or some leading example, or some secret impediment which ought not, but is thought sufficient; any of these, or many other things may retard even good persons from such a frequency as may please others; and that which one calls opportunity, others do not; but however; no man ought to be prejudiced in the opinion of others. For besides all this now reckoned, the receiving of the holy sacrament is of that nature of good things which can be supplied by internal actions alone, or sometimes by other external actions in conjunction; and it hath a suppletory of its own, viz., 'spiritual communion; of which I am to give account in its proper place. And when we consider that some men are of strict consciences, and some churches are of strict communions, and will not admit communicants but upon such terms which some men cannot adınit, it will follow that as S. Austin's expression is, "men should live in the peace of Christ, and do according to their faith;" but that in these things no man should judge his brother. In this no man can directly be said to do amiss, but he that loathes manna, and despises the food of angels, or neglects the supper of the Lamb, or will not quit his sin, or contend towards perfection, or hath not the spirit of devotion, or does any way by implication say that 'the table of the Lord is contemptible.'

*

4. These rules and measures now given, are such as relate to those who by themselves or others are discernibly in, or discernibly out of the state of grace. But there are some which are in the confines of both states, and neither themselves nor their guides can tell to what dominion they do belong. Concerning such; they are by all means. to be thrust or invited forward, and told of the danger of a real or seeming neutrality in the service of God, of the hatefulness of tepidity, of the uncomfortableness of such an indifference; and for the communions of any such person, I can give no other advice, but that he take his measures of frequency by the laws of his church; and add what he please to his numbers by the advice of a spiritual guide; who may consider whether his penitent by his conjugation of preparatory actions, and heaps of holy duties at that time usually conjoined, do or is likely to receive any spiritual progress. For this will be his best indication of life, and declare his uncertain state, if he thrive upon his spiritual nourishment. If it prove otherwise, all that can be said of such persons is that they are members of the visible church, they are in that net where there are fishes good and bad, they stand amongst the wheat and the tares, they are part of the lump, but whether leavened or unleavened, God only knows; and therefore they are such to whom the church denies not the bread of children, but whether it does them good or hurt, 'the day' only 'will declare:' for to such persons as these, the church hath made laws for the set time of their communion. Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide were appointed for all Christians that were not scandalous and openly [Ep. liv. cap. 3.-tom. ii. col. 125.]

criminal by pope Fabianus'; and this constitution is imitated by the best constituted church in the world, our dear mother the church of England, and they who do not at these times or so frequently communicate, are censured by the council of Agathon' as unfit to be reckoned among Christians, or members of the catholic church. Now by these laws of the church, it is intended indeed that all men should be called upon to discuss and shake off the yoke of their sins, and enter into the salutary state of repentance; and next to the perpetual sermons of the church, she had no better means to engage them into returns of piety; hoping that by the grace of God and the blessings of the sacrament, the repentance which at these times solemnly begins, may at one time or other fix and abide: these little institutions and disciplines being like the sudden heats in the body; which sometimes fix into a burning, though most commonly they go away without any further change. But the church in this case does the best she can; but does not presume that things are well; and indeed as yet they are not: and therefore such persons must pass further, or else their hopes may become illusions and make the men ashamed.

5. I find that amongst the holy primitives, they who contended for the best things, and loved God greatly, were curious even of little things, and

1) If they were surprised with any sudden undecency, or a storm of passion, they did not dare that day to communicate. "When I am angry, or when I think any evil thought, or am abused with any illusion or foul fancy of the night, intrare non audeo, I dare not enter," said S. Hieromea, "I am so full of horror and dread both in my body and my mind." This was also the case of S. Chrysostom, who when Eusebius had unreasonably troubled him with an unseasonable demand of justice against Antonine, just as he was going to consecrate the blessed sacrament, departed out of the church, and desired one of the bishops, who by chance was present, to do the office for him, for he would not offer the sacrifice at that time, having some trouble in his spirit.'

2) To this are to be reduced all such great actions which in their whole constitution are great and lawful, but because so many things are involved in their transaction whereof some unavoidably will be amiss, or may reasonably be supposed so, may have something in the whole and at the last to be deplored. In such cases as these, some great examples have been of advices to abstain from the communion till by a general but a profound repentance for what hath been amiss, God is deprecated, and the causes of christian hope and confidence do return. In the ecclesiastical history we read that when Theodosius

had fought prosperously against Eugenius the usurper of the empire, when his cause was just and approved by God, not only giving testimony by the prediction and warranty of a religious hermit, but also by prodigious events, by winds and tempests fighting for him, and by which he restored peace to the church, and tranquillity to the empire; yet he by the advice of S. Ambrose abstained awhile from the holy sacrament, and would not carry blood upon his hands, though justly shed, unto the altars; not only following the precedent of David, who because he was a man of blood might not build a temple, but for fear lest some unfit appendage should stick to the management of a just employment.

3) Of the same consideration it is, if a person whose life should be very exemplar, is guilty of such a single folly which it may be would not dishonour a meaner man, but is a great vanity and re proach to him; a little abstention and a penitential separation (when it is quit from scandal) was sometimes practised in the ancient church, and is advisable also now in fitting circumstances. Thus when Gerontiuse the deacon had vainly talked that the devil appeared to him one night, and that he had bound him with a chain, S. Ambrose commanded him to abide in his house and not to come to the church, till by penances and sorrow he had expiated such an indiscretion; which to a man had in reputation for wisdom, is as a fly in a box of ointment, not only useless but mischievous. And S. Bernard commends S. Malachie because he reproved a deacone for attending at the altar the day after he had suffered an illusion in the night; it had been better he had abstained from the altar one day, and by that intermediate expiation and humility have the next day returned to a more worthy ministry.

4) One degree of curious caution I find beyond all this in an instance of S. Gregory the great, in whose life we find that he abstained some days from the holy communion because there was found in a village near to Rome a poor man dead, no man could tell how; but because the good bishop feared he might have been starved, and that he died for want of provision, he supposing it might reflect upon him as a defect in his government or of his personal charity, thought it fit to deplore the accident and to abstain from the communion, till he might hope for pardon in case he had done amiss.

If these things proceed from the sincerity of a well-disposed spirit that can suffer any trouble rather than that of sin, the product is

well enough; and in all likelihood would always be well, if the case were conducted by a prudent spiritual guide, for then it would not change into scruples and superstition. But these are but the fears and cautions and securities of a tender spirit; but are not an answer to the question, whether it be lawful for such persons to communicate? For certainly they may, if all things else be right; and they may be right in the midst of such little accidents. But these belong to the questions of perfection and excellencies of grace, these are the extraordinaries of them who never think they do well enough; and therefore they extended no further than to a single abstention, or some little proportionable retirement; and may be useful when they are in the hands of prudent and excellent persons.

SECTION V.

WHAT SIGNIFICATIONS OF REPENTANCE ARE TO BE ACCEPTED BY THE CHURCH IN ADMISSION OF PENITENTS TO THE COMMUNION.

THIS enquiry will quickly be answered, when we consider that the end why the church enjoins public or private amends respectively to any convict or confessed criminal, she only does it as a mother and a physician to souls, and a minister of the divine pardon, and the conductress of penitential processes: she does it, that the man may be recovered from the snare of the enemy, that she may destroy the work of the devil, that the sinner may become a good Christian: and therefore the church when she conducts any man's repentance, is bound to enjoin so many external ministries, that if they be really joined with the internal contrition and reformation, will do the work of reconcilement in the court of heaven. The church can exact none but what she can see or some way take external notice of; but by these externals intends to minister to the internal repentance; which when it is sufficiently signified by any ways that she may prudently rely upon as testimonies and ministries of a sufficient internal contrition and real amends, she can require no more; and she ought not to be content with less.

It is therefore infinitely unsafe and imprudent to receive the confessions of criminals, and after the injunction of certain cursory penances to admit them to the blessed sacrament, without any

Si cito rediret homo ad pristinam beatitudinem, ludus illi esset peccando cadere in mortem.-S. Aug. serm. xxxiv. de diversis. [al. serm. cclxxviii. cap. 3.tom. v. col. 1124 F.]

In ipsa ecclesia ubi maxime misereri decet, teneri quam maxime debet forma justitiæ; ne quis a communionis con

sortio abstentus, brevi lachrymula atque ad tempus parata, vel etiam uberioribus fletibus communionem quam plurimis debet postulare temporibus, facilitate sacerdotis extorqueat.-S. Ambros. in psal. cxviii. in hæc verba, 'Miserere mei secundum eloquium tuum.' [serm. viii, § 26. tom. i. col. 1065 C 1

further emendation, without any trial of the sincerity of their conversion, before it is probable that God hath pardoned them, before their affections to sin are dead, before the spirit of mortification is entered, before any vice is exterminated or any virtue acquired. Such a looseness of discipline is but the image of repentance, whether we look upon it as it is described in scripture, or as it was practised by the primitive church; which at least is a whole change of life, a conversion of the whole man to God. And it is as bad when a notorious criminal is put to shame one day, for such a sin which could not have obtained the peace of the church under the severity and strictness of fifteen years, amongst the holy primitives. Such public ecclesiastical penances may suffice to remove the scandal from the church, when the church will be content upon so easy terms; for she only can tell what will please herself. But then such discipline must not be esteemed a sufficient ministry of repentance, nor a just disposition to pardon. For the church ought not to give pardon or to promise the peace of God upon terms easier than God himself requires: and therefore when repentance comes to be conducted by her, she must require so much as will extinguish the sin, and reform the man, and make him and represent him good.

All the liberty that the church hath in this, is what is given her by the latitude of the judgment of charity; and yet oftentimes a too easy judgment is the greatest uncharitableness in the world, and makes men confident and careless and deceived: and therefore although gentle sentences are useful when there is danger of despair, or contumacy; yet that is rather a palliation of a disease than a cure, and therefore the method must be changed as soon as it can; and the severe and true sermons of the gospel must be either proclaimed aloud, or insinuated prudently and secretly, and men be taught to rely upon them and their consequents, and upon nothing else; for they will not deceive us. But the corrupt manners of men and the corrupt doctrines of some schools have made it almost impossible to govern souls as they need to be governed.

The church may indeed choose whether she will impose on criminals any exterior significations of repentance; but accept them to the communion upon their own accounts of a sincere conversion and inward contrition but then she ought to do this upon such accounts as are indeed real and sufficient, and effective and allowed: that is, when she can understand that such an emendation is made, and the man is really reformed, she can pronounce him pardoned, or which is all one, she may communicate him. And further yet; she can by sermons declare all the necessary parts of repentance, and the conditions of pardon, and can pronounce limited and hypothetical or conditional pardons; concerning which the penitent must take care that they do belong to him. But if she does undertake to conduct any repentances exteriously, it is to very little purpose to do it any way that is not commensurate to that true internal repentance which is effective of