Publican is said to have gone down from the temple justified; (h) no punishment follows. Peter obtained the pardon of his sins; "We read," says Ambrose, "of his tears, but not of his satisfaction." (¿) And a paralytic hears he following address; "Be of good cheer: thy sins be forgiven thee;" (k) no punishment is inflicted. All the absolutions which are mentioned in the Scripture, are described as gratuitous. A general rule ought rather to be deduced from these numerous examples, than from that single case which is attended with peculiar cir cumstances. XXXVI. When Daniel exhorted Nebuchadnezzar to "break off his sins by righteousness, and his iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor," (1) he meant not to intimate that righteousness and mercy propitiate God and atone for sins; for God forbid that there should ever be any other redemption than the blood of Christ. But he used the term break off with reference to men, rather than to God; as though he had said, "Thou hast exercised, O king, an unrighteous and violent despotism; thou hast oppressed the weak; thou hast plundered the poor; thou hast treated thy people with harshness and iniquity; instead of unjust exactions, instead of violence and oppression, now substitute mercy and righteousness." In a similar sense Solomon says, that "love covereth all sins;" not with reference to God, but among men. For the whole verse is as follows: "Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins." (m) In which verse, he, according to his usual custom, contrasts the evils arising from hatred with the fruits of love; signifying, that they who hate each other, reciprocally harass, criminate, reproach, revile, and convert every thing into a fault: but that they who love one another, mutually conceal, connive at, and reciprocally forgive many things among themselves; not that they approve cach other's faults, but bear with them, and heal them by admonition, rather than aggravate them by invectives. Nor can we doubt that Peter intended the same in his citation of this passage, (n) unless we mean to accuse him of corrupting, and craftily perverting the Scriptures. When Solomon says, that "by mercy and truth iniquity is purged,” (•) he intends not a (h) Luke xviii. 14. (m) Prov. x. 12. (i) Luke xxii. 62. (4) Matt. ix. 2. (1) Dan. iv. 27. compensation in the Divine view, so that God, being appeased with such a satisfaction, remits the punishment which he would otherwise have inflicted; but, in the familiar manner of Scripture, he signifies, that they shall find him propitious to them who have forsaken their former vices and iniquities, and are converted to him in piety and truth; as though he had said, that the wrath of God subsides, and his judgment ceases, when we cease from our sins. He describes not the cause of pardon, but the mode of true conversion. Just as the prophets frequently declare, that it is in vain for hypocrites to offer to God ostentatious ceremonies instead of repentance, since he is only pleased with integrity and the duties of charity; and as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, when he recommends us "to do good and to communicate," informs us that "with such sacrifices God is well pleased." (p) And when Christ ridicules the Pharisees for having attended only to the cleansing of dishes, and neglected all purity of heart, and commands them to give alms, that all might be clean, (q) he is not exhorting them to make a satisfaction, but only teaching them what kind of purity obtains the Divine approbation. But of this expres sion we have treated in another work.* XXXVII. With respect to the passage of Luke, (r) no one, who has read with a sound judgment the parable the Lord there proposes, will enter into any controversy with us concerning it. The Pharisee thought within himself, that the Lord did not know the woman, whom he had so easily admitted to his presence. For he imagined that Christ would not have admitted her, if he had known what kind of a sinner she was. And thence he inferred that Christ, who was capable of being so deceived, was not a prophet. To shew that she was not a sinner, her sins having already been forgiven, the Lord proposed this parable: "There was a certain creditor, which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. He frankly forgave them both. Which of them will love him most?" The Pharisee answered, "He to whom he forgave most." The Lord rejoins, Hence know that "this woman's (p) Heb. xiii. 16. (9) Luke xi. 39-41. (r) Luke vii. 39. sins, which are many, are forgiven: for she loved much." In these words, you see, he makes her love, not the cause of the remission of her sins, but the proof of it. For they are taken from a comparison of that debtor to whom five hundred pence had been forgiven, of whom it is said, not that his debt was forgiven, because he had loved much, but that he loved much because his debt had been forgiven. And this similitude may be applied to the case of the woman in the following manner: "You suppose this woman to be a sinner; but you ought to know that she is not such, since her sins are forgiven her. And her love ought to convince you of the remission of her sins, by the grateful return she makes for this blessing." It is an argumentum a posteriori, by which any thing is proved from its consequences. By what means she obtained remission of sins, the Lord plainly declares: "Thy faith," says he, "hath saved thee." By faith therefore we obtain remission, by love we give thanks and declare the goodness of the Lord. XXXVIII. To those things which frequently occur in the works of the Fathers concerning satisfaction, I pay little regard. I see, indeed, that some of them, or, to speak plainly, almost all whose writings are extant, have either erred on this point, or expressed themselves too harshly. But I shall not admit that they were so ignorant and inexperienced, as to write those things in the sense in which they are understood by the modern advocates for satisfaction. Chrysostom somewhere expresses himself thus: "Where mercy is requested, examination ceases; where mercy is implored, judgment is not severe; where mercy is sought, there is no room for punishment; where there is mercy, there is no inquiry; where mercy is, the answer is forgiven." These expressions, however they may be distorted, can never be reconciled with the dogmas of the Schools. In the treatise, On Ecclesiastical Doctrines, which is ascribed to Augustine, we read the following passage: "The satisfaction of repentance is to cut off the causes of sins, and not to indulge an entrance to their suggestions." Whence it appears, that even in those times the doctrine of satisfaction, as a compensation for sins committed, was universally rejected, since he refers all satisfaction to a cautious abstinence from sins in future. I will not quote what is farther asserted by Chry 1 sostom, that the Lord requires of us nothing more than to confess our sins before him with tears; for passages of this kind frequently occur in his writings, and in those of other Fathers. Augustine somewhere calls works of mercy "remedies for obtaining remission of sins;" but lest any one should stumble at that expression, he explains himself more fully in another place. "The flesh of Christ," says he, "is the true and sole sacrifice for sins, not only for those which are all obliterated in baptism, but also for those which afterwards creep in through infirmity; on account of which the whole Church at present exclaims, Forgive us our debts; (s) and they are forgiven through that single sacrifice." XXXIX. But they most commonly used the word "satisfaction," to signify, not a compensation rendered to God, but a public testification, by which those who had been punished with excommunication, when they wished to be readmitted to communion, gave the Church an assurance of their repentance. For there were enjoined on those penitents certain fastings, and other observances, by which they might prove themselves truly and cordially weary of their former life, or rather obliterate the memory of their past actions; and thus they were said to make satisfaction, not to God, but to the Church. This is also expressed by Augustine in these very words, in his Enchiridion ad Laurentium. From that ancient custom have originated the confessions and satisfactions which are used in the present age. But they retain not even the shadow of that original form. I know that the Fathers sometimes express themselves rather harshly; nor do I deny, what I have just asserted, that perhaps they have erred. But their writings, which were only besprinkled with a few spots, after they have been handled by such foul hands, became thoroughly soiled. And if we must contend with the authority of Fathers, what Fathers do they obtrude upon us? Most of those passages, of which Lombard, their champion, has compiled his heterogeneous collection, are extracted from the insipid reveries of some monks, which are circulated under the names of Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Chrysostom. Thus, on the present argument, he borrows (8) Matt. vi. 12. almost every thing from a Treatise on Repentance, which is a ridiculous selection from various authors, good and bad; it bears the name of Augustine indeed, but no man even of moderate learning can deign to admit it as really his. For not en-tering into a more particular examination of their absurdities, I request the pardon of the reader, whom I wish to spare that trouble. It would be both easy and plausible for me to expose to the greatest contempt, what they have heretofore celebrated as mysteries; but I forbear, as my object is to write what may tend to edification. CHAPTER V. The Supplements to their Doctrine of Satisfactions, Indulgences, and Purgatory. THIS doctrine of satisfaction has given rise to indulgences. For by indulgences they pretend, that the deficiency of our abilities to make satisfaction is supplied, and even proceed to the extravagance of defining them to be the dispensation of the merits of Christ and of the saints, which the Pope distributes in his bulls. Now, though such persons are fitter subjects for medicines than for arguments, so that it would be of little use to engage in refuting errors so frivolous, which have been shaken by many attacks, and begin of themselves to grow obsolete, and totter towards a fall; yet as a brief refutation will be useful to some minds hitherto uninformed on the subject, I' shall not altogether omit it. And indeed the establishment and long continuance of indulgences, with the unlimited influence retained by them amidst such outrageous and furious licentiousness, may serve to convince us in what a deep night of errors men were immersed for several ages. They saw, that they were themselves objects of the public and undissembled ridicule of the Pope and the dispensers of his bulls; that lucrative bargains were made concerning the salvation of their souls; that the price of salvation was fixed at a trifling sum of money, |