XXIX. I am fully aware that the old writers have explained those sins, which are daily forgiven to believers, to be the smaller faults, which are inadvertently committed through the infirmity of the flesh; but solemn repentance, which was then required for greater offences, they thought, was no more to be repeated than baptism. This sentiment is not to be understood as indicating their design, either to drive into despair such persons as had relapsed after their first repentance, or to extenuate those errors, as if they were small in the sight of God. For they knew that the saints frequently stagger through unbelief; that they sometimes utter unnecessary oaths; that they occasionally swell into anger, and even break out into open reproaches; and that they are likewise chargeable with other faults, which the Lord holds in the greatest abomination. They expressed themselves in this manner, to distinguish between private offences and those public crimes which were attended with great scandal in the Church. But the difficulty, which they made, of forgiving those who had committed any thing deserving of ecclesiastical censure, did not arise from an opinion that it was difficult for them to obtain pardon from the Lord; they only intended by this severity to deter others from rashly running into crimes, which would justly be followed by their exclusion from the communion of the Church. The word of the Lord, however, which ought to be our only rule in this case, certainly prescribes greater moderation. For it teaches, that the rigour of discipline ought not to be carried to such an extent, as to overwhelm with sorrow the person whose benefit we are required to regard as its principal object; as we have before shown more at large. Footnote 703: Ephes. iv. 11-16. Footnote 704: Mark x. 9. Footnote 705: Gal. iv. 26. Footnote 706: 2 Tim. ii. 19. Footnote 707: Rom. xi. 4. 1 Kings xix. 18. Footnote 708: Acts iv. 32. Footnote 709: Ephes. iv. 4. Footnote 710: Joel ii. 32. Obad. 17. Footnote 711: Psalm xlvi. 5. Footnote 712: Matt. xxii. 30. Footnote 713: Isaiah xxxvii. 35. Joel ii. 32. Footnote 714: Ezek. xiii. 9. Footnote 715: Psalm cvi. 4, 5. Footnote 716: Ephes. iv. 10-13. Footnote 717: Isaiah lix. 21. Footnote 718: Rom. x. 17. Footnote 719: Psalm cxxxii. 14; lxxx. 1. Footnote 720: 2 Cor. iv. 7. Footnote 721: Psalm cv. 4. Footnote 722: 2 Cor. iv. 6. Footnote 723: Exod. xx. 24. Footnote 724: Psalm lxxxiv. Footnote 725: Psalm cxxxii. 7. xcix. 5. Footnote 726: Acts vii. 48, 49. Footnote 727: Mal. iv. 6. Footnote 728: John xv. 16. Footnote 729: 1 Peter i. 23. Footnote 730: 1 Cor. iv. 15. ix. 2. Footnote 731: 2 Cor. iii. 6. Footnote 732: 1 Thess. i. 5. Footnote 733: Gal. iii. 2. Footnote 734: 1 Cor. iii. 9; xv. 10. 2 Cor. vi. 1. Footnote 735: 1 Thess. ii. 1. Footnote 736: Col. i. 29. Footnote 737: Gal. ii. 8. Footnote 738: