fects of indignation severe and grievous to such as suffer them, therefore we term the revenge which he taketh upon sinners, anger; and the withdrawing of his plagues, mercy."-" His wrath (saith St. Augustine") is not as ours, the trouble of a mind disturbed and disquieted with things amiss, but a calm, unpassionate, and just assignation of dreadful punishment to be their portion which have disobeyed; his mercy a free determination of all felicity and happiness unto men, except their sins remain as a bar betwixt it and them." So that when God doth cease to be angry with sinful men, when he receiveth them into favour, when he pardoneth their offences, and remembereth their iniquities no more (for all these signify but one thing), it must needs follow, that all punishments before due in revenge of sin, whether they be temporal or eternal, are remitted.

e

h

xiv. 21.

For how should God's indignation import only man's punishment, and yet some punishment remain unto them towards whom there is now in God no indignation remaining? "God (saith Tertullian') takes penitency at men's hands; and men at his, in lieu thereof, receive impunity;" which notwithstanding doth not prejudice the chastisements which God, after pardon, hath laid upon some offenders, as on the people of Israel, on Moses, on Miriam, on David, either for "Numb. their own more sound amendment, or for example unto Numb. others in this present world (for in the world to come, pu- xx. 12. nishments have unto these intents no use, the dead being not xii. 14. in case to be better by correction, nor to take warning by excutions of God's justice there seen); but assuredly to whomsoever he remitteth sin, their very pardon is in itself a full, absolute, and perfect discharge for revengeful punishment, which God doth now here threaten but with purpose of revocation if men repent, no where inflict but on them whom impenitency maketh obdurate.

Of the one therefore it is said, "Though I tell the wicked thou shalt die the death, yet if he turneth from his sin, and

a Cum Deus irascitur, non ejus significatur perturbatio qualis est in animo irascentis hominis; sed, ex humanis moribus translato vocabulo, vindicta ejus, quæ non nisi justa est, iræ nomen accepit. Aug. tom. 3. Ench. cap. 33.

b Pœnitentiæ compensatione redimendam proponit impunitatem Deus. Tert. de pœniten.

8 Cui Deus vere propitius est, non solum condonat peccata ne noceant ad futurum seculum, sed etiam castigat, ne semper peccare delectet. Aug. in Psal. xcviii.

h Plectuntur quidam, quo cæteri corrigantur; exempla sunt omnium, tormenta paucorum. Cypr. de lapsis. Ezek. xxxiii. 14. Rom. ii. 5. Isa. i. 18.

Numb.

xii. 14.

do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live and not die." Of the other, "Thou, according to thine hardness, and heart that will not repent, treasurest up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and evident appearance of the judgment of God." If God be satisfied and do pardon sin, our justification restored is as perfect as it was at the first bestowed. For so the prophet Isaiah witnesseth, "Though your sins were as crimson, they shall be made as white as snow; though they were as scarlet, they shall be as white as wool." And can we doubt concerning the punishment of revenge, which was due to sin, but that if God be satisfied and have forgotten his wrath, it must be, even as St. Augustine reasoneth, "a What God hath covered he will not observe, and what he observeth not, he will not punish." The truth of which doctrine is not to be shifted off by restraining it unto eternal punishment alone. For then would not David have said, They are blessed to whom God imputeth not sin; blessedness having no part or fellowship at all with malediction? Whereas to be subject to revenge for sin, although the punishment be but temporal, is to be under the curse of the law: wherefore, as one and the same fire consumeth stubble and refineth gold, so if it please God to lay punishment on them whose sins he hath forgiven; yet is not this done for any destructive end of wasting and eating them out, as in plagues inflicted upon the impenitent, neither is the punishment of the one as of the other proportioned by the greatness of sin past, but according to that future purpose whereunto the goodness of God referreth it, and wherein there is nothing meant to the sufferer but furtherance of all happiness, now in grace, and hereafter in glory. St. Augustine, to stop the mouths of Pelagians arguing, "that if God had imposed death upon Adam, and Adam's posterity, as a punishment of sin, death should have ceased when God procured sinners their pardon ;" answereth, first, "It is no marvel, either that bodily death should not have happened to the first man, unless he had first sinned (death as punish

• Si texit Deus peccata, noluit advertere; si nolait advertere, noluit animadvertere. Aug. de pecc. mer. et rem. lib 2. cap. 34. Mirandum non est, et mortem corporis non fuisse eventuram homini, nisi præcessisset peccatum, cujus etiam talis pœna consequeretur, et post remissionem peccatorum eam fidelibus evenire, ut ejus timorem vincendo exerceretur fortitudo justitiæ. Sic et mortem corporis propter hoc peccatum Deus homini inflixit, et post peccatorum remissionem propter exercendam justitiam non ademit. Ante remissionem esse illa supplicia peccatorum, post remissionem autem certamina, exercitationesque justorum. Cypr. epist. 53.

ment following his sin), or that after sin is forgiven, death notwithstanding befalleth the faithful; to the end that the strength of righteousness might be exercised by overcoming the fear thereof." So that justly God did inflict bodily death on man for committing sin, and yet after sin forgiven took it not away, that his righteousness might still have whereby to be exercised. He fortifieth this with David's example, whose sin he forgave, and yet afflicted him for exercise and trial of his humility. Briefly, a general axiom he hath for all such chastisements, "Before forgiveness, they are the punishment of sinners; and after forgiveness, they are exercises and trials of righteous men." Which kind of proceeding is so agreeable with God's nature and man's comfort, that it seemeth even injurious to both, if we should admit those surmised reservations of temporal wrath in God appeased towards reconciled sinners. As a father he delights in his children's conversion, neither doth he threaten the penitent with wrath, or them with punishment which already mourn; but by promise assureth such of indulgence and mercy; yea, even of plenary pardon, which taketh away all, both faults and penalties: there being no reason, why we should think him the less just, because he sheweth himself thus merciful; when they, which before were obstinate, labour to appease his wrath with the pensive meditation of contrition, the meek humility which confession expresseth, and the deeds wherewith repentance declareth itself to be an amendment as well of the rotten fruit, as the dried leaves, and withered root of the tree. For with these duties by us performed, and presented unto God in heaven by Jesus Christ, whose blood is a continual sacrifice of propitiation for us, we content, please, and satisfy God. Repentance therefore, even the sole virtue of repentance, without either purpose of shift or desire of absolution from the priest; repentance, the secret conversion of the heart, in that it consisteth of these three, and doth by these three pacify God, may be without hyperbolical terms most truly magnified, as a recovery of the soul of man from deadly sickness, a restitution of glorious light to his darkened mind, a comfortable reconciliation with God, a spiritual nativity, a rising from the dead, a day-spring from the depth of obscurity, a redemption from more than Egyptian thraldom, a grinding of the old Adam even into dust and powder, a deliverance out of the prisons of hell, a full restor

ation of the seat of grace and throne of glory, a triumph over sin, and a saving victory.

Amongst the works of satisfaction, the most respected have been always these three, prayers, fasts, and alms-deeds; by prayer we lift up our souls to him from whom sin and iniquity have withdrawn them; by fasting, we reduce the body from thraldom under vain delights, and make it serviceable for parts of virtuous conversation; by alms, we dedicate to charity those worldly goods and possessions, which unrighteousness doth neither get nor bestow well: the first, a token of piety intended towards God; the second, a pledge of moderation and sobriety in the carriage of our own persons: the last, a testimony of our meaning to do good to all men. In which three, the apostle, by way of abridgment, comprehendeth whatsoever may appertain to sanctimony, holiness, and good life: as contrariwise, the very mass of general corruption throughout the world, what is it but only forgetfulness of God, carnal pleasure, immoderate desire after worldly things, profaneness, licentiousness, covetousness? All of fices to repentance have these two properties; there is in performance of them painfulness, and in their nature a con1 Cor. trariety unto sin. The one consideration causeth them both vii. 11. in Holy Scripture and elsewhere to be termed judgment or revenges taken voluntarily on ourselves, and to be furthermore also preservatives from future evils, inasmuch as we commonly use to keep with the greater care that which with pain we have recovered.a And they are in the other respect contrary to sin committed; contrition, contrary to the pleasure; confession, to the error, which is the mother of sin, and to the deeds of sin, the works of satisfaction contrary; therefore they are the more effectual to cure the evil habit thereof. Hereunto it was that St. Cyprian referred his earnest and veCypr. de hement exhortation, "that they which had fallen should be lapsis. instant in prayer, reject bodily ornaments when once they had stripped themselves out of Christ's attire, abhor all food after Satan's morsels tasted, follow works of righteousness which wash away sin, and be plentiful in alms-deeds wherewith souls are delivered from death. Not, as if God did, according to the manner of corrupt judges, take some money to abate so much in the punishment of malefactors.

a

2 Γὰς ἡμῶν αὐτῶν δίκην λάβωμεν, ἡμῶν αὐτῶν κατηγορήσομεν· οὕτως ἐξιλεωσόμεθα τὸν κριτήν. Chrys. hom. 30. in Ep. ad Heb.

lib. 1.

-These duties must be offered (saith Salvianus) not in con- Salv. ad fidence to redeem or buy out sin, but as tokens of meek sub- Eccl. Cath. mission; neither are they with God accepted, because of their value, but for our affection's sake, which doth thereby shew itself." Wherefore, concerning satisfaction made to God by Christ only; and of the manner how repentance generally, particularly also, how certain special works of penitency, both are by the fathers, in their ordinary phrase of speech, called satisfactory, and may be by us very well so acknowledged, enough hath been spoken.

Our offences sometimes are of such nature as requireth that particular men be satisfied, or else repentance to be utterly void and of none effect. For if, either through open rapine, or crooked fraud; if through injurious, or unconscionable dealing, a man have wittingly wronged others to enrich himself; the first thing evermore in this case required (ability serving) is restitution. For let no man deceive himself, from such offences we are not discharged, neither can be, till recompence and restitution to man accompany the penitent confession we have made to Almighty God. In which case, the law of Moses was direct and plain : " If any sin and com- Levit. vi. 2, &c. mit a trespass against the Lord, and deny unto his neighbour that which was given him to keep, or that which was put unto him of trust; or doth by robbery or by violence oppress his neighbour; or hath found that which was lost, and denieth it, and swears falsely: for any of these things that a man doth wherein he sinneth, he that doth thus offend and trespass, shall restore the robbery that he hath taken, or the thing he hath got by violence, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found; and for whatsoever he hath sworn falsely, adding perjury to injury, he shall both restore the whole sum, and shall add thereunto a fifth part more, and deliver it unto him, unto whom it belongeth, the same day wherein he offereth for his trespass." Now, because men are commonly over-slack to perform this duty, and do therefore defer it sometime, till God hath taken the party wronged out of the world; the law providing that trespassers might not under such pretence gain the restitution which they ought to make, appointeth the kindred surviving to receive what the dead should, if they had continued. But (saith Moses) if Numb. the party wronged have no kinsman to whom this damage may be restored, it shall then be rendered to the Lord him

v.8.