,, 136, note 4, for symbola read symbolo.

,, 139, line 19, for writing read writings.

,, 156, note 1, line 1, for veûσa read πveūμa.

,, 193, line 6, for Being read Bring.

,, 300, line 19, for Montfauçon read Montfaucon.

304, line 12 and line 15, for Commonitorum read Commonitorium.

,, 342, line 7, after velimus, insert et co-operante, dum volumus.

,, 344, note 2, for 62, 63 read 80.

note 3, for 35 read 45.

,, 345, note 4, for 257 read 329.

,, 349, line 29, for Rocca read Rocea.

,, 367, line 5, for spirit read Spirit.

,, 376, note 1, line 18, for imprium read impium.

,, 425, note 1, for on read in.

ARTICLE XVI.

Of Sin after Baptism.

Not every deadly sin willingly committed after baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after baptism. After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sin as long as they live here, or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent.

De peccato post Baptismum.

NON omne peccatum mortale post baptismum voluntarie perpetratum, est peccatum in Spiritum Sanctum, et irremissibile. Proinde lapsis a baptismo in peccata, locus pœnitentiæ non est negandus. Post acceptum Spiritum Sanctum possumus a gratia data recedere, atque peccare, denuoque per gratiam Dei resurgere, ac resipiscere; ideoque illi damnandi sunt, qui se, quamdiu hic vivant, amplius non posse peccare affirmant, aut vere resipiscentibus veniæ locum denegant.

SECTION I. ·

HISTORY.

HE Article as it now stands is very nearly the same as the

THE

fifteenth Article of A. D. 1552. But in the Articles of 1552, the sixteenth Article followed out the subject of the fifteenth, and treated expressly of Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.

The Article, which we now have, treats of, or alludes to

I. Deadly sin after baptism, and the possibility of repentance for such sin.

II. The sin against the Holy Ghost.

III. The possibility of falling from grace.

The first of these three divisions is that which forms the

main subject of the Article; the other two being incidentally A

VOL. II.

alluded to. The third, however, is spoken of in somewhat decided terms, and being a point on which there has been no little controversy, requires to be considered.

I. As regards the possibility of repentance and forgiveness for sins committed after baptism and the grace of God, there was some stir even in early ages of the Church.

Some of the Gnostics, who affected great asceticism, appear to have held also very rigid notions of the divine justice and the irremissibility of sins. Clement of Alexandria says, that Basilides taught, that not all sins, but only sins which were committed involuntarily or through ignorance, were forgiven1.'

The Church itself in early times was very severe in its censures against heinous crimes, and very slow in admitting offenders to Church-communion. It appears that, in the second and third centuries, persons, who committed small sins, might be admitted frequently to repentance, but that great and flagrant offenders were put to penance and reconciled to the Church but once. In the case indeed of some very grievous, deadly, and often-repeated sins, the Church appears to have refused communion even at the last hour. The meaning of which severity doubtless was, that offenders might not mock God and the Church with feigned repentance, turning again to sin like the swine to their wallowing in the mire2.

The Montanists carried this rigour much farther than the Catholics; for they not only refused repeated penances and reconciliation, but did not allow to the Church the power of forgiving great sins after baptism, even once. Tertullian, in

1 Clem. Alex. Strom. IV. p. 634, Potter; Mosheim, De Rebus ante Constant. sæc. 2. c. 48; King, On the Creed, p. 358; Bp. Kaye's Clem. Alex. p. 269.

2 See this subject fully considered by Bingham, Eccles. Antiq. Bk. xvI. c. x.; Bk. xvIII. c. iv. He quotes Hermas, Clem. Alex., Tertull., Origen, the Council of Eliberis, Ambros., Augustine, &c.; see especially Bk. xvIII. c. iv. § 1.

those writings, which he composed before he became a Montanist, speaks of grievous sins as once, and but once, remitted by the Church. After he had joined the sect of the Montanists, he distinguishes between venial sins (such as causeless anger, evil speaking, rash swearing, falsehood,) and sins of a heinous and deadly character, such as murder, idolatry, fraud, denying Christ, blasphemy, adultery, fornication. Of these latter he says there is no remission, and that even Christ will not intercede for them1.

St. Clement of Alexandria in one place seems to say, that there is no repentance but once after baptism2. It is probable that he refers to a passage in the Pastor of Hermas, where we read that there is but one penitence, viz. when we descend into the water, and so receive remission of sins 3. But whereas it is pretty certain, that Hermas speaks of the repentance and remission of sins in baptism to be once given and never repeated, but does not thereby mean to exclude from repentance after baptism; so it appears that Clement of Alexandria speaks either of the one public penance, which might be conceded by the Church, or that he simply means that, to repent and

1 Bp. Kaye's Tertullian, pp. 20, 254, 339; Tertullian, de Pudicitia, c. 19; see also Lardner, Hist. of Heretics, Bk. II. ch. xix. sect. 8; Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. Cent. II. Part II. ch. v.

2 ̔Ο μὲν οὖν ἐξ ἐθνῶν καὶ τῆς προβιότητος ἐκείνης ἐπὶ τὴν πίστιν ὁρμήσας, ἅπαξ ἔτυχεν ἀφέσεως ἁμαρτιῶν. ὁ δὲ καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἁμαρτήσας, εἶτα μετανοών, και συγγνώμης τυγχάνῃ, αἰδεῖσθαι ὀφείλει, μηκέτι λουόμενος εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν .... δόκησις τοίνυν μετανοίας, οὐ μετάνοια, τὸ πολλάκις αἰτεῖσθαι συγγνώμην, ἐφ ̓ οἷς πλημμελοῦμεν πολλάκις.—Stromat. II. § 13, p. 460. 3 Herm. Past. Mandat. IV. 3; Cotel. p. 96.

4 Consult Cotelerius' note on this passage of Hermas.

5 So his words are explained by Lumper, Hist. Theolog. Crit. Tom. IV. p. 388. Bp. Jeremy Taylor writes, 'Whereas some of them' (i. e. of the fathers) 'use to say that after baptism, or after the first relapse, they are "unpardonable," we must know that in the style of the Church "unpardonable" signifies such to which, by the discipline and customs of the Church, pardon may not be ministered. They were called " unpardonable," not because God would not pardon them, but because He