is to be done to us and no other matter more heavie and more worthy of tears then the sinnes and impenitencie of men If it came to mind so often unto a man that he should die and that he was to plead his cause before God as often as he in a pensive manner Cause of mourning discusses the matter with himselfe of the helps of this life surely he would be more sad and more diligent in the amendment of his life and of repentance And if the same man should call to mind the eternall torments he could not but despise the world and in comparison of them think all the afflictions of this world pleasant From which opinion and fervency of devotion we are the more distant because we are so much inveagled with the inticements of the flesh In brief it behoveth The life of the flesh is the death of the spirit a Christian most firmly to perswade himselfe that if it goe well with his body and that he flow in pleasures of this world that his spirit is dead but that hee liveth if hee crucifie his flesh with his desires and concupiscences for the one is the death of the other if the spirit live it must needs be the body shall spiritually die and be offered a living sacrifice Rom. 12. Which way of life all the Saints from the beginning of the world did observe eating and drinking with thanksgiving the bread and cup of The bread of tears tears according to that of David Psalm 80. Thou shalt feed us with the bread of tears and thou shalt give us drink of teares by measure And Psalm 41. My teares were unto me my bread both day and night And this bread of teares faith by a wonderfull sweetnes doth mix and temper and the drink of teares is pressed from the tender grapes of devout hearts by true repentance and sorrow which worketh to stedfast salvation As The fruit of worldly sorrow contrariwise the sorrow of this world bringeth forth death witnesse St. Paul the losse of honour temporall and frail goods and it is often so sharp and bitter and impatient that men catch themselves in a net or bring themselves to their own death by divers wayes of which there be many examples in the histories of the Ethnicks for which it were better to be more moderate and shew themselves better Christians who know it to be far unworthy their profession for the loss of frail goods to lose their souls which the whole world will not recompence Far be it from us that for temporall goods we should not mourn or thirst after eternall seeing the use of them is most short ends with death When a man departeth saith the Psalm 49. he taketh not all neither doth his glory descend with him which law is equally spoken to all no lesse to the King then to the meanest Begger the dead body putrifieth and so a living Dogge is better then a dead Lion as saith Solomon Eccles 9. yet the Lord will set the death at all times and the face of them that are in bonds among all people and he wipeth the the teares from every face as it is written Isa 25. Therefore remember to carry moderatly the losse of earthly things and that the whole world is not worth one soul for The love of the world bringeth sorrow which Christ vouchsafed to die But if thou prosecutest not these frail things with so unruly a love thou shalt be lesse troubled with the losse of them seeing this that it is the condition of things beloved that things lost are more desired and so the labour of fools afflicteth them which are the From whence the pertur bations of the mind words of Eccles 10. The sons of this age doe gather goods with great labour with no lesse fear doe they possesse them and with greatest griefe forgoe them which is the sorrow of the world begetting death Apoc. 10. we read of those that followed adored the Beast had no rest to whom all these are like that adore the goodly Beast of earthly wealth and avaritious desires thereof a kind of men most wretched unquiet and full of sorrows whom perhaps we shall shall not evilly compare to Camels or Mules for as they by rockes and steep hils carrying Silken Garments Pearls Aromatick Spices and generous Wines on their backs doe draw many servants with them for security sake and so at evening coming to their stables their pretious ornaments and painted cloathes and garments are taken from them and now being weary and stripped nothing but the prints of stripes foul marks of blows are to be seen So those which in this world did shine in Gold and Silkes the day of their death being come have nothing but the prints and skars of sinnes through the abuse of riches committed unto them Learn then O learn to leave the world The world in the world iâ— to be left before it leave thee with most bitter pains which he who doth and first separateth his soul from the world to this man it is easie to be separate in body from it neither doth he grieve for the losse of it For as the Israelites even now being about to leave Egypt were daily pressed with greater burdens by Pharaoh going about utterly to overthrow their whole progeny or stock so We carry nothing out of the world the infernall Pharaoh envying our eternall salvation when we are neer to death so much greater care and rapacious desire of earthly things is hee wont to infest our soules withall which blindnesse is the more remarkable because we cannot carry the least dust with us of all those heaps of mony which we have gotten into the Kingdome of heaven because that way is so strait as all earthly things and of the body doe exceedingly hinder the passage of the soule The way is strait which leadeth to heaven and few there be that find it Matth. 7. As the Husband-man on the Barn-floore separateth the Wheat from the Chaffe so death setteth free the seed of the faithfull souls from the chaffe of the world neither are they any other thing else indeed but chaffe carried hither and thither with the wind Psalm 1. Therefore do that with all thy might and let not that depart out of thy mind which we brought before out of St. Paul The sorrow which is according to God worketh repentance to a firm salvation but the sorrow of the world bringeth death CHAP. XXI What is true divine Worship Levit. 10. The sonnes of Aaron did offer to the Lord strange fire and there went fire from the Lord and devoured them THis fire is said to be strange fire because it was other then that which burned perpetually on the Altar and which by the commaandement of God did burn the Offering and it is a type of the false divine The false worship of God worship The sonnes of Aaron did deserve to be burned with the
meere love Wherefore he that liveth not in Charity this man is a dead member of Christ manifestly if hee bee in the body of Christ For even as a dead member is not warmed with naturall heat nor nourished and for that cause is altogether without life So hee that liveth not in charity hath not the spiritual life of Christ but is dead to God and Christ because he is without faith and is a dry tree without juice from the Vine which is Christ and to be cut off lastly He that hath no charity is dead without God Christ and the holy Ghost the Christian Church and life eternall where God face to face shall bee seen which is love it self CHAP. XXXIII God giveth no respect to the works of the persons he judgeth and esteemeth the worke according to the heart Prov. 21. Every way of a man seemeth right to himselfe but God trieth the heart WHen the Prophet Samuel by the commandement of God went to anoint David King he entred his Fathers house and would have anointed his first-born the Lord said Doe not thou respect his countenance nor the height of his stature being I have rejected him neither doe I judge according to the countenance of a man for a God iudgeth all things by the heart man seeth those things that are open and evident but the Lord beholdeth the heart By which example God teacheth us that he hath no regard to any person although never so great and illustrious when his heart is void of goodnesse love faith and humility but to esteem of the workes by the inward spirit and intention of the mind and to allow them according as it is in the 21. of the Prov. Moreover all gifts how great soever illustrious praise-worthy and excellent they are in the judgment of the world unlesse they proceed from a pure heart unlesse they respect the sole honour of God and the profit of our neighbour lastly unlesse they be free and altogether separated from pride arrogancy self-love desire of private praise and glory they cannot please God Therefore whosoever thou art O man be assured and certainly Arrogancie corrupteth all gifts perswaded that if God should bestow on thee alone all the gifts he hath bestowed on all men yet if thou shouldst not use them to the profit of thy neighbour and honour of God to which end God bestowed them upon men but shouldest use them as certain instruments of praise glory honour and lucre God would abhorre them no otherwise then the greatest sinnes This you may learn from the example of Luâ—ifer a fairer and more beautifull Angel heaven had not who when hee vilified the gifts of God with his own honour and selfe-love and did not purely respect the love and glory of God by his own act hee became a Devil and was cast from heaven Therefore those things which God will accept and account well of ought to proceed out of faith alone and most pure love of God and men and ought to be void of all selfe-love arrogancy and private gaine so much as may be by the grace of God in this infirmity whereof Saint Paul writeth If I speak with the tongues of Men and Angels and have not charity I am as a sounding brasse and a tinckling Cymball that is I am in vain and altogether unprofitable In truth God regardeth no faculty but in humble hearts not arts not much learning but whether our spirit doth seek the honour of God Miraculous faith saving faith differ edification of our neighbour not a miraculous faith to remove mountaines for glory sake but the pure and contrite in spirit trembling at his word as it is read in Isa 66. not lastly if any covetous of fame and renown doe distribute all he hath to feed the poore and give his body to be burned alive but the heart and the cause of them all That which is manifest by many examples to be brought Cain and Abel both of them brought Sacrifices Differing sacrifices to God one of them acceptable the other was execrable by reason of the disparity of minds The same reason was of David and Saul both which attended Gods service but with unlike event for the foresaid cause David Manasses Nebuch adnezzar and Peter by repentance obtained grace contrariwise Saul Pharaoh Vnequal repentaÌ„ce and Judas did misse the same by reason of the same variety of mind Pharaoh and Saul and Manasses used the same prayer Lord I have sinned they received unlike rewards Judith and Hester and the daughters of Israel Esay 3. they adorned themselves and combed themselves with praise and renown the one the other dispraise and reprehension In like manner the prayer of Hezekia Josua and Gideon by which they required a signe from heaven as approved is praised Contrariwise the Pharisees Mat. 12. doing the same are reproved of the Lord. The Publican and the Pharisee both of them pray in the Temple not approved The Ninivites and the Jewes and Pharisees doe fast alike but the one God heard the other he heard not wherefore Isai 58. they cry Wherefore have wee fasted and thou regardest us not The Widow which brought into the Treasury two small Mites is praised of Christ he that gave more was not Herod and Zacheus in the sight of Christ doe rejoyce but had most differing rewards The holy Martyrs for Christ suffered death Achab and Manasses offer unto the Lord their own children and God accepted the sacrifice of the one and the other was rejected Which variety proceedeth from no other cause then from the heart which God onely respecteth whereupon hee onely accepteth those works which come from a heart unfained and sincere charity and free humility Contrariwise whatsoever gifts they be if arrogancy self-love and the contagion of lucre doe infect them he rejecteth them CHAP. XXXIV That a man doth nothing at all to his salvation but God doth all things to us onely we admit of his grace as a sick man doth his Medicines to those without repentance the merit of Christ is not imputed 1 Corinth 1. Christ is made unto us the Wisdome of God and justice and sanctification and Redemption BY this Sentence Saint Paul teacheth us what things are necessray for our salvation by Christ all things are done for us For when we were ignorant of the way of life he was made wisedom unto us wheÌ„ we were sinners our justice when we were abominable our sanctification lastly when A man cannot help himself we were damned our redemption Whereupon it remaineth that the man doth not confer one jot to the beginning middle and end of his salvation with all his merits of works strength and free will But sinne he could of himselfe but he could not justifie himselfe again lose but not recover kill but not raise again to life be subdued to the Devill but not set free from him again For even as a dead carkasse cannot quicken it selfe again so neither
can a man as the Apostle saith to the Ephesians chap. 2. which was dead in sin help himself Also even as we did not bring so much as a haire to our creation so neither to our redemption or regeneration and sanctification which are much greater and more noble then our creation it selfe Wherefore The cause of the incarnation of the Son of God it was necessary that the Sonne of God should take humane nature upon him to recover that which was lost in Adam to revive that which was dead in him which that it may be brought to effect accordingly we must imitate the Traveller which is cruelly handled and wounded and laid upon the ground and could not help himselfe him therefore the mercifull Samaritan taketh up and bindeth up his soares and then laieth him upon a horse leadeth him into the Stable and after that omitteth nothing which an industrious and faithfull Physitian can administer to a sick person And as the Traveller also sheweth himselfe observant to his Physitian and Christ iâ— our Physitian not we our selves observeth his beck and command so let us remember to doe the like if we desire to be healed Let us doe our full diligence and power to our Physitian Christ let us resigne our selves wholly unto him let us trust in his faith that he will bind up and cure our wounds also let him powre in Wine and Oyle into them neither will hee be wanting or faile to restore us to our former health that is so soon as a sinner repeÌ„teth converteth himselfe by heavenly grace to God is grieved from his heart for his sinnes and resisteth not that his wounds should be washed in the sharp wine of contrition and lastly to be anointed with the Oyle of Consolation then presently Christ by his grace doth work and bring forth faith in him and the fruits of faith as life peace joy consolation and happinesse renewing him after his own image and working in him to will and finish according to his good will Phil. 2. For seeing that the abundance of sinnes are greater then humane nature can beare as witnesseth the Scripture which John 8. pronounceth the naturall man the servant of sin and Rom. 7. sold under sinne and can doe nothing but sinne according to that of Jeremy 13. If the Aethiopian can change his hue or the The naturall man neither can nor will doe doe any good Leopard his spots and you can doe well and forget to doe evill therefore the singular grace of God appeared to all men by his Gospel teaching us by the words of Paul to Tit. 2. that denying all impiety and worldly desires wee may live a just and sober life in this present world As if hee should say by the The grace of God doth all things in us word of God grace is offered unto us and doth instruct inlighten allure and teach us heartily to move and provoke us to desist from sinne which teaching of the divine grace or joynt warning by the Word consenteth with the inward testimony of the conscience whereby the man both from without and within is convicted that he doth evill and of leading a life against the way of God and his conscience he ought to change it to better let him know this if he would bee saved Furthermore if hee will bend his eares and mind and being full of good hope denounce warre against vice then the grace of God Man is meere darknes Christ is meere light worketh all things in man as faith charity and all the fruits of faith For as darknesse cannot lighten it selfe and the Sunne not shining we doe in vain open our eyes so neither can man inlighten himselfe according to that in Psalm 13. O Lord thou givest light unto my Lanthorn and my darknesse But the divine Grace or Christ himselfe is the cleare light which is risen to all men sitting in darknesse and in the shadow of death How the true light lightâ—â—s all men which inlightneth all men or every man that cometh into this world that is by manifesting himselfe and offering his grace He I say is the light of the world shewing to all men the way of life and like a good Shepheard guiding his Flock into the right way he sought us as his lost sheep daily even now seeketh us and allureth us nay more followeth us embraceth us after the manner of a bride or spouse that he loveth whose grace I would to god most men did Christ as a Bridegroome imbraceth our souls not refuse give repulse to his love prefer the darknes of vice before his light And even as a Physitian saith to his sick Patient Beware of this if you will not dye for you hinder the efficacie and force of the medicine that you cannot bee made whole so Jesus Christ the true Physitian of our souls saith My sonne I pray thee incline thy mind to repentance and leave thy sinnes Impeninitence hindereth the efficacie of Christs merits that pride covetousnesse concupiscence of the flesh wrath revenge and forsake them or most certainly the honour of my merit shall profit thee nothing when thou art a hinderance that my grace cannot be sown in thee that it cannot increase in strength bring forth fruit Truly for this very cause I give my Apostles in charge before all things to preach repentance and I called Why repentance is to be preached before all things sinners to repentance because an impenitent heart cannot participate of my merits Which speech when a sick man heareth the Physitian of our soules as to abstaine from sinne or else he must utterly perish the word of God coming expresly to his mind let him know this that it is most certain that God hath promised remission of sinnes to all men gratis but under this law and condition if they will convert themselves to God according to that of Ezekiel 33. If the wicked shall repent him of his sinnes hee shall live the life and not die all the offences which hee hath done shall not bee True faith imputed unto him Wherein truly the repentance of sinnes is joyned to remission neither doth Christ the sonne of God in any other sense promise life eternall to those that beleeve in him For faith doth alwayes oppose it selfe to the Old Man tameth the flesh and subjecteth it to the spirit that is converteth the man rooteth up and amendeth sinnes and cleareth and purgeth the heart it being the fountain of all evill Truly this is true faith that I say that turneth it selfe from the world from sinnes and from the Devill to Christ and seeketh solace and rest for his soule against the grieving debt of his sinnes in the onely blood death and merit of Christ without the works of any man whatsoever What man is so foolish to beleeve that his sinnes are pardoned of God although hee doe not desist from his sinnes this man hath a false faith neither ever
whose hearts not onely by nature but by the word revealed the new covenant the word of God is written and yet do despise and cast behind them this grace and favour Of which new Covenant Jeremy saith Chap. 3. This shall be my compact I will put my Lawes into their inwards and I will write it in their hearts and a man shall not any more teach his neighbour and a man his brother saying Know the Lord for all men shall know me saith the Lord even from the least to the greatest because I will forgive their iniquity and I will not remember their sins any more Heare what is said Heb. 10. To those that voluntarily offend or sinne against God after the knowledge he hath received for such there is no sacrifice left for him but a certain terrible expectation of judgement and offering by fire which consumeth the adversary He that breaketh the Law of Moses without any mercy by the mouth of two or three witnesses shall die the death how much more and worse doe you thinke doe they deserve death which have contemned against the Sonne of God and polluted the bloud of the Testament in whom he is sanctified and contumaciously despised the spirit of grace for we know who hath said Vengeance is mine and I will return it upon them And again because the Lord will judge his people It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God With which heavie sentence without doubt those are not strucken which fall through humane frailty but those that wittingly and willingly sin against the truâ— knowledge and persevere in impenitencie CHAP. VIII Without true repentance no man can challenge Christ and his merits to belong unto him Numb 9. The unclean may not celebrate the Passeover THe words of our Saviour Christ Mat. 9. are The healthy hath no need of the Physitian but the sick I did not come to call the just but the sinners to repentance whereby we are clearly taught that Christ indeed did call sinners but to repentance neither can any come unto him without repentance without conversion from sinne and What is true repentance faith for repentance is no other thing then by true contrition and sorrow to die unto sinne and by faith to obtain forgivenesse for sinne and to live unto righteousnesse in Christ so that in true repentance necessarily serious and divine contrition must go before a heart as I may say broken and câ—ucifying the flesh whereupon in Cap. 6. Epist ad Hebr. Repentance is said to be or is called the worke of dead men because by it we abstain from those works whose reward is death which if it be not done then the merit of Christ profiteth not us one haire For seeing Christ proffereth himselfe to be the Physitian of our souls his holy bloud to be the only and most true medicine of our sins and no medicine although it be most pretious can cure the sick man which will not refraine from hurtfull thinâ—s and things resisting the power of the medicine so it remaineth that the bloud of Christ and death can profit nothing those that purpose not to abstain from sinne Whereupon blessed Paul cap. 5. ad Galat. saith Whosoever doth such things the works of the flesh doe not obtaine the Kingdome of heaven nor shall have any part in Christ Moreover if Christ by his bloud is become our medicine who can doubt that first we must be sick for the whole have no need of a Physitian but the weake And none is spiritually sicke who is not penitent and who is not sorrowfull from his heart for his sinnes who hath not a contrite heart and humble who is secure as concerning the wrath of God who hath not resolved and firmly in his mind decreed to flye all worldly concupiscence who lastly seeking after honour wealth and pleasure takes no knowledge of his sinnes such as are so those are not sick and consequently need no Physitian and Christ profiteth them nothing it is manifest Therefore again and again let this be remembred that Christ called sinners but it was to repentance because a penitent heart contrite pensive and faithfull onely and alone is capable of the most pretious bloud death and merit of Christ I account him happy whosoever he be that heareth this holy calling inwardly and in his heart I call that a divine sorrow and anguish for sinnes which worketh repentance God worketh spirituall sorrow to stedfast salvation as the words be 2 Cor. 7. The holy Spirit doth produce this divine sorrow by the Law and serious meditation of the passion of the Lord because it not onely aboundeth with the documents of grace but also withall hath in it an earnest exhortation to repentance and a most terrible glasse of the divine wrath For if we seek into the cause of his The Passion of Christ efficieÌ„t to repentance most bitter death what else can we say was the cause but our sinnes If you joyn the divine love out of which he most willingly gave his Son for us as also you shall have his singular example both terrible and wonderfull of his divine justice and clemency which seeing they are so who then sincerely loving Christ can be affected and delighted with sinne which he knows Christ had with his bloud washed and purged Consider also with me O man which art subject to pride and art slave unto ambition with what contempt and how great humility Christ Jesus ought to repaire our pride and insolency think of his poverty that he might satisfie for thy covetousness The fruits of Christs passion surcease at last through God so studiously to seek after wealth and insatiably to thirst after riches most wretchedly He with incredible griefe of mind and anguish not to be uttered doth satisfie and abolish the pleasures and concupiscence of the flesh and thou contrariwise continually dost give thy selfe to pleasure and lust how evill is thy preposterousnesse pravity and wickednesse to take delight and pleasure in those things which to Christ were so wonderfully bitter he died to expiate thy wrath hatred enmity rancor bitternesse desire of revenge and implacability with extreame mildnesse and patience and wilt not thou even for the least cause be very angry and account revenge more pleasant then life even for which thy Redeemer did drink the most bitter cup of death wherefore so many as aspire to the name of Christians and doe not abstain froÌ„ sin those I say do even crucifie Christ and doe make a mock of him as it is said The impenitent do even crucifie Christ in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. 6. Therefore it is unpossible that those should participate of the merits of Christ which indeed they doe tread under foot as it is in the same Epistle Chap. 10. And because they doe pollute the blood of the Testament neither beleeve truly that their sinnes are expiated by him or much esteem his death or think
he died for his cause because they contemne the sptrit of grace that is they despise it and repell it even for that they by their wicked life they deride and contemne Christ his bloud calleth for revenge against the wicked the mighty grace of God offered so that the bloud of Christ shed for them crieth for revenge against them and that by the just judgement of God which is most terrible to heare all which they doe offer up draw upon themselves for truly it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God as it is written in the same Chapter for God even our God is a living God not a livelesse Idoll that will not or is not able to revenge this refusall and contempt of his grace which revenge and divine wrath even their own conscience doth threaten them and follow them at the heeles who hearing that the Sonne of God did die a most terrible death for sinne yet doe not take any care to abstain from sinne And this is the cause wherefore presently after the death of Christ repentance Why God requireth repentance of all men was preached over all the world both because he died the death for the sinnes of the whole world and in all places of the world men should repent as it is written Chap. 17. Acts and that they might receive that Panacea that soveraigne hearb that cureth all diseases with a contrite penitent and faithfull heart lest the grace of God should be frustrated and made voyd Without repentance sins are not forgiven for after this serious repentance remission of sinnes doth follow immediatly after neither is it possible he should have his sins remitted that repenteth not grieveth not that hath sinned and yet rejoyceth in sins as also nothing is more fooolish and preposterous that those sinnes should be pardoned the which thou never didst think to abstain from or challenge the merit of Christ to himselfe and in the mean time to wallow in his sinnes which was the cause of Christs death And yet there be many who although all their life they never repented seriously that they had sinned nor have abated a hair of their wrath covetousnes pride hatred envie hypocrisie and unrighteousnesse but rather have grown and augmented their sinnes more and more and yet dare require remission of their sins The false faith of false Christians and challenge the merit of Christ to belong unto them which indeed is their blind and deplorable impudencie These are such as flatter themselves to their exceeding evill perswading themselves through their own foolishnesse that they are good Christians because for sooth they know and beleeve that Christ died for their sinnes and by this meanes they doe beleeve sted fastly they shall be saved but thou art an unhappy and after a most miserable manner bewitched false Christian for neither doth the word of God teach that by this means life eternall is to be obtained neither any of the Prophets or Apostles did any time so preach but this is the unanimous consent Thou which requirest to have thy sinnes pardoned first repent abst in from thy sins and then grieving from thy heart earnestly that thou hast sinned beleeve in Christ But how should he bee sorry for his sinnes who never thinketh how to eschew sinne or how should he eschew his sinnes which is not sorrowfull for the committing of them Wherefore Christ with all his Apostles Prophets doth teach thee that thou must What it is to die to the world dye to the world and sinne as to pride covetousnesse lust wrath hatred and that thou must return with all thy heart to the Lord and ask pardon of him which being done now thou art absolved and free from thy sins and now the heavenly Physitian respecteth thee who onely healeth contrite hearts if thou insist upon any other way Christ profiteth thee nothing and in vain and of no value or belonging to salvation is the boasting of thy faith for true faith which reneweth the man it extinguisheth and mortifieth sinnes in man and quickneth him in Christ that is maketh him to live in Christ in faith and in his charity humility meeknesse and patience And after this manner Christ is to thee the way to life and thou in like manner art a new creature in him But if thou intend to sinne and hast not yet determined to leave thine iniquity but applaudest all thy old sinnes or actions of old Adam let it be how canst thou be another creature or how canst thou belong to Christ when thou dost not crucifie the flesh with all the desires thereof and concupiscences as the Apostle saith Galat. 5. Goe then and daily heare ten Sermons a day and every The vaine worship of God month confesse thy selfe and communicate for all these things are farre unworthy of remission of sinnes because a penitent heart contrite and faithfull which maketh thee capable of this wholsome medicine thou dost not bring with thee Truly and indeed the Sacraments and Word of God which are the most powerfull remedies helps yet but only to those that repent of their sins from the bottom of their hearts and that with daily faithfull mourning doe detest the way of their old and former life For what profiteth it to anoint a stone with pretious oyntment or a medicine Or what harvest shalt thou reap if thou sowest amongst thornes and briers Therefore thou must first pull up all these young thornes that choak the good seed and all things that hinder thee from reaping Whom Christ profiteth nothing a good harvest Last of all whosoever cleaveth to his sinnes it is sure that Christ profiteth him nothing the nativity of Christ helpeth him nothing who careth not to be born with him nothing the death of Christ him who hath not determined firmly in his mind to die unto sin nothing the resurrectioÌ„ of Christ him who refuseth in him to arise from sin lastly the ascension of Christ profiteth nothing to him that will not lead a heavenly life But if converted with the prodigall thou deplore hate and slye sinne and then prayest to obtain pardon of God and beholding by faith Christ crucified and his wouuds like unto the true Israelite thou mayst say Good God have mercy upon me a most grievous sinner then pardon is at hand what and how great soever thy sinnes be thou hast committed so great truly is the perfection in the redemption gotten by the bloud of Christ and so is the perfection of applying the grace and imputation of the whole merit of Christ by faith and it is most true that is in 12. Sap. God giveth place to repentance for sins that is to say pardoning â—reely perfectly and wholly the penitent for Christ yea it is the great good pleasure of God to exercise mercy and to pardon sinnes freely My bowels are troubled within me as towards them I am mercâ—fâ—ll and I will have mercy of