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Q. 37. What are those penitential works which we must undergo whether we will or not?

A. All the miseries and troubles to which we are daily exposed in this life, and which we cannot avoid. Were we diligent in performing the penitential works contained in the two former classes, we might easily discharge a great part of the debt we owe to the divine justice; but, alas! our backwardness in that is most deplorable, and therefore Almighty God, out of his infinite goodness, sends us many trials and afflictions of different kinds, as it were, to force us to our real good. Now, what sufferings he sends are surely the most proper for us; and, as we must unavoidably undergo whatever he sends upon us, it becomes an easy matter to discharge our debt by their means; all that is required, is to bear them with a penitential spirit, receiving them with patience and submission from the hand of God, and taking them as a penance sent by him for our sins. Penitential works of this class are innumerable. (1.) The toils and labours of our state of life, are a penance laid upon us by God from the very fall of Adam, in punishment of which, God said to Adam, "cursed is the earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life; in the sweat of thy brow thou shalt earn thy bread," Gen. iii. What a field of penitential works does this give to servants, husbandmen, tradesmen ? &c. (2.) The inclemencies of the weather, heat and cold, rain, frost, snow, &c. afford to all an abundant matter for the same purpose. (3.) Distractions, aridities, and desolations in time of prayer, are a just punishment for the many times we have been deaf to the calls of God, resisted his graces, and filled our heads with idle, unprofitable, or sinful thoughts; but, if borne with a penitential spirit, will be an effectual discharge

of the debt we have contracted by these faults. (4.) Your children are obstinate, and a torment to you; remember how you behaved to your parents, and your negligence in bringing up your own children well, and take the pain they give you as a penance sent from God for these sins. (5.) Servants, your masters and mistresses are harsh and ill natured: Masters, your servants are disobedient and careless; what noble opportunities does this give to each, of offering up a daily penance most acceptable to God? Sickness and pain attack you; here also is a large, and excellent field for making up your accounts with God to your great advantage. And so of all the other crosses which God sends upon us in this life, and which there is no avoiding, but which may easily be turned to the best account in the way of doing penance for our sins. But, oh! how contrary is our conduct in all these cases to what it ought to be? And how often do we abuse these occasions which God sends us of making up our peace with him; and turn them into occasions of increasing our guilt and our debt, by our impatience and murmuring under them! How unreasonable is our conduct in this respect! How great our folly !

SECTION VI.

OF THE EFFECTS OF REPENTANCE IN THE REMISSION OF SIN.

Q. 38. Does true Repentance remit sin, or wash it away from the soul?

A. By no means; the remission of sin is solely the work of God, and nothing but his grace can wash away the stains of sin from the soul.

Q. 39. What part then has repentance in the pardon of sin ?

A. It (1.) Disposes the soul for receiving from God the pardon of our sins; for without repentance the soul is utterly incapable of being restored to the favour and mercy of God, seeing that, as long as the soul loves sin, God will infallibly hate her. (2.) It efficaciously moves God to grant us pardon, because, as Jesus Christ has merited for us the pardon of our sins, on condition of a sincere repentance on our part, and, as God has repeatedly promised pardon to the repenting sinner, consequently, true repentance can never fail to obtain from God the pardon of sin; he is bound in justice to Jesus Christ, and in fidelity to his own promises to grant it. Besides, true repentance is itself a gift of God; it is his holy grace that first moves the sinner to it, it is his holy grace which enables the sinner to complete it, insomuch that, without the grace of God, it is impossible for us to have true repentance; consequently, when God gives to a sinner the grace of true repentance, undoubtedly he will also give the pardon of his sins, with a view to which the grace of repentance was given him.

Q. 40. What is meant by the pardon or remission of sin? In what does it consist?

A. We have seen above, that sin defiles, pollutes, and stains the soul in a most miserable manner, and renders her ugly and hateful in the sight of God, like to the very devils themselves; and loathsome to him and his holy angels, as a dead carcase is in the eyes of man. Now, as long as these pollutions and defilements of sin remain in the soul, it is impossible God could be reconciled with her. When, therefore, upon the sinner's sincere repentance, Almighty God, through the merits of Christ, pardons his sins, he washes away and cleanses the soul from all these pollutions of sin by his justifying grace; this renders her beau

tiful and agreeable to God, and restores her to his friendship and favour. So that the pardon or remission of sin, properly speaking, consists in being delivered from the guilt of sin, adorned with the grace of God, and restored to his favour.

Q. 41. How does it appear that Almighty God takes away and destroys all the stains and guilt of sin from the soul when he pardons sin?

A. This is manifestly shewn from many clear testimonies of Scripture. (1.) From those which expressly affirm it; thus, God promises by bis prophet, "I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness," Ezek. xxxvi. 25..." God will turn again and have mercy on us; he will put away our iniquities, and he will cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea,' Mich. vii. 19. Before David fell he said to God, "Thou hast tried me by fire, and iniquity hath not been found in me," Psal. xvi. 3. But after his unhappy fall he prayed, "Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sins

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...and blot out all mine iniquities," Psal. I. 4, 11. And afterwards, describing the pardon he had got, he said, "As far as the east is from the west, so far bath he removed our iniquities from us," Psal. cii. 12. The angel also touched Isaiah's lips with a coal, and said, "Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquity shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed," Is. vi. 7. St. Peter also, in his sermon to the Jews, says, "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out," Acts iii. 19. (2.) From those texts where this is expressly declared to be the benefit obtained for us by Jesus Christ; thus he is "the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world," John i. 29. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin," 1 John i. 7.; for he hath loved us,

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and washed us from our sins in his blood," Rev. i. 4.; "For if the blood of goats and of oxen, &c. "sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ cleanse our conscience from dead works?" Heb. ix. 14. (3.) From those texts which declare this to be done from the sacrament of baptism; thus, "Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, Acts xxii. 26. And St. Paul, speaking of different grievous sins, says, " And such some of you were, but you are washed, but you are sanctified, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God," 1 Cor. vi. 11.

Q. 42. By what means does Almighty God wash our souls from the guilt of our sins, when he grants us pardon for them?

A. By his holy grace, or divine charity, which he pours down into the soul, by his holy spirit, and which both washes away all the stains and pollutions of sin, and also beautifies the soul, and makes her just and holy in his sight, "because the charity of God is poured abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us," Rom. v.

CHAPTER XVIII.

ON THE GRACE OF GOD.

Q. 1. WHAT is the grace of God?

A. It is a supernatural gift of God, not at all due to us; a divine quality communicated by God to the soul, which cleanses her from all the stains of sin, and renders her beautiful and agreeable in the eyes of God: it is also a divine help, which excites us and enables us to do good and avoid evil.

VOL. I.

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