A29096:42
The good old way, or, An excellent and profitable treatise of repentance made
The good old way, or, An excellent and profitable treatise of repentance made by John Bradford in the year 1553. Now published with two prefaces relating the life of the author, and the excellency of the work.The good old way, or, An excellent and profitable treatise of repentance made by John Bradford in the yeare 1553. Now published with two prefaces relating the life of the author, and the excellencey of the worke.
London: printed by Leon. Lichfield, 1652
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Confession, they call, a numbering of all their sins in the ear of their ghostly Father: for as (say they) a judge cannot absolve without knowledge of the cause or matter; so cannot the Priest, or ghostly Father, absolve from other sins, then those which he doth hear.
Confession, they call, a numbering of all their sinnes in the eare of their ghostly Father: for as (say they) a judge cannot absolve without knowledge of the cause or matter; so cannot the Priest, or ghostly Father, absolve from other sinnes, then those which he doth heare.
Satisfaction they call amends making unto God for their sins, by their undue works, Opera indebita, works more then they need to do, as they term ⟨p. 8⟩them: This is their penance which they Preach, Write, and allow: But how true this stuff is, how it agreeth with Gods word, how it is to be allowed, taught, Preached written, let us a little consider.
Satisfaction they call amends making unto God for their sinnes, by their undue works, Opera indebita, workes more then they need to doe, as they terme ⟨p. 8⟩them: This is their penance which they Preach, Write, and allow: But how true this stuffe is, how it agreeth with Gods word, how it is to be allowed, taught, Preached written, let us a little consider.
If a man repent not, until he have a just and full sorrowing for his sins (dearly beloved) when shall he repent? For in as much as hell fire, and the punishment of the Devils, is a just punishment for sin: In as much as in all sin, there is a contempt of God, which is all goodness, and therefore there is a desert of all illness: alas; who can bear or feel this just sorrow, this full sorrow for our sins, this their contrition, which they do so discern from their attrition? shall not man by this doctrine rather despair, then come to repentance? If a man repent not until he have made confession of all his sins in the ear of his ghostly Father: if a man cannot have absolution of his sins, until his sins be told by tale and number in the Priests ear, in that (as David saith) none can understand, much less then utter all his sins: Delicta quis intelligit?