of faith, and of his tempting a poor soul to sin and death; and he must make amends for the scandal besides, in case there was any in it. In these, and all the like cases, let no man flatter himself when he hath wept and prayed against his sin; one solemnity is not sufficient; one act of contrition is but the beginning of a repentance; and where the crime is capital by the laws of wise nations, the greatest, the longest, the sharpest repentance, is little enough in the court of conscience. So Pacianus:m Hæc est Novi Testamenti tota conclusio; despectus in multis Spiritus Sanctus hæc nobis capitalis periculi conditione legavit. Reliqua peccata meliorum operum compensatione curantur: hæc verò tria crimina, ut basilisci alicujus afflatus, ut veneni calix, ut lethalis arundo, metuenda sunt: non enim vitiare animam, sed intercipere noverunt." Some sins do pollute, and some do kill, the soul, that is, are very near approaches to death, next to the unpardonable state: and they are to be repented of, just as habits are," even by a long and a laborious repentance, and by the piety and holiness of our whole ensuing life. "De peccato remisso noli esse securus," said the son of Sirach. "Be not secure, though your sin be pardoned;"—when therefore you are working out and suing your pardon, be not too confident.

53. XI. Those acts of sin which can once be done and no more, as parricide, and such which destroy the subject or person against whom the sin is committed, are to be cured by prayer, and sorrow, and intercourses with God immediately the effect of which, because it can never be told, and because the mischief can never be rescinded so much as by fiction of law, nor any supply be made to the injured person, the guilty man must never think himself safe, but in the daily and nightly actions of a holy repentance.

54. XII. He that will repent well and truly of his single actual sins, must be infinitely careful that he do not sin after his repentance, and think he may venture upon another single sin, supposing that an act of contrition will take it off; and so interchange his days by sin and sorrow, doing tomorrow what he was ashamed of yesterday. For he that sins upon the confidence of repentance, does not repent at all, because he repents that he may sin: and these single.

Parænes. ad Pœnitentiam.

■ See chap. v.

acts so periodically returning, do unite and become a habit. He that resolves against a sin, and yet falls when he is tempted, is under the power of sin in some proportion, and his estate is very suspicious; though he always resolved against that sin which he always commits. It is upon no other account that a single sin does not destroy a man, but because itself is speedily destroyed; if, therefore, it goes on upon its own strength, and returns in its proper period, it is not destroyed, but lives and endangers the man.

55. XIII. Be careful that you do not commit a single act of sin towards the latter end of your life; for it being uncertain what degrees of anger God will put on, and in what periods of time he will return to mercy, the nearer to our death such sins intervene, the more degrees of danger they have. For although the former discourse is agreeable to the analogy of the Gospel, and the economy of the Divine mercy, yet there are sad words spoken against every single sin. "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offends in one instance, he shall be guilty of all," saith St. James ;" plainly affirming, that the admitting one sin, much more the abiding in any one sin, destroys all our present possession of God's favour. Concerning which, although it may seem strange that one prevarication in one instance should make a universal guilt, yet it will be certain and intelligible if we consider that it relates not to the formality, but to the event of things. He that commits an act of murder, is not therefore an adulterer, but yet, for being a murderer, he shall die. He is as if he were guilty of all; that is, his innocence in the other shall not procure him impunity in this. One crime is inconsistent with God's love and favour.

56. But there is something more in it than this. For every one that breaks a commandment, let the instance be what it will, is a transgressor of the same bond by which he was bound to all. "Non quòd omnia legis præcepta violârit, sed quòd legis autorem contempserit, eoque præmio meritò careat, quod legis cultoribus propositum est," saith Venerable Bede:-" He did not violate all the commandments, but he offended him who is the giver of all the commandments." It is like letting one bead fall from a rosary or coronet of bugles. This, or that, or a third, makes no

• James, ii. 10.

difference, the string is as much broken if he lets one to slide, as if he dropped twenty. It was not an ill conceit of Menedemus the Eretrian, that there was but one virtue, which had divers names.' Ariston Chius expressed the same conceit with a little difference; affirming all virtues to be the same in reality and nature, but to have a certain diversification or rational difference by relation to their objects.' As if one should call the sight when it looks upon a crow, μɛλavéαv,-if upon a swan, λsuxoléav; so is virtue. When it moderates the affections, it is temperance; when it balances contracts, it is justice; when it considers what is, and what is not, to be done, it is prudence. That which they call virtue, if we call it the grace of God, or obedience, it is very true which they say. For the same spirit, the same grace of obedience, is chastity, or temperance, or justice, according as is the subject-matter. The love of God, if it be in us, is productive of all worthiness: and this is it which St. John said; "This is love, that we keep his commandments; the love of God constraineth us; it worketh all the works of God in us; it is the fulfilling of the commandments." For this is a catholicon, a universal grace. Charity gives being to all virtues, it is the life and spirit of all holy actions. Abstinence from feasts and inordination, mingled with charity, is temperance. And justice is charity, and chastity is charity, and humility is still but an instance of charity. This is that transcendent that gives life and virtue to alms, to preaching, to faith, to miracles; it does all obedience to God, all good offices to our neighbours: which, in effect, is nothing but the sentence of Menedemus and Ariston, that 'there is a universal virtue;' that is, there is one soul and essence of all virtue:' they call it virtue,' St. Paul calls it charity;' and this is that one thing which is necessary, that one thing which every man that sins does violate; he that is guilty of all, is but guilty of that one, and therefore, he that is guilty of that one, of the breach of charity, is guilty of all. And upon this account it is, that no one sin can stand with the state of grace; because he that sins in one instance, sins against all goodness: not against all instances of duty, but against that which is the life of all, against charity and obedience.

6

A Prayer to be said in the days of Repentance for the

Commission of any great Crime.

O MOST glorious God, I tremble to come into thy presence, so polluted and dishonoured as I am by my foul stain of sin which I have contracted, but I must come, or I perish. O my God, I cannot help it now; miserable man that I am, to reduce myself to so sad a state of things, that I neither am worthy to come unto thee, nor dare I stay from thee: miserable man that I am, who lost that portion of innocence, which, if I should pay my life in price, I cannot now recover. O dear God, I have offended thee my gracious Father, my Lord, my Patron, my Judge, my Advocate, and my Redeemer. Shame and sorrow are upon me, for so offending thee, my gracious Saviour. But glory be to thee, O Lord, who art such to me who have offended thee. It aggravates my sin, that I have sinned against thee, who art so excellent in thyself, who art so good to me but if thou wert not so good to me, though my sin would be less, yet my misery would be greater. The greatness of my crime brings me to my remedy; and now I humbly pray thee to be merciful to my sin, for it is very great.

II.

O my God, pity me, and relieve my sad condition, which is so extremely evil, that I have no comfort but from that which is indeed my misery: my baseness is increased by my hopes; for it is thy grace and thy goodness which I have so provoked. Thou, O God, didst give me thy grace, and assist me by thy Holy Spirit, and call me by thy word, and instruct me by thy wisdom, and didst work in me to will and to do according to thy good pleasure. I knew my sin, and I saw my danger, and I was not ignorant, and I was not surprised: but wilfully, knowingly, basely, and sensually, I gave thee away for the pleasure of a minute, for the purchase of vanity; nay, I exchanged thee for shame and sorrow, and having justly forfeited thy love, am placed I know not where, nor in what degree of thy anger, nor in what neighbourhood of damnation.

III.

O God my God, what have I done? whither am I fallen? I was well and blessed, circled with thy graces, conducted by

VOL, VIII.

EE

thy Spirit, sealed up to the day of redemption, in a hopeful way towards thee; and now I have listened to the whispers of a tempting spirit; and for that which hath in it no good, no reason, no satisfaction; for that which is not, I have forfeited those excellences, for the recovery of which my life is too cheap a price. I am ashamed, O God, I am ashamed. I put my mouth in the dust, and my face in darkness; and hate myself for my sin, which I am sure thou hatest. But give thy servant leave to hope, that I shall feel the gracious effluxes of thy love: I know thou art angry with me, I have deserved it. But if thou hadst not loved me, and pitied me, thou mightest have stricken me in the act of my shame: I know the design of thy mercy and loving-kindness is to bring me to repentance and pardon, to life and grace. I obey thee, O God, I humbly obey thy gracious purposes. Receive, O Lord, a returning sinner, a poor wounded person, smitten by my enemies, broken by my sin, weary and heavy laden; ease me of my burden, and strengthen me by a mighty grace, that hereafter I may watch more carefully, resist more pertinaciously, walk more circumspectly, and serve thee without the interruptions of duty by the intervening of a sin. O let me rather die, than choose to sin against thee any more. Only try me this once, and bear me in thy arms, and fortify my holy purposes, and conduct me with thy grace, that thou mayest delight to pardon me, and to save me through Jesus Christ, my Lord and dearest Saviour. Amen.

I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost: O seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments.

CHAPTER V.

OF HABITUAL SINS, AND THEIR MANNER OF ERADICATION OR CURE, AND THEIR PROPER INSTRUMENTS OF PARDON.

SECTION I.

The State of the Question.

BOETHIUS the epicurean being asked, upon occasion of the fame of Strato's comedy, why, it being troublesome to us to