66

cause, have abandoned the grosser of them. But who empowered us to say that CHRIST's is an easy yoke to those who have again drawn back to the flesh? Our God has indeed once rescued us our God will still receive those "who, with hearty repentance and true faith, turn unto Him." But the God of the New Testament is not different from the GoD of the Old. "Our GoD is a consuming fire." "Repentance," says St. Ambrose', "must be not in words but in deed. And this will be, "if thou settest before thine eyes from what glory thou hast "fallen, and out of what book of life thy name has been blotted, "and if thou believest that thou art placed close by the outer "darkness, where shall be weeping of eyes and gnashing of "teeth, endlessly. When thou shalt have conceived this in thy "mind, as it is, with an undoubting faith, that the offending soul "must needs be delivered to the infernal pains, and the fires of "hell, and that after the one Baptism no other remedy is appointed than the solace of repentance, be content to undergo any affliction, any suffering, so thou mayest be freed from "eternal punishment." "Such a life," he adds, in a case still miserably common, since the bodies of all Christians are the temples of the HOLY GHOST," such a life, such a performance "of repentance, if it be persevering, may venture to hope, if "not for glory, at least for freedom from punishment."

66

Hereby it is not meant to imply that the efficacy of Baptism for the remission of sin ceases altogether after it has once been bestowed, which is the error of the Romanists; for we are by Baptism brought into covenant with GOD, and are made members of CHRIST, and are entitled to His all-prevailing intercession, when with hearty repentance we again turn to Him: but only that we are then washed, once for all, in His blood; and that, if we again sin, there remaineth no more such complete ablution in this life. We must bear the scars of the sins, which we have contracted we must be judged according to our deeds. The sense of Scripture in either case is clearly expressed by St.

1 De Lapsu Virginis Consecrata c. 8; or it may be St. Nicetas, Bp. of Dacia before A.D. 392, a man celebrated for piety, learning, and eloquence. See Tillemont Mémm. t. x. pp. 128, 263, sqq.

Augustine. For, on the one hand, he saith', "that, by the

same washing of regeneration, and word of sanctification, all "the ills of regenerated man are wholly cleansed and healed; "not only the sins, which are now in Baptism all forgiven, but "those also which are afterwards contracted by human ignorance "and infirmity. Not that Baptism is to be repeated as often as "sin is committed, but because thereby that it is once given, there " is obtained for the faithful, pardon for all sins, not only for those "before, but even for those afterwards committed. For what "would repentance benefit, either before Baptism, unless Bap"tism followed; or afterwards, unless it preceded? In the "LORD's prayer itself, which is our daily cleansing, with what "fruit or effect would the words forgive us our trespasses' be "used, unless by persons baptized?" On the other hand, he says distinctly", "when an infant begins to have sins of its own. "after Baptism, these are not removed by Regeneration, but are "healed by another cure." And so again he distinguishes at length3 between three sorts of penitence: one, necessary previous to Baptism, for all except infants, (who, since they cannot exercise freewill, may, through the interrogatories and answers of others, be cleansed from the stains of sins which they contracted through others, of whom they were born;) secondly, the daily penitence, during the whole of our mortal life, for those blameworthy and unholy motions, which, day by day, through the infirmity of the flesh, creep over us; thirdly, for those sins comprised under the Decalogue, if they should be committed.

1 De Nuptiis, § 38.

2 Epist. 98. ad Bonifac.

So

3 De Pœnitentia, Serm. 351 (alias 50 inter 50), § 2 fin. The same triple division of repentance recurs in his de Symbolo, § 15. "In three ways are sins remitted in the Church,—in Baptism, in prayer, in the deeper humiliation of penitence; yet God forgiveth not sin, except to the baptized. Those very sins, which He first remits, He remits only to the baptized; when? when they are baptized. The sins, which are afterwards forgiven to us on our praying, and to the penitent, whom He forgiveth, He forgiveth them, as being baptized. For how can they say 'Our Father,' who are not yet born? As long as they are Catechumens, (disciples but unbaptized), their sins are upon them."

66

that he distinctly and clearly separates those sins which, by virtue of our Baptism, are directly remitted to us, and those for which the harder and abiding course of repentance is necessary; although it be our Baptism in the blood of CHRIST, which renders that repentance effectual. In like manner, St. Leo1 speaks of "the manifold mercy of GOD, which so succours human failing, as that the hope of eternal life should not only be "bestowed by the free grace of Baptism, but repaired also by "the medicine of penitence; so that they who had violated the "gifts of regeneration, condemning themselves by their own. "judgment, should yet attain to the remission of sins." And Theodoret, in like manner, vindicating the privilege and possibility of repentance after Baptism, still retains this solemn distinction in the character of sin, and the mode of its forgiveness: "When the LORD gave the disciples a form of prayer, "He bade them say, 'Forgive us our trespasses.' This prayer "we do not teach the unconsecrated, but the consecrated (baptized.) For no unconsecrated person can dare to say 'Our "Father,' not having yet received the gift of adoption. But he "who has obtained the gift of Baptism, calls GODFATHER,' as being accounted among the sons by grace. These then were

66

The wounds then

'enjoined to say, 'forgive us our trespasses.' "received after Baptism are curable; but not as before, in that "then remission is given through faith alone, but now through

66

66

many tears, and mournings, and weepings, and fastings, and prayer, and toil proportioned to the greatness of the sin com"mitted. For we have been taught neither to despair of those "thus circumstanced, nor yet readily to impart to them the "Holy Rites. Give not,' He saith, that which is holy to "dogs, nor cast the pearls before swine.""

Nor are these the views of a later age. On the contrary, the higher we ascend, the more we find a reverential and alarmed apprehension of the great danger of grievous falls after Baptism. Easy remission of sin after Baptism, was a fruit of growing cor

1 Epist. 82. (olim 91.) ad Theodorum, quoted by Bellarmine, 1. c.

2 Hæretic. Fabul. Compend. L. 5. Divin. Decret. Epit. § 28, also ap. Bellarmin.

E

ruption; and this, occasioning, rather than occasioned by, the abuse of the power of the keys. The source of the fears of the early, writers, is the more remarkable, as it is entirely independent; they namely referring to the oral, as we to the written teaching of the Apostles. That independence obviously strengthens the belief in the accuracy of their tradition, and of the more awful and rigid interpretation of the Apostle's words; and both combine in the more solemn warning to ourselves. St. Irenæus, then, expressly referring for his authority to a Presbyter, who had learnt from the disciples of the Apostles, alleges the great danger which we should incur by sin after Baptism, as a ground why we should be reserved in blaming the sins of the old Fathers. "For 2 "their history was written for our warning; for, if the ancients, "who preceded us in gifts, for whom the Son of God had not yet "suffered, if they failed in any thing, and served the desires of "the flesh, were visited with such disgrace, what shall they now "suffer, who have despised the coming of the LORD, and served "their pleasures? And for those the death of the LORD was a

ཚ ས་

1

cure and remission: but for those who now sin, CHRIST shall not now die; for death shall not now have dominion over Him; but "the Son shall come in the glory of the FATHER, requiring from "His stewards and dispensers, with usury, the money which He. "lent them and to whom He gave much, of them He shall ask "the more. We ought not, then, said that presbyter, to be proud,. 66 nor to blame the ancients; but ourselves to fear, lest after we "have acknowledged CHRIST, if we do anything displeasing to GOD, have no more remission of sins, but be excluded from "His kingdom." St. Hermas, again, directly refers to older teachers."Now, also, Sir, I have heard from some teachers,

we may

3

1,

"Audivi a quodam Presbytero, qui audierat ab his, qui Apostolos viderant, et ab his qui didicerant." The next chapter of Iræneus is on "the folly of those, who exaggerating the mercy of Christ, and omitting mention of the Judgment, looking to the greater grace of the New Testament, and forgetting the greater perfection required of us--strive to make out another GOD, different from the CREATOR."

2 L. iv. c. 27. ed. Massuet. olim c. 45.

3 L. ii, Mandat. 4. § 3.

66

46

46

66

"that there is no other repentance than that, when we descend into "the water, and receive remission of sins: afterwards we must "take heed not to sin, but to remain in that purity.' And he said to me, 'Thou hast heard rightly. But since thou inquirest into all things diligently, I will shew thee this also, not giving occasion (of offence) to those who have, or shall, believe in the LORD. "For these have (then) not repentance for sin, but remission. But "to those who were called before those days, the LORD assigned repentance. Since God knew the thoughts of the heart, and the "weakness of man, and the manifold wickedness of the devil, whereby he devises mischief against the servants of God-there"fore the merciful LORD had mercy on the work of His hands; "and he assigned that repentance, and gave me power over that repentance. And, therefore, I say unto you, that, after that great and holy calling (Baptism) if any be tempted by the devil " and sin, he has one repentance. But if he sin again, and repent, "it will not profit the man who doth such things, for hardly will "he live to GOD 1.' And I said, 'Sir, I revived, when I diligently “heard these commandments. For I know, that if hereafter I add "not to my sins, I shall be saved.' And he said, 'Yea, and all who "shall do these commandments, shall be saved." This passage of St. Hermas is the more remarkable, since he lays down the principle, upon which more than one repentance after Baptism would probably be very rare, if not altogether hopeless, coinciding with the known teaching of the Apostles, and with subsequent experience, although limiting very awfully what their written teaching has left undefined. And these, and similar Apostolic sayings, were the foundation, doubtless, of that primitive Ecclesiastical rule, which, in the case of any grievous offences,

1 See a very practical sermon, in the 1st vol. of Newman's Parochial Sermons, "On the religious use of excited feelings."

2 See Bingham Christian Antiq. L. 18. c. 4., and Morinus de Administr. Sacram. Pœnitentiæ, L. v. c. 27-30., who is the more unexceptionable witness, since this practice of the primitive Church is so greatly opposed to the laxity of the modern Church of Rome. Morinus, with an honesty unusual to his Church on this subject, distinctly asserts, that this discipline flourished in the Latin Church, till about the year 700. "It is certain, moreover, and