our peevishness to return as often, and to abide as long, and still to forage and to prevail; —we are like those foolish birds, who, having conceived by the wind, lay their eggs in the sand, and forget the place, and the waters wash them away. In such cases as these, something more must be done besides making resolutions. Let every man make some experiment of himself, and give some instances of performance, and get ground of his passion, and make no great haste to pass instantly to the holy communion. You may more safely stay one day longer, than pass on, one minute, too soon: but be sure of this, the fierce saying of a few warm and holy words is not a sufficient preparation to these sacred mysteries; and they, who, upon such little confidences as these, have hastened hither, have, afterwards, found causes enough to deplore their profane follies and presumptions. For they see, when they have eaten the sop, they go out to sin against the Lord; as soon as the sacred chalice hath refreshed their lips, they dishonoured God with their mouths, and retain their affections here below, fastened to earth and earthly things. This is it that makes our communion have so little fruit. Men resolve to be good, and then communicate; they resolve they will hereafter, but they are not yet, and yet they will communicate; they resolve, and think no more of it, as if performance were no part of the duty and the obligation. In such cases, it is not good to be hasty1; for a little stay will do better than twenty arguments to enforce your purpose. You must make new resolutions and reinforce your old; but if you have already tried, and have found 8 Talis mensæ fuisti particeps, et cum omnibus deberes esse mitior, et clementior, et par angelis, fuisti omnium crudelissimus. Gustavisti sanguinem Dominicum, et ne sic quidem fratrem agnoscis. - St. Chrysost. homil. 27. in Corinth. h accipimus sacrâ data pocula dextra; Quæ simul arenti sitientes hausimus ore, Metamorph. xv. 276. Gierig, vol. ii. pag. 327. i Proin quicquid est, da tempus ac spatium tibi. Senec. Agam. i. 129. Schröder, pag. 555. your purposes to be easily untwisted, and that, like the scenes at masques, they were only for that show, to serve at that solemnity,-learn to be more wary and more afraid the next time. The first folly was too bad; but to do so often is intolerable. But here are two cases to be resolved. QUESTION I. But of what nature and extent must our preparatory resolution be? Must we resolve against all Sin, or against some kinds only? If only against some sorts, then we are not clean all over. If against all, then we find it impossible for us to perform it and then either it is not necessary to resolve, or not necessary to perform, or not necessary to communicate. I answer; it is one thing to say, I shall never fall, I shall never be mistaken, I shall never be surprised,' or 'I shall never slacken my watchfulness and attention,' and another thing to resolve against the love and choice of every sin. It is not always in our powers to avoid being surprised, or being deceived, or being dull and sleepy in our carefulness and watches. Every good and well-meaning Christian cannot promise to himself security; but he may be tempted, or overpressed with a sudden fear when he cannot consider, and be put sometimes to act before he can take counsel: and though there is no one sin we do but we do it voluntarily, and might escape it, if we would make use of the grace of God, yet the inference cannot run forth to all: we cannot, therefore, always escape all; any one we can, but not every one. The reason is, because concerning any one if we make a question, then we can and do deliberate, then we can attend, and we can consider, and summon up the arts and auxiliaries of reason and religion, and we can hear both sides speak; and, therefore, we can choose: for he that can deliberate, can take either side. For if he could not choose when he hath considered which to choose, he were more a fool in considering, than by any inconsideration in the world: for he not only does unreasonably by sinning, but he considers unreasonably and to no purpose, since his consideration cannot alter the case. Certain it is, by him that can consider, every sin can be avoided. But then, this is as certain, that it is not possible always to consider; but surprise and ignorance, haste and dulness, indifference and weariness, are the entries, at which some things that are not good, will enter; but these things are such, which by how much they are the less voluntary, by so much they are the less imputed. Thus, therefore, he that means to communicate worthily, must resolve against every sin, the greatest and the least; that is, 1. He must resolve never to commit any sin, concerning which he can deliberate. And, 2. He must resolve so to stand upon his guard, that he may not frequently be surprised; he must use prayer against all, and prudent caution in his whole conversation, and all the instruments of grace for the destruction of the whole body of sin. And though, in this valley of tears, there are but few so happy souls as to triumph over all infirmities, we know of none; and if God hath any such on earth, they are peculiar jewels, kept in undiscerned cabinets; yet all that intend to serve God heartily, must aim at a return to that state of innocence, to the possibility of which Christ hath as certainly recovered us, as we lost it by our own follies, and the sin of Adam: that is, we must continually strive, and every day get ground' of our passions, and grow in understanding and the fear of God, that we be not so often deluded, nor in so many things be ignorant, nor be so easily surprised, nor so much complain of our weakness, nor the imperfection of our actions be in so many instances unavoidable. But, in the matters of choice, in voluntary and deliberate actions, we must resolve not to sin at all. In these things, we must be more than conquerors. 2. He that intends worthily to communicate, before his coming, must quit all his next and immediate occasions of habitual sins, all those states of evil, by which so long as he dwells, he cannot stand uprightly. For to resolve against all sin, and yet to retain that temptation, which hath been to this time stronger than all our resolutions, is to abide in the midst of a torrent, against which you cannot swim, and yet resolve never to be drowned'. There is no dallying in this case he that will not throw out the bond-woman and her * Invitat autem pauperes, debiles, cæcos, ut ostendatur quod nulla debi. litas corporis excludit à regno, rariusque delinquat, cui desit illecebra peccandi. St. Ambrose. 1 Qui proponit sibi, et dicit habere volo, quod viņcam:' hoc est, vivere desidero, et volvo sub ruina. --- August, de singul. Cleric. - son, he that will still retain the concubine, let him resolve what he will, and will what he is commanded, and profess what he purposes; his profession is nothing but words and his resolutions will prove as unstable as the thinnest air, which is not able to support a fly, unless, with her wings, she fans it into an accidental thickness. This may seem the hardest commandment of Christianity; and Christ calls it a "cutting off the right hand, and plucking out the right eye;" as if it were the greatest violence of the world. Indeed it is oftentimes a great inconvenience to our affairs and fortune: for, it may be, he, by whom we live, is he by whom we sin; and we cannot eat, but we must be in danger. If the case be so, it is indeed harder to leave the sin; but yet the command of pulling out our eye is not the hardness, but is an act of easiness, and an instrument of facilitation: for, first, it must be remembered, that it is a question of souls, and no interest can be laid in balance against a soul; it is moments against eternity, money against heaven, life eternal against a little pension. And, therefore, this precept of pulling out the right eye is very easy, when it is made the price or instrument of avoiding eternal torments. A man had better pull his heart" out, than nurse a lust, by which he shall die for ever. But then, next to this it is considerable, that this precept of putting out the right eye, that is, removing the next occasion of sin, is so far from being a hard commandment, that it is perfectly complying with our infirmities, and a securing of our greatest interests; by this he conducts us tenderly, because we have no strength. For if Christ had done as Xenocrates in Valerius, and commanded his disciples to dwell in danger, that they might triumph more gloriously, we had reason to suspect ourselves, and to tremble under the load of the imposition; but Christ knew it would never consist with our safety, and never conduce to his Father's glory; therefore Christ bids us to avoid the occasion. He would not have weak and amorous persons to converse with fair women, that make weak eyes", and by the eyes wound the heart of a foolish man. For, as Trithe m Projice quæcunque cor tuum laniant; quæ si aliter extrahi nequirent, cor ipsum cum illis evellendum erat. » ̓Αλγηδόνες ὀφθαλμῶν. mius observes, 'good angels never appeared in the likeness of women;' they are tempters and temptations: and, therefore, because of the danger, Christ would not have us look; unless we can do it with safety, we must not be in their company. And, therefore, as God gave us legs and hands in great kindness, yet we give money to have them cut off when they endanger the whole body; so must we quite cut off the advantages of our estate, and the pleasures of our life, rather than die eternally. There is no other variety but this if we be tempted in our state of life or of society, we must do violence to our fortune or our will. But the particulars of the case are these. 1. If it be easy to quit the occasion, do it, lest you be tempted; for it is worth some pain to be secured in the question of your soul. When Alcibiades was sent for from Sicily to Athens to be tried for his life, he hid himself, and left this answer to be sent: "It is better to decline a trial, than to escape from under it." And so it is here: it is glorious to escape, but it is the safer way not to put it to the venture; and, therefore, when you can, decline the trial; for he that resolves to live, and yet will live under the ruins of a falling house, is but little better than a fool. 2. If it be difficult to part with the tempting occasion of your sin, then consider whether you can dwell with it, and yet not sin; if you can, you may; for if you neither love your danger, nor can easily part with it, it is sufficient that by plain force you resist it. 3. But if, by sad experience, you have learned your own weakness, and that as long as you dwell near the furnace, you are scorched with the flames, no interest in this world must make you lose your hopes of the other. It is not good to walk by a bank side, or to play in the hollow seat of an asp. He that hath escaped often, is not secure: but he that hath already smarted under the calamity, hath not so much left him to alleviate the evil, as the miserable excuse of, 'I • Καλούμενος ἐπὶ κρίσιν θανατικὴν ὑπὸ τῶν ̓Αθηναίων ἀπὸ Σικελίας ἔκρυψεν ἑαυτόν· εἰπὼν εἰήθη εἶναι τὸν δίκην ἔχοντα, ζητεῖν ἀποφυγὴν, ἐξὸν φυγεῖν. — Plutarch. Apophth. Xyl. tom. ii, pag. 186. E. (J. R. P.) P Nemo se tuto diu Periculis offerre tam crebris potest; Quem sæpe transit casus, aliquando invenit. Senec. Herc. Fur. 326. Schröder, pag. 28. |