Instruction concerning penance and holy communion the second part fo the instruction of youth, containing the means how we may return to God by penance, and remain in his grace by the good and frequent use of the sacraments. By Charles Gobinet, Doctor of Divinity, of the house and Society of Sorbon, principal of the college of Plessis-Sorbon.

CHAP. III. Excellent reasons out of the Council of Trent to shew why God, remitting the Sin by Penance, obligeth the Penitent Sinner to a Temporal Punishment.

THe holy Council of Trent treating of Pe∣nance, brings so efficacious and moving rea∣sons to evince this truth, that to omit them here, Theotime, would be to deprive you of a signal sa∣tisfaction.

It draws the first from the great equity of the Divine Justice, which treats those in a different manner who are differently or unequally guilty; as those are who have sinned before Baptisme, and those, who have offended after they have received it. For as concerning the former, as they have sinned with more ignorance, and without ha∣ving received so many graces as Christians have, God remits them by Baptisme not only all their Sins, but also all the punishment which he might justly exact in satisfaction for them; granting them an absolute and entire pardon or an act of oblivion and indemnity of all that is passed in fa∣vour of their entrance into Christian Religion. But he treats otherwise with them who relapse into sin after Baptisme, whose faults are infinitly greater, because then they have a clearer know∣lege of the sin, and offend after they have been delivered from the Slavery of Sin and the Devil: After they have received the grace of the Holy Ghost, by which there Soul became the dwelling place of God, so that by sinning they violate the

Temple of God, and contristate the holy Spirit, which they banish from their Souls. These rea∣sons, which so much aggravate the sins of Chri∣stians, are also the cause why God doth not par∣don them with so much indulgence, but obligeth the Penitent after the remission of the fault, to some satisfaction for the sin.

Certainly, saith the Council, Ses. 14. c. 8. the equity of the divine justice requires that he should deal otherwise with them, who before Baptism have sinned by ignorance, then with them who by Holy Baptism have been delivered from the servitude of sin and the Devil, and after they have received the gift of the Holy Ghost have not been afraid to violate the Temple of God and contristat his holy Spirit. Sanè & divinae justitiae ratio exigere videtur, ut aliter ab eo in gra∣tiam-recipiantur, qui ante Baptismum per ignorantiam deliquerint; aliter verò qui semel a peccati servitute liberati, & accepto Spiritus sancti dono, scienter Tem∣plum Dei violare, & Spiritum sanctum contristare non formidaverint.

From thence the Council descends to the se∣cond reason, which they derive from the good∣ness of God, which imposes these punishments for our advantage, as followeth. Et divinam cle∣mentiam decet, ne ita nobis abs{que} ulla satictfactione peccata dimittantur, ut occasione acceptâ peccata leviora putantes, velut injurii & contumeliosi S. Sancto in graviora labamur, thesaurizantes nobis iram in die irae.

It is very agreeable to the divine bounty not to remit our sins without obliging us to some Satisfaction, lest by occasion of too much mildness we should think our sins less then they are; and from thence take oc∣casion to fall into greater, and to become injurious and contumelious to the Holy Ghost; and draw upon us

the divine wrath in the day of Anger.

Proculdubio enim magnopere a peccato revocant, & quasi fraeno quodam coercent hae satisfactoriae paenae, cautiores{que} & vigilantiores in futurum poenitentes effici∣unt; medentur quo{que} peccatorum reliquiis, & vitiosos habitus male vivendo comparatos contrariis virtutum actionibus tollunt. For without doubt these satisfactory punishments have a wonderfull Vertue to divert Peni∣tents from Sin, and serve as a Bridle to withdraw them, and teach them to have a greater Guard for the future: besides they cure those reliques and disorders which sin had left in the Soul, and root out the Vicious habits contracted by a disorderly way of living.

In these last words the Council comprehends a third reason, which they draw from the whole∣some effects, which follow from Satisfaction, which are the correction of past faults, and a∣mendment of Penitents for the future.

They add yet two more, viz. That the works of pennance duly performed are a powerfull means to avert the punishment, which the divine Justice hath prepar'd in readyness to throw up∣on us. And that by these pains, which we suffer for our sins, we become more like and better re∣semble our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath suffered for our Sins; and from whose merit our satis∣factions derive all their force or merit; And we are assured, Rom. 8.17. that if we have a part in his sufferings, we shall also partake of his Glo∣ry.

The words of the Council are, Ibid. Ne{que} vero in Ecclesia Dei unquam existimata fuit ad amo∣vendam imminentem a Domino paenam, quam ut has paenitentiae opera homines cum vero animi dolore fre∣quentent.

Accedit ad haec quod dum satisfaciendo patimur pro peccatis Christi Jesu, qui pro peccatis nostris satisfe∣cit, ex quo omnis nostra sufficientia est, conformes ef∣ficimur, certissimam quo{que} arrham inde habentes quod si compatimur, & conglorificabimur.