XXXII. Let the laver be not for your body only,
but also for the image of God in you; not merely a washing away of sins
in you, but also a correction of your temper; let it not only wash away
the old filth, but let it purify the fountainhead. Let it not
only move you to honourable acquisition, but let it teach you also
honourably to lose possession; or, which is more easy, to make
restitution of what you have wrongfully acquired. For what profit
is it that your sin should have been forgiven you, but the loss which
you have inflicted should not be repaired to him whom you have
injured? Two sins are on your conscience, the one that you made a
dishonest gain, the other
that you retained the gains; you received forgiveness for the one, but
in respect of the other you are still in sin, for you have still
possession of what belongs to another; and your sin has not been put to
an end, but only divided by the time which has elapsed. Part of
it was perpetrated before your Baptism, but part remains after your
Baptism; for Baptism carries forgiveness of Past, not of Present sins;
and its purification must not be played with, but be genuinely
impressed upon you; you must be made perfectly bright, and not be
merely coloured; you must receive the gift, not of a mere covering of
your sins, but of a taking them clean away. Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven Ps. xxxii. 1.…this is done
by the complete cleansing…and whose sins are hidden…this
belongs to those who are not yet healed in their deepest soul.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.…This is
a third class of sinners, whose actions are not praiseworthy, but who
are innocent of intention.