Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/361

 C u,cP. XI.] eEwAscz---a&'rmric'ram. 903 Though it was spoken respecting public Denanee8, yet it is praetised in satisf'aetion8 rulating to the eonscience8. Hence the rich man be- comes negligent in his duty, and his purse only is penitent. It involves also a blasphemy; for by this doctrine it cannot be said of (3hrht alone, that "he was wounded for our transgressions ;" for in the Church of Rome it often hapDens that "by another man's striDes we are healed." According to Scripture, no man can satisfy for himself, much less for others. "The soul that sinseth, it shah die," Ezek. xviii, 20. "Every man shah bear his own burden," Gal. vi, 5. "None can re- deem his brother, or give a ransom to God for him," Psa. xlix, 8. See also Ezek. xxxi, 12. They teach that a habit of sin is not sin, distinct from those former actions by which the habit was contracted. On this point we will quote the words of Bishop Jeremy Taylor, in his Dissuasive from Popery,* as he places the subject in a clear and interesting light, though his style is something antiquated. "The secret intention," says he, "of which proposition, and the malignity of it, consist in this, that it is not necessary for a man to repent speedily; and a man is not bound by repentance to interrupt the procedure of his impiety, or to repent of his habit, but of the single acts that went before it. For as for those who came after, they are excused, if they be produced by a strong habit; and the greater the habit, the less is the sin: but then, as the repentance need not, for that reason, be hasty and presently, so, because it is only to be of single acts, the repentance itself need not be habitual, but it may be done in an instant. By this and such like propositions and careless sentences, they have brought it to that pass that they reckon a single act of contrition at any time to be sufficient to take away the wickedness of a long life. Now that this is the avowed doctrines of the Roman guides of souls will sufficiently appear in the writings of their chiefeat, of which no learned man can be igno- rant. t The thing was of late openly and professedly disputed against us, and will not be denied. And that this doctrine is infinitely destructive of the necessity of a good life cannot be doubted, when themselves do own the proDer consequence of it, even the unnecessariness of present repentance, or before the danger of death; of which we have already given accounts. But the reason why we remark it here is that which we now mentioned, because that by the doctrine of vicious habits, having in them no malignity or sin but what is with the single pre- ceding acts, there is an excuse made for millions of sins; for if by an evil habit the sinner is not made worse and more hated by God, his sinful acts made not only more, but more criminal, it will follow that the sins are very much lessened; for they being not so volutah ' in their exercise and distinct emanation, are not in present so cious; and therefore he that hath gotten a habit of drunkenness or swearing sins less in every act of drunkenness or profane oath than he that acts them seldom, because by his habit he is more inclined, and hi sins are almost natural, and less considered, less chosen, and not disputed against, but pass, by inadvertency and an untroubled consent, easily and prompdy, and almost naturally, from that principle; se that t' Oranat. in Materit d Pema tract. K diqmt. li in bb ln UrnrolM, i te6-iO7,. 'VOL. I.--23. ]

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