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IF the mean Idea which Parents form to themselves of the Christian Life, and the small feeling they have in their hearts of the great Purity to which
this life obliges us, is cause of the little care they take in the Education of Chil∣dren; surely the false Imagination they have, that it is a small matter to lose ones Innocency, and that it is easily re∣covered, contributes also extreamly to make Fathers and Mothers slide into this dreadful negligence. And yet can there be a more horrible Infidelity than to violate one of the most holy and most inviolable alliances which God hath made with men, which is that of Baptism, by which we are initiated into Christ Jesus? And what outrage commit we not against God, says
Tertullian, * 1.1 when after ha∣ving renounced the De∣vil, who is his Enemy, and have put him under God; we raise him up afterwards, and return∣ing to to the Devil we render our selves his Trophee and his joy, to the end that his spirit of malice having recovered the Prey which he had lost, may triumph in some sort over God himself.
This moved an ancient Father of the Church to
say, that if one falls after Baptism, * 1.2 he will be in worse estate than he was be∣fore he was Baptized; because the Devil will keep him faster bound in his fetters as a fugitive slave whom he hath overtaken in his flight; and Christ Jesus can no more henceforth suffer death for him; since he who is resuscitated from the dead, cannot any more dye.
This moved St. Paul to say in his E∣pistle to the Hebrews, Heb. 6.4. That 'tis impossible for them who have once been illuminated, who have tasted the guift of Heaven, who have been rendred parta∣kers of the Holy Ghost, who have been nou∣rished with the sacred word of God and with the hope of the happinesse of the world to come, and who after this have fallen away, should be renewed again unto Repentance, be∣cause as much as in them lies they crucify the Son of God afresh and expose him to open shame.
This means not, my sister, that there
remains no hope of pardon for them, who having been once delivered by Christ Jesus, re-ingage themselves by their sins in the servitude of the Devil; for it is most true, that Christians sin∣ning voluntarily after the knowledge of the truth, finde a Sacrifice of Propi∣tiation for their sins: But it means that to obtain this pardon and deserve to be again once more purified by the Blood of this innocent Victime, the sinner must according to the language of the Fathers, pour forth not only na∣tural Tears, but Tears of heart, which flow from a sincere Repentance, and perform actions of strong Mortificati∣on and Pennance above the Idea which people are wont to form of it. So that one may say, 'tis much more easy to conserve the Innocency of Baptism, than to recover it by this means when one hath once lost it. Besides, that e∣ven when one hath recovered it, there is still as great a difference between sin∣ners converted, and them who have conserved the Innocence of their Bap∣tism,
as there is between a Subject par∣doned by a King after his Treason, and another who hath been always faithful to him; between a broken Member which is cured, and a Member which hath remained always sound & entire.
What then should not Fathers and Mothers do to hinder their Children from falling into this dreadful mise∣ry? And since there is nothing but a Christian Education which can pre∣serve them; with how great zeal ought they to apply themselves unto it? And how high an esteem ought they to conceive of a Vocation, which engages them not only to inspire in∣to their Children all the sentiments of Christian Piety and of the subli∣mest perfection of the Gospel; but moreover to use all sorts of precauti∣ons, and to seek out all means possi∣ble to conserve them in their Inno∣cence, and to estrange from them all such things as may give the least oc∣casion to alter or diminish in them the charity andgrace of Christ Jesus.
Tertulian de Paeniten. c. 5.
Pacianus in Catech.