that is, he is not excluded from pardon; whom therefore peradventure the good Samaritan does not pass by, because he finds there is life in him, some principle by which he may live again.-Now as it was in the matter of faith, so it is of charity and the other graces. Every act of sin takes away something from the contrary grace; but if the root abides in the ground, the plant is still alive, and may bring forth fruit again. "But he only is dead, who hath thrown God off for ever, or entirely, with his very heart:" so St. Ambrose. To be "dead in trespasses and sins,” which is the phrase of St. Paul, is the same with that expression of St. John, of "sinning a sin unto death," that is, habitual, refractory, pertinacious, and incorrigible sinners, in whom there is scarce any hope or sign of life. These are they upon whom, as St. Paul's' expression is, "the wrath of God is come upon them to the uttermost;" iç rò rλoç, unto death;' so was their sin, it was a sin unto death; so is their punishment. The result of these considerations is this. He that commits one act of a wilful sin, hath provoked God to anger; which whether it will be final or no, we cannot know but by the event, by his forbearing us, and calling us, and accepting us to repentance. One act does not destroy the life of grace utterly, but wounds it more or less, according to the vileness and quantity, or abode in the sin. SECTION III. What Repentance is necessary for single Acts of Sin. 42. I. UPON consideration of the premises, it appears to be dangerous practically to inquire how far single acts of sin can stand with the state of grace, or the being of a good man. For they ought not to be at all, and if they be once, we must repent, and the sin must be pardoned, or we die: and when it can be asked how far any sin can be consistent with the state of God's favour, it cannot be meant that God indulges it to a good man with impunity, or that his grace and favour consist in this, that he may safely sin, * Eph. ii. 1. I 1 Thess. ii. 16. once or twice, in what instance or in any instance he shall choose: but in this it does; a single act of sin does not so destroy the hopes of a good man, but that if he returns speedily, he shall be pardoned speedily; for God will do this for him, not by permitting him to sin again, but by taking his sin away, and healing his soul; but how soon, or how much, or how long, God will pardon or forbear, he hath no way told us. For in the several states and periods of the soul in order to virtue or vice respectively, there is no specifical difference but of degrees only, not of state. As the sins are more or longer, God is more angry, and the man further off; but the man is not wholly altered from his state of grace, till he be arrived at the unpardonable condition. He is a good or an evil man, more or less, according as he sins or repents. For neither of the appellatives are absolute and irrespective ; and though in philosophy we use to account them such by the prevailing ingredient, yet the measures of the spirit are otherwise. The whole affair is arbitrary, and gradual, various by its own measures and the good pleasure of God, so that we cannot in these things, which are in perpetual flux, come to any certain measures. But although in judging of events we are uncertain, yet in the measures of repentance we can be better guided. Therefore first, in general, 43. II. St. Cyprian's rule is a prudent measure, “Quam magna deliquimus, tam granditèr defleamus; ut pœnitentia crimine minor non sit :" "According to the greatness of the sin, so must be the greatness of the sorrow :" and therefore we are, in our beginnings and progressions of repentance, to consider, 1. all the circumstances of aggravation; 2. the complication of the crime; 3. the scandal; and, 4. evil effect; and in proportion to every one of these, the sorrow is to be enlarged and continued. For if it be necessary to be afflicted because we have done evil; it is also necessary, that our affliction and grief be answerable to all the parts of evil: because a sin grows greater by being more in matter or choice, in the instances, or in the adhesion; and as two sins must be deplored more than one, so must two degrees, that is, the greater portions of malice and wilfulness be mourned for with a bigger sorrow than the less. 44. III. Every single act of sin must be cut off by a moral revocation, or a contrary act; by which I mean, an ex press hatred and detestation of it. For an act of sin being in its proportion an aversion or turning from God, and repentance being in its whole nature a conversion to him, that act must be destroyed as it can be. Now because that which is done, cannot naturally be made undone, it must morally; that is, it must be revoked by an act of nolition, and hatred of it, and a wishing it had never been done; for that is properly a conversion from that act of sin. 45. IV. But because, in some cases, a moral revocation. may be like an ineffective resolution, therefore besides the inward nolition or hating of the sin, in all signal and remarked instances of sin, it is highly requisite that the sinning man do oppose an act of virtue to the act of sin in the same instance where it is capable; as, to an act of gluttony, let him oppose an act of abstinence; to an act of uncleanness, an act of purity and chastity; to anger and fierce contentions, let him oppose charity and silence: for to hate sin, and not to love virtue, is a contradiction, and to pretend it is hypocrisy. But besides this, as the nolition or hatred of it does, if it be real, destroy the moral being of that act, so does the contrary act destroy its natural being, as far as it is capable. And however it be, yet it is, upon this account, necessary. For since one act of sin deliberately chosen was an ill beginning and inlet of a habit, it is necessary that there be as much done to obtain the habit of the contrary virtue, as was done towards the habit of vice; that to God as entire a restitution as can, may be made of his own right, and purchased inheritance. 46. V. Every act of sin is a displeasure to God and a provocation of an infinite majesty, and therefore the repentance for it must also have other measures than by the natural and moral proportions. One act of sorrow is a moral revocation of one act of sin, and as much a natural deletion of it, as the thing is capable. But there is something more in it than thus, for a single act of sin deserves an eternal hell; and upon what account soever that be, it is fit that we do something of repentance in relation to the offence of an infinite God: and therefore let our repentance proceed towards infinite as much as it may: my meaning is, that we do not finally rest in a moral revocation of an act by an act, but that we beg for pardon all our days, even for that one sin. For besides that every sin is against an infinite God, and so ought to be washed off with a sorrow as near to infinite as we can; we are not certain in what periods of sorrow God will speak to us in the accents of mercy and voice of pardon: he always takes of them that repent, less than he could in justice exact if he so pleased; but how much less he will take, he hath no where told us, and therefore let us make our way as secure as we can; let us still go on in repentance, and in the progression we are sure to meet with God. But there is in it yet more. For however the act of sin be usually called and supposed to be a single act, yet if we consider how many fancies and temptations were preparatory to it, how many consentings to the sin, how many desires and acts of prosecution, what contrivances, and resistances of the holy motions of God's Spirit, and the checks of conscience, how many refusings of God and his laws, what unfitting means and sinful progressions were made to arrive thither, what criminal and indecent circumstances, what degrees of consent, and approaches to a perfect choice, what vicious hopes, and vile fears, what expense of time and misemployed passions were in one act of fornication or murder, oppression of the poor, or subornation of witnesses, we shall find that the proportions will be too little to oppose but one act of virtue against all these evils; especially since an act of virtue, as we order our affairs, is much more single than an act of vice is. 47. VI. Every single act of vice may and must be repented of particularly, if it be a wilful, deliberate, and observed action. A general repentance will not serve the turn in these cases. When a man hath forgotten the particulars, he must make it up as well as he can. This is the evil of a delayed repentance,—it is a thousand to one but it is imperfect and lame, general and inactive; it will need arts of supply and collateral remedies, and reflex actions of sorrow, and what the effect will be, is in many degrees uncertain: but if it be speedy and particular, the remedy is the more easy, the more ready, and the more certain. But when a man is overtaken in a fault, he must be restored again as to that particular; for by that he transgressed, there he is smitten and wounded; in that instance the habit begins, and at that door the divine judgment may enter, for his anger is there already. For although God pardons all sins or none, in respect of the final sentence and eternal pain, yet God strikes particular sins with proper and specific punishments in this life, which if they be not diverted by proper applications, may break us all in pieces. And therefore David's repentance was particularly applied to his special case, of murder and adultery : and because some sins are harder to be pardoned, and harder to be cured than others, it is certain they must be taken off by a special regard. A general repentance is never sufficient but when there cannot be a particular. 48. VII. Whoever hath committed any one act of a great crime, let him take the advantage of his first shame and regret; and in the activity of that passion let him design some fasting-days, as the solemnities of his repentance, which he must employ in the bitterness of his soul, in detestation of his sin, in judging, condemning, and executing sentence upon himself; and in all the actions of repentance, which are the parts and fruits of this duty, according as he shall find them described in their proper places. 49. These are the measures of repentance for single acts of deliberate sin, when they have no other appendage, or proper consideration. But there are some acts of sin, which, by several ways and measures, pass into habits, directly, or by equivalency and moral value. For, 1. The repetition of acts and proceeding in the same crime is a perfect habit, which as it rises higher to obstinacy, to perseverance, to resolutions never to repent, to hardness of heart, to final impenitence, so it is still more killing and damnable. 2. If a man sins often in several instances, it is a habit, properly so called; for although the instances be single, yet the disobedience and disaffection are united and habitual. 3. When a single act of sin is done, and the guilt remains, not rescinded by repentance, that act which naturally is but single, yet morally is habitual. Of these I shall give account in the next chapter, where they are of proper consideration. But there are yet three ways more, by which single acts do become habits, by equivalency and moral value,—and are here to be considered accordingly. 50. VIII. First, if a single act of sin have a permanent matter, so long as that matter remains, the sin is uncancelled. Of this nature is theft, which cannot be cut off by a moral |