Fifty sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London, and elsewhere whereof twenty on the Lords Prayer / by ... Anthony Farindon ... ; the third and last volume, not till now printed ; to which is adjoyned two sermons preached by a friend of the authors, upon his being silenced.

The Nine and Thirtieth SERMON. PART. I. (Book 39)

MATTH. VI. 12. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Or, as

LUKE XI. 4: And forgive us our sins: for we also forgive every one that is in∣debted to us.

HAving lifted up our eyes to him that filleth all things living of his good pleasure, we here fall down on our knees for mercy and forgiveness before the Father of mercies, who is as ready to forgive as to open his hand, and as willing to receive us into his bosome and favour as to give us our meat in due season on the earth, which is but his foot-stool. Having adored his Liberality, we beseech his Clemencie. And, as Ter∣tullian well observes, it was most necessary that we should observe this methode: For first, unless we be heard in this Petition, we have no reason to be confident in commencing the other, nor to expect that God should feed us as a Father, till we be reconciled unto him, and called his Sons. What man is there which, if his son ask him bread, will give him a stone? saith our Saviour: Which implies we must be sons before we put up our petiti∣ons. For God never denies us without a cause; and the cause many times is no other but this, that we deny him. Was the Lord angry against the Rivers? saith the Prophet Habakkuk, when he sent a tempest; or is he angry with the earth, when he sends barrenness? Is he angry with our Bas∣ket, when he fills it not? No: Peccatum homicida est; Sin is the murderer and the thief, to spoil and rob us. Sin makes the beasts of the field and the stones of the street at enmity with us; terram eunucham, the heavens as brass, and the earth as iron, not able to bring forth in due season. Sin dislocates and perverts the course of Nature, and changeth it, saith Basil, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, into contrary tempers. This puts supernatural aspects upon events which have natural causes. If it be a comet, it makes it omi∣nous;

if a cloud, that is the cataclysm; if a vapor, that damps it into a plague. This sets up all the creatures in arms against us, and makes us, like Cain, no better then Vagabonds and Runnagates upon the earth. RE∣MITTE NOBIS must be put up; else DA NOBIS will re∣turn empty. We must sue out our pardon, or else the windows of hea∣ven will not open to rain down Manna upon us. Again, though our corn and our wine abound (for we cannot entail these temporal blessings on the righteous alone) yet our Bread will be turn'd into a stone, and our Wine will be as bitter as gall; nor can they feed our hungry souls, sed ipsam esu∣riem animarum pascere, as St. Bernard speaks, bring that Leanness into them which is the forerunner of death. Blessings we may call them; and so they are: but till we be reconciled to God, they are such blessings as will stop up our way to true happiness, and stand as a barricado between us and those everlasting habitations. Laqueus in auro, viscum in argento, saith St. Ambrose; There will be a snare in our Gold to entrap us, and a∣viscosity in our Silver to retard us. The rust of them shall be as a witness a∣gainst * 1.1 us, and eat our flesh as it were fire; Et quid alimenta proderunt, si illis reputamur quasi taurus ad victimam? What is Gold to Piety? What is Wealth to Grace? What is a Palace to Heaven? What is our Food and Nourishment, if we be fed and fatted only as the Oxe is, to be sacrificed? What are all the Riches of the world but as the Tyrants ropes of silk and daggers of gold? or what use do they serve to but this, ut cariùs pereamus, that we may tread those paths which lead unto death with more state and pomp than other men do? I would have spared this observation, although it be a Fathers, and one as learned as the best, but that the general love to Riches and the things of this Life, which now reigns and rageth in the world, may raise a jealousie and just suspition that some there are, who as they have excluded others, and made themselves proprietaries of all, and that by no other title than this, That they are the children of God; so again, when they have, with Ahab, killed and taken possession, when they have by unjust means filled their coffers, they begin to clap their hands and applaud themselves, and to make their being rich an argument that they are good and the belo∣ved of God: And though with great zeal they dare call the Pope Anti∣christ, yet they joyn hands with the Papists in this, in making Temporal hap∣piness a true note of the Church, and counting Poverty a curse and the just punishment of a wicked conversation. Indeed, ask them their opinion, and they will deny it as heretical, we may be sure, because it hath no shew of reason to commend it: But surely even theirs it is: For their speech and behaviour bewrayeth them. For do they not lye down and sleep on their heaps? Do they not batten in their wealth? Do they not flatter them∣selves when such a golden showre falls into their laps, and think that it cannot be but God himself is in it? And do they not flourish like green olive∣trees in the house of the Lord, when they have nothing but this dung about them? Do they not count them as smitten of God who stay below in the val∣ley, and are there content to dwell with Poverty rather than to climb up that ladder, and with these seeming Angels, to aspire to that height from whence they are in danger to break their necks? And this is a dangerous error. But there is nothing more easie than thus to erre, than to say, nay, than to think, that we are in the favour of God when his Sun doth shine up∣on our tabernacle, to say, AVE, Hayl to our selves, as highly favoured, when the world smiles upon us and flatters us; and to draw this conclusion from no other premisses than a full Purse and large Possessions. So that the Apostles axiome is inverted quite: For to these men Godliness is not great Gain, but Great Gain is Godliness. And therefore that we dash not against this rock, let us put up this Petition also in Gods Court of Requests. Let

us be diligent to make our election sure, and not only, with Esau, lift up our voyce and howl after our Bread, after plenty of wheat and wine; but, with the Publican, lift up our hearts and smite them, that the sound of a bro∣ken heart may go up into the ears of the Almighty, and return with this de∣lightful echo, REMITTUNTUR PECCATA, That our sins are forgiven us. For being thus reconciled, we who could not conclude we were re∣conciled by our being rich, may certainly conclude we are rich by our be∣ing reconciled. For with Remission of sins we have that Peace which is better than Gold and Silver, and which makes Lazarus richer than Dives. If we have not, yet we want not. If we do not possidere, yet we do nolle. If we possess not any thing, yet we lack nothing which we would have. And this is for a man to be Lord of all the world. Credenti totus mundus divitiarum est, infidelis etiam obolo caret, saith St. Hierome, He that is at peace with God possesseth all things; when the wilfull offender, who is careless to sue out his pardon, though he measure money by the Bushel, yet stands in need of a single half-peny. DA NOBIS without REMIT∣TE NOBIS, Give us without Forgive us makes no purchase at all, or but such a one as will make us worse than Bankrupts. And so I descend to the exposition of the words themselves, Forgive us our debts, or trespasses, as we forgive our debtours, or them that trespass against us.

In this Petition we observe 1. the Form of it; 2. the Clause of modifi∣cation: first, the Thing which we desire, Remission of sins; secondly, the Manner, or the Condition, or, as St. Cyprian calleth it, the Law, by which we put up this Petition. For we do not commence it in an absolute and positive form, as we do the others, but conditionally. When we begg the remission of our sins, we bind our selves by promise, we make the condition our selves, and in a manner enact a law by which we are obliged to forgive them that trespass against us; so that if we fail in the condition, if we forget our promise, if we break this law, if we make not good our covenant, we make our Father a Judge, and prompt him to the severity of a denyal: If our bowels yern not, his tender mercies will be shut up: and ex ore nostro, we are condemned already out of our own mouth. Si hoc po∣sterius aut non dicimus, aut dicimus fallaciter, illud certè quòd prius est di∣cimus inaniter, saith St. Augustine; If this latter part be not pronounced, or be pronounced from a heart full of deceit and hypocrisie; the former, though we cry, and cry aloud, will not be heard, nor be of any force at all, unless it be in stead of mercy to pull down vengeance upon our heads. These be the parts of this Petition. In the former part we make an open confession 1. of our Misery by sin; 2. of Gods Mercy and willingness to forgive and put away our sin. For confessio non semper ad peccata referenda est, verùm etiam in Dei laudibus intelligitur, saith Hilary; Confession is as well of Gods Goodness as of our own Sin. And here they both meet and are con∣centred in this Petition, which as it implies a want in us, so it supposeth an ability and readiness to supply our want in him to whom it is directed. In general then we have these two things implyed, an humble acknowledg∣ment that we are sinners, and a joyful recognition that God is merciful. In the first we look upon our sins as upon so many festered and loathsome sores, with an eye of sorrow; in the second with the eye of Faith we behold the balm of Gilead which alone can heal us.

And first, he that beggs pardon doth certainly acknowledge a fault. REMITTE NOBIS; Vox hominem sonat; It can be the voice of none but of Man alone. Now that we may shew what Confession and Acknow∣ledgment of sin is requisite, we will follow the Philosophers method, and begin 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, with redargution, and lay open those errors which do effe∣minare disciplinam, corrupt and effeminate this Christian discipline, and

make our Acknowledgment so weak that it cannot raise it self so high as to joyn and close with Remission of sins. And first this is one, an humble conceit, as we call it, that we cannot but sin. Thus we love dolosè versa∣ri in universalibus, to loyter and dwell in generalities, and so deceive our selves; but not without great reluctancie do we descend unto particulars. The total sum, men confess, is great, more then the sand of the Sea, and the hairs of their head: but bring them to a just calculation and to a particu∣lar account, and we find nothing but ciphers; some sins of daily Incur∣sion, some sins of Subreption, some minute, scarce visible sins; but not the figure of any sin which will make up a number. They talk much of their Weakness, as if they did nothing but sin; but yet their Strength up∣on the tryal is so great as if they did not sin at all. For this conceit fol∣lows them in all their wayes, and stands between them and those sins which they have left behind them. And if at any time they cast a look back up∣on them, they behold them through this imagination of Weakness as through a pane of painted glass, which discolours all, and makes the greatest sin appear in the hue and shape of a sin of Infirmity. To them whose furiae libidinum, those Furies of Lust, are not so terrible, those monsters of sin are not so deformed, those sins which devour have not a tooth. For why should they complain of a bruise who are so just as to fall and rise seven times a day? And this is it which they call Humility. But if it be Humility, it is but that which the Apostle calls a voluntary humi∣lity. That Humility which God commends lifts us up as high as heaven when it lays us on the ground, but this Humility buries us alive. That Humility bows us down with sorrow; this binds our hands with sloth. That looks upon our imperfections past; this makes way for more to come. That helps us forward to perfection; this makes us more imper∣fect: That seals our pardon, but this blots and cancels it. It is not good to presume of our own strength; but it is as dangerous to be so humble as to wallow in the mire, to be humble to our own damnation. Humility af∣ter sin is a medicine; but this which stalketh before sin and unavoidable dangers, is not Humility, but Impotencie; not Humility, but Cowardise and Pusillanimity, which presents her self under this name and in this humble posture; not Humility, but Negligence, which is still afraid of a lion in the way, and stands still at the shew of difficulty; not Humility, but Fear, which betrays all our succours. Nec mirum si vincamur, qui jam victi sumus; And no marvel if we fail in the battel, who are already overcome. If we sin, our duty is to call upon our Advocate; but not to suborn the Peccability of our nature, or rather a Necessity of sinning, as an Advocate for Sin.

Again, in the second place, there be some who make this Acknowledg∣ment of their sin but a ceremony or piece of formality, and think that these very words, Forgive us our trespasses, are a spell against Sin, an antidote, which if we carry about us, no contagion can hurt us; as if REMITTE NOBIS were verba privilegiata, as Gerson speaks, words that have a pe∣culiar priviledge and prerogative, and do purge a sinner ex opere operato, assoon as they are pronounced, or, like Bells after their superstitious bap∣tism or consecration, drive away the Devil with the very sound. The prophane Gallant thunders out an oath, and the next prayer is that God would forgive the villain. The superstitious Wanton watcheth his sins as he doth his beads, but drops them faster, and is as oft with the Priest as with the Adultress, as greedy to confess his sin as of the twilight and op∣portunity to sin: So that Sin and Confession of sin make up the wheel in which he is circled and turned about, till he fall to the ground, and can neither sin nor acknowledge it. And this hath brought a scandal upon the

practise of the Church, as if it rather brought a cordial to cheer and com∣fort the sinner than a purge to remove the sin; and as if Confession did but ease the stomach to make us more greedy and hungry after our husks than before. But let every man examine himself, whether he pray with the spirit, and pray with the understanding also; whether, when he cryes Remit∣te, he be not as a Barbarian unto himself, and one that speaketh in an unknown language; whether his mind be not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, divided in his pray∣er. St. Augustine saith, Avarus de pecunia cogitat; The covetous asks for∣giveness of his sins when his thoughts are a forging a sin which needs ano∣ther forgiveness. Anothers mind is on revenge, when he beggs a pardon, Et, quod inconsultissimum est, id agunt multi ut quod affectu & voto volunt, id ipsum re & actu nolle videantur; And, which is the greatest folly in the world, many speak with a great earnestness for that which they would not obtain, and pray for forgiveness of sins, which they labor to multiply. And so pour forth nutabundam & ebriam orationem, as Cassian speaks, a stag∣gering and a doubtful request, begging for mercy, but being afraid to be heard; and making the hope of a pardon the intercessor and harbinger for Sin, which would hardly enter without such an encouragement.

Thirdly, others there are whose thoughts are at home, and who with grief and sorrow acknowledge their sin, but yet repent not. A man may water his couch with his tears, and lye down in sackcloth and ashes, and yet fall short of true repentance, and of that acknowledgment of sin that is a forerunner of mercy. A man may lacrymis orare & ingemiscere, as Hilary speaks, weep and grone for sin, and yet all may be vox & praeterea nihil. Those tears and that grief for sin may flow not from the Love of God, but from the very gall of bitterness, the Love of Sin it self. A man may be sorry, not that he hath sinned, but that it is not lawful to sin. A man may be afraid of his sin, and yet not willing to part company, frown, and smite on it all at once; depart, and return; go from it, and look back; and at last confess it, and yet plead for it; and so be benignissimus Dei inter∣pres, a most favourable and gracious interpreter of Gods threatnings, and a merciful expounder of his judgments: And such a man will make up but a faint and feeble and imperfect acknowledgment.

Lastly, we may know and acknowledge our sins, and repent, but re∣lapse: Which makes our acknowledgment and repentance void. Vera pec∣cati confessio est sine intermissione poenitere, saith Hilary; True repentance is a constant forsaking of sin. And unless we forsake our sin, without doubt our repentance is not true. Omne malum aut pudore aut timore natura suf∣fudit, Sin hath naturally Shame and Fear to attend it: And this may shut up our eyes and seal up our lips and shackle our hands for awhile. Sto∣machum nobis facit citò redituris in gratiam, It hath turned our stomach a lit∣tle; but when the pang is off, when we have some ease, our appetite will come again, and we shall return with the dogg to our vomit. And thus petita relinquimus, relicta repetimus; We ebb and flow, we rise and fall, and never remain at one stay. In gradu toti sumus. We are in a perpetual recidivation. To conclude; This is not an acknowledgment, but rather a contradiction infinitely multiplyed, and will never be heard in the Court of Mercy, but rather censured as a foul absurdity and gross soloecism in Christian behaviour. No, saith Tertullian, Cessatio delicti radix est ve∣niae; The root from whence pardon and forgiveness springs is a cessation of sinning and total forsaking of sin: And from this it will receive juyce and nourishment, and grow up and flourish, and be as the Tree of Life in the Revelation, which will shadow and cover our sins, and whose leaves are to heal the nations. In a word, to acknowledge our sins is not to count it a part of our religion to cry out, We are weak, and cannot do that which

we should. It is not a complement or ceremony, a Father, forgive us; a REMITTE NOBIS, and no more. It is not found in a breath alone, nor in a tear alone, nor in a faint resolution, nor in a short repentance. To Acknowledge our sin is not to profess our inability to avoid it; is not to say our Pater noster; is not, to lye down in sorrow, and rise up again in rebellion; is not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to fall and rise; to repent, and relapse; It consists not in these qualms and fits and pauses and intervals of piety. But, as St. Augustine speaks, to Acknowledge our sin, is perseverantissimè & in∣victissimè nolle; is to confess them, and constantly to hate them. And this perseverant and invincible renouncing of our sins doth eructare se in su∣perficiem, breathe it self forth outward, and is vocal in our confession, floats upon our tears, is visible in the outward man, and so fits and qualifies us for Gods mercy and compassion: Who as he loves his creature, and hates sin, so he hath in his infinite goodness and wisdome ordained a means to destroy sin, and to reconcile his creature at once to himself and to everla∣sting happiness. Which is the second general observation which we draw out of this Petition, and to the handling of which we now proceed.

The Goodness and Mercy of God, though infinite and eternal, as Himself, yet in respect of its operation ad extra it supposeth some object to work on. By his wisdome he made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever. He redeemeth us from our enemies: for his mercy endureth for ever. He forgiveth us our sins: for his mercy endureth for ever. So that his Mercy and Goodness, which are primariae proprietates, prime qualities, in him, appear and shew themselves even in his Wisdom, Power and Majesty. For why did he create the Universe? What moved him to make those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, 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 ha∣ving 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 for∣feited his title to bliss, God calls after him, not simplici modo & interroga∣torio 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 presen∣ted 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, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, natural to him; whereas Anger and Hostility to his creature are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, quite besides his nature. Prior, bonitas Dei, secun∣dum naturam; posterior, severitas, secundum causam: illa, edita; haec, ad∣hibita, 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. REMIT∣TUNTUR TIBI PECCATA, Thy sins are forgiven thee, is a standing sen∣tence,

a general proclamation, saith Father Latimer, to all that will be∣lieve 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 * 1.2 us with the fulness of God.

But though the Lord's Mercy be infinite, and he be most ready to for∣give, 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 dis∣course 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 Re∣pentance 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 de∣nies 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 amend∣ment, 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 mala∣dy, but to be restored to perfect health. In corporibus aegris nihil quod noci∣turum est medici relinquunt; Physicians purge out all ill humors from those bodies which are distemper'd. For when one disease is spent, another may kill me; and when I have recovered one malady, I may be thrown down by another. Habet hoc solicitudo, quòd omnia necessaria putet; True Care and Solicitude thinks nothing done till all be done, and is afraid that the least distemper may be as dangerous as a disease. FORGIVE US OUR SINS] Who knows the danger of the least sin, and will not make the gloss himself, Forgive us them all, and make his Repentance hold analogy with the Mercy of God, which doth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, make a perfect and universal cure. In medicines for the body that may be good for the Head which is not for the Heart; and that may be soveraign for the Stone which hath no virtue in easing the Gout: But the Mercy of God is like his Power in this, ita magna in magnis ut non sit minor in minimis, equal and like it self in the purging and remission of the greatest and smallest sins. Upon our repen∣tance he blotteth out all our sins and transgressions; whether they be devo∣ratoriae salutis, those which, till they be forgiven, take away all hope of salvation; or quotidianae incursionis, those which every day by subreption steal upon us; or modica & media delicta, as Tertullian, those sins of a middle nature, which are not to be reckoned amongst those of daily incur∣sion, nec tamen culmen tenent, and yet do not reach the highest pitch of impiety: I cannot but acknowledge that it is necessary to distinguish of sins: And it is no Logical deduction which the Church of Rome hath made, That because we make all sins in their own nature mortal, we therefore make them all equal: Yet in our repentance and devotion it will be one part of our spiritual wisdom minima pro maximis cavere, to consider our least sins as if they were of the greatest magnitude; to think there is danger not on∣ly in Murder, but in an angry thought; that not only our burning Lusts, but a very spark may consume us; & vel atomos numerare, and to number up the very atomes of sins. For though those ordinary sins which steal up∣on us unseen, and slip by us insensibly, do not digg up Charity by the very root, yet certainly they proceed from no other fountain than a defect and want of Charity, which if it were as perfect and consummate as it ought to be, would arm us against the assault of these thieves which steal in by night. And more wisdom it is etiam quae tuta sunt pertimescere, to be jealous of that which will not hurt us, and to think that a fault which is none, than to say of these sins as Lot did of Zoar, Are they not little ones? and my soul shall live; or to sit down with the resolution of the Casuists in almost the same case, Modicum pro nihilo est, A small sin is in esteem as good as none at all. For by thus slighting them sins multiply and gather strength, & numero vincunt, what they want in bulk, they supply in number, and overwhelm thee, if not as great, yet as many. Small expenses, saith Aristotle, if fre∣quent, overthrow a family. And it is but a fallacie to think, if the particu∣lars be small, the sum will be so. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Great is not therefore small because it consists of many littles. And the great Oratour will tell us that that neglect which endangers a Common∣wealth is not streight seen in particular actions and miscarriages, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in the conclusion and event at last. And St. Augustine hath observed of these small sins, Quantò minora, tantò crebriora; Because they be less, we presume the oftner to commit them. I know there is no man, when he puts up this Petition, doth except any the least sin, but would have them all buried in the bottom of the Sea: Yet we must not think it is enough to ask forgiveness; but we must be also watchful to observe them, and take these brats and dash them against the stones. For even these brats, if we

play and sport with them, will prove at last mighty Gyants, sons of Anak, which will fight against us to keep us out of Canaan. St. Augustine, lib. 2. De Civit. Dei, tells us that this is a daily prayer, and that it will blot out quotidiana peccata, our ordinary and daily sins, sine quibus in hac vita non vivitur, as he speaks in his Enchiridion, without which the severest man doth not pass his life: and for common steps DIMITTE NOBIS PECCATA, this common prayer, Forgive us our trespasses, may suffice. But yet he tells us withal, Quia fiunt peccata, ideo dicitur; non ut ideo fiant, quia dicitur; That this is said, and we are taught thus to pray, because we through infirmity fall into these sins; but we must not fall into these sins because we are taught thus to pray. For as there were some in his time who, mistaking this very Petition, thought that they might persist in any sin, so they forgave their brother, and were bountiful to the poor and nee∣dy, that with a piece of money they might redeem their adulteries and un∣cleanness, and satisfie for the sins of the greatest magnitude: So if it went once for true, that to breathe out these words would scatter our daily sins, before the wind, and quite abolish them, men would be very apt at last to be too favourable interpreters of God, and to think he takes no notice of those idle words for which he hath threatned to bring us into judgment; and we should sin, and pray; and pray, and sin; and carry this Petition with us to ease us of these sins, as some foolish women in Chrysostoms time did certain pieces of gold of Alexander the Great to cure the head-ach. And this is non tam morbo laborare quàm remedio, to be sick not so much of our disease as of the remedy; which being skilfully applyed is indeed an an∣tidote, but taken as a charm or spell proves as dangerous as the disease which it was to remove, and makes that mortal which of it self might have been purged out with ease. I will say no more but with the Father, Ob∣jurgemus nostra phantasmata, & tam nugatorios ludos de spectaculo mentis eji∣ciamus; Let us check and chide our phansies when they catch at such sha∣dows as these, and cast out such trifling slights out of our minds; and learn to pray for the forgiveness of these sins, and also to strive against them; to watch our hands, and set a seal to our lips, to observe each thought as it enters, lest when we have purged the hand and the tongue and all the members of our body, by delighting in thoughts, because they are but thoughts, we do at last lupanar in palatio constituere, erect a stews in the very palace of the soul. Let us remember that we pray for the forgiveness of these sins, as we do of all the rest, with a resolution to extirpate them by degrees. For, as the Schoolmen tell of the Sacraments, that they are protestationes fidei, certain protestations of the Faith which we profess, so is Prayer for remission of sins protestatio poenitentiae, an open protestation and promise of repentance. And we pray for the forgiveness of all our sins; but it is of those which we have already committed, and which are past. To put up a petition for future sins, or those which may be com∣mitted hereafter, were rather to threaten God than to pray to him, and not so much a prayer as a further resolution to sin again, or at least a be∣traying of a very weak resolution against it. Common sense will in∣struct us in many duties which we owe unto God. Would any man who had forfeited his life begg a pardon of his Prince for that fault and the next he commits? Nemo sic rogat ut minetur, saith Hierom. This were a strange way of petitioning, a strange method of praying, to back it with threats: A strange method of praying, to say, Forgive my sins, even those which as yet are neither obnoxious to punishment nor capable of par∣don. Forgive me that which is not, but may be; that which with my tears I now wash out, and that which may again pollute my soul; that which I now strive to mortifie and kill in me, and that which my lust will no doubt conceive

and bring forth. This were not so much a prayer against sin past as an en∣couragement to offend again; a prayer for a pardon of that sin which, when it appears, will disannul and nullifie that which is already seal'd; or rather a petition which denies it self, because it puts together two things so con∣trary and opposite, as the Forgiveness of sin past and a plain Supposal of future transgressions. For this Petition for Forgiveness of sins, though it be no manifest proof that we shall not, yet is a strong argument that we should not sin again. I am no Novatian, no enemie of Gods Goodness and Mercy, nor interfector poenitentiae, a suppressour of frequent repentance. I know Repentance is not, as Baptism, but once to be had, and never rei∣terated. I know we ought to repent toties quoties, as oft as we offend, and daily to pray that God will pardon the sins we daily commit. But we can∣not expect that God should accept our prayers and our repentance, and vouchsafe to pardon us, unless we stedfastly resolve to strive against all sin for the future, and to serve him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.

Notes

• * 1.1

  James 5. 3.
• * 1.2

  Eph. 3. 18, 19