Chapter I.—Of Heathen Repentance.

Repentance, men understand, so far as nature is able, to be an emotion of the mind arising from disgust1    “Offensa sententiæ pejoris;” or possibly, “the miscarriage of some,” etc. at some previously cherished worse sentiment: that kind of men I mean which even we ourselves were in days gone by—blind, without the Lord’s light.  From the reason of repentance, however, they are just as far as they are from the Author of reason Himself. Reason, in fact, is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason—nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason. All, therefore, who are ignorant of God, must necessarily be ignorant also of a thing which is His, because no treasure-house2    Thesaurus. at all is accessible to strangers. And thus, voyaging all the universal course of life without the rudder of reason, they know not how to shun the hurricane which is impending over the world.3    Sæculo. [Erasmus doubted the genuineness of this treatise, partly because of the comparative purity of its style. See Kaye, p. 42.] Moreover, how irrationally they behave in the practice of repentance, it will be enough briefly to show just by this one fact, that they exercise it even in the case of their good deeds. They repent of good faith, of love, of simple-heartedness, of patience, of mercy, just in proportion as any deed prompted by these feelings has fallen on thankless soil.  They execrate their own selves for having done good; and that species chiefly of repentance which is applied to the best works they fix in their heart, making it their care to remember never again to do a good turn. On repentance for evil deeds, on the contrary, they lay lighter stress. In short, they make this same (virtue) a means of sinning more readily than a means of right-doing.

CAPUT PRIMUM.

1227A

Poenitentiam hoc genus hominum, quod et ipsi retro fuimus, caeci, sine Domini lumine, natura tenus norunt passionem animi quamdam esse quae veniat de offensa sententiae prioris . Caeterum a ratione ejus tantum absunt, quantum ab ipso rationis auctore: quippe res Dei, ratio; quia Deus omnium conditor, nihil non ratione tractari, intelligique voluit. Igitur ignorantes quique Deum rem quoque ejus ignorent necesse est, quia nullus omnino thesaurus extraneis patet. Itaque universam vitae conversationem sine gubernaculo rationis transfretantes imminentem saeculo procellam vitare non norunt. Quam autem in poenitentiae actu irrationaliter deversentur, 1227B vel uno isto satis erit expedire, eum illam etiam in bonis factis suis adhibent. Poenitet fidei, amoris, simplicitatis, patientiae, misericordiae, 1228A prout quid in ingratiam cecidit. Semetipsos exsecrantur , quia benefecerint, eamque maxime poenitentiae speciem, quae optimis operibus irrogatur, in corde fingunt , meminisse curantes, ne quid boni rursus praestent; contra, poenitentiae malorum levius incubant : denique facilius per eamdem delinquunt, quam per eamdem recte faciunt.