登陆注册
5214200000437

第437章

Then as to the daily prayer which the Lord Himself taught, and which is therefore called the Lord's prayer, it obliterates indeed the sins of the day, when day by day we say, "Forgive us our debts,"and when we not only say but act out that which follows, "as we forgive our debtors;"(9) but we utter this petition because sins have been committed, and not that they may be.For by it our Saviour designed to teach us that, however righteously we live in this life of infirmity and darkness, we still commit sins for the remission of which we ought to pray, while we must pardon those who sin against us that we ourselves also may be pardoned.The Lord then did not utter the words, "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your Father will also forgive you your trespasses,"(10) in order that we might contract from this petition such confidence as should enable us to sin securely from day to day, either putting ourselves above the fear of human laws, or craftily deceiving men concerning our conduct, but in order that we might thus learn not to suppose that we are without sins, even though we should be free from crimes; as also God admonished the priests of the old law to this same effect regarding their sacrifices, which He commanded them to offer first for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people.For even the very words of so great a Master and Lord are to be intently considered.For He does not say, If ye forgive men their sins, your Father will also forgive you your sins, no matter of what sort they be, but He says, your sins; for it was a daily prayer He was teaching, and it was certainly to disciples already justified He was speaking.What, then, does He mean by "your sins," but those sins from which not even you who are justified and sanctified can be free? While, then, those who seek occasion from this petition to indulge m habitual sin maintain that the Lord meant to include great sins, because He did not say, He will forgive you your small sins, but "your sins," we, on the other hand, taking into account the character of the persons He was addressing, cannot see our way to interpret the expression "your sins"of anything but small sins, because such persons are no longer guilty of great sins.Nevertheless not even great sins themselves--sins from which we must flee with a total reformation of life--are forgiven to those who pray, unless they observe the appended precept, "as ye also forgive your debtors." For if the very small sins which attach even to the life of the righteous be not remitted without that condition, how much further from obtaining indulgence shall those be who are involved in many great crimes, if, while they cease from perpetrating such enormities, they still inexorably refuse to remit any debt incurred to themselves, since the Lord says, "But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses?"(1) For this is the purport of the saying of the Apostle James also, "He shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy."(2) For we should remember that servant whose debt of ten thousand talents his lord cancelled, but afterwards ordered him to pay up, because the servant himself had no pity for his fellow-servant, who owed him an hundred pence.(3) The words which the Apostle James subjoins, "And mercy rejoiceth against judgment,"(4) find their application among those who are the children of the promise and vessels of mercy.

For even those righteous men, who have lived with such holiness that they receive into the eternal habitations others also who have won their friendship with the mammon of unrighteousness,(5) became such only through the merciful deliverance of Him who justifies the ungodly, imputing to him a reward according to grace, not according to debt.For among this number is the apostle, who says, "I obtained mercy to be faithful."(6)But it must be admitted, that those who are thus received into the eternal habitations are not of such a character that their own life would suffice to rescue them without the aid of the saints, and consequently in their case especially does mercy rejoice against judgment.And yet we are not on this account to suppose that every abandoned profligate, who has made no amendment of his life, is to be received into the eternal habitations if only he has assisted the saints with the mammon of unrighteousness,--that is to say, with money or wealth which has been unjustly acquired, or, if rightfully acquired, is yet not the true riches, but only what iniquity counts riches, because it knows not the true riches in which those persons abound, who even receive others also into eternal habitations.There is then a certain kind of life, which is neither, on the one hand, so bad that those who adopt it are not helped towards the kingdom of heaven by any bountiful alms-giving by which they may relieve the wants of the saints, and make friends who could receive them into eternal habitations, nor, on the other hand, so good that it of itself suffices to win for them that great blessedness, if they do not obtain mercy through the merits of those whom they have made their friends.And I frequently wonder that even Virgil should give expression to this sentence of the Lord, in which He says, "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that they may receive you into everlasting habitations;"(2)and this very similar saying, "He that receiveth a prophet, in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man, in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man's reward."(8) For when that poet described the Elysian fields, in which they suppose that the souls of the blessed dwell, he placed there not only those who had been able by their own merit to reach that abode.but added.--"And they who grateful memory won By services to others done;"(9 that is, they who had served others, and thereby merited to be remembered by them.Just as if they used the expression so common in Christian lips, where some humble person commends himself to one of the saints, and says, Remember me, and secures that he do so by deserving well at his hand.But what that kind of life we have been speaking of is, and what those sins are which prevent a man from winning the kingdom of God by himself, but yet permit him to avail himself of the merits of the saints, it is very difficult to ascertain, very perilous to define.For my own part, in spite of all investigation, I have been up to the present hour unable to discover this.And posssibly it is hidden from us, lest we should become careless in avoiding such sins, and so cease to make progress.For if it were known what these sins are which, though they continue, and be not abandoned for a higher life, do yet not prevent us from seeking and hoping for the intercession of the saints, human sloth would presumptuously wrap itself in these sins, and would take no steps to be disentangled from such wrappings by the deft energy of any virtue, but would only desire to be rescued by the merits of other people, whose friendship had been won by a bountiful use of the mammon of unrighteousness.But now that we are left in ignorance of the precise nature of that iniquity which is venial, even though it be persevered in, certainly we are both more vigilant in our prayers and efforts for progress, and more careful to secure with the mammon of unrighteousness friends for ourselves among the saints.

But this deliverance, which is effected by one's own prayers, or the intercession of holy men, secures that a man be not cast into eternal fire, but not that, when once he has been cast into it, he should after a time be rescued from it.For even those who fancy that what is said of the good ground bringing forth abundant fruit, some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred fold, is to be referred to the saints, so that in proportion to their merits some of them shall deliver thirty men, some sixty, some an hundred,--even those who maintain this are yet commonly inclined to suppose that this deliverance will take place at, and not after the day of judgment.Under this impression, some one who observed the unseemly folly with which men promise themselves impunity on the ground that all will be included in this method of deliverance, is reported to have very happily remarked, that we should rather endeavor to live so well that we shall be all found among the number of those who are to intercede for the liberation of others, lest these should be so few in number, that, after they have delivered one thirty, another sixty, another a hundred, there should still remain many who could not be delivered from punishment by their intercessions, and among them every one who has vainly and rashly promised himself the fruit of another's labor.But enough has been said in reply to those who acknowledge the authority of the same sacred Scriptures as ourselves, but who, by a mistaken interpretation of them, conceive of the future rather as they themselves wish, than as the Scriptures teach.And having given this reply, I now, according to promise, close this book.

同类推荐
  • The Red Inn

    The Red Inn

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 楞严法玺印禅师语录

    楞严法玺印禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • A treatise on Good Works

    A treatise on Good Works

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 易筮通变

    易筮通变

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 珩璜新论

    珩璜新论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 错过好过没爱过

    错过好过没爱过

    很久很久以后,他想起那时的她,他轻抚着她的照片,默默的念着她的名字,抬头看见镜子里的自己嘴角的弧度,他忽然明白了那年,她走时说的话:就算我们错过了,总好过不曾爱过……
  • 岁序总考全集

    岁序总考全集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 湛蓝色夏季风

    湛蓝色夏季风

    我们溺爱蒲公英,溺爱那个湛蓝色的夏季,可是我们都不曾注意到蒲公英的花语——无法停留的爱……
  • 重生影后求生手册

    重生影后求生手册

    “江小姐,听说你和陆影帝共同出入医院,是好事将近吗?”江楼月吓得差点跳起来,“你胡说什么!我跟陆影帝什么时候一起出入医院了?我不过就是感个冒,还不能去医院了?”回家后,江楼月看着正拿着怀孕报告单的某个男人,胆战心惊。“你别生气,我都解释了跟那个人没有关系!”该死的记者,害苦她了。“那这个是什么回事?”男人面无表情,眼里尽是危险气息。江楼月笑眯眯,“很明显啊,你不会不想认吧?"“不是一直有做措施?”男人脸色很黑,她是不是厌弃他了?要找个小三在他们中间?江楼月:”……“她能说她悄悄把那些tt都扎了洞?就是不想天天在床上哄这个男人?而且,那是他们的孩子,怎么就是小三了?
  • 魔女大人请留步

    魔女大人请留步

    腹黑、无良、呆萌、冷漠、强悍、鬼畜、单纯、面瘫、偏执……这是她,复杂多变。她是异次元的魔女,没有实体只能寄生,她浪迹时空千万年,经历无数次转生;他们,是她的陪伴,一个是冷面热心,一个玉面春风,一个刁蛮狡黠;无尽的时空,循环往复的转生,她与他们,站在世界之外睥睨世界,渴望着世界的温度,却也怨恨着世界的冷漠。她与他们,一颗心,是否遗失在某一时空?当魔女再一次转生……温和、冷情、腹黑、风华绝代、恶趣味——这是他,表面简单实际复杂,他的恶作剧,只为引起她目光的停留;清冷、孤高——这是他,他是夜空之上皎洁的明月,却将少之又少的温暖投向她;高傲、邪魅——这是他,他的心机他的算计,只为守护那一方天地;阳光、爽朗——这是他,敢爱敢恨,似烈阳一般温暖着她的人生;所有的一切卷土重来,世界重新洗牌,gameon!命运的转轮已经开始转动……【小幽儿语录】呆萌版:某诗会现场洛伊:“他们好像拿着你的诗稿在吵架耶!”“是吗?”某女讶然,一副不明所以的神情,“我只是想起之前在二十一世纪听过的一首歌,所以把歌词写上去了啊!”鬼畜版:某女:动动手指就能毁掉的东西,一下子毁了多没意思,慢慢的折磨,一点一点的、以肉眼可见的速度…摧毁!!!某女:不论是谁将我打入这个时空,你且等着,且看着,我会好好跟他们玩个游戏……腹黑版:手一抖,一盒黑墨泼了出去,某男胜雪白衣墨迹斑斑。某女:哎呀,原来白小道长你喜欢这一款,早说嘛,本公主审美一般,但黑白配绝对出神入化……本文1对1,涉及伪宫斗、伪宅斗……各种斗,开始慢热,后面绝对精彩!四人组的真实身份绝对出人意料哦!!结局同样意外!亲们,动动可爱的小手指,果断收藏就对了……
  • 秋天的背影

    秋天的背影

    本书收集了作者1984年至2000年间的部分诗作。包括“四十不惑”、“黄昏意象”、“晨曲”、“聆听远方”、“忘掉孤独”等。
  • 蚀骨宠婚:嚣张宝宝纯情妈

    蚀骨宠婚:嚣张宝宝纯情妈

    她嫁给他,非处儿,为钱。他娶她,不过是需要一个妻子罢了,妻子这称谓,可以让他名正言顺的在婚房里风流快活。这场婚姻,她不亏,他也赚了。那时赫连轩怎么也没有想到他娶的女人不止是非处儿,还以二十一岁的‘高龄’养着一个六岁的小包子。若知道,他绝对不会任由自己喜当了爹。至少,也多少为难她一下下?
  • 淮海原肇禅师语录

    淮海原肇禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 五行大义

    五行大义

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 等你,余生为期

    等你,余生为期

    作为一个独立,勇敢,却又不失温婉和智慧的芊芊女子,清风在竞争激烈的职场、在有失望也有憧憬的爱情生活里,越是憧憬,越要风雨兼程。冷静深沉、一手栽培她的上司——会计师事务所合伙人邓云生对她说,你知道,这些年,假装不喜欢一个人,有多难。热情炽烈,执着耐心的吕悦对她说,像你这样的姑娘,我不想总是拿不到号。你知道我在等你吗?清风徐来,水波不兴。铭心刻骨,就要一意孤行。等你,静待花开,等你,余生为期。--情节虚构,请勿模仿