain that he may get them with the greatest ease, but doubtful that 
it may give him some trouble, he may use his liberty, and send him to hell 
to save himself a little trouble. 6 But of what value must the goods be 
(that we may discern at what rate they set the life and soul of a man) ? It 
must not (says Soto) be a vile thing ; it should not be so little worth as two 
or three ducats. 4 So that it seems, if what is stolen be of the value of about 
twenty shillings, a man may be killed for it, and his body and soul destroyed 
together ; and since a crown or a shilling may be more to some than twenty 
to others, those who follow him might well infer from hence, that a man's 
life might be taken away for a crown or less ; yea for an apple, since to some 
persons, that may be of more value than the sums mentioned. Accordingly, 
they conclude expressly, that he who takes a thing, the owner or keeper of 
it seeing, and offering to hinder him, may be lawfully slain for it, though it 
be but of the value of one crown or less either, 7 because thereby he offers an 
affiront. That is another ground of their lawful murder. A man, they avow, 
may kill others for his honour or reputation ; 8 for though it be so slight a 
thing, that it will be scarce a fault in a man to throw it away himself (as we 
heard before), yet they will have him maintain it at the expense of the blood 
and life of others, and his own too. For example, if he sees one approach 
to assault him, though he might avoid the danger by retiring, yet be may 
kill him rather than so avoid it ;' because it would be a disparagement to 
him to fly, and so rather than suffer the least, in the repute of the injudi- 
cious rabble, he may be the death of any person, and be a man of blood, 
that he may be the master of such honour, as a truly generous spirit must 
despise. They advance further yet : if one should offer to give a person a 

1 Ibid. * Graff. 1. ii. c. Ixiv. n. v. 

8 Navar. c. xv. n. iii. ; Lopez, o. Ixii. p. 311 ; Bonacin. de restit. d. ii. q. ult. p. 9, 
n. ii. ; ubi. Julius Claris, Bannes, Rodriguez, Corduba et alii. 

4 Soto. ibid. ; Graff, ibid. n. xviL ; Lopez, cap. Ixii. ; Navar. c xv. n. ii. ; ibi Cajetan. 
Antoninus, Sylvester. 

6 Non licet fureni occidere— si spes esset certissima quod facillimo negotio recuperari 
posset — ubi autem res esset dubia, posset liberum esse domino jure uta sua — Soto. ibid. 

8 Ibid. p. 144. 

7 Etiamsi res sit valoris unius aurei aut minoris — videtur posse oocidi. — Bonacin. 
de restit. d. ii. q. ult. p. 10, n. i. 

8 Comuniter omnes docent. Vid. Victorel. add. Tol. 1. v. a vi. Famam suam — 
negligere et prodigere potest sine peccato. Fet. 8. Joseph, de. viii. prrecept. art. ii. ; 
vid. Navar. c. xviii. n. xxvii. 

• Soto, ibid. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no sins in theib account. 217 

blow with a cudgel, or a light switch ; l he that is offered such an affront 
may lawfully kill him for it, especially in Spain, where this is counted a 
great injury, says Soto. And elsewhere, a box on the ear may be resented 
as such an injury. Accordingly, others determine that he who gives it may 
lawfully be slain for it, yea, or he that does but offer it.* If he be any 
person of any moment that is thus attempted, he need not stay till he feel 
it, but may prevent it by killing him that offers it, if there be no other hon- 
ourable way to avoid it. He need not fly to avoid it, if that would be a 
disgrace, for he is not obliged to suffer such an inconvenience, though by 
retiring he might save both his own life and the aggressor's, says Bonacina 
after others. In this manner, when one smites them on the cheek, do they 
turn the other ; and thus do they comply exactly with Christ's advice, by 
stabbing him to the heart, who smites their cheek, or does but offer at it 1 

The same they determine of ill language ; that is with them a sufficient 
ground to kill men. In the judgment of all, says Navarre, it is lawful to kill 
him that gives reproachful words, when there is no other way to avoid the 
injury, 3 and the words being once past, there is no preventing them. Thus, 
killing men may be as common as provoking language, when such language, by 
their doctrine, may be as common as any they speak. They teach that it is 
but a venial fault, ten thousand of which he may commit every day or every 
hour without endangering his soul, to give one the lie, to call him a fool, a 
bastard, Ac.* And then they declare it lawful to slay men for such words, 
as if it were their design to have it thought tolerable for men to do nothing 
else but kill one another; and shedding man's blood were no more to be 
avoided than such faults as they encourage the continual practice of. They 
proceed further yet, and conclude it lawful to kill one, not only for contu- 
melious words, but for mere signs of such import, when an ill word is not 
spoken, suppose such motion of the tongue, or lips, or nose, or fingers, as 
are accounted an affront. 6 This is after the Roman mode to imitate Christ, 
and comply with the apostles' rule in laying down their lives for their 
brethren, when they take away their lives for a foul word or an untoward 
gesture. But what if one who gives such a blow, or such language, or the 
like affront, should run for it when he has done, is it lawful to pursue him 
to force satisfaction from him, though it be by the Iobs of his life ? Yes, 
say they, the person affronted may pursue him, and strike him till he have 
reparation of his honour, though it be by killing him. 6 

They speak favourably of duels. Cajetan says, princes may permit them 
lawfully among their subjects, as the stews are permitted upon reasonable 
considerations ; 7 so that it seems they may farm out this liberty, as the 

1 8i quia quempiam aggrederetur, at eum fuste levissirae percuteret, posset id alter 
etiam hostem interimendo repellere. Ibid. Victoria. Navar. et Sylvester in Fill. tr. 
xxix. n. 1. 

* Ad vitandum vulnus vel alapam— potest occidere. Navar. c. xv. n. iv. ; Lopez, 
p. i. c lxii. p. 816. ; Bonacin. ibid. n. vi et alii. 

* Ex omnium sententia licet contumeliosum occidere, cum aliud non manet reme- 
dinm earn injnriam arcendi. de restit. 1. c ii. iii. n. ccclxxvi. vid. Bonacin. et apud 
enm plnres infra. 

4 Vid. Navar. c. xviii. n. xxiii. xxiv. 

6 Posse occidi qui afficit contnmeliis atrocibns sive per verba sive per signa. 
Bonacin de reetit. disp. ii. q. alt p. 10, n. vii. ibi. Gomez. Bodriguez, Lopez. Pet. 
Navar. Julius Claras et alii. 

* Poesit eum peraequi, et percntere tantnm, quantum ad sui honoris defensionem 
opus esset — etiam occidendo. M. Navar. c. xv. n. iv. ; Pet. Navarra. ibid. n. ccclxxx. ; 
Rodriguez, Lopez, et alii in Bonacin. ibid. n. viii. plurimi apud Henri quez. Sum. 
1. xiv. c x. 

7 Sum v. duellnm. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



218 WHAT CRIMES ABB [CHAP. IK. 

pope does the other. Bannes determines that an innocent person may either 
accept or offer combat, not only to secure his life or estate, bnt his reputa- 
tion, when he cannot otherwise do it. Such a person, when one goes about 
to accuse him falsely before a judge, and he is like thereby to be defamed, 
may challenge him and kill him lawfully. 1 This he reports as Cajetan's 
opinion, and counts it more than probable. But there is no need of duels in 
the case ; they discover a way to despatch men more effectually with lees 
notice and less hazard to the murderers, allowing them to kill any privily 
to secure their repute. The same Dominican, in the case mentioned, con- 
cludes, that if the accuser, being admonished, will not desist, the aggrieved 
person, in defence of his concerns, may kill him. 8 Not only judicial accusa- 
tions, but more private aspersions, are counted a sufficient ground to kill 
men. He who, by whispers and detraction, endeavours to wrong and befcpot 
another, if the infamy and disgrace cannot otherwise be avoided, it will be 
lawful to slay him. 3 So Pet. Navarre, who gives reasons why he thinks it more 
advisable to kill a defamer privily than in a duel ; nor need he stay till he 
be actually aspersed, but when one threatens, or signfies he will do it, he 
may lawfully prevent it by killing him. Forty-nine doctors are produced 
in favour of this. Prado, an eminent Dominican, says it is the common 
doctrine of Aquinas his followers. 4 

These are some of the maxims which serve so much to furnish those who 
design upon men's lives with lawful occasion to murder, and tend so plainly 
to fill all places with blood and slaughters, without leaving any man security 
of his life, that even some Jesuits, though they deny not that they may be 
probable in speculation, yet seem shy to allow their common practice. But 
this is rejected by others, and so the Jesuits' cautiousness and moderation 
counted unreasonable, seeing that in matters of morality, 6 what is specu- 
latively probable, i. e. safe and lawful, in point of conscience, must, as such, 
be admitted in practice. 6 Indeed, though there be no charge more odious 
upon the Society than their doctrine of murder, yet, so far as I can discern, 
they are outdone here by others, both in numbers and extravagancy. How- 
ever, the maxims, to diminish the horror of which the Jesuits seem solicitous, 
are now the common doctrine in that church ; the divinity of her schools 
and doctors generally being advanced to such a pitch as to bid defiance to 
common humanity. And if the civil laws did give as much liberty to 
murder as their rules for conscience do, desolation would soon be brought 
upon the face of the earth. 

Sect. 8. For uncleanness, they are very favourable to it, they seem to 
condemn the consummation of the act, but scarce anything else, and not 
that neither in every kind. They give up the outworks which should secure 
them from this sin ; they admit its approaches, they encourage sinners to 
venture upon the occasions, even such as have very often ensnared them in 
this wickedness. Any confitent, they teach, ought to be absolved, though 
he do not purpose to avoid any occasions which lead to it, unless they be 
such as he does or ought to believe, he can seldom or never use without per- 

1 In ii. 2, q. Ixiv. art, vii dub. iv. concl. ii. • Ibid. 

8 Qui nmrmuratione et detractione injuriam maculamqne inferre conatur, licebit, 
si aliter infamiam et dedecus fugere non potest, occidere. De restit. 1. ii. c. iii. 
n. ccclxxvi. Calumniatorem occulte occidere licet. Duvatiins Doctor Sorbonicus de 
Charit. q. xvii. a. i. Sayrns. Gas. Gonsc c. xvii. n. xxii. xxiii. 

4 Theol. Moral, torn. ii. c. x. q. iv. n. xiv. 

5 Opinio speculative probabilis, est practice probabilis. Serra, Leander, Spinola, Jo. 
Henriquez, Narbona, A versa, Machado, in Diana, partx. tr. xi Resol. xlvii. 

6 Vid. Jo. Sane disp. xliv. n. lxiii. et disp. liv. n. xi. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. IX] mo sins in theib account. 219 

pretrating the deadly act. 1 So that, though he very frequently fall thereby 
into nncleanness, yet unless he believe they will, quasi semper, in a manner 
always overthrow him, he may make bold with them. 3 To go into* place or 
company, where the sight of any, their persuasions or opportunities, expose 
him to the danger of sinning, though he do it without necessity, is of itself 
no great fault, says Cretan ; 3 and if he find, that he can for some time with- 
stand the temptation, and do not in,a manner presently fall, statim aut quasi 
statim, though he find himself weak, yet he may venture on them without 
any necessary occasion, as the cardinal leaves us to conclude from what he 
there adds. A confessor does well who absolves those who will not express 
any purpose to avoid converse with such women, by which he hath very often 
sinned every way, both by desire, words, shameful touches, yea, and the 
very act of nncleanness ; because this is such an occasion as is not deadly 
in itself, nor does make them, fere semper, commit deadly sin. 4 Those 
women or servants who have committed lewdness with their masters or 
others in the house, yea, though they be their kinsmen, may be absolved, 
though they still live together, if they cannot leave them without great in- 
convenience or damage ; 5 provided if they be truly sorry for what is past, 6 
and intend to sin no more, and think they shall not ; yea, though after this 
they fall many times into the same wickedness, 7 of fornication, adultery, or 
incest, and do not avoid the occasion, yet still they may be absolved. And 
this liberty is not restrained to houses where they live together, 8 he extends 
it to other houses also. He that hath secretly committed filthiness diverse 
ways, with a friend or a kinswoman in another house, may be absolved, 
though he do not intend to forsake that house. 9 Or if the occasions he meets 
with in private houses do not satisfy him, he may venture into the common 
stews, but then it ought to be with a good intent. A man may go to a 
common whore, with confidence that he may convert her, though there be 

1 Qua credit, vol credere debet, confessarius vel pamitens, nunquam vel raro usuruin 
ea, sine peceato mortali — Navar. c iii. n. xiv. 

* Non vitare hujusmodi occasionem est peccatum mortale, at talis est occasio, qua 
credit so fere semper ad sic peccandum impulsum iri. — Ibid. 

9 Eundo ad locum sive societatem ubi est periculum peccandi mortaliter propter 
aspectum, persuasiones, opportunitates ant aliquid hujusmodi. Et hoc quidem si sine 
vegente necessitate sit, ad incanteta peccatum spectat— Si experientia teste didicit so 
non subsistere in hnjusmodi, sed statim ant quasi statim cacjere, nulla necessitate vin • 
catur, nt illnc eat, aut ibi moretur. — Sum. v. peric. peccandi. 

4 Recte facinnt confessarii absolvendo mnltos adolescentes, qui versantur inter 
mnlieres, emendo, vendendo, laborando et conversando absque cohabitatione in eadem 
domo: licet non proponant perpetuo abstinere ab occasions peccandi, quam id illis 
probet, quamvis ssspius peccent volnntate, verbo, ant tactibus impudicis, et etiam 
copula, quia occasio qu» ex hoc prnbetur ad peccandum, non est ex se peccatum mor- 
tiferum, neqne hnjusmodi, ut fere semper faciat mortaliter peccare eos qui ea ntuntur. 
— Navar. ibid. n. xvii. 

* Possunt abeolvi, sine separatione, cognate), ancille, ac famuta, qns3 rem habnerunt. 
cnm suis consangnineis dominis vel his in quorum domo degunt, concurrentibus 
quatuor predictis : quorum quartum sell, causa notabilis, est quod non possunt sine 
magno incommodo, et detrimento separari, n. xxi. i. 

* 1. Vera psenitudo proteritorum. 2. Vernm propositum non peccandi. 8. Cre- 
dnlitas quod Deo juvante non peccabit. n. xv. 

7 An poasint absolvi pnedicta iterum absque separatione si reciderint? Videtur nobis 
posse, concurrentibus pradictis quatuor. Et idem dicendum arbitror de tertia et 
quarta vice, quia non solum semel aut bis, vel septies, sed etiam septnagies sexties est 
parcendum. — Ibid. n. xxi. 

8 Those that keep concubines may.be rightly absolved upon the same terms, without 
parting from them, n. xix. 

9 Idem dicendum est de illo, qui ooculte rem, aut impudicos tactus habet cnm aliqua 
consanguinea, aut alia sibi arnica in alia domo agente ; soil, enm absolvi posse, sine pro- 
posito nunquam ingrediendi earn, n. xxii. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



/ WHAT CRIMES ABE [CHAP. IX. 

danger, and it is probable that he will commit filthiness with her. 1 And so 
any, their religious brothers or fathers not excepted, may seek the conversa- 
tion of common whores, though they see imminent danger that they shall 
make no better use of the strumpets than those who come. to them with the 
worst design. 

They are as indulgent to unclean thoughts, as to lewd and ensnaring 
company. To entertain filthy thoughts,, 2 to delight in those thoughts, and 
to consent to that delight, 3 is either no sin, or but venial ; says Sylvester 
and others. They distinguish betwixt the unclean act and the thought of it. 
Cajetan, though he would not have the act to be the object of delight, 
yet he allows any to take pleasure, not only in the thought, but in the special 
manner of the act. 4 If a man do not observe what he is delighting in, while 
he is pleasing himself with such thoughts ; yea, if he do not folly consider it, 
though he entertain himself with this mental pleasure a whole day together, 
it will not be sinful delight. 6 Lust, with a perfect inadvertency,* will not 
be mortal ; when the delight of it so invades the mind, says Lopez, 7 nor 
needs he resist such delight, or repel these thoughts, 8 if he believe they will 
not engage him further, or if he thinks that by resistance they will grow upon 
him ; or if it would hinder him from some necessary, or profitable, or 
honest employment, such as the study or reading of filthy things, which pro- 
voke such delight, is in their account. 9 They are no more rigorous as to 
obscene words, filthy songs, lascivious writings and discourses. They sin 
not, says Navarre, whether they be men or women, who see, or read, or hear, 
or speak any filthy things, men to women, or women to men, such as provoke 
to uncleanness, if it be upon an honest occasion ; 10 now, it must needs be an 

1 Si qnis certus esiet de convertenda muliere prostitute, si acoederit ad persuadendum 
illi viam salutis, potest, in quit, accedere, etiamsi ex tali accessu, immineat aibi probabile 
periculum peecandi cum ilia. — Soto, in Lopez, cap. liii. p. 275. Prodentis charitatis 
fervor nonnunquam hominem animat. ut ad convertendas perditas mulierea, cum aliquo 
suo perioulo earum colloquium adeat. — Soto de Just. 1. v. q. i. art vi. Vide plurimoa 
sequentes D. Thomam dicentem, quod exponens se periculo peooandi, causa urgente, non 
pecoat, Navar. Cordub. Cajetan. Armill. Castro. &c. in Jo. Saac disp. x. n. rui. 

* Si quis de modis et iuventionibus fornicandi specnletur, sola quadan novitate, et 
curiositate intelligendi bos modos adductus, non erit mortale. —Lopes, e. Ixxiv. p. 355. 

8 Non tamen est peccatum mortale consentire in deleotationem cogitationis, qua* est 
de peocato mortali, sed est veniale quando oogitatio est inutilis : vel nullum, puta cam 
quis utiliter cogitat. Sum. v. delect, n. ii. ; Lopez, ibid. 

4 Si delectatio sit de miris et similibus modis, non est delectatio morosa : quam modi 
isti suit admirabiles, et natural iter delectabiles cogitanti animss. — Sum. v. delect, moras. 

Sicut nee est (mortale) delectari in modo operandi scelua aliquod : licet non in ipso 
scelesto opere, ut in modis oooupandi regnum — sicut etiam in speculaiione variorum 
modorum coituum, dum absit periculum consentiendi Lopez, e. lxxv. 

6 Si circa id non advertere t» quamvis diem integrum delectatio perdoraret, non pec- 
caret mortaliter. Neque satis est advertere nisi integreadvertat secundum Cajetanum. 
Navar. o. ii. n. xii. ; Cajetan. Sum. v. delectat. p. 112 ; Graff. 1. ii. e. lxxvii. n. ii. 

Si vero advertere incipit, et prsevalente impetu ©oncitat® pasaionis non pleneadvertit: 
sed antequam plene advertit delectatio facit suum cursum, peccatum non mortale sed 
veniale intervenit. — Cajetan. ibid. Non sit signum sufficiens ad probandnm consensom 
taciturn, sola perseverentia delectatiouis post advertentiam.— ifa'd 

6 Qu. ' imperfect advertency V — Ed. 

7 Ad mortale requiritur advertentia plena, quia non satis est imperfecta, quae ex prse- 
valente impetu passionis solet causari, libido cum tali inadvertentia imperfecta non erit 
mortalis, quando sic ejus oomplacentia itupetit nientem. — Cap. lxxxv. p. 359. 

8 Navar. cap. xi. n. xii. ; Lopez, ex mente Cajetani et MetiosB. ibid. ; Graff. L ii. c. 
lxxvii. n. iii., iv., v. ; Cajetan. ibid. p. 113. 

9 Non esset culpa — si delectationem illam omisisset expel lere, ne suam oocopataouem 
honestam et necessariam, aut utilem derelinqueret, quale est stadium et lectio rerum 
impudicarum, ad hujusmodi deleotationes provocantium. — Navar. ibid. 

10 Qui ad piaedicaudum, &c, aut alloqueudum fsemioas ex causa honesta cum sintipsi 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. IX.] mo sins in theie account. 

honest occasion when this is done, while they are at church for divine ser- 
vice ; and there they have used it. Church music is now so licentious, 
says one, that filthy ditties are sung to the organ, and keep time even with 
the canon of the mass, 1 the most sacred part of that which they count most 
sacred ; and Cajetan informs us, that in their church this is the practice 
everywhere, to sing to the organ amorous and filthy songs ; a and that such 
cleanly stuff is in the person of the church offered to God, 3 instead of re- 
sponsals and divine praises, and that experience witnesses that the hearers 
are thereby excited to profane and filthy things. 4 He allows not this indeed, 
but in some, and with limitation, laying the blame of the rest upon the 
pastors of their church, who seek not, as he says, the things of Christ ;* and 
would have us believe the church approves it not, when yet he allows it to 
be the common practice everywhere. 6 It seems, she does but tolerate filthi- 
ness in the church, as she does in the stews, that she may be holy uniformly 
everywhere. However, if any one should, out of simplicity, think it lawful 
to mix profane and filthy songs with divine worship for recreation sake, be- 
cause he sees that this custom hath commonly prevailed, Navarre would 
excuse him from mortal sin, as Lopez tells us. 7 

And so will Lopez excuse him too, provided the songs mixed with divine 
service be not too grossly filthy, and excessively lascivious. 8 

And so he may well excuse those who sing obscene or lascivious songs in 
the church, but not in divine service, as he seems to do those who sing to one 
another filthy rhymes on the evening of the nativity, when they are asking 
benedictions. 9 |It seems that is the usual way to get their church blessings ; 
but the custom of that church needs no timorous advocate ; this can plead 
for itself, and is wont to stand as good as any law whatever, that of God not 
excepted. 10 

Their sacrament of penance also is an honest occasion ; and there in con- 
fessions, as one of their bishops informs us, the priests inquire after such 
obscene and shameful things (instilling thereby into their ears unheard of 
filthiness and lasciviousness) as cannot without the blushing of the confitents 
of either sex, and without provoking the wanton appetite of the confessor, 
be well expressed in any words. u 

viri, vol contra viros, earn sins ipsa fssminsa, vident, legnnt, audinnt, ant dicunt aliqua 
tnrpia, ant talia, qn» illam provocant. Ii enim quamvis possint, non sunt tamen obligati 
ad omittendum id quod faoiunt, quo pollutionis eventum impediant. — Idem, o. xvi. n. vii. 

I Hodie vero tanta estmusicra Hcentia at etiam ana cum missae ipsins canone obsczenffi 
cantiuncule, etiam in organis pares vices habeant — Corn. Agripp. de Vanit. Seient.e. xvii. 

* Tnrpes et amatorias cantilenas. 

* Loco antiphonarum et divin» landis offeruntur, ex ipsins ecclesto persona, pro- 
phana baec a falsarijs ministris. — Sum. v. Organ, p. 463. 

4 Andientes ex illo sono exoitantur ad ilia prophana seu tnrpia, ut experientia testa- 
tnr, its quod non est locos icficiationi. — Ibid. 454. 

* Quia ecclesiastioi pastores non quaasierant qu» Jean Christi sunt 

6 Ubtque sio vident fieri. 

7 Si aliqnis rnstica simplicitate pntaret lioere dmno cnltni recreandi animi gratia, 
miscere cantilenas profanas et tnrpes, quia videt commnniter in his nsnm invaluisse : 
exensaretnr a mortali ; ita Navarras, oajas sententiam esse veram jndico, si loquatnr de 
simpHcibns rnsticis, &c.— Cap. Ii. p. 263. 

8 Dummodo tales cantns non sint adeo patenter tnrpes, et nimis lascivi. — Pars. ii. 
cap. xxxi. p. 188. 

9 Addit vero Navarras, bod esse lethale crimen, sic extra divinnm officinal cantare in 
eoclesia cantilenam torpem et lascivam, videtnr qne excusare contra Sotnm ritbmos tur- 
pes sibi occinentes in nocte nativitatis Domini, tempore quo petunt benedictiones, licet 
non aperte eos exooset. — Ibid. p. 264. 

10 The custom of the church is of equal authority, and to be received with the same 
pious affection "with the Scripture. — Ooune. Basil, retp. Synod, torn. iv. Surg. 

II Qnibusdam interrogationum fonnulis, circa scrupnlo as peccatorum differential ob- 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



222 WHAT OBIMEB ABB [CHAP. IX. 

Farther, they allow persons to entertain themselves with pleasure condi- 
tionally, upon snpposal that they were married together, if the act he not 
respected as present. 1 They grant liberty to make use of such things as 
provoke lust. He may be absolved who, by eating of hot meats, hath fallen 
into grievous temptations of the flesh, and has been drawn to consent to 
pollution or fornication, though he hath no purpose to avoid such provoking 
meats, this being done with the provisoes before mentioned. 2 They are 
no more severe against immodest touches or shameful sights. To suffer 
touches from one who is thought to do it out of honest love or custom, is no 
great fault ; 3 but if it proceed from lust, in order to the act of uncleanneas 
or impure delights, she sins if she avoids them not ; and this holds if she 
can avoid them without scandal (say they) which signifies they account it no 
sin to yield to this impure treatment, since none are obliged to give way to sin 
for the avoiding of scandal. He that by ensnaring sights, viewing another's 
nakedness, Ac., hath been often drawn to sin, may be absolved, though he 
do not propose to avoid such temptations, with the forementioned cautions. 4 

Men and women viewing one another's nakedness {pudenda vel partes 
vicinas) may be excused, if it be but for curiosity, and a short time, without 
danger of great commotion. 1 

The beholding of filthy sights, for natural or sensual pleasure, when there 
is no danger of passing into unclean thoughts (id est, passing through the 
mire when there is no danger of being dirtied), is no crime. 6 Those who, 
upon pretence of spiritual mortification, make women strip themselves 
naked, to discipline them, sin mortally, if lust were the principal cause of 
it, says Sylvester, 7 leaving us to think, that if lust be but a less principal 
motive to do it, it is but a small fault or none. In fine, they account it 
no crime to offer no hearty opposition unto temptation. He (says De Graf- 
fiis) who coldly resists temptation, so that it returns upon him, and invades 
his soul a second and a third time, because he resists so coldly, sins not 
mortally, if there be no danger of consenting ; & as if there could be no dan- 
ger to consent when there is little or no mind to resist. 

scaena et impudioa qusedam exquirnnt, qnro sine utriusque sexus interrogati (onjas 
anribus inaudit® turpitndines et lascivias instillantar) rubore, et interrogantis inhonesti 
appetitus titillatione, vix ullis verbis, ant ne vix quiaem, enuntiari poasint. — Fontiut. 
Tyardceus. Evitc. Cabilon. p. 35. 
1 Cajetan. Sum. v. delect p. 116; Metina et Victoria in Lopes, o. lzzv. pp. 356, 357. 

8 Absolvi potest ille, qui ob esum rerum oalidaram incidit in adeo graves carnis 
tentationes, tit etim aliquando impulerint ad consentiendum pollutioni vel fornicationi, 
sine proposito nunquam in posterum sic edendi. Conourrentibus quatuor praodictis. — 
Aavar. c. iii. n. xxv. 

9 Non peccat mortaliter, quae patitnr tactns vel oscnla ab eo, quern credit moved 
honeeto amore, secus vero si ab eo quern credit moveri libidinoso amore ad actum 
venereum, vel delectationem morosam. Quod procedit, quando potest vitare sine 
scandalo eorum, qui de libidine non suspicantur. Graff. 1. ii. c. lxxi*. n. xi. ; Lopez, 
cap. lxxv. p. 860. Neque pati tactus impudicos lioitum est famine, quando sine 
scandalo potest eos vitare. 

* Idem dicendum est (i. e. absolvi potest) de persona, qui— quia videt lavantes 
fserainas in flumine, aut viros natantes, aut ex aspectu pedum, crurum, pectorum, Ac, 
aut aliorum ejus generis, scope peccavit. Navar. ibid. n. xxvii. 

6 Bonacin. torn. i. pp. 8, 8. 

• Cajetan. Navar. Medina, in Fill. tr. xxx. n. ccxv. Videre faminas aut viros — ad 
solam delectationem carnalem, qu» ex vieione insurgit, solum est veniaJe, ut notat 
Cajetan. Idemque dicendum de auditu et locutione rerum venerearum, si delectatio non 
transit ad res ipsas in Tol. 1. v. c. xiv. 

7 Quid de his qui sub specie spirituals mortificationis faciunt muliores coram so 
nudare ut disciplinas inferant? Et dico quod non est dubium, eos pecoare mortaliter, 
si libido sit principaliter in causa. — Sum, v. delect, n. vii. 

8 Non peccat mortaliter is qui tarn tepid© resistit tentationi, ut secundo et tertio 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. IX.] no bins in their account. 228 

They teach that a man, suspecting his wife is an adulteress, may with a 
good intent offer her the occasion to commit adultery without sin. Also 
that a servant is excused (when declining it would be a great inconvenience) 
if he accompany his master when he goes a- whoring ; because here is a just 
occasion, and the action is of itself honest. 1 And a maid too, if she go 
along with a whore to the house of her lover, to act filthiness with him, or 
opens the door for him on such occasion. And so is a servant likewise to 
be excused, when he is sent to bring a whore to his master's lodging, or 
carries presents, or an epistle, or a message, or writes letters, when the 
contents are to have a whore come to him, at such a time ; or any such 
(with them) indifferent thing, unless there be an express desire of the 
filthy act. 2 

Such encouragement they give to use the preparatives, and play with the 
incentives, and dally with the temptations to lust and actual uncleanness. 
For the act itself, how little they make of self-pollution we have seen 
before, they conclude that single pollution (though a sin against nature) is of 
itself no sin at all, 3 and so they may desire it beforehand, 4 or delight in it 
when it is past, 6 for an honest end, and use the incentives, if it be but for 
gluttony. Moreover, whoredom itself has excessive favour and encourage- 
ment from this holy church. This is too plain by their authors, and their 
practice, to be denied ; and too heinous to be excused by any but those who 
have a mind to have mortal sins to pass for small, or no faults. It seems it 
is no sin to build stews for the entertainment of common whores, and the 
best accommodation of them for their trade of uncleanness. Pope Sixtus 
did it, as Cornelius Agrippa tells us, 6 and they were so multiplied long since, 
that as one of their doctors observes, under Christ's vicars, and Peter's 
successors, urbs est jam tola lupanar, now the whole city is one whore- 
house. 7 It is no sin to farm out whoredom, and to take so much ahead of 
the strumpets weekly for their practice. 8 The pope's holiness hath done it 
long at Borne, and does it to this day ; and the whores daily commit lewd- 
ness, not only for themselves, but for the pope, their benefactor's, advan- 
tage, who is to share in their gain : they drive this trade for him. And the 
number of his farmers was so great long since, that they brought him in yearly 
an intrado of above twenty thousand ducats, a great sum then, and pro- 
bably very much improved since. Such an abominable tribute, nature, even 
corrupted, blushes at; but that Holiness at Borne thinks it no shame to main- 
tain his honour and state, as Christ's vicar, by the hire of whores. Evagrius 
extolling Anastasius the emperor for abolishing such a detestable practice, 

regrediatur ad pulsandam mentem, eo quod solum tepide resistit, secluso periculo 
consentiendi. — Sylv. v. delect. ; Graff. 1. ii. c. lxxvii. n. ix. 

1 Jo. Sane. diss, xm. n. xii. 

1 Bonacin. torn. i. p. 828, ibi. M. Navar. P. Navar. Zerola. 

8 Non est in se peccatum, secundum omnes. — flavor, c. xvi. n. vii. 
4 Cajetanus. Sylvester, et alii ibid. 

6 Aquinas. Paludanus et communis, ibid. Si autem placeat, ut est exoneratio naturae, 
non creditor peccatum — appetere pollutionem in somnis sine omni delectatione propter 
alleviationem naturae, non est peccatum : sed dare operam, utendo calidis, vel alio 
modo, esset mortali peccatum, si propter hoc facit. Secus si faceret propter gulosita- 
tera, dubitando nihilominus de ea, quia sic esset veniale peccatum. — Angel. Sum. v. 
pollut. n. ii. 

9 Becentioribus temporibus Sixtus Pontifex maximus nobile admodum lupanar 
Bomse extruxit. — De vanit. scient cap. lxiv. 

7 Nunc vero sub Christ! vicariis et Petri successoribus, ut alius quidam cecinit — 
urbs est jam tota lupanar. — Espencceu* d$ Continent. 1. iii. c. iv. 

8 Bomana scorta in singulas hebdomadas /tttftim Pontiflci pendant?— Agrippa. ibid. 
vol. m. e e 



Digitized by 



Google 



224 WHAT CRIMES ABE [CHAP. IX. 

brands it as a wretched tribute, abominable to God, and shameful to the 
most barbarous people ; as that which was a reproach to nature itself and 
the civil government ; as that which did, as it were, by a law authorise this 
wickedness. 1 Nor do the popish writers deny that it is as bad as he repre- 
sents it ; and yet, since the pope hath made it a custom, they have the con- 
fidence to justify it. Hear one of their prime penitentiaries: The gain, 
says he, or tribute for whoredom, is by the common law a deadly crime ; 
and Nicephorus says it is a filthy gain, detestable, absurd, hateful, and which 
the most savage barbarians may be ashamed of. 3 What then ? Is he or the 
great bishop ashamed of it ? You may know how by what he adds imme- 
diately. Yet, says he, because of the custom, which passes for a law, the 
pope consenting to it in the lands of the church, non est peccatum, it is no 
sin, it ought to be paid. 3 So that the pope's will and interest, passing into 
custom, can make that to be no sin, which nature, law, history, and their 
own consciences condemn as a most horrid crime, and that well becomes 
his holiness, which the worst barbarians would detest No wonder, then, 
if they conclude it lawful for any to let their houses to harlots, though 
they know they take them for the practice of whoredom ; the trade is so 
good, they can pay higher rents than others. No wonder their casuists and 
divines determine so many things in favour of whores ; what they receive 
for their detestable practice is not to be accounted a reward only, but a law- 
ful debt ; 4 thus their divines conclude, while their conscience extorts this 
from them, dolendum tamen est, debitum esse ob scelus putatum. And so they 
may demand it, and recover it, and have patrons and officers for their assist- 
ance ; that whoredom may be practised by rules of justice, and they may 
force the payment, though there was no price agreed on, 6 nor is the whore 
bound to make restitution, though she take more than her due, 6 nor is it 
necessary she should give any of it to the poor. 7 And they are as punctual 
in resolving prostitutes and their customers about the price of this staple 
commodity, as about the lawfulest negotiations in the world. 8 Who may sell 
themselves to serve the lusts of others, at what rate, what liberty they have 
to take a price, answerable to the just value, how the value may be com- 
puted, and how they may improve it, &c. Though filthiness in a woman be 
a fault, yet it is no fault filthily to set it to sale. 9 A man may satisfy the 

1 TiXf iXtutit r% «*) dupuru, mm) fl«£0«t«r iivriiv ituk\w % &C., l.i ii. cap. XXXJX. p. 567. 
Hist. Ecclea. 

8 Lucrum vel tributum ex meretricum opera quaerere, inspecto jure communi, pec- 
catum mortale est, et a Nicephoro. 1. xvi. c. xl. Hist. Eccl. dicitur vectigal impurum. 
detestabile, absurdum Deoque invisum, fens quibusque barbaris indignum et execran- 
dum piaculum. 

8 Ratione tamen consuetudinis. quae pro lege habetur, et consentiente rege in terris 
suis, et Papa in terris ecclesiae,' non est peccatum, ideo est solvendum. — Graff. 1. ii. 
c. cxxiii. n. v. 

4 Meretricem promissam, ob turpem usum corporis, mercedem, tanquam debitam 
posse petere, negat Navar. Aiunt probabilius Lopez, Soto. Gajetan. Covarruvias — nam 
pretium illud debitum est jure naturae : dolendum tamen est, debitum esse ob scelus 
putatum. Victorel. in ToL 1. v. o. xix. vid Soto, de Just, et Jur. 1. iv. q. vii. art i. 
p. 128. 

5 Qui illis statum pretium non solveret, cogeretur in foro judiciali. — Idem. ibid. Graff, 
ibid, n.iii. n. viii. Potest illud meretrix petere in judicio. Illis solis lege decreta sunt 
pretia. — Soto. ibid. 

6 Graff, ibid. n. ii. ; Navar. c. xvii. n. xxxiv. 

7 Graff, ibid. n. ii. 

8 Ratio Cajetani, viz. quod usus meretricis est materia vendibilis et non rei sacne 
qnam Sotus et recentiores magni facere videntur. — In Navar. c. xvii. n. xxxv. 

9 Licet turpi ter faciat quod sit meretrix, non tamen turpiter accipit. Aquinas, in 
Nav. ibid., Soto, ibid., Graff, ibid. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] mo bins m thkib account. 225 

lust of a female at a price ; l and he is so far from being obliged to restitution, 
that it is more than equal it should be paid him ; he parts with more for it 2 
(there is not only justice, but equity, and conscience for him in the case) ; 
and there is invincible proof for it, since Alexander himself took hire upon 
this account, and the Amazons were wont of old to hire men to do this work. 

Any whores whatever may retain the price of their filthiness ; 8 only a whore 
is bound in conscience to restore what is given her by their religious persons. 4 
This, it seems, is the peculiar privilege of their votaries, that harlots must 
serve their turn gratis; and they have so much encouragement more than 
others to practise whoredom, since in conscience it must cost them nothing. 
But if a secular person give a religious man money, or anything else for the 
religious man's whore, that is not to be restored. It would be too hard to 
part with his whore for nothing. 6 Yet one encumbrance there is, but very 
gently laid on them : if the religious man have goods in his power to dispose 
of, he may (it is not said he must) satisfy a wench when he has deflowered 
her, &c. ; for this is a pious use. 6 

A woman that commits lewdness secretly may take the price of fornication 
more justly than a common harlot (though she does it justly enough), because 
in her it is more valuable; the price may rise, being an honester whore. 7 If 
a married woman fall into adultery once and again, she may take her price 
without charge of restitution (it is more lawful gain than to have any such 
burden annexed), and the adulterer is bound upon his soul to lay it down ; 
for though adultery be illegal, yet to buy and sell it is no sin, if the price be 
not excessive, and much above the just value of the thing, the quality of the 
persons considered. 8 And it must not be forgotten that the adulteress is not 
to be accountable to her husband for what she gains by this traffic, or a 
maid to her parents when she prostitutes herself for hire in her father's 
house, but may convert it to their own use, as that which they earn by hand 
labour, unless they grow very wealthy by the trade. 9 And if these women 
do but take moderate sums for this filthy traffic of those who are not at their 
own disposing, they are not bound to restitution ; because it is presumed 
that those who have the charge of those minors do k allow such expenses. 10 

1 Imo utraque ratione posset etiam masculus a fremina pretium recipere : quin vero 
asquius, quia plus probet: siouti Alexander in jure nature potuit aduce ilia Amazono 
qua ilium gratia recipiend® prolis invisit, quod et prece et pretio, ut fertur, impetravit. 
Nam illi fsaminarum generi in more erat, pretio acoersere viros qui ad illas ingrede- 
rentur. — Soto. ibid. Graff, ibid. n. vii. 

* Qui a femina propter opus libidinosum accipit pretium non tenetur illud restituere, 
quin vero ffiquius est ut illud accipiat, cum plus probeat, sicut Alexander, Ac. Item 
si causa salutis quispiam emissions ilia egeret, posset amplexum ilium pretio coemere. 
— Soto. ibid. 

* Adrian. Sylvest. Covarruv. Soto. Medina. Corduba. Navar. Antoninus in Vasquez. 
Opusc. Moral, p. 124, dub. ii. 

* Idem. ibid. 6 Ibid. 6 Paludan. Palac. ibid. 

7 Porro autem crediderim has multo justius posse recipere pretium : quippe qua ob 
majorem honestatem pluris sunt aastimand©. Idem. ibid. Graff, ibid. n. vi. 

8 Quod si de aliie scisciteris qua) sunt puellee aut maritato qua? semel aut bis coila- 
buntur — et illis quoque liceret pretium recipere : tenebiturque in foro conscientiae, qui 
Jllis promisit solvere, nisi exoessus just® sastimationis pro ratione personarum immo- 
dicus esset. Et ratio est eadem S. Thomas. Nam licet flagitia ilia sint lege vetita, 
datio tamen non est prohibita. Et ideo juri naturali standum est : quo utique jure 
ooncessio ilia corporum ©Btimabilis est pecunia.— 6'oto. ibid. Potest nupta qua semel 
aut bis collapsa est pretium recipere absque nexu restitutions, et adulter tenetur 
jndicio animae illi solvere, &c. Graff, ibid. n. viii. et Covarruvias ibi. 

9 Soto. ibid. Idem esse judicium atque de aliis, qua opens manuum suarum acqui* 
sierint, &c. et Graff, ibid. n. ix. 

10 Si res est modica pro qualitate persons), etiamsi a fllio-familias reoipiat, retiners 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



226 WHAT CRIMES ABB [CHAP. IX. 

This was necessary to be added, that harlots might not be discouraged from 
admitting boys under age among their customers. Lastly, a nan playing 
the whore may both do it for hire, and with a good conscience keep it when 
she hath done. 1 It had been hard measure for their votaries if some provi- 
sion had not been made for them, that their trade might be gainful, when 
their own authors tell ns it is so common. There was no reason to be partial, 
and make much difference betwixt them and other prostitutes, when their 
Olemangis could see no difference betwixt their nunneries and the common 
stews. 1 But to proceed with the latter, while they are giving rules for con- 
science, they tell us the law countenances fornication so very much, that it 
compels public whores to commit lewdness with any one whomsoever giving 
her her hire. 3 And so indulgent is the church to whoredom, that harlots 
who live there many years (even as long as they can get custom), do incur 
, no ecclesiastical censure. 4 So that at Borne, made so purely Christian by 
its popes, whoredom is as lawful as when it was most heathenish, and is 
objected as the shame of it by St Augustine, that there the use of whoredom 
was a lawful practice. 1 Hereby the people under popery are so well edified 
that they cannot easily know whether fornication committed with common 
prostitutes be a sin, as one of their doctors tells us ;• for many of the com- 
mon people (says he) who know not how to distinguish betwixt sin permitted 
or not forbidden as to the punishment, and not as to the sinfulness ; because 
that simple fornication is not punished, and whores have the privilege of im- 
punity, they make account it is ao sin to deal with them (at the pope's rate) ; 
and this is very common in cities otherwise well instructed in the faith and 
religion (of Borne) as those who hear confession well know. 7 It seems con- 
fessors have something to do to persuade the people that that is a sin which 
the pope publicly allows ; and they might have more to do if the people did 
not suspect that the pope is a man like themselves, and for all his infallibility 
may, in matter of whoredom, err as they usually do. 

But if any man be not disposed to take this liberty, so freely offered, of 
haunting the common stews, he is encouraged by the law of their church to 
have a concubine at home, and that without any great hazard. It will not 
cost him so much as the loss of the communion, for the canon law provides, 

potest. Nam pwesumitur pate* scire, ratasque subinde habere ejusmodi expenses. 
8oto. ibid. Graff, ibid. n. x. 

1 Quinimo, at inquit Covarruvias, Nee monialis pecuniam recipiezis ob mercedem 
sni coitus tenetur illam restituere in foro anim». — Idem. ibid. n. x. 

8 Nihil distinguit inter sui temporis virginum monasteria, et meretricum lupanaria. 
—ISepenc. de Coniin. L ii. o. xii. 

8 Et in tartnm lex tolerat hujusmodi fornicationes, ut etiam cogat publics* mere- 
trices ad fornicandum cum quocunque, juxta tamen mercedem. — Graff. L ii. c lxxiv. 
n. iv. 

4 Though one continue a whore for twenty years, yet doth she not incur the cen- 
sures of the church.-\-Vid. Vivaldue Oandelabr. aur. tit. de Confess, n. lx. 

Tu tu sancte pater Augustine. Quid vere terrene eivitati velut exprofaas, quod 
scortorum usum licitum fecerit, ut quern nulla ejus lex vindicet, cum eadeni turpirudo 
in nostra, hoc est Dei civitate, neque minus permittatur, neque magis puniatur. — 
Espeneaus de Coniin. 1. iii. e. iv. Ratio vero quam pnedictus Segobienais (Soto), 
secutus aliquot alios sentit, viz. quod lex permittit, et facit justam operam meretricis, 
non tamen alias pradictorum operas, &c.—Navar. c. xvii. n. xxxv. 

6 Fill. tr. xxx. c. ii. n. Ii. p. 203. 

7 It is not the common people only that have this good opinion of it Nee hodie 
Anistippei quidam desunt, qui simplex hoe stuprum pro crimine non habeant. — 
JSfpenc. de Contin. lib. iii. cap. iv. Utinam non essent in orbe atque nomine Chris- 
tiano, qui libellis publico editis, quasi quibusdam fornicandi Isagogis, mulieres, et 
quidem orones, nihil aliud in vita communi esse putarent, quam rem explendte libidini 
natam.— Idem. ibid. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no sins in thsib account. 

that he who has not a wife, but instead of a wife a concubine, shall not be 
kept from the* communion, so that he be satisfied with one woman, either a 
wife or a concubine. 1 Now, since they tell us sometimes that none who are 
in mortal sin may partake of the communion, it should seem that with them 
to live in fornication is either no sin, or none that is mortal. 

Their doctrine is as indulgent to those who will not put away their con- 
cubines as such persons need desire. Absolution is not to be denied him 
who, having lent his concubine whom he keeps in his house one hundred 
crowns, has no hope to recover it if he put her away. Or, on the contrary, 
if the woman be not like to recover the like sum owing her, if she leave the 
house of the whoremaster ; for, as was said before, none are bound to avoid 
the next occasion of sin, to their great loss. Nor is he bound to put away 
his concubine if she be very useful for the gaining of temporal goods by way 
of traffic. 2 It is enough that he intends not to sin hereafter. Yea, if the 
concubine be very serviceable for the delight of the whoremaster, so that his 
life would scarce be pleasant without her, and other cates would be very dis- 
tasteful to him, and another woman, so much fipr his purpose, would hardly 
be found, the whoremaster will not be obliged to put her away. 8 Neither is 
absolution to be denied if he might lose his reputation by quitting his whore ; 
yea, or if the concubine would be disgraced thereby. It is enough if he 
firmly promise not to sin more with her, since it is in his power not to sin, 
although there be present danger of it while she stays in his house. 4 

But what if he sin with her still, after such promises to the contrary ? 
That will not hinder if he repent still ; and he may truly repent (in their 
way), and be absolved, when there is no appearance of amendment. So he 
determines in a like case after others. Accordingly, Bonacina determines a 
confessor may absolve one who keeps a whore, and will not put her away, if 
he cannot do it without much disgrace, or scandal, or other great incon- 
venience. 6 And him also who sins but seldom with his whore, three or four 
times in a year (or thereabouts), and hopes he may not relapse further. 7 
And so may a youth be absolved who keeps a whore in his father's house, 
with whom he sins customarily, though he put her not away, so that he have 
affirm purpose to desist. 8 But what if after such a purpose he relapse still ? 
He may be absolved still (as we heard before), even innumerably innumer- 
able times, because so oft we are to forgive our brother. 9 

Or if a concubine at home will not satisfy an unclean person, but he 
commit fornication with others, yet if he make but himself drunk before, 
that fornication will be no sin, or but an inconsiderable fault, if he be but 
half drunk. 

Nor will adultery be a sin in that or many other cases. Christ teaches 
that ' he who puts away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth 
her to commit adultery,' Mat. v. 82 ; yet they teach that where the marriage 
is both firm and consummated by conjugal enjoyment, yet the parties may 

1 Decret. dist. zzziv. c. iv. Is qui non habet uzorem, et pro nxore concxibinam 
habet, a communion e non repellatur. Rabanns. 1. paenit c. z. alleges a Spanish 
Canon for this. And Gratian. dist. zxziv. and Espencans de contin. 1. ii. c. vii. 
Jacobus Curio. 1. ii. Chron. says of Gregory vii., Quasi csBlibatum perpetuum concubi- 
natas temperamento mitigaret, sacerdotem uoius concubin© societate contentum ab 
officio non repellendum statuens. — Vid. ibid. 

* Jo. Sancius. disp. z. n. zz. * Ibid. * N. zzi, 

6 Abaolvendum fore toties qnoties vere paenituerit, non solum quando aliqua emen- 
datio notatur ; ut tenent. Suar. Graff. Navar. Coriolan. Lopez. — quod posait absolvi 
p&nitens, etiamsi nullus appareat profectus, tenet Vivaldus. — Ibid. n. zvi. 

6 De Matrim. disp. iv. punct. ziv. n. zi. 7 Ibid. n. zii. juxta Graffium et alios. 

8 Ibid. n. xiii. ita Graffius. Lopez, et. alii. 9 Jo. Sane, ibid* n. zvi. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



228 WHAT CHIMES ABE [CHAP. IX. 

be separated as to cohabitation, and as much divorced as they can be for 
adultery (by their doctrine), either for outward danger, or when one tempts 
the other to mortal sin, or for that which they call heresy, or if either of 
them will enter into a monastery. 1 And if there had not been carnal know- 
ledge after the marriage, though it be firm and valid, yet if either of them will 
make the monastic profession, the other is at liberty to marry another, and 
live together as man and wife, the parties whom they first married still 
living. So that if a wife will turn nun, she may put away her husband 
(doing it eo ignorante vel invito*), and he may marry another wife. 

The Council of Trent confirms this to purpose, when it curses those who 
hold that lawful matrimony, not consummated, is not dissolved by a solemn 
religious vow. 8 It is acknowledged by Boniface VIII., 4 and Gregory XIII., 5 
that this of matrimony is a bond made firm and indissoluble by God him- 
self, and the other, of a vow, but a church constitution ; yet (as was observed 
long since) the Trent prelates will not only have a human bond to dissolve a 
divine, but will have those accursed who will not believe that an institution 
of man, born many hundred years since the apostles, should prevail against 
a divine institution, made at the creation of the world. 8 Thus in behalf of 
their pretended chastity, they have opened a broad way for real adultery; 
and who could expect more reasonable decrees in such a case ? 

This for their laity ; then for their clergy and monastics, their doctrine is, 
that adultery is not so much a sin as marriage, 7 no, nor incest, or sodomy, 
or bestiality, so that they may better venture upon any of these abomina- 
tions than upon that state which the Lord hath authorised and honoured. 
And he is more capable of orders amongst them who hath kept two whores, 
than one who hath been twice married, or but once married a widow. 8 Ail 
incestuous person, says Erasmus, is admitted to be a bishop, a murderer, a 
robber, a sodomite, a sacrilegious wretch ; a parricide, is admitted, and who 
not ? 9 Solus digamm, one that has been twice married, is only excluded 
from this honour, though he alone be blameless. The apostle commends 
marriage to prevent the heats of lust, which he calls burning ; but burning 
lust is with them innocent. To burn, says Valentia, does not signify to 
burn with the flames of lust, for this in itself is not evil. 10 The apostle 
determines it better to marry than to burn ; but Bellarmine says, it is worse 
to marry, however our adversaries gainsay (where he puts the apostle with 
us amongst his adversaries), especially for her who is under solemn vow ; 
and a little after he tells us, she that marries after a simple vow, 11 in a manner 
sins more than she that commits fornication ; his reason is, because the one 

I Vid. Sylvest. Sam. v. divort. n. x. et n. ii. Quantum ad vinculum, matrimonium 
ratum solvi potest per mortem civilem, i.e. professionem tacitam vel expreasam reli- 
gioiiis approbates : ita quod remanens in sseculo potest libere cum alia contrahere. 
—Ibid. (vid. Maldonat. Summ. quast. xiv. art. xiii.) 

8 Idem. ibid. n. vi. 8 Sees. viii. Can. vi. 4 6 Decret. 1. iii. tit. xv. 

6 In bulla Asceodente Domino. 

• Vid. Histor. of Couno. of Trent. 1. viii. p. 790. 

7 Marriage of them who have vowed chastity, is the worst sort of incontinency. — 
Rhem. Annot. in Cor. vii. ix. 

8 Aquinas, Comment, in Tit. i. 

Annot in 1 Tim. iii. admittitur inceBtus, admittitur homicida, admittitur pirata, 
admittitur sodomita, sacrilegus, parricida ; denique quis non ? boIus digamns exclu- 
ditur, qui solus nihil admisit. 

10 Uri non idem signiflcat quod flamma libidinis uri; hoc enim per se malum non 
est, imo materia potius victoria. 1. de. Coelibat. Cap. vi. 

II Non utrumque est malum, -et nubere et uri ; imo pejus est nubere, quicqutd 
reclament adversarii, presertim ei, qu« habet votum solenne. — De Monach. 1. ii. 
c. xxxvi. p. 1218. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no bins in their account. 229 

makes herself uncapable of keeping her tow, which she does not, who plays 
the whore. 1 Where we see what their vow of chastity is (the argument 
wherein they triumph to prove the holiness of their church), it is a chastity 
which consists well enough with whoredom, and is only violated by marriage. 
Accordingly, the clergy have liberty to haunt the public stews. It is in 
reference to those who are unmarried (to wit, the clergy) that the stews are 
held to be so very necessary ; a that no consideration could move the pope or 
his council to think any thing more fit to be done against the common 
whores, bnt only some diminution of their pride and luxury, as one of their 
doctors intimates. And as if that would not serve, they have been hereto- 
fore allowed to keep whores at home, paying a yearly rent for that liberty ; s 
yea, those priests that would not keep whores (that they might not want 
temptation to it), were forced to pay the rent, because they might have had 
the liberty if they pleased. For a monk or friar to lay aside his habit is a 
crime, by which he incurs excommunication ; and yet if he lay aside his 
habit that he may commit fornication the more expeditely, without the 
incumbrance which his monkish weeds would give him in the act, they de- 
clare him upon that account freed from censure. Excommunication is not 
incurred, says Navarre, for every leaving of his habits which is temerarious or 
deadly, because he incurs it not by laying it aside that he may the more 
readily indulge himself in fornication. 4 Sylvester had made such a decision 
before him, so understanding Paludanus, that he is under excommunication 
who puts off his habit to disguise himself in reference to others, that he may 
not be known, but not he that lays it by with a respect to himself, viz., for 
the pleasure of fornication. 6 So that the censured dismissing of habit is, as 
he distinguishes, that which is fraudulent, so as to put on another, but not 
that which is for an hour's pleasure while he is quite stripped. 8 Fanormitan 
concludes that an oath is never to be given to him of whom there is vehe- 
ment suspicion that he will not observe it, and he that gives it in that case 
sins mortally. 7 Hence Pope Alexander would not have priests bound by 

1 Quae autem nubit post vohim simplex, ilia verum matrimonium contrahit, tamen 
aliquo modo magis peccat, quam quro fornicator, quia reddit se impotentem ad ser- 
vandum votum, quod non facit qu» fornicatur. — Ibid. p. 1214. 

8 Mirnm certe tales tantosque viros consuluisse, minuendum modo scortorum fas turn 
et lnxum, non etiam ea semel ejicienda, an vero propter tarn multos ibi cselibes 
nccessario retinenda ? rem. horrendam ! — Etpenccau de coniin. 1. iii. c. iv. p. 784. 

8 Tnrpi8simum est quod (Officiates) permittant (Clericos) cum concubinis, meretri- 
cibus, et pellicibus habitare, liberosque procreare sinunt, accepto ab iis certo quotannis 
censo : atque adeo alibi a continentibus. Nam habeat (inquiuntj si velit. Et quoties 
enim quisque talis, cum tales tarn multi Bint, hodie alitor punitnr? Idem, in Tit. 
c. i. p. 479 ; Corn. Agrippa de Vanit. Scient. c. lxiv. 

4 Non incurritur etiam ob quamlibet dimisaionem temereriam mortiferam, quia non 
incurritur ob dimisaionem ut expeditius fornicationi indulgeat. — Navar. c. xvii. 
n. cxxxi. 

6 Si quia habitum dimittat ut fornicetur secundum Pet. de Pal. sine dubio est ex- 
communicatus, quod ego verum crederem quando habitum dimittit relative ad alios, 
puts ne cognoscatur : secus relative ad se, puta propter voluptatem. Sum v. Excom. 
ix. n. liii. Non affici excommunicatione qui se vestibus spoliat— ut liberius et volup- 
tuoeius peccet. Bonacina Tom. iii. de Excom. disp. ii. q. viii. punct vi. n. iii. Sayrua 
et alii quos magno numero refert Sanctarell. ibid. 

Unde dico illam dimissionem debere intelligi, quando habitus demittitur dolose 
cum assumptione siterius ad utendum eo, secus ubi dimitteretur ad horam voluptuose, 
nullo alio sumpto. — Ibid. 

7 In c. Clericus. de coha. Cler. et mulier. Concludit quod nunquam est deferendum 
juramentum illi, contra quern est vehemens suspicio de transgressione, et deferens 
peccat mortaliter et Alex, facit optirae (textus dicti, c. Cleric), ubi non vult clericos cogi 
jurare dimittere concubinas, Angel. Sum. v. juram, ii.n. xi. Navar. c. xii.n. xx. Ne in 
fornicationem reversas perjurii quoque reatum incurreret. — Espenc. de Cont. 1. ii. c. vii. 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



280 WHAT CHIMES AK1 [CHAP. IX. 

oath to forsake their concubines, because it seems there was strong presump- 
tion they would venture on perjury rather than leave their whoredom. 
Hence Erasmus had so much cause to complain, that among so vast multi- 
tudes who were unmarried, and under the vow of chastity, so exceeding few 
did live chastely, so innumerable many did wallow in uncleanness. 1 And 
Gassander, another moderate papist, says that a man could not find scarce 
one in a hundred of them that abstained from women. 1 

Before these, the gloss on the Canon Maximianus, diet, lxxxi., tells us, it is 
the common opinion that no priest should be deposed for simple fornication, 
because there are but few priests free from it.' If all fornicators had been 
deprived, their church would have been made desolate, and left in a manner 
priestless. This was a great reason then, and is, it seems, of the same force 
still ; for at this day, a priest is not to be deprived for simple ipcontinency. 
The congregation of cardinals (much concerned for the propagation of the 
holy church) declared it to be law, that the penalty of deprivation proceeds 
not for simple incontinency, as Garzias observes ; only they must not keep 
whores in the capacity of concubines. 4 It may be that came too near mar- 
riage to have so much favour as vagrant whoredom. Yet if a priest keep a 
whore at board and bed, and use her constantly as if she were his wife, he 
is not therefore irregular ; indeed, if he marry her, or an honester woman, 
all the world cannot excuse him ; for though such whoredom never disables 
a priest, yet chaste marriage utterly spoils him ; yea, if he keep in that 
capacity more whores than one (I know not how many more, for they are 
not limited to numbers), yet still he is not irregular (as innocent bigamy 
would make any one though he were an apostle), but the bishop may dis- 
pense with him. So Pope Innocent III. determined, and it is now as good 
law as their church has any ; and the more remarkable, because the doctor's 
gloss on it would have it noted as admirable, that whoredom has with them 
more privilege than chastity. 6 Where we may suppose the gloss speaks the 
sense of such as are strangers to Borne ; for that uncleanness should be pre- 
ferred before chastity is in that church nothing wonderful nor strange at all, 
but ordinary and obvious. That pope (whom they magnify as the singular 
glory of their law) decrees that the bishop may dispense with priests who 
keep many concubines to exercise their office, as he doth also with those who 
are noted for simple fornication. 8 And how the bishops were wont to dis- 
pense with them is known, their own writings declaring it the custom, as 
before, to let out those women to them at a yearly rent ; and that they were 
so hard lords, that if a priest had no mind to the bishop's tenement, 

1 Cam ubique tarn ingens sit sacerdotum turba, quorum quotusquisque castam agit 
vitam ? de conscrib. Epist. 

Si quia perpendat horum temporum statum, qnotam hominum portionem monacho- 
rum greges occupent, quotam sacerdotum et clericorum collegia : deinde perpendat 
quam pauci in tanto nuraero viri servent castimoniam, turn in qu® libidinum genera 
quam innumeri divergant, quanto cum probro complures palam incesti sint et impu- 
dici, &c. — Annot. in 1 Tim. iii. 

9 In concilio Neocaesar, magia punitur sacerdoe qui fornicatur quam qui publico 
contrahit — jam eo res rediit ut vix centesimum invenias, qui ab omni commercio 
freminarum abstineat.— Consult, art. xxiii. 

8 Communiter dicitur quod pro Bimplici fornicatione quia deponi non debet, cam 
pauci sine illo vitio inveniantur. Dist. lxxxi. 

4 Qua tamen poena privationis beneflcii non procedit in simplici incontinentia, absque 
qualitate concubinatus, ut constat ex declarat. adducta a Garcia.— -Jo. Seme. disp. 1. 
n. x. 

6 Si presbyteri plnres concubinas habentes — poteris cum eis tanquam simplici for- 
nicatione no tat is, qurd ad executionem sacerdotalis officii, dispensare — Extra, de 
Bigam. tit. xxii. c. quia circa. 

* Notandum mirabile quod plus hie habet luxuria quam castitas. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no sins in theib account. 281 

and did not take it, yet he most pay for it no less than the forwardest 
farmer. 

Sodomy abounds most in Italy (for it was requisite that Borne should be, 
as it is in the prophetic style, Sodom, and not incongruous that the vilest 
wickedness should thrive best under his holiness 1 wing) ; yet, as if they would 
have it as common everywhere, and more there than it is, their decisions 
are exceeding favourable to it, and treat it very indulgently. Married per- 
sons may practise sodomy together, the beginnings of it, all of it, bating the 
last complement of the act, without mortal guilt. 1 Unmarried persons, 
their clergy, may act it without restraint to the uttermost, and be neither 
suspended nor irregular. There is no danger of it if they do it but two or 
three times now and then, yea, they are safe unless they make a custom of 
it. 2 The strictest decree that we find any pope ever made against sodomy is 
that of Pius Y., which was yet formed in such terms, on purpose that it 
should not reach any ecclesiastics, but such only as made a trade of it by 
continual practice. This Navarre had from the mouth of Gregory XIII. S 

And if they do make a trade of it, yet still they are secure if it be not noto- 
rious and public ; and it will not be counted notorious, though it may be 
proved, though it be commonly reported, though it be confessed ; nor public, 
unless it be manifest to all. 4 Thus, if any ecclesiastic will practise sodomy, 
provided he do it not continually, or if he will make a daily trade of it, yet 
so he do not keep an open warehouse, the pope has taken special care 
(even in the severest order that his zeal against this wickedness could ever 
be brought to make) that the sodomite shall have his liberty without any 
fear of losing office or benefice in holy church. 

Further, they declare that mental heresy is a greater crime than sodomy. 5 
As, suppose a man should believe that the public worship of God ought to 
be in a known tongue (such a heresy as they cannot acquit the apostle Paul 
of), the secret belief of this, though never manifested by expression or 
practice, is in their account worse than sodomy. What conscience are they 
like to make of this while such is their judgment? Moreover, some of them 
say that the stealing of thirty rials (about fifteen shillings) is a greater sin 
than sodomy. 6 Yet theft is wont to be counted one of the least crimes, and 
this is none of the greatest theft. Of what value the thing stolen must be 
to make theft a mortal sin, is, they say, to be determined by the judgment 
of a prudent man. Those who have the reputation of great prudence 
amongst them, declare that to steal one hundred crowns, in some case, is 
no mortal crime. 7 If they should any of them determine that the stealing 
of twenty-nine rials, or thereabouts, is but venial, there will but be about 
sixpence difference betwixt sodomy and a venial fault. It is true they do 
not commonly deliver this conceit in the terms expressed, but it is clearly 
inferred from the doctrine of Aquinas, and Scotus too, generally embraced ; 
for he concludes that justice is a more excellent virtue than chastity ; 8 and 
that the sin is more heinous which is opposite to the nobler virtue ; 9 upon 

1 Zerola, Graffius. et alii apud Dianam. ii. p. tr. Hi. res. xxxvii. — Angelus, v. debitum. 
n. xxv. vide Navar. c. xxvii. n. ccl. 

* Bonacina de Matrim. q. iv. punct. xi n. ii. ibi. Navar. Quaranta. Riccius. Mattha. 
Puardus Garziaa, et alii. 

3 Cap. xxvii. n. ccxlix. vid. Bonacin. ibid. n. Hi. ibi. Navar. Rodriguez Lazariua. 

4 Navar. ibid. n. ccxlviii. Publicnm definitur esse, quod patet omnibus. — Bartol.ibid. 
n. cclv. 

6 Navar. Manual, c. xxvii. n. ccxlix. 

6 Vid. Vasq. i. 2, q. lxxi. art. ult. Montesinum i. 2, torn. i. q. lxxiii. art. Hi. d. v. 

7 Aragon et aUi in Pet. Navar. — Vide Bonacin. de Restit d. ii. q. iii. p. 2, n. vii. 

* Jnstitia major virtus quam castitas. i. 2, q. Ixvi. art. iv. 

9 Quod majori virtuti opponilur, gravius peccatum, q. lxxiii. art. iv. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



282 WHAT CBDCSB ABE [CHAP. IX. 

which ground not only sodomy, but copulation with a brute or a devil will 
be a less sin than petty theft. In short, if their divines (whether followers of 
Thomas or Sootus, betwixt whom they are all in a manner parted) will be 
true to these principles, since they cannot deny but there is injustice in steal- 
ing one rial, they must hold that sodomy is no more a sin, nor more con- 
science to be made of it, than of stealing sixpence, when their doctrine of 
theft has left no conscience of that. Thus far they have advanced to secure 
sodomy against the laws of God and by those of the church ; as for any 
secular laws, they may laugh at them, for sodomy has ecclesiastical immunity. 
By the special care of Pope Gregory, sodomites were not mentioned amongst 
those who are excluded from that privilege. 1 The civil law (I suppose be- 
fore the unmarried clergy were law-givers) ordains that sodomites should be 
burned, but the church has provided that no fire may touch them if they 
can escape that from heaven. Besides other sacred places, the palaces of 
cardinals and bishops, all monasteries, yea, the house of every parish priest 
and ecclesiastic, are all sanctuaries for sodomites. They could not well pro- 
ceed further in favour of this crime, since the eyes of the world was open 
about them. It is not now so seasonable for the pope's legate (as he did 
before) to praise sodomy in print as a pious act. These rules and examples 
considered, who can think that they count uncleanness of any sort a sin 
much to be avoided ? Or who can wonder if Borne became hereby* in a 
literal sense, ' the mother of harlots and abominations ' ? or yet think strange 
that they should be most taken with papal holiness who are most addicted 
to whoredom and uncleanness ? 

Sect. 9. Further, it is no sin for the Romanists to take from those whom 
they count heretics (from protestants particularly) all that they have. This 
will not be theft or robbery, but an act justified by the laws of their church, 
which oblige them to do it ; for this is one of those many punishments which 
that law will have inflicted on us; the goods of heretics are by sentence of 
law immediately confiscated. 2 There is no question of this amongst them, 
only as to the execution there is some doubt, whether heretics are bound in 
conscience, as soon as they are snch, to give up their possession themselves, 
and deliver all they have to Boman Catholics ; or whether they may not, 
without mortal guilt, keep possession, till the papists see it fit to put them 
out, and seize on all they have. The famous Panormitan concludes that 
the heretics are bound, under the pain of deadly sin, to do this execution 
upon themselves, not expecting any other sentence or executioner. 8 And 
there is a pretty army of doctors (longa doctorum phalanx) do maintain this 
with him, but Soto and some others determine that they need not be so 
hasty to give up all they have of their own accord, but may stay for a de- 
claratory sentence, and seizure upon it ; but then a general sentence will 
serve, 4 without particular process or examination who are personally guilty, 
and a sentence by some ecclesiastical person may suffice. 6 

But all of them agree in this, that heretics lose all title and property in 
whatever they possess, and that for them and their heirs ; and this before 

1 Bonacin. in i. pnecept. d. q. yii. p. 5, n. xiv. Collipitur reos Sodoroitici criminis 
immunitatis privilegio non privari, quia in bulla Gregorii non exprinrantnr. 

2 Concil. Later, sub Innoc. III. bona ipsorum ipso facto applicantur fiseo. — Angtl. 
Sum. v. harcL n. v. Sunt ipso jure, vel ipso facto confiscata. — SylvetL v. bsaret c i. 
n. xii. 

8 Cojus regula est, quod ille cujus bona sunt ipso facto confiscate, non potest ilia 
cum bona conscientia retinere, quia statim sunt acquisita flsco. — In Soto do Just, et jure 
1. iii. q. vi. art. vi. p. 21. 

4 Sylvest. ibid. n. xii* 

6 Idem ibid, et Angel, ibid. n. v. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no bins in theib account. 233 

any declaratory sentence, 1 even from the first day of their pretended hereti- 
cal pravity, as the Directory for the Inquisitors determines.* 

To lose all title to their estates may seem a small matter, considering that 
they lose all power and jurisdiction, all right to honour and fame (they and 
theirs being infamous), to liberty also, and life itself; but because loss of 
property is great in consequence, let us stay a little on it. All that these 
pretended heretics have, being confiscated, they are liable to a seizure pre- 
sently, and though their convenience will not serve them to seize on all, a 
long time after, yet in the interim the poor heretics are responsible for all 
the mesne profits 8 (it may be in our case for a hundred, or two hundred, 
years past) ; and all this while they have no power to alienate or dispose of 
their goods or estates by gift, sale, will, or otherwise ; yea, not of any of it 
by way of charity, for they are not their own to dispose of. Hence all wills, 
sales, contracts, for this purpose (it may be for some ages together) are null 
and void. 4 And if the heretic will venture to alienate anything he has, he 
that buys it does it at his peril ; for though it pass from hand many years, 
yet it may be taken away from the purchaser, with whom it is found, 6 with- 
out restoring the price that was paid for it, 6 and he that sells it is a cheat, 
and sins mortally, if he gives not the purchaser notice of the hazard, and 
tell him, that when he sells his estate, or goods, he has no right to sell them. 7 
If the pretended heretic die, and leave what he has to his children, it is no 
better than if he left them another man's goods which he had no title to. 8 
Yea, though the children be catholics, they lose their portion. 9 But who are 

1 Idem ibid. v. ptsna. n* iii. — Graf. 1. ii c xi. n. x. fine. 

* Ut etiam tenet director. 1. iii. tit. ix- qui etiam dicit, qnod dicta bona damatorum 
propter haresim, vel bnjusmodi, ad fiscum pertinent a die commissi criminis. — Sylvest. 
ibid. n. xiii. 

Condemnatio ilia retro agitur usque ad articulum quo hnreticus omni ignorantia 
nudatus, bssresim studio asseruit. Assertio est Jo. And. Sed nulla opus est autho- 
rum citatione : nam lex est expressa. Et universalis nsus et practica St. Senatus In- 
quisitionis sic habet, nempe secundum normam directori. 1. iii. tit. ix. Soto, ibid. p. 23 ; 
vid Sylv. ibid. n. xiv. ; Graff. 1. ii. c xxi, n. xvii. 

8 Talis clausula, ipso jure vel facto, operator restitutionem fructnnm medii temporis 
— nam a die commissi criminis, non facit fructus suos, sed statim debentur fisco. Fel. 
in cap. ; Kodolpbus de rescript, ; Graff, ibid. n. xxi. 

* Donatio vel alienatio facta per bsareticum ante damnationem non tenet — sicut 
facta damnatione bona alienare non possunt, sic nee ante illam a die commissi criminis. 
— Sylv. ibid. n. xiv. 

Habetque eousque vim talis sententia, ut omnes contractus, nempe donationes, ven- 
ditiones, atque alii, etiam causa dotis, quos bsareticus ab illo articulo fecerit, babeantur 
pro infectis. — Soto, ibid. 

5 Navar. c. xvii. n. cvi. 

6 Si bsereticus alienavit, fiscus vel inquisi tores non tenentur restituere pretium 
emptori, quia effectus damnationis retro trahitur. — Sylvest. ibid. Fiscus nullo empto- 
ribus restituto pretio sibt adjudicat dicta bona. — Soto, ibid. Res queelibet per delin- 
quentem alienate a fisco vindicari possit a die commissi criminis, pretio ipsi emptori 
minime soluto. — Chaff, ibid. n. xvii. Non solum revocabit rem, pretio non restituto 
emptori, qui emit ab hnretico : verum etiam nee ei qui emit, quantumcunque per 
plures manus transient, quia non babuit jus vendendi ; heec Jo. Manald. Arcbidia- 
cobus, et Jo. Andreus, et idem Directorium in Sylvest. ibid. 

7 Navar. c xxiii. n. lxxxix. — Sylv. ibid. 

8 Nihil habebunt de bonis parentum filii, nee etiam agnati. — Angel, ibid. Si aliqnis 
sit declaratus bsdreticus, statim potest fieri executio in bonis ejus, exclusis filiis, etiam 
de legitima. — Qraff. ibid. n. x. 

8i habuerint catholicos fiUos, nibilominus confiscantur, secundum Gloss, in Sylv. 
ibid. ; Angelas, ibid. 

Quinimo veniunt privandi ipsi filii Catholici etiam legitima; ita notatur per Genzeli- 
num — quern sequitur Zabarella ; et ratio est, quia legitima est quota bonorum, qure 
pater babebat tempore mortis, sed pater eo in tempore nibil babet, quando bona sunt 
confiscate. — Graff, ibid* n. ix. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



284 WHAT CRIMES ABB [CHAP. IX. 

those that may take from protestants (or others whom they count heretics), 
what they possess ? Why, any that will ; authority is given to all whoever 
to rob, spoil, or bereave us. So Sylvester, and others, quoting the Babbies 
of the pontifical law for it. It is their determination, that in point of law 
and conscience, all that will have authority to spoil us of what we have. 1 
What he adds is matter of caution for more plausible proceedings in the 
spoil and robbery. It seems safe that this be not done but by special edict 
of the prince, or of the church ; this is convenient, lest otherwise one might 
seem to do it rather out of covetousness or revenge, than out of justice and 
obedience. 

By this we may understand in what condition protestants are by the laws 
of the Bomish church, and how papists are obliged to look upon us, and 
demean themselves towards us. No protestant, from the prince to the 
meanest subject, has any title to lands, houses, money, or anything else 
which they possess, or can justly call it their own." All rules of righteous- 
ness, which concern property, are void; papists owe them no observance. 
In reference to us, we are not capable of injury upon this account ; whatever 
they do against us, in respect of our estates, they wrong us not, they sin not, 
for we have no title. If they take from us anything, or all we have, they 
steal not aught from us, they rob us not, because they take nothing from us 
that is our own. If they burn our houses over our heads, and fire towns 
and cities (as they have done, and their famous Simanca says they may do),* 
they do us no injury, they sin not on this account, because the houses and 
goods consumed are none of ours. If they deprive a protestant prince of his 
throne and dominions, they sin not ; he is by their law and doctrine but a 
usurper, and had no just title to his crown. 4 If they draw any of his sub- 
jects into war against him, at home or abroad, they do him no wrong, for 
they are not his subjects, no more than the popish clergy, who are sworn 
to another sovereign. Or if he entrust them with the commands of forts or 

1 Si aliter fieri non potest, manu armata sunt eis omnia bona auferenda, ut 23. q. 
' iii. c. i. Sicut tamen dicit Raynuc. et Gofredus ; licet ecclesia videatur dare generalem 
anthoritatem omnibus ezspoliandi eos : tamen satis videtur tutum, qnod non fiat nisi 
special i edicto, vel principis vel ecclesia : ne aliter videatur quis potius ex cupiditate vel 
ultione, quam ex justitia et obedientia pugnare. — Sylvert. ibid. n. xiiu Infidelitas 
h®reticorum est pessima, Utrum infideles qui non recognoscunt dominium eccleeise 
licit© possint suis rebus spoliari? Resp. Hostiensis, quod sic per illud Mat. ult. ; Data 
est mihi omnis potestas, &c, quam quidem transtulit in vicahum suum — Angd. Sum. 
v. infidel, n. iii. et n. vii. 

9 A constitution of Pope Paul IV., subscribed by all the cardinals, declares that all 
prelates and princes, even kings and emperors fallen into heresy, should be, and should 
be understood to be, deprived of all their benefices, states, kingdoms, and empires, with- 
out farther declaration, and un capable to be restored to them, even by the apostolic 
see ; and their goods, states, kingdoms, and empires shall be understood to be com- 
mon, and to belong to those catholics who can get them. — Bist. of Counc. of Tr. lib. 
v. p. 409. 

* Ins tit at. Cathol. Tit xlv. sect xiii. 

4 Tenens regnum contra formam juris et mentem papa* dicitur tyrannus. — Matcon. de 
imper. Reg. pars. i. c ii. 

Propter hroresin rex non solum regno privatur, sed et filii ejus a successione regni 
pelluntur. — Simanc. ibid. tit. ix. eclix. Post latam sententiam declarativam de crimine 
hsoresis, injnste princeps possidet regnum, et principatum, et exercet jurisdicttonem in 
subditos : tenenturque subditi eximere se ab ejus obedientia, et bell a id gerere contra 
ilium, si vires illis suppetant. — Banna in xxii. q. x. p. 614. Yea, Bannea says, it is thai 
more common opinion with Aquinas and his followers, that before the sentence de- 
claratory, subjects may lawfully, if they have strength, exempt themselves from the 
power of the prince, p. 590. 

• Vaasalli hareticorum ipso facto liberantur. Angel. Sum. v. hseret. ; Sylveat. ibid, 
n. xiv. Principibns aposiantibus a fide non est obediendum. Aquinas, ii. 2, q. x. \ 
Concil. Lateran. cap. iii. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX. J no sins in theie account. 235 

garrisons, they may betray them to the Romanists, and not wrong him, be- 
cause they were not his. 1 If they take all places of trust, or profit, from 
nobles or commons, they do them no wrong, because . they had no right to 
them, nor had the children after them any, for some generations. 3 If they 
pay no debts to protestants, though they were not only under the obligation 
of a promise, but of solemn oath, they may justify it, they owe them* nothing. 3 
If trust be reposed in them, or anything be deposited in their hands, or they 
borrow anything of us, they may detain it ; they need not restore it, for they 
have nothing of ours. 4 In a word, there can be no parliaments, or conven- 
tion of the three estates of a nation, because there are none in that capacity. 
As there are no persons of honour for peers, all being infamous, so can there 
be no freeholders to choose, or to be chosen, for commons, since there are 
no proprietors. 6 And as no laws can be made, can be valid, there being none 
who have any power to make them, so there can be no aids or subsidies 
granted, or required, since they cannot be given or required of those who 
have nothing of their own to give. 

Thus, by the popish principles, the foundations of the civil constitution 
in England, and other countries in like circumstances, are quite blown up, 
as if they had been at the mercy of a Faux. And those who will follow their 
conduct, must hold that we have no government, no king, no subjects', no 
parliaments, no laws, no liberties, no property, and, indeed, none of the rest, 
because not this last. And all that will be true to the doctrine and laws of 
popery must believe this, and may lawfully deal with us accordingly ; they 
sin not if they do, there is no conscience in the case to hinder them, or se- 
cure us ; nay, they are bound to do it, if that which they account most sacred 
can oblige them, and that as soon as they can. That which restrains them 
is not the fear of God, but of the penalties of our laws, which yet are of no 
more force by their determination, than the agreement of a company of rob- 
bers, or the constitutions of mere usurpers, which will stand in their way no 
longer than till they can master the power which bears them up, against 
that which the Roman decrees and edicts have made equity and justice, in 
despite of the laws of God and nations. 

Sect. 10. Moreover, they may bear false witness, either privately or in 
open court, for their advantage ; and if it do not much wrong another, it is 
but a small fault, so that if it do no wrong at all, it will be less than a small 
fault. On this account they may bear false witness against a protestant, or 
any other, whom they count heretics, even when estate or life is concerned ; 
for by their laws and doctrine his life is forfeited, and his goods confiscated, 
and so though by false testimony he lose both, yet he has no wrong, because 
he had no right to either. They may use fraud and deceit in bargains, to 

1 Absoluti rant rabditi a debito fidelitatis, etiam custodes arcium. Simanca, ibid, 
tit xlvi. sect, lxxiii. ; Concil. Laterao. ibid. 

* Angelas. Sum. v. hreret n. viii. ; Sylvest. ibid. n. xiv. ; Concil. Lateran, infra. 

8 Si qnis promisisset eis solvere certo die snb juramento, vel pana, non tenetur; nt 
ibi not at gloss. Sylv. ibid. ; Angel, ibid. n. xv.; Armilla, v. hsret n. xi. ; Ovandus. 
infra. 

4 Simanca. ibid, tit xlv. sect, xxvii. 

5 Ipso jure sunt inflames, at neqne ad pnblica officia sen consiliasen ad eligendos ad 
hnjostnodi aliquos, neqne ad testimonium admittantnr. Sant intestabiles etiam, nee 

ad soccessiones admittantnr Angel. Sum. n. xx. ibid. For this there is a decree of 

one of their general Councils (that of Lateran under Innocent III.), involving not only 
heretics themselves, bnt expressly all the receivers, defenders, and favourers of such. 



Ex tunc ipso jure sit factus infamis, nee ad pnblica officia seu consilia, nee ad eligendos 
aliquos ad hujusmodi, nee ad testimonium admittitur, sit etiam intestabilis, &c. Cap. 
iii. in Crab. Tom. ii. p. 848. 

Google 



P 
6 Soto e just et jur. 1. v. q. vii. art iv. supra. 



Digitized by * 



286 WHAT CHIMES ABE [CHAP. IX. 

get what a protestant sells, for little or nothing, yea, or to cheat him of all 
he has, for the deceit is not considerable in point of conscience, bnt for the 
wrong it does ; and here is no wrong in the case, for he cheats the heretic 
of nothing that was his own, and so does him no injury. They may use 
perfidiousness in breaking compacts, agreements, or promises ; for perfidi- 
onsness, when it is officious, 1 and does but a little injury to those concerned, 
is one of the least sorts of faults, by their doctrine ; therefore, when it does 
no injury at all, it is less than the least ; but by breaking promises, or any 
such bond of faithfulness which concerns the estate of a heretic, they do him 
no injury, because he has no estate of his own, by their account. So that if 
a papist should make a thousand promises, and confirm each of them with 
an oath to a heretic, that he will pay what he owes him, or restore to him 
what is his own, he sins not, though he never pay, nor restore a farthing of 
it, because nothing is due to a heretic, nor is there any thing he can call his 
own. And this is not my inference only, but they themselves declare it to 
be the consequence of their principles, and what they deliver in express 
terms, amounts to as much as this charge comes to. 3 

Sect, 11. Thus they leave little that can be sin in papists, one towards 
another, but less towards protestants. It is no sin not to keep peace or 
faith, not to observe either truth or honesty, towards heretics. It is no deceit . 
to equivocate with them in private dealing, or public transactions ; it is no 
dishonesty to cheat them of what they have ; it is no perjury to break oaths 
with them ; it is no theft to rob or spoil them ; it is no inhumanity to burn 
their houses over their heads ; it is no murder to kill them ; in a word, it is 
no sin for all relations to deny them what God hath made their respective 
duties. 

Sect. 12. Finally, natural corruption, after baptism, has nothing in it that 
can be charged with sin, no, not in wicked men, who afterwards by mortal 
sin are quite destitute of grace. So that by their doctrine, a fixed averse- 
ness and contrariety to God and holiness, an habitual enmity against him, 
a propenseness to all ungodliness and unrighteousness, is no sin ; s an inward 
temper and disposition, though it be most impious, atheistical, rebellious, 
filthy, treacherous, and bloody, has no sin in it ; an inclination to deny God, 
to speak all evil of him, to depose him, to advance lusts and the devil before 
him ; an inclination to adulteries and beastly uncleanness, to murder and 
barbarous cruelty, to the most prodigious wickedness against God or man, is 
no sin. Yea, though it be not transient, but constant and habitual, though 
it be strong and impetuous, though this corruption be reigning, not subdued 
or mortified ; though it be active and fruitful in all the powers of the soul, 
though it hurry the lower faculties into rebellious commotions, and follow 
the superior with frequent and strong impulses, and exert its power and 
malignancy both in thoughts and affections, yet if the inward motions hare 
not consent, there is no more sin in their acts than in their principles. 

In all these evils papists may live and die, and in many more, which I pur- 

1 Gajetan. Sam. v. perfidia. 

8 Si aliquis promisissct eis hsereticis solvere sab psena vel juramento certo die, non 
tenetur; ut Gloss. Et hoc intellige, si est manifestum ipsum in haareticam incidisse 
perfidiam, et dicit, Phil, idem etiam si est occnltas ; dammodo probari possit. Pan- 
ormitan. ibid, vnlt, quod a die commissi criminis sunt liberi. Angel. Sam. ▼. beret, 
n. xv. ; Armilla. v. hroret. n. xi. j Sylvest. v. hserct. n. xiv. He that fails, being bound 
by oath or otherwise, to make payment, sins not, because the creditor's heresy hath 
discharged him — So Ovandus, in vr. disk xiti. prop. xxx» 

* Qui ita est habitualiter dispositus, nt adveniente occassione, committeret peccatam 
mortale, non peccat mortaliter — non sufficit habitualis effectus ad pecandam nt pec- 
catam reipsa contrahatnr. — Bonacin. de peccat. d. ii. q, iii. p. 6. n. ill. ibi. alii com- 
muniter. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no sins in theib account. 287 

posely waive, lest I be too tedious, and many more too, than I have taken 
notice of, even in plain violations of every part of the divine law, the rule of 
righteousness and holiness ; and yet wipe their mouths, and say they have no 
sin at all, but are as holy as their church requires them, and as sure of sal- 
vation as their doctrine and the power of delusion can make them. Though 
any protestant, who allows himself but in a very small part of these enor- 
mities, we will give them leave (or they may take it from Scripture) to count 
him an ungodly and unrighteous wretch, who can have no good conscience 
towards God or man, nor any hopes of heaven (continuing so) but such as 
will delude him. 

Sect. 18. But if they have not legitimated wickedness enough already, 
they have expedients at hand to do it, for much more ; they are furnished 
with devices to justify all the sin in the world, or at least in their church, 
when they please to use them. Let us instance in two or three. 

That power which they challenge for the pope herein, is notorious. We 
heard Bellarmine tell us before, that if the pope should command vice, the 
church must practice vice, or else sin against her conscience. And he says 
expressly elsewhere, that in a good sense, Christ gave to Peter a power to 
make that which is sin to be no sin, and that which is no sin to be sin j and 
what he gave to Peter, they will have us believe he gave to popes. 1 So that 
it seems, Christ hath given Peter, and consequently his successors the popes, 
power to authorise any sin and. wickedness ; only we are to understand this 
in a good sense, which let any man do if he can. They declare, that he can 
dispense not only with positive but divine laws, and so make the transgres- 
sions thereof to be no sin. To omit the many testimonies for this, produced 
by others (and which some of themselves count extravagant), let us hear 
Sylvester, who seems modest in comparison: The pope has power in all 
things purely positive, and in some pertaining to divine law, because he has 
all laws in his own breast, as to interpretation and dispensation. 2 Where, 
what in his assertion seems restrained, in the reason of it (fetched from the 
canon law), is unlimited, he has all laws in his own breast ; it seems to import 
that they are all in his power and at his pleasure, so as he may either 
interpret them, or dispense with them, as he thinks fit. Some of them, in 
reference to natural and divine laws, make show of denying this in general ; 
but then they grant in particular instances, what is sufficient to make good 
the general charge. There is no command of the first or second table, 
wherein they do not hold the pope may dispense, unless it be the first, and 
to question his power of dispensing there, is no great disparagement to him, 
since they deny it to God himself. There is no doubt amongst them, but 
he can dispense with oaths, 9 and make it no sin to break them, though they 
acknowledge the obligation of an oath to be by divine law. 4 And no wonder 
it has been so ordinary a practice, since they hold that this condition is still 
presupposed in the oaths, if it shall please the pope. 6 And though they 
conclude vows to be more obliging than oaths, yet they teach, the pope may 

1 In bono aensu Christus dedit Petro potestatetn faciendi de peccato oon peccatum ; 
et de non peccato peccatum. — In Barkla. c. ziii. 

* Sicnt babet papa (potestatem) in omnibus pure positivis, et in qnibnsdam perti- 
nentibns ad jns divinum, qnomodo dicitnr omnia jura habere in scrinio pectoris sui (de 
const, licet. 1. vi.) quantum sciL ad interpretation em et dispensation em. — Sum. v. dispens. 
n. vii. 

8 In votifl antem et jnramentis diapensavit, ac poterat qnidem, quod erat in aadifl- 
cationem. — Canus. para. vi. relect. depaenit. p. 371. 

4 Reddere vota, jnramenta servare, juris est divini et naturalis.— Idem ibid. p. 870. 

5 Subintelligitnr— si placoerit pap», ut in D. C. Venientes. de jurejnr. immo in 
omni juramento excipitur authoritae superioria. — Sylv. v. jnram. iii. n. i. 



Digitized by 



Google 



288 WHAT CRIMES ABB [CHAP. DL 

dispense with the accomplishment of solemn promises made to God, and so 
can make both sacrilege and perfidiousness to God lawful enough. 1 The 
pope can dispense not only with rash oaths or vows, but those that are best, 
and their obligation most unquestionable. If any (says Bosella, after 
others) do vow or swear anything that may lawfully be observed, the pope 
should uot alter it when there is no cause ; yet if he do release such (though 
without cause) the release holds good, because he is above positive law, and 
also can dispense against the divine law, so that he dispense not against the 
gospel and articles of faith, Sum. v. juram. i. ii. 4. But if he do that too, he 
may stand to it, for many teach that the pope is not forbidden to dispense 
against the gospel, but only not to destroy the gospel (v. papa. n. 8), and 
we must conceive (if we can) that he may take away the obligation of the 
roles of the gospel without destroying it. 

However, as to oaths and vows, he can totally (they say) dissolve the 
obligation, guemadmodum potest ipse Dew, even as God himself can, because 
it is likely that God, as he had cause, gave his own power to his vicar, other- 
wise he had not been a good father of his household, if he had left his flock 
without a shepherd, who could, as occasion serves, provide for them in all 
(even to license perjury and perfidiousness to God himself), as Pope Innocent 
argues ; but whether with more reason or blasphemy, let others judge. 
Whereupon, Hostiensis saith, that seeing God and his vicar have the same 
consistory, the pope can do in a manner all that God can do, the key not 
erring, for Christ says generally to Peter, * Whatever thou shalt bind ;' and 
saying whatever, he excepts nothing, Ibid. n. i. 

There is not any thing in the world which they count more inviolable 
than their vow of religion, yet he may dispense with this, and the reason is 
considerable ; because religion derived its being from the authority of the 
Roman bishop, he therefore who gave it may take it away. So Pope Inno- 
cent and their canonists generally, ibid. n. iv. Hostiensis and others, seem 
to speak extravagantly when they say, the pope can do as much in a manner 
as God himself. But this may pass for a modest speech, if they will have 
him to do more, and more he can do if he can make contradictions to be 
consistent. One instance of it we have in the question, whether the pope 
can dispense with a monk to have secular property. Rich, de S. Victore 
says, it is essential to a monk to want it, and so a contradiction to be a 
monk, and have it ; yet others say the pope can do it, and render those con- 
sistent enough, and so make one to be a monk while he is none, Idem. ibid. 

So for sanctifying of the Lord's day, there can be no doubt of the papal 
power herein, since they count the command for it positive, 1 for that he can 
dispense in all positives, 3 is with them unquestionable. Nothing is neces- 
sarily required by the precept for sanctifying of this day, but the hearing of 
mass, and abstaining from servile works. The pope, if he please, may turn 
these into working days, for he can abrogate them. And since the people, by 
their divinity, are not obliged to any other publio worship but the mass, and 
that only on these days, he may discharge them from all conscience of public 
worship, and disengage them from tendering any unto God, for he can dis- 

1 Oanus. supra. 

* Dicimus omnia Christianorum festa, etiam dies dominicos, solo humano jure — id 
quod etiam sentit, Turrecrementa, Archidiaconus, S. Thomas, Waldensis, Navar. 
c. xiii. n. i 

• Quae sunt de jure positivo, potest summus Pontifex, etiam sine causa, toller© et 
abrogare, et quamvis male faciat, factum tamen validum sit — Camu. ibid, p 972. 
Sylvest. juzta mentem S. Thorn, v. papa. n. xv. vid. Angel. Sum. v. papa. n. Hi. 
Univeraaliter potest dispensare — contra statum universalem Ecclesia. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. IX.] no bins in theib account. 289 

pense with the mass. 1 They make it, indeed, sometimes a character of 
antichrist, to put down the mass ; but it is not fit the pope should want 
power to be antichrist at pleasure ; and why should they be angry with us 
for thinking him so already, since with them herein he may lawfully be anti- 
christ when he list. And he may do as much for the clergy and monastics ; 
all the solemn worship necessary and proper for them, is that of their cano- 
nical hours, but the pope can order that they shall not be obliged to say their 
service. 3 So Sylvester, after others, concludes; he adds, indeed, that though 
the pope can discharge them from this service, yet he cannot disoblige them 
from making some recompence to their benefactors for not praying for them ; 
but for this (he says) they need not trouble themselves ; for the least prayer 
that can be will suffice for that. 3 So an Ave Mary may serve (that serves 
generally on all occasions) a prayer (if it may be so accounted) of one peti- 
tion to the virgin, and not a word to God, not a syllable for their benefactors, 
they may be as well without it. And so others leave them, determining 
without any reserve, that the pope may dispense with their divine service, 
and may do so validly without any cause, too. 4 So that the pope, when he 
list, may leave no public worship of God in the whole Roman world ; and 
when he does this, it will be no sin wholly to neglect it. He can dispense 
against the universal state of the church ; so the law of their church will 
have it. Only, says Panormitan, he should not deface it ; 5 but there is no 
danger of that, though he should destroy it (as he has done indeed ; they 
ascribe no power to him in this, but what he has given the world proof of 
effectually), for he cannot deface it, unless he change the universal state of 
it without reason ; and this he can never want, so long as his will is good 
reason, as they say it is. 

He can as easily discharge them from all righteousness towards men ; he 
can make it lawful for a son to calumniate his father; or covet all he has, or 
to wrest it from him by force, yea, to attempt his life, and when he hath 
reduced him to want and misery, to leave him perishing for want of relief. 
This office he did for the emperors heretofore, and is commended for it. 6 He 
can take away any man's right, and dissolve all bonds, contracts, obligations, 
whereby one man is bound to another ; 7 and so can make it lawful to act 
against all faith, truth, justice, and common honesty. 8 Further, those whom 

1 Sequitur posse poutificem in hoc pracepto (de missa audienda) dispensare, cum 
ecclesiasticum sit. He adds only, Dispensare cum aliquo at nunquam in tota vita mis- 
sain audiat, otiamsi possit, neque ulla rationabili causa impediatur, non potest esse 
expediens. — Suarez. torn. iii. disp. lxxxviii. sect. ii. p. 1140. Hinc patet summum 
Pontificem posse dispensare in prtecepto audiendi missain. Tom. i. disp. iv. q. ult. 
punct. xi. n. vi. ; Bonacina. Aiunt communiter Doctores posse consuetudine vel humana 
potestate abrogari. — Idem in iii. precept, q. v. n. iv. 

1 Quarta causa (a recitando divinum ofticium exeusans) est dispensatio papse ; juxta 
Cardinalem Turrecrematam, neque aliud sentit Cardinalis Florentines.— Navxr. o. xxv. 
n. cii. 

Utrum papa facere possit quod prsedicti non teneantur ad horas ? Laud, et Jo. de 
Lig. senserunt quod papa hoc potest, &c. — Sum. v. nor. n. ix. 

8 Sed circa istam suppletionem non oportet esse multum scrupulosum, quia con- 
surgit ex naturali lege potius qnam ecclesiae priecepto ; ut reompensetur benefacto- 
ribus : quod etiam per minimam orationem fieri potest. — Ibid. n. v. 

4 Bonacin. Divin. Offic. disp. i. q. vi. p. iii. n. i. 

6 Sum. Rosell. v. papa. 

6 So the Emperor Henry IV. was used by his own son, excited by the pope ; and 
Baronius will have it, past denial, an eminent work of piety. — Annal. torn. xii. an. 
2166. n. xiv. 

7 In omnibus et per omnia potest facere et dicere quicquid placet, aufcrendo etiam 
jus suum cui vult.— Specul. Ouliel. Durdnd. 1. i. par i. de legit, sect. vi. n. Ii. 

8 Utrum possit aliquem absolvere ab obligatione, qua tenetur alteri homini ? et dico 
vol. in. f f 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



240 WHAT CHIMES ABE [CHAP. IX. 

God hath joined together in lawful matrimony, the pope (they say) hath 
power to separate, and sometimes, so as to marry others, and so live in 
adultery without sin, as he did with the son of the Conde D'Olivares. 

If there have been no carnal knowledge, they make no bones at all of the 
pope's dissolving marriages, how firmly soever contracted, or solemnly 
celebrated. No, nor if they have had that full consummation with reluc- 
tancy. But there is one rarer feat that the pope can do, he has power 
to dispense with persons to marry and continue so, not during life, but for 
such time as they desire, a year or two, or till they can have' a child, and 
then be unmarried again, and freed from all bonds of that state, without any 
divorce or occasion for it. fro. Andreas (a principal rabbi of their church 
Talmud) says, He had disputed this question, whether the pope might not 
dispense with a king's only son, being a monk, to marry for a while, till he 
could get a boy, and after return to his monastery and unmarried condition ? 
He answers, That the pope, whose power is disputed, may resolve it himself, 
yet he may be advised to forbear, but many maintain, that if he should dis- 
pense, the dispensation would stand good (according to whom, the pope is 
not forbidden to dispense against the gospel, when he sees cause, but only 
not to destroy it, as before), and this holds especially, if the party would be 
content to be married for a while, rather than for ever. So Andreas, and 
the same, it seems, is defended by Jo. Antonius, bishop of Alexandria (in 
Millain), by Baldus, by Fulgosius, and Baptista Toruamala. Our author 
will not grant that the pope cannot dispense with a religious person to be 
married a little, but makes it a question whether he can let him marry 
during life. 1 

Moreover, he can not only legitimate adultery, but incest ; for they teach 
that he can dispense with marriages in those degrees which God's law for- 
bids, even such as are acknowledged to be against the dictate of nature. 3 
They except no degree of consanguinity, but only the first in the direct line, 
viz. marriage betwixt parent and child ; they say he can license it in the first 
degree in the collateral line, viz. betwixt brother and sister. 

Some indeed stick at this, because they observe not that the pope has 
dispensed in this case. But the credit of their St Antoninus«will not be 
questioned, who tells us that Pope Martin the Fifth dispensed with one who 
had married his own sister. 3 Yea, he takes upon him to dispense with 
sodomy. 4 Sixtus the Fourth gave license to the whole family of Cardinal St 
Lucy, that they should use sodomy in the three hotter months, June, July, 
and August. 5 And Alexander the Sixth gave the cardinal De Valentia leave 
to buggar the Marquis De Zaneta, his own natural son. 6 

The most modest opinion at first blush (which yet ends little better than 
the worst) that I have observed amongst them, concerning the pope's power 
in reference to the laws of God, is that of Richard De Sancto Victore, as 
Angelus reports it, that the pope can dispense with the divine precepts when 
the reason of them ceaseth ; otherwise, says he, God (if he had not so em- 

secundum Innocentium quod hoc potest, de plenitudine potestatis. — SylveiL v. papa, 
n. xiii. 

1 Sum. Rosell. v. papa. n. iii. et iv. 

* So Aquinas (in Dian. v. matrim n, lvi.) Bonaventur, Scotus, Durand. Alenais, 
Richard. Augustimis Triumph. Cajetan, Roffensis (in Victorell. ad Tol.i. vii. c. ix.) 

8 Fe to omnes gradus Mosaica lege prohibiti, sunt etiam prohibit naturali. — £y&>. 
v. papa* n. xvii. 

4 Reperitur tamen Martinua V. ut Archiepiscopus (viz. Antoninus), refert, dispen- 
*asR6 cum eo, qui cum sua germana contrax&at, et consummaverat, habito consilio 
cum peritis theologis et Ganonistis. Idem. ibid, et Angelus. v. papa. n. i. 

6 Vid Myster. iniquitatis, 1810. • Ibid. 1328. 



Digitized by 



Google 



Chap. IX.] no sins in theie account. 241 

powered him) would not seem to be a good master of his household 1 (not 
wise, say some ; not diligent, say others ; for this is a common argument 
for the papal prerogative). We mast take heed how we question the pope's 
power herein, for if we do, they may question the government of God. 
And herein he is followed by Sylvester, 2 a Dominican, and Angelns, 3 a Fran- 
ciscan (though in other things they often clash) who tell us that besides 
divines, all the canonists agree in it, if well understood. 4 And this the 
former extends to particular cases, whether in the natural or divine law, 6 and 
the latter concludes it, not only as to the precepts of the second table, but 
as to all the commands, both in the Old and New Testament. 6 All the 
question is, How one may know when the reason of God's law ceaseth in any 
case V To which he answers, That this we sometimes may learn by the 
examples of God himself, who many times dispensed with his own law. 
So that in such cases, it seems, the pope may do as much as God himself. 
But this may not prove enough to serve the pope's turn. So he adds, when 
we have not an example of that, or the like dispensation in Scripture, the 
declaration of it (that is, when the reason of the law fails) in any other case 
belongs to the pope alone. 8 Accordingly Sylvester, He may, when there is 
any doubt, authoritatively explain whether or no in any certain case the 
reason of the divine or natural precept takes place. 9 The pope, if he were 
God (as they too often call him) needs not herein desire more power than 
this ; he may declare that the reason of the divine law ceases when he pleases, 
and so he may dispense with it when he list. Thus the pope might discern 
the reason of the law for marriage to cease, when Olivares had declared 
Julian Naleasor his heir, and so gave him leave to marry another wife, when 
he had one already, lawfully married (yet his holiness might be hastier 
herein than some doctors would have him, who though they hold the pope 
can dispense with one to have two, or more wives at once, yet think it not 
so very fit to be done, while catholics are so plentiful). 10 And he would 
have seen something more in Harry YIH.'s case, than he let the world 
know, if the emperor Charles V. had not stood in his light. And so in 
that against perjury, Clement VII. saw the reason of it cease, when 
he saw it his interest that Francis I. should break his oath. And Sixtus 
IV. could well see that the reason of that law against sodomy ceased in 
the hotter months, and so dispensed with it then, though not in cooler 
seasons. 

But what if the pope should mistake in his declaration about the law, and 
the reason of it, and so err in dispensing with it ? This must not easily 
be supposed. I firmly believe, says Angelas, that if any one seeking a dis- 
pensation, in any case against the law of God, not interposing the importu- 
nity of gifts and solicitations, do put himself simply into the pope's hands, 

I Si occnrreret casus particularis in quo deficeret ratio legis — tunc papa posset dis~ 
pensare ; alitor, ut dicit Ricar. non videretur Dens fuisse bonus pater-familias. V. papa, 
n. l 

II V. papa n. xvi. 8 Ibid. 

4 Et in prsedicta opinione concurrunt omnes Canonist®, si bene inteUigantur. — Idem, 
ibid, 

* Potest ea interpreted in dnbio authoritative, scil. utrnm in aliquo determinate 
casu, habeat locum ratio divini, aut naturalis statuti, vel non. — Sylvest. ibid. 

Et quod dico de proceptis secnnd® tabula, idem die de omnibus prteceptis veteris et 
noTi Testamenti. — Angclut. ibid. f 

7 Sed quis poterit scire quando ratio legis deficit in aliquo casu ? Hesp. quod istud 
aliquando habemus exemplo Dei, qui roultoties dispensavit in sua lege. 

8 Sed quum talis dispensationis vel similis non habemus exemplum in scriptura, 
tunc ad solum papam pertinet ipsius declaratio. — Idem. ibid. 

9 Supra. 10 Vid. Sum. Rosell. v. papa. n. v. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



242 WHAT CRIMES ABE [CHAP. IX. 

with a declaration of his ease, that God will not suffer his vicar to err in dis- 
pensing. 1 Yet if the worst should come to the worst, and the pope should 
err herein, that will make no alteration in the case before us ; for though it 
may be a fault to dispense, yet the crime he dispenses with may be no sin 
to him who has his holiness' 8 leave to commit it I judge, says Navarre, that 
though the dispenser may be in fault, yet he that is dispensed with is ex- 
cused, if, relying honestly^pon the authority of his superior, he thinks it was 
granted upon just cause, till ho be convinced that it was not justly granted. 8 
For all this, Bellarmine has the confidence to affirm that no catholic ever 
held that the pope* could dispense any way with the divine commands, and 
yet what is it less that himself ascribes to the pope, when he says by his 
indulgences we are disobliged from the command of bringing forth fruits 
worthy of repentance V These fruits are, by their own account, all good 
works ; and so in time the pope can make it to be no sin to live without 
the worship of God, righteousness towards men, and good works, which 
respect either. 

Sect. 14. But they need not make use of the pope's authority for this 
purpose ; there are other expedients nearer hand will serve to make any sin 
lawful. One is probable ignorance, and that, when upon a probable ground, 
error is conceived to be truth, and that which is sin indeed is taken to be 
no sin. When upon such a ground one ventures upon a crime, it will not 
be criminal. Now,: they give an account of several things, each of which 
will serve them herein for a probable ground. 

First, a probable reason, when there are arguments pro and con, all pro- 
bable in his judgment that views them, if he follows that which seems to 
him most probable, he sins not, though it lead him into sin. 4 They lay 
great weight upon authority, and think it safe to follow the herd in a com- 
mon opinion ; yet one good reason, they say, is to be preferred before the 
common judgment of their writers, and one may venture against the stream, 
being backed with it.» Nor is there need to be very scrupulous about the 
probability of a reason ; it is enough if it seems but probable to him that 
weighs it, yea, thongh it seem but so, out of affection to him that offers it. 6 
And that may as well pass for more probable, which is more favourable to 
the inclination of the inquirer, and he may be his own judge in the case, 
and act against the scruples of his conscience when he has probable reason. 
But when there are more reasons against it, and but one probable for it, 
must not the more sway us, since that is safer, and that which is safer is to 
be chosen, according to the common rule ? No, we are not obliged, for 
that rule even in matters of faith and practice is only a counsel, 7 not a pre- 

1 Ibid. n. ii. 

9 Arbitror autem, quod licet dispensator peecet, tamen dispensatus, si bona fide 
nixus autlioritate superioris, putat earn justa de causa esse datam, excusatur donee 
salis noverit earn non fuisse sic datam.— Ibid, praslud. ix. n. xiil xiv. 

8 Indulgentise— faciunt tamen, ut pro lis pan is, qua? nobis per indulgentiam con- 
donantur, non teneamur prcecepto illo de feciendis dignis psenitentiw fructibus.— Dt 
pcenit. 1. iv. c. xiii. p. 1068. 

* Quando homo occurrentibus ratkmibns in utramque, partem suo jadicio pTolw- 
bilibus, eligit eos qu» sibi videntur probabiliores, quae tamen revera sunt contra verita- 
tern, cui ipse alias bene effectus est : tunc iete (licet contra veritatem erret, et sic 
laborot ignorantia contraria) nulla culpa errat: sic doctores Conimuniter. — Sancta 
Clara. Dens. nat. gr. problem, xv. p. 87. 

6 Navar. cap. iii. n. viii. 

6 Ignorantia excusat— etiam cum quip, in affectione ad suum doctorem, jtidicat pro- 
babilitcr, ut sibi vidctur, esse verum, quod est falsum.— Sylvest. sum. v. opinio, n. i. 

7 Navar. c. xxvii. n. 281. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no sins in their account. 248 

cept ; we are only enjoined to do what is safe, not to what is safer, and a 
practice upon a probable reason is safe enough. 1 

Sect. 15. Secondly, custom is another probable ground which (with them) 
will secure a person from sin in doing what is unlawful. It is ordinary with 
their casuists to conclude a practice innocent when there is custom for it, 
though otherwise they condemn it as a sin. So Navarre determines that if it 
wore a custom to observe the Lord's-day only till noon, or till mass were ended 
in the morning, it would be no sin to spend the rest of it in servile works." 
And that of Cajetan is observable : he takes notice that it is a practice in 
the church of Rome to sing to the organ profane and filthy songs when they 
are at church for worship. This the cardinal reflects upon severely, con- 
demns it as a mortal sin, and a crime of sacrilegious superstition ; yet in the 
conclusion, thinks something of it excusable upon the account of custom 
and probable ignorance. 8 Those who in dancing use habit, gesture, or songs 
which are notoriously lascivious, as immodest women who wantonly lay open 
their breasts, and men who expose without due covering their shameful parts ; 
they sin mortally. 4 So De Graffiis had concluded (as any person that is 
not past shame would do) ; but then he presently corrects himself : Yet 
of this, says he, we can pass no certain judgment, but must stand to the 
custom of the country. 5 Though so much wantonness seem a mortal sin, 
yet if it be the custom he cannot certainly judge it any. In like manner 
Sylvester determines of a habit that will not suffice to hide their shame ; 
if it be a custom, though not laudable, and without ill intention, no gene- 
ral rule can be formed against it.* In positive precepts, where things are 
evil because prohibited, custom will excuse. 7 And so fornication, which, 
in the judgment of Durandus and some others, is of this nature, needs 
nothing but custom to excuse it from being a sin. 8 So much they ascribe 
to custom that they will have the Scripture not to direct and regulate it, 
but to follow it and be conformed to it even in its changes, so that the sense 
and obligation of the divine rule shall be changed, as the Romanists change 
fashions. This Cardinal Gusanus affirms. The Scripture (says he) is fitted 
to the time, and variably understood, so that at one time it is expounded 
according to the current fashion of the church, and when that fashion is 
changed, the sense of Scripture is also changed ; and again, no wonder if 
the practice of the church do take the Scripture, one time one way and 
another time another, for the sense- of it keeps pace with the practice. 9 

1 Hoc potest facere (viz. crebro contra scrupulos) tuta conscientia ex consilio pro- 
prio, quando habet probabilera rationem. — Sylvett, v. scrupul. n. iii. ReguL v. 

* Cap. xiii. n. v. 

8 Excusandos tamen illos crediderim, qui simplici corde credentes licere non turpia, 
sed vana, quasi pro recreatione pulsare, pro eo quod ubique sic vident fieri, erraverunt 
— tales enim ex ignorantia probabili erraverunt. — Sum. v. Organ. 

4 Qui habitu, gestu, cantu, notabiliter lascivo, in ludo chorearum utitur, sicut 
fseminse inverecundss pectora lascive nudant, viri partes inyerecundas indecenter cooper- 
tas ostendunt, peccant mortaliter. 

5 Vernm de hoc pro certo judicare non possumus, sed standum est consuetudini 
patrite 1. ii. cap cxx. n. xvi. 

6 Sum v. Ornat. n. vii. 

7 In his quae ideo sunt mala quia prohibits^ nt communiter positiva pnecepta, excusat 
consuetudo proscripta, quia tollit legem, et est legum interpres : Imo hac ratione dico, 
qaod excusat etiamsi non sit pnescripta, modo sit rationabilis et scienter tolerata, &c 
— Idem. ibid. v. scrupul. n. iv. reg. v. 

8 Supra. 

9 Scripturasque esse ad tempus adaptatas, et varie intellects, ita nt nno tempore 
secundum currentem universale^ ritum exponerentur, inutato ritu iterum sententia 
mutaretur. — Epist. ii. ad Bohem. de usu Com. 

Nee rairum si praxis ecclesi® uno tempore interpretatur scripturam nno modo, et 
alio tempore alio modo : intellectus enim currit cum praxi. — Idem, epist. vii. 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



214 WHAT CRIMES ABE [CHAP. IX. 

This was urged in the Council of Trent, and judged to be the meaning 
of the Lateran Council, when it decreed that the Scripture should be ex- 
pounded according to the doctors of the church, or as custom has approved. 1 
Tnus it must come to pass, that what the word of God, in its true mean- 
ing, did once condemn as a sin, if it become the Roman practice, the 
divine precept will change its sense, and the act will be no sin. It was a 
sin once by the word of God to deprive the people of the cup in the 
eucharist, but since it was the custom of Borne, the Scripture has changed 
its meaning, and it is now no sin. To worship images was a crime con- 
demned in Scripture, as that which God most abhorred, but being once the 
practice of the Romanists, the Scripture renounced the former sense, and it 
is now far from being criminal. It has not only made a change in the word 
of God, but in the nature of the thing, and the same thing which was 
idolatry is now no such matter. Of the law against idolatry (says Syl- 
vester), nothing must be said, because now by the grace of Christ it is not in 
use. 3 It is not in use, because it is their custom ; it is not the same thing 
that it was to all the world besides, because they use it. And what custom 
has done in these instances, it may as well do in any other ; when all sin is 
once the practice of that church (as the worst is already), there will be no 
sin in it. 

Sect. 16. Thirdly, Another probable ground is a covnderabU authority, or 
the opinion of one whom we may trust ; hence this is their doctrine, that he 
who does what is sinful, following the judgment of an able doctor, is excused 
from sin. This principle is without ground appropriated to the Jesuits, 
with the pernicious consequences of it ; it was current in the church of 
Rome before the fathers of that society were infants. Panormitan thus de- 
termines : He that follows the opinion of any doctor, not curiously ex- 
amined, which afterward appears false, is excused from sin, so long as it 
appears not to be false. 3 In Sylvester, this is confirmed, and he directs to 
several proofs out of their law for it ; 4 removes what, by mistake, is alleged 
out of Aquinas against it ; and shews that both their great saint and their 
great abbot agree with others, that this is safe in points which concern 
either faith or manners, when they are not evident (not clearly and mani- 
festly determined). To him, one doctor may be sufficient. 5 In morals, we 
must be satisfied with probabilities; and, according to the rule amongst 
them, a man may probably follow one doctor. 6 And by a multitude of 
authors we are not to judge what is better or more equal ; the opinion of 
one, and he worse than the rest, may be preferred before . many in some 
particular. So he, 7 and Angelus 8 before him, after others. They con- 
clude, in reference to Joachim, who was not accounted a heretic (though 

1 History of Council of Trent. 1. ii. 169. 

1 QusBritur quid juris de idololatria ? Et dico supersedendum esse hie: quia jam 
per gratiam Christi, non est in usa.— v. Superttilio, n. iii. 

8 Panormitan. in C. Capillan. de feri. dicit quod sequens opinionem alicujus doc- 
toris non snbtiliter investigatam, quse postmodum apparet falsa, excusatur a peccato 
quamdiu non apparuerit falsa. Sylv. opinio, n. i. et Angel. Sum. v. opin. n. ii. Ubi 
Glossa cum textu. Innocentius. U of red us, et alii. 

4 Ibid, secundum Antoninum. 

5 Opinio probabilis erit, si illam affirmant boni nominis doctores, imo et si nnus 
doct. Angelus. Sylvester. Navar. &c, Jo. Sancius. disp. xliv. n. lxi. Bonacin. torn, 
ii. diBp. ii. q. iv. punct. ix. n. i. et alii ibid. For this 24 doctors are produced by 
Verrjoelli. Q. moral, torn. i. tr. ii. q. v. 

6 Probabiliter quia sequitur opinionem sui doctores: sed neque ex multitudine 
an thorn m quid melius et sequins est, judicato ; cum possit unius, et forte deterioria 
sententia multos in aliqua parte superare. 

1 Ibid. n. ii. « Ibid. n. i. 

Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] mo sins in thbik account. 245 

his opinions were against the faith), because not condemned by the church, 
that he is much more to be excused who follows the opinion of a doctor not 
rejected by the church j 1 and if he thought it not true, would not adhere to 
it. Certainly (says Angelas) in him there can be no contempt, and so no 
sin of disobedience. 8 It is true, that which is maintained by more and better 
authors seems more probable ; but they will not have us always bound to 
follow that which is more probable ; for though this be more secure, yet the 
rule, that what is safest to be followed, holds not (they tell us) but in 
points that are properly dubious ; and where there is opinion, we are not 
properly in doubt. 3 Thus Navarre also explains it, 4 having told us that it is 
not always necessary to choose what is safer, because it is enough for the 
fulfilling of the precept to choose that which is safe, even in those things 
which concern faith and manners ; 9 for in other things, it is not so much as 
under counsel to follow the safest. Accordingly, Metina (in Lopez) says : 
The opinion of expert divines may be held without sin, although the con- 
trary be more clear and more safe. 6 In short, that an opinion which is less 
probable may be followed, is asserted (we are told) both by the greater part 
and the graver sort of their divines ; above forty of their grave doctors are 
alleged for it, and amongst them, Martin Navarre, Medina, Peter Navarre, 
Arragon, Bannes, Du Vallius, with others, besides Jesuits. 7 At present, 
take only the words of Navarre, who speaks fully : In the court of conscience 
(says he) it is enough, for the avoiding of sin, to take his opinion for true, 
whom we probably think to be a man of sufficient knowledge and conscience ; 
and quotes their Gloss and Panormitan for it. 8 To whom let me add 
Sancta Clara, who not only tells us (as we have heard before) that at this 
day it seems to be the common opinion of their schools and doctors, that 
the people erring with their teacher or pastor are wholly exoused from all 

1 Multo magis excnsatur sequens opinionem doctoris non reprobatam, cam volun- 
tate non adhaerendi, si vera non apparet. — Uterque, ibid. 

* Certe in isto non potest esse contemptus, et sic nee peccatnm inobedientire. — Ibid. 

* Nee obstat, quod in dubiis tntior pars est eligenda — nt videtur se exponere periculo, 
qui in diversitate opinionem non eiigit tutiorem : quoniam hoc verum esset quum 
proprie dubium est, sed quum est opinio secus est, quia nee tunc sumus in dubio : nee 
consequenter exponit se quis periculo. Angelus. ibid. n. ii. et Sylvest. n. i. 

4 Rectus intellectus ilhus valgati Tutior pars est eligenda in dubio, nempe in eo 
qnod est proprie dubium, quale non est, cum sufficient! autboritate aut ratione altera 
pars creditor, neque cum ex multis opinionibus una pro vera eligitur, cap. xxvii. 
n. 284. 

6 Non semper esse necessarinm, partem tutiorem eligere, quiasatis est quoad prav 
cepti implementam tutam eligere, ut late probavimus, etiam in his quae ad fidem et 
mores pertinent : in aliis enim, nee de consilio quis tenetur eligere tutiorem, n. eclxxxi. 
Vid. Antoninum. Angel. Sylvest. Navar. Qutier in Jo. Sane. disp. xlii. n. xii. 

6 Dicit opinionem posse teneri sine peccato, qua? est peritorum virorum, licet con- 
trarium sit planius et secorius, cap. lii. p. 271. 

7 Licitum esse sectari opinionem minus probahilem, relicta probabiliori, docent 
Mercado, Medina, Sairus (naming twenty besides, and adding, et alii plures). — Jo. 
Sane. disp. xlii. n. xii. 

Possumus absque peccato sequi opinionem probabilem, relicta probabiliore, et'tutiore. 
Bonacin. torn. ii. disp. ii. q. iv. punct. ix. n. iv. ; Claris Regia, et alii com muni ter. ibid, 
n. v. For this Barnabas Gallego, a Dominican, produces near fifty of their doctors. 
many of them of the same order, and says it is sententia communior inter Tbomistas. 
tract, de conscient. dubi. de consc. probabili. So that if we may trust those whom we 
see no reason to think partial to the Society, this is not a singular conceit of the Jesuits, 
but the opinion of their other divines generally, and the more common doctrine of 
Aquinas his disciples, otherwise most opposite to the Society. 

* In foro tamen conscientisB ad effectum non peccandi sufficit eligere pro vera opini- 
onem, quern meriio censemus esse virum idonea et scientia et conscientia preadituin. 
cap. xxvii. n. eclxxxviii. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



246 WHAT CRIMES ABE [CHAP. IX. 

fault, 1 but also, when any has a probable ground for what he does ; as when 
a countryman believes anything to be lawful, indueed thereto by the testi- 
mony of the parish priest, or of his parents, although he mistake, yet his 
mistake is void of sin ; according to the rule in law, just and probable igno- 
rance ought to be excused. 2 So that, to make a sin to be no sin, not only 
the judgment of a grave doctor so determining, but of a parish priest (who 
are known to be sufficiently ignorant), yea, of parents also (more ignorant 
than they) will suffice; and herein (says he) the doctors generally concur. 
In fine, if it be the common opinion that invincible (as divines) or probable 
ignorance (as the canonists call it) is excused from all sin, and that it is an 
instance hereof when one is misled by a sufficient author, then this is the 
common doctrine of the Romanists, and not the extravagancy of some par- 
ticular sect or order amongst them. 3 

If, then, this principle be so destructive to religion, the souls of men, and 
human societies, as some of the French Romanists brand it in reference to 
the Jesuits, the charge falls upon the common doctrine of the Roman 
church ; for there it is generally taught and received, and was so before 
Ignatius had founded his order. And this prevents their ordinary excep- 
tion against our alleging particular authors against them ; they cannot with 
reason or modesty make use of this shift longer ; for a single doctor is so 
far authorized by the common doctrine of their chief writers (and so of their 
church), that any, or all in their church, have warrant to rely on him ; and 
so, in producing a particular author, in esteem with them, we do, in effect, 
allege their common doctrine. And indeed, by the premises, the opinion of 
a grave doctor is the doctrine of their church so far, that any of their church 
are allowed to follow it, both as to belief and practice. Their church (if we 
know her sense by the declaration of the generality of her approved authors) 
does allow all Romanists to follow the opinions I have charged them with, 
though they be plainly destructive of worship, faith, and holiness, both of 
heart and life. For I have charged them with nothing without a consider- 
able author ; and what is so grounded is with them probable, and what is 
probable is safe, and allowed both as to faith and manners. Or if there be 
any particular in the charge in which there is not a common concurrence, or 
which is contradicted, though by a multitude of their writers, yet since there 
is at least one grave doctor for it, it is in their account safe ; and any 
Romanist has liberty, by the doctrine now insisted on, to follow it (if he 
please), rather than that which, upon the account of more assertors, may be 
thought safer. 

But as to the purpose for which I now take notice of it, this principle serves 
to rid their church of all sin, that is, of all conscience to avoid any ; for if 
that be safe which is probable, and that will be probable, which is counte- 
nanced by the opinion of particular doctors, then all the sins which they, or 
any of them, have already concluded to be no sins (and these are an infinite 

1 Dens. nat. gr. probl. xv. p. xcix. supra. 

8 Probabilis est quando quia habet fundamentum probabile ; ut dam rusticus credit 
aliqaid esse licitum, ductus testimonio sui parocbi vel parentum : — tunc iste (licet contra 
veritatem erret) nulla culpa errat : sic doctores communiter, secundum illud : Igno- 
rant iajusta et probabilis excusare debet. — Ibid. p. 78. 

* Darandus ; cum excuset probabilis ignorantia, puta, si habet aliquem doctorem 
authenticum et famosum, cujus opinioni nititur in tiylvest. v. confess, n. ii. Verrec 
dubitans et consulens viros doctos falso consulentes, laborat ignorantia invincibiti. — 
Ibid. v. Ignor. n. v. Justa ignorantia — qualis est, cum quia petit consilium a viris 
habitis pro prseditis scientia et conscientia in id sufficienti, qui falso ei consalunt, et 
hsBc omnino excuset. Navar. c xxiii. n. xlvi. ; Graff. 1. ii. c. cxxxi. n. xxi. et 1. iv. c ix. 
n. viit. ; Sancta Clara, ibid. p. 96; Hen-era et Faber. ibi ; Bonacina. de peccat. d. ii. 
q. viii. p. ii. n. ix. et xri. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no sins in theie account. 247 

number) may be safely committed ; and all that any of them hereafter may 
determine to be no crimes, may be practised with as little conscience, and 
as much security. So that a train is laid hereby to blow up the whole rule 
of Christianity, and all innocency and holiness, which consists in conformity 
thereto. It has done horrible execution already, and what has hitherto 
escaped is at the mercy of it, being wholly under the mine, and may be 
despatched whenever the casuists (their engineers), who are daily at work 
about it, shall think fit. . 

Sect. 17. Let me but add some of the rules they lay down for the direction 
and relief of scrupulous consciences. They must persuade themselves that 
they sin not, though they break the law in a strict sense, if they observe it 
according to some complaisant interpretation. A benign sense is rather to 
be put upon any precept, than that which is strict ; for the precepts of God 
and the church are not against that pleasantness which a scrupulous inter- 
pretation takes away : l and that a person may the better be pleased, he may 
make the interpretation himself, and so make it as benign as he desires, and as 
favourable as his inclination and interest would have it; for though, in 
other courts, the interpretation belongs to him who makes the law, yet, accord- 
ing to their St Antoninus, in the court of conscience, it belongs to every one 
to do it for his own practice. 8 Or if he will be so over cautious, as not to rest 
in his own sense, but inquire the opinion of others (and he may easily meet 
with those amongst them, who will either make that which he has a mind to, 
no sin ) or will mince it for him so small, that it may go down without hurt), 
yet he may choose that opinion which is most for his purpose (that which is 
most complaisant, and so will best serve his turn) ; 3 and if he thinks it pro- 
bable, though he fear the contrary, and it be false indeed, yet he may act 
according to it, and sin without fault. 4 Nor is he concerned whether the 
doctor's opinion be true or no ; for though it be false, he may notwithstand- 
ing thereupon cast off all scruple, and break the law without sin.* Thus if 
either himself, or any other will give him liberty to sin, when the law gives 
it not, yet he may take it, and his sin will be no sin. 

Secondly, he must persuade himself he sins not when he breaks the law, 
not only if it be impossible, but if it be very difficult to keep it. 6 Now it may 
be very difficult to avoid sin, when his employment leads, or when his com- 
plexion inclines him to it, or when he has got a habit of sinning, or other- 
wise when he is under temptation ; and if it will be no sin to break the law 
in these and the like cases, he may make wickedness his daily practice with- 

1 Sexta (medicina) usus tequitatis circa leges ; de qua S. Thorn, persuadendo sibi non 
peccare — qui (legem) in sensu benigniori servet, qnamvis in duriore violet — Navar. 
c. xxvii. n. cclxxxiii. Caeteris paribus inter sententiam benignam et duram circa pr»- 
cepta potius benigna iuterpretatio facienda est, secundum. Jo. de Amb. Vervec. et 
Archi. et ratio est, quia procepta Dei et ecclesi© non sunt ad tollendam dulcedinem, 
quam aufert interpretatio scrupulosa. — Sylvest. v. Scrupul. n. iv. 

' Interpretando discrete procepta non solum huraana, sed et divina, raaxime affir- 
mativa : qure interpretato licet in foro contentioso ad eum spectet ad quern est editio 
legis : tamen secundum Archi. in foro conscientiae, pertinet ad quemlibet pro facto suo. 
— Idem, ibid. n. iii. 

8 Septimum est eligere opinionem magis facientem ad propositum proprium. — Ibid. 

* Si credat probabiliter sic esse faciendum, etiamsi sit cum formidine alterius partis, 
non peccat illud agendo, etiamsi falsa esset ejus opinio. Sylvest. Antoninus, in Fill, 
tr. xi. n. clxxxii. ; Sylv. ibid. n. iii. ad. ob. ii. 

5 Excusatnr, etiamsi sequatur consilium falsum, quia fecit quod potuit. — Sylv. ibid. 
n. v. 

e Non peccare qui earn non servat, ubi et quando est impossibile ant valde difficile. 

—Navar. ibid. Nee Deus nee ecclesia intendit obligare ad vix possibile alicui, secun- 
dum Jo. de Amb. Illud esse impossibile dicitur quod vix est possibile: utputa 
nimiam habens difficultatem. Vide supra, v. potent ; Sylv. ibid. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



2 ±8 WHAT CBIMES ABE [CHAP. IX. 

oat danger of sinning. Bat they seem to take difficult or impossible in a 
great latitude, as though it might be no more than incommodious ; and so 
Sylvester explains it in the place to which he here refers as. 1 Now it may 
be judged incommodious to observe the commands of God, when they sail 
not his fancy, or humour, or inclination, or interest, that of his ease or ad- 
vantage ; and if then, it will be no sin not to obey the divine commands, a 
man may go near to be excused from sinning all his life, though he do little 
or nothing else but sin. The obligation of the whole law, and gospel too, 
will be superseded by our conveniences ; he may omit what is enjoined, or 
practise what is forbidden, and it will be no sin, if he judge the observance 
of the rule too difficult or incommodious. 

,;Thirdly, He must make account that he sins not by breaking the law, 
when he may be thought a fool for keeping it, or when the observance of it 
may be ridiculous. 3 Now, when sin is general, and the common usage of the 
times and places where he is, it may be as ridiculous to avoid it, as to be 
out of the fashion, or to appear in an antique garb. And those who reap 
pleasure and advantage by sin, will be ready to account them fools who 
abstain from it; as Nic. de Clemangis says they did in his time. A blessed 
time when there could be no sin, because piety and virtue were grown ridi- 
culous ! s He must not think he sins who observes the law according to the 
common usage of good catholics, 4 and makes that his example and rule, and 
what conscience he is like to make of sin by this rule, we may understand 
by the character which the count of Mirandula gave of the good catholics 
(the chief of them) to Pope Leo. Amongst the most (says he) of the most 
eminent in our religion, to whose example the silly multitude should be con- 
formed, there is either no worship of God, or certainly very little; no regard 
at all of good life, no shame, no modesty ; righteousness is declined into 
hatred or favour, and godliness even sunk into superstition. 6 

And if there be danger, it will be accounted folly indeed to expose him- 
self ; and whether it be accounted so or not, the apprehension of danger may 
excuse a man from sin in any case, so Sylvester after others. 6 

There is no need to insist upon their other rules, as that the scrupulous 
ought to exercise himself in choosing what is less safe (more dangerous) 
amongst probable opinions, and not to regard (though he cannot answer) the 
arguments against it ; it is enough that he believe what another says. Or 
this, The confessor may tell him that he should count no sin mortal, but 

1 A liquid dicitur alicui possibile, quia potest illud commode— eodem modo did tor 
impotentia, scil. quia non est aliqaid possibile de jure, vel commode, vel honesie. — 
Idem v. potentia. 

* Neque cam non servat, nt pro stulto non habeatur. — Navar. ibid. Nee Dens nee 
ecclesia intendit obligare ad hoc, at qais appareat fatuus, et ridicalo sit. JSylv. ibid, 
secundum ; Jo. de Amb. Gloss. Innocent. Antoninam. v. Scrupul. n. iv. 

8 De corrupt stat. eccles. Cap. xxv. 

* Navar. ibid. ; Sylvest. ibid. 

5 Franciscus Ficus Mirandula de reformand. moribus. Apud plerosque religiouis 
nostra primores, ad quorum exemplum componi atque formari plebs ignara debuisset, 
aut nullus aut certe exiguus Dei cultus, nulla bene vivendi ratio, atque institutio, 
nullus pudor, nulla modestia : Justitia vel in odium vel in gratiam decunavit : pieuu 
in superstitionem pene procubuit. 

Quamobrem dico et exclamo (neque enim metuo homines, Deo fretus), neminem mea 
rotate fuisse fidelem dispensatorem, imo papa ipse pacatis populis bella infert, opes 
alienas suit, et suas exsorbet, nulla sanctitas, nulla religio, nullus Dei timor, et quod 
horresco referens, omnium scelerum, impii homines a papa sumunt excusationem. — 
Valla de donaX. Constant. 

6 In quolibet casu pretermittens facere quod lex imponit. Excusari potest a peccaio, 
si hoc tacit per virtutem Epikeia, sine coutemptu, ratione alicujus periculi considerati. 
— Jon, de Amb. Antoninus, in Sylvest. ibid. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. IX.] no sins in thxib account. 249 

what is manifest to be such, and so manifest sometimes, that he cannot swear 
it is not; 1 or any else, though they have store of like nature ; the former are 
sufficient to leave no conscience of sin amongst them in ordinary practice, 
and to encourage sinners commonly to venture upon any violation of the 
divine rule, with warrant from their doctrine, that it will be no sin to them. 
Thus they take a course to ease men's consciences, by leaving them none. 
And what clearer way can there be to remove scruples, than to persuade 
them (who would retain some conscience, if they would suffer them) that 
there is little or no sin to be scrupled at. 

Sect. 18. This is abundantly sufficient to make it apparent that the popish 
doctrine is destructive to holiness of life, since they have warranty thereby, 
not only to neglect the proper acts and exercises of holiness, but to give up 
themselves to practices of ail sorts, which are directly opposite thereto. It 
is true, they do not acknowledge those practices to be sins or dangerous ; but 
they may with as good reason justify such acts, which they cannot but con- 
demn for crimes, as they go about to excuse these from being criminal. A 
son of Belial, that has lived in the neglect of holiness, and in the practice of 
ungodliness and unrighteousness all his time, will scarce pass at the day of 
judgment for one that is holy or innocent, because he has had the confidence 
to think so, or has found out some shift to support his presumption ; or 
because others like himself were of the same mind ; nor is he like to escape 
because he had wit enough to cozen his conscience, or boldness to stifle it, 
or wariness to keep out the light which would have informed it, or self-love 
to believe those who flattered him, in what his corrupt inclination led him 
to, or facileness to follow those blindfold who had no mind to see. Those 
devices which they have found out to justify innumerable transgressions of 
the divine law (and may serve as well to justify them all), have no counte- 
nance from Scripture, nor from antiquity, faithfully following it. This is 
not only acknowledged, but charged home by some of the French Romanists, 
upon a supposition, that these pernicious artifices are peculiarly the Jesuits' ; 
but since it is apparent that the divines and casuists of all orders, and those 
of universal repute, are no more excusable, the charge is justly fixed upon 
their church and practical doctrine in general. Nor is their acknowledg- 
ment needful, it is plain in the writings of those who have the conduct of 
their consciences, that they consult not with Scripture in these determina- 
tions, no more than with ancient writers ; you shall find them very rarely 
meddle with either. An allegation out of their canon law is an authentic 
authority that passes for the text. A schoolman or casuist of note, that went 
before them, is a sufficient conduct ; if there be a concurrence of five or six, 
it is then the common opinion, and they are as secure in it as if they marched 
with a caravan ; but if they have a mind to be singular, and have but some- 
thing like a reason for it, they supererogate, though the reason be such, that 
the next who examines it pufls it away as a trifle. Such are the founda- 
tions of their practical divinity. The masters of it (the casuists) are followed 
by the priests and confessors, and the priests are followed by the people ; and 
so the blind follow the blind, and those that see not, those that will not see. 

But it may be, there was less need to be so long and particular, in 
shewing how unnecessary it is with them to forsake sin. It is manifest 
enough by their doctrine of repentance, before insisted on, that there is no 
necessity they should break off their sins till they be obliged to be contrite ; 
and their doctors cannot agree upon any time for this (though some of them 
specify the point of death, though then indeed they do not account it in- 
dispensably necessary) : the people may thick themselves excused if they do 

1 Bonacin de peccat. disp. ii. q. iv. punct. viii. n. iii. ubi Sayrua. et alii et n. iv. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



250 good works [Chap. X. 

not resolve to leave their sins till their teachers agree that they must do so, 
and so live in them, till they can live no longer. If any particular doctor 
fix a more early period, and bring some reason for it, though they may if 
they please, yet they are not obliged to believe him, for no reason is brought 
by any of them for a more timely turning from sin, but is confuted and re- 
jected by some or other among them as slight and insufficient. And it is no 
sin not to believe him who proposes to them upon frivolous reasons ; yea, 
it would be an act of imprudence to do it, as Sancta Clara 1 assures us, out of 
Aquinas and Victoria ; so they may hereupon go on in their sins till the 
approach of death ; and he, whom they worship as a saint, and reverence as 
the angel of their schools, may encourage them herein, since he declares 
that continuance in sin unto death is not a special sin, but only a circum- 
stance of sin. 2 Nor need they be afraid of this circumstance, as though it 
wonld make their case worse ; for by their doctrine, to sin (and so to continue 
in sin) upon confidence that they shall have pardon by confession, is so far 
from aggravating sin that it extenuates it. 80 Cajetan and Navarre after him. 3 
And that nothing may discourage them from continuing in wickedness, the 
council of Trent declare (without excepting the sinner's perseverance in sin 
unto death) that if he be attrite, the sacrament of confession will secure him, 
though attrition is confessed not to import so much as any pious or inge- 
nuous purpose to forsake sin. 



CHAPTER X. 

The Roman doctrine makes good works to be unnecessary. 

Sect. 1. But their good works possibly may satisfy for their other defects 
and extravagancies, and in these they glory above all, and have the confidence 
to condemn us, upon a pretence (though utterly false and groundless) that we 
deny the necessity of good works. Is it imaginable that alter this they them- 
selves should hold them to be unnecessary, and so run into the heresy which 
they charge upon others ? I will not desire any to believe this unless I let 
him see it ; but their writings make it visible to any who have a mind to see. 
They reduce all good works to fasting, prayer, and acts of mercy, or alms- 
deeds. For their fasting I shall only say this, it is no fast, it is no good 
work, nor is it in their account necessary. To the making of a fast there 
must (as they tell us) be the concurrence of these severals. First, there 
must be no more than once eating. Gregory lies (though both a pope and 
a saint with them) if this be not true, says Cajetan. 4 Secondly, this eating 
must not be a dinner. Bellarmine makes this good by scripture, a troop of 
fathers, and the perpetual custom of the faithful ; concluding that it was 
never heard in the ancient church, that they did eat either till night, or be- 

1 Quando articnli fldei non raodo debito proponantar, ut rationibus frivolta — tunc 
enim credere esset actus imprudentiaB, secundum D. Tho. ii. 2, q. i. art iy. Deus. Nat. 
(ir. Probl. xv. p. 87. 

9 Pennanentiam in peccato usque ad mortem, non esse speciale peccatum, sed quan- 
dam peccati circumstantiam. — Aquinas, ii. 2> q. xiv. a. it. 

3 Peccans ob fiduciam, quod postea per confessionem veniam obtinebit, non tenetur 
de necessitate id confiteri : quia non est circumstantia adeo peccatum aggravans ; imo 
potius minuit, ut inquit Cajetanus in ii. 2, q. xxi. art. ii. ; fciav. cap. vi. n. iii. p. 98. 

4 Unica demum comestio, nisi ad jejunium necessaria sit, mentitur Gregorius. — 
Sum. v. jejunium. p. 344. Unica comestio est de essentia jejunii. — Navar. cap. xxi. 
n. xiv. Sane si in jejunio bis cibum capere fas esset, ecqure hie abstinentiae forma, 
vel species quidem foret ? Parvi enim refert, quo vescaris cibo, si modo te ad sum- 
mum satiaveris. — Polyd. Vergil, de invent, rer. lib. vi. cap xvi. p. ccclxxii. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. X.] not negessabt by the soman doctrine. 251 

fore three at afternoon. 1 Thirdly, what they take must be less nourishing 
and delicious than their ordinary fare. And so the church forbids that which 
in its nature, and for the most part, is more nourishing and more pleasing, 
the end of fasting requires it, which is (says he out of St Austin) to tame 
and subject the concupiscence of the body. 2 All these are necessary to the 
being of a fast, as they affirm, and yet not one of these is observed in their 
fasting. For first they eat a dinner, a full meal, at noon, or an hour or two 
sooner if they please, at the same time, and in as great quantity, as they do 
any other day ; yea, if they eat to great excess at a fasting dinner, yet they 
keep the fast. As to the quantity (says another of their cardinals, who can 
best tell what belongs to fasting) of a dinner at a fast, there is no certain 
measure ; but though one be very excessive, and transgress the law of sobriety, 
yet he fasts well enough ; and adds, it is lawful to eat more than ordinary 
at dinner upon a fast day. 3 Others, not of the Society, may hit the sense of 
the church herein more unquestionably, when they teach, that one who, ob- 
serving the quality of the meat, stuffs his belly so full as to be so far from 
any sense of the hardship of fasting, or from repressing the sins of the flesh, 
that he rather excites and cherishes lust thereby, yet fulfils the precept for 
fasting. So Covarruvius, Abulensis, Medina, Cajetan, and others, in Bona- 
cina, and he after them, 4 where, by the help of a distinction or two, intem- 
perance both in quality and quantity, is made perfectly consistent with the 
fast and temperance of holy church. So that they fast, though' they dine, 
and that lustily, whatever the Scripture, or the fathers, or all the faithful (in 
Bellarmine) say of the inconsistence of a dinner with a fast. But this is too 
little for a Roman fast (though many that never dream they fast eat con- 
stantly less) ; they may eat a breakfast too, and yet keep a fast after they 
have broke it. They may drink ale or wine, and eat bread after it, that the 
strong drink may not hurt them ; or if bread will not serve them (though 
these together may make a breakfast for a festival) they may eat other things 
also after their morning's draught, if it be not beyond measure ; and these 
both at their first and second breakfast. 6 Oh ! but thus they eat twice, that 
the cardinal was aware of, where is then their fast, when it is, as they 
affirm, essential thereto not to eat twice ? Why, says he, a pious construc- 
tion must be put upon it, it is that the drink may not hurt them ; and so 
taken it seems either they eat not twice, when they eat once and again, or 
they fast by a pious interpretation, when in the sense of the universal church, 
and the world too, they fast not. 6 Thus, that they may be sure to afflict the 

1 Unicam igitur refectionem, eamque csenam esse debere, nee prandium, cum jejtmio 
da tar opera, facile probari potest, extant enim exempla scripturarum, testimonia patrnm, 
et perpetua consuetudo fidelinm. — De Jejun. 1. ii. c. ii. p. 1034. A pad veteres inaudi- 
tnm est prorsus, ut ante horam nonam, qua est tertia post meridiem, jejunium quod- 
cunque sol vat ar. Qaemadmodum etiam nulla est apud veteres mentio bin© refectionis, 
cum de jejunio agitur.— Ibid. p. 1035, vid. Victorel. ad Tol. 1. vi. c ii. p. 972. 

* Certum genus cibi probibuit jejunaturis, illud videlicet quod ex genere suo, et ut 
plurimum magis nutrit et magis delectat — Idem. ibid. cap. v. Nam finis jejunii est 
corporis concupiscentias edomare, etin servitatem redigere. — Ibid. p. 1043. 

8 In continua autem quantitate prandii, non est carta mensura ratione jejunii : sed 
quamvis aliquis multum excedat, non ob id solvit jejunium, peccat tamen contra 6obrie- 
tatem — licet tamen tempore jejunii, aliquid plus aceipere in prandio. — Instruct. . vi. 
c. ii. p. 990. Qui intemperanter com edit, dam prandet die jejunii — satisfit pracepto. 
— Bonacin. torn. ii. disp. i. q. i. punct. ix. n. i. 

4 De precept eccles. ult. disp. q. i. punct. ii. n. vi. 

5 Licitns est mane potus etiam vini sine frande ; etiam licitum aliquid sumere pro 
stramento, potus ne obsit, Sylv. v. jejun. n. ix. et hoc expresse tenet. — S. Thomas. 

Nee sumere in serotino jentaculo parum panis, frangit jejonium : quia ad hocvidetur 
serotinum jentaculum reductum ut non referat quid quisque sumat, si modum non ex- 
cedat. Cajetan. Sum. jejun. it holds as well of a breakfast early as later. 

6 Sumere vero jentaculum serotinum ad sustentationem naturae, est proculdubio 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



252 good works [Chap. X. 

flesh with a severe abstinence, they may eat a supper too. And no wonder, 
for if they can excuse the second eating, it will he, as they conclude, no 
fanlt to eat a third, or a fourth, or a fifth time, or as often as they please ; 
hnt three meals may serve them for a fast, and so one supper may suffice. 1 
Indeed, they call it by canula, and will have it pass under a little name, 
though the quantity allowed be great, even full as big as custom will make 
it, for that is their rule for fasting suppers, not to eat by any certain mea- 
sure, but so much as others are wont to do ; if it be excessive great, that 
which custom introduces will justify it* 3 And those that tell us custom is 
their rule acquaint us also, that it is the custom in divers countries to sup 
with notorious excess. 3 And so they may eat at supper not only for hunger, 
but out of sensuality, as Panormitan, and others after him. 4 And thus sen- 
suality and the severity of a popish fast, are perfectly reconciled. 

Such a supper these fathers may eat in the morning, if they please. This 
will be but a small fault, though they do it when there is no occasion for it ;' 
and they may the better fast after, upon a full stomach, till noon. at least; 
but they need not stay so long, for they may drink every hour, or oftener if 
they will, and whenever they drink they may eat something too, that the 
drink may not hurt them ; and thus they may break their fast every hour of 
the day, or more, and yet keep it the whole day well enough. 

For the quality of their fasting-meat (to say nothing that some flesh is 
allowed) they may use the most delicious that they can compass, the most 
curious sweetmeats, the choicest wines, the rarest fish, and that dressed after 
the most delicate mode, and this at dinner, the meal most repugnant of all 
to fasting. Oh, how gladly would thousands of our people be condemned to 
such a maceration of the flesh, for more days in a year than the Romanists 
are thus pitifully mortified, and never trouble pope or prelate for a dispensa- 
tion ! Nay, they would purchase a license to fast, if any would accommodate 
them with expedients to do it at such a rate. Besides their meats, they 
may drink freely, not only at meals, but before or after, though they need 
it not, and be not thirsty ;* the drinking of wine out of sensuality breaks not 
the fast, says Sylvester. 7 And thus they may drink before the meat they 
fast on be digested, for though that be intemperance in other cases, as Navarre 
tells us, it breaks not the fast. 8 Sylvester thinks it possible that intemper- 

jferum comedere. — Ibid. Fie interpretandum est : ut scilicet fiat ne potus noceat,— 
Ibid. 

1 Sola autem sectmda comestio peccatam est : non aatem tertia neque quarta, Tel 
ulterior : quia ilia sola jejnnium frangit, secundum Durandum, quam aequuntur rccte 
Augelus, et Sylvester. Navar. c. xxi. n. xiv. ; rid. Cajetan. Sum. v. jejunium, p. 392. 

* Quanta tamen debet esse, consideranda est consuetudo communis patriae — non 
enim est peccatum mortale talem consuetudinem 6ervare, licet quantitas sit aliquan- 
tulum grandis. Unde Arm ilia probat collationes, quae fiunt Romas secundum consuetu- 
dinem tenelli ob consuetudinem, et quia Pontifex tolerat, cum sciat : nee ego auderem 
damn are, quam vis isti sunt abusus hominum parum timeratorum. — TolL ibid. 

8 Navar. c xxi. n. xiv. Collatio notabiliter immoderata frequenter, prsesertizn in 
Lusitania. 

4 Immo etsi ex sensualitate, secundum mentem Panormitani, quia sufficit non exire 
terminos consuetudinia — Syht. ibid, n. x. 

6 Bonacin. de procept Eccles. q. i. p. 3. n. vi. ibi Angles. Naldua, et alii, vide p. 1. 
n. viii. 

6 Utrum pluries bibere vinum vel aquam frangit jejunium Besp. Innocentins et 
Bicar. quod non, sive ante pastum siye post. — Angel, sum. v. jejum. n. iv. They may 
drink it, and that often, for hunger as well as thirst. — Navar, cap. xxL n. xiii. 

7 Potns etiam vini et electuaria, &c. De quibus intelligitur, quod ex sensnalitate 
sumpta, non frangunt jejunium. — Ibid, Sylvest. 

* Esto, quod venialiter peccaret, qui coepta et nondnm finita digestione biberet, non 
quidem quod jejunium frangat, sed quia actum inordinatum agit, — Navar. ibid. 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



Chap. X.] not necessaby bt the boman doctrine. 253 

ance in drinking may be a Bin ; however, it is lawful for those that fast to 
drink often, on the same day, for drinking breaks not the fast, either before 
or after dinner ; so he after others. 1 A man may wonder what can break 
this fast, since neither drinking nor eating so often, and so much, even to 
excess, and the gratifying of sensuality, in so high a degree can do it. It is 
wine that they may drink so often when they fast, and yet they acknowledge 
that wine is more contrary to the nature and end of a fast than flesh. 
Though wine, says De Graffiis, be more nutritive, and the drinking of wine 
do more provoke to concupiscence than the eating of flesh, according to that: 
Prov. x. Wine is a luxurious thing, and Eph. v. Be not drunk with wine in 
which is luxury ; yet, says he, he that on a fast day often drinks wine or 
water, either sooner or later, does not break the fast. 2 

Thus, as they may eat like gluttons, so (by the doctrine of their chief 
authors) they may drink till they be drunk, and yet not break their fast, for 
no drinking (how excessive soever) can break it. The cburch-fast (they tell 
ns) consists not in abstinence from drink ; consequently, he that drinks 
wine, or other liquor, before or after dinner, breaks not the precept for fast- 
ing, though he sin against temperance, and drink excessively. So Bona- 
cina, after Aquinas, Abulensis, Navarre, and others, telling ns it is their 
common doctrine). 8 

I suppose this fast can never be broke ; it will be a fast for ever, do what they 
can, if ail they are allowed to do against it cannot make it to be no fast ; for 
so far as I can perceive, they may break their bellies, and yet not break 
their fast. If one in the ancient church had spoke of his fasting after three 
such meals, and so much drinking, yea, or but eating a dinner, he would 
have been thought out of his wits ; yet they must not be accounted ridicu- 
lous, who tell ns gravely that this is fasting, and that they break not a fast 
unless they dine twice on a fasting day ;* and indeed some of their writers 
seem ashamed of this good work, as they do it in their church. 6 But sup- 
pose this were a fast (when indeed it is no such thing), and observed by them, 
ev %7\%o<payia (as Epiphanius explains it), and so that they tasted nothing till 
three o'clock, or till evening as of old, yet by the Boman order it could be 
no good work. 6 That it may be such, there must be something religious 

1 Licitnm est jejnnantibus pluries intra diom nnam potare, licet immoderantia circa 
hoc posset esse peccatum. Sylv. ibid. u. be. secundum 8. Thorn.; idem dicit Albertus. 
Paludan. Richardus. Quod potus non solvit jejunium sire post, sive ante prandium. — 
Ibid. 

• Etsi vinum sit nutritivum, et ad concupiscentiam magis provocet potus vini quam 
esus carnium illud Prov. xx. Luxuriosa res est vinum ; et ad Eph. v. Nolite inebriari 
vino, in quo est luxuria, tamen qui die jejuni i ssepius biberent vinum, ant aquam, et 
mane et vespere, jejunium non frangunt, quam vis hoc facerent ad sustentandum se, et 
famem sedandam. ita D. Th. ii. 2, q. cxlvii. art. vi. ad. ii. qui inquit, quod bene 
possunt peccare et meritum jejunii perdere sicut si immoderate cibum suraerent ; sed 
non ut jejunium frangatur; et ratio est quia jejunium est abstinentia a cibo tantum. — 
Graff. 1. ii. c. xxxvi. n. xxi. p- 215. 

8 Non violat prseceptum jejunii — quamvis peccet contra temperantiam, bibendo in- 
temperanter.— Tom. ii. p. 337, n. vii, et alii communiter. 

4 Innocent, et Richard, (dicunt) quod prandere pluries in die jejunii est contra con- 
suetudinem probatam ecclesiffl. — Angel. Sum, ibid. n. iii. Semel esse in die pranden- 
dum seu manducandum : qui vero pluries, solvit jejunium — Tol. 1. vi. c. ii. p. 989. 

6 Jejunia nostra, qu© in vini copia natant, et piscium varietate carnis delicias supe- 
rant — veteribus omnibus non modo fuisse incognita, sed et intolerabilia adeoque abhomi- 
nanda, constat. — Lindan. Panopl. 1. iii. c. xi. Inanem tantum veri jejunii retinet 
umbram.— Cassand. defens. lib. de Offic. viri. p. 119. ' 

6 If fytp$*yi* 1i*rt\svft «&rnt it Xa«, $*f*4 h fyrv mm) etX) urn) vlmri rirt X{*fii?«s «*£«; 
iemmt Compend. Doetrin Cathol. 

If they sleep the whole day, yet they accomplish the precept.— Jo. Sane* disp. Ii. 
n. ii. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



254 good wobks [Chap. X. 

(for mere abstinence has no more goodness in it than eating) ; it cannot be 
religious unless it be subservient to some religious design or employment; 
but they disjoin it from all things of that nature ; we hear not a word from 
them, of their taking notice of tbeir sins, or confessing them, or afflicting 
their souls for them ; they need not so much as pray when they fast, either in 
public or private ; yea, they are not obliged to hear mass, though that be the 
employment of every day for worship, so that their fasts are no days for 
worship, or any religious exercise. 1 They are discharged also from religious 
ends ; two are commonly assigned, the taming of the flesh, and the elevating 
of the mind to God ; but though the flesh be more unruly, and the mind 
move not in the least towards God on a fasting-day ; though they never 
mind these ends in their abstinence, yet they entirely fulfil the precepts of 
their church for fasting, as they commonly conclude, upon this ground, 
because the end of the precept is not commanded.* So that this practice 
which they call fasting, is a mere bodily exercise amongst them, and thus it 
is represented by Cajetan, applying that of the apostle to it, 3 1 Tim. iv. 8, 
' Bodily exercise profiteth but little/ &c. Where he denies it the character 
of a good work. And since it is neither a true fast nor a good work, if they 
made it never so necessary, it would be no proof, that by their doctrine there 
is any necessity either of real fasting or any good work. But, indeed, they 
declare their pretended fasts needless ; for their best writers conclude it to 
be but a venial fault not to observe them ; so that there is no more necessity 
with them to fast after their mode, than there is to avoid a venial sin, which is 
none at all. 4 They have so many ways to excuse men from fasting, as leave 
no necessity of it. This one may serve any that have no mind to fast. If 
a man have tired himself with any employment (lawful or damnable) not 
only with honest labour, but with too mnch gaming, yea, or with excessive 
whoring, he is thereby exempted from the obligation to fast, though he so 
wearied himself on purpose that he might be excused. But one thing herein 
is more intolerable, that this ridiculous piece of mockery which they call 
fasting, had the glory given it which is peculiar to Christ alone, and is 
thought sufficient both to satisfy the justice of God, and to merit, by way of 
condigniiy, not only grace but eternal glory ; an opinion of such malignancy 
as is enough to poison the best work in the world into deadly gnilt. To 
hold that a person, because he eats not two dinners, or abstains for a day 

1 Dixi festo : quia nemo ullo alio die hoc pnecepto (de audienda missa) tcnerur, 
etiam clericus Tel monachus, imo Deque epUcopus — Nullo inquam, alio die etiara 
jejunii et quadragesimae, &c — Navar. cap. xxi. n. ii. ; Roael. v. miss. n. xiii. ; Sylvest. 
v. miss. ii. n. i. 

2 Lex qua procipit aliquid, non obligat ad finem,sed ad media tendentia ad finem. 
— D, Tho. i. ii. q. c. art. ix. et x. (Jnde lex non obligat ad carnis petulamiam com- 
pescendam, sed ad media quibus comprimi possit, sicuti est jejunium. — Oraff. 1. ii. c 
xxxvi. n. xx. Licet ecclesia nos quadrigesimali observatione extenuare in came in- 
tendat, ut liberior mens spiritualibus accommodetur, tamen finis ille non est in 
praecepto, sed tantum ciborum abstinentia. — Soto, de nat. et gr. 1. i. c. xxii. p. 57. 
Finis praiccpti jejunii est clevatiq mentis : si tamen quis jejunat et non elevator mente, 
non est transgressor praecepti. — Cajetan. Sum. v. matrim. p. 430. Nee, si lex jubet 
quadrigesimffl jejunium ut mens elevetur in Deura, astringiraur proinde ex hujus 
praecepti vigore mentem in Deum elevare. — Can us. Relect. de poanit. pars. iv. p. 871 ; 
vide Tol. instr. 1. iv. c. xii. p. 623. 

8 Sum. v. jejunium. p. 348. Opera utri usque misericord in meliora sunt quam 
jejunii : juxta illud apostoli, Corporalis exercitatio ad modicum utilia est : pietas 
an tern ad omnia valet. 

4 Quantum est ex jure scripto nullum cognosco intcrvenire mortale peccatum in 
fractlone jejunii ecclesire, si conteraptus desit. Cajetan. ibid. p. 362 ; vid. Aqnin. 
Antoninum. Archidiac. Paludun. Angelum. et alios in Sylvest. v. Jejun. n. xxi. Com* 
munis opinio. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. X.] not nboessabt bt the boman dogtbinb. 255 

from flesh, though he stuff himself with other delicacies, even to excess, 
should be worthy of the glorious prerogative of Christ, is a conceit to be 
entertained with scorn and laughter, if the horror of it did not call for an- 
other passion. Yet such are points of faith in that church ; and this surely 
is enough to cloy any man with their fasting. 1 

Sect. 2. Come we to the next of their good works, that is, prayer. This 
unquestionably is a good work, but then sure it must be good praying ; but 
they are so far from judging it necessary to pray well, that they conclude it 
sufficient to employ themselves about this work in such a manner as cannot, 
upon a just account, be called praying at all. The only public prayers 
necessary for the people, by the Boman orders, are those of the mass, but 
how they pray therein, I cannot apprehend. They use not the words, 
they need not hear them, they cannot understand them. Now, can it be 
imagined that he prays, who neither expresses nor conceives any petitions ? 
*Ihej do it not themselves, they join not with the priest, for no man can 
possibly concur with the words or the sense of him whom he neither hears 
nor understands. They cannot concur with the priest as men, with rational 
acts, much less as Christians. The church of Home has made it not only 
needless, but impossible, for the people to pray in their public service ; they 
must think something sufficient for them, which is not praying. Let us see 
what account their authors give of this. Sylvester, proving that it is not 
needful to pray on the Lord's day, or any of their days for public worship, 
tells us what will serve the people instead thereof. It suffices that they 
stand by the priest praying in the mass, and that is all that is requisite, by 
virtue of this precept. 3 . So that the church requires no more than the pre- 
sence and posture of the body. And they that can make a prayer of this, 
may make an image in the church to pray ; and if this would be a miracle, 
it would be as wonderful that the other should be praying; but thus it 
becomes those who will worship images, as if they were God, to worship 
God, as if themselves were images. Ob, but they must oonour with the 
priest so far, as either actually or virtually to wish that his" prayers may be 
heard. 3 And if this be praying, a man may pray in the church while he is 
in his bed at home, for actually he may do this if he be awake, and vir- 
tually, though he be asleep. There is no prayer, but what is either vocal or 
mental ; what the people do in the mass, is neither ; they say nothing, nor do 
they understand anything, nor need they mind anything, of what is said ; 
and it is much, if a man's mind can be employed about that which he not only 
understands not, but minds not at all. The mind must necessarily attend 
actually in mental prayer, 4 but actual attention is not necessary to what they 
call praying. So it is neither vocal nor mental, not any at all, unless they 
can devise a mode of prayer without either voice or mind. They know not 
what to mind, nor whom, person or thing ; they understand not whether the 

1 So Jo. Sancius after others; Liberos a jejunio existimo, qui culpa sua ita defati- 
gati redd un tor—quod jejunaie non valeant; at qui defatigatus easet Judo pilre, aut 
maris esset deditus fffiminarum commistioni— docent Medina. Diana. Ledesma, Monte- 
sin, &c. diap. liv. n. xx. NodduIH doctores extendunt ad eos qui defatigantur in ludif, 
aut in quserenda meretrice, &c — Bonacin. torn. ii. disp. ii. q. viii. punct. i. n. xvi. 

2 Undo sufficit astare oranti aacerdoti in missa, quantum est ex vi hujus praecepti. — 
Sum. v. Dominic, n. viii. 

8 Cum nemo teneatur ex pracepto audire, et minus intelligere verba sacerdotfr, quia 
satis est, vel ex longinquo missanti adesse, et surgendo, genua flectendo, vel alias 
actualiter vel virtualiter exoptare, ut sacerdos, qui pro' omnibus orat et sacrificat, a Deo 
exaudiatur.— Navar. cap. xxi. n. viii. 

4 Cum ipsa eadem attentio Bit ipsissima oratio. — Soto de Just, et Jur. 1. x. q. v. art. 
v. p. 340. 

TOL. III. G g 



Digitized by 



Google 



256 good works [Chap. X. 

priest be in confession, or at prayer, or in his lands ; no, nor whether he 
be praying or reading, unless the dumb signification of a posture tell them ; 
nor that way neither, for they need not see, no more than hear, the priest. 
They know not whether he be addressing himself to God, or to a creature, 
whether to another divine person than the Father (for they have prayers in 
the mass to Christ and the Holy Ghost, though an ancient council forbids 
it) ; they know not whether he be praying to an angel or to a saint, to a man 
or to a woman, to an image or to a crucifix, for they have addresses to all. 
They can in no wise be thought to pray, who do not, who cannot so much as 
say Amen to a prayer ; and this they cannot say, who understand not what 
is prayed for, as Aquinas himself assures us from the words of the apostle. 1 
But the priest who celebrates seems to pray, though the people at mass 
do not. He seems so, but the church of Rome obliges not him to pray, 
unless he can be said to pray who only reads the words of a form, without 
minding anything else which they must necessarily be concerned in who 
pray indeed. Of the several sorts of attention requisite in prayer, none, 
with them, is necessary but that which respects the pronouncing of the 
words right. If the priest mind but this only, so as to read the words 
right, it is sufficient, he does all the church requires, and fully satisfies the 
precept of saying mass ; this is their common doctrine. So that unless he 
can be said to pray who neither minds the God he should pray to, nor the 
things to be prayed for, no, nor the sense of the words he uses, their church 
requires not the priests to pray, even when they are saying their mass-prayers. 
Nor is it more needful, on the same account, in the canonical hours, as we 
have seen before. So that praying indeed is not necessary for priest or 
people in all the public service of the Romish church ; much less is it need- 
ful in their private devotions, which are not enjoined ; 2 for there they declare 
it lawful to be more neglectful of all the necessary concerns of prayer than 
in public. Now that they who mind nothing but the bare saying the words 
of a prayer do not pray indeed, they themselves will acknowledge in their 
lucid intervals. Cajetan tells us that if one be corporally present at mass, 
but lets his mind considerately wander after other things, he satisfies not 
the precept, because he is but so there as if he voluntarily slept at it ; for 
to be far from the , mass by voluntary sleeping and by voluntary wandering 
are both alike. 8 Hence it is clear that priest or people whose minds volun- 
tarily wander at mass, do no more pray there than if they were voluntarily 
asleep; and consequently, if they wander carelessly, without observing it, 
they pray no more than if they were carelessly asleep. Tet many of them 
think the church forbids not voluntary wanderings. He himself thinks she 
forbids not careless wanderings ; therefore all of them must believe that she 
thinks it sufficient to pray as they may do who are fast asleep, one way or 
other. And yet none that are awake can well count sleeping to be praying. 
Bellarmine reckoning the several sorts of prayer, one (says he) is mental, 

1 Quomodo enim dioet Amen cam quid orat nesoit ? Quia non potest intelligere quid 
boni dicas. — Comment, in 1 Cor. xiv. Manifesto sunt verba apostoli, cum qui ob hnperi- 
tiam quod dicitur non intelligit, fieri non posse, nt ad alterius gratiarum actionem Amen 
respondeat. — Castanet. Defens. lib. offic pit viri. 

1 Ubi autem libere et citra obligationem orator ; sola est enlpa venialis indeoenter 
orare : quare distractio, etiam meditata, nisi cbntemptio adsit, nunquam erit mortalis. 
Soto de Just, et Jur. I. x. q. v. art. ▼. p. 341 ; fine. vid. Angel. Sum. v. horse, n. xxvii. ; 
Gabriel de Can. Miss. Lect. xxil. ; Graff. 1. ii. cap. li. n. xi. 

8 Si quis corporal iter prsBsens sit missa?, sed mentem advertenter a missa divertat ad 
nlia, non satisfacit prrocepto missse : quoniam ita ibi est, ao si voluntarie ibi dormiret ; 
paria namque sunt, longe a missa fieri per voluntarium somnum, et per voluntarism di- 
veraionem mentis ad alia. — Sum. v. fest. p. '605. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. X.] not necessaotby the soman doctbine. 257 

another is both mental and vocal. 1 But when he would add that which is 
vocal only, he will not have that accounted prayer. A third member of the 
division ought not to be added, to wit, that which is vocal only ; and gives 
good reason, for that, says he, is of no use to please God, but rather to 
provoke him to anger, according to that Isa. xxix., ' This people honour me 
with their lips,' &c. Yet such is the praying in the Eoman church, and no 
other needful in their divine service, as the cardinal himself declares suffi- 
ciently in the same book. And if no other praying be needful, no prayer 
that is a good work is necessary by their doctrine. 

Sect. 8. Proceed we to the last sort of their good works, to wit, acts of 
mercy or charity, comprised in alms-deeds for the relief of the indigent ; and 
we can scarce discover that these will ever be necessary by their doctrine. 
Cardinal Cajetan (one represented as more favourable to these acts of charity 
than divers others) tells us that to omit them is no mortal sin (and therefore 
to do them will not be necessary by any command), but only in two cases ; 
first, when one hath superfluities, both of nature and state, that is, more 
than either nature or the quality of the person requires ; secondly, when 
the poor are in extreme necessity (not in common want only, but such as is 
extraordinary). 3 And these two are so described to us that themselves 
confess they very seldom fall out, and we may think hardly ever, so that 
rarely or never will this good work be necessary. For the former, that a 
person may be judged to have anything superfluous (without which he is not 
bound to relieve others), it must be considered what is requisite for the 
honourable expenses of himself, his children and family, and what for 
the munificence of his state and magnificence too, what for common 
events and casualties, to provide against them, and other things of this 
nature. 8 Upon which he concludes, it will rarely fall out that a man 
living splendidly, according to his quality, will have anything super- 
fluous. And so very rarely (if he had said never the premises would have 
borne it) will it be the duty of such as have enough to live gloriously to 
spare anything for the poor. Less pride and vain-glory, or prodigality, than 
they allow them to have without any mortal guilt, will leave nothing 
superfluous, and so quite excuse them from these good works. Navarre is 
of the same mind, and tells us there are few rich men who have any- 
thing superfluous, since neither kings nor great princes can be thought 
to have superfluities; 4 having said a little before, that it cannot easily 
be judged that any secular person hath more than is needful for his 

1 Alia est oratio tantum mentalis, alia mentalis simnl et vocalis ; neque debet addi 
tertium membrum fid est) vocalis tantum. Ea siquidem non est utilis ad plaeandam 
Deum, sed magis aa provocandum ad iram, juxta Ulud, Populos hie labiis me hoaorat, 
cor antem eornm longe est a me, Isai. xxix. — De bonis oper. 1. i. cap. ii. p. 974. 

* Eleemosynam non facere est peccatam mortale in doobus solummodo casibns ; primns 
est, si quia habet de 6nperflno nature et person aa — seenndus est qunm apparet pauper in 
extrema necessitate oonstitutus ; jnxta illud, pasce fame morientem. — Sum. v. Elemos. 
p. 134. 

* Snperflnnm in tali latitndine oonsistens, judicandum est consideratis 6umptibas fao- 
naribilibus etiam filiorum, families, 6tatus manificentia, magnificentiA, communibus 
eventibus, bseredibus, et aliia ejusmodi : ita ne raro videatur contingere, ut homo secun- 
dum statnm gloriose vivens, superfluum babeat. — Idem, ibid. 

4 Sequitor item Rosellam sine justa ratiooe dixisse, paucos divitum confessarios sal- 
vatnm iri, si eleemosyna in prsedictis doobus casibns de prsocepto foret; non enim tot 
sunt, quot putat, hujusmodi divites, quibus sit snperfluum status, cum neo reges et magni 
principes superflua habere censeantur.— Cap. xxiy. n. vi. Facile judicandum non esse, 
aliquem srecularem plura, quam quae suo statui necess&ria sunt, habere. Cum etiam 
ille qui ad aliquod dominium emendum, et mutandum suum statum in alium ma- 
jorem, ad quem idoneus est, pecunias congerit, non habet plus quam suum statum de- 
ceat. — Ibid* 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



258 good works [Chap. X. 

condition, for he may heap np moneys to purchase more, or to advance 
his condition higher, and so still have no more than is requisite for his 
state, and nothing at all will he due for charitable acts. He expresses 
it more fully elsewhere, and concludes, For all this he cannot be said to 
have any such superfluities that he should be obliged by any command 
to give to the poor. 1 So that unless a man have so much as he neither 
has at present, nor may have for the future, occasion to use — that is, unless 
he has so much as no man will or can believe he hath, — an act of charity will 
not be his duty. If he do but desire to have more than he now has, or do 
but design to rise any higher than he now is, thoagh but in such a degree 
as is found in all, and may innocently be in any ; at least, if he have but 
anything of covetousness or ambition, though far less than they determine 
he may have without any deadly guilt (and so without any considerable 
danger), he is discharged from all obligation to this good work. 

The other case will make charity no more necessary; it is when the 
poor are in extreme necessity, and this is only when it is apparent they 
will die for want of necessaries if we relieve them not. 3 Now such a case 
rarely happens, and a man may never meet with one in such extremity all 
his life ; but if he do, yet he may be excused for want of evidence that his 
necesssity is so great ; he need not take the party's word for it, no, not 
though in public places there seem to be also clear signs of it ; he need 
not take the word of any other, no, not the judgment of his parish priest 
or confessor (though upon their opinion he may safely venture upon acts 
of wickedness), unless they can assure him thereof as eye-witnesses, or 
if he be morally certain of the extremity ; s yet if there be a probability 
that any other will relieve the person ready to starve, he may leave him 
to the mercy of others, without doing anything himself towards his relief 
(for that is another limitation which they add in the case). 1 For example, 
if he thought it likely that a protestant would relieve the perishing party, 
a papist (by their doctrine of good works) might reserve his money and 
charity for another world, nor would it be necessary to exercise one act 
thereof while he lives. Or amongst themselves, while each one expects that 
another may do it, the poor may perish, and all that might relieve them are 
excused. Besides, in this case, they conclude it lawful for the person in 
extremity to steal, either secretly or openly, from those that have enough ; 5 
so that acts of charity will not be necessary among them but when theft is 
lawful, and no man need relieve the indigent with anything he hath, till they 

1 Gap. xxiiL n. lxxiv. Nee ob id dicitur habere tale snperfluum, quod de prsscepto 
pauperibus teneatur erogare, 

1 In sententiam Cajetan. et Navar. inclinant Sotos et Sarmientus. Vasquea, Opa«c. 
Moral, de Eleemosyn. dub. iii. n. xz. Asserunt noo esse pracepti obligationem ullam, 
extra tempus extreme necessitatis proximi, quantumvis divitue superfioant non tantum 
naturae, Bed statui, etiam congruso sustentationi, Gabriel, Alexander, Major, Gerson — 
repntant probabilem Anton inns, Contadas, Durandus. 

Durandus assent se non audere dicere esse aliquid tempos prracepti extra extremam 
necessitates!, ne tot divites condemnet — Idem, ibid. n. xL et Jo. Medina, in Sa. ▼. Elee- 
mosyn. 

8 Bonacin. i. precept d. iii. q. to. p. 6, n. iii. 

« Extreme egere dicitur, non solum qui jam an imam agit vel spiral : aed etiam cum 
indicia probabilia apparent eo rieventurum, nisi ei subveniatur, et non se offert nee ex- 
pectatur probabiliter alius, qui ei subveniat, juxta S. Thorn, et declarat Cajetan. — Idem, 
cap. xxiv. n. v. 

6 Soto de Just, et Jur. 1. iv. q. vii. art. i. Licet alienum arripere sine peccato in ex- 
trema necessitate. — Sotus, Cajetan. Navar. Adrian. Armilla. Covarruvius. Et in ur- 
genti. — Sylvest. Angelus. in Vasq. ibid. dab. vii. n. xxviii. in gravi licitum esse. Sylvest. 
Medina. Angel. Navar. Pet. Navarra, Malderus et plures alii apud Dian. p. 2, tr. iii. 
Res. xxix.; Bonnes in 2, ii. q. Ixvi. art. vii. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. X.] mot necessary by the soman doctbine. 259 

may justly take it from him. Bat if it were possible in these eases whereto 
they confine it, to find any place for the necessity of this duty, yet one thing 
more, added by their prime doctors, dashes all, for they teach that it is not 
required to relieve the necessitous by giving them anything, but it is suf- 
ficient to let, or sell, or lend to them. 1 Navarre concludes it lawful to buy 
persons in extreme necessity, and lawful for them to consent to it. 2 His 
reasons, among others, are because a father in time of extreme hunger may 
sell his son ; also, because no man is bound to relieve one, though in 
extreme necessity, gratis, if he can do it sufficiently by loan, exchange, &c. 
So that if a man were in such extremity for want of food, that he might sell 
his son to get it for the saving of his life, yet no Christian, in that case, 
were bound to give him relief freely ; by their doctrine it would suffice to let 
him have money or meat by the sale of his child. We cannot expect they 
will ever find it a duty to give to the indigent if not in such circumstances ; 
and it is a plain case, where there is no obligation to give, there is no 
necessity to give alms. 

But if they did make it necessary to give alms, yet it is not needful by 
their doctrine to do it so as it will be a good work (or so to fast, or pray, or 
do any other act which have any goodness in them, or pretend to it ; so good 
works will, by their principles, be still unnecessary. For that any work may 
be good, it must be from a right principle and for a good end; but both these 
they make needless. As to the former, there is no necessity, as they teach, 
to act out of love to God ; 8 for though this be the intention of God, and the 
design of the law in all good acts, as they acknowledge from that 1 Tim. v., 
Bom. xiii., yet they have a maxim generally received, The intention of the 
command is not commanded. 4 Herein they follow Aquinas, and hence they 
conclude that such a mode of acting out of love to God is not required in 
any command of the divine law ; 6 but the whole, and every part of it, may 
be fulfilled, and sin avoided, if that which is required be done, though not 
out of love to God at all. 6 And particularly Soto takes much pains to argue 
us out of the love of God in all our actings, and to prove that it is not neces- 
sary. And all generally conclude that it is not needful in any acts of piety, 
mercy, or charity required on their days of worship ; since there they deter- 
mine that there is no need of any act of love, as was shewed before. 

It is no wonder therefore (as to the second) if they conclude it needless 
to act for God in what we do, and make him alone our chief end. In the 
theory indeed they determine that an act is not good unless there be a con- 
currence of all conditions requisite thereto, and that the end is the principal 

1 Adrian, iv. de restit. ; Navar. cap. xrii. n. Ixi. et cap. xxiv. n. vi. In quibns ta- 
naen duobus non est de pr&oepto snbvenire donando, sed satis est snbvenire oommodando 
vel mntnando. — Vid. Bellarm. de bon. operibus, 1. Hi. e. viii. Hteo dootrina vera et non 
polum a 8. Thorn., 6ed etiam ab aliis Theologis commnniter tradi solet. — Vid. plure* 
in Vcuq. ibid, dnb. vi. n. J. 

1 Licet eos emere et illia emptioni snie eonsentire, c. xxii. n. lxxv. Quia pater tem- 
pore famia extremis filiom vender* potest — tnm qnia nemo tenetnr ad gratis subveni- 
t-ndnm, egenti etiam extreme, modo oommodando, vel mutnando satis ei succurrat. — 
Ibid. 

• Alexander Alensis, Petr. Lombard, Aqninas, Angelus, Sylvester, Canns, Soto, Jac. 
de Graffiis, Ac. supra. 

4 Ex D. Thorn, et graviorum antornm sententia, ad finem legislatoris minime tenea- 
mor, sed ad media, &o. — Oanus, Relect. de pcenit, part. iv. ; Soto de Nat. et Or. supra. 

5 Modus talis charitatis non cadit sub pracepto, &c. — Soto de Jutt. et Jur. lib. ii. q. 
its. art. x. 

• Hino ergo patet adimplentem preceptnm per actum ex aliqua circumstantia malum 
sattsfacere prascepto, etiamsi non adimpleat modnm, aut etiam finem a legislatore in* 
tentnm. — Bonaein. torn. ii. disp. i. q. i. ponct. ii. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



260 GOOD WOBX8 [CfcAP. X. 

(as much in morals as the form is in naturals). So that without a good end 
that act must he naught, and no good end where God is not chief; 1 yet for 
practice they discharge them from any necessity to make God their principal 
end. They conclude it lawful for a man to act principally for his own ad- 
vantage ; 2 yea, they count it but a venial fault to do the best act principally 
for a sinful end. 3 Now, to avoid a venial sin, they hold it not necessary by 
any command of God, and therefore it will not be needful to do anything 
but principally for an end so far sinful ; and, consequently, unless the work 
can be good, whose principal end is sin, no good work at all will be neces- 
sary. But it is a more wicked end, which they openly avow, when they 
design by what they do to merit grace and glory, and make satisfaction to 
divine justice. This is to make Christ a leg, while they attempt his crown ; 
to offer him a rush, with an intent thereby to invest themselves in his pre- 
rogative. They should shew us how it is possible such acts can be good, 
before they pretend to account good works necessary. 

Sect. 4. But though they find no necessity of good works by virtue of any 
divine precept ordinarily, yet they seem to make some when they will have 
the priest to enjoin them for penance (and it is like in this as in other cases, 
they leave so little or nothing needful that God has commanded, to render 
their own devices more necessary^. But good works, being enjoined as 
penance, become punishments, and it signifies the church of Rome is no good 
friend to good works when she counts or makes them punishments ; for punish- 
ment is properly evil to us, and not to be done, but suffered, and thus she 
will have good works neither to be good nor to be done. To be sure thus 
they cannot be done so as to be good, or as becomes Christians to do them ; 
for he that must think it a suffering to do them, does them with the spirit 
of a slave, not of a Christian. But let us suppose they may be good works, 
and well done too by way of penance, yet they are not necessary at all in 
their church upon this account, and so no way. For, first, the priest needs 
not enjoin good works as penance;* he may enjoin nothing at all if he 
pleases ; 6 or some slight thing, that which is good for nothing, or that 
which is worse; 6 or what the oonfitent must have done if he had not 
sinned ; 7 or he may dismiss him with this general, All the good thou doest, 
or evil thou sufferest, let it serve for satisfaction ; 8 or he may commend 
something by way of counsel, without obliging him by any injunction ; 9 or 
he may require him only to avoid the sin he confesses for a while 10 (and when 
he shrives the woman that he has sinned with, it is like he may not prove 
very rigorous this way 11 ). Or, secondly, if he should enjoin this, or any 
good work, the confitent need not accept of, or submit to it, as many of 
their chief doctors determine. 12 Or, thirdly, if he do accept it, yet he needs 
not perform it for all that ; he may be released by himself; to omit it will 
be but a small mult (such as he needs not regard, be the good work little or 

1 Omne opus cujus finis est mains, ipsum quoqoe malum est — Navar. cap. xii. n. xxx 

* Sylvest Sam. v. Ch&rit&s. n. ▼. ; Navar. supra. 

8 Cajetan. Sylvest. Navar. supra. The precept may be folly accomplished where 
the manner and end is naught — Bonacin. ibid, et apod eum, Aquinas, Sotus, Navar, 
Medina, et alii. 

4 Vid. Sylv. v. Confess, iv. n. ii. ; Snares, iii. torn. iv. disp. rxxviii. sect. vi. n. iv. 

6 Cajetan. Navar. ibid, sect iii. n. iv. 

D. Thomas, Soto, et alii communiter ; ibid, sect iv. n. iv. 

7 Ibid, sect vi n. v. 

8 S. Thorn. Paludanos, Petr. Soto, Navar. ibid, sect vi. n. vi. 

9 D. Thorn. Paludanus, Petr. Soto, Victoria, Ledesma, ibid, sect iii. n. ii. 

10 Ibid, sect vi. n. ii. " Vid. Angel, sum. v. confess, v. n. viii. 

18 Scotus, Gabriel, Hostiensis, Panormitan, Medina, Sylvester, Armiila, Navar, in 
Suar. ibid. sect. vii. n. i. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Chap. X.] not necessaby by the soman doctrine. 261 

great), if be not oat of contempt. 1 Or another may undertake it, and satisfy 
by suffering it for him; 2 or -a priest may release him, either he that enjoined 
it or another. 3 However, indulgences will do it effectually, these serve to 
sweep away all good works (all necessity of them) on this account for ever. 
This is their special use, to relieve the pope's subjects from the sad penalty 
of good works ; for though they have dealt hardly with good works, to make 
them a punishment, yet they will not deal so hardly with catholics as to have 
it necessary that they should be thus punished. And therefore to ease them 
of this grievous suffering of doing good, the church in great tenderness has ' 
.provided indulgences, which they may have at easy rates; and thereby an 
acquittance, discharging them from the good works they were to suffer! 
And if the priest should be so rigorous as to enjoin a sinner to be doing 
good all his life, or so impertinent as to require it for an hundred years, he 
may meet with indulgences will quit him of it, every moment of his life ; 
and if he will, many thousand years over and above. And if this cannot be 
had unless he pay for it, yet for his encouragement they teach that it is • 
better to lay out his money for an indulgence that in deeds of charity. 4 So 
that there is no such goodness or necessity in the best work a priest can en- 
join, but it may be better, and more necessary, to give the pope money ; and 
this done, through his indulgence, there may be no need to do any more. 



THE CONCLUSION, 

By the premises, it is manifest that popery, by its practical principles, is 
destructive to Christianity and the souls of men. As to Christianity, whether 
we consider it in general as religion, or in its* specialties as the best religion, 
it is both ways by the popish doctrine ruined. This plucks up the funda- 
mentals of it, and dissolves the whole structure, and buries and confounds 
both the necessary materials, and the peculiar excellences thereof, in its rub- 
bish. There can be no religion in reality without real worship, this being 
essential to it ; yet their doctrine declares it needless, either for clergy or 
people to be real worshippers of God, being so far from engaging them to be 
reverent or devout, or sincere, or affectionate towards God in religious 
addresses, that it will not have them obliged so much as actually to mind 
God when they pretend to worship him. There needs not so much as one 
act. of true and real worship, to make them as religious, and as much Chris- 
tians, as is necessary by their divinity ; so that Christianity, as they form 
it, is a religion regardless of God, even when, if ever, he should be most 
observed and honoured, and thereby sunk lower than heathenism, and the 
notions of natural religion retained by infidels. Further, it discharges those 
acts and duties of Christianity which are necessary and essential to it ; and 
allows and encourages all that it forbids, and condemns even what is most 
repugnant to, and inconsistent with it. It makes all Christian acts and duties 
needless, and all wickedness opposite thereto, safe and practicable, without 

1 Omittere satUfactionem est peocatum ; sed non mortale, si desit contemptus : quia 
hod omittitur aliquid necessariom ad salntem. — Cajetan, Sum, v. satisfact p. 520. 

* Communis sententia theologorum est, posse penitentem implere per alium satUfac- 
tionem sibi impceitam. Ita D. Thorn. Paladanus, Sylvester, Alensis in Suar. ibid. sect. 
fe. n. L 

* Opinio communis est qnam tenet Sylvest Angelas, Navar, Rosella, Victoria, Ledes- 
ma } Medina, ibid. sect. x. n. iv. 

4 An sit melius dare argentnm in Eleemosynam, qnam dare in subsidinm ad conse- 
quendam indulgentiam ? — loqneodo ex geoere oenseo esse melius, subsidinm facere ad 
consequcndam indulgentiam.— Idem, ibid. disp. xlix. sect. v. n. vii. p. 633. 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



THE CONCLUSION. 

fear of condemnation ; and there needs no more to rain the religion of Christ. 
A great part of those duties are by this doctrine mere matter of counsel, and 
thereby they are made no duties, all obligation to perform them being, in 
that notion, quite dissolved. The remnant (all conscience of which is not 
swallowed up in counsels) which they cannot but acknowledge to be duties, 
yet they will have them to be so but sometimes, and that very rarely, and 
when that is they cannot tell ; it is not certainly known when, and the observ- 
ance thereof must be correspondent : nobody knows certainly when. Or if 
they guess at the time, and point some out as probable, yet when the time 
comes, the acts (though the life of Christianity consists therein, and the sal- 
vation of the persons depends thereon) need not to be done, something else 
will serve instead thereof, some natural act, or faint wish, or false conceit, 
something or other, though neither truly Christian nor virtuous (with the 
sacrament at least), will excuse them from all other Christian acts. It is not 
the accessories of religion only that they make thus bold with ; but thus they 
handle the very vitals of Christianity, and make them unnecessary for Chris- 
tians. The very acts of faith, and hope, and love, yea, repentance itself, and 
all the rest with these, are thus made needless, and they may be true Chris- 
tians (at their rate), and saved (in their conceit) without ever exerting, in a 
whole life, so little as one act of grace or Christian virtue. The world never 
saw Christianity, into what hands soever it fell, more clearly stripped, not 
only of its lustre and ornament, but of its life and being. If this suffice not 
to make an end of all religion truly Christian, they not only dismiss, as more 
than needs, what the doctrine of the gospel makes most necessary, but 
advance and encourage what is most opposite to it, not only ignorance, unbe- 
lief, disaffection to Christ, impenitency, but therewith all disobedience unto 
the gospel. Instead of the holy rules thereof, they have formed a doctrine 
of licentious maxims, which give security to the practice of any wickedness, 
and take away (when they had left no other restraint) the fears of hell from 
those who live and die in damning sins. Whatever it is that Christ forbids, 
it is with them either no sin, or not dangerous, or the worst of all, by virtue 
of some devices of their own, not damning ; so that they may venture upon 
any wickedness freely, and persist therein securely till death ; and yet, by 
some evasions which they tell them of, escape the wrath to come (whatever 
Christ say to the contrary) without either the fruits or acts of repentance. 
There are many sins, and amongst them horrid and enormous crimes, con- 
demned by the law of God and natural light, and such as the practice of 
them is reproachful to the Christian name, which yet, with them, pass for no 
sins ; and they are furnished with expedients to make any other so too, when 
they see occasion, and in these they will discern no shadow of danger. There 
is a world of wickedness, which by their doctrine is venial, abundance more 
than enough, utterly to deface Christianity, and to make any who takes but 
part of the liberty given by their divines, to look more like an atheist, or a 
brute, a person of no religion, conscience or honesty, than a true Christian. 
They can gratify any vicious disposition, which way soever it leads, with 
impiety and debauches enough to fill up a whole life ; and yet, if he will be 
satisfied with anything but the highest degree of wickedness, promise him 
security. 

If he could swallow ten millions of their venials every minute at a gulp, 
they would not (by their divinity) endanger him, though one that will follow 
the rules of Christ must choose death rather than venture upon some one of 
them. There is with them no danger in thus sinning, though the Christian 
doctrine never discovered anything else in sin ; or, if their catholics will be 
outrageously wicked, and cannot be satisfied with less than the practice of 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



THE CONCLUSION. 



the most mortal crimes, they will not disoblige them (the party must be kept 
up though their souls sink), they shall have their liberty upon easy terms ; 
deadly sins shall be as free for them, and in a manner as safe as their harm- 
less denials. That which makes venial faults seem less dangerous than mortal, 
is because they will not damn a man, though he never repent of them ; but 
even herein they have made venial and mortal alike safe ; for, by their doctrine 
he mayilive in all sorts of deadly wickedness, and die therein without any 
act of true repentance, and yet escape damnation. They commend to them 
several evasions to secure impenitent sinners, how damnable soever their 
neglects or practices have been to the last. But that of the Trent Council 
must not be doubted of ; attrition (which they confess alone to be no suffi- 
cient, no saving repentance), with the sacrament of confession, will pass any 
sinner into a saving state. This one device of their own will serve instead 
of all that Christ hath prescribed ; if this be observed, though they live and 
die in the neglect of all Christian virtues, and in the practice of all wicked- 
ness which Christ condemns, they need not fear ; this alone will secure them. 
The least natural or slavish remorse, and a priest, is all the Christianity that 
a papist need trouble himself for : if he can but make sure of these at last 
gasp, he is safe, though all his life he be more like a devil incarnate than a 
Christian. By this alone Christianity is utterly subverted, all the laws of 
Christ in effect repealed, and their observance rendered needless, the whole 
gospel made a cipher, and a way to salvation opened by hold impostors, not 
only without, but against the gospel, and quite cross to the way, the truth, 
and the life. 

Sect. 2. No more is needful to manifest that the practical part of popery 
(however it hath passed for more harmless than the other more insisted on) 
is destructive to the souls of men. It leads them out of the way of salvation, 
if real Christianity be the way. It obliges them to neglect as needless not 
only the lesser, but the principal, parts of that way, without which heaven is 
altogether inaccessible. They that have discovered another hell, may as well 
fancy another heaven ; but the way to that heaven which Christ hath pre- 
pared for his people, lies through the knowledge of Christ, love to him, faith 
in him, that repentance from dead works, and exercise of Christian virtues, 
that mortification of sin, holiness of life, and real worshipping of God, which, 
by this doctrine, is abandoned as unnecessary. It tempts them into the way 
of destruction, encourages them in Buch practice of wickedness as Christ hath 
declared to be the broad way. Iti promises safety therein, and hides £he 
danger from their eyes, it covers the pits (whose descent is into that which 
is bottomless) with spiders' webs, and persuades them it is firm ground. It 
leaves them no sense, nor notice of many sins ; no conscience of far the most; 
no fear of any, no not of the worst, such as themselves call deadly crimes. 
It gives as much security to such wickedness as a heart that^has sold itself 
to it need wish. For what need he desire more than assurance, that after a 
whole life spent therein, there is a very easy way for him to be saved, so 
easy that he need not trouble himself so much as truly to repent ? Such 
grace as any priest can help a sinner to (an impenitent sinner) at last gasp, 
will bring him to heaven, though he never once thought of the way to it all 
his life. 

Such being the rules which Boman Catholics have for the conduct of their 
hearts and lives, and the worst sort of them being as much approved by their 
church, as any practical doctrine current amongst them, let it be considered 
what regard that church hath of religion or salvation, which leaves them to 
such doctrine as is so inconsistent with both, and what regard they have of 
their souls, who, after notice hereof, will trust them to such a conduct. It 



Digitized by 



Google 



264 CONTENTS OF 

gratifies the lusts and corrupt inclinations of the seduced, and serves the 
interest of the contrivers, drawing the world into the bosom of the pope's 
church, and entangling it there by all the charms of such a religion as disso- 
lute persons would make for themselves ; but if the God of infinite goodness 
and truth have given us any certain notice of the ways of eternal life and 
death, those that believe and practise it will certainly destroy their own 
souls. 



CONTENTS 

OF THE PRECEDING TREATISE. 

Chaptbb I. 

By the doctrine of the Romanists it is not needful to worship God really in 
public or private. True religion will have God to be worshipped really. 
Real worship requires the concurrence of mind and heart. In their 
divine service they require no act of the will, but an intention before- 
hand to attend their service is enough, though they be not attentive 
when they are at it. An intention to worship God there is scarce 
needful. Their intention may be effectual, though they act contrary to 
it. They may employ both soul and body about other things when 
they are at their prayers. The act of the mind which they seem to 
require is attention, but this need not be either spiritual or rational ; 
so that they need not mind God in their prayers, nor the things to be 
prayed for, nor the sense of the words they use, but only the pro- 
nouncing of them, nor need they actually mind that. The church's 
holiness supplies their defects, and makes those pass as such that pray 
devoutly who pray not at all. All due attention in worship is not only 
unnecessary, but impossible in their way. As attention, so inward 
reverence and devotion likewise, is not necessary in their service. 
Hereby their worship is no better than a profane irreligious exercise. 
They seem satisfied with less worship for God than for their images. 

Sect. 1, to p. 24. 

In the mass, by their doctrine, God may be less minded than in their canoni- 
cal hours, where they tell us he need not be minded at all. No inward 
worship requisite in the mass. It is enough if their attendance there 
be but an human act ; nay, the use either of sense or reason is not 
there required. They may busy themselves in other employments 
while they are at mass. They may sleep a while, or laugh, if they be 
not too loud. Or talk of their worldly affairs all the while, say some ; 
others would not have their discourse so serious ; yea, it may be im- 
modest, without transgressing the precept. And lascivious or very 
profane tunes to the organ at mass may be a small fault. The precept 
for mass (the chief part of their religion) may be fulfilled by mortal 
wickedness. .... Sect. 2, to p. 81. 

Of their ends in worship. They may lawfully worship God for their own ends. 
Sin may be their end in worshipping, and that without sin, if not prin- 
cipally intended. It is but a small fault to worship God principally 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



THB PRECEDING TKBATISE. 

for vain glory. He that comes to mass or prayer with a design to 
satisfy his lost, or other mortal wickedness, satisfies the command of 
the church. ..... Sect. 8, to p. 84. 

How unnecessary preaching is counted in their church, and hearing the 
word, in such circumstances where it would he accounted needful, if 
ever. ..... Sect. 4, to p. 85. 

In their sacraments no good motions or actual dispositions (such as are 
necessary in real worshippers) are required by that church in any that 
administer or partake thereof. This shewed as to baptism and penance, 
the sacraments for the dead ; also in the other five for the living. In 
all, the precepts of the church may be fully accomplished by impious 
and wicked acts. . . . Sects. 5 and 6, to p. 88. 

Even as to the eucharist (for which they profess they have the highest vene- 
ration) they may partake worthily who are without any the least good 
act of mind or heart. And to shut out good motions from their souls, 
on set purpose, when they are communicating, is but a venial fault, 
such as will not hinder the effects of the sacrament. Those vagaries 
which are inconsistent with attention and reverence, if they be not 
taken notice of, will be no fault at all ; if they be deliberate, will be 
but slight ones. Not only reverence and devotion are accounted need- 
less at this sacrament, but sobriety and the use of reason. To com- 
municate out of ostentation and vainglory is bat a peccadillo. And all 
holy fervour being excluded by voluntary distraction, to employ their 
souls vainly or wickedly during the celebration is no fault at all, in 
reference to the sacrament. Those that communicate unworthily to 
such a degree as is counted most horridly impious, do fully satisfy the 
precept of their church for the communion. . Sect. 7, to p. 40. 

Their doctrine doth not more oblige them to worship God in private. Medi- 
tation not necessary, no, not on the holiest seasons or occasions. 
Reading the word of God scarce tolerated in the people, and that not 
• so freely as the stews. . . Sects. 8 and 9, to p. 40. 

Private prayer rarely a duty with some, never a duty with others. Not at 
all by their common doctrine, but by accident, in the article of neces- 
sity, which many never meet with ; so that many may never pray while 
they live, and yet be innocent. Some say there is no divine precept 
for prayer ; others, who acknowledge a precept, will not have it oblige 
them at such times and occasions when, if ever, it would oblige. Even 
in their article of necessity, when it comes, they have ways to ex- 
cuse them easily from the obligation, and to make it no special sin 
to neglect this duty all their life. . . Sect. 10, to p. 44, 

Their church obliges not any to private prayers, not to the least or those 
of most account among them. Whenever they use private prayer 
upon any account, as required by precept, or enjoined for penance 
(for prayer passes commonly with them as a punishment), or volun- 
tary as a work of supererogation, there is no need by their principles 
to worship God therein. Seeing they are to worship him no more 
anywhere, the world may judge what religion they have, since that 
worship is as essential to religion as a soul to a man. 

Sects. 11 and 12, to p. 47. 



Chaptkb n. 
Christian knowledge is not necessary for Romanists by their doctrine. They 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



CONTENTS OF 

need not know what they are to pray for. Many of their priests, yea, 
of their popes, understand not their common prayers. Sect. 1, to p. 48. 

They need not know what they are to believe. The knowledge of all the 
articles of the small creed, nor of the Trinity, and incarnation of Christ, 
scarce necessary for all Christians. Ignorance and error in points of 
faith may not only be innocent bat meritorious. Sect. 2, to p. 58. 

They need not know what they are to do. They may merit heaven by fol- 
lowing their leaders out of the way. That is the most complete and 
perfect obedience whieh is next to brutish, without knowledge and 
judgment, when they obey their leaders as a beast doth his owner. 

Sect. 8, to p. 55. 

The knowledge of the Scriptures (to which their doctrine and worship is 
confessed to be repugnant) unnecessary in a manner for all sorts ; not 
only for the people and monastics, but their confessors and preachers. 
Their bishops afraid to look into the Bible lest it should make them 
heretics. Therefore very few of their bishops in the council of Trent 
(who decreed so many new articles of faith) had knowledge in theology. 
Their popes commonly no divines, many of them understood not Latin, 
though not only their church-service and laws, but their authentic edition 
of the Scripture be confined to that language. The people, the further 
they are from knowledge, the more excusable, if they take no care nor 
pains to get it. ... Sect. 4, to p. 62. 



Chaptbb III. 

Their doctrine makes it needless to love God. There is no command for 
habitual love to God. The acts of this love are as unnecessary. The 
imperate acts thereof not enjoined ; neither God nor the church re- 
quires any to observe the commands of God out of love to him. 

Sects. 1 and 2, to p. 64. 

How needless the elicit acts of this love are. Some hold there is no com- 
mand for this actual love (any inward act of it) that binds them, or no 
special command. Others, who acknowledge a precept, will not have 
it to bind them upon any occasion when, if ever, it would oblige. Not 
when they have sinned against him. Not when he expresses his love. 
Not when he discovers his infinite excellencies to them. Not when 
they are to worship him. Not at any sacrament, no, not the eucharist. 
It is too much to love God once a week, or once a year, or once in 
four or five years. One act of love once in a life may be enough ; yea, 
and more than needs too, for when that time comes (if ever it come) 
when they will have any obliged to an act of love, yet they then assign 
something else which will serve instead of it, and so render it needless 
still. A love which is the issue of nature unsanctified may suffice. 
Or to love God less than other things, only more than mortal crimes, 
may be enough. Or to do nothing against this love, though there be 
no acts of it or from it, may be sufficient. Or external acts may 
satisfy. Or if a man believes that he loves God above all, though 
indeed he does not, it may serve the turn. Or attrition (which includes 
something repugnant to this love) with their sacrament of confession, 
may excuse him from loving God at the point of death, though he 
never once loved him in his life before. How extremely pernicious and 
ridiculous this their doctrine is. . Sect. 8 and 4, to p. 75. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



THE PRECEDING TBEATISB. 267 



Chapteb IY. 



By their doctrine no faith is necessary, but that which is neither justifying 
nor saving. That which they will have necessary for the ignorant is 
what they call implicit. A faith which they may have without actually 
believing any one article of the Christian faith. And is consistent with 
the belief of what is quite opposite to the Christian belief. And is but 
such a faith as Jews, Turks, and Pagans have. This was not thought 
sufficient for Christians till they were thought something like asses, and 
so expressed by some of their great saints and doctors. How many 
ways they have to exempt the people from the obligation of all precepts 
for any other than this brutish faith. . Sect. 1, to p. 79. 

The faith requisite in the more intelligent to justify them they call explicit. 
This, as described by them in its object, includes things uncertain, im- 
pertinent, false, impossible, and ridiculous, as points that must be cer- 
tainly believed unto justification. This of itself (as themselves say) de- 
serves not the name of a virtue, is an idle, dead thing, may be found 
in the worst of men, and in the devils too. Yet it is with them the 
Christian, the Catholic faith. . . Sect. 2, to p. 80. 

They see no great necessity of faith. The pope (the head of their church) 
needs it not And the body may make a shift without \t, if any one 
among all the members have it but. And one act of it in a whole life 
may serve. The ruder sort may be helped to this act (which will serve 
once for all) by making the sign of the cross, as their grave divines 
direct them. .... Sect. 8, to p. 82. 



* Chapteb V. 

No necessity of true repentance for any sort of sins, by their doctrine. Of 
original sin, or the corruption of our natures, no man can be obliged to 
repent. . Sect. 1, to p. 88. 

It is as needless for those many (and divers of them horrid sins), which they 
count venial. What pretty expedients they have to expiate these 
without repentance. .... Sect. 2, to p. 84. 

For mortal sins some teach there is no divine command to repent. And so 
to live and die impenitently will be no transgression. No need of it 
any way, either as a duty enjoined, or as a medium. Sect. 8, to p. 85. 

Others who confess there is a command for it, will not have it oblige any 
sinner presently. No sin nor danger to defer repentance. Nor will 
they have it needful at such times and occasions which, if any, would 
be the necessary seasons for it. Not at solemn times of worship. Not 
on days of fasting. Not when visited with great calamities. Not when 
sins are brought to their remembrance. Not when they address them- 
selves to their sacraments, no, not that of penance. Sects. 4 & 5, to p. 89. 

No need to repent till one be at the point of death. Nor is it so needful 
then, or any time before, but something else may serve without it. A 
repentance without any sensible sorrow for, or actual resolution against, 
sin, is sufficient. Or a penance merely natural may suffice. Or a slight 
remorse in the lowest degree possible, one act of it, despatched in an 
instant, and never repeated, will be enough. Or if a man conceive that 
be truly repents, though really he does not, this may serve the turn. 
Or if he know that he does not repent sufficiently, yet if he signify that 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



CONTENTS OP 

he would grievemore, and is sorry that he does not, this will he effectual. 
Or attrition with the sacrament will unquestionably justify him. Attri- 
tion with them is far distant from true repentance. Several sorts of it. 
Any of them seem sufficient hy the Council of Trent. The general con- 
currence of their divines for the sufficiency of attrition, yet the heat 
sort of it confessed to he morally evil. . Sects. 6 & 7, to p. 98. 

When they have excluded true repentance hy attrition, they reduce attrition 
to nothing ; yet will have it still sufficient. The least servile dislike of 
sin, in the lowest degree, though it he gone in a moment, though it be 
merely natural, is enough. Or if there he but a dislike that this dis- 
like is wanting, Or a willingness to have it in those who have it not. 
Or a man's thinking probably that he hath it when he hath it not Or 
a willingness without it to receive the sacrament will serve the turn. 
Yea, even without their sacrament of penance, attrition with the 
eucharist, or extreme unction, or the mass, or without any sacrament 
at all, may procure pardon. What ways attrition may secure them 
when they cannot have a priest, or the rites proper to priests, while 
they live, or after they are dead without them. Sect. 8, to p. 148. 

This doctrine, which makes saving faith, love to God, and true repentance 
needless, is established by the council of Trent. Their sacrament of 
penance hath no ground in the word of God. And being taught to 
depend on it for pardon, and to neglect the things of most necessary 
importance to salvation, it proves a most damning imposture. Their 
doctrine thus making repentance needless, plainly destroys Christianity, 
debauches the lives, and ruins the souls of sinners. And is one of the 
most pernicious heresies that ever was broached. 

Sects. 9, 10, & 11, to p. 103. 



Chapter VI. 

Tbeir doctrine leaves no necessity of holiness of life. It is enough to de- 
nominate their universal church holy, if there be but one holy man in 
it. One act of charity, the least of all, may make one a holy man. 
Other maxims of this tendency. How they destroy the necessity of 
holy life, by making it needless to exercise virtue and avoid sin. 

Sect. 1, to p. 104. 

How they make the exercise of Christian virtues unnecessary in general, 
more particularly hope (one of the three divine virtues) fares no better 
than faith and love. They leave themselves no good ground of hope. 
Their hope a conjecture, founded upon a delusion. The precept for 
hope obliges not but in the more grievous assaults of despair. So that 
not one of a thousand in popery need have any hope in God. No, not 
any, since the command for it may be satisfied by other acts. 

Sects. 2 & 8, top. 105. 

Their doctrine leaves no room for, no ground of, humility, no sense of sin- 
fulness, weakness, unworthiness. It is pregnant with pride and arro- 
gance. ..... Sect. 4, to p. 107. 

Brotherly love unnecessary by their doctrine. No need of love to any, un- 
less in necessity. Nor then, though the necessity be extreme, if we 
help them, though not out of Christian love. This extended not only 
to external, but spiritual necessities. If the acts whereby we should! 
relieve their souls be neglected, it may pass for a small fault. Those 
who have no Christian love, if they believe they have it, may be ex- 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



THE PRECEDING TREATISE. %W 

cased from sin. No precept requires any special act of love to our 
brethren. No affirmative command for such love. It is enough that 
we do nothing against them. . . Sect. 6, to p. 108. 

In destroying the necessity of those radical graces instanced in before, they 
root oat the rest. Particularly those that depend upon love to God, 
viz., delight in God, desires to enjoy him, hatred of sin, sorrow for it 
as an offence to God, and filial fear. By their common doctrine, there 
is no special command for any fear of God. So that the want of all fear 
of God, filial or servile, is no special sin. Since they need not act out 
of love, they exempt themselves from all acts truly Christian, and any 
other Christianity than honest heathenism. All exercise of virtues op- 
posite to acts accounted but venially evil, is with them needless. The 
monstrous consequences of this. . Sects. 6, 7, & 8, to p. 111. 

A special expedient, whereby they make the exercise of Christian virtues 
unnecessary, is their turning the commands of God into counsels, such 
as need not be observed. Such they count many of those excellent rules 
in Christ's sermon on the mount. These and many others specified. 
More instances in virtues which concern ourselves, God, and others, in 
acts of temperance and contentment, in acts of religion, and in acts of 
righteousness and mercy. Also mortification, crucifying the world, 
self-denial, taking up the cross, and all growth in grace, is but matter of 
counsel. So is every degree of grace above the lowest of all. Yea, all 
commands for good acts are no more than counsels, but only in the 
article of necessity. And all acts that have more than moral good- 
ness. And all actings in a virtuous manner, and from a good prin- 
ciple. Exercise of virtue not necessary either in worship or com- 
mon conversation. Not in those cases where, if in any at all, it 
would be needful. A way they have for any man to turn whatever 
precept pinches him into a counsel. There is no danger, nor any sin 
at all, in rejecting the counsel of God. No, not when conscience dic- 
tates that it is good to follow them. No, nor when God further calls 
thereto by inspirations or motions of his Spirit. They may be ne- 
glected out of contempt. And with some abhorrence of them. They 
may boast and glory in such neglects. They may bind themselves by 
oaths not to observe God's counsels. . Sect. 9, to p. 121. 

No exercise of virtue necessary but only during the pope's pleasure, for if 
he should forbid virtue (as he hath done already in divers instances) the 
church would be bound to believe those virtues to be evils, and so to 
avoid them. Further, their doctrine encourages the continual practice 
of such wickedness, as is inconsistent with all holiness of life, reduced 
to three heads. .... Sect. 10, to p. 122. 



Chapter "VII. 

Many heinous crimes are virtues, or necessary duties with them. Their 
blasphemies waived, because insisted on by others. Also a great part 
of their idolatry. Their plea in excuse of this crime, from the distinc- 
tion of terminative and transient worship, removed by their own doctrine 
formerly opened. .... Sect. 1, to p. 128. 

Their idolatry as to relics. These are to be religiously worshipped, though 

* many of them be ridiculous and loathsome, though many thousands be 

confessed to be counterfeit, and great and detestable impostures be 

therein acknowledged. To worship false relics, or the devil upon a 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



270 CONTENTS OF 

mistaken belief, is meritorious. What worshipful things miscarriages 
in the mass furnish them with. . . Sect. 2, to p. 125. 

They give divine worship to relics, though they give it not the name. They 
give both name and thing expressly to vast multitudes. All which they 
count relics of Christ are to have Christ's honour. Among these they 
reckon all.things that were near him, or touched him on earth, even the 
earth, water, stones, &c. Not only the things, but persons that touched 
him, thereby become his relics, and are to have his worship. The 
Virgin Mary expressly, and thousands more may have it ; by the same 
reason, they will not absolutely except the ass on which he rode. Yea, 
all the relics of such persons may have it. For they commonly teach 
that the relics may have the same worship with the person whose they 
are. The best of their relics impostures, that which passes for the 
foreskin of Christ, his shirt, coat, blood, the crown of thorns, lance, 
nails, cross, and its liquor. Their relics numerous beyond account. 
How they came to be so, their own authors tell us. The devil furnished 
their church with some of them, and crafty knaves with others. Yet 
their whole religion in a manner consists in worshipping such things as 
these, as some of themselves tell us. . Sect. 8, to p. 184. 

Perjury necessary by their doctrine. If a prince swear solemnly not to 
prosecute his supposed heretical subjects, unless he break his oath, he 
is in danger to be damned. No faith to be kept with heretics. Their 
doctrine ruins all securities that popish princes or subjects can give to 
protestants. These can with prudence trust to nothing but what will 
keep them out of the papal reach. . . Sect. 4, to p. 135. 

Bobbery and murder as necessary a duty. To deprive heretics of estate or 
life, a meritorious act. All papists, princes, or others, are bound in 
conscience by that which is most obliging in their religion, utterly to 
root out all they account heretics, and to seize on ail they have. A 
decree of a general council for it, which encourages the execution with 
promises of the greatest rewards, and enforces it with threatenings of 
most dreadful import. They must not be counted catholics unless they 
do it. It hath been effected or attempted in all countries where the 
papists had power to do it, or but thought that they had it. The 
reason why they do it not in England and some other places is, as 
themselves declare, because they have not yet power enough. 

Sect. 5, to p. 187. 

Sorcery and conjuration part of their religion. This manifested in their 
sacramentals, where by their own rules there is a tacit invocation of 
the devil. Their excuses here insufficient. Even their mode of pray- 
ing too like conjuring. . . . Sect. 6, to p. 140. 

The chief act of their religion is to destroy Christ, by sacrificing him daily in 
the mass, which they maintain they do truly and really. 

Sect. 7, to p. 148. 



Chapter VIII. 

Their doctrine tends to destroy holiness of life, by encouraging the continual 
practice of all sort of wickedness under the notion of venials. What 
hatred of God. What acts of infidelity and idolatry. What distrustful 
cares. What irreligiousness in all religious exercises. What use of 
witches. Or dealing with the devil. What irreverence towards God 
in adjuration. . Sect. 1, to p. 144. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



THE PRECEDING TREATISE. 271 

What impious swearing almost at every word. In horrid terms. Without 
offering to break off this ungodly custom. Binding themselves by oaths, 
and threatening God that they will sin against him. And never com- 
ply with his will in things which he commends to them as most 
excellent. What fraudulent oaths. What perjuries of all sorts, both 
as to assertory and promissory oaths, not worse for being most frequent 
and customary. .... Sect. 2, to p. 149. 

What blasphemies. Out of levity, passion, or inconsiderateness. Or from 
wicked custom and contempt of a man's own salvation. The more 
habitual and customary blaspheming is the better. Sect. 3, to p. 150. 

What profaning of holy time. Where it is manifest, that little or nothing 
at all of religion need be made conscience of amongst them ; even at 
the only time set apart for the acts and exercises of it. Sect. 4, to p. 158. 

What irreverence in children to parents. They may be ashamed of them. 
And curse them ; as parents may curse them again. What unaffection- 
ateness. They may desire the death of their parents for some outward 
advantage. Or by accusations procure their death. What disobedience 
in all things, out of negligence or sensuality. And in matters of great- 
est importance as to this life. Or in matters which concern their 
salvation. Parents have no right to oblige their daughters not to be 
whores. ..... Sect. 5, to p. 155. 

What murder of soul or body. As to acts inward and outward. What 
hatred. What outrageous anger. What revenge. Desires of the 
death, not only of enemies, but nearest relations, because they are poor, 
or not handsome, may be innocent. Actual killing (hem without 
deliberation is no fault, when not fully deliberate (when ordinarily many 
things may hinder it from being so) is but little worse. 

Sect. 6, to p. 156. 

What uncleanness. Fornication in its own nature not evil with some. 
Adultery one of the lesser sins. To seek or receive hire for whoredom 
scarce a fault, even in a nun. The conjugal act before marriage venial. 
And also to lie with one contracted privately, after a public contract 
with another. A woman whose chastity is attempted with some force 
need not cry out, nor make any resistance, but may take natural 
pleasure in the act. How excused when drawn to it by courtship. 
Those who are disposed to fornication may innocently be invited to it. 
Self-pollution may be desired or delighted in as past or future for a 
good end. To venture upon the occasions. To use hot provoking 
means, carnal touches. To expose themselves to place, company, 
sights, persuasions, opportunities that are ensnaring. To use filthy 
discourse, or a tempting garb, all venial. . Sect. 7, to p. 159. 

What stealing in all sorts, children, servants, wives. Mortal theft is so 
stated that they may make it venial when they please. They may steal 
little or much. Of these many instances. What cheating in false 
measures. Or the quality or substance of what they sell. They may 
promote the cheat with lies or worse. And defraud those who entrust 
them. Their church laws allow cozening, so it be but as to half of the 
worth of the commodity. • . . Sect. 8, to p. 164. 

What lying. They may lie merrily, and do it customarily, out of mere 
pleasure in telling lies, yea out of malice. They may lie whenever it 
will be for their advantage, if it do no great mischief, or they do but 
think so. To tell lies for their religion is piety. No sort of lies mortal 
but by accident, when they do great mischief, as speaking the truth 
may do. Nor in many cases when they do such mischief. They may 

V0I " m - DigffzfcbyGOO< 



272 CONTENTS OP 

use lies in commerce, and confirm them with oaths, both together may 
be but venial. Also in courts of judicature. How both judge and 
witnesses may lie there. They may bear false witness in favour of one 
another. They may delude the court by equivocation or mental 
reserves. Even a priest may swear he knows nothing of what he has 
heard in confession, with this reserve, he knows it not as man, but as 
God. They have lies in their divine office. Abundance of such stuff, 
or worse, is confessed to be there. Nor would they have all purged 
out, lest none of their old service should be left. They may tell lies 
in the pulpit. But some of them would have such rank ones avoided 
as the hearers may smell out. They may do it even in confession, and 
delude the priest with lies in much variety. And he may delude them 
likewise, pretending that he absolves them, when he neither doth it nor 
intends it. Since they have such liberty to lie everywhere, when can 
they be trusted ? . . . Sect. 9, to p. 172. 

What perfidiousness venial. Bow they may be perfidious for delight, or 
advantage. They may make promises outwardly, without intention to 
be obliged. Yea, they may deny, with oaths too, that they promised. 
Internal promises, though made in the form of a vow, or with an oath 
added, oblige them not How easily they may excuse the worst per- 
fidiousness. The firmest promises bind not but under venial guilt, 
unless they be in writing or with an oath. Nor then, if they intended 
not thereby to be obliged. « „ . Sect. 10, to p. 175. 

What hypocrisy. To make false shows of sanctity for a good end is no sin. 
Bare hypocrisy venial, though one delight to play the hypocrite. Yea, 
when it is for a bad end, though the fault be doubled it is venial still. 
They reverence hypocrisy as a holy art. It is amongst the commenda- 
tions of their great saints, and recommended by them to their religious. 
If they feign more holiness than they have, to edify others, it is rather 
meritorious than faulty. Their church much concerned for the honour 
of hypocrisy. . Sect. 11, to p. 176. 

What calumniation. How many ways they have to ruin the reputation of 
others without mortal guilt Amongst others, if one speak ill of them 
or their church, though truly, they may charge him with false crimes. 
A small fault for one to defame himself. . Sect. 12, to p. 179. 

What flatteries veniaL To praise one for the virtues he never had, or the 
good he never did. Yea to applaud him for his sins, to gain something 
by such flatteries. Cursing may be their usual practice. It is scarce 
any fault when used for honest recreation. . Sect. 18, to p. 180. 

What capital sins are with them veniaL All oovetousness, unless injustice 
be added. Yea, and with injustice too. They allow them to gain un- 
righteously. They may gain out of excessive desire of lucre, and make 
it their principal end, and turn it into a trade. They nee* not restore 
what they win by unlawful, or what they call diabolical games. Bat 
the loser may steal it from him that wins. Or refuse to pay, though 
he have sworn to do it, his oath may be easily dispensed with. They 
may take hire for acting the most abominable wickedness, or unjust 
judgment, or false depositions, or murder, or consulting with the devil. 
But then they must be sure to do the fact. No restitution to the poor 
a duty. Hard-heartedness and unmercifulness to the poor venial. 
Pure prodigality a less fault than covetousness, though this be next to 
none. ..... Sect. 14, to p. 184. 

All pride venial, but such as is scarce to be found in the Christian world. 
The numerous issue of this queen of mortal sins, as they style it, to 

Digitized by VjOOQIC 



THE PRECEDING TREATISE. 273 

whieh they are so favourable. To ascribe what they receive from God 
to their own merits, is confessed to be mortal pride, yet they make it 
part of their creed. Arrogance, commonly a venial fault. 

Sect. 15, to p. 186. 

Ambition venial, unless one would be honoured for a crime, or counted a 
god. ..... Sect. 16, to p. 186. 

Vain-glory regularly a venial, it imports nothing contrary to the love of God 
or man. It may be their principal end in all things ordained for the 
honour of God, otherwise their whole clergy, they say, would be in a 
dangerous condition. They may take livings and spiritual promotions 
principally for honour or temporal profit. So we have an account why 
they may make religion all along subservient to a worldly interest. 

Sect. 17, to p. 188. 

Loathing of spiritual and divine things venial, unless it be on such an ac- 
count as rarely happens. All in a manner that is requisite for a true 
Christian* may be abhorred without mortal guilt. Rancour and indigna- 
tion against any who would draw them to spiritual and divine things, 
a venial. ..... Sect. 18, to p. 189. 

Auger, though extravagant and revengeful, may be venial. The more exces- 
sive it is, the more mischief it may do and be innocent. Disdain of 
others. Audaciousness, immoderate fear, or wrath. Fool-hardiness. 
Incontinent desires and lust. Love of the flesh or the world, venial. 
Envy scarce any worse. . . . Sect. 19, to p. 191. 

Intemperance, comprising gluttony and drunkenness, in its own nature a 
venial. When they play the epicures like Dives, and resolve to give 
up their whole life to gluttonous pleasures, it is but near to a mortal 
sin. When it proceeds to beastliness, and the glutton so burdens 
nature that it is forced to ease itself by vomiting, or other nasty, 
loathsome ways, it is still venial. When he eats till he vomit, on pur- 
pose that he may be ready to eat again, it is no worse. Drinking till 
the house in the drunkard's fancy run round, is venial. Nor will it be 
worse till reason be totally drowned. The rare virtues of drunkenness ; 
complete drunkenness will make any wickedness then acted to be no 
sin at all. And half drunkenness will make it to be but a venial. 

Sect 20, to p. 194. 

The multitude of particular crimes which issue from these seven capitals 
need not be taken notice of as mortal. They have no warrant from 
Scripture to count any sin venial. Yet they venture to reduce to this 
account what the law of God forbids, not only when it is of less but 
greatest importance. To make a sin mortal requires so very much, 
that the sinner may easily miss some of it, and so venture upon it 
without fear that it is deadly. This declared* particularly. They shew 
them a way to pass any mortal crime as venial. How they represent 
venials as so very harmless, that all have encouragement enough to 
practise them continually all their life, and even when they are dying. 
Though some few of them may make any look like monsters in the 
judgment of a sober pagan. . . Sect. 21, to p. 199. 



Chapter IX. 

They conclude many crimes, inconsistent with holiness of life, to be no sins 
at all, and so warrant all to live in the practice of them. Some par- 
ticulars of this nature before insisted on, here only pointed at. It is 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



274 CONTENTS OF 

no sin to quench the motions of God's Spirit, drawing them to the 
observance of his will any way. Yet may they invite others to wicked- 
ness when they are ready for it. They may lawfully deal with the 
devil divers ways. .... Sect. 1, to p. 200. 

It is sufficient to pray with the mouth, without the heart. Sect. 2, to p. 201. 
How it is no sin to worship the untensils of worship. Or the word Jesus 
pronounced or written. Or the accidents of bread and wine in the 
euchari8t. Or the picture of the manger, thorns, or spear which 
touched Christ. Or the ass he rode on, or the lips of Judas for kissing 
Christ, though to betray him. Or the imaginary blood of a crucifix. 
Or to worship any person whatever as the image of God, or any other 
creature in the world, toad, serpent, or a wisp of straw. Or the ap- 
parition of the devil himself in a beam of light, or the form of a 
crucifix. ..... Sect. 8, to p. 204. 

Perjury no sin. When one takes an oath and intends not to swear. Or 
swears and intends not to be obliged. Or swears in another sense than 
he knows is intended in the oath. So they may use equivocation or 
mental restrictions in swearing. And think this lawful either to gain 
some advantage, or to avoid any damage. Many instances of such 
artifice of words or inward reserves which they may use to elude oaths. 
They may swear with such ambiguities or reserves, when they are 
swearing not to use them. No oath can be contrived which they may 
not thus elude. . . . . Sect 4, to p. 209. 

The irreligion of the Roman church palpable in the observance required of 
the Lord's day, and others set apart for holy employments. When the 
people are discharged from religious duties at other times, nothing is 
enjoined them on these days but presence at mass. At mass they need 
neither mind God nor divine things. It would be no sin to employ 
themselves in servile works on these days if it were but the custom. 
Nor to give them no observance at all after mass. This may be de- 
spatched before sunrise. These days are not profaned by any acts of 
wickedness. So that all the religiousness which that church re- 
quires of their catholics, when they make the best show of it, is consis- 
tent with the lewdest acts of ungodliness and debauchery. 

Sect. 5, to p. 218. 
In reference to those whom they count heretics, all relatives are discharged 
from their respective duties, subjects, wives, children, servants, yea, 
debtors too. It is no murder to kill a heretic, or those that are excom- 
municated. .... Sect. 6, to p. 214. 

Upon what occasion they may kill one another. A man may with impunity 
kill his wife taken in adultery, or his daughter, or sister, or his own 
mother, and this though they be big with child. A woman married or 
unmarried, being unlawfully got with child, may procure abortion, not 
only to secure her life, but her state and credit. It is lawful to cut up 
an honest mother quick, and she bound to procure it, that the child in 
her womb do not want baptism. They may without sin kill any one 
assaulting them unjustly, not only to secure their life, but to avoid a 
wound or a blow (a priest may do it while he is celebrating) though the 
aggressor be frantic, or in drink, or asleep ; or though he have had 
intolerable provocation and be the sufferer. They may kill an inno- 
cent to escape themselves. They may kill one before he actually 
assaults them, though his soul be like to perish with his life, if they 
know he is prepared for it, or does but design it. So the adulteress 
may prevent her husband, and kill him first, with the poison or weapon 

Digitized by VjOOQlC 



THE PRECEDING TREATISE. 275 

prepared for her. They may kill one to secure their goods, or recover 
them, when they may be recovered in a legal way. Yea, though they be of 
small value, worth but three or four ducats, yea, but one crown or less. 
They may kill men for their reputation. If he sees one approach to 
assault him, he may kill him rather than retire. A blow with a cudgel 
or a light switch, yea, or a box on the ear, is a just ground to kill him 
that gives itj yea, or does but offer at it. They may kill men for ill 
language, though they allow it to be as common as any they speak. 
Yea, for an affront by mere signs, though he that gives such an affront 
runs for it. They speak favourably of duels. But allow them to kill 
men more privily, and by surprise, when they impeach their reputa- 
tion publicly or privately, yea, or do but threaten to do it. Jesuits 
scarce so extravagant here as some of other orders. If the civil laws 
did but give so much liberty to murder, as their rules for conscience, 
no man near them could have security for his life. Sect. 7, to p. 218. 
How indulgent their doctrine is to uncleanness. They oblige tljem not to 
avoid such occasions of this sin by which they very frequently fall, 
unless they fall thereby in a manner always. Divers instances. 
What liberty they give to unclean thoughts. Obscene words. Las- 
civious writings. Filthy songs. Such ditties sung to the organ at 
mass. Offered to God in the person of the church for divine praises. 
This was. the custom everywhere in Cajetan's time, and since. As 
intolerable obsceneness in their penitential confessions. What licence 
they give to use such things as provoke lust. Also to immodest touches 
and shameful sights. No need to be resolute in resisting temptations. 
How servants may minister to the lust of their superiors. Actual 
whoredom hath excessive encouragement. The pope builds stews for 
prostitutes. They pay him a weekly tribute for liberty and accommo- 
dation to drive their trade. This condemned as most abominable to 
God and man, even by barbarians ; but the pope consenting to it, it is no 
sin, not indecency for his holiness to be maintained by the hire of 
whores. Many things concluded by their divines in favour of them. 
How punctual in deciding at what rates all sorts of women may set 
themselves to sale. They oblige them not to restitution, but when 
their religious make use of them, who are to have it gratis. Public 
prostitutes compelled by law to commit lewdness with any that will 
hire them. Hence the people (instructed in their religion) know not 
that such fornication is a sin. He that keeps a concubine at home is 
not to be denied the communion. Nor will they oblige him to put her 
away, if that would impair his estate, or delight, or his reputation, yea, 
or her's either. It is enough if he promise not to sin with her, though 
he keep not promise. Adultery no sin in divers cases. For the clergy, 
adultery, nor unnatural uncleanness, not so much a sin as marriage. 
Burning lust, innocent. Better to burn than to marry, whatever the 
apostle with their adversaries say. The admired chastity of their vo- 
taries consists well enough with whoredom, and is only violated by 
marriage. Their priests have been allowed to keep whores at home, 
paying a yearly rent for it. And those were to pay it who took not 
the liberty, because they might. Votaries incur excommunication for 
laying aside their habit, but not if they lay it aside to commit fornica- 
tion more readily. Priests in no wise to be obliged by oath to forsake 
their concubines. Extremely few chaste, by their own confession, of 
those innumerably many that profess it. A priest not to be deposed 
for fornication, because there are very few not guilty. Priests who keep 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



276 



CONTENTS OF 



many concubines not irregular. How they favour sodomy. Married 
persons may practise much of it together. Their clergy may act it 
to the uttermost, and be neither suspended, nor irregular, unless they 
make a trade of it, and do that so publicly and notoriously, as they 
can scarce do (by their description hereof), if they had a mind to it. 
Mere mental heresy a greater crime than sodomy with them. Yea, 
petty thievery a more heinous sin, with some of them expressly, and in 
consequence with most. Sodomy hath ecclesiastical immunity. All 
sorts of religious places amongst them are sanctuaries for sodomites, 
all sorts of uncleanness having such free and favourable entertainment 
in their church, no wonder if it be the sink of the Christian world. 

Sect. 8, to p. 282. 

It is no sin to take from protestants, or any counted heretics, all they have. 
All their estates are confiscated immediately, before any declarative 
sentence, from the first day of their pretended heresy. Though the 
papists make not seizure presently, yet those heretics are in the interim 
responsible for the mean profits. And they cannot any way alienate 
or dispose of their estates. All wills, sales, contracts for this purpose, 
are null and void. All may be taken from the purchaser, without 
restoring the price he paid. Children, though Roman catholics, lose 
their portions. Liberty given to all to spoil and bereave them. All 
rules of righteousness which concern propriety are void here, papists 
owe them no observance. It is no sin to burn their houses. To de- 
prive a protectant prince of his throne. To draw his subjects into war 
against him. To betray garrisons to the Romanists. To pay us no 
debts. To detain what is deposited with them in trust. There can be 
no lawful parliament among protestants. No king. No peers. No 
freeholders. No laws that are valid can be enacted. No aids or sub- 
sidies can be granted. The fundamentals of the government in Eng- 
land, and other such like countries, quite blown up by their principles. 

Sect. 9, to p. 285. 

It is no sin with them to bear false witness against protestants, when their 
life or estate is concerned. Or to use fraud and deceit in bargains, to 
cheat them of all they have. Or perfidiousness in promises, compacts, 
&c. They leave little that can be sin in papists towards themselves ; 
less towards protestants, • . Sects. 10 and 11, to p. 286. 

An aversation and contrariety to God and holiness, a propenseness and incli- 
nation to all ungodliness and unrighteousness in the horridest instances, 
when it is habitual, reigning, impetuous, active, is no sin at all in the 
temper and habit ; no, nor in the acts and motions, without consent. 

Sect. 12, to p. 287. 

What expedients they have to justify all sin in the world, or make it no sin. 
The pope's power herein. If he command vice, their church is bound 
to practise it. He can make sin to be no sin. He may dispense in 
all positive laws, and in the divine law (and against the gospel) at least 
where God can dispense, particularly with oaths and vows, such as are 
best, and most inviolable. With the observance of the Lord's day, so 
as to turn it into a working day. With all public worship amongst 
them, both mass and divine service. And against the universal state 
of the church. He can discharge them from righteousness towards 
men. Take from any man his right. Dissolve marriages. Legiti- 
mate adultery. License persons to be married for a while, and not 
during life. Authorise incest (dispensing with marriage betwixt any but 
parents and children) and sodomy. He can dispense with any divine 

Digitized by VjOOQ IC 



THE PRECEDING TREATISE. 277 

law when the reason thereof ceaseth, and can declare it to cease when 
he pleaseth. If he should err in dispensing, yet he that makes use of 
his licence to sin, sins not. He can free any from the obligation to 
fruits meet for repentance. Thus can he discharge all from acts of 
religion, righteousness, and good works. . Beet. 18, to p. 242. 

He is excused from sin, who ventures on it upon some probable reason, 
though it seem but probable to him, out of affection to the person that 
offers it, and there be more reason against it. . Sect. 14, to p. 248. 

Custom will excuse from sin, and make it no sin. Divers instances. The 
sense of Scripture must be conformed to the custom of their church, and 
vary from what it was, as they change fashions. Sect. 15, to p. 244. 

He sins not who does what is sinful, following the judgment of a grave doc- 
tor. One such doctor may suffice (as multitudes of their divines con- 
clude). And will secure him in following his opinion, though both less 
safe and less probable. This granted to be the common doctrine of 
their church. So it is unreasonable to except against our alleging 
the opinion of particular doctors against them, since their common 
doctrine allows any to follow the opinion of particular doctors, as to 
belief or practice. Hereby a way i& opened to leave no conscience of 
sin amongst them. . » Sect. 16, to p. 247. 

Their directions for the scrupulous of like- tendency. He sins not who 
breaks the law in a strict sense,, if he observe it in some benign sense. 
He may make the interpretation himself,, and so such as will please 
him, or choose that of others which is best for his purpose, though he 
fear it is not probable, and it be false indeed. Or when the observance 
of the law is very difficult or incommodious. And ordinarily he is like 
to judge it so. Or when the observance of it is ridiculous, as the observ- 
ing of the divine rule has been (by their acknowledgment) long since 
in their church. Or when there is apprehension of danger in comply- 
ing with it. Or when he observes it but according to the common 
usage of good catholics, when amongst the most eminent of their catho- 
lics it is confessed, there is little or no worship of God, no regard of 
good life, righteousness, or godliness. Their devices for justifyings of 
much wickedness (to the excluding all holiness of life), where founded. 

Sects. 17, 18, to p. 250. 



Chapter X. 

Good works not necessary by the Roman doctrine. This shewed in fasting, 
prayer, alms-deeds, to which they reduce all good works. They do 
not, they need not, fast on their fasting days. Their church requires the 
observance of none of those things, which they say are necessary to the 
being of a fast. They may eat a dinner, a full meal at noon, may be 
excessive therein, so as to transgress the laws of sobriety, and to excite 
and cherish lust, instead of repressing the flesh, and yet fulfil the pre- 
cept. They may break their fast in the morning (and yet keep it), with 
ale, wine, bread, or other things. They may eat a supper, too, and 
that excessive great, as big as custom will have it, when they tell us, 
it is their custom to sup with notorious excess. They may sup out of 
sensuality. And may take their supper in the morning. And drink 
and eat every hour. The quality of their fasting meat most delicious. 
They may drink at any time, and wine, too (though that is confessed 
to be more contrary to a fast than flesh). They may drink it till they 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



278 ' CONTENTS OF THE PRECEDING TREATISE. 

be drunk, and yet not break their fast. Nothing religions in their fast. 
Neither religions ends nor employments. And so it can be no good 
work, nor necessary in their account. Those that have tired them- 
selves with gaming or whoring are excused. Yet this piece of mockery 
passes with them as satisfactory and meritorious. Sect 1, to p. 255. 

Their praying no good work. The people pray not in the mass. They 
neither express nor conceive any petitions. Nor concur with the priest, 
but by presence and posture of the body, as an image may do, or by 
virtually wishing the priest's prayers may succeed, which they may do 
when they are asleep. Nor do their priests pray better in their public 
service, unless the bare pronouncing of the words (which is all they 
count necessary) be praying. How far they acknowledge this. 

Sect. 2, to p. 257. 

Acts of mercy or charity not necessary with them, but in two cases, which 
seldom or rather never occur, at least together. One is, when they have 
superfluities both in respect of nature and state ; but, they say, it can- 
not easily be judged that any secular person (no, nor kings and princes), 
have such superfluities. The other is when the necessity is extreme ; 
except it be such, if any had superfluities, they would not be obliged 
to part with any thing. When it is extreme, they allow the poor to 
steal. So charity is not needfnl but when stealing is lawful. Or then 
he may be excused so many ways, that he need never And himself 
obliged to relieve any gratis. Good works not necessary with them, 
because to act from a good principle, and for a good end, is needless. 
Their design to satisfy justice, and merit grace and glory by what they 
do, makes their pretended good works deadly evils. No necessity of 
good works upon the account of their being enjoined for penance. So 
they are not done as good, but suffered as evils. Besides, the priest 
need not enjoin such. Or the sinner need not submit thereto, or need 
not perform it. But may be released many ways. Especially by in- 
dulgences. It is counted better to give money for these, than in ways 
of charity. .... Sects. 8 and 4, to p. 261. 

The conclusion; where from the premises in brief is inferred, that the practi- 
cal doctrine of the Romanists tends to ruin Christianity, and the souls 
of all that follow it. .... To p. 264. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



GENERAL INDEX. 



In this and the following Index, the treatise on the Practical Divinity of the 
Papists is referred to by the letter P., while the number Hi. refers only to the 
former part of the third volume. 



Abraham, his prayer for Sodom, i 216 ; la what 
sense he is said to have offered up Isaac, 462. 

Absolution, priestly, may be given on a mere pre- 
sumption of penitence, P. 90. 

Acquaintance with God, a preparation for bearing 
the cross, i. 492. 

Acts, according to the Romanists, alone prescribed 
by the law, not habits or principles, P. 118. 

Adam* in Innocence, what he might expect from 
Justice, i. 20 ; whether we must repent of his 
sin, 89. 

Adultery, <£&, for a Romanist priest, not so great 
a sin as marriage, P. 228. 

Affection*, for mortifying sin, ii. 227 ; anger, 4b. ; 
fear, 228 ; shame, 229 ; grief and sorrow, 280 ; 
hatred, 231 ; revenge, ib. 

Afflictions, through the righteousness of Christ, 
made blessings, 1. 819 ; are occasions of thank- 
fulness, 388 ; are so many stones thrown at the 
door of the sinner's heart, ii. 63 ; how God se- 
cures from the evil of, 167 ; and does us goodby, 
to. ; how we are to be thankful for, 178 ; the end 
of, to purge God's people from their sins, 186 ; 
of God* a people, imposed not by a judge, but a 
father, 188 ; God's end in afflicting us should be 
complied with, 189 ; otherwise they will be in- 
creased, 191 ; advantage of duly improving, 198 ; 
improvement of, incomparably better than de- 
liverance from, 202 ; why they befell the people 
of God, 238 ; to be endured with patience, 
cheerfulness, thankfulness, 239 ; the way to at- 
tain comfort under, 416 ; to be used for the pro- 
motion of fruitfulness, 438 ; necessary for the 
people of God, 466 ; how ordered and ruled by 

Against Anxious CAUFULVBSS, ii. 187. 

Agnus Dei, its virtues described in verse by 
Urban V., P. 138. 

Ahab, his repentance, ii. 264. 

AUngenses, 200,000 destroyed in some months, 
P. 136. 

All, Thb Loan Rules oveb, 11. 464. 

AU-svfficiency of God, belief of, a remedy against 
anxious carefulness, ii. 160 

Anger, distinction between, and hatred, L 148 ; 
against sin, holy, ii. 228. 

Antichrist, his character, ii. 827. 

Anxious Oakbfulnbss, Against, ii. 187. 

Arminiant, their inconsistency, i. 821. 

Assertion* of Scripture, may be applied as pro- 
mises, 1. 188. 

Assurance, how it is produced, and the effects of 
it, i. 91 ; what they who want, can expect in 
prayer, 229 ; how near hypocrites may come to 
it, ii. 264 ; means whereby it may be attained, 
416 ; is never but when there is fruitfulness, 416. 



Atonement, what it is, iii. 68 ; the same with pro- 
pitiation, to. 

Attention, actual, not required of the Romanists 
in prayer, P. 10 ; three degrees of, 16 ; the low- 
est alone necessary ; Impossible to most, un- 
necessary to all, 21. 

Attributes of God, obects of faith, i. 177 ; some are 
suited to every case and condition, 169 ; nothing 
in any of them to discourage faith, 180 ; con- 
sideration of, fitted to produce fear of God, 
ii. 233. 

Attrition is a slender dislike of sin, not as it is an 
offence against God, but out of some other con- 
sideration, P. 37 ; with penance, will excuse any 
from actually loving God, 74 ; not even needful 
for venial sins, 83 ; difference from contrition, 
96. 

Augustine, saved from assassination by mistaking 
his road, ii. 616. 



Baptism, by the Romanist doctrine, valid, by 
whomsoever administered, P. 36 ; may be ad- 
ministered by force to the unwilling, ib. 

Barrenness and unfruitfulness of England la- 
mented, 11. 392; the cause of God's controversy 
with the land, 894 ; great danger of, 401. 

Basil, his stedfestness against Arianism, i. 606. 

BSLIBVias' COMMUBION WITH TIM FATHSE AND 

the Sow, iiL 166. 

Believers, true, fear and hate sin, i. 106 ; have a 
right to all things promised, 194 ; have com- 
munion with the Father and the Son, iii. 166. 

BeUarmine, his objections to the Imputation of 
Christ's righteousness answered, i. 804. 

Belly, how men make it their god, ii. 309. 

Bible, reading of, Romanists not only do not deem 
a duty, but almost regard as a crime, P. 40; 
reason of their discouraging, 66. 

Blessings, spiritual, promised conditionally, 1. 217 ; 
bestowed not for, but according to, prayer, 226. 

Blood of Christ, with the benefits purchased by it, 
offered to sinners, 11. 42 ; its preciousness, 43. 

BOLDLT, COMING VETO THE TuBOEB OF GSAOB, iii. 
110. 



Calamities as* Afflictions, God *b bed in seed- 
ing, on his People, 11. 186. 

Calamities and afflictions, not to be mortified snd 
reformed by, most dangerous, ii. 191 ; exceed- 
ing sinful, 196. 

Callings, to be followed In the Lord's service, 1. 
396. 

Canonical hours, and the divine office, the proper 
service of the clergy and monastics, P. 9. 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



INDEX. 



Care and Industry, essential to soul-worship, ii. 
804. 

CAR8FULNR88, AGAINST ANXIOUS, 11. 137. 

Carefulness, anxious, about the things of this life, 
li. 138 ; getting and providing them, ib. ; keep- 
ing, ordering, or securing them, ib ; deliver- 
ance when losses have surprised us, 139 ; not 
all kinds and degrees of, forbidden, to. ; but ex- 
cess of care, 140 ; distinctions between care and 
carefulness, 141 ; excessive, either draws into 
sin, or is a temptation to it, 143 ; is useless, ib. ; 
needless, 144 ; heathenish, 146 ; hurtful, 148 ; 
very sinful, 160 ; foolish, 153 ; Incongruous, 155 ; 
the ends men have In it, 158 ; means to secure 
against, 160. 

Ceremonies, and the preaching of the word, cannot 
stand together, i. 508. 

Children of Gob should not rr partakers with 

OTHERS IN THEIR SlNS, 1L 334. 

Children, undue anxiety about, 1. 426 ; of light, 
what it is to be, ii. 870 ; what it is to walk as such, 
to. 
Christ died not for impenitent sinners, i. 28 ; his 
sufferings to be considered, to enforce repen- ' 
tance, 65 ; the object of justifying faith, 77 ; his 
terms not hard, 117 ; easy, not as opposed to 
difficult, but as opposed to harsh, rigid, unequal, 
119; his offices and intercession, encourage- 
ments to faith, 182, 204 ; his blood, how it is a 
prayer, 207 ; his excellency, 257 ; nothing in 
him but what is excellent, to. ; all the excel* 
lencies that are in the creatures are In him, 
and in a more excellent manner, ib, ; innu- 
merable more than are in all creatures are in 
him alone, 258 ; what it is to love, 266 ; what it 
is to be found in, 273; implies spiritual inti- 
macy in respect of union, ib. ; judicial account 
in respect of representation, to. ; real efficacy 
in respect of participation, 274 ; how to be found 
in, 276 ; his sufferings imputed to us, and how, 
285 ; his death a punishment, a ransom, a sacri- 
fice, ib. ; arguments against the imputation of his 
righteousness answered, 289 ; his active obedi- 
ence imputed, 290 ; what is meant by the impu- 
tation of his righteousness, 293 ; his obedience 
and sufferings not to be disjoined, 296; his 
righteousness the foundation of the covenant of 
grace, 308 ; his righteousness the cause of a be- 
liever's interest in the promises, 812 ; signs of 
having come to, 840 ; they who have come to, are 
sorry that they came not sooner, to. ; are ac- 
quainted with his being, ib. ; have a high esteem 
of him, 341 ; are in a new condition, ib. ; walk 
with him, to. ; are at a distance from sin and the 
' world, 342 ; have renounced their own righteous- 
ness, ib. ; those who have not come to, are under 
the power of Satan, 343 ; under the guilt of sin, 
ib. ; under the wrath of God, ib. ; under the 
curse, 344 ; the justice of God engaged to destroy 
them, to. ; their outward enjoyments uncom- 
fortable, unsanctified, accursed, 345; advan- 
tages of coming to, to. ; danger of not coming 
to, 353 ; is denied when either faith or obedience 
is denied, 460 ; what makes way for his reign, 
48u ; the glory of his majesty inexpressible, ii. 
35 ; his all-sufficiency, ib. ; Independence, ib. ; 
sovereignty, to. ; his presence twofold : general, 
as he is governor of the world ; and special, as 
he is a Saviour, 87 ; special, in respect of mani- 
festations, communications, operations, to. ; his 
supping with his people implies provision, 94 ; 
, plenty, 95 ; variety, ib. ; delicacies, ib. ; fami- 
liarity, 96 ; complacency, 97 ; the way to know 
whether we are in him, 98 ; the way to get into 
him, 99 ; to be without, is to be without union 
to, 102 ; without his influence, 103 ; the way to, 
lies through the sense of misery, 517 ; the ar- 
dency of his love, Hi. 4 ; how it appears that he 
loves us, to. ; his love moved him to union with 
us, 6 ; his excellency, 21 ; loves men more than 
the best of men love one another, 26 ; more than 
man loves himself, 27 ; more than he loves the 
angels, 28 ; more than heaven and earth, 29 ; 
as himself, and in some respects more, 30 ; as 



the Father loves him, 86 ; his sacrifice of expia- 
tion, 61 ; how touched with our infirmities, 83 ; 
comfort of this, 108. 

Christiani sunt cruciani (Luther), i. 448. 

Christians, must repent of their daily sins, L 80 ; 
who are 1 447 ; how all things are theirs, iiL 9 ; 
their imperfections, 19. 

Christianity, a harder thing than many suppose, 
i. 470. 

Churches, may be guilty of the sins of particular 
members, lit 349 ; many ruined for unfruitfal- 
neas, 408. 

Circumcision of heart. In the Old Testament, is 
renewing and quickening by the Spirit of rege- 
neration in the New, 11. 433. 

Circumstantials, not to be given up for persecu- 
tion, i. 503. 

Clitomachus, his modesty, ii. 288. 

Coming boldly unto tbronb of Grior, ill- 110. 

Commandments of God, virtually promises, i. 188 ; 
Bomanists turn into counsels, and so destroy 
obligation of, P. Ill ; some greater, some less, 
119; some Romanists represent the former, 
others the latter, to be counsels, to. 

Common assistance, how afforded to natural men, 
ii. 132. 

Communion, Brlirvxrs' with thr Fathrr and 
thr Bon, ill. 165. 

Communion with God, includes union, ill. 166 ; 
community, to. ; converse, 170 ; believers have 
with God, unbelievers with the devil, 173 ; mo- 
tives to get and to continue with God, 17 1 ; is for 
God's glory, ib. ; for our good, 176 ; engaged in 
the ordinances, 177 ; affords the sweetest plea- 
sure, 176 ; the highest honour, 177 ; the greatest 
advantage, 179 ; the chiefest happiness, to. ; 
means of attaining, 181. 

Compassion of Christ, a ground of comfort, iiL 107. 

Concupiscence, carnal, held by the Romanists to be 
sinless, P. 115. 

Concurrence with the sins of others is a partaking 
of them, ii. 835; may be by contriving, to ; con- 
senting, 836 ; inclination, ib. ; rejoicing, to. ; 
sentence and vote, lb. ; assisting, 387 ; sharing 
the profits or pleasures, to. 

Condescension, Christ's, like himself, wonderful, 
ii 34. 

Conditions, attached to gospel-promises, are not 
conditions of merit, ii. 65 ; of dependence 66 ; 
of inducement, to. ; of uncertainty, ib. ; of obttge- 
ments, to. ; are no more than necessary ante- 
cedents or duties to which the Lord will enable 
his people before the fulfilment of his promise, 
to. 

Conference with God, how managed, ill. 172. 

Confessional, impurity of, P. 67. 

Confessor, qualifications necessary for, P. 67. 

Conscience, tenderness of, a preparation for bearing 
the cross, i. 490 ; its office to discover sin, ii. 215 ; 
must be under God's rule, 476. 

Consecration, magical virtues ascribed to, P. 139. 

Constance, council of, decreed against keeping fisith 
with heretics, P. 134. 

Contingent, or casual things, ordered by God, ii. 
458. 

Contrition, distinguished from attrition, P. 96. 

Conversion, a turning of the heart towards a new 
centre, ii. 19 ; why sinners are so much affected 
when first converted, 1 44; a man cannot con- 
vert himself, 106 ; a universal change. 366 ; the 
same thing with regeneration, vocation, reno- 
vation, ib. ; how we may know whether con- 
verted or not, 365 ; condition of the converted 
safe and comfortable, 368. 

Converse of the believer with God includes visits, 
ill. 170 ; walking with God, to. ; friendly confer- 
ence, 172 ; kind entertainment, to. 

Conviction of Hypocrites, ii. 241. 

Conviction, wrought by God, gives a new sense of 
sin and danger, i. 72. 

Corruption of nature, the ground of a sinner's 
humiliation, i. 8 ; is a sin, 4 ; wherein it con- 
sists, 6 ; is the foundation of our misery, to ; 
consists in a privation of all that is good, anti- 
pathy to God, and propensity to all evil, to. ; 
extends to all faculties of the soul, It) ; its moo- 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



INDEX. 



Ill 



strousness and strength, 11 ; now it propagates 
itself, 15 ; mortification of, a preparation for 
bearing the cross, 489 ; is all sin in one, ii. 208. 

Countenancing the sins of others makes ns par- 
takers of them, ii. 344 ; may be by defending, 
ib. ; by justifying, 846 ; by extenuating, to. ; 
commending, 346 ; oonnMng at, ib. ; by com- 
pany, 847 ; by rejoicing, ib. 

Covenant, assurance of interest in, an encourage- 
ment to prayer, i. 202 ; of grace, its foundation 
the righteousness of Christ, 808 ; why called a 
testament, 300. 

Creation, new, first step in, is of light, ii. 26; 
requires an infinite power, 28. 

Creature, thk New, ii. 8. 

Cross, taking fp thk, i. 447. 

Cross, he who will not bear, not a Christian, L 447 ; 
includes loss and damage, ib. ; shame and re- 
proach, 450 ; pain and torture, to. ; death itself, 
to. ; what it is to bear, 461 ; to be borne patiently, 
463 ; cheerfully, 464 ; fruitfully, 466 ; is ordi- 
narily the lot of Christians, ib. ; reasons why it 
is so, 466; embitters the world to them, 460; 
cannot ordinarily be avoided without sinning 
against Christ, 460 ; they who sin ordinarily to 
avoid, are not Christians, ib. ; they do not bear 
who lay it upon others, 472 ; who will not for- 
sake their sins for Christ, 473 ; who will bear 
but some part of it, ib. ; who do not think the 
gospel worth knowing, 474; who neglect the 
worship of God, 476 ; exhortations to bear it, 
470 ; to be prepared for, ib ; how this is to be 
done, 480 ; the pleas against bearing answered, 
502 ; of Christ, how to be gloried in, ii. 4 ; sign 
of, how, according to the Romanists, it teaches 
all needful doctrine, P. 81. 

Curse, Sinkers uxdbb thb, ii. 617. 

Cvrte of God, what It is to be under, ii. 106 ; can 
only be removed by Christ, 107 ; the penalty 
of God's violated law, 617 ; sin brings under it, 
618; they who are delivered from, ought to 
praise and adore their Redeemer, 626. 



Damned, their misery for not hearing and obeying 
the word, L 436. 

Darkness, Unooevbbted Sinners abb, iL 366. 

Darkness, to be in, is to be in sin, the work of 
darkness, iL 366; under Satan, the prince of 
darkness, 867; under the wrath of God, the 
fruit of darkness, ib. ; near to hell, the place of 
darkness, ib. ; fearful, 869 ; those are in who 
walk in the ways of darkness, 360 ; who want 
spiritual discerning, 361 ; who act not for God, 

Day of grace, when it may be said to be past, 1. 
142 ; not past with a sensible sinner, 143. 

Death, the end of a wearisome pilgrimage to the 
Christian, i. 246 ; of Christ, real, iii 64 ; violent, 
ib. ; cruel, ib. ; shameful, ib. ; cursed, 66 ; the 
same, as to the main, that was due to us, ib. ; 
was for us, in our stead, 66 ; the punishment of 
our sin, to. ; the price of our redemption, 7o ; 
a sacrifice of expiation, 71. 

Debt of the elect, paid by Christ, i. 274. 

Decreet, God's, unreasonable to pry into, 1. 128. 

Delight, an act of soul- worship, Ii. 304. 

Desire after Christ, proceeds from a sinner's sense 
of his misery, L 87 ; virtually faith, ii. 128 ; an 
act of soul-worship, 803. 

Despair, only two cases of, recorded in the history 
of 4000 years (Cain and Judas), ii 136. 

Diogenes, his contempt of the world, ii. 280. 

Dispensations of God must be submitted to, ii. 489. 

Dissension, a cause of misimprovement of afflic- 
tions, ii. 214. 

Distractions by worldly cares, a hindrance to profit- 
ing by the word preached, i. 487. 

Divisions and contentions, the cause of sufferings, 
i. 466 ; who are the instruments of, 609. 

Dogs, why false teachers are called, 1. 247. 

Dominicans, required to recite their prayers while 
dressing, P. 17. 

Dominion of God, absolute, ii. 881 ; Justifies elec- 
tion, ib. 

Door, at which Christ knocks, is the heart of man. 



iL 51 ; who they are who do not open, 80; who 
that open deceitfully, 82 ; motives to open, 84 ; 
misery of them who will not open, 90. 

Duelling, spoken favourably of byKomanist writers, 
P. 217. 

Duties, to be specially attended to which are too 
much neglected by professors, ii. 877 ; for the 
neglect of which we are reproached, 378 ; which 
the providence of God more particularly calls us 
to, 819 ; that have a special tendency to en- 
dear the ways of God to others, 380 ; to which 
we have naturally most averseness, 381 ; which 
we are under temptation to neglect, ib. 

Dtino ib Faith, i. 288. 

Drive, Cubist's, fob Sinners, iii. 63. 

Dying in faith, what meant by, i. 238 ; they who 
die so, die honourably and comfortably, 239. 



Earthly-Mindednbss, thb Lord's Ownership or 
all thimos, am inducbmknt from, L 866. 

Earthly blessings,, how they are promised, i. 408. 

Election, doubts about, an impediment to faith, 
i 127 ; cannot be known before faith, ib. 

End, God's, ib sending Calamities and Afflio- 
TIOB8 ON his Pkople, ii. 185. 

Enemies, God can secure against the power and 
violence of, ii. 602. 

England. God's Judgments upon, ii. 189 ; wicked- 
ness of, 803. 

Enjoyments, outward, of unconverted, uncomfort- 
able, unsanctifled, accursed, L 846 ; afford ad- 
vantage for fruitfulness, ii. 442. 

Enmity of men against God, iii. 18. 

Epaminondas the Theban, his frugality, ii. 279. 

Equivocations, not peculiar to the Jesuits, P 2)6. 

Erasmus, his account of the religion of Romanists, 
P. 134. 

Erroneous teachers and seducers described, iL 3. 

Errors and mistakes of brethren to be treated with 
forbearance, ill. 104. ' 

Euenes, spent their whole time in prayer and 
meditation, ii. 290. 

Esteem, an act of soul-worship, ii. 801. 

Eternity, living in the view of, a remedy against 
anxious carefulness, ii. 170. 

Eucharist, in partaking of, Romanists require no 
actual reverence or devotion, P. 88. 

EVBRYTHIBG, PEAT FOB, ii. 102. 

Evil, a small one, may be great in its consequences, 

i 604 ; how ordered and over-ruled by God, ii. 

469. 
Evidences for heaven, to be cleared up, I. 241. 
Example of sin, in one, may occasion many, iL 

838 ; of Christ, in forbearance, iii. 104. 
Excellent Knowledge of Christ, 1. 247. 
Experience, an encouragement to Jaith in prayer, 

i. 215. 
Expiation by legal sacrifices, how it differs from 

that by the death of Christ, iiL 76. 



Faith, i. 68. 

Faith, Living bt, i. 174. 

Faith in Prater, i. 197. 

Faith, Dying in, i. 238. 

Faith, the principal condition of life, i. 68 ; sal- 
vation depends on, ib ; what it is, 64 ; com- 
prises knowledge, *&. ; assent, 66 ; recumbence, 
ib. ; implies coming to Christ, ib. ; fleeing to 
him as to a stronghold, 66 ; leaning upon him, 
eft ; adhering to him, 68 ; rolling or casting our- 
selves upon him, 69 ; applying him, to. ; receiv- 
ing him, 70 ; embracing him, 71 ; includes in it 
sense of misery, 72 ; rejecting of other depend- 
ences, 78 ; submission, ib. ; resolution to per- 
sist in dependence, 74 ; support, 75 ; consent to 
accept Christ on his own terms, ib. ; Justifying 
or saving, its object is Christ, ib. ; assents to 
the whole of Scripture, but does not Justify as 
so assenting, 76 ; is not an assent to a proposi- 
tion affirmed, but affiance in a Saviour offered, 
77 ; its principal and proper object the person 
of Christ, to. ; and that not barely considered, 
but as clothed with righteousness, ib. ; at first 
relies on Christ, not as having pardoned, but as 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



IV 



INDEX. 



willing to pardon, 78 ; wrought by God, ordi- 
narily by several steps, to. ; discovery of sin, to.; 
application of the desert of sin, 79 ; compunc- 
tion, 80 ; inquiry, 81 ; renunciation of aU un- 
safe ways, 82 ; revelation of Christ 88 ; hope, 84 ; 
self-abhorrence, 86 ; valuing of Christ, ib. ; 
strong desires after Christ, 87 ; persuasion, 88; 
resolution to comply with the Lord's invitation, 
90 ; encouragements to, 96 ; impediments of, 101 ; 
historical distinguished from saving, ib ; former 
may be had by hypocrites, reprobates, the actu- 
ally damned, the devils, 102 ; impediments to, 
101 ; a conceit that we have faith already, ib. ; 
a conceit that faith is a business of no great 
difficulty, 115 ; a conceit that the terms of 
Christ are hard, 117 ; resting in our own right- 
eousness, 123 ; difficulties about election, 127 ; 
feeling of unworthiness, 129 ; want of prepara- 
tion, 183 ; fear that it Is too late, 138 ; fear that 
we have sinned the unpardonable sin, 146 ; want 
of fulfilment of the conditions of the promise, 
16S ; its object not a proposition or a promise, 
but Christ, 164 ; means of attaining, 166 ; prayer, 
167 ; hearing the word, 170 ; living by, what it ' 
is, 174 ; a sense and acknowledgment that we 
cannot live without God, 176 ; a reliance upon 
God for continuance of what we have, and sup- 
ply of what we have not, to. ; is not an act, but 
a life of acts, to. ; objects of, 176 ; divine attri- 
butes, to. ; offices of Christ, to. ; mutual rela- 
tions between God and his people, 177 ; pro- 
mises, ib. ; providences, to. ; directions how to 
live by, ib. ; asking in, what it Implies, 197 ; 
discouragements of faith in prayer removed, 
218 ; faith of dependence may constitute a 
prayer of faith, though assurance be absent, 
229 ; objects on which it is acted, 280 ; the 
name of God, to. ; the free offers of Christ, 231 ; 
the general promises, to. ; its acts, ib. ; renounc- 
ing of all supports and refuges but Christ, ib. ; 
submission, ib. ; acceptation, 232 ; appropria- 
tion, ib. ; resolution, 238; expectation, to. ; en- 
couragements to, in reference to the success of 
prayer, ib. ; its difference from presumptuous 
confidence, 234 ; the elders died in, 230 ; direc- 
tion for dying in, 240 ; and repentance of the 
best is imperfect, 312 ; its power to support 
under the cross, 498 ; in what sense the gift of 
God, ii. 108 ; in Its lowest degree, is a consent 
to take Christ as God offers him, 122 ; of for- 
malists may be so like that which is saving and 
Justifying, that both themselves and others may 
mistake it, 269 ; wherein it is defective, 266 ; 
discouragements to, removed by the sight of God 
on a throne of grace, iiL 131 ; though weak, has 
encouragement to come to the throne of grace, 
134 ; implicit, alone required of Romanists, P. 
60 ; saving, or justifying, not necessary by their 
doctrine, 75 ; implicit, sufficient, 76 ; explicit 
is impossible, and if it were possible, is not of 
the nature of justifying, 79. 

Fasting, Romanist, is no fasting, is no good work, 
and is not necessary, P. 250 ; a ridiculous piece 
of mockery, 254. 

Father ard Son, Brlirvrrs* Communioh with, 
iii. 165. 

Fear of the cross, makes it worse than it is, L 486 ; 
makes a Christian less fit to bear the cross than 
a weaker one whose fears are less, 487; exposeth 
to what is far worse than any cross we can meet 
with, to. ; how to be removed, 488 ; of sin, a 
means of preserving us from it, ii 228 ; of God, 
may be great even in natural men, 277 ; an act 
of soul worship, 303 ; of man, how unreasonable, 
470. 

Fhrlino of oua Ihfirjcitirs, Christ touohbd 
with, lii. 81. 

Fig-tree, kind of, in Palestine, bore fruit all through 
the year, 11. 392. 

Formalists, are not In a state of salvation, ii. 295 ; 
are exposed to the curse of God, 628. 

JFree-trfU, doctrine of, the foundation of all popery 
(Luther), ii. 128 ; exempts man from God's 
power, 129 ; refutation of, ib. 

Friend*, ought to be helpful to one another in dis- 
covering sin, ii. 216. 



FXUIT, CHRIST BBIKIKO, ARD TJXDTMQ HOHR, 11. 385. 

Fruits, good, what they are, ii. 386 ; must be real, 
• 887 ; such as import a change of soul, 888 ; dis- 
tinguishing, ib. ; seasonable, ib. ; sound, 389 ; 
must be in fulness, to. ; proportionable to the 
means, 890 ; increasing, to. ; in variety, 891 ; 
lasting, ib. ; means to be used for producing, 
894, 431; which respect God more particu- 
larly are acts of admiration, 445 ; of subjection, 
446 ; of complacency, ib. ; which respect our- 
selves are temperance, chastity, humility, mo- 
desty, contentedness, 447 ; which respect others 
must be both in heart and life, 448 ; some should 
be cultivated with peculiar care, 449 ; those to 
which we are naturally averse, ib. ; which are 
too much out of fashion, 450 ; which we are 
specially engaged to bring forth, 452 ; whose 
goodness and advantage Is most extensive, ib. ; 
which we are most tempted to neglect, to. 
Fruitfvlfutt, advantages of, ii. 412 ; impediments 
of, 419 ; unmortifieduess, ib. ; worlduness, 420 ; 
privateness of spirit, 422 ; carnal Indulgence, 
ib. ; mistaking that for good fruit which Is not, 
ib. ; looking more at comfort than duty, 420 ; 
being too much taken up with little things, 480 ; 
directions for, 43L 



Gain, unlawful, a hindrance to faith, L 121. 
Glory, steps by which fallen man is raised to, i. 266. 
God, Children or, should hot as partakers 
with othhrs ih thhir 8uts, it. 834. 

GOD'8 END IK 8ENDINQ CALAHITIRB AHD AFPLXC- 

tiohs oh his Pboplr, ii. 185. 

God, his mercy should lead to repentance, L 67 ; 
the owner of all things, 366 ; of the world in 
general, to. ; of lands, 387 ; the fruits of the 
land, 868 ; money and clothes, ib ; ourchUdren, 
ib. ; ourselves, 869 ; bodies, to. ; souls, A. ; his 
greatness considered, 379 ; his right to pass by 
some, when he chooses others, 880 ; thefreeness 
of his love, 883 ; consideration of his attributes 
a means to bear the cross, 402 ; his dispensa- 
tions, are judgments to all who are out of Christ, 
ii. 107 ; his giving over a people, the worst of 
Judgments, 192 ; misconoeit of his mercy, an 
occasion of man's false hope, 248 ; his rule over 
all, 464 ; objects of his government, 456 ; heaven 
and earth, ib. ; all the parts thereof, 456; things 
great and small, to. ; all beings and all motions. 
ib. ; actions and events, 457 ; substance and 
circumstances of things and actions, to. ; end 
and means, to. ; things orderly and confused, 
458 ; things necessary and contingent or casual, 
ib. ; good and evil, 469 ; things natural and volun- 
tary, ib. ; properties of his government, 400 ; it 
is supreme, ib. ; absolute, 461 ; irresistible, 462; 
perfect, ib. ; over all things at once, ib. ; easy, 
463 ; continual, ib. ; bis right and ability to rule 
all, 463 ; danger of not submitting to, 469 ; his 
government in all things must be observed, 492 ; 
his government a great support under fears and 
dangers, 495 ; is in covenant with his people, 
through the mediation of Christ, iiL 117 ; is a 
God hearing prayer, 118 ; the manner of his 
presence with his people, 119. 

Gotpel, contempt of, disobedience to, unfrultful- 
ness under, the cause of God's judgments, L. 16 ; 
a great mercy, or a great judgment, 430 ; preach- 
ed, is the word of God, not of men, 432 ; is that 
by which we must be judged, 484. 

Grace, Throws or, oomimo boldlt unto, iiL 110. 

Grace, in this life, has perfection of parts, but not 
of degrees, 1. 38 ; its implanting and continu- 
ance in the soul is from the righteousness of 
Christ, 807 ; is advanced by the cross, 458 ; low- 
degrees of, not to be rested in, 496, iL 297; 
restraining, may be when renewing is not, ii. 
8 ; doctrine of a sufficiency vouchsafed to all 
men, contrary to Scripture and experience, 
79 ; must first be planted in the heart, and 
continually fortified and increased, 434 ; throne 
of, to come to, at once our privilege and duty, 
111 110 ; equivalent to mercy-seat, 112 ; inti- 
mates what God Is to us, 116 ; as a God In 
Christ, to. ; as a God reconciled, 116 ; as a God 



Digitized by VlOOQ LC 



INDEX. 



of forgiveness, ft. ; as a God in covenant, 117; 
aa a God that will have communion with his 
people, 119 ; to be approached with holiness of 
heart and life, 124 ; with fear and reverence, 

' 126 ; with sincerity, «&. ; with subjection, 126 ; 
with love andaffectionateness, to. ; In faith, 127. 

Grace*, special, for mortification of sin, ii. 232 ; 
lore to God, to. ; faith, to. ; fear, ib. ; and affec- 
tions, hypocrites may go far in, 252. 

Gracious Ietitatioh, Christ's, to Sinuses, ii. 84. 

Gratitude, an act of soul-worship, ii. 814. 

Grte/and sorrow for sin, passionate, is the fruit 
and not the forerunner of faith, i. 138. 



Habit*, held by the Romanists not to be com- 
manded or forbidden by the law of God, P. 115. 

Hating of relatives, Ac., for Christ's sake, how to 
be understood, i. 447. 

Haired of sin is an act of repentance, i. 26 ; 
whether it may consist with any love of it, 88 ; 
an important affection for mortifying sin, ii. 
231 ; of God, according to the Romanists, no 
sin, P. 69. 

Hbaeihg thb Woan, L 248. 

Hearing the word, a means of attaining faith, i. 
170 ; must be with diligence, 171 ; without pre- 
judice, to. ; moat heed to be given to what is 
most suitable, 172 ; should be accompanied with 

Syer, 174 ; we must take heed how we hear, 
; an act of eternal consequence, 431 ; a sin 
to neglect opportunities of, 434 ; is a duty en- 
joined by Christ, 486 ; Impediments to it, ib. ; 
ignoranoe, ib. ; contempt, 437 ; distractions, ib. ; 
prejudice, 488 ; obduratlon, 439 ; bad ends and 
principles, ib ; directions for profitable, 440. 

Heart, tenderness of, what it is, L 136 ; of the 
sinner shut against Christ, ii. 45 ; what kind of 
Christ delights to dwell In, 97 ; humble, broken, 
sincere, to. : not required in Romish worship, 
P.M. 

Heathen, though they have gone far in outward 
reformation, come short of true repentance, i. 
45 ; may have moral virtues, but are not new 
creatures, ii. 9 ; never refused to admit Christ 
knocking, 61 ; how far they may be careful to 
avoid sin, 282. 

Heaven, Soul-Idolatry bxcludbb Mbji out of, 
il. 299. 

Heaven, endeared to us by the cross, i. 459 ; ne- 
glected, when men are too careful about the 
world, ii. 152 ; many think themselves sure of, 
who shall never come there, 242 ; how far pro- 
fessors may go, and yet come short of, 245 ; the 
greatest part of those who enjoy the gospel have 
no right to, 298 ; children of light should walk 
in the view of, 883. 

Heresy, no kind of reputed a sin by the Roman- 
ists, if it be out of ignorance, and without per- 
tinacity, P. 52; Is even meritorious if it be 
adopted from the teaching of a famous preacher 
or bishop, to. 

Heretics, no faith to be kept with (Council of Con- 
stance), P. 184 ; a virtue to deprive of their 
estates and lives, 185 ; have no claim upon any 
for relative duties, 218 ; any one may kill, to. ; 
what they have sold may be taken from the 
buyer without compensation, 238. 

High-priest, Christ discharges all the offices of, by 
sacrifice and intercession, iii. 82. 

Hindering the sins of others, when we can, a 
duty, ii. 348. 

Holiness, necessity of, not lessened by the impu- 
tation of Christ's obedience, L 297, 804 ; of life, 
needless, by the popish doctrine, P. 108. 

Holy Ghost, how he intercedes for us, and assists 
us in prayer, L 207 ; his peculiar glory placed 
in communion with believers, Hi. 176. 

Hope, how it is supported, i. 84 ; an act of soul- 
worship, ii. 803 ; has great encouragement from 
the intercession of Christ, iii. 156. 

Hopes of heaven, false, grounds of, ii. 242 ; igno- 
rance and inadvertency, ib.; negligence and 
stothfulness, ib. ; self-love, 248 ; misapprehen- 
sions of God, ib. ; vain and insufficient pleas, 
244. 



Humility, how it may be promoted, i. 437 ; ground 
for, swept away by the Romish system. P. 106. 

Humiliation for sin, a preparation for Christ, ii. 
127. 

Hypocrites, Thb Conviction of, ii. 241. 

Hypocrites, whether they can do good works, I. 
112 ; three sorts of, ii. 241 ; their pleas, 244 ; 
many go far in the ways of Christ, and yet come 
short of heaven, 245 ; in revelations, dreams, 
visions, ib. ; the gift of prophecy, ib, ; miracles, 
246 ; tongues, ib ; knowledge, ib. ; graces and 
affections, 252 ; some kind of repentance, 254 ; 
of faith, 258 ; of love to God, 269 ; to Christ, 270 ; 
to the people of God, ib. ; of Joy and delight in 
spiritual objects. 278; of seal for God and his 
concernments, 275 ; of fear of God, 277 ; of con- 
tempt of the world, 278 ; in the avoidance of sin, 
281 : In acts of piety and godliness, 287 ; in acts 
of charity, 291 ; in sufferings, 291. 



Idolatry, Soul, Excludes Max out of Heaven, 
ii. 299. 
. Idolatry, definition of, ii. 800 ; two sorts of, ib ; 
soul, all natural men are guilty of, 806 ; whether 
the regenerate may be guilty of, 306 ; danger 
of, 807 ; secresy of, 308 ; different forms of ib. ; 
making a god of the understanding, ib. ; the 
will, to. ; the fancy, the senses, 309; the belly, 
ib. ; pleasures, ib. ; credit, ib. ; riches, 310 ; rela- 
tions, 811 ; friends and allies, ib. ; enemies, to. ; 
the creatures, ib. ; Satan, 312 ; lusts, to.; acts of 
worship rendered to these idols, 313 ; continu- 
ance In, will shut out from heaven, 326 ; in some 
sense worse than open idolatry, 327 ; how to be 
avoided, 831 ; of the Romanists, P. 122. 

Ignatitu, his dlscipleship, I. 450. 

Ignorance, sins of, propositions and distinctions 
respecting, i. 31 ; of Christ a pernicious evil, 
259; in this land inexcusable, 261; a great 
impediment to hearing and profiting by the 
word, 436 ; inconsistent with being a new crea- 
ture, ii. 26 ; a cause of men's mistaking their 
condition, 242 ; wilful, severely dealt with in the 
Judgment, 293 ; held in high repute by Roman- 
ists, P. 47 ; sum of their doctrine regarding, 
65 ; probable, will make any sin lawful, according 
to their doctrine, 242. 

Imitation of the sins of others, a partaking of 
them. ii. 334. 

Impenitent sinners, apt to think themselves not 
so great sinners as others, I. 23 ; characteristics 
of, 42 ; he is impenitent who does not leave sin 
at all, ib. ; who does not leave all sin, 43 ; who 
leaves sin only outwardly, to. ; who leaves sin 
only because he cannot commit it, to. ; who 
leaves it only out of sinister respects. 44 ; who 
leaves one sin for another, to. ; who leaves sin 
but for a time, ib. ; who leaves sin, but does not 
endeavour to subdue it, ib. ; who so turns from 
sin as he doth not turn to God, 45 ; who never 
had a full, clear, discovery of sin, 46 ; who has 
not some sense of the corruption of his nature, 
ib. ; who Is loath that his sin should be disco- 
vered, 47 ; who will not endure a reproof, ib. ; 
their misery, 48. 

Impotence of men to do anything without Christ, 
ii. 104 ; a total privation of power, ib. ; to satisfy 
Justioe, ib. ; to pacifV the hatred and wrath of 
God, 105 ; to avoid the curse of the law of God, 
106 ; to escape judgments, 107 ; to deliver from 
hell, ib. ; to procure or act any grace, 108 ; to 
subdue any lust, 110 ; to improve any ordinance, 
111 ; to remove any spiritual distemper, 112 ; 
to do anything as they ought, 118 ; consistent 
with endeavour, 181. 

Imputation of Christ's sufferings, equivalent to 
the acceptance of them for us, i. 286 ; of his 
righteousness taught in hundreds of places of 
Scripture, 289 ; of his active obedience, 290 ; 
views of the Armlnians and Papists, 295 ; of sin 
to Christ, not unrighteous, iii. 62. 

Indifferent things, not to be used to the offence of 
others, ii. 838. 

Ihfiemitiss, Our, Christ touched with thb 
Fbeueq of, iii. 81. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



Yl 



INDEX. 



Infirmities, with the feeling of which Christ Is 
touched, are whatever our weak and frail con- 
dition makes us subject to suffer by, lii. 82 ; he 
knows them all, 83 ; knows them experimentally, 
ib. ; is affected with them, 84 ; pities, has com- 
passion on them, to. ; and that with the motions 
and acts of love, to. ; with an Inclination to suc- 
cour and relieve, ib. ; is affected with them as a 
van, 85 ; as one very mnch and nearly con- 
cerned in us, 86 ; affected with them really and 
to purpose, 87 ; with all of them, 88 ; with those 
which are the effects of sin, ib. ; his sympathy 
proportionable, 01; constant and perpetual, 

Iniquity, purging of, better than outward deliver- 
ance, iL 201. 

IsscrriciBNor, Max's, to do anything of Him- 
self, ii. 101. 

Intention, an act of soul worship, ii. 301 ; virtual, 
all that is required of the Romish clergy in their 
offices, P. 11 ; habitual, held to be sufficient, 12 ; 
Implicit, held to suffice, ib. ; is held to exist, 
though there be none, provided only there be 
not an absolutely contrary intention, 14. 

Intbrorssion, Christ's making, iiL 148. 

Intercession of Christ, a great encouragement in 
prayer, i. 204 ; consists in appearing for us, ib. ; 
presenting our persons to God, ib. ; offering our 
prayers. 206 ; sanctifying our prayers, ib. ; an- 
swering all accusations that can be framed 
against our prayers, ib. ; mingling his own 
prayers with ours, 206 ; praying for us, ib ; is 
perpetual, ill. 144 ; is his appearance in heaven 
on behalf of his people, 146 ; as their advocate, 
ib. ; presenting his death as suffered in their 
stead, 146; his will and desire that his people 
may have all the purchase of his blood, ib. ; is 
prayer, 147 ; though with some differences both 
from ours and from his own while on earth, ib. ; 
is grounded on merit, 148 ; is acceptable to God, 
ib. ; by virtue of it all believers from the begin- 
ning of the world pardoned and saved, 160 ; its 
perpetuity, ib. ; some difference at the end of 
the world, but not a cessation, 151 ; should lead 
us to admire his loving-kindness, 162 ,* is the one 
end of his life, to. ; a great encouragement to 
faith and hope, 166; advantages which flow 
from, 156 ; accommodated to all our infirmities, 
150 ; sure to prevail, 161. 

Invitation, Christ's Gracious, to Sirnbrs, 11. 34. 

Irreverence in prayer, encouraged by the Romish 
doctrine, P. 22. 

Israel, ten tribes, ruined for sins of which they 
were ignorant and unconvinced, ii, 206. 

Jehu, his seal for reformation, II. 276 ; did more 
than some of the good kings of Judah, 282. 

Jesuits, their practical divinity not more corrupt 
than that of other Romanists, P. 4. 

Jetred, the " scattered of the Lord," and the " seed 
of the Lord," il. 467. 

Joy in spiritual things, hypocrites may have some, 
it. 273 ; wherein it is defective, 276. 

Judas, had power to work miracles, il. 247 ; the 
lips of, might, according to the Romanists, be 
objects of worship, as having kissed Christ, 
P. 126. 

Judgment, the principal part of God's government, 
and must be accordingly prepared for, ii. 494. 

Judgment*, God's, upon others, what use we should 
make of, 1. 16 ; upon England, 11. 189 ; spiritual, 
Inflicted on his own children for not improving 
temporal calamities, 193 ; non-improvement of, 
a heinous sin, 196 ; in what respect we should 
be thankful under, 289. 

Julian, the apostate, his cunning methods to en- 
snare the Christians, 1. 476. 

Justice of God obliges him to punish fin, I. 283 ; 
Is fully satisfied by Christ's suffering in our 
stead, 284 ; men cannot satisfy, without Christ, 
11. 104. 

JtrsnnoATio* bt thb Riohtbousnbbs or Christ, 
i.273. 

Justification, actual, Is not before faith, 1. 294 ; 
Romanists confound with sanctlflcation, P. 62. 



Kitting, allowed by the Romanists in many cases 
where it is clearly murder, P. 214. 

Kings, in what respect Christians are, lii. 87. 

Knocking, Christ's, at the door, what it implies, ii. 
39 ; checks of conscience, 52 ; acts of providence, 
63 ; ministry of the word, 64 ; motions of his 
Spirit, 66. 

Knowlbdob or Christ, thb Xxcbllbnt, i. 247. 

Knowledge of Christ, characters of that which is 
excellent, L 261 ; it is extensive, appropriating, 
effectual, ib. ; fiducial, 263 ; useful, 16. ; desired 
by the most excellent creatures on earth and in 
heaven, Uk ; is a knowledge of the glorious ex- 
cellencies of God, 266 ; making those excellent 
that have it, ib. ; evil of despising, 268 ; of not 
communicating to others, «b. ; means of attain- 
ing, 261 ; of increasing, 262 ; how we may know 
whether we have attained it, 269 ; of divine 
things, unchristian men may have, IL 246 ; 
theirs Is not truly experimental, 260 ; nor effi- 
cacious, 261 ; hypocrites may go far in, 246 ; 
wherein theirs comes short of that which is 
saving, 260 ; the foundation of almost all that 
is saving, P. 47 ; decried by the Romanists, ib. 



Law, a non-conformity to the whole, is a trans- 
gression of the whole, i. 4 ; man, in his own per- 
son, cannot perfectly obey. 11. 106; we must 
obey every part of, to manifest our subjection 
to God, 487 ; the least part of, more valuable 
than heaven and earth, 629 : a sinner cannot 
be justified by observance of, 634 ; commands 
the act, but not the manner (Aquinas), P. 39. 

Leaving all for Christ, the condition of being his 
disciple, 1. 447. 

Liberality, a greater blessing than riches, L 865. 

Life everlasting, the reward of faith, L 97 ; the 
present possession of the believer, 96 ; what it 
is which they have who come to Christ, 357 : 
another kind of temporal, ib. ; spiritual, 369 ; 
eternal, 861 ; marks of spiritual, 363 ; breath, 
motion, sense, ib. ; eternal, not confined to hea- 
ven, lii. 166. 

Light, denotes spiritual knowledge, 11. 962 ; purity 
and holiness, ib. ; the favour of God, and Joy and 
comfort, to. ; glory and happiness, ib. ; is de- 
lightful, 365 ; is accompanied with heat. 866 ; is 
progressive, ib. ; consolation to those who are in, 
868; to be children of, denotes descent, 371: 
propriety, ib. ; distinction, ib. ; residence, ib. ; 
constitution, ib. ; obligation, ib. ; to walk In, Is 
to walk at a distance from darkness, 372; to 
walk boldly, 373 ; exemplarily, ib. ; cheerfully, 
875 ; directions for walking in, ib. ; not according 
to opinion, ib. ; follow the light of the word folly, 
377 ; walk above the world and earthly things, 
882 ; walk in the sight of heaven, 883 ; motives 
to walk in, 384 ; otherwise we walk nndutifoJly, 
as disobedient children, ib. ; cross God's design, 
ib. ; undermine our hopes, ib. 

Living bt Faith, 1. 174. 

Living as Strangers, 1. 248. 

Living as strangers in the world, necessary in 
order to dying in faith, i. 248. 

Loan, Thb, Ruijk ovbr all, il. 454. 

Lord's day, and other holy days, Romanists hold 
not to be profaned by any acts of wickedness, 
P. 212. 

Lord's prayer, addressed by Romanists to saints, 
male or female, P. 47. 

Losing all things to gain Christ, what is meant 
by, 1. 268. 

Lovb or Christ, ill. 8. 

Love of God, itsfreeness,L888; to Christ, a mean 
to bear up under the cross, 481 ; attained and 
maintained by thoughts of his love to us, 483 : 
of God, how manifested to sinners, ii. 41 ; of 
Christ, ardent, transcendent, everlasting, ib. : 
to Christ, a sign we are in him, 122 ; to the 
brethren,wantof,oflen disguised as seal for truth, 
207 ; to God, a means to make us hate sin, 232 ; 
to God and Christ, what kind of may be in hypo- 
crites, 269 ; it is not ingenuous, nor superlative. 
272 ; an act of soul-worship, 802 ; of God, long 
clouded from the world, appears in the sending 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



INDEX. 



vn 



of Christ, ib. ; of Christ, appears by his expres- 
sions, ib. ; his thoughts, ib. ; by what he has 
done for us, 6 ; by what he has given us, 8 ; by 
his sufferings by us, 11 ; with us, 12 ; for us, ib. ; 
is free, unchangeable, incomprehensible, 14; 
magnified by the consideration of who are the 
loved, 18 ; and who is the lover, 21 ; and of the 
manner of the lore, 28 ; is greater than that of 
the best men for one another, ib. ; comprises, 
and eminently contains, the lore of all relations, 
ib. ; is perfect, 27 ; is more than man's love of 
himself, ib. ; is more than his lore of angels, 28 ; 
is more than his love of all heaven and earth, 
29 ; is as his love of himself, in some respects 
more, 80 ; is as the lather's love of him, 88 ; 
Is distinguishing, 37 ; personal, 38 ; how men 
are rendered capable of, 41 ; its greatness, 77 ; 
its freeness, ib. ; should excite love in return, 
78 ; a great love and most extensive, 94 ; free, 
05; lasting, ib. ; peerless, so. ; cordial, 96 ; all- 
sufficient, 97; to God, not required by Ro- 
manists, P. 62 ; neither habitual, ib. ; nor 
actual, 63 ; those who say in words that it is 
necessary, neutralise it, 65. 

Lusts, they who will not part with, cannot be 
Christians, i. 478 ; reigning, are idols, ii. 3 >0 ; 
how men make their gods, 812. 

Luther, his stumbling before his conversion, 1. 802. 



Han by Natubb TJbwilltbo to Comb to Cbbist, 

1.331. 
Man's iHSurnoiRHoT to do Anything or Him- 

8BLV, ii. 101. 

Man, the most debased of all earthly creatures, i. 
14 ; by nature tax from Christ, 882 ; in respect 
of knowledge, #. ,* of union, ib. ; of participa- 
tion, 888 ; of converse, ib. ; without Christ, can 
do nothing, ii. 102, 118 ; alone of earthly crea- 
tures, properly capable of government, 460; 
nothing in him to attract Christ's love, lit. 16. 

MarceUinus, bishop of Borne, condemned as an 
apostate, i. 477. 

Marius, bishop of Arethusa, an example of con- 
sistency, ii. 526. 

Martyrdom, in general held by the Romanists to 
be a work of supererogation, P. 117. 

Martyrs suffered mr less than Christ, ill. 66. 

Mary, Queen, her persecution permitted as a chas- 
tisement for not carrying out the Reformation 
begun by Edward VI., i. 484. 

Mass, sacrifice of, its horrid wickedness, Hi. 61 ; 
the only public service the Romish laity are 
ordinarily obliged to, P. 9, 24 ; only presence at 
it required, 27 ; no attention of mind needful 
for, 28 ; doctrine of, Involves the daily slaughter 
of Christ, 140 ; blasphemy in the service of the 
offertory, 142. 

Meant, of grace, have no efficacy of themselves, 
ii. 112 ; Qod stands in no need of, to accomplish 
the end he aims at, 408. 

Meditation, how far hypocrites may use, U. 290 ; 
not Inculcated by Romanists, P. 40. 

Mercies, providential, are amongst Christ's block- 
ings at the door of men's hearts, ii. 68. 

Mercy of Qod, though infinite, does not lead him 
to pardon the impenitent, 1. 57 ; the object of 
faith, 76 ; the more to be praised and admired, 
because its object is so contemptible, ii. 464 ; 
respects misery in the object, as grace respects 
unworthiness, lit. 111. 

Mercy-seat, what it signified respecting God, Hi. 
112 ; a God of a glorious majesty, ib. ; of al- 
mighty power, 118 ; of holiness, ib. ; of wisdom, 
ib. ; of omniscience, 114 ; a God in Christ, 116 ; 
a God reconciled, 116 ; a God of forgiveness, ib. ; 
a God. in covenant, 117 ; a God that will have 
communion with his people, 118 ; a God that 
hears prayer, ib. ; a God present with his people, 
119 ; a God that will shew grace and mercy to 
his people, 121. 

Mindfulness, an act of soul-worship, 11. 801. 

Ministers are sent by Christ, i. 488 ; inequality 
amongst, the first step to the papal encroach- 
ments, 506 ; how may be guilty of their people's 
■ins, ii. 361. 



Ministry, one main end of, to convince of misery, 
ii. 118. 3 

Miracle, what it is, ii. 112 ; hypocrites may do, 246. 

Misery of man without Christ, its elements, i. 8 ; 
not only unable to free ourselves from, but In- 
sensible of, 7 ; of man by nature, it 47 ; is in 
possession of Satan, ib. ; under the curse of the 
law. 48 ; under the wrath of God, 49 ; under the 
sentence of condemnation, ib. ; near the con- 
fines of hell, ib. ; of man without Christ, 118. 

Mitre of the Romish bishops, what it is said to 
signify, P. 68. 

Monks, not ordinarily allowed to read the Bible. 
P. 56. 

Morality, hypocrites may go far In, ii. 286. 

Mortal sins, reduced by the Romanists to seven, P. 
84 ; true repentance not necessary for, ib ; 
standard of, placed so high, that it is scarcely 
possible to commit, 18) : reduced to seven, ib. ; 
coretousness, 181 ; pride, 184 ; vain-glory, 186 ; 
acedia, or aversion to divine things, 188 ; anger, 
189 ; envy, 190 ; aula, comprehending gluttony 
and drunkenness, 191. 

Mortification, a kind of martyrdom, i. 489. 

Natural men far from Christ, i. 832, ii. 58 ; and 
therefore miserable, i. 333, it 47 ; consent not 
to accept Christ on the terms on which he is 
offered, ib. ; are under the power of Satan, ib ; 
impotency, what it is. 104 ; men, what prepara- 
tory acts they may do, in order to receive bene- 
fit by Christ, 131 ; make idols of themselves, 
808 ; things are ordered and ruled by God, 459. 

Negligence, the cause of many men's ruin, ii. 242. 

Naw Crkaturb, thb ii. 8. 

New creature, he who is not, no privilege or reli- 
gious duty will avail him, 11. 6 ; wants mith, ib : 
is not in Christ, ib. ; can do no good, ib. ; man Is 
made when the Lord creates new and gracious 
qualities in his whole soul, 7 ; not a common 
work but a creation, 8 ; not any innovating 
humour, ib. ; not merely a restraint of the old 
man, ib. ; not moral virtues, or good nature, 9 ; 
not outward conformity to the law of God, ib. ; 
not a partial change of the inward man, ib. ; Is 
a making of the soul new in all its faculties, 10 ; 
lu the understanding, judgment, and assent, 11 ; 
valuations, 12; designs, 13; inventions, 14; 
reasonings, 15 ; thoughts, 17 ; consultations, 18 ; 
in the will, 19 ; its Inclinations, ib ; intentions, 
20 ; fruitions, 21 ; elections, 28 ; consents, 24 ; 
applications, 25 ; resolves, ib. ; means and ordi- 
nances for becoming, 29 ; special duties of those 
who are, 32. 

Oaths, Romanist methods of evading the obliga- 
gatlon of, P. 204 ; none can bind them, 209. 

Obedience, threefold, negative, positive, and pas- 
sive, il. 281 ; how far hypocrites may go in, ib. ; 
blind, accounted best by Romanists, P. 68. 

Occasioning the sins of others, makes us partakers 
of them, ii. 838 ; may be by evil example, ib. ; 
by the offensive use of things indifferent, ib. ; 
by scandalous sins, either in judgment or prac- 
tice, 339 ; by provoking, ib. ; ensnaring, ib. ; 
leading into temptations, 840 ; shewing oppor- 
tunities to sin, to. ; affording matter of sin. ib. ; 
not removing occasions of sin, ib. ; authorising, 

Offence, of two kinds, given and taken, i. 468 ; fear 
of giving, an occasion of suffering, ib. 

Offer, Christ? s, M himself is to men, not angels, ii. 
86 ; to sinners, ib. ; to enemies, 87 ; is of his love, 
41 ; himself, 42 ; his blood, ib. ; his comforts, 43 ; 
his glory and kingdom, to. 

Offertory of the mass, a blasphemous service, P. 
142. 

Offices, of Christ, objects of faith, L 182 ; civil and 
ecclesiastical, those who put insufficient men 
Into, are accessory to their miscarriages, ii. 841. 

Omission, sins of, are heinous, and expose to the 
curse of God, ii. 620. 

Omnipotence, in what sense it may be said to be- 
long to a Christian, ill. 5. 

Opening to Christ, urged by several motives, ii. 
84 ; what it is not, 80, 99. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



vm 



INDEX. 



Opinion, evil of walking according to, ii. 376. 

Ordinances are sanctified and made effectual by 
the righteousness of Christ, i. 315 ; how we most 
use in order to the making us new creatures, ii. 
29 ; a special means towards fruitf ulness, 436 ; 
not an end, but a means, 437. 

Original Sin, i. 3. 

Original Sin, the ground of a sinner's humiliation, 
i. 3 ; to be repented of, 39. 

Ownership, thb Lord's, or all Things, an In- 
ducement from Earthlt-Mindednb&s, I. 365. 

OumersAfo, of God extends to all things, i. 366 ; 
founded upon his creating and upholding them, 
870 ; particulars of, 372 ; In what sense we may 
be said to have of the things which we reckon 
ours, 376 ; of God, a motive to thankfulness, 
887 ; to self-dedication, 391 ; to patience, 407 ; 
to humility, 409 ; to self-denial, 412 ; to con- 
tentment, 414 ; an encouragement to all, 422. 



Papists, rest in the work done, without respect to 
the manner of doing it, i. 443 ; how church 
government is depraved among, ii. 213 ; their 
strictest fast a feast, compared with the best 
fare of the Essenes, 284. 

Paraclete, is both a pleader and a comforter, a 
comforting pleader and a pleading comforter, 
i. 209. 

Pardon of sin, bestowed when we repent, not be- 
cause we repent, i. 20. 

Parents, who neglect the Instruction of their 
children, compared to the ostrich, i. 269 ; how 
they may be guilty of their children's sin, ii. 3.*>1. 

PARTAKER8 WITH OTHERS IN THBIR 8lNS, CHILDREN 
OF GOD 8HODLD NOT BE, 11. 334. 

Pasauil on the ignorance of bishops, P. 69. 

Patience, the exercise of, and advantages by, 
i. 407 ; a great support under the cross, and 
how to be attained, 601 ; under afflictions a 
duty.ii 239. 

Paul, before his conversion, probably ascribed the 
miracles of Christ to the working of Satan, 
i. 162 ; yet was not guilty of the unpardonable 
sin, 163; his different carriage in things in- 
different, doubtful, and necessary, 248; his 
grounds of confidence in the flesh, 249. 

Penance, admitted by the Romanists not to be a 
sacrifice of Christ's institution, P. 101. 

People of God, more peculiarly under his govern- 
ment, 11 460. 

Perjury, according to the Romanists, a virtue in 
many cases, P. 134. 

Persecution is through the malice of Satan, i. 466 ; 
the enmity of the world. 467 ; permitted by God, 
to distinguish true disciples from hypocrites 
and pretenders, ib. ; to exhibit his disciples' 
faithfulness and affection to him, to. ; for the 
advancement of grace, 468 ; to take us off from 
the world, 469 ; to tame the flesh, to. ; to en- 
dear heaven to us, ib. ; must be prepared for, 
before it comes, 479 ; endured by Christ, 601. 

Pertecutort, are no Christians, 1. 472. 

Pharisees wore broad hats to shade their eyes 
from the sight of temptation, ii. 282. 

Phoeion, forty-five times governor of Athens, his 
frugality, ii. 279. 

Piety and godliness, hypocrites may go far in the 
acts of, ii. 287. 

Pleasures, sinful, must be parted with, i. 120. 

Poor, relief of, not a duty by the Romish system, 
except in cases which can never occur, P. 267. 

Popes, not required to be able to read, P. 48 ; not 
required to be divines, 60 ; might determine 
virtue to be vicious, and vice to be virtuous, and 
the church would be bound to hold it so (Bel- 
. larmine), 121 ; can make sin to be no sin, 237 ; 
can dissolve the obligation of oaths and vows, 238. 

Power of God to help his people, easily, iii. 138 ; 
Instantly, to. ; irresistibly, ib. ; advantageously, 
189. 

Powers of heaven, the greatest of them subject to 
God's government, 11. 461 ; of hell, how God 
rules over them, ib. 

Praise, or blessing of God, consists in acknow- 
ledging that to be God's which is his, L 866. 



Prat for Everything, ii. 172. 
Prater, Faith in, i. 197. 

Prayer, a means of attaining faith, i. 167 ; of an 
unbeliever, not so sinful as bis not praying, 158 ; 
a necessary duty, 169 ; what it is, 160 ; ii 172 ; 
encouragements to unbelievers to pray for faith, 
L 161 ; pleas which a sensible sinner may use, 
166 ; what it is to pray in faith, 197 ; may be 
heard, yet the thing prayed for not granted, or 
the thing may be granted, and yet not in answer 
to the prayer, 201 ; encouragements to faith in, 
202 ; directions to prevent doubting in, to. ; is 
God's ordinance, 211 ; has many transcendent 
privileges ascribed to it in Scripture, to. ; nature 
and dignity of, an argument to confirm faith, 
ib. ; Is the Lord's delight, 212 ; hearing of, is 
glorious to God, 214 ; others' sucoess in, an en- 
couragement to faith, ib. ; never wholly denied, 
ib. ; usually more than answered, to. ; may be 
in faith, though we be not confident that the 
very thing asked shall be granted, 216 ; various 
ways in which it maybe answered, 218 ; maybe 
heard, though not answered presently, 219 ; the 
discouragement removed from weakness in, 222 ; 
the sinfulness of, considered, 224 ; how we may 
know when we pray in faith, 226 ; a duty in- 
cumbent on the unregenerate, ii. 31 ; two prin- 
cipal parts of, petition and thanksgiving, 172 ; 
should be much and often, 176 ; careful, 177 ; 
earnest, 178 ; spiritual, 4b. ; in faith, 181 ; what 
is meant by praying in the Spirit, 179 ; motives 
to excite to, 181 ; most honourable to God, ib. ; 
most advantageous to us, 1 82 ; available in every- 
thing, ib. ; to be improved for the discovery of 
sin, 221 ; Hypocrites may be much and affec- 
tionate in, 287; encouragement to hope .for 
gracious answers to, from the consideration of 
Christ's intercession, iii. 160 ; family, cashiered 
by the Romanists from the rank of Christian 
duties, P. 41 ; mental, acknowledged a duty, 
but held to be enough if performed once in a 
lifetime, 42 ; prescribed as a punishment, 45. 
Prayers, of God's ancient people, are virtually 

promises to us, i. 188. 
Prayerfulness, honourable to God, iL 181 ; advan- 
tageous to us, 182. 
Praying and believing, the life, breath of a 
quickened soul, i. 327; discouragement in, 
answered by the righteousness of Christ, ib. 
Preachers, were golden when chalioes were wooden, 

and wooden when chalices were golden, i. 508, 
Preaching, or hearing, not required by Romanists, 

P. 86. 
Preparatory acts for receiving Christ, iL 131 ; 
knowledge of men's sinfulness and misery by 
nature, ib. ; and of our own in particular, to, ; 
desire of deliveranoe, ib. ; belief that Christ 
alone can deliver; diligent use of outward 
means, ib. ; outward reformation, to. ; these 
acts may be done by one out of Christ, 132 ; 
though not certainty, yet probability that these 
will bring to Christ, 134 ; these not the cause of 
conversion, nor even necessary antecedents, 
136 ; yet never in vain, ib. 
Presence, God's, with his people, iiL 119 ; is inti- 
mate, special, gracious, glorious, all-sufficient, 
continuing, ib. 
Presumption, an impediment to faith, L 103 ; dis- 
tinguished from faith, ib. ; different in their 
rise, ib. ; in their object, ib. ; in their grounds, 
105; in their effects, 106; in their properties, 1UO. 
Pride, a most absurd and ridiculous evil L 40*> ; 
a perverse and desperate malady, 410 ; a trans- 
cendent weakness, ib. 
Priesthood of Christ, superior to the legal, ill. 14a 
.Priest*, Romish, need not have any knowledge of 

the Scriptures, P. 56. 
Private Worship, Public to bb preferred bb- 

forb, iii. 187. 
Privileges, performances, enjoyment&useleas with- 
out Christ, i. 275. 
' Probable grounds,' make any sin lawful, accord- 
ing to the Romanist doctrine, P. 242. 
Prodigal, an emblem of a sinner, both in his fall 
and his recovery by. faith, L 66 ; his unwortol- 
ness did not binder his acceptance, 129. 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



INDEX. 



IX 



Profane persons, who are, it 294 ; those who 
commit gross acts of wickedness, ib. ; those who 
neglect and slight the worship of God in public 
or private, to. , 

Profession to be held fast, ill. 98 ; firmly, ib. ; 
affectionately, 99 ; openly, ib. ; entirely, ib. ; 
difficulties of holding, ib. 

Professors, the sad condition of many, il. 72. 

Promises of God, objects of faith, i. 76, 187 ; as the 
dishes wherein Christ, the bread of life, ia set 
before faith, 76 ; some conditional, others abso- 
lute, 154 ; il. 65 ; how to be improved, 1. 189 ; 
give encouragement to mith In prayer, 213 ; 
their multitude, universality, obligement, ib ; 
must be treasured up, 241 ; all made upon ac- 
count of Christ's righteousness, 311; are all 
articles of the covenant of grace, ill. 133 ; though 
made on special occasions, may be applied on 
others, 134 ; will be performed when seasonable, 
135. 

Property, to be laid out and employed for God, i. 
897 ; how it is not so employed, ib. ; equity and 
advantage of so employing, 899 ; danger of 
neglecting so to employ, 400. 

Propriety, how we may be said to have in the 
things we enjoy, i. 376. 

Prosperity, not good for evil men, li. 465. 

Providence of God, affords many encouragements 
to mith in prayer, L 210. 

Providences. God's, should be observed, i. 16. 

Public Worship to be pbbfbrrsd bbvobb Pri- 
vatb, iii. 187. 

Punishments, God can turn what we most value 
into, if we sin, ii. 469. 



Quakers, a deluded generation, have an appear* 
ance of some contempt for the world, ii. 279. 



Real worship of God not necessary in the Church 
of Rome, P. 9. 

Season, is rectified in the mew creature, il. 15 ; 
corruption of in the natural man, 16. 

Regeneration, by some thought needless, 1. 336 ; 
whether the regenerate may be guilty of soul- 
Idolatry, ii. 306. 

Rejoicing in the Lord, a ground of freedom from 
anxious cares, li. 137. 

Relation betwixt God and his people, the food of 
mith, 1. 177. 

Relations of what God has done for his people, 
are virtually promises of what he will do for 
them, i. 188. 

Relics, Romish worship of, P. 123 ; absurdities to 
which it leads, 125 ; enormous number of pre- 
tended, 127. 

Religions, may be measured by the worship they 
prescribe, P. 34 ; by this test Romanism con- 
demned, ib. 

Religious duties, to be performed by the uncon- 
verted, IL 115. 

Repentance, i. 16. 

Repentance, an evangelical duty, 1. 17; taught by 
Christ, ib. ; excluded by the covenant of works, 
ib. ; required in the gospel, (b. ; preached by 
the apostles, ib. ; was the end of Christ's com- 
tog, 18 ; purchased by his death, ib. ; has evan- 
gelical promises, ib. ; is urged upon evangelical 
grounds, ib. ; is the condition of evangelical 
mercy, ib. ; is confirmed by the seal of the 
covenant of grace, ib. ; is a fundamental of 
Christianity, 19 ; is the way to life, ib. ; direc- 
tions for the practice of, ib ; cannot make amends 
for sin, 20 ; not only above the power of nature, 
but contrary to it, 21 ; is accepted through 
Christ, ib. ; without it men must perish, 24 ; 
wherein it consists, 25 ; in sorrow for sin, ib. ; 
hatred of sin, 26 ; forsaking sin, 27 ; must be 
even for sins unknown, 30 ; for sins before, and 
sins after, conversion, and for natural corrup- 
tion, 32 ; Is an imputed grace, and is to be in 
constant operation, 83; considerations to en- 
force, 49 ; without it all enjoyments are cursed, 
65 ; all sin is unpardoned, 56 ; all ordinances 
ineffectual, ib. ; God is an enemy, ib. ; justice 

vol. ni- 



ls unsatisfied, ib. ; wrath is unavoidable, ib. ; 
death is terrible, ib. ; hell is certain, ib. ; hopes 
of heaven are delusive, ib. ; danger of delaying, 
67 ; how it is unpteasing, 61 ; is the gift of God, 
IL 109 ; danger of deferring, ib. ; of hypocrites, 
its defectiveness, 256 ; not necessary by the 
Romanist doctrine, P. 82 ; not for original sin, 
ib. ; nor for venial sins, 83 ; for mortal sins may 
be put off till death, 87 ; and then it may be 
without sorrow for sin, 90 ; or with a slight 
sorrow. 92. 

Reservation, mental, not peculiar to the Jesuits, 
P. 206. 

Resignation of ourselves to God, wherein it con- 
sists, i. 391 ; motives to Induce us to, li. 476. 

Resolution, is an act of soul-worship, li. 301. 

Revelations and visions, not peculiar to the godly, 
it 245. 

Revenge must be exercised against sin, il. 231. 

RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST, JUSTIFICATION BT THE, 

1.273. 
Righteousness, men's resting in their own, a hin- 
drance to true mith, 1. 123 ; personal, cannot be 
the ground of Justification, 271 ; of Christ, more 
excellent than that of man in innocence, 272 ; 
attainable by mith, ib. ; is eternal, ib. ; which 
is of the law, what it is, 277 ; why it cannot 
Justify, 278 ; confidence in, the ruin of many, 
280 ; different forms of, 281 ; who they are that 
have confidence in their own, 300 ; of Christ, 
called of faith, 301 ; of God, 302 ; how we come 
to have, 303 ; its imputation does not supersede 
the necessity of repentance and obedience, 3u4 ; 
of what use and advantage to us, 306 ; through 
it is the pardon of sin, ib. ; acceptance of our 
persons, 3o6 ; grace, and the continuance of it, 
307 ; the will and the power to obey, 308 ; 
interest in the covenant of grace, ib. ; and in 
the promises, 311 ; deliverance from the con- 
demning power of the law, 313 ; the enjoyment 
and efficacy of ordinances, 315 ; improvement 
of temporal enjoyments, 316; blessing in afflic- 
tions and death, 319 ; turns the law into a gos- 
pel to the believer, 316 ; who they are who 
deny, 321 ; those who deny the satisfaction of 
Christ (the Socinians), ib. ; who deny the suffi- 
ciency of it (Romanists), ib. ; who deny the 
imputation of it (Arminians), ib. ; who denyit 
in effect, while they profess It in words, 322 ; 
the necessity of, ib. ; how to get an interest in, 
823 ; how to be improved, 326 ; what kind is 
Insufficient to salvation, il. 295 ; a negative 
righteousness, ib. ; a moral righteousness, 296 ; 
a religious righteousness, to. ; how Christ's is 
imputed to us, iii. 62. 
Rome, church of, real worship of God not neces- 
sary in, P. 9 ; Christian knowledge not necessary 
in, 47 ; love of God needless in, 62 ; saving or 
justifying faith not required, 75 ; no necessity of 
true repentance, 82 ; holiness of life, and the 
exercise of Christian virtues, no necessity for, 
103 ; many heinous crimes accounted virtues or 
necessary duties, 122; exceeding great and 
many crimes are but venial faults, 143 ; many 
enormous crimes accounted no sins at all, 199 ; 
good works made unnecessary, 260. 
Romanism, its practical divinity as bad as its 

doctrinal, P. 8. 
Romanists, some have acknowledged the preva- 
lence of pernicious doctrines among them, P. 3 ; 
are wont to disown their own doctrine, 5 ; re- 
quired to believe all that the church teaches, 
yet have no means of knowing what it does 
teach, P. 48. 
Rules ovbr all, Thh Lord, ii. 454. 
Rule, includes authority, power, and actual govern- 
ing, ii. 455 ; God's is over all, ib. ; both heaven 
and earth, ib ; all the parts thereof, 456 ; both 
great things and small, ib. ; all beings and all 
motions, ib. ; both actions and events, 457 ; both 
the substance and the circumstances of things 
and actions, to. ; both ends and means, ib. ; not 
only things orderly, but those which seem most 
confused, 468 ; both things necessary and things 
contingent or casual, ib. ; both good and evil, 
459 ; both things natural and things voluntary, 

i i ^ 



Digitized by VjOO 



gle 



INDEX. 



to ; is supreme, ib. ; absolute, 461 ; irresistible, 
462 ; perfect, ib. ; is over ail at once, ib. ; is 
easy, 468 ; is continual, ib. ; an encouragement 
to his people, 485. 
Rules, God not confined to, it 201. 



Sabbath, how to be sanctified, according to Ro- 
manists, P. 114. 

Sabbath-breaking, disguised as gospel liberty, ii. 
207. 

Sacramento, not held by Romanists to be necessary, 
except for once, P. 36 ; some for the dead and 
others for the living, 86. 

Saobifiob, Cubist's, ilL 47. 

Sacrifices, under the law, were either eucharlstical 
or propitiatory, ill. 48, 71 ; Chrises was of ex- 
piation, 40; all that was essential to such a 
sacrifice, found in this, 61 ; the sin of the Offen- 
der, whether a particular person or the people, 
laid upon the victim, ib. ; the penalty due to the 
transgressor under the law inflicted on the sacri- 
fice, 53 ; the victim suffered Instead of the sinner, 
64 ; made satisfaction to God for the sin, 65 ; 
put away civil guilt from the offerer, 68 ; freed 
from civil guilt, 75 ; from ceremonial guilt, ib. ; 
but not from spiritual guilt, except typically, 
76. 

Saint* in Scripture repented of original sin (In- 
stances, David and Paul), 1. 41 ; invocation of, 
began with simple commemoration, 605 ; there 
is sin in their best services, ii. 114. 

Samaritan, the good, a figure of Christ, ill. 32. 

Satan, his two paths, profaneness and self-confi- 
dence, 1 280 ; how men make him their god, 
ii. 812. 

Satis/action, made by Christ for us, cannot be 
without the imputation of his sufferings and 
death to us, i. 287 ; how made by sacrifice, ill. 
66. 

Said, king, most impartial in Justice, though 
otherwise a hypocrite, ii. 287. 

Secrecy of sin, cannot conceal It from God, ii. 471. 

Secundum, his stedfastness in the persecution 
under Diocletian, i. 476. 

Seeking fruit, Christ, and finding none, ii. 386. 

Self-denial, promoted by considering God as the 
owner of ail, i. 412 ; as to our own judgments, ib. ; 
our wills, 413 ; our ends, ib. ; our interests, ib. ; 
our business and employments, ib. ; our posses- 
sions, 414 ; to be constantly practised, 484 ; con- 
sists in denying our own worth and excellence, 
ib ; our own judgment and wisdom, ib ; our 
own reasonings, ib. ; our own wills, ib. ; our 
own inclinations, 485 ; our own interest, ib. ; 
how explained by Bellarmlne, P. 116. 

Self-examination, obstacles to, li. 211 ; self-love, 
to. ; subtlety, ib. ; pride, 212 ; interest, ib. ; the 
judgment or example of those whom we rever- 
ence, 213 ; dissensions, 114 ; prejudice against 
those who tell us of our sins, ib. ; the exceeding 
vileness of others, 215. 

Self-love, an obstacle to self-examination, ii. 211 ; 
makes men mistake the condition of their 
souls, 248. 

Self-righteousness^ an impediment to faith, i. 128 ; 
fs imperfect, to. ; is no righteousness, 124 ; is 
unrighteousness 125; those who rest in. are 
enemies to all righteousness, 126 ; marks of, 300. 

Service, only acceptable in Christ, 1. 21 ; of men 
cannot be accepted while they are out of Christ, 
276 ; the power and the will to render any to 
God, is from the righteousness of Christ, 308. 

Sin, Original 1. 3. 

Sins, Children or Gon should not bb Partakers 
with Othkks in, ii. 834. 

Sin, a propensity to all, is more or less in every 
man, i. 6 ; original not an excuse for, bat an 
aggravation of, actual, 7 ; is more sinful than 
any actual, or, in some sense, than all actual 
transgressions put together, 8 ; its injury 
infinite, and cannot be satisfied for by a 
finite creature, 21 ; sorrow for must be hearty, 
•25 ; and godly, 26 ; hatred of is well grounded, 
26 ; must be universal, ib. ; irreconcilable, ib. ; 
resolution to forsake must be effectual and 



strong, ib. ; impartial, 28; all pardoned on Che 
first act of faith and repentance, 80 ; sorrow 
for, should be more than for outward afflictions, 
84 ; effects of, some concern us only, some both 
God and us, 87 ; original, is either imputed or 
inherent, 80 ; each of them to be repented of, 
according to its nature, 40 ; no creature ever 
got, or can get, advantage by, 40 ; the least is 
infinitely evil, and deserves infinite punish, 
ment, 60 ; cannot be expiated without infinite 
satisfaction, 61 ; is the cause of all misery, to. ; 
is the soul's greatest misery, 62, 351 ; is God's 
greatest adversary, 53 ; against the Holy Ghost, 
what it is not, and what it is, 147 ; the Lord 
concerned not to let sin go unpunished, 282 ; 
its gi eat evil, 885 ; is the worst we can possibly 
do against the greatest benefactor, ib ; is an 
abusing of the good things of God against him- 
self, 886 ; danger of, since we cannot make 
satisfaction for the injury we do, 387 ; is the 
cause of suffering, 468 ; discovery of the hein- 
ousness of, ii. 69; how we may be guilty of 
other men's, 206 ; its disguises, 207 ; some are 
mothers, giving life, strength, and motion to 
many others, 208 ; what classes are specially to 
be opposed, 209; mother sins, 208; those we 
are most subject to, 209 ; the sins of the times, 
ib^; those which are less disgraceful amongst 
professors, ib. ; those for which the Lord judges 
and afflicts, 210 ; opposition to, must be uni- 
versal, 223 ; how to be mortified, 224 ; of others, 
partaken of by practising the like evil, 834 ; 
by concurrence, though it be but partial, 335 ; 
by occasioning, 338 ; by causing, 842 ; by counte- 
nancing, 344; by not hindering, 348: against 
knowledge, its heinousness, 4,0 ; its criminality, 
as against the supreme Ruler, 468 ; its danger, 
469 ; its unreasonableness, to. ; the least, de- 
serves everlasting wrath, 518 ; none absolutely 
little, 619 ; not omissions of duty, 620 ; nor 
secret sins, to. ; nor idle words, to ; nor vain 
thoughts, 621 ; nor motions to sin without con- 
sent, ib. ; small, have in them something of 
atheism, 526 ; of Idolatry, 527 ; of murder, to. 
the least is a violation of the whole law, 528; 
is the object of infinite hatred, 530 ; in the least 
against God, there is more provocation than In 
the greatest injuries against men, 631 ; the 
least requires infinite satisfaction, ib. ; the 
least is now punished in hell, 632 ; the least is 
worse than the greatest suffering, 583 ; is trea- 
son, adultery, murder, Hi. 12 ; of saints more 
heinous than of reprobates, ib. ; original, de- 
clared by Council of Trent to be not only par- 
doned, but abolished by baptism, P. 82. 

Sincerity, not to be Inferred from extraordinary 
acta or gifts, ii. 297 ; nor from every inward 
act, though holy and spiritual, 298. 

Sinfulness of outward acts, derived from inward 
and unlawful motives, ii. 206. 

8INNBB8, Christ's Gracious Invitation to, il. 34, 

Sinnrrs, Unoonvbbtbd, arb Darkness, ii. 355. 

&INNBB8 UNDER TBB CURSB, ii. 617. 

Sinnbbs, Christ's Dtino for, iii. 63. 

Sinners, impenitent, undcr-estimate their sinful- 
ness, i. 23 ; unwilling to come to Christ, 334 ; 
reasons of their unwillingness, 835 ; think they 
have come already, ib. ; do not fully apprehend 
their need of him, ib. ; too busy to come to him, 
836 ; will not part with sin, 337 ; are possessed 
with prejudice against him, 338 ; their hearts 
shut against Christ, ii. 44 ; by prejudice, 46 ; 
distrust, ib. ; disaffection, 47. 

Socinians, their impiety, in denying the satisfac- 
tion of Christ, i. 238 ; in effect deny Christ's 
righteousness, 321 ; their evasions, iii 48, 50, 54. 

Sodomy, its abundance in Italy, P. 231. 

Sorcery and conjuring, passes for an eminent 
virtue with Romanists, P. 137. 

Sorrow, godly, has more joy in it than is in the 
choicest worldly pleasures, 1. 19 ; for sin, must 
be greater than for outward afflictions, 34 ; but 
may not always appear so, to. ; godly, respects 
sin mainly as it is against God, 38. 

Soul-Idolatry Excludes Mrn out of Heaves. 
it 299. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



INDEX. 



XI 



Soul, is corrupt as soon as united to the body, 1. 6 ; 
sanctified, its beauty, iii. 5. 

Spirit, his office as a Spirit of supplication, to pray 
in us, i. 207 ; stirs us up to pray, 208 ; teaches 
ns what to pray for, ib. ; helps us to expres- 
sions, id. ; stirs up suitable affections, 209 ; acts 
graces in us, confidence and reverence, ib. ; 
helps us against distempers, 210 ; is a comfort- 
ing advocate, a pleading comforter, 209 ; his 
assistance in prayer, ii. 179. 

Standing, Christ's, at the door, imports conde- 
scension, ii. 57 ; his approach, 58 ; his desire, 
his readiness to enter, ib. ; his patience, ib. ; 
his readiness to depart if he be not admitted, ib. 

Stedfastness, a property of one who is in Christ, 
1L124. 

8TRAXQBRS, LlVHtO AS, 1. 248. 

Strangers and pilgrims, Christians are in respect 
of their station, the place of their abode, i. 243 ; 
their design, ib. ', their motive, 244 ; their en- 
joyments, ib. ; their usage, ib ; their continu- 
ance, 245 ; their relations, ib. ; directions for 
living as, 245. 

Strength, spiritual, its importance towards bearing 
the cross, i. 494 ; means of attaining, 497. ■ 

Subjection to God, should be universal, 11. 478 ; 
necessity of, 476 ; equity of, 477 ; advantages 
of, ib. ; excellency of, 480 ; a means to redress 
the disorders of the world, 481 ; danger of re- 
fusing, 482 ; duties flowing from, 485. 

Submission to God, a remedy against anxious 
carefulness, ii. 168. 

Sufferings may be for God, though they be in- 
flicted by those who profess to be the people of 
God, i. 401 ; and though they be brought on us 
by our own sins, 463 ; positively, what are for 
Christ, 465 ; of Christ, were real, penal, vicari- 
ous, ill. 57 ; a threefold evil in, legal, moral, 
natural, 101. 

Superiors, how they are to be obeyed, ii. 468. 

Swearing by saints, the rood, the mass, Ac , is 
idolatry, ii. 311. 

Sympathy with one another, a duty founded upon 
Christ's with us, iii 102. 



Takivq up thb Cbosb, i. 447. 

Talents, an account must be given how they are 

improved, i. 434. 
Teachers, false, description of, II. 3. 
Temper, sinful, worse than many sinful acts, ii. 203; 

good natural, wherein it Is an advantage, 441. 
Temporal enjoyments made comfortable by the 
righteousness of Christ, i. 317 ; good things to 
be prayed for, Ii. 176. 

Tenderness, threefold, i. 186; of expression in 
tears and weeping may be where that of heart 
Is not, ib 

Terms upon which men give themselves up to sin 
and Satan, compared with those offered by 
Christ, 1. 121. 

Terrors, legal, no part of faith or conversion, 
i. 133 ; no causes of faith, ib. ; no condition of 
any promise, 134 ; not necessary antecedents of 
faith, ib ; differ in measure and continuance. 
ib ; preparedness for Christ not to be judged 
by their strength, 135. 

Thankfulness, to be for everything, ii. 173 ; for 
afflictions, ib. ; for public judgments, because 
they are mingled with mercy, 174 ; under 
temptations, ib. ; when we fall into sin, that we 
are not left to go on in it, ib. 

Thief, penitent, his repentance at death no 
ground to defer repentance till death, i. 50 ; a 
solitary example in the history of 4000 years, to. 

Thoughts renewed when a man becomes a new 
creature^ ii. 17 ; must be under government, 
474. 

Threaienings are, by just consequence, promises, 
i. 188. 

Thbonb or Grace, Coming Boldlt unto, I1L 110. 

Thrones, God hath two, of Judgment and of grace, 
iii. Ill ; imports glorious majesty, 112 ; do- 
minion and sovereignty, ib ; almighty power, 
113 ; holiness, ib. ; wisdom, ib. ; of grace, what 
it declares the Lord to be to us, 116 ; after what 



manner we are to come to, 124 ; God's offering 
himself to us, as sitting on the throne of grace, 
shews he is able and willing to help us, 187. 

Thurificati, and Ubellatici, who? i 466. 

Ticket-holders (Libellatici), were reckoned amongst 
the lapsed, i. 475. 

Titles ofGod, virtually promises, i. 187. 

Translations of the Bible allowed by the Romanists, 
only when they cannot help it, P. 55. 

Transubstantiation involves, according to the 
principles of the Romanists themselves, the 
constant destruction of Christ, iii. 62. 

Trent, council of, its timidity, P. 6 ; pronounced a 
curse against any who shall hold that the mass 
should be celebrated in a known tongue, 48. 

Trinity, the carnal man's, ii. 800 ; doctrine of, 
thought to be sufficiently learned by the people 
in making the sign of the cross (Bonaventure), 
P. 61 

Troubles and sufferings of God's people, designed 
to purify them, ii. 186 ; three classes of, 187 ; 
can do no hurt if God forbid them, will do good 
if he command them, 611. 

Trust, an act of soul worship, ii. 302. 



Unbelief, the root of all sin, ii. 208. 

Unbelievers, their misery, i. 91, 200 ; negatively, 

91 ; positively, 94 ; who they are, 96 ; whether 

they sin in praying, 158 ; their encouragement 

to pray, 161 ; cannot pray in faith, 198 ; outward 

mercies cursed to, 346. 
Unblameable, children of light must be in their 

walk, ii. 373. 
Uncleanness, very leniently treated by Romanists, 

P. 218. 
Uxcoxvbrtkd Snrcmus ark Darkicsss, ii. 856. 
Unconverted, their misery, ii. 856 ; how we may 

know whether we are, 860. 
Unfaithfulness, horribly wretched, 1. 240. 
Unfruitfulness, evils of, ii. 396 ; is a reproach to 

the gospel, 397 ; causes of, 419 ; unmortifled- 

ness, to. ; worldliness, 420 ; privateness of spirit, 

422 ; slothfulness, ib. ; mistakes, ib. ; looking 

more at comfort than duty, 429 ; being taken up 

with little things, 430. 
Union with Christ, obtained by coming to him, 1. 

847 ; signs of, ii. 120 ; separation from sin, ib. ; 

likeness, ib. ; propinquity, 121 ; adherence, ib. ; 

participation, ib. ; sympathy, 122 ; growth, 123 ; 

pruning, ib. ; fruitfulness, 124 ; stedfastness, 

ib. ; dependence, 125 ; uniformity, ib. ; means 

of, 127. 
Unpardonable sin, described in three passages of 

Scripture, i. 147 : definition of, ib. ; what it is 

not, 151. 
Unwillingness, Max's Natural, to comb to 

Christ, i. 331. 
Unworthiness, sense of, an impediment to faith, i. 

129 ; none excluded by Christ on account of, 

ib ; qualifies for Christ, 131 ; unbelief is the 

greatest, 133 ; a discouragement in prayer, 219 ; 

how to be obviated, ib. 
Urim and Thummim, how the mind of God was 

made known by, iii. 137. 



Venial sins, according to the Romanists, need not 
be avoided, P. 33 ; pardon can be procured for 
in very easy ways, 83 ; not necessary to forsake 
in order to salvation, 143; include hatred of 
God, profane and wicked oaths, 144 ; blasphemy 
in many cases, 149; Sabbath-breaking, 150; 
dishonouring of parents, 153; hatred and enmity, 
155 ; fornication, 166 ; theft in many cases, 160 ; 
falsehood, 164 ; perfidy, 172 ; hypocrisy, 176 ; 
contumely and detraction, 176 ; flattery, 179. 

Vice may be, by the mere light of nature, mistaken 
for virtue, ii 299. 

Vico, Marquis of, his preference of Christ to 
riches, ii. 22. 

Vineyard, to be planted in the Lord's, is to have 
a standing under the means of grace, ii. 386. 

Virtues, of heathens, how to be accounted of, ii. 
286 ; not required to be practised by the Ro- 
manists, P. 104. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



xu 



INDEX. 



Virttation, time of, is limited, i. ISO ; sometimes 
longer, sometimes shorter, to. ; to a particular 
man, is not always as long as bis life, 140 ; pro- 
bable signs that it has expired, 141 ; probable 
signs that it has not expired, 148. 

Voice of Christ, heard principally in the gospel, ii. 
67 ; of command, to. ; threatening, to. ; promis- 
ing. 06 ; persuading, ib. ; entreating, to. ; re- 
proving, 00 ; hearing, implies attendance, 70 ; 
belief, to. ; application, 71 ; consideration, to. ; 
conviction, to. ; persuasion, to. 



Walking with God, what it is, ill. 170. 

WatUi, God's sufficiency to supply his people's, ii. 
408 ; his willingness, 601 ; Christians can have 
none, ili. 120. 

Wcuhed, what is Implied in Christians being, iii. 
37. 

Wave-offering, its signification, iii. 3. 

Wealth, how men make it their god, ii. 810. 

Whoredom, a source of revenue to the pope, P. 228. 

Wicked men, in what respect their prayers are 
sinful, ii. 31, 111 ; why they often enjoy tem- 
poral prosperity, 62 ; prosperity of, not incom- 

. patible with God's government, 465 ; their bless- 
ings are cursed, while the curses of believers 
are blessed, iii. 8. 

Will of a man is renewed when he becomes a new 
creature, ii. 19 ; in its inclinations, ib. ; its in- 
tentions, 20 ; its fruitions, 21 ; its elections, 23 ; 
its consents, 24 ; its applications, 25 ; its pur- 
poses, determinations, resolves, to. ; of the 
natural man is impotent, 128 ; we must subject 
ours to God's, 160 ; and to his rule and govern- 
ment, 474. 

Word, Hbariso thk, i. 428. 

Word of God, is the general object of faith, i. 76 ; 
hearing of, is a means to obtain faith, 170 ; im- 
portance of hearing aright, 420 ; difficulties of 
hearing aright, ib. ; evil and danger of neglect- 
ing, 434 ; is not effectual, but when particularly 
applied, 441 ; must be mixed with faith to make 
it effectual, 445 ; must be received in the love 
of it, 446 ; hearing of, unprofitable, when It is 
heard carelessly, ii. 78 ; not as the voice of 
Christ, to. ; without application, ib. ; without 
consideration, ib. ; without conviction, 74 ; 
without obedience, ib. ; its power to discover 
sin, 218 ; its commands, to. ; its threatenings, 
210 ; its relations, 220 ; hypocrites may be 



diligent and attentive in hearing, 280 ; most be 
followed fully, 377. 

Work*, good, three classes of, represented by 
fasting, alms-deeds, and prayer, P. 112, 250 ; 
all these made by the Romanists works of super- 
erogation, 113. 

World, a strange country to the people of God, 
i. 244 ; what is meant by living as strangers in, 
to. ; means to wean us from, 414 ; danger of 
having much of, 417 ; embittered to the Chris- 
tian by the cross, 450 ; crucified to the Chris- 
tian, ii. 4 ; how far hypocrites may contemn, 2S7. 

Worldly cares compared to thorns, ii. 141 ; en- 
joyments of little continuance, 158. 

Worldlineti, disguised as diligence in a lawful 
calling, ii. 207 ; makes men unfruitful under 
the word, 420. 

Worship, Public, to br frrfrrrxd bbporr 
Privatr, iii. 187. 

Worship, false, disguised as order, decency, re- 
verence, and submission to authority, Ii. 207 ; 
due only to God. 300 ; thirteen acts of soul, 801 ; 
public, three things necessary to, iii. 180 ; God 
more glorified by public than private, ib. ; more 
of .his presence in, 100 ; clearest manifestations 
of God in, 101 ; more spiritual advantage, 192 ; 
more edifying, ib. ; better security against 
apostasy, 103 ; the Lord works his greatest 
works by, to. ; the nearest resemblance of 
heaven, 104 ; most available for procuring the 
greatest mercies, and removing the greatest 
judgments, 105 ; the blood of Christ most inte- ■ 
rested in, 106 ; promises of God more to public 
than to private, to. ; objections answered, 197 ; 
reproof of those who undervalue, 202 ; honour 
of it to be kept up, 205 ; how to be used, 208 ; 
of God, essential to religion, P. , not real, 
unless mind and heart concur in it, to. ; re- 
duced by the Romanists to nothing, 17 ; atten- 
tion to the bare words, without thinking either 
of their meaning or of the God to whom they 
are addressed, held to be sufficient, 18 ; lawful 
for the clergy and monks to celebrate for 
worldly ends, 81 ; or for a sinful end, provided 
that be not the principal, 82 ; private, not re- 
quired by Romanists, 40. 

Wrath of God, is the inheritance of men, L 6 ; 
heavier on impenitent sinners under the gospel 
than on others, ii. 61 ; consists in displeasure, 
106 ; anger, ib. ; wrath, or sublimated anger, 106 ; 
hatred, ib. ; enmity, ib. ; abhorrency, i&. 



SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 



Gen. ii. 17, 
iii. 4, 
iii. 15, 
iii. 24, 
iv. 13, . 
vi. 8, 
vi. 8, 
vi. 3, 
viii. 21, 
x. £8, . 

xv. n, 

xvii. 7, 

xviii. 19, 

xviii. 32, 

xx. 6, 

xx. 6, 

xxi. 17, 

xxiL 5, 

xxiii. 15, 

xxiT. 8, 11, 12, 



1.359 

in. 343 

1.456 

I. 14 

ii. 472 

1.140 

1.141 

1.145 

in. 48 

I. 78 

ii. 18 

1.427 

1.258 

n.200 

ii. 459 

1.162 

1.162 

1.441 

I. 22 

I. 89 



Gen. xxv. 22, 
xxv. 80, 82, 
xxv. 32, 34, 
xxvi. 12, 
xxvii. 84, 88, 
xxx. 1, 
xxx. 27, 
xxxiv. 10, 
xxxix. 4, 6, 
xlv. 6-7, 
xlv. 5,7, 
Exod.x 2<>, 
xii. 35, 86, 
xiv. 13, 
xiT. 31, 
xx. 24, 
xxi. 32, 
xxv. 20, 
xxv. 22, 
xxxii. 19, 



I. 


232 


I 


88 


II 


153 


II. 


419 


1 


844 


I. 


87 


II 


269 


I 


27 


L 


415 


II. 


166 


II. 


516 


I. 


48 


I. 


868 


II. 


513 


II. 


260 


III. 


190 


II. 


69 


III. 


114 


III. 


118 


II. 


227 



Exod. xxxiii. 19, 


ii. 86 


xxxiv. 7, 


i. 50 


xxxvii. 9, 


1.264 


Levit. i. 4, 


i.&6 


v. 2,3, 


m. 75 


v. 6, 


in. 62 


xiv. 41, 42, 


i. 9 


xvi. 11, 


Hi. 53 


xvi. 12-14, 


in. 184 


xvi. 29, 


I. 25 


Xix. 17, 


n.216 


xix. 17, 


H.351 


xix. 28-25, 


1.400 


xxiii. 29, 


i. 25 


xxv. 3, 


n.438 


xxv. 23, 


1.867 


xxvi. 21, 


n. 504 


xxvii. 28, 


1.405 


xxxv. 16. 


in. 48 


Num. xiv. 20, 39, 


44, n. 254 



Digitized by VlOOQ LC 



INDEX. 



nit 



Nam. xxi 15, 
xxii. 17> 18, 
xxiii. 21, 

XliT. 1, 

xxxiii 55, 
Deutiv. 4, 

v. 24, 25, 
vi. 6-9, 
▼it 7,8, 
viii. 3, 
viii. 15, 16, 
xiii 5,6,11, 
xiii. 11, 
xvii. 2, 
xviii. 15, 
xxi 1-9, 
xxriii. 1&-17, 
xxviii. 18, 
xxix. 18 
xxix. 1», 
, xxix. 19, 20, 
xxix. 20, 
xxix. 29, 
xxix. 29, 
xxx. 6, 
xxx. 19, 
xxx. 19, 
xxxii. 17, 
xxxii. 19, 
xxxii. 82, 
xxxii. 83, 
Josh. r.13, 14, 
vii 19j 

x. 12, 18 
xiv. 12, 
Judges i. 6, 7, 
xii 6, 
xvi. 
xvi 21, 
Kuth i. 16, 17,' 
i 1», 17, 
i.16, 
18am.iv.21, 
vii 2,6, 

x. 10, 19, 
xiv. 
xiv. 6, 
xt. 3-24, 
XT. 13. 
xt. 23, 
xt. 23, 
xv. 23, 
xt. 28, 
xt. 29, 
XTi. 7, 
xTii. 32. 
XTiii. 8-10, 
xxiii. 21, 
xxt. 32, 
xxix. 4,5, 
2 8am. vi. 22, 
vi.22> 
tL22, 
ix. 3, 
Xii. 9, 
xt. 25, 
xriii. 51, 
xxi. 1,2, 
1 Kings ii. 28, 
ii. 28, 
ii. 30, 
iii. 10-12, 
TiiL 24-26, 



28, 



1.681 

ii. 470 
i. 37 

n.245 
i. 20 

u.262 

n.232 

n.487 
1.385 
1.188 

n.166 
in. 187 

n.349 
1.467 
1.177 

m. 56 
i. 95 
1.357 

n.394 
1.144 
I. 24 
I. 57 
1.128 

ii. 181 
1.884 
i. 59 
1.350 

11.326 

ii. 215 
i. 8 
1.118 

in. 157 
i. 19 

ii. 182 
1.162 

ii. 218 
1.608 
i. 12 
1.122 
1.233 
1.295 
in. 171 
1.443 

n.255 

ii. -45 

H.287 
1.229 

ii. 212 
i. 28 
1. 28 
i. 53 

n.309 

in. 48 

1.497 

1.222 

i. 20 

ii. 169 
i. 47 
i. 47 

ii. 514 
1.445 
1.474 

n.453 

ii. 96 
1.153 

ii. 176 
I. 47 
1.506 
i. 67 
i.298 
i. 74 
1. 163 
1.199 



1 Kings TiiL 33, 

x. 8, 
xi. 7,8, 
xi. 9, 
xii. 26-28, 

XT. 8, 
xix. 10, 
xix.18, 

xx. 11, 
xxi. 4, 
xxi. 16, 
xxi. 27, 
xxi. 29, 
xxi. 29, 

2 Kings v. 12, 

v.l3> 
vi. 15, 
vL20, 
vi.32> 
Tii. 3,4, 

Tiii. 11, 12, 

▼iii. 12, 13, 
x.16, 
x. 26> 27, 

xiT. 25-27, 

xri. 10, 
XTii. 19, 
XTiii. 20, 
XTiii. 21, 

xix. 15, 

xx. 17, 18, 

1 Cbron. xxix. 11, 

xxix. 11, 12, 

2 Chron, iii. 17, 

iT. 23, 

xiii. 5, 

xiii. 8,9, 

XTiii. 80, 

xx. 9, 

xx. 12, 

xx. 12, 

xx. 17, 

xx. 20, 

xx. 22, 

xxTi. 5> 

xxTiii. 22, 

xxviii 23, 

xxxii. 8, 

xxxiii. 10, 11, 

Esther iv. 16, 

Ti. 6, 
i.21, 

ii. 10, 

iii 1, 

t.19, 

ix. 3, 

ix. 4, 

xi. 20, 
xiii. 23, 
xiT. 4, 

**: £ 

XTI. 8, 

xvi. 14, 

XTiii. 6,6, 

XTiii. 7, 

xxi. 14, 

xxii. 30, 

xxxiii. 17, 

xxIt. 32, 

XXT. 4> 

xxXTii. 23>24, 
xxxTiii. 8-11, 



30, 



Job 



1.176 

n.480 

H.806 

ii. 61 

ii. 208 

H.268 

n.506 

Hi. 198 

ii. 457 

ii. 148 

n.336 

n.254 

ii. 81 

n.107 

Hi. 204 

ii. 183 

i. 79 

i. 64 

ii. 63 

I. 75 

I. 24 

i. 10 

u.275 

ii. 255 

n.201 

n.834 

n.205 

1.182 

i. 83 

in. 130 

n.490 

1.864 

ii. 465 

1.203 

ii. 503 

1.310 

ii. 217 

n.209 

1.188 

1.180 

n. 183 

ii. 512 

n. 142 

H. 516 

n.253 

n.196 

n.266 

ii. 263 

ii. 58 

I. 74 

in. 9 

in. 178 

1.408 

1.409 

ii. 476 

ii. 165 

i. 54 

H.485 

ii. 110 

n.221 

i. 15 

1.160 

I. 29 

11.189 

ii. 369 

in. 28 

u.301 

n.200 

n.197 

i. 47 

i. 16 

n.235 

I. 12 



©, V, f, < 



Job xxxix.-xli. . 

xxxix. 22, 

Ps. ii. 1-5, . 
* ii. 68, 

ii. 9,10, . 

ii. 10, 11, . 

iT. 7,8, . 

T. 5, . 

T. 5, 
Tii. 12, 13, . 
Tiii. 8,6,7,8, 
Tili. - 
viii. 
ix. 

ix. 10, 

ix. 18, . 

x. 17, . 

xi 10, 

xii. 8^4, . 

xiv. 12, . 

XIT. 1, 
XiT. 6, 
XTi. 5, . 

XTi. 5. 

xtI. 7, 

xix. 1, 

xix. 12, 

xix. 12, 

xix. 12, 

xx. 2, 

xx. 2, . 

xxii 14-17, . 

xxv. 10, 
xxTii. 4, 
xxTii. 13, 

XXTiii. 2, 

xxviii. 18, 
xxix. 1,2, . 
xxxii. 1. 
xxxii. 7, 
xxxii. 10, 
xxxiii. 9, 
xxxiv. 10, 
xxxv. 18, _, 
xxxvi. 7, 
xxxvi. 8, 
xxxvii 4, 
xxxvii. 7, 
xxxvii. 15, 
xxxvii. 34, . 
xxxviii. 4, 
xxxviii 4, 
xxxviii. 4, 
xxxix. 5, 
xl. 8, . 
xi 8, . 
xl.1% . 
xiii 1, 2, . 
xiii 1, 2, . 
xiii 11, 
xliT. 4, 
xliT. 17, 19, . 
xiv. 7, 
xiv. 7, . 
xW. 15, 
xlvi 5, 
xlix. 12, 
xlix. 12, 
1. 9-12, . 
1. 16, 17, . 
1.18, . 
1.21, . 
1.23, . 



I. 12 

ii. 27 

ii. 462 

1.182 

ii. 461 

ii. 467 

ii. 12 

i. 29 

in. 42 

i. 95 

in. 152 

in. 16 

i. 14 

H.505 

1.277 

1.233 

1.208 

in. 169 

i.8b9 

1.160 

n.527 

i. 66 

1.178 

in. 5 

i. 10 

n.458 

i. 81 

1.153 

in. 105 

in. 113 

in. 129 

hi. 64 

ii. 107 

n.808 

1.493 

in. 118 

i. 33 

m. 206 

in. 116 

ii. 495 

I. 62 

1.193 

m. 8 

1.220 

I. 66 

1.122 

n. 44 

i. .73 

1.817 

1.115 

i. 46 

i. 79 

1.106 

1.501 

1.186 

ni. 27 

I. 54 

II. 20 

in. 177 

n.168 

iu.132 

1.506 

m. 42 

in. 78 

i. 22 

in.120 

i. 14 

n.170 

ii. 85 

i. 56 

M.337 

1.285 

u.182 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



XIV 



INDEX. 



3, 

X 

7, 

8, 
.16, 

. 16, 17, . 
.17. 

8, 

2. 

8, 

4, 

8, 

8, 

5, 



Ps. 11. 
li. 
Li. 
li. 
1L 
li. 
li. 
li. 
Hi. 
ly. 
hri. 
Ivii. 
lviii. 
lxiii. 
lxiii. _, 
lxiv. 10, 
lxvi. 18, 
lxvi. 18, 
lxviii. 21, 
lxviii. 21, 
Jxxi. 6, 
lxxiii. 14, 
lxxiii. 16, 17, . 
lxxiii. 26, 
Ixxvi. 5, 
lxxvii. 3, 
lxxrii. 10-12, 
lxxviii. 84, 
Ixxviii. 41, 
lxxix. 6, 
Ixxix. 10, 
lxxx. 1, 
lxxx. 1, 
Ixxxi. 10, 
Ixxxi. 13, 
lxx*iv. 1, 
lxxxiv. 10, 
lxxxiv. 11, 
lxxxv. 1,3, 
lxxxvi. 17, 
lxxxvii. 2, 
lxxxvii. 7, 
Ixxxix. 10, 
lxxxix. SO, 31, . 
xo. 2,4, 
xci. 9,10, 
xciv. 19, 
xcvii. 10, 
xcvii. 10, 
c. 3, 
cii. 16, 
Oiu. 19, 
civ. 21, 
civ. 24, 25, . 
ex. 
ox. 
ox. 
ox. 
ex. 
oxii. 
cxii. 
oxiii. 
oxv. 
cxvi. 
cxvi. 
oxix. 
oxix. 
cxix. 
oxix. 
cxix. 24, 
cxix. 31, 
cxix. 40, 
oxix. 40, 



3, 
3, 
4, 

6, 

7,8, 

7,8, 

I: 
t 

8, 



I. 81 

. i. 38 

i. 8 

i. 88 

in. 176 

in. 76 

ii. 98 

i. 26 

1.176 

1.202 

m. 24 

m. 81 

ii. 421 

m. 85 

1.863 

I. 66 

i. 48 

1.198 

i. 29 

I. 56 

I. 75 

H.238 

ill. 192 

1.178 

n.502 

n.194 

1.497 

ii. a* 

1.228 

1.161 

i. 83 

i. 76 

m. 137 

in. 208 

ii. 74 

in. 194 

n. 121 

m. 123 

m.128 

m. 139 

in. 187 

1.358 

ii. 508 

n. 90 

ii. 171 

ii. »61 

ii. 315 

1.107 

n.232 

1.369 

in. 205 

n.454 

11.145 

1.411 

ill. 157 

1. 20 

n.488 

hi. 92 

H.108 

I. 68 

i. 75 

ii. 122 

1.176 

n. 447 

in. 30 

in. 112 

li. 377 

11.443 

1.2*4 

ii. 19 

1.446 

I. 87 

1.227 



Ps. oxix. 63, 
cxix. 67, 71, 
cxix. 104, 
oxix. 116, 
cxix. 132, 
cxix. 133, 
oxix. 149, 
oxix. 154 
cxx. 6,6, 
exxvi. 6, 
ex xx. 3, 
ox xxv. 6, 
cxxxix v 1, 
exxxix. 7, 
exxxix. 7, 8, 
exxxix. 17, 
exxxix. 17, 18, 
exxxix. 21, 
exxxix. 21, 
exxxix. 41, 
cxli. 5, 
cxliii. 2, 
exliii. 11, 
cxlv. 9. 
exlv. 16, 16, 
oxlvii. 19, 20, 
cxlvii. 19, 20, 
Prov. i.10,13,. 
i.23, 
i.32, 
ii. 2-4, 
iii. 13-16, 
iii. 17, 
iii. 17. 
iv. 5-7, 
iv. 18, 
iv.18, 
iv. 19, 
iv.23, 
vl. 6-8, 
▼iii. 13, 
viii. 17, 
▼iii. 17-19, 
▼iii. 35, 
ix. 1-5, 
ix. 7,8, 
x.29, 
xii. 13, 
xii.17, 
xiii. 5, 
xiii. 9, 
xiv. 13, 
xv. 8, 
xv. 8, . 
xv. 8,9,26, 
xv. 8, 9, 
xv. 9, . 
xv. 31, 32, . 
xvii. 15, 
xviii. 10, 
xtx. 2, 
xx. 4, 
xxi. 4, 
xxi. 4, 
xxi. 4, 
xxii. 3, 
xx ii. 7, 
xxii. 15, 
xxiii. 5, 
xxviii. 13, 
xxiv. 10, 
xxv. 11, 
xxvi. 9, 



II. 23 

n.188 

i. 27 

n.444 

1.177 

ii. 476 

1.176 

1.176 

ii. 23 

I. 60 

1.279 

1.203 

1.176 

ii. 87 

n. 471 

1.178 

ii. 315 

i. 27 

1.107 

in. 18 

ii. 23 

I. 21 

1.176 

1.166 

in. 23 

i. 48 

u.401 

n.843 

ii. 69 

n.465 

1.258 

li. 89 

I. 62 

in. 46 

1.261 

I. 62 

11.367 

n.360 

1.437 

H.380 

1.156 

ill. 45 

ii. 89 

11.821 

n. 94 

I. 47 

1.498 

1.159 

in. 209 

1.351 

n.368 

I. 19 

1.158 

n.106 

n. 91 

n.355 

1.159 

I. 48 

11.345 

L 67 

1.436 

ni.209 

1.159 

II. 31 

II. 113 

i. 24 

1.384 

I. 6 

ii. 159 

i. 47 

1.489 

1.440 

U.365 



Prov. xxvii. 22, 

xxvii. 23, 

xxviii. 13, 

Eocl. iv. 8, 

viii. 8, 

xi. 7, 

Cant. iii. 4, 

v. 2, 

▼. 

v. 



Isaiah i. 
i. 



2, 
«, 
9, 

A 

i. 13, 
i- 15, 

i. 18, 
i.21, 
i.25, 
i.25, 
v. 3,4, 
". 5,6, 
▼i. 2,3, 
vi. 10, 
▼i. 9-11, 
vi. 18, 
ix. 6, 
ix. 12, 13, 
x.12, 
x.12, 
xvi. 5, 
xxvi. 9, 
xxvi. 9, 
xxvi. 16, 
xxvi. 16, 
xxvii. 2,3, 
xxvii. 9, 
xxvii. 9, 
XXVI I. 9, 
xxviii. 16, 
xxviii. 16, 
xxviii. 17, 
xxix. 13, 
xxix. 13» 
xxix. 21, 
xxx. 3, 
xxx. 18, 
xxx. 33, 
xxxiii. 14, 
xxxiii. 15, 16, 
xxxiii. 20-22, 
xxxix. 5-7, 
xxxix. 9, 
xl. 6-8, 
xl. 81, 
xl. 31, 
xiii. 6, 
xliii. 6, 
xliii. 24, 
xliv.28, 
xlvi. 10, 
xlviii. 8, 
xlviii. 10, 
xlix. 4, 
xlix. 14. 
xlix. 14-16, 
1. 4, 
1. 6, 
1.10, 
1.10,11, 
1.11, 
Iii. 11, 
liii. 4-6, 



H.196 
H.139 

l 18 
ii. 157 

1.875 
n.365 

i. 77 
n. 57 
Hi. 186 

1.263 
n. 12 
II. 63 

I. 10 

ni. 17 

n.106 

1.435 

I. 56 
ni. 12 
r. 167 
n.186 
11.395 
ii. 60 
Hi. 125 

1.139 
n.195 
u.100 
ni. 15 
n.191 
ii. 189 
11.458 
m. 140 

i. 16 
11.286 

i. 237 

1.458 
n.412 

1.459 
n.167 
n. 185 

1. 116 
ii. 317 

i. 83 
u.328 
u.389 

i. 47 

i. 66 

1.352 

i. 95 

i. 95 
II.477 
n.495 

1.453 
ii. 159 
1.444 
1.499 
1.309 
n.497 
iil 11 
H.136 
n.509 
i. 5 
n. 186 
i.H7 
n.899 
1.216 
1.440 
ill. 13 
in. 182 
1.200 
1.299 
1.257 
ni. 91 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



INDEX. 



XT 



im. mi. 

Mi. 
liii. 
Mr. 
1W. 
Ut. 

It. 

It. 

It. 

It. 

It. 

It. 

It. 

It. 

It. 

It. 

It. 

lTi. 
lTii. 
lTiii. 

lviii. 

lix. 

Ix. 

lxi. 

lxi. 

lxi. 
Ixii. 
lxiii. 
lxiT. 
lxiT. 

lXT. 
lXT. 
lXT. 

IxtL 

IXTi. 

Jer. ii. 
ii. 
ii. 
ii. 
ii. 
ii. 
ii. 
ii. 
ii. 
ii. 
iii. 
iT. 
Ti. 

Ti. 

Tii. 

Tii. 

Tii. 

xii. 
xiii. 
xiii. 
xiii. 

ZtT. 
XT. 

ivii. 

XTii. 
XX. 

* xxiii. 
xxiT. 



5,4, 
10, 
10, 11, 

i 
i 

6, 
6, 

8,9, 

2.8, 

2-4, 
10, 
2, 

I 

7, 

i 

1, 



XXT. 

xxxi. 
xxxi. 

xiii. 

xiii. 

XiiT. 
XllT. 

xliT. 

XlT. 
MB. T. 



3, 

12,13, 

19, 

19, 

21,22, 

28, 

31, 

ft 

4,13, 
28,29, 
10,26, 

A 

18, 
23, 

10 * 

9, 
12, 

2, 
29, 

5. 

7-9, 
18, 
20,22, 

1-3, 

6.6, 
U, 

17, 19, 
21,22, 

6, 

12; 



1.319 

m. 65 

1.292 

1.169 

1.278 

ii. 90 

1.131 

1.211 

m. 16 

ra. 123 

ii. 95 

n.157 

1.139 

1.159 

I. 45 

n.521 

in. 26 

ni. 178 

n. 98 

1.235 

H.273 

11.502 

11.866 

ii. 410 

u. 418 

1.122 

1.198 

n. 43 

1.124 

I. 22 

1.116 

i. 23 

ii. 414 

ii. 455 

I. 26 

1.426 

1.407 

u. 64 

1.356 

n. 830 

n.399 

H.313 

i.3oO 

it. 196 

I. 10 

11.264 

ii. 521 

I. 80 

u.289 

n. 212 

n. 194 

1.201 

1.485 

ii. 73 

n.108 

II. 110 

I. 40 

I. 66 

i. 10 

in. 120 

n.218 

H. 64 

H.166 

i. 16 

1.146 

ii. 64 

u.278 

ii. 473 

n.346 

ii. 214 

11.205 

1.220 

11.108 



Ezek. i. 21, 
ii. 3,4, 
ii. 10, 
ix. 4-6, 
xi. 19, 
xi.19, 
xi. 19, 20, 
XTi. 4-8, 
xxiii. 21, 29, 
xxiT. 13, 14, 
xxxiii. 8,9, 
xxxiii. 31, 
xxxvi. 26, 
xxxTi. 26, 
xxxvi. 37, 
xxxvii. 1, 2, 
xliii. 7, 
xIt. 15. 17, 
xlTii. 3,4, 
Dan. ii.34, 

iii. 16, 17, 
iii. 17, 18, 
iii. 27, 
It. 4,5, 
It. 34, 36, 
t. 5,6, 
Ti. 10, 
ix. 16, 
ix. 18, 
ix. 20, 21, 
ix. 24, 
Horn ii. 10, 
ii. 18, 
ii. 21, 22, 

iT. 1, 
It. 

Ti. 

Ti. 

▼ii. -. 
Tii. 14, 
Tii. 16, 
Tiii. 2,* 

ix. 11, 
x.11, 
xii. 3.4, 
xii. 8,4, 
xit. 3, 
xiT. 4, 
Joel i. 14, 
ii. 12, 
ii. 12, 
ii. 12-14, 
ii. 13, 
ii. 16, 
ii. 28, 
Amos. ii. 13, 
iii. 2, 
iii. 9-11, 
t.15, 
vi. 3, 

Tiii. 6, 
Tiii. 11-13, 
Jonah i. 10, 

i. 12, . 
ii. 1,2, 7, 10, 
iii. 6, 
iii. 9, 
iii. 9, 
iii. 9,10.. 
Micahiii.4,9,10, 
W. 7, 
Ti. 6,7, 
▼t 6,7, 



1-8, 

i x 

9, 



1.448 

i. 10 

L 16 

n.207 

I. 18 

in. 19 

1.812 

H. 37 

Hi. 208 

1.189 

1.864 

u.289 

1.157 

u. 31 

ii. 173 

H.506 

m. 136 

IIL 49 

ii. 119 

n.246 

11.166 

I. 75 

n.496 

11.245 

1.373 

i. 92 

1.603 

1.176 

1.280 

1.218 

1.272 

in. 172 

n.498 

n.457 

1.260 

n.393 

n.507 

n.445 

n. 431 

n.111 

I. 44 

11.266 

H. 36 

n.271 

1.211 

ii. 182 

1.281 

1.173 

1.160 

I. 26 

I. 48 

1.230 

I. 80 

1.160 

n.245 

i. 69 

ii. 215 

1.284 

1.162 

I. 24 

m.206 

H.193 

u.277 

i. 79 

n.183 

n.263 

i. 75 

1.162 

ii. 81 

n.263 

1.387 

U.292 

II. 31 



MicahTi. 9, 

Ti. 14. 15, 

i. 7, 
iii. 4, 



Nan. 



flab. 



iii. 12, 
iii. 17, 18, 



Zech. 



iii. 8,4, 
Zeph.iii. 7,8, 
iii. 17, 
i. 13, 
ii. 8, 
iii. * 
iii. 
iii. 
iii. 



Mat. 



i. 

i. 

i. 
ii. 
iii. 
iii. 
iii. 
iv. 
iii. 



1.2. 
1,2, 
3,4, 
3-6, 
Tii. 11, 12, 
ix.ll, 
ix. 11, 
xi.12, 
xii. 10, 
xii. 10, 
xii. 10, 
i. 6, 

I 

2, 

1. 

1-3, 

8. 

2, 

2. 
iii. 7, 
iii. 7,10, 
iii. 11, 
iii. 16, 17, 
It. 1, 6, 8, 

iT. 2, 
iT. g-10, 
iT. 8-10, 
It. 17, 

T. 6, 

T. 11, 12, 

t. 16, 16, 

t.16> 

t.19, 

t.20, 

T.26, 

t.46, 

t.46, 

Ti. 13, 

vi.26, 

Ti.27, 

Ti.32, 
Tii. 2, 
Tii. 7,8, 
Tii. 11, 
Tii. 12, 
Tii. 15-17, 
Tii. 1&-18, 
Tii. 18, 
Tii. 22, 
Tii. 22, 
VII. 22, 23, 
Tiii. 2. 
Tiii. 2, 
Tiii. 7-10, 
Tiii. 8, 
Tiii. 12, 

Tiii. 17, 

ix. 12, 



Digitized by 



n.196 

ii. 163 

i. 60 

H.226 

i. 83 

ii. 161 

1.199 

u. 195, 196 

ii. 89 

H.404 

1.847 

in. 86 

in. 146 

n.225 

1.324 

H.197 

i. 85 

in.163 

ii. 69 

I. 20 

1.138 

u.120 

ii. 69 

n.483 

iu.189 

n.483 

u. 62, 73 

n.273 

ii. 50 

1.401 

ii. 88 

i. 18 

1.292 

I. 82 

i. 19 

1.332 

iil 107 

n.499 

ii. 41 

III. 329 

I. 17 

I. 18 

I. 19 

I. 61 

1.500 

1.399 

ii. 410 

n. 619 

n.424 

n.105 

iii. 78 

hi. 98 

1.866 

1.493 

n.143 

ii. 144 

1.226 

1.213 

n.167 

n.449 

1.126 

ii. 415 

in. 83 

1.112 

ii. 83 

n.241 

1.179 

in. 132 

1.108 

1.203 

n. 407 

in. 12 

i. 86 

Google 



TO 



INDKX. 



Mat ix.13, 



x. 
z. 

xi. 

xi. 

xii. 

xii. 

xii. 

xii. 

xii. 

xii. 

xii. 

xii. 

xiii. 

xiii, 
xiii. 
xiii. 
xiii. 
xiii. 
xiii. 
xiii. 
xiv. 
xiv. 

XT. 

XV. 
XT. 
XT. 
XTi. 

xvi. 

XTi. 
XVI. 

xvii. 
xvii. 
xviii. 
xviii 
xviii. 

xix. 

xix. 

xix. 

xix. 

xix. 

XX. 
XX. 
XX. 
XX. 

xxi. 

xxi. 

xxi. 

xxi. 

xxii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 

XXV. 
XXV. 

xxv. 
XXV. 
xxv. 
xxv. 
xxv. 



30. 

37, 
42. 
28, 
29, 
20, 
28, 

31, 82, 
33, 
36, 
41, 
42, 

43-45. 
■ 6,7, 
12, 
19, 

20-22, 
22, 

31, 32, 
35, 
65, 
24, 

29-31, 
18, 19. 

ft 19 ' 
8"' 

a 
a 

3 

20, 
28, 
17, 
27, 

23,24, 
27, 
29, 

10, 16, 
11,13,15, 
12, 
28, 
14, 

353,84, 
37,38, 
38, 
,82, 

25-27, 

27, 

29, 

34,35, 

37, 

37, 

37, 

37, 

37, 

23, 

27, 

41, 

11. 12, 

20-22 

2°' 
80, 

30, 

30, 

34-36, 



I. 18 
1.210 

H.492 

1.471 

1.448 

H.488 

1.122 

1.484 

1.155 

1.150 

1.148 

1.110 

ii. 6 

ii. 116 

n. 70 

I. 27 

1.139 

n.411 

1.436 

n.420 

ii. 892 

ii. 629 

1.270 

m.200 

1.140 

i. 71 

n 203 

n.378 

i. 9 

1.169 

1.102 

1.153 

II. 47 

U.155 

1.324 

1.165 

H.489 

in. 188 

1.212 

I. 17 

1.270 

n.156 

n.278 

1.426 

1.880 

1.408 

1.282 

1.285 

1.152 

1.378 

1.149 

I. 26 

1.432 

n.290 

1.111 

1.116 

1.116 

11.385 

1.189 

1.142 

1.355 

i. 462 

II. 69 
1.510 

II1.138 
1.356 
1.103 
H.408 
i. 49 
1.386 
n.396 
n.620 
n.417 



Mat. xxt. 

xxv. 

XXV. i 

xxv. 
xx vi. 

xxvi. 

xxvii. 

xxvii. 

xxvii. 

xxviii. 

Mark i. 

i. 1 

iv. 

vi. 

vi.1 

vi. 

Ti. 

ix. 

X.2 

x.5 
Xii. I 
xv. ] 
xvi. 
xvi. 
Luke i. 
vi 

Ti. 
Til.-j 

Tiii. 
Tiii. ] 

Tiii. 
Tiii. 

X. 
X. 
X. * 

xi. ! 
xii. 
xii. 
xii. 
xii.! 
xii. ] 
xii. 
xii. 
xii. 
xii. 
xii. 
xii., 
xii. 
XIII 
xiii.< 
xiii. \ 
xiv. 
xiv.: 
xiv. 
xiv. 
xv. 

XV. 
XV. 
XV. 
XV. 

XV.] 
XV. 

xvi. 

xvi.] 

xvi. 

xvi.! 

xvi. J 
xvii. 
xvii. ] 
xviii. 
xviii. ] 
xviii. ! 

XTiii. ] 



.34, 


ii. 419 


Luke xviii. 11, 


H. 281 


84,35,. 


in. 169 


xviii. 11, 


n.423 


4l! . 


i. 49 


XTiii. 12, 


ii. 6^3 


45,46,. 


H.296 


xix. 10, 


1. 170 


37-41 . 


in. 100 


xix. 17, 


1.510 


75, 


i. 25 


xix. 27, 


ii. 485 


3 ■ 


11.254 


xix. 41, 42, 


1. 169, 186 


3,4, 


I. 25 


xix. 41,42, 


ii. 40 


48, , 


I. 55 


xix. 41, 42, 


n. 59 


18, 


in. 25 


Xix. 42, 


1.139 


14,16, 


I. 18 


xx. 27, 


ni. 32 


16, 


I. 17 


xxi. 8, 


1.223 


25! 


n.217 


xxi. 26, 


. in. 130 


11. 


i. 16 


xxi. 34, 


ii. 150 


12, . 


i. 18 


xxii. 32, 


i. 100 


20, 


n.425 


xxiii. 34, 


I. 149 


28, 


H.284 


xxiv. 21, 


1.152 


24, 


1.114 


xxiv. 47, 


l. 17 


2*80, 


. . II. 26 


xxiv. 47, . 


I. 18 


29, 


1.461 


John i. 11, 12, 


1.107 


34, 


11.134 


1.11, 


LlltS 


16, 


n.348 


i. 11. 


ii. 481 


16! 


I. 68 


i.12, 


I. 232 


17, 


1.480 


i.12, 


1.325 


11,19,2 


0, 1. 116 


i. 18* . 


Ii. 97 


43,45, 


. n. 6 


i. 49, 50, 


1.177 


44, 


I. 58 


ii. 19, . 


in. Ifc8 


4, 6, 7, 


1.131 


ii. 32, 


n. 66 


18, 


1.428 


iii. 2, 


1.149 


14, 


ii. 421 


iii. 3, 


H. 7 


16, 


1. 10* 


iii. 3, 


n. 9 


17, 


1.434 


iii. 6, 


I. 15 


20, 


in. 37 


iii. 8, 


ii. 29 


30,33, 


in. 86 


iii. 8, 


HI. 21 


41, 


ii. 140 


iii. 14, 15, 


I. 77 


21, 


1.143 


iii. 18, 


I. 63 


5, 


11.471 


iii. 18, 36 


1.338 


10, 


1.149 


iii. 18, 


1.359 


19, 


11. 22 


iii. 19, 


1. 116 


24, 


II. 146 


iii. 20, 


i. 78 


16 


n.156 


iii. 36, 


ii. 85 


17,20, 


H.138 


iv. 10, 


i. 77 


19, 


1.120 


iv. 14, 


1.248 


29, 


II. 142 


iv.28, 


n.327 


42, 


1.378 


iv. 84, 


Hi. 84 


47, 


H.407 


▼. 4, 


1.443 


48, 


i. 417 


v.i4, 


1. 16 


60, 


1. 186 


v. 14, 


1.198 


5, 


n.385 


v. 36, 


1.150 


44, 


n. 242 


v. 40, 


J. 116 


27. 


I. 29 


V.40, 


1.331 


21, 


1. 131 


v. 44, 


1. 116 


26, 


. 1.39,161 


Ti. 9, 


1.427 


26,27, 
2/, 


1.268 


vi.31,36, 


Ii. 96 


1.447 


vi. 32, 84, 


1.77 


7, 


L 19 


Ti.37, 


I. 29 


7, 


i. 61 


vi. 37, 


1.231 


7-10, 


1.353 


Ti.37, 


1.348 


13, 


i. 66 


vi. 37, 


1.362 


17, , 


1.121 


vi.44, 


I. 7 


17, 


1.345 


vi.60, 


1.444 


18,19 


1.168 


vii. 12, 


1.147 


5-7, . 


1.418 


vii. 17, 
viii. 3<\ 


1.265 


11, . 


1.416 


1.346 


16, 


i. 82 


viii. 41, 44, 


1.413 


23, 


1.120 


viii. 56, 


L255 


31, 


1.433 


ix. 4, 


II. 361 


3. 


i. 18 


is. 41, 


I. 56 


\ ■ 


1.300 


x. 5, , 


HI. 172 


1.123 


x.io; 


1.360 


11, 


i. 45 


x. 17, 18, 


Hi. 69 


11.12, 


1.109 


x.18, 


in. 148 


11, H 


1.281 


• In the text, mlspi 


intedlJohn. 



Digitized by VlOOQ IC 



INDEX. 



XYU 



John x. 29, 
x.3l, 
xi.33, 
xi. 42, 
xi. 47, 
xi. 47, 
xii. 37, 38, 
xii.43, 
xiv. 2, 8, 
xiv. 16, 
xiv. 16, 17, 
xiv. 20, 
xiv. 2L 23, 
xiv. 21' 
xiv. 21, 2a 
xiv. 23, 
xv. 5, 
xv. 7, 
xv. 9, 
xv. 13, 
xv. 15, 
xv. 19, 
xv. 20, 
xt. 22, 
xvi. 2, 
xvi. 8, 
xvi. 20, 
xvi. 23, 
xvi. 26, 
xvi. 27, 
xvi. 32, 
xvi. 33; 
xvii. 9,20, 
xvii. 9, 
xvii. 19, 
xvii. 20, 
xvii. 20, 
xvii. 21, 22, 
xvii. 22, 
xvii. 22, 
xvii. 2|, 
xix. 12, 
xx. 17, 
xx. 27-29, 
xxi. 17, 
Acta i. 6,7, 
ii. 16, 
ii. 28, 
ii. 37, 
ii. 37, 
ii. 37, 
ii. 38, 
iii. 14-17, 
iii. 17-19, 
iii. 19, 
iv. 12, 
iv.34> 
v. 3, 
T.29l 
v. 29 
v. 31' 

v.3i; 

v. 31, 

v. 81 

v. 31, 

vii. 51, 

▼iii. 13, 

viii. 22, 

ix. 4, 5, i. 

ix. 5,6, 

ix. 7, 

ix. 11, 

ix. 22, 



1.374 

in. 18 

in. 86 

1.206 

1.149 

1.152 

1.117 

ii. 310 

1.349 

1 100 

Ui.149 

ill. 7 

II. 319 

Hi. 167 

in. 45 

in. 186 

11.101 

1.202 

in. 36 

hi. 26 

ill. 5 

1.457 

in. 161 

1.261 

n.423 

ii. 222 

I. 61 

HI. 8 

in. 146 

1.205 

ill. 108 

1.122 

i. 92 

Hi. 22 

1. 147 

1.100 

1.231 

in. 166 

n. 43 

ir. 11 

in. 7 

1.462 

in. 10 

1.103 

1.176 

i. 129, 338 

U.245 

I. 17 

I. 19 

i. 80 

I. 82 

I. 18 

H.205 

1.150 

I. 17 

I. 83 

ii. 147 

ii. 48 

H. 21 

n.468 

I. 18 

I. 29 

i. 68 

1.176 

n.109 

1.143 

1.102 

i. 18 

157,m. 97 

1. 146, 171 

ii. 70 

1.157 

1.162 



Acts x. 33, 

xi. 18, 

xi. 18, 

xi.18, 

. xii. 1,23, 

xiii. I, 

xiii. 24, 

xiii. 38, 

xiii. 46, 

xiv. 16, 

xv. 9, 

xv. 9, 

xv. 39, 

xvi. 14, 

xvi. 20, 

xvi. 27, 28, 

xvi. 29, 

xvii. 28, 

xvii. 30, 

xvii. 30, 

xvii. 31, 

xix. 25, 

xx. 20, 21, 

xx. 21, 

xx. 22, 23, 

xx. 24, 

xx. 25, 

xx. 28, 

XXiv. 25, 

xxiv. 25, 

xx vi. 5, 

xxvi. 10, 

xxvi. 11, 

xxvi. 18, 

xxvi. 18, 

xxvi. 18, 

xxvi. 18, 

xxvi. 18, 

xxvi. 18, 

xxvi. 20, 

xxvi. 20, 

xxvi. 22, 

xxvi. 26, 27, 

xxvi. 28, 

xxvi. 28, 29, 

xxvii. 20, 

Bom. i. 17, 

i.18, 

i. 19.20, 

i.25, 

i.31, 

ii. 7, 

ii. 14, 15, 

ii. 17, 

ii. 22, 

iii. 2, 

iii. 24, 

iii. 25, 

iii. 31, 

iii. 31, 

iv. 4, 

iv. 4, 

iv -& 
iv.20, 

iv.20, 

iv. 21, 

iv. 25, 

▼. 1, 

v. 1-8, 

▼.8-5, 

v. 6, 

▼. 6, 

v. 8, 



1.444 
i. 19 
i. 25 
I. 29 

i. 19 

hi. 75 

1.141 

ii. 405 

I. 96 

1. 110 

1.438 

i. 52 

i. 462 

1.171 

i. 81 

n.456 

i. 17 

I. 58 

n. 467 

n. 213 

i. 18 

I. 144 

1.479 

i. 451 

X. 365 

11.532 

I. 81 

H. 8 

II. 281 

n.337 

i. 151 

I. 46 



64 
71 

78 
85 
84 
18 
45 



I. 
I. 
I. 
I. 
II. 
i. 
L 

i. 88 

n.259 

ii. 8 

1.471 

n.358 

1.114 

n.401 

in. 4 

H.800 

I. 87 

H.428 

ii. 216 

n.270 

ii. 157 

I. 48 

1.176 

I. 76 

n.522 

n.530 

i. 23 

in. 148 

1.305 

i. 90 

1.289 

1.176 

in. 68 

1.480 

I. 91 

ii. 440 

I. 52 

ii. 104 

ill. 68 



Rom. v. 8, 

▼. 10, 11, . 

▼. 10, 11, . 

▼. 14, . 

v. 18, . 

v. 19, 20, . 

▼. 30, 

vi. 9-11, . 

vi. 14, . 

vi 14, 

vi. 16, 

vi. 16, 

vi. 16, 

vi. 1-5, . 
vii. 4, 
vii. 7, 
vii. 8, 
vii. 9, 
vii. 18, 20, . 
vii. 18, 

▼ii. 18, 19, 20, 
vii. 21, 
vii. 24, 
viii 1, 
▼iii. 8, 
viii. 3, 
viii. 3, 
viii. 4, 
viii. 7, 
viii. 7, 
viii. 7, . 
viii. 13, 
viii. 16, 17, . 
viii. 18, 
viii. 18, 
viii. 22, 
viii. 22, 
viii. 23, 
viii. 28, 
viii. 28, 
viii. 32, 
viii. 32, 
viii. 33, 34, . 
viii. 33, 34, . 
viii. 34, 
viii. 34, 
viii. 34, 
viii. 87, 
viii. 37, . 
▼iii. 37, 

ix. 4, . 

ix. 13-20, . 

ix.30, 

x. 2, . 

x. 4, . 

x. 11, . 

x. 14, 17, 

xi. 17, . 

xi. 20, 

xi. 32, 

xi. 85, 
xii. 2, . 
xii. 2, 
xii. 2, 
xiii. 4,6, . 
xiii. 12, 
xiii. 14, 
xiv. 1, 
xiv. 15, 20, . 
1 Cor. i. 26-28, . 
i. 26-28, . 
i. 26-28, . 

ii.12, . 



in. 14 

in. 58 

hi. 74 

i. 8 

1.363 

i. 89 

1.198 

m. 154 

i. 19 

1.306 

1.393 

in. 174 

n.482 

in. 20 

n.387 

i. 78 



14 

54 

4 

6 

88 
9 

14 
. 30 
.328 



56 
99 



i. 
ii. 

i. 

i. 

I. 

i. 

i. 

i. 

l. 

in. 93 
in. 156 

1.804 

i. 6 

i. 10 
ii. 46 

i. 

i'. 426 

i. 5<>Q 

i. 69 

ii. 494 

1.459 

ii. 187 

ii. 479 

i. 77 

Hi. 141 

1.176 

1.181 

1.849 

in. 144 

in. 146 

1.321 

1.861 

1.454 

I. 48 

1.371 

I. 71 

ii. 21 

I. 22 

n.489 

1.240 

ii. 122 

n.102 

I. 85 

1.372 

I. 245 

1.442 

n.376 

mi. 472 

ii. 373 

1.276 

1.248 

1.469 

1.131 

in. 25 

hi. 5 

i. 9 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



XTU1 



INDEX. 



Cor. ii. 12, 


ii. 416 


2 Cor. r. 21, 


ii. 14, 


it. 45 


v. 21, 


Hi. 5-7. 


I. 116 


T.21, 


iii. 21-23, 


i. 122 


vi. 14-17, 


Hi. 21, 22, 


1.423 


vi.14. 


iii. 21-28, 


ii. 95 


vil7, 


iii. 21-28, 


in. 9 


vii. 1, 


Hi. 21, 


m. 179 


vii. 9, 10, 


iii. 22, 23, 


i. 317 


vii. 9, 10, 


iii. 22, 


in. 47 


vii. 11, 


Hi. 23, 


1. 194 


viii. 12, 


iv. 4, 


1.280 


x. 4, 5, 


iv. 7, 


i. 410 


xi. 2, 


*. 2, 


ii. 852 


xi. 2. 


vi. 2,8, . 


in. 169 


xii. 9, 


16. 


ii. 88 


xii. 10, 
xiii. 6, 


vi. 19, 20, 


i. 393 


vi. 19, 20, 


ir. 80 


xiii. 15, 


Tii. 25, 


I. 412 


Gal. i. 18, 


vii. 29, 


n. 17 


i. 16, 


Tii. 30, 


H. 140 


ii. 11, 


▼Hi. 8. 


n.338 


ii. 12,13, 


viii. 13, 


1.468 


ii.20, 


a. 7, 


H.396 


ii. 20, 


ix. 9, 


i. 170 


ii.20, 


ix.26, 


n.236 


ii. 20, 


M- 


ii. 242 


ii.20. 


ii. 165 


ii.20, 


x. 18, 


in. 101 


ii. 21, 


x. 13, 


in. 164 


ii. 21, 


x.20, 


ii. 326 


ii. 21, 


x.8l, 


n.892 


in. 10, 


x. 81, 


in. 184 


Hi. 10, 


xi. 19, 


1.457 


iii. 10. 


xi. 29, 


ii. Ill 


Hi. 10, 


xi. 31, 


i. 24 


iii. 10, 11, 


xii. 12, 


HI. 6 


iii. 10, 13, 


xii. 26, 


in. 12 


Hi. 13, 


xii. 81, 


ii. 13 


iii. 13, 14, 


xiii. 1, 


ii. 246 


iv. 1, 


xiii. 2. 


ii. 247 


iv. 4, 


xiv. 1-4, . 


ii. 4o2 


iv. 4,5, 


xiv. 12, 


n.442 


iv. 17, 


xiv. 40, 


hi. 204 


iv. 29, 


xv. 10, 


i. 21 


iv.29, 


xv. 24, 


i. 183 


v. 6, 


XY. 31, 


1.452 


v.13, 


xv. 83, 


ii. 340 


v. 16, 17, 


xv. 67, . 


i. 308 


v. 18, 


Cor. i. 12, 


I. 242 


v.21, 


i. 20, 


I. 22 


v. 22, 


i. 20, 


1. 192 


v. 22, 


i. 20, 


1.813 


vi. 6,7, 


i. 20, 


Hi. 133 


vi. 7-9, 


iii. 6, 


I. 80A 


vi.14, 


a;. 5, 


1.496 


vi. 16, 


iv. 3, 


ii. 91 


Eph. i. 3, 


iv. 4, 


1.850 


i. 6, 


iv. 4, 


. in. 17 


i. 7, 


iv. 6, 


i. 84 


i. 10-12, 


iv. 6, 


1.255 


i. 11. 


iv. 6, 


in. 137 


i. 13, 


iv. 8, 


ii. 511 


i. 18, 14, 


iv. 16-18. . 


n.384 


i. 19, 


iv. 17, 18, 


ii. 170 


i. 19, 20, 


iv. 18, 


H.159 


i. 19, 20, 


v. 14, 15, 


Hi. 80 


H. 1, 


vi. 14-18, . 


in. 183 


H. 1, 


v. 16, 


in. 66 


ii. 3, 


▼.17. 


1. 105 


ii. 7-9, 


v. 19,20, 


i. 342 


H. 8, 


v. 20, 


ii. 40 


ii. 8, 


v. 20, 


II. 68 


H. 10, 



19, 



L293 

1.305 

Hi. 51 

1.507 

n.872 
in. 6 

Ii. 17 
L 25 
L 26 

11.231 
1.223 
1.116 

II. 88 
hi. 87 
in. 100 

n.498 
1.440 
1.114 
1.151 

ii. 18 
1.438 

n.338 
i. 94 
1.175 
1.239 
1.490 

ii. 6 

H. 116 
1.126 
1.281 
1.299 

Ii. 517 
I. 24 

in. 51 

in. 78 
1.269 

m. 57 

ii. 49 
1.311 
in. 207 
1.290 
1.307 

Ii. 176 
1.162 
i. 462 
1.112 

ii. 312 
i. 14 
i. 19 
I. 56 
1.188 

H. 451 
1.402 

i:. 434 
1.486 

If. 3 

ii. 118 
1. 179 
1.305 
1.130 
1.375 
I. fcSO 
1. 100 

ii. 28 
1.117 
1.326 
I. 7 
I. 58 
I. 6 
1.130 
1.115 
1.168 
1.297 



Eph. 



vi. 

vi. 

vi. 

Philip. L 

i". 

i. 
ii. 
it 
Hi. 
iii. 
Hi. 
III. 
Hi. 
iii. 
Hi. 
iii 
Hi. 
Hi. 
iv. 
iv. 
iv. 
iv. 
iv. 
iv. 
iv. 



12, 

12, 

12, 

12, 

12, 

12, 

13, 18, 19, 

17, 

1H.19, 

19, 

19, 

20, 

11, 

18, 

21,22, 

23,24, 

23,24, 

24, 

2. 

2, 

5, 

7, 

8, 

8, 
U. 
33, 

7, 



Col. 



ii. 

H. 

it 
Hi. 
Hi. 
Hi. 
Hi. 
iv. 
lTWi. 

i. 

v. 

V. 
V. 
V. 

2 The*, i. 



12, 

18, 

23,24. 

29, 

29, 

29, 

8, 

8, 

6, 

7,8, 

8, 

8, 

9, 

9, 

9, 

10, 12, 
19,20, 
19, 

6, 

6,7. 

8, 

11,12, 
13, 
13, 
18, 

10,11, 
18, 
18, 
15, 
27, 

1, 
23, 
23, 

6, 

5, 
12,13, 
12,13, 

2, 

4, 
10, 

6,6, 
18, 
22, 
22, 

4, 



13, 



I. 92 

l 94 

1.309 

II. 56 

n.363 

HL177 

1.316 

L 92 

1.251 

in. 14 

in. 36 

L492 

1.183 

I. 10 

1.260 

I'. 7 

IL433 

i. 14 

hi. 3 

ui. 70 

n.299 

IL334 

H.355 

1.106 

ii. 57 

in. 32 

ii. 312 

I. 8-5 

1.242 

in, 180 

1.217 

1.115 

1. 168 

H. 173 

1.296 

1.450 

1.151 

II. 93 
I. 83 
1.247 
I. 222 
1.273 
1.342 
1.265 

Ii. 152 
1L309 
137, 173 
IL478 
n.381 
1.486 
1.361 
IH.129 
L2»« 
H. 391 
1. 341 
n. 84 
1.255 
1.105 
1.363 
n.284 
H.427 
n.306 
U.331 
1L449 
ui. 103 
U.176 

1. 12* 

«. 525 
Ii. 57 
1.358 
1.504 
u.525 
1.501 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



INDEX. 



XIX 



2Tbes.i. 6,7, . 


1.181 


Heb. iv. 15, 16, . 


1.184 


Heb. xii. 28, 


in. 209 


i. 6,7, . 


1.346 


iv. 16, 


in. 110 


xii. 29, 


H.233 


L 8,9, . 


in. 42 


iv. 16, 


ii. 491 


xiii. 5, 


i. 216 


i.iol . 


m. 3 


▼. 1, 


Hi. 49 


xiii. 9. 


ii. 425 


ii. 8, 


H.106 


▼. 1. 


Hi. 89 


xiii. 11, 12, 


hi. 72 


ii. 10, 


1.240 


▼. 7, 


1.185 


xiii. 13, 


1.450 


ii. 10. 


1.446 


▼. 7, 


1.200 


xiii. 16, 


1.891 


it 10. 11, 


11.219 


vi. 1, 


I. 19 


xiii. 15, 16, 


hi. 38 


ii. 16, 


11.404 


vi. 1, . 


1.261 


xiii. 20, 21, 


1.308 


1 Tim. L 6, 


in. 70 


vi. 4, 


ii. 247, 252 


James i. 2,3, 


ii. 441 


i.13, 


1.150 


vi. ti, . 


1.148 


i. 4, 


1.454 


i 18, 15,1 


L6, 1. 168 


vi. 8, 


n.401 


i. 5.6, 


1.327 


i.14, . 


Hi. 3 


vi. 18, 


I. 67 


i. 6, 


i. 197 


i 16, . 


1.146 


vi. 18, 19, 


1.362 


i. 10, 11, 


ii. 159 


il7. 


u.508 


vii. 22, 


i. 22 


i. 18. 14, 


ii. 135 


▼• 6, 


1.859 


vii. 22, 


1.304 


i. 15, 


i. 8 


v. 8, 


1.417 


vii. 25, 


i. 83 


i. 17, 


1.383 


r. 8, 


n. 189 


Vii. 25, 


in. 143 


i. 18, 


i. 3*0 


▼.22, 


i.. 884 


viiL 6, 


in. 143 


i. 23-25. 


ii. 219 


▼.22, . 


xi.341 


ix. 14, 


. hi. 50 


ii. 10. 


i. 28 


▼i. 9, 


L420 


ix. 15, 


i. 22 


ii. 10, 


1.124 


▼i. 17, 18, 


n.442 


ix. 18, 


i 810 


ii. 15, 16, 


HI. fe7 


vi. 18. 19, 


11.417 


ix.22, 


i. 51 


i>. 19, 


i. 96 


▼i. 18, 


II. 452 


ix.22, 


1.315 


ii. 19, 


1.102 


2 Tim. i. 9, 


hi. 150 


ix.22, 


in. 60 


ii. 19, 


H.219 


i. 12, 


1.182 


ix. 24. 


in. 144 


ii. 21, 


1.452 


ii 3, 


I.4P5 


x. 6. 7, 


in. 64 


ii. 23, 


1. 113 


ii. 19, 


1.466 


x. 7. 


in. 62 


iii. 2, 


1.159 


ii. 19, 


1.818 


x. 7-9, 


hi. 149 


iii. 8, 


1.351 


ii. 19, 


ii. 24 


x.19. 


in. Ill 


iii. 15, 


ii. 19 


ii. 19, 


in. 163 


x.22, 


in. 124 


iii. 17, 


H.390 


ii. 21, 


i 358 


x.25, 


in. 99 


iv. 1, 


n.332 


ii. 25, 26, . 


i. 28 


x. 28, 29, 


1.153 


iv. 3, 


1.199 


ii. 25, 


ii. 110 


x.29, 


1.147 


iv. 3, . 


1.397 


Hi. 12, 


i 460 


x.29, 


1.207 


iv. 3, 


H. 179 


iv. 8, 


i. 500 


x.29, 


1. 149 


iv. 4, 


ii. 152 


iv. 10, 


1.485 


x. *9, 


ii. 112 


iv. 4, 


. hi. 183 


iv. 16, 


1.286 


x.38, 


1. 174 


iv. 14, 


H. 158 


iT. 18, 


1.242 


xi. 6, 


i. 75 


v. 1-3, . 


1. 121 


Titus i. 1, 


i. 96 


xi. 6, 


in. 201 


v. 1-3, . 


ii,162 


i.15. 


i. 94 


xi. 7, 


1.106 


▼. 5. 


H.466 


i. 15, 


i. 125 


xi. 13, 


i. 238, 243 


v. 10, 11, 


11.158 


i. 15, 


ii. 113 


xi. 13, 


i. 71 


▼.16, 


1-198 


ii. 11, 12, . 


n.447 


xi. 17, 


1.452 


v. 16, . 


ii. 114 


ii. 11,12, . 


n. 16 


xi. 24, 25, 


n.474 


1 Pet. i. 3, 


1.105 


iii. 5, 


i. 324 


xi. 24-36, 


i.4>5 


i. 3, 


1.112 


Heb. I. 3, 


U.463 


xi. 24^28, 


1.491 


i. 4,5, 


1. 100 


i. 8, 


in. 22 


xi.25, 


i. 62 


i. 5-7, . 


1.498 


i. 8, 


in. 60 


xi.25, 


1.120 


i. 7, 


1.113 


i. 13, 


1.278 


xi.26, 


H. 12 


i. 6,7, . 


n.167 


ii. 3, 


1.140 


xi. 28, 


1.500 


i. 8, . 


1.122 


ii. 3, 


1.431 


xi. 3*-35, 


1.214 


i. 10, 11, . 


1.254 


ii. 16, 


in. 153 


xi. 3 , 


in. 85 


i 12, 


li. 115 


ii. 17, 


hi. 29 


xii. 1, 


i. 10 


i.15, 


1.406 


ii. 17, 


in. 60 


xii. 1, 2, . 


1.109 


i. 18, 19, 


1.307 


ii. 17, 


in. 175 


xii. 1, 2, . 


1.246 


i. 18, 19, . 


hi. 37 


ii. 18, 


in. 89 


xii. 1, 2, 


1.501 


i.23. 


n.403 


ii. 18, 


iii. 101 


xii. 2, 


1.450 


ii. 1, 


1.429 


iii. 15, 


i. 58 


xii. 2, 


n,109 


ii. 2, 


11.436 


iv. 2, 


1.445 


Xii. 2, 


in. 69 


«■ 4,5, 


ii. 124 


iv. 3, 


i. 56 


Xii. 5. 


11.140 


ii. 12, 


n.381 


iT. 9, 


1.122 


Xii. 6-8, . 


in. 39 


ii. 12, 


n.416 


iT. 12, 


1.113 


Xii. 7, 8, 


ii. 192 


ii. 14, 


n.354 


iv. 13, 


i. 21 


Xii. 11, 


1.455 


ii. 23, 


in. 391 


iv. 12, 13, 


n.218 


Xii. 11, 


ii. 417 


iii. 1, 


n.374 


iv. 13, 


1.193 


Xii. 14, 


1.164 


iii. 14, 15, 


H.311 


iv. 13, 


u.464 


Xii. 14, 


1.297 


iii. 16, 


n.388 


iv. 18, 


in. 126 


Xii. 17, 


I. 58 


iii. 19, 20, 


1.140 


iv. 14, 


in. 81 


Xii. 18, 


in. 116 


iii. 20, 


n. 515 


iv. 14, 15, 


hi. 159 


Xii. 22, 23, 


hi. 194 


iv. 4, 


l. 244 


iv. 14-16, 


1.176 


Xii. 24, 


1.207 


iv. 10, 


1.401 


iv, 14-16, 


1.204 


Xii. 24, 


1.309 


iv. 16, 


I. 466 


iv. 15, 


iii. 12 


Xii. 24, 


in. 147 


▼. 8, 


1.457 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



2 Pet. 



iii 

1 JOHIf I. 
i. 

i. 
i. 



i. 2-4, 
i. 4, 
I. 4, 
i. 5.6, 
i. 5^8, 
i.10, 
i. 19. 
H. 4, 
u. 15, 
ii. 17. 
ii. 20, 
ii. 20, 22, 



9, 

3, 

6, 

9, 

9, 
ii. 1, 
ii. 8-11, 
ii. 15, 
ii. 16, 
ii. 16, 
ii. 24, 
iii. 1, 
iii. 2, 
iii. 2, 
iii. 4, 



1.311 

1.107 ■ 

ii. 41 ! 

n.379 

H.435 

1.128 

1.195 

1.140 

11.256 

u.357 

n.249 

ii. 8 

i. 19 

in. 165 

1.276 

i. 17 

I. 18 

in. 145 

n.382 

n.152 

u. 5 

n.208 

ii. 50 

hi. 169 

1.244 

1.256 

I. 4 



1 John iii. 4, 
iii. 9, 
iii. 9, 
iii. 12, 
iii. 14. 
iii. 18, 
iii. 22, 
iii. 23, 
it. 11, 
iv. 16, 
ir. 18, 
it. 18, 

T. 10, 

T. 11. 12, 

t. 13-15, 
t. 14, 15. 
▼.21, 
20, 
i. 8, 
ii. 2,3, 
ii. 4..5. 
ii. 14, 
ii.24, 
iii. 1.2, 
iii. 7, 
iii. 15, 16, 
iii. 15-18, 



Jnd«. 
ReT. 



L 41 
i. 34 

II. 81 

1.470 

I. 83 

in. 80 

n.251 
i. 90 

in. 102 

in. 4 
1.482 
1.487 
I. 90 
L 85 
1.202 
in. 119 

n.325 

H.180 
I. 49 
1.467 
1.482 
1.478 

1.346 
1.495 
I. 49 

11.2)3 
1.131 



B«r. iii. 19. 

iii. 19. 

m. 20, 

*▼• 4. 

▼.12, 

▼.19, 

▼ii. 15, 16, 

vii. 17, 

▼iii. 3,4, 

lx.ll, 

x. 9, 

*. 9. 

xi. 19. 

xii. 1, 

xii. 6, 

xiT. 13, 

xtI. 9,11, 

XTii. 5, . 

xix. 6, 

xxi. 8, 

xxi. 8, 

xxi. 27, 

xxii. 2, 

xxii. 3, 

xxii. 11. 

xxii. 14, 



1.354 

in. 4o 

n. 3t 
i.4*4 
1.323 

in. 71 

III. 1# 

III. 1 31 
1.2>«5 

H.4U8 
l <£ 
1.129 
I. 77 
1.463 

H.507 
1.122 
1.320 

u.327 
11.464 
I. 9* 
11.303 

n.321 
i. 8 

ni. 115 
L139 
1.361 



END OF CLABKSON 8 PBAOTICAL WORKS. 



Digitized by LjOOQ IC 



/ t J 









• 
Digitized^/ LiOOQ IC