LXXX sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London whereof nine of them not till now published / by the late eminent and learned divine Anthony Farindon ... ; in two volumes, with a large table to both.

PART I.

MATTH. VI. 12.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

BEing to prepare you for a feast, even the Supper of the Lamb, there to partake of the body and bloud of Christ, of all those benefits which issued from him with his bloud, and are the effects of his love, I could not invite your thoughts or call your me∣ditations to a fitter and more proper object then this, the Mercy of God covering your sins, and at once working Mercy in you towards your bre∣thren: his Grace and Pardon, and the Condition required to make it ours: And here we have them both in this Petition; God shining upon us with the bright beams of his mercy, that it may re∣flect from us upon others; Christ's bloud distilling upon our souls to melt them, that as he was merciful, we may be merciful, as he forgiveth us our debts, we may forgive our debtors. In which Petition there are two parts or members, which evidently shew themselves: In the first is com∣prehended that which we desire; in the second the cause or manner (S. Cyprian calleth it the Law) by which we put it up; Forgive us our debts, SICUT, as we forgive our debtors. God is ready, if we be well qualifi∣ed; but if we forgive not, then he shutteth his ears, and is deaf to our petition. For with what measure we mete, he will measure to us again. If we take our brother by the throat, he will deliver us to the goaler: If we will not forgive our brother an hundred pence, a disgrace, some inju∣ry, some debt, something which would be nothing if we were merciful, he hath no reason to forgive us all. Secundum nostram sententiam judi∣cabimur: He will pass no other sentence upon us then that which we have subsribed to in this Petition. We beg for pardon on this conditi∣on, SICUT ET NOS, If, or As, we forgive our debtors: And if we make not good our condition, we do but prompt the Judge to the severity of a denial, and ex ore nostro, are condemned already out of our own mouth. Let us then take a view of them both; both of what we desire, Forgiveness of our debts; and what we bind our selves to in this request, Forgiveness of others. In the first we shall consider, 1. Why Sins are call∣ed debts; 2. What Remission of sin is; What it is we desire when we

pray for forgiveness of sins. And this will fill up our first part. In the second part, 1. Who these Debtors are we must forgive; 2. What Debts, or Trespasses they be; 3. In what the parity or similitude con∣sisteth, what extent the SICUT hath, and how far our forgiveness must answer and resemble God's. And of these we shall speak in their order.

First, our Sins are compared to pecuniary Debts: And they are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, there is a kind of analogy and proportion betwixt them. For what S. Matthew here calleth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 debts, S. Luke calleth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 sins. And we may contemplate the wisdom of the holy Ghost in ma∣king choice of this resemblance, in fashioning himself to the natural af∣fections of men, and bringing us to a sight of the deformity of our sins by that which is familiar to our eyes. When we say that Sin is a trans∣gression of the Law, we are bold to ask whether it be a Substance and real thing or a Defect, whether it be a Privation or Positive act. We talk of the Act of sin, and the Habit of sin, and the Guilt of sin. And we give it divers names according to its several effects and operations: We call it a stain, because it defaceth the image of God; a pollution, because of that contagion with which it doth infect the soul; a prevarication, be∣cause it is a kind of collusion and defeat of the command; a crime, be∣cause it deserveth to be brought to the bar and accused; wickedness and abomination, because it is injurious to the Majesty of the Highest. But none of these appellations do express Sin so lively to the very sense as when we call it a debt. Those names many times flie about us like atomes in the air, shew themselves to the understanding, and straight vanish away; or, if they enter, they make no deep impression: but this word is a goad; cum ictu quodam auditur, we hear it with a kind of smart. Rem invisibilem per visibilis rei formam describit; It conveyeth unto us that which is in its own nature invisible (for who ever handled Wick∣edness? who ever saw the wrath of God?) by the forms of things that are visible and familiar to us, that we may more deeply appre∣hend and more firmly remember them. And as in many places of Scrip∣ture God draweth reasons from outward blessings, making our love to them a motive to bring us to himself, so here he applieth himself to our infirmity; and to drive us from sin, calleth it by that name we love not to hear; as mothers use to fright their froward children with the names of Hags and Spirits and Hobgoblins. And this is the wisdom of the holy Ghost, to take us by craft; To win us to Wisdom by calling it a bracelet or ornament; to bring the ambitious to him by telling him of a Kingdom; to invite the voluptuous to a banquet, and to fulness of joy; the covetous, to a treasury which no rust can corrupt; the Liber∣tine, by profering a service which is perfect freedom; as also to fright us from sin by giving it some terrible appellation, by mention of nakedness and cold, of fire and brimstone, of a gaoler, an arrest, a prison, of slave∣ry and thraldom, and by calling it a debt. Let us now see the several respects in which our Sins and pecuniary Debts bear analogy and likeness. Debitum in Scripturis delicti figura est; Debt in Scripture figureth out unto us the nature of Sin. For we no sooner fall into sin but we run in∣to debt, saith Augustine. In debt there are supposed 1 Mutuum & commodatum, something lent and committed to our charge. 2. Obli∣gatio, an obligation and bond between the creditor and debtor; 3. When the debt is not paid, a Forfeiture; 4. and lastly, a Penalty, which the debtor is liable to if he break with the creditor. First, there must be mutuum, something committed to our use: And then he that entrusted it doth quasi manu suâ tenere creditorem, hath the debtor in his power, and

holdeth him fast by some instrument or bond. Secondly, the debtor, when he faileth of his conditions, is abnoxius creditori; the creditor may enter his action, and arrest and imprison him. It is sufficient but to name these; For they are as plain and discernible in Sin as they are in pecuniary debts. First, God is our Creditor, and hath delivered in∣to our hands all the wealth and riches we have, and committed them unto our trust. He hath lent us an Understanding, to apprehend him; a Will, to obey him; Affections, to lay hold on him. Credidit man∣data;* 1.1 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, saith S. Paul. It is the very word the Civilians use: He hath committed his Commandements and Oracles. And all these I may call rather Lones then Gifts. For as he that lendeth his money doth not lose the propriety nor the dominion and right of that which he intrusteth, no more doth God of that substance which he putteth in∣to our hands. He hath not made a free and absolute gift, but left it us onely to traffick with it till he come. He hath not given us Understand∣ings, to make them sinks of errour, but magazines of saving knowledge; nor Wills, to be shops of deceitful wares, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Work∣houses of vertue; nor Affections, to distract and scatter them, to send them to the high places, or the house of the wicked woman, but to keep them at home, to compose and order them, that they may wait as hand-maids on Reason. He hath not thus built us up that we should destroy our selves; nor committed these riches to us that we should be bankrupts in the city of the Lord. He hath not given us Laws, to break them, but hath left them quasi dilectionis suae pignus servanda, as a depositum and pledge of his love, that we may be faithful to observe them, and give unto God those things which are God's, to wit, imaginem & monetam ipsius inscriptam nomine, his own coyn, his own image, not clipped, not defaced, not misspent and wasted, a just obedient man, the fairest picture and representation of his Maker. Whatsoever is in Man, as it may help to profit and enrich him, so it may help to strip and impo∣verish him. His Understanding and Will may save him, and they may destroy him. The Commands and Laws of God may direct, and they may judge him; they may be a light to lead him to bliss, and they may be a bill of accusation against him, and adjudge him to darkness. All is in the use or abuse of those good things which God hath committed to our trust.

In the next place; From this which God hath put into our hands ariseth our Obligation: And we are bound to God in all obedience, not onely in respect of that power he hath over all; he having made us, not we our selves; but also in respect of his free benificence and bounty in committing these things unto our charge. In receiving the Law, and will and faculty to observe it we make a kind of contract and covenant with God. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, saith Aristotle; The Law it self is a kind of contract and covenant, because he that cometh under the Law hath bound himself to fulfill it. We are not loose to do what we please, but, as the Roman servants, who manured and tilled the ground, in vinculis & custodia, we work in a manner in chains and fetters. A neces∣sity is laid upon us, and wo unto us if we observe not the Law. Nec enim beneficium sed officium est facere quod debes, as he well spake in Seneca; For it is not a good turn; but a duty, to do that which we should, and which we owe by contract and covenant. And thus we come under many obligati∣ons. We owe God our Love, by desiring to be united to him, and to be where he is: which Love consisteth not in a flitting affection or weak in∣clination towards him, but is a rational approbation and submission and voluntary cleaving unto him in all things. We owe him our Fear; qui

non in metu, sed obedientia est; Which is not seen in a trembling a∣mazement, but in an active obedience; when we fear the displeasure of God more then his rod, the frown of God more then the punish∣ment, the sentence from his mouth more then the death we shall suffer; when we fear not so much what we would not feel as what we ought not to do, when we fear to be in debt more then imprisonment. And we owe him our Confidence; not to trust in our selves or in our own strength, but to make him our rock and our foundation; (And this will keep us from those debts and engagements which want and the love of the world may bring upon us) Not to think with the Epicures and Atheists, otiosum esse Deum, & neminem in rebus humanis, that God is asleep, a mere No-body in the world, or that he doth not see or look upon the children of men; but that he hath made a contract with us, to withold no good thing from us if we serve him, and to compass us about with his favour as with a shield: So that though he cannot be bound by any Law, yet he hath bound himself by promise, and will come and bring his reward with him, if we be not wilful bankrupts, and take delight to bring our selves into debt and to break our covenant with him. I can∣not stand to number all the wayes by which we stand obliged to our God: I will therefore comprehend all in that axiome of the Civilians, Debita tot praesumuntur, quot sunt Scripturae; We have as many engagements as there are instruments and writings between us: And these are to be numbred by God's commands. And these are not private and peculiar precepts, quibus respondere liberum est, Nolo, which some must keep, and others may answer they will not; but universal and common, and binding all alike. Haec obligationis nostrae ratio est, secreto fidelissimo hunc thesaurum depositi & commendati nobis praecepti re∣servare, saith Hilary; This is the nature and force of our obligation to God, to keep his commandments, and faithfully to preserve that rich treasure which he hath deposited and laid up with us and commended to our charge. For,

In the next place, not to keep covenant with God, but prodigally to misspend that substance which he gave us, nay, not to improve it, but when he cometh to ask for his Talent to shew him a Napkin, is a plain Forfeiture, and bringeth us in danger of the Law: And though we did owe our selves before, even all that we have, yet we were never pro∣perly Debtors till now. But now it is debitum liquidum, a plain and manifest Debt, because we can give no account of what we have recei∣ved at God's hands. For what account can he give of his Soul, who hath sold it to sin? What tender can he make of his Affections, who hath buried them in the world? What Love can he present, that hath pawned it to vanity? What Fear can he make shew of, who lived as if God could not be angry? Or how should he appear before God, who is long since lost to himself? For St. Augustine needed not to have re∣tracted that speech of his, UT REDDERER MIHI, CUI ME MAXI∣ME DEBEO, That I might be restored to my self, to whom I did especially owe my slf, and changed it into this, UT REDDERER DEO, that I might be restored and paid back unto God, unto whom alone I am due. The truth is, Till Man be quite lost to himself, to his Reason, and Obedience, and all that may style him Man, he is still in manutenentia Dei, in the hands and power and protection of God: But when Man prodigally spendeth his estate amongst harlots, and breaketh his covenant with God, he maketh another contract, with the World, the Flesh and the Devil. For Sin as it is in one respect a forfeiture, and bringeth us in debt, so on the other side it is a contract and bargain, such as it is. For can we call Death

and Hell a purchase? What hath Luxury brought in but rottenness to my bones, and emptiness to my purse? What hath my Soul gained but blackness and darkness, and deformity? What have I for my Trust in the world, but Despair in God? for my Integrity and Honesty which I flung away, but Wealth perhaps, or Honour, or Pleasures, which are but for a moment? Which all are but speciosa supplicia; Though we look upon them as glorious and gawdy ornaments, and wear them as chains about our necks, yet are they but shackles and the very chains of darkness. In a word, what have we for the Favour of God which we slighted, but a gnawing Worm and a tormenting Conscience? For,

In the last place, the Penalty followeth: Qui autor legis, idem est & exactor. He that lent me these sums, cometh to require and ex∣act them at my hands; and I have nothing to give him which I may call my own, but the breach of his Law; and he hath power not onely to sell me to Punishment for sin, and to Sin for punishment, but to ex∣pose me to shame; not onely to kill the body, but to put both body and soul into hell. The penalty cometh in close upon the breach of contracts. We have not such a God in the New Testament as Marcion the heretick phansied to himself, qui solis literis prohibet delinquere, who giveth no further check and restraint unto sin then by letters and words, that doth fear to condemn what he cannot but disapprove, that doth not hate what he doth not love, and who beareth with that being done which he forbad to be done. No: He whose voice was in the thunder, This thou shalt do, thundereth still, Ego condo mala, It is I that create all those evils which flesh and bloud trembleth at. His Sword hath still this inscription, SI NOLUERITIS, HIC GLADIUS VOS COMEDET, If you will not obey, this sword shall devour you. Now in Obligations between man and man the Forfeiture and Penalty are expresly set down; and the Creditor cannot exact two talents where the penalty is but one: but here though the penalty is exprest, yet not the measure, unless in those comfortless terms, That they are immeasurable; Which when God re∣mitteth and forgiveth to the penitent, he manifesteth his infinite Good∣ness; but when he inflicteth it, as due to him who would needs die in his debt, he magnifieth his Justice. And S. Augustine giveth the reason, Quia meliùs ordinatur natura, ut justè doleat in supplicio, quàm ut impunè gaudeat in peccato, Because it is far better ordered that Justice should bring the impenitent to smart in punishment, then that Impunity should encourage him forever to triumph in sin. And he that peremptorily will offend, doth by consequent will also the punishment which is due unto him. Thus he that would not give God his obedience, and so pay him his own, must give himself to be dragged into prison. He that would not be brought under the power of the Law, must be brought under the stroke of the Law. He that would not once read it when it is written for our instruction, and presented in a golden character with pre∣cious promises, must look upon it when it is a killing letter and as terrible as Death. For Divines will tell us, Per peccatum homo Dei potestati non est subtractus; Man, though by sin he runneth away from his God, yet is still in his chain; and though he have put on the Devil's livery; yet he is still within the verge and reach of God's power, who can deliver him up to Satan, and make his new master, whom he serveth, his goaler and executioner. For the Obligation still holdeth, and God hath the hand∣writing against us, as S. Paul calleth it: Which whether we term the Decalogue, with some, which was written with the finger of God; or our own Memory, with others, which is nothing else but a gallery

hung round about with our own deformities; or whether, with Aquinas, we call it the Memory of God, where our sins are written with a pen of i∣ron and the point of a diamond; whatsoever it is, and wheresoever you place it, it still looketh towards us. In the Law there is horror; and in God's memory, our sins, where they are sealed up as in a bag,* 1.2 where he keepeth them as his proofs and evidences, by which he may convict us; and that they may be in a readiness,* 1.3 hath bound our transgressions by his hands. And lastly, in our own memories are the very same bills and ac∣cusations which are in the register of God. Nam qui peccat, peccati sui li∣teras scribit, saith the Father; He that offendeth, doth write as many let∣ters in this book as he committeth sins. And the guilt and obligation is as certain, and the condemnation as just, as if we had wrote and sealed it with our own hands, and subscribed a Fiat, Let it be so; for my debts are many, and my sins more then the hairs of my head.

Thus I have shewed you at last the analogy and likeness which is be∣tween our Sins and Debts. We will now point out to some operations which they produce alike, and which are common both to men engaged and oppressed with Debt and to men burthened with Sin. First, we know what a burthen Debt is, what perplexities, what fears, what anguish it doth bring; how it taketh all relish from our meat, all sweetness from our sleep, maketh pleasure tedious, and musick it self as harsh and un∣welcome as howling and tears; how it doth out-law and excommunicate us, drive us from place to place, bring the curse of Cain upon us, and make us fugitives upon the earth; how it maketh us afraid of our selves, afraid of others, and to take every man we meet for a Serjeant to arrest us: And such a burthen is Sin, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, saith Chrysostom, hard to be born, a yoke to gall us, a talent of lead to keep us down.* 1.4 It lay so heavy even upon David, the servant of God, that he had no rest in his bones because of his sins. And quis non maluit centies mori quàm sub tali conscientia vivere? who would not rather die a hundred times then live under such a con∣science, whose every check is an arrest, whose every accusation is a sum∣mons to death? Neque frustà sapientes affirmare soliti sunt, si recludantur tyrannorum mentes, posse aspici laniatus & ictus, saith the Historian: Nei∣ther is it for nothing that the wisest have seriously told us, that, were the hearts of wicked men laid open, we should see there swellings and ulcers, torments and stripes; here a bruise by Impatience, here a swelling of Pride, here a deep wound which Malice hath made; there we should see Satyres dancing and Furies with their whips; there we should see one dragged to the bar, and quarterred for Rebellion, another disciplined for Wantonness and Luxury; there we should see the deep furrows which Sacriledge and Oppression have made; a type of the day of Judgment, and a representation of Hell it self. Nemo non priùs in seipsum peccat; Who∣soever sinneth, beginneth with himself. Look not on the wounds thou hast given thy brother; thou hast made as many and as deep in thy own heart. Fot as a Debtor, though he shift from place to place, though he may peradventure evade and not come under arrest, yet he can never cast off or shift himself of the obligation; so it fareth with a Sinner; the Ob∣ligation, the Judge, and his Sin follow him whithersoever he goeth, sicut umbra corpus, saith Basil, as the shadow doth a body; and he may as well run from his own shadow as from his sin.

Secondly, Sin and Debt have this common effect, that as they make us droop and hang down the head, so they entangle us with trouble and bu∣siness. It is far easier to keep us out of bonds then to cancell them, far easier not to be endebted then to procure our Apocha and acquittance: and it is nothing so difficult to ••••oid sin at the first, when it flattereth, as

to purge it out when it hath stung us as a serpent. God ••••lleth Cain so, If thou doest well (and thou mayest yet do well) shalt thou not be accepted?* 1.5 and if thou doest not well, sin lyeth at the door, ready to arrest thee. And the reason is plain, and given by Columella, though to another end, O∣perosior negligentia quàm diligentia; Sloth and carelesness and neglect put us to more trouble and pain, create us more business, then diligence. For what at first, if we be provident, may be done with a quick hand, within a while, being neglected, cannot be brought to rights again but with dou∣ble and treble diligence. We leap into debt, but we hardly creep out of it. That enemy which the Centinel might have kept out, having gained ground and opportunity, may make it the business of a whole Ar∣my to drive back again. That sin which at first we might have avoided by circumspection alone, having made its entrance, will not onely drive us to consultation how to expell it, but perhaps let in troops at the same breach, with all which we must encounter before we can be free. If the evil spirit make a re-entry, he bringeth with him seven worse then himself. And thus both Sin and Debt bring on 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, an unfoordable gulf of difficulties and business.

In the third place, the Wise-man hath observed of some borrowers, that for their neighbour's money they will return words of grief,* 1.6 and com∣plain of the time; nay, pay him with cursings and railings and disgrace. And it is a common thing for men to hate those who have been beneficial to them, si vicem reddere non possint, imò quia nolint, saith Seneca, if they cannot requite him, yea in very truth because they will not. And in the like manner deal sinners with their God, never think him a hard man, an exactor, till they are in his debt, never murmure against him till they have given him just occasion to question them, never fight against him till they have forced him to draw his sword to destroy them. We see in the Parable,* 1.7 the servant that had buried his talent in the earth, telleth his Lord that he did it because he knew him to be a hard man, reaping where he had not sown, and gathering where he had not strawed. And as the Historian observeth of men hardly bestead, and whose fortunes are low, that they most complain of the State and Commonwealth wherein they live, and think all not well in the publick, because they have miscarried in the ma∣naging of their private estates; So when sinners are in a great streight, and dare not approch unto God, and yet know not how to run from him, when they have consumed the riches which he gave them de communi cen∣su, out of the common treasury, out of that fountain of goodness which he is, then they begin to neglect and contemn God, and do despite to the holy Ghost; then his precepts are hard sayings, who can bear them? then the flesh is weak, and the condition is impossible; then the very principles of goodness which they brought with them into the world, begin to be worn and vanish away, and they wish the Creed out of their memory, would be content there were no God, no obligation, no penalty, no such debt as Sin, no such prison as Hell. And these are the sad effects and ope∣rations both of Sin and Debt. But one main difference we find between them. For a Debt and a Forfeiture may be paid at last: and if the debtor be not able to pay, he may give his service, his body, some satisfaction; and some satisfaction is better then none: But he that committeth Sin, is the servant of sin for ever, and can never redeem it; if for no other reason, yet for this alone, that he did commit it. For not a myriad of vertues can satisfie for any one breach of our obligation, and no hand but that of Mer∣cy can cancell and make it void. If we be in debt with God, nothing can quit us but forgiveness. And therefore we pray, Forgive us our debts. And so we fall upon our next part, What is meant by Remission of sins, or For∣giveness of debts.

And here we lie prostrate before the throne of God, and desire forgive∣ness: And what that is we cannot be to seek, if we consider those judici∣al terms which the Scripture useth. For we read of aa 1.8 Judge, of ab 1.9 judg∣ment seat, of ac 1.10 witness, of ad 1.11 conviction, of ae 1.12 hand-writing, of anf 1.13 Advocate, and in this Petition our sins are delivered in the notion of debts. So that when we pray for the forgiveness of our sins, we do as it were stand at the bar of God's justice, and plead for mercy; acknow∣ledge the hand-writing, but beseech him to cancel it; confess our sins, but sue out our pardon, that we may be justified from those things from which by the Law we could not; and though we are not, yet for his sake who is our Surety and Advocate; to count us righteous, and pronounce us innocent. This is all we learn in Scripture concerning Remission of sins. Et quicquid à Deo discitur, totum est, as the Father speaketh, That which we learn from God is all we can learn. But as the Philosophers a∣greed there was a chief good and happiness which man might attain unto, but could not agree what it was; so it hath fallen out with Christians: They all consent that there is mercy with God, that we may be saved; they make Remission of sins an article of their Creed: but then they rest not here, but to the covering of their sins require a garment of righteousness of their own thread and spinning, to the blotting out of their sins some bloud and some virtue of their own, and to the purging them out some infused habit of herent righteousness; and so by their interpretations and additions and glosses they leave this Article in a cloud, then which the day it self is not clearer. As Astronomers, when a new star appeareth in their Hemisphere, dispute and altercate till that star go out and remove it self out of their sight; so have we disputed and talked Justification and Remission of sins almost out of sight. For there is nothing more plain and even, without rub or difficulty, nothing more open to the eye; and yet nothing at which the quickest apprehensions have been more dazled. Not to speak of the heathen, who counted it a folly to believe there were any such thing, and could not see how he that killed a man should not be a homicide, or he no adulterer who had defiled a woman; quibus melius fide quam ratione respondetur; whom we may give leave to reason, whilest we believe. It hath been the fault of Christians, when the truth lay in their way, to pass it by, or leap over it, and to follow some phansies and i∣maginations of their own. How many combates had S. Paul with the false brethren who would bring in the observation of the Ceremonial and Mo∣ral Law as sufficient to salvation? How did he travel in birth again of the Galatians, that Christ might be truly formed in them? And yet how many afterwards did Galaticari, as Tertullian speaketh, were as foolish as the Galatians? How many made no better use of it then to open a gap and make a way to let in all licentiousness and profaneness of life? nay, went so far as to think it most necessary? as if Remission of sins were not a me∣dicine to purge, but a provocative to inerease sin. Nor was this doctrine onely blemished by those monsters of men who sate down and consulted, and did deliberately give sentence against the Truth, but received some blot and stain from their hands who were the stoutest champions for it, who though they saw the Truth, and did acknowledge it, yet let that fall from their pens which posterity after took up to obscure this doctrine, and would not rest content with that which is as much as we can desire, and more then we can deserve, Remission of sins. Hence it was that we were taught in the Schools, That Justification is a change from a state of un∣righteousness to a state of righteousness; That as in every motion there is a leaving of one term to acquire another, so in Justification there is expul∣sion of sin, and infusion of grace: Which is most true in the concrete, but

not in the abstract; in the Justified person, but not in Justification, which is an act of God alone. From hence those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, those unsavoury and undigested conclusions of the Church of Rome, That to justifie a sinner is not to pronounce but to make him just; That the formal cause of Ju∣stification is inherent sanctity; That our righteousness before God consi∣steth not onely in remission of sins; That we may redeem our sins as well as Christ, we from temporal, as he from eternal pain. And then this Pe∣tition must run thus, FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES, that is, Make us so just that we may need no forgiveness; Forgive us the breach of the Law, because we have kept the Law; Forgive us our sins, for our good works; Forgive me my intemperance, for my often fasting; my incontinency, for my zeal; my oppression, for my alms; my murther, for the Abby and Ho∣spital which I built; my fraud, my malice, my oppression for the many Sermons I have heard. A conceit which, I fear, findeth room and friendly enter∣teinment in those hearts which are soon hot at the very mery mention of Popery or Merit. In a word, they say and unsay, sometimes bring in Re∣mission of sins, and sometimes their own Satisfaction; and so set S. Paul and their Church at such a distance, that neither St. Peter himself, nor all the Angels and Saints she prayeth to, will be able to reconcile them, and make his Gratis and their Merits meet in one. It is true, every good act doth justifie a man so far as it is good, and God so far esteemeth them holy and good, and taketh notice of his graces in his ••••••ldren; he regi∣stereth the Patience of Job, the Zeal of Phinehas, the Devotion of David; not a cup of cold water, not a mite flung into the Treasury, but shall have its reward: But yet all the works of all the Saints in the world cannot sa∣tisfie for the breach of the Law. For let it once be granted, what cannot be denied, that we are all 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, guilty and culpable, before God, that all have sinned,* 1.14 and are come short of the glory of God, then all that noise the Church of Rome hath filled the world with concerning Merits, and Satis∣faction, and inherent Righteousness, will vanish as a mist before the Sun, and Justification and Remission of sins will appear in its brightness, in that form and shape in which Christ first left it to his Church. Bring in Abra∣ham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apo∣stles, and deck them with all those vertues which made them glorious, but yet they sinned. Bring in the noble army of Martyrs, who shed their bloud for Christ; but yet they sinned. They were stoned, they were sawen asunder, they were slain with the sword; but yet they sinned: and he that sinneth is presently the servant of sin, obnoxious to it for ever, and cannot be re∣deemed by his own bloud, because he sinned, but by the bloud of him in whom there was no sin to be found. JUSTIFICATIO IMPII, This one form of speech, of justifying a sinner, doth plainly exclude the Law and the works of it, and may serve as an axe or hammer to beat down all their carved work and those Anticks which are fastned to the building, which may perhaps take a wandering or gadding phansie, but will never enter the heart of a man of understanding. We do not find that beauty in their forced and artificial inventions, that we do in the simple and native Truth; neither are those effects which are as radiations and resultances from For∣giveness of sins, so visible in their Justification by Faith and Works as in that free Remission which is by Faith alone. The urging of our Merits is of no force to make our peace with God. They may indeed make us gra∣cious in his eyes after Remission, but have as much power to remove our sins, as our breath hath to remove a mountain, or put out the fire of hell. For every sin is as Seneca speaketh of that of Alexander's in killing Callist∣henes, crimen aeternum, an eternal crime, which no vertue of our own can redeem. As often as any man shall say, He slew many thousands of Persi∣ans,

it will be replied, He did so, but he killed Callisthenes also. He slew Da∣rius; but he slew Callisthenes too. And as often as we shall swell our minds and fill them with the conceit of our good deeds, our Conscience will re∣ply, But we have sinned. Let me adde my Passions to my Actions, my Im∣prisonment to my Alms; let me suffer for Christ, let me dye for Christ; But yet I have sinned. Let us outgo all the ancient examples of piety and sanctity; But yet we have sinned: And none of all our acts, can make so much for our glory and comfort as our sin doth for our reproch. Our sins may obscure and darken our vertues, but our vertues cannot abolish our sins. For what peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel, as our sins, be so many? Ot what ease can a myriad of vertues do him who is un∣der arrest, under a curse, who, if Mercy come not in between, is condem∣ned already? And therefore we may observe those Justitiaries who will not build upon Remission or Not-imputation of sins, how their complexion altereth, how their colour goeth and cometh, how they are not the same men in their Controversies and Commentaries that they are in their Devo∣tions and Meditations. Nothing but Merit in their ruff and jollity, and nothing but Mercy on their death-beds; nothing but the bloud of Mar∣tyrs then, and nothing but Christ's now; nothing but their own Satisfa∣ction all their lives, and nothing but Christ's at their last gasp. Before, magìs honorificum, it was more honourable, to bring in something of our own towards the Forgiveness of our sins: but now, for the uncertainty of our own Righteousness, (which were no whit available to a guilty per∣son, if it were certain) because there is no harbour here, Christ's Righte∣ousness is called in with a Tutissimum est, as the best shelter; And here they will abide till the storm be over-past.

To conclude then; Remission of sins hath no relation or dependence on any thing which is in man, is not drawn on or furthered by any merit of ours, but is an act of the Mercy and Providence of God, by which he is pleased to restore us to his favour, who were under his wrath, to count us righteous, who were guilty of death, and in Christ to reconcile us unto him∣self; and, though he have a record of our sin, yet not to use it as an indict∣ment against us, but so to deal with us as if his book were rased, and so to look upon us as if we had not sinned at all. Et merebimur admitti jam ex∣clusi; And we, who were formerly shut out for our sin, shall be led into the land of the living by a merciful and perfect and all-sufficient Mediatour. It is his Mercy alone that must save us. This is as the Sanctuary to the Le∣gal offendor: This is as mount Ararat to Noah's tossed Ark; as Noah's hand to his weary Dove; as Ahasuerus his golden sceptre to the humble penitent. Come then, put on your royal apparel, your wedding garment, and touch the top of it: But touch it with reverence. Bring not a wa∣vering and doubtful heart, an unrepented sin, a rebellious thought with thee. For canst thou touch this Sceprre in thy lust or anger? canst thou touch it with hands full of bloud? Such a bold irreverent touch will turn this Sceptre into a Sword, to pierce thee through. For nothing wound∣eth deeper then abused Mercy. Behold, God holdeth it forth to thee in his Word; Come unto him all ye that are heavy laden, and touch it, and you are eased. He holdeth it forth in his Sacrament, first in the flesh of his Son, and then in the signs and representations of it; and here to touch it un∣worthily, is to touch, nay to embrace, Death it self. The woman in the Gospel came behind Christ, and did but touch the hem of his garment, and was healed. Most wretched we, saith the Father, who touch him, nay feed on him, so oft in his Sacrament, and our issue of bloud runneth still, we are still in our sins; our Pride as swelling, our Malice as deadly, our Appetite as keen, our Love of the world as great as before: and all because we do

not touch it with reverence, nor discern the Lord's body, which must not be touched by every rude and unclean hand! Wash you, then, make you clean; and then, as your Sins are pardoned, so here your Pardon is sealed with the bloud of the Lamb. Here thou dost see thy ransome: Onely believe, and come with a heart fit to receive him. The best enterteinment and welcome thou canst give him is a broken, contrite and reverent heart, a a heart fitted for such a Lord, such a Captain, such a King. For, as one well sayeth, the Sacraments are nothing else but protestationes fidei, the publick protestations of our Faith. They who come to the Lord's Table, by their very coming do publickly profess that they believe not onely every Arti∣cle of their Faith, but also this Divine promise and institution, by which Christ will renew and strengthen and establish his Covenant to every wor∣thy receiver. Leave then thy wavering, thy inconstancy, thy diffidence, thy formality, thy hypocrisie, thy malice, before thou approch. For wilt thou come to the Feast of the Lamb with the teeth of a Lion? Wilt thou come to him in whom there was no guile found, with a deceitful heart? Wilt thou come to a meek Saviour, with a heart on fire? Wilt thou come to him who forbiddeth a wandring look, with a stews about thee? Wilt thou bring the love of the world along with thee, to him that overcame the world? Wilt thou come to the Son of God, with the subtilty and malice of a Devil? Thy coming is thy protestation not onely of thy Faith but of thy Repentance; and if thou thus defeat and contradict thy own protestation, I will not say what manner of Protestant thou art, but the world affordeth many such at this day: And how darest thou meet thy Saviour in this ug∣ly disguise, carrying about with thee a world of wickedness under prote∣station? The Canonist will tell us, Sacramentum & mortis articulus aequi∣parantur, that we are considered at the Sacrament as on our Death-bed. And on our death-bed we are likelier to be attempted with thoughts of de∣jection then of presumption. Here we lay down our malice; here we loath our lust; here vve fall out with Mammon; here vve look down upon Honour; here vve go out of the vvorld; here vve are meek and humble and tractable; here vve are commonly vvhat we should be in our health. Consider thy self then at this Table as on thy Death-bed, and here lay aside every weight, and every sin that doth beset us; lay them down, not as sick men sometimes do, to take them up again in health, but drown them in the bloud, and nail them to the cross of thy Saviour, never to look back upon them but vvith sorrow and disdain. Here shake off all inclination to them as far as is possible, and take up a firm resolution never to enter∣tein them again: and then thou art fit to come to Christ, and feed at his Table; then, as he is brought into the vvorld, and hath brought himself into the Sacrament, and vvill be so far present as to exhibite himself and all his love and favour in them, so he vvill bring himself into thy soul, and fill it vvith all joy.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Rom 3.2.
• * 1.2

  Job 14.17.
• * 1.3

  Lam. 1.14.
• * 1.4

  Zech. 5.
• * 1.5

  Gen. 4.7.
• * 1.6

  Eccl. 29.5, 6.
• * 1.7

  Matth. 25.24.
• a 1.8

  1 Cor. 4.4.
• b 1.9

  2 Cor. 5.10.
• c 1.10

  Rom. 2.15.
• d 1.11

  Rom. 3.19.
• e 1.12

  Col. 2.14.
• f 1.13

  1 John 2.1.
• * 1.14

  Rom. 3.19.