money is gotten by an equivocal contract, and an indirect rapine, and therefore can never become a pleasing sacrifice to God; it is a giving our goods to the poor without charity, and "that profits not," saith St. Paul. But at last, although he that loses his money, deserves to lose it; yet because by laws, such purchases and acquisitions are forbidden, and we have no right to give alms of what is not our own, and as God will not accept it when it is done by us, so he hath no where commanded that it should be done at all; therefore it is certain, that all such money is to be restored, if the loser please. "Bona, alea amissa, tanquam furto ablata, veteres restituenda putabant." St. Austin said, that the ancients did affirm, money, won by dice and tables, ought to be restored, like the money that was stolen.' But if the owner will not, let it ascend to pious uses. And if this be the state of this affair, it cannot be lawful to play at cards or dice for money. For "the love of money is the root of all evil; which some having coveted, have pierced themselves through with many sorrows." And this appears yet more in the next advice.

37. No man can play lawfully at such games, but those who are dispassionate, and of sober spirits, under the command of reason and religion; and therefore to play for money will be quickly criminal; for,

Ploratur lacrumis amissa pecunia veris ;
Et majore domus gemitu, majore tumultu
Planguntur numi quam funera*:

"Men may weep solemnly for the dead, but they will be heartily troubled when their money is departed;" and therefore there is but little sport in such games. And this Alexander the Great rightly observedt, when he set a fine upon some friends of his, " quod in ludo aleæ sensisset eos non ludere, sed velut in re maxime seria versari, fortunas suas omnes aleæ permittentes arbitrio;" " because they did not play at dice, but contend as in a matter of greatest concernment." And certainly so it is. For do not all the nations of

world think the the defence of their money and estates a just cause of taking up arms and venturing their lives? he that plays at games of fortune, should put nothing to fortune's conduct, but what he can perfectly subject to reason every minute. Seneca tells that Julius Canus was playing at tables, when the centurion being sent upon a desperate service, and leading, 'agmen hominum periturorum,' 'a troop of men to death, happened to call him out to march in that service. Julius Canus knew the danger well enough; but being summoned, called to his playfellow to tell the men upon the tables; and 'now,' says he, 'do not say when I am dead, that you had the better of the game;' and desired the centurion to bear him witness, that he had one man more than the other. He that is thus even and serene, may fairly play; but he that would be so, must not venture considerable portions of his estate, nor any thing, the loss of which displeasės him, and shakes him into passion. Not that every displeasure, though for a trifle, is criminal; but that every degree of it tends to evil, and the use of it is not safe, and the effect may be intolerable.

Ludit cum multis Vatanas, sed ludere nescit:
Et putat imperio currere puncta suo.

If the chances will not run, as we would have them, or, if our passions will not; then it is at no hand safe to play; unless to fret, and vex secretly for trifles, to swear and lie, to blaspheme and curse, to cheat and forswear, to covet and to hate, can be innocent.

38. Upon these accounts it is, that wise men advise, that young men be, at no hand, permitted to play at dice or the like games. "Ab isto lusu arcendi sunt pueri, tum propter pecunias quas perdunt, tum propter vitia quæ colligunt, et mores pravos quos inde addiscunt. Young men and boys lose their money and learn evil manners at such games; they have great passions, fierce desires, and quick angers, and their flames are stirred perpetually with chance. It is a sad story that is told of the young prince, the only son of Claudius the emperor, who when he had lost all his money at dice, and tired out all his invention for the getting more, and could not do it fairly,-being impatient of his loss, and desirous of new hopes and ventures, he stole a rich jewel from his father's closet, the prince's tutor knowing and concealing the theft. But it came to the emperor's ear, and produced this tragedy. He disinherited his son; he banished all the prince's playfellows; and put the tutor to death. Young men are not to be trusted to play with such aspics. And therefore Sidonius says, "Alea est oblectamentum senum, ut pila juvenum;" "Tables for old men, and the ball for young men." Cato allows to young men, arms, horses, and bows, and such-like sports; but would have dice and tables permitted to old men, whose minds are more to be refreshed with diversion, than their bodies by laborious exercise. And in allusion to this, Augustus, in his letter to Tiberius, mentioned by Suetonius, hath these words; "Inter cœnam lusimus γεροντικῶς et heri et hodie," "Yesterday and to-day, we played like old men;" that is, at tables. But this is matter of prudence, and not of conscience; save only that old men are more masters of reason, and rulers of their passion, and a sedentary exercise being fittest for them, they who cannot but remember that they are every day dying, though possibly they need some divertisement to their busied and weary spirits, yet they do more need to remember their latter end, and take care to redeem their time, and above all things, not to play for any considerable money, not for any money, the loss whereof is bigger than a jest: and they that do thus, will not easily do amiss. But better than all these permissions, is that resolution of Cicero"; "Quantum alii tribuunt tempestivis conviviis, quantum denique aleæ, quantum pilæ; tantum mihi egomet ad hæc studia recolenda sumsero," "What time other men spend in feasting and revellings, in dice and gaming, all that I spend in my studies:" and that is very well. For though there is good charity in preserving our health, yet there is a greater necessity upon us, that we do not lose our time.

39. (5.) That our games may be innocent, we must take care that they be not scandalous, that is, not with evil company, not with suspicious company. "Ciceroni nequissimorum hominum in ludo talario consessus ?" "Shall Cicero

suffer base persons to sit and play at tables in his house?" That is not well: and therefore he objected it as a great crime to Mark Anthony, whose house was frequented with gamesters and drunkards. We must neither do evil, nor seem to do evil: we must not converse with evil persons, nor use our liberty to our brother's prejudice or grief: we must not do any thing, which he, with probability or with innocent weakness, thinks to be amiss, until he be instructed rightly; and if he be, yet if he will be an adversary and apt to take opportunities to reproach you, we must give him no occasion. In these cases, it is fit we abstain: where nothing of these things does intervene, and nothing of the former evils is appendant, we may use our liberty with reason and sobriety. And then, if this liberty can be so used, and such recreations can be innocent, there is no further question, but those trades which minister to these divertisements, are innocent and lawful.

RULE III.

The Act of the Will alone, although no external Action or Event do follow, is imputed to Good or Evil by God and Men.

1. THE will of man, in the production and perfecting of a sin, hath six steps or degrees of volition, in all which the sin is actual, excepting the first only. (1.) The inclination of the will is the first; and that so far as it is natural, so far it is innocent. Sin oftentimes enters in at that door, but the door was placed there in the first creation; it was a part of that building which God made and not man, and in which every stone and stick were good. It was not made for sin, but for virtue: but it was made so, that if we would bring sin in that way, it was in our choice, and at our peril. But although this be the case of our natural inclination, yet if our inclinations be acquired, or increased, or habitual, that is, if they become facilities and promptitudes to sin, they are not innocent: for this state is a state of sin and death; it is the effect of many vile actions and vile desires; it is an aversion from and enmity against God; it is a bed of desires which are sometimes asleep, and then do no more mischief than a sleeping wolf, but when they are awake, they do all the evil they can. And therefore the case of an habitual sinner is such, that even his first inclinations to any forbidden action, in the instance of his own habit, are criminal as the external effect. But, in natural inclinations, the case is different. (2.) The first beginning of the sin is, when the will stops and arrests itself upon the tempting object, and consents only so far, that it will have it considered and disputed. Then the will is come too far, not when it is willing a thing should be disputed whether it be lawful or unlawful, good or evil; but when it is willing it be considered which is to be followed, reason or sense, wise counsels or sensual pleasures : for when the will is gone so far, it is passed beyond what is natural, and come so far towards choice and guiltiness, that it is yet no more friend to virtue than to vice, and knows not which to choose. (3.) The next step the will makes, is, when it is pleased with the thought of it, and tastes the honey with the top of a rod, a little fantastic pleasure beforehand in the meditation of the sin. This prelibation is but the antepast of the action, and as the twilight to the dark night, it is too near an approach to a deed of darkness. (4.) When the will is gone thus far and is beyond the white lines of innocence, the next step towards a perfect sin is a desire to do the action; not clearly and distinctly, but upon certain conditions, if it were lawful, and if it were convenient, and if it were not for something that lies cross in the way. Here our love to virtue is lost; only fear and God's restraining grace remain still for the revocation of the man to wisdom and security. (5.) But when this obstacle is removed, and that the heart consents to the sin, then the spirit is departed, and then there remains nothing but that the sin be (6.) contrived within, and committed to the faculties and members to go about their new and unhappy employment; and then both the outward and the inward man have combined and made up the body of a sin. But the sin begins within, and the guilt is contracted by what is done at home, by that which is in our own power, by that which nothing from without can hinder.

• Vide Unum Necessar. cap. 5. of Habitual Sins.