the material effect being different upon men, God hath with greater caution secured such interests. So that by interpretation the negligence is greater, because the care was with greater earnestness commanded; or else because in such cases the sin is complicated: for such sins which do most mischief, have, besides their proper malignity, the evil of uncharitableness, or hating our brother. In some cases God requires one hand, and in others both. Now he that puts but one of his fingers to each of them, his negligence is in nature the same, but not in value; because where more is required, the defect was greater. If a man be equally careless of the life of his neighbour's son, and his neighbour's cock, although the will or attendance to the action be naturally equal, that is, none at all, yet morally, and in the divine account, they differ, because the proportions of duty and obligation were different, and therefore more ought to have been put upon the one than upon the other: just as he is equally clothed, that wears a single garment in summer and winter, but he is not equally warm, unless he, that wears a silk mantle, when the dog-star rages, claps on furs when the cold north-star changes the waters into rocks.

9. V. Single sins, done with equal affection or disaffection, do not differ in degrees as they relate to God, but in themselves are equally prevarications of the divine commandment. As he tells a lie that says the moon is foursquare, as great as he that says there were but three apostles, or that Christ was not the son of man; and as every lie is an equal sin against truth, so every sin is an equal disobedience and recession from the rule. But some lies are more against charity, or justice, or religion, than others are, and so are greater by complication; but against truth they are all equally opposed: and so are all sins contrary to the commandment. And in this sense is that saying' of St. Basil: Primò enim scire illud convenit, differentiam minorum et majorum nusquam in Novo Testamento reperiri. Siquidem una est et eadem sententia adversus quælibet peccata, cum Dominus dixerit, Qui facit peccatum, servus est peccati: et item, Sermo quem loquutus sum vobis, ille

* Nihil invenies rectius recto, non magis quâm verius vero, quàm temperato temperatius; omnis in modo est virtus: modus certa mensura est. Constantia non habet quò procedat, non magis quàm fiducia, aut veritas, aut fides Sen. In regul. brevior.

judicabit cum in novissimo die:' et Johannes vociferans dicat, Qui contumax est in filium, non videbit vitam æternam; sed ira dei manet super eum:' cum contumacia non in discrimine peccatorum, sed in violatione præcepti positam habeat futuri supplicii denunciationem:" "The difference of great and little sins is no where to be found in the New Testament. One and the same sentence is against all sins; our Lord saying, 'He that doth sin, is the servant of sin;' and, 'The word that I have spoken, that shall judge you in the last day;' and John crieth out, saying, He that is disobedient to the Son, shall not see eternal life, but the wrath of God abideth on him:' for this contumacy or disobedience does not consist in the difference of sins, but in the violation of the divine law; and for that it is threatened with eternal pain." But besides these arguments from Scripture, he adds an excellent reason: "Prorsus autem si id nobis permittitur, ut in peccatis hoc magnum, illud exiguum appellemus, invicto argumento concluditur magnum unicuique esse illud, a quo quisque superatur: contraque exiguum, quod unusquisque ipse superat. Ut, in athletis, qui vicit fortis est; qui autem victus est, imbecillior eo unde victus est, quisque ille sit:" "If it be permitted that men shall call this sin great, and that sin little; they will conclude that to be great which was too strong for them; and that to be little which they can master. As among champions, he is the strongest, and gets the victory."-And then, upon this account, no sin is venial that a man commits; because that is it which hath prevailed upon, and mastered all his strengths.

10. The instance is great whatsoever it be that God hath chosen for our obedience. To abstain from the fruit of a tree, not to gather sticks or dew after a certain hour, not to touch the curtains of the ark, not to uncover our father's shame, all is one as to God; for there is nothing in all our duty that can add any moments to his felicity, but by what he please he is to try our obedience. Let no man, therefore, despise a sin, or be bold to plead for it, as Lot for Zoar; "Is it not a little one?" For no man can say it is little, if God hath chosen the commandment which the sin transgresses, as an instrument of his glorification and our felicity. Disobedience is the formality of sin; and since the instance or the

matter of sin is all one to God, so also is the disobedience. The result of this consideration is this: 1. That no man should indulge to himself the smallest sin, because it is equally against God as the greatest: and though accidentally it may come not to be so exacted, yet of itself it may, and God is just if he does. 2. There is no sin, but if God enters into judgment with us, he may justly sentence us for it to the portion of accursed spirits. For if for any, then for all, there being (as to him) no difference. But these things are to be proved in the following section.

SECTION III.

That all sins are punishable as God please, even with the Pains of Hell.

11. I. In the aggravation of sins, the injured person is as considerable as any other circumstance. He that smites a prince, he that fires a temple, he that rails upon the Bible, he that pollutes the sacraments,-makes every sin to be a load; and, therefore, since every sin is against God, it ought not to be called little, unless God himself should be little esteemed. And since men usually give this account, that God punishes a transient sin with an immortal pain, because though the action is finite, yet it was against an infinite God; we may, upon the same ground, esteem it just, that even for the smallest sin, God, in the rigour of his justice, can exact the biggest calamity. For an act of murder, or a whole year of adultery, hath no nearer proportion to an eternity of pains, than one sinful thought hath for greater or less are no approaches towards infinite; for between them both, and what is infinite, the distance is equally infinite.

12. II. In the distinction of sins, mortal :ind venial, the doctors of the Roman church define venial sins to be such which can consist with the love of God, which never destroy or lessen it; in the very definition, supposing that thing which is most of all in question; and the ground of the

m Venialia peccata, ex consensu omnium theologorum, neque tollunt neque minuunt habitum caritatis, sed solum actum et fervorem ejus impediunt, Bellarm. de amiss. grat. c. 13. sect, alterum est.

definition is nothing but the analogy and proportion of the intercourses and usages of men, who, for a small offence, do not neglect or cast away the endearments of an old friend": ́of which when I have given account, I suppose the greatest difficulty of the question is removed. Against this, therefore, I oppose this proposition,-the smallest sins are destructive of our friendship with God.-For although God's mercies are infinite and glorious, and he forgives millions to us that grudge to remit the trifles of our brother; and therefore, whatsoever we can suppose a man will forgive to his friend, that and much more, infinitely more, may we expect from the treasures of his goodness and mercy; yet our present consideration is, not what we can expect from God's mercy, but what is the just demerit of our sins; not what he will forgive, but what he may justly exact; not what are the measures of pardon, but what are the accounts of his justice: for though we have hopes upon other reckonings, yet upon the account even of our smallest sins, we have nothing but fear and sadder expectations. For we are not to account the measures and rules of our friendship with God, by the easiness and ignorance, by the necessities and usual compliances of men.

For,

13. 1. Certain it is, that in the usual accounts of men some things are permitted, which are not so in the accounts of God. All sorts of ignorance use to lessen a fault amongst men, but before God some sorts of ignorance do aggravate; such as is the voluntary and malicious, which is the worst sort of vincible. Not that men do not esteem him vicious and unworthy who inquires not for fear he should know, but because men oftentimes are not competent judges whether they do

or no.

14. II. Because men know not by what purpose their neighbours' action is directed, and therefore reckon only by the next and most apparent cause, not by the secret and most operative and effective.

15. III. Because by the laws of charity we are bound to think the best, to expound things fairly, to take up things by the easier handle; there being left for us no other security of not being confounded by mutual censures, judgments, and inflictions, but by being restrained on the surer side of cha

» Idem ib. cap. 11. sect, quartum argum,

rity, on which the errors of men are not judged criminal and mischievous, as on the other side they are. But God knows the hearts of men, their little obliquities and intricate turnings, every propensity and secret purpose, what malice is ingredient, and what error is invincible, and how much is fit to be pitied, and therefore what may justly be exacted. For there are three several ways of judgment, according to the several capacities of the judges. First, the laws of men judge only by the event, or material action, and meddle not at all with the purpose, but where it is opened by an active sign. He that gives me a thousand pounds to upbraid my poverty, or with a purpose to feed my crimes, is not punishable by law, but he that takes from me a thousand shillings, though secretly he means to give it to my needy brother. Because as in the estimation of men nothing is valuable but what does them good or hurt; so neither can their laws and tribunals receive testimony of any thing but what is seen or felt. And thus it is also in the measures of sins. To break order in a day of battle, is but a disorder; and so it is to break order at St. George's show, at a training, or in a procession; and yet that is punished with death, this with a cudgel; the aptness to mischief, and the evil consequent, being in human judicatories the only measures of judgment: men feel the effects, and the laws do judge accordingly. 2. In the private judgments of men, mercy must interpose; and it can oftener than in the public because in the private intercourses of men, there is a sense, and can be a consideration of particulars, and little accidents and significations of things, and some purposes may be privately discerned, which cannot publicly be proved. He that went to help his friend out of a river, and pulled his arm out of joint, was excused by the wronged preserved person: the evil accident was taken off by the pious purpose: but he that, to dishonour his friend, throws a glass of wine in his face, and says he did it in sport, may be judged by his purpose, not by his pretence; because the pretence can be confuted by the observation of little circumstances and adherences of the action, which yet peradventure cannot legally be proved. "Alitèr leges, alitèr philosophi tollunt astutias: leges, quatenus tenere manu res possunt ; philosophi, quatenus ratione et intelligentiâ:"" Laws regard the great materialities of obedience, the real, sensible effect.