nation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doth evil.” This, I say, let us firmly hold, and with this let us content ourselves, not grudging to see the wicked live long in prosperity without pain or punishment. The holy, just, wise, and mighty God knoweth best what to do, how to do, why and when to do everything conveniently. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. are To this belongeth also, that God doth as well afflict the good as the bad; touching which I spake at large in the third sermon of this third Decade. Now here therefore some there are which demand, why God doth with divers punishments persecute those sins which he hath already forgiven to men? For he forgave Adam his sin, and yet he laid on him both death and innumerable calamities of this life beside. xii. To David we read that the prophet Nathan said, The Lord hath taken thy sin away:” and yet immediately after the same prophet addeth: The sword shall not depart from thy house.” To this we answer simply, that these plagues, which are laid on us before the remission of our sins, are the punishments due to our sins; but that after the remission of our sins they are conflicts and exercises, wherewith the faithful do not make satisfaction for their sins, which are already remitted by grace in the death of the Son of God; but wherewith they are humbled and kept in their duty, having an occasion given of the greater glory.
And here I will not stick to recite unto you, dearly beloved, St Augustine’s judgment touching this matter in his second book De Peccatorum Meritis et Remissione, chap. 33, and 34, where he saith: “Things, the guilt whereof God absolveth or remitteth, to the end that after this life they should do no harm, and yet he suffereth them to abide unto the conflict of faith, that by them men may be instructed and exercised, profiting in the conflict of righteousness,” &ec. And presently after: “Before forgiveness, they are the punishments of sinners; but after remission, they are the conflicts and exercises of just men.” And again, after a few words more he saith: “The flesh which was first made was not the flesh of sin, wherein man would not keep righteousness among the pleasures of paradise. Wherefore God ordained that, after his sin, the flesh of sin being increased should endeavour with pains and labours [ Rather, however the wicked may, ὅσο. utcunque, Lat. ]
[2 See above, page 75.]
to recover righteousness again. And for that cause Adam being cast out of paradise dwelt over against Eden, that is, against the place of pleasures; which was a sign that with labours, which are contrary to pleasure, the flesh of sin was then to be inured, which, being in pleasures, kept not obedience before it was the flesh of sin, Therefore even as those our first parents, by living justly afterward, whereby they are rightly thought to be by the blood of Christ delivered utter punishment, deserved not yet in that life to be called back again into paradise; so also the flesh of sin, although when sins are forgiven a man live righteously in it, doth not presently deserve not to suffer that death which it drew from the propagation of sin. Such a like thing is insinuated to us in the book of the Kings concerning the patriarch David; to whom when the prophet was sent, and had threatened unto him the evils that should come upon him through the anger of God because of the sin which he had committed, by the confession of the sin he deserved forgiveness, according to the answer of the prophet who told him that that sin and crime was forgiven unto him; and yet those things betided him which God had threatened unto him, to wit, that he should so be humbled by the incest of his son, &e. And what is the cause that they demand not, If God for sin did threaten that scourge, why then, when he had pardoned the sin, did he fulfil that which he threatened? but for because they know (if they demand that question) that they shall rightly be answered, That the remission of the sin was granted to the end the man should not be by his sin hindered to obtain eternal life: but the effect of God’s threatening did follow after the remission of the sin, to the end that the godliness of the man might be tried and exercised in that humility. In like manner God hath for sins laid bodily death as a punishment upon the body of man; and after the forgiveness of sins hath not taken it away, but left it in the body to be a mean to the exercise of righteousness.” Thus far hath Augustine.
[3 —res, quarum reatum, ne post hanc vitam obsint, Deus solvit,]
[tamen eas ad certamen fidei sinit manere, ut per illas erudiantur et]
[exerceantur proficientes in agone justitize.respondemus dicentes,]
[ante remissionem esse illa supplicia peccatorum; post remissionem]
[autem certamina exercitationesque justorum.. Caro enim, qua primo]
[facta est, non erat caro peccati, etc.—August. Opp. Tom. vir. fol. 147.]
[col. 1. 2, 3.]]
Now as concerning the punishments of the wicked, (if the most just God do in this world touch them with any,) let us know that they be the arguments! of Gods just judgment, who in this world beginneth to punish them temporally, and in the world to come doth not cease to plague them everlastingly. The wicked, verily, perish through their own default; for God beginneth to whip them in this life, to the end that they, being chastened, may begin to be wise, and turn to the Lord: but they? by his chastisement, are the more indurate, and murmur at the judgments of God, converting that to their own destruction which was ordained to have been to their health. For as to them that love God all things work to the best, so to them that hate the Lord all things do work to their utter destruction. This argument might be extended further yet; but for because I have already spoken a great deal to this effect in the third sermon of this third Decade, that which is here left out may there be found; and therefore I refer you to the looking upon that. And so now hitherto touching sin. I have with somewhat too long a sermon, dearly beloved, ~~ by more than the space of two whole hours detained you here. That therefore I may now make an end, let us humbly acknowledge our sins, and meekly cry with
prayers unto the Lord, which sitteth in the throne
of grace, saying: Have mercy upon us, O Lord, for against thee have we sinned, and do confess our offences. Thy debtors are we; forgive thou us our debts, as we forgive our debtors: and lead us not into temptation: but deliver us from evil. Amen. The End of the Third Decade of Sermons
[1 i. e. proofs, evidences.] [2 non convertuntur ad se percutientem, sed, Lat. omitted; are not]
[turned to him that smiteth them, but, &c.] [8 See above, page 79.]]
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