Philosopher in his Rhetoriques saith that men raised from the Dunghill to great fortunes and riches have commonly all the vices of rich men and more And now that we may open this malady we will search and inquire the cause of it and see what it is that lifts up the mind to this dangerous pitch what it is that swells and puffs us up and makes us grossos grossi cordis as Parisiensis most properly though barbarously speaketh that makes the heart of man grosser and greater than it self as in Italy they have long time had an art to feed up a foul 'till they make the Liver bigger than the body What is there in Christianity that naturally can have this operation We confess it is from heaven heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Synesius speaks deriving its pedegree from God We read of rich glorious promises of royal prerogatives of truth and peace and mercy which came by Jesus Christ But all these are like the Physitians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to purge and cleanse us from the gross and corrupt humours rather than full diet to feed us up to that bulk that we are not able to weild and move ourselves in any order The Gospel is from heaven but we are of the earth earthy These Prerogatives are grants not rewards And Truth and Mercy are not the work of our hands but the purchase of our Saviour Quantò magìs lumen gratiae respicimus the more stedfastly we look upon the throne of grace Tantò magìs nos ipsos reprehèndimus sayth the devout Schoolman The more light we have the more we see our own wants and impotency and so become the more vile in our own eyes Let 2 Pet. 1. 5 6. us joyn Virtue with Faith and with Virtue Knowledg and with Knowledg Temperance and with Temperance Patience yet none of these not all these of their own nature can produce any such effect as to make us be in love with our selves or to raise us to that height as to overlook not only our selves but our brethren Were these virtues truly ours or being ours did they appear to us in their own native shapes they would discover unto us that the way to happiness is as the eye of a needle through which it is impossible for men of gross and overgrown conceits to enter The cause then of this disease is not in the Gospel or in the Riches of the Gospel but in our selves who are willing to be deceived and in the Devil who is totius erroris artifex as Tertullian calls him the forges of all error and deceit For as God whose very essenee is Goodness doth in mercy manifest that Goodness out of Sin it self So the Devil who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Wicked one abuseth Good unto evil and when he cannot drive us to dispair by reason of our sin he takes another course and makes us presume upon conceit of our righteousness Take Virtue in its own shape and it seems to call for fear and trembling and to bespeak us to be careful and watchful that we forfeit not so fair an estate for false riches But take it as from the Devils forge and then contrary to its own nature it helps to blind and hoodwink us that we see not the danger we are in how that not only the way but our feet are slippery It unfortunately occasions its own ruine whilst we with Nero in Tacitus spend riotously upon presumption of treasure The Schools teach us that Evil could not subsist if it were not founded in Good How true this is in general I discuss not but experience makes it plain that not only that Good which but appears so which smiles upon us in an alluring pleasure or glitters in a piece of Gold or cringeth to us in his knee that honours us but also verum plenum bonum as St. Augustine calleth it that which is fully and truly Good not only pretious Promises and high Prerogatives which of themselves cannot make us good but Piety and Patience and Holiness do swell and puff us up That Good which makes us good which names us good is that by which we are made evil And all this proceeds from our own wilful error and mistake for Pride is the daughter of Ignorance sayth Theodoret. Were we not deceived with false visions and apparitions it were impossible that either our eye should be haughty or our neck stiff The Philosopher will tell us that objects present themselves unto us like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mathematical bodies which have many sides and they who see one side think all are like it or the very same We see the Gospel ex uno situ but on one side or as Seneca speaks ex adverso on the wrong side We see it pictured in glory but not in vengeance It appears to us in a shape of mercy not as it carries fire before it to consume us We behold Christ as a Saviour not as a Lords We entertain Prerogatives as prerogatives and no more and never look on the other side where the obligation is drawn We comtemplate Virtues as the work of our own hands but are blind to those imperfections which they bear in their very forehead Nay our Sins present themselves before us but colour'd and painted over with the prerogatives of mercy and forgiveness We consider our selves as Branches grafted in but cannot see the Tu excidêris that we may be cut off We consider our strength not our weakness But could we totum rerum conceptum exhaurire take-in the whole conceipt of our wayes and apprehend our actions in their full being and essence without those unnatural shadows and glosses our minds would be as even as the Sea when no wind troubles it and not raise those bubbles which are lost in the making nor those raging waves which foam out nothing but our shame But being thus lightned of our burden by error every puff of wind lifts us up above our sins above the mutability of our nature above ourselves and above God himself A Prerogative which is but a breath an appearance of Virtue which is but a shadow our own conceits which are vainty set us in our altitude where the hand of Mercy cannot reach us but a hand of Vengeance hovers over us which when it strikes tumbles us headlong into an amazing pit of horror and leaves us strugling with our distracted thoughts under the terrors of the Law of Death and of Desperation Will you see then spiritual Pride in its full shape and likeness You must then conceive it blind yet of perfect sight deaf but of a quick ear deceiving and being deceived happy and most miserable quick to see the least appearance of goodness but blind to the horror of sin a continual listning to the promises and prerogatives of the Gospel but deaf to the Thunder of the Law it s own parasite happy in conceit but indeed most miserable entitling us to heaven when
a seducer fruit which was poison a will which was irregular and the command he made his ruine And now he who affected to become like unto God doth desire also to make God like to himself he who would be made a God maketh God a man and bringeth him in as guilty of the transgression And so he added to his guilt by defending it ut culpa ejus atrocior fieret discussa quà m fuit perpetrata saith the Father His sin was greater being excused than it was when first committed To exalt it to the highest we may well call it Blasphemy For as we may blaspheme by giving that to the Creature which is proper to God so may we also by attributing that to God which is the Creatures only To worship an Angel or a Saint is contumelious to God to make God an Angel is blasphemy what is it then to make him a Man what is it to make him a Sinner I know nothing that Adam could call his own but the transgression There is some truth in the TU DEDISTI for his Wife God had given him So Paradise was God's gift and his Body God had created him But if we bring-in his Sin then TU DEDISTI is blasphemy For God gave him not that nay God could not give it him but he must father it who was the father of us all To recollect all and lay before you these bella tectoriola these excuses in brief What if the Woman gave it The Man was stronger then the Woman and Lord over her What though it were a Gift He had will to refuse it his hands were not bound nor his feet put into fetters there was no chain of necessity to force him But then it was but an Apple and what was all the fruit in Paradise to the loss of his obedience What was the Devil's promise to God's threatning how unjust and cruel was he to his wife in transferring the fault upon her Lastly how blasphemous was he against God in imputing his very gift unto him as the only cause of his sin If the Woman seduce him must it be with a Gift If a Gift will prevail must it be no more then an Apple Must an Inscription a Promise a Lie deceive him and must he buy the false hope of eternity with the certain loss of Paradise If he sin with Eve why is he unwilling to be punished with Eve And why doth he dispute with God and darken counsel by words without knowledg We may well cry out Adam where art thou In a thicket Job 38. 2. amongst the trees nay amongst the leaves For all excuses are so even leaves nay not so good shelter as leaves for they do not cover but betray us Adam increaseth his shame by endeavouring to hide it Mulier quam dedisti is not an excuse but an accusation And now I wish that the leaves of those trees among which Adam hid himself had cast their shadow only upon him But we may say as St. Ambrose doth of the storie of Naboth and Ahab Adami historia tempore vetus est usu quotidiana This historie of Adam is as antient as the World but is fresh in practice and still revived by the sons of Adam We may therefore be as bold to discover our own nakedness as we have been to pluck our first father from behind the bush We have all sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression and we are as ready to excuse sin as to commit it that we may seem to take this at least from Adam as Pelagius thought we do all other defects only by imitation Do we only excuse our sin No Many times we defend it by the Gospel and even sanctifie it by the doctrine of Christ himself Superstition we commend for Reverence prophaneness for Christian liberty indiscretion for Zeal will-worship for Obedience Nay doth not Rebellion come towards us under the grave habit of Religion with a Sword in one hand and a Bible in the other as if God himself had decreed to set up these men of Belial against his own ordinance and the word of God were powerful not to demolish imaginations but Kingdoms The Oratour telleth us that honesta verba moribus perdidimus by our evil manners we have lost the proper and native signification of many good and honest words so have we also almost lost the knowledg of our Sins in words in borrowed titles and assumptitious names And hence it cometh to pass that neither our Virtues are as they appear nor our Vices appear to us as they are but we look upon our defects without grief and applaud our false virtues with joy our feigned Temperance our adulterate Charity our mock-Fasts our superficial Mortification our spurious Humility our irregular Devotion our Pharisaical Zelé our Obedience with a sword drawn and ready to strike Nor are we content alone to be deceived but we affect it sub nomine religionis famulamur errori we talk of God but worship our own imaginations sub velamento nominis Christi adversus nomen Christi militamus we fight against Christ even under his own colours This disease of Adam's runs through each vein and passage of our soul by which we are still unlike ourselves like Adam indeed in Paradise but then when he was in the thicket and like unto him out of the thicket but with an excuse in his mouth We may observe that many things in themselves not commendable do yet help to make up our defects and one vice serveth to set out another Impudence promoteth Ignorance For do we not see many whose boldness is the greatest part of their learning and whose confidence is taken for judgment and wisdome Good God! what cannot a brow of brass a sad countenance and a forced deportment do This Quintilian maketh one reason why amongst the vulgar sort Ignorance many times beareth the bell and is more amiable and gratious than Knowledg And may we not in like manner think that that peace and quietness we have at home in our own breasts and that approbation we gain abroad is due not alwaies to our virtue but oft-times to our whorish and impudent looks not to that constant tenour and equality of life which Reason prescribeth but to this art of apologizing to our manifold evasions and excuses which if we look nearer upon them are of a fouler aspect then those sins they colour and commend To come close home therefore we will stay a little and draw the parallel and shew the similitude that is betwixt Adam and his sons We shall still find a Mulier dedit to be our plea as well as his Some Woman something weaker then our selves overthroweth us and then is taken-in for an excuse Omnes homines vitiis nostris favemus quod propriâ facimus voluntate ad naturae referimus necessitatem saith Hierom to Amandus We all favour ourselves and our vices too and what we do willingly we account as done out of necessity of nature
expect he should lead us further Aliud est esse vatem aliud esse interpretem saith St. Hierome It is one thing to be a prophet another to be an interpreter of Scripture There the Spirit foretels things to come here by our industry and skill in language we give that sense which the words will best bear Those interpretations now-adayes which are entitled to the Spirit are so dark and obscure ut interpretes interprete indigeant that we must take the pains to interpret the interpreters and find greater difficulty in their explanations then in the Text it self It will be good therefore first to prepare our selves in private before we lift up our voice like a trumpet and if we will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 workers together with the Spirit to work as he directs us It is a rule in Quintillian Ut praeceptorum est docere ità discipulorum est praebere se dociles As it is the office of the Master to teach so is it of the Scholar to be attentive and apt to learn And it holds true in Divinity also As the Spirit is our teacher so are we bound to observe those rules which he hath drawn out for all those who will be his followers Res enim aliter coalescere nequit sine discentis docentÃsque concordia For this business will not close and be brought together without an agreement on both sides If the Spirit will first lead me into the wilderness and I will presently to the streets of Jerusalem it is not likely my message should be from the Spirit whom I have left behind me in the desart And therefore to prepare our selves to this work we must observe those rules which a learned Physician gives for the finding out of the truth There must be 1. Amor operis a Love of the work 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love of industry and earnest study in our preparation 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a methodical proceeding and progress 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 practice and exercitation and a conformity of our operations to the work And this gold though it be brought from Ophir yet may be useful for those who are the living temples of the holy Ghost My Love kindles a fire in me and makes me active my Industry is ruled by method that it be not fruitless and all is confirmed by Practice and then the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sets his seal and impression and character and makes it a good work And first if we ask the question What moved Christ to make this preparation we cannot better answer then by saying it was his Love unto the work That he having loved us first might provoke us to love him again and prepare our selves to our work And to this end Love is a passion imprinted in us saith Gregory Nyssene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this good end to be leveled and fixed on the work of our Salvation Where when it is once fastned it is restless and unquiet It will into the wilderness though it meet with the Devil himself It passeth all difficulties whatsoever nihil erubescit nisi nomen difficultatis and is not ashamed of any thing but that any thing should be too hard and heavy for it Heat and Light are the two ornaments of the Sun joyned and united together quò calidior radius est lucidior the hotter the beams are the more light there is So the Love of a good work and the good Work which we love are as neerly united together as Heat and Light and the more Heat in my Love the more Light in my Work and the more my Light shines forth the more my Love encreaseth They both are one to another both mother and daughter both begotten and begetting For again the love of knowledge which fits and prepares us to the work of the Gospel brings in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love of labor and industry Which will not do things by halves nor bring us to the chair till we have sate at the feet of Gameliel Thus it is in all the passages of our life We propose nothing to our selves of any great moment which we can presently conquer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil Even the things of the Devil are not attained without labor and sweat How laborious is thy Revenge how busie thy Cruelty how watchful and studious thy Lust What penance doth thy Covetousness put thee to Vitia magno coluntur saith Seneca Even our vices cost us dear and stand us at a high rate And can we expect such an easie and quick dispatch of those things which bring along with them an eternal weight of glory Can a negligent and careless glance upon the Bible can our aery and empty speculations can our confidence and ignorance streight make us Evangelists Or is it probable that Truth should come up è profundo putei from the bottom of the well and offer it self to them who stand idle at the mouth and top of it and will let down no bucket to draw it up This indeed is now-adayes conceived to be the Spirits manner of Leading not about by the Wilderness by a sequestred life but streight to Jerusalem to the holy City where there is little enquiry mà de whether they have been at Jacobs well and let down their bucket where by many God is served in spirit but not in truth And so they be born again of the Spirit no matter for this water Who glory in their ignorance amant ignorare cùm alii gaudeant cognovisse as Tertullian speaks Whereas others can receive no satisfaction or content but in knowledge their great joy it is to be ignorant Some truth there is in what they say that the Spirit is an omnipotent agent but ill applyed by them That since he can do all things he will also teach those who will be ignorant and who do him this great honor to call him Master when there are no greater non-proficients in the world ever learning of this good Master and yet never coming to the knowledge of the truth It is true the Spirit is a powerful agent but it is as true that he is a free agent and will not teach them who will not learn will not bring us to Jerusalem unless we will first follow him into the desart qui pulcherrimo cuique operi proposuit difficultatem who on purpose hath placed some rubs and difficulties between us and Knowledge that we may with labor and anxiety work out a way unto it He hath cast some darkness upon Scripture that our Industry may strive to dispel it and in some places as Heraclitus speaks of the Oracle of Delphos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth neither plainly manifest nor yet hide the truth but leaves some glimpse and intimation that we may search and find it out It was the saying of Scaevoâ—a the Lawyer Jus vigilantibus scriptum That the Civil Law was written to men awake who could look about them
to the haven where we would be And we have winds from every point the prayers of the whole Church to drive us We have already shewed you what may raise our hope and confidence when we pray even the name of Father For what will not a father give to his children But we must now present God in his Majesty to strike us with fear that so our Fear may temper our Hope that it be not too saucy and familiar and our Hope may warm and comfort our Fear that it be not too chill and cold and end in Despair I dare speak to God because he is our Father but I speak in trembling because of his Majesty because he is in heaven And these two make a glorious mixture There be many things which in themselves may be hurtful yet being tempered and mixt together are very cordial and wholesome Fear and Hope which in their excess are as deleterial as poyson being compounded and mingled may be an antidote Fear bridles my Hope that I do not presume and Hope upholds my Fear that I do not despair Fear qualifies my Hope and Hope my Fear Hope encourageth us to speak Fear composeth our language Hope runs to God as a Father Fear moderateth her pace because he is in heaven We are too ready to call him Father to frame unto our selves a facile and easie God a God that will welcome us upon any terms but we must remember also that he is in heaven a God of state and magnificence qui solet difficilem habere januam whose gates open not streight at the sound of Pater noster Deum non esse perfunctoriè salutandum as Pythagoras speaks that God will not be spoken to in the by and passage but requires that our addresses unto him be accurate with fear and reverence Hope and Fear Love and Reverence Boldness and Amazement Confusion and Confidence these are the wings on which our Devotion is carried and towres up a loft till it rest in the bosome of our Father which is in heaven And now let us lift-up our eyes to the hills from whence cometh our salvation even to the throne of God and seat of his Majesty but not to make too curious a search how God is in heaven but with reverence rather to stand at distance and put-on humility equal to our administration not to come near and touch this mount for fear we be struck through with a dart Nunquam verecundiores esse debemus quam cùm de Diis agitur saith Aristotle in Seneca Modesty never better becomes us then when we speak of God We enter Temples with a composed countenance vultum submittimus togam adducimus we cast down our looks we gather our garments together and every gesture is an argument of our reverence Where the object is so glorious our eyes must needs dazle Gods Essence and Perfection is higher then heaven what canst thou do deeper than hell what canst thou know The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the Sea Job 11. 8 9. What line wilt thou use De Deo vel verum dicere periculum We dangerously mistake our selves even when we speak the truth of God That God is that he is infinite and imcomprehensible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even our Fye will teach us and the very law of Nature manifest But how he is in heaven he is on the earth how every-where no mortal Eye can discern no Reason demonstrate If we could perchance utter it yet we could not understand it saith Nazianzene Crat. 34. if we had been ravisht with St. Paul into the Third heaven yet we could not utter it Indeed it is most true what Tertullian urgeth against Hermogenes Alium Deum facit quem aliter cognoscit He maketh another God who conceives of him otherwise then as he is But no river can rise higher than its spring and fountain nor can we raise our knowledge above that light which is afforded us God is infinite and the most certain kdowledge we have is that he iâ— infinite The light which we have is but lightning which is sudden and not permanent enough to draw us after him because we conceive something of him and enough to strike us with admiration because we conceive so little It fares with us in the pursuit of these profound mysteries as with those who labor in rich mines When we digg too deep we meet with poysonous damps and foggs instead of treasure when we labor above we find less metal but more safety Dangerous it is for a weak brain to wade too far into the doings of the Most high We are most safely eloquent concerning his secrets when we are silent How great God is What is his measure and essence and How it is in any place or every place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basile as it is not safe to ask so it is impossible to answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My sheep hear my voice saith Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THEY HEAR saith he not DISPUTE Yet how have men attempted to fly without wings and wade in those depths which are unfordable to dispute of Gods Essense his Immensity his Ubiquity of the Nature of Angels of their Motion of their Locality nay de loquutione Angelorum of their Language and how that they communicate their minds one to another When we ask them how the Body of Christ is seated in the Eucharist they will tell us that it â—s there as the Spirits and glorified Bodies are in the place which they possess Tertius è caelo cecidit Cato Have these men lately descended like a second Paul out of the third heaven and from thence made this discovery By what means could they attain to this knowledge What light have they in Scripture to direct them to the knowledge of the manner of location and site which Spirits and glorified Bodies have St Paul hath long since past his censure upon them They thrust themselves into things they have not seen and upon a false shew of knowledge abuse easie hearers and of things they know not adventure to speak they care not what The Philosopher will tell us that men who neglect their private affairs are commonly over-busie in the examining of publick proceedings They will teach Kings how to rule and Judges how to determine and are well skilled in every mans duty but their own The same befalls us in our pursuit of divine knowledge Did every man walk according to that measure of knowledge he hath we should not be so busily to find out more light to walk by Did we adde to our faith virtue and to our knowledge temperance we should not multiply questions so fast which vanish into nothing and when they make most noyse do nothing but sound quae animum non faciunt quià non habent which can give us no light and spirit because they have it not Did we enter that effectual door which lyeth open unto us our Curiosity would not
themselves even in his Wisdom Power and Majesty For why did he create the Universe What moved him to make those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those two lights as Nazianzene calls Angels and Man after his own image It was not that he needed the company of Cherubim and Seraphim or had any addition of joy by hearing of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was not that he needed the ministery of Angels or the obedience of Men. But in mercy hath he made them all and his Goodness it was which did communicate it self to his creature to make him capable of happiness and in some degree a partaker of those glories and graces which are essential to him For having made Man he could not but love and favour the work of his own hands Therefore as in mercy he made him so in mercy he made him a Law the observation of which would have assimilated and drawn him neer unto God and at last have brought him to his presence there to live and reign with him for ever And when Man had broken this Law and so forfeited his title to bliss God calls after him not simplici modo interrogatorio sono as Tertullian speaks not in a soft and regardless way or by a gentle and drowsie interrogation Where art thou Adam but impresso incusso imputativo he presseth it home and drives it to the quick not by way of doubt but imputation and commination Adam where art thou that he might know where he was in what state and danger and so confess his sin and make himself capable of Gods mercy which presented and offer'd it self in this imputation and commination and was ready to embrace him Thus his Mercy prevents us It is first as being saith Nazianzene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 natural to him whereas Anger and Hostility to his creature are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quite besides his nature Prior bonitas Dei secundum naturam posterior severitas secundum causam illa edita haec adhibita saith Tertullian Lib. 2. adv Marcion Goodness and Mercy are natural to him Severity forced That is momentany and essential this accidental Mercy follows after us and is more willing to lift us up than we were to fall more willing to destroy Sin than we to commit it more forward to forgive us our sins than we are to put up the Petition REMITTUNTUR TIBI PECCATA Thy sins are forgiven thee is a standing sentence a general proclamation saith Father Latimer to all that will believe and repent The Scripture gives us the dimensions of this Mercy sometimes pointing out to the height of it It reacheth unto heaven sometimes to the depth of it It fetcheth men from the grave and hell it self sometimes to the length of it It hath been ever of old and sometimes to the breadth of it All the ends of the world have seen the salvation of God And all these meet and are at home in this act of Remission of sins Which makes us to understand with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God which passeth knowledge and fills Eph. 3. 18 19 us with the fulness of God But though the Lord's Mercy be infinite and he be most ready to forgive yet he will not remit our sins unless we repent A lesson never taught in the School of Nature or in the books of the Heathen Quid Cicero quid Seneca de poenitentia What have Tully or Seneca who have written most divinely of other duties and offices of life written of the duty of Repentance Non negamus philosophos juxta nostra sensisse saith Tertullian Many truths Philosophers have delivered of near alliance to those which God himself hath commended to us and in many vertues they may seem to have out-stript the most of Christians But of Repentance they knew no more than this that it was passio quaedam animi veniens de offensa sententiae prioris a certain passion of the mind which checkt men for that which was done amiss and caused them to alter their mind Here all reason and discourse is posed But when the earth was barren and could not yield this seed of Repentance Deus eam sevit God himself sowed it in the world aperuit salutis portam open'd an effectual door of salvation and made it known to all mankind That if men would leave off their sins he would forgive them and accept of true repentance as the only means to wash away the guilt of sin and reconcile the creature to his Maker Now joyn these two together the Mercy of God and his Readiness to forgive and our Repentance which he hath chalkt out unto us as a way to his Mercy and they are a pretious antidote against Despair which so daunts us many times that we are afraid to put up this Petition For Despair is not begot by those sins we have committed but by those which we daily fall into nor so much from want of Faith that God is merciful and true and faithful in all his promises as for want of Hope which hangs down the head when Repentance and Amendment of life yield no juyce nor moisture to nourish it Ask Judas himself and he will tell you there is a God or else he could not despair Ask him again and he will tell you he is true or else he denies him to be God He will tell you of the riches of the glorious mystery of our Redemption and that in Christ remission of sins is promised to all mankind But his perseverance in sin and the horror of his new offences hath weakned and infeebled his hope and forceth him to conclude against himself Ubi emendatio nulla poenitentia nulla Where there is no amendment there is no repentance And though Mercy stand at the door and knock yet if I leave not my sins there must needs follow a weakness and disability so that I shall not be able to let her in But if I forsake my sins the wing of Mercy is ready to shadow me from Despair Et si nudus rediero recipiet Deus quia redii Though I return naked to God he will receive me because I return And if I leave the swine and the husks he will meet me as a Father and bring forth his robe of Mercy to cover me And so I pass from the consideration of Gods Mercies in the Forgiveness of sin to the first particular enquiry What sins they are which we desire may be forgiven And this may seem to be but a needless enquiry For even Nature it self will suggest an answer Men in wants desire a full supply And they who are sick of many diseases do not make it their end to be cured of one malady but to be restored to perfect health In corporibus aegris nihil quod nociturum est medici relinquunt Physicians purge out all ill humors from those bodies which are distemper'd For when one disease is spent another may