have leave to do constantly what I am taught to believe, I must confess myself to be under the dominion of sin, and therefore must obey; and that I am bidden to obey unwillingly, and am told that the striving against sin is indeed ordinarily ineffective, and yet is a sign of regeneration; I can soon do that, strive against it, and pray against it; but I cannot hope to prevail in either, because I am told beforehand, that even the regenerate are under the power of sin: they will and do not; they do and will not; and so it is with me; I would fain be perfect if I could; but I must not hope it; and therefore I would only do my actions so reasonably, that I would not be tied to vex myself for what I cannot help; or to lose the pleasure of my sin by fretting at it, when it is certain it will be done, and yet I shall remain in the state of regenera tion. And who can help all this, but God, whose mercy indeed infinite; and although in the secret dispensation of affairs, he hath concluded all under sin, yet he had no purpose we should therefore perish; but it was done that he might have mercy upon all; that is, that we may glorify him for supplying our needs, pardoning our sins, relieving our infirmities ? And therefore when I consider that God's mercy hath no limit in itself, and is made definite only by the capacity of the object, it is not to be doubted, but he loves his creatures so well, that we shall all rejoice in our being freed from eternal fears. For to justify my hopes, why may not I be confident of heaven for all my sins, since the imputation of Christ's righteousness is that by which I shall be justified? my own is but 'like a menstruous rag,' and 'the just falls seven times a day;' but Christ's cross pays for all. And therefore I am confident I shall do well. For I am one of those for whom Christ died; and I believe this; this faith is not to be reproved, for this is that which justifies,-who shall condemn me? It is not a good life that justifies a man before God, but it is faith in the special promises; for indeed it being impossible to live innocently, it is necessary that a way of God's own finding out should be relied upon. Only this indeed I do, I do avoid the capital sins, blasphemies, and horrid murders; I am γενναίως ἁμαρτάνων, * I sin like a gentleman, not like a thief, I suffer infirmities, but do not do like a devil; and though I sin, yet I repent speedily, and when I sin again, I repent again, and my spiritual state is like my natural, day

and night succeed each by a never-failing revolution. I sin indeed in some instances, but I do my duty in many; and every man hath his infirmities; no man can say, My soul is pure from sin; but I hope that because I repent still as I sin, my sins are but as single actions; and since I resist them what I can, I hope they will be reckoned to me but as sins of infirmity, without which no man is or can be in this state of imperfection. For if I pray against a sin, and my spirit does resist it, though the flesh prevails, yet I am in the state of grace. For that I may own publicly what I am publicly taught; a man cannot be soon out of the state of grace, but he may be soon in; God's love is lasting and perpetual when it hath once begun; and when the curtain is drawn over the state of grace by the intervening of a sin, yet as soon as ever we begin to cry for pardon, nay, when we do but say, we will confess our sins, nay, when we do but resolve we will, God meets us with his pardon, and prevents us with some portions of it. And let things be at the worst they can, yet he that confesseth his sins to God, shall find mercy at the hands of God; and he hath established a holy ministry in his church to absolve all penitents: and if I go to one of them, and tell the sad story of my infirmity, the good man wiil presently warrant my pardon, and absolve me. But then I remember this also, that as my infirmity that is unavoidable shall not prejudice me, so neither shall any time prejudice my repentance. For if on my death-bed I cry unto God for pardon, and turn heartily unto God in the very instant of my dissolution, I am safe; because whenever a man converts to God, in the same instant God turns to him, or else it were possible for God to hate him that loves God, and our repentance should in some periods be rejected, expressly against all the promises. For it is an act of contrition, an act of the love of God, that reconciles us; and I shall be very unfortunate, if in the midst of all my pains, when my needs increase, and my fears are pregnant, and myself am ready to accept pardon upon any terms, I shall not then do so much as one act of a hearty sorrow and contrition. But however, I have the consent of almost all men, and all the schools of learning in the world, that after a wicked life my repentance at last shall be accepted. St. Ambrose, who was a good probable doctor, and one as fit to be relied on as any man else, in his funeral

oration of Valentinian hath these words; "Blessed is he truly, who even in his old age hath amended his error; blessed is he, who even just before the stroke of death turns his mind from vice. Blessed are they whose sins are covered, for it is written, Cease from evil, and do good, and dwell for evermore. Whoever therefore shall leave off from sin, and shall in any age be turned to better things, he hath the pardon of his former sins, which either he hath confessed with the affections of a penitent, or turned from them with the desires of amends. But this prince hath company enough in the way of his obtaining pardon; for there are very many who could in their old age recall themselves from the slipperiness and sins of their youth; but seldom is any one to be found, who in his youth with a serious sobriety will bear the heavy yoke." And I remember that when Faustus bishop of Rhegium, being asked by Paulinus bishop of Nola, from Marinus the hermit, whether a man who was involved in carnal sins and exercised all that a criminous person could do, might obtain a full pardon, if he did suddenly repent in the day of his death? did answer peevishly, and severely, and gave no hopes, nor would allow pardon to any such; Avitus the archbishop of Vienna reproved his pride and his morosity, and gave express sentence for the validity of such a repentance and that gentleness hath been the continual doctrine of the church for many ages; insomuch that in the year 1584, Henry Kyspenning, a canon of Zante, published a book, entitled, "The Evangelical Doctrine of the Meditation of Death, with Solid Exhortations and Comforts to the Sick, from the Currents of Scripture, and the Commentaries of the Fathers,'-where teaching the sick man how to answer the objections of Satan, he makes this to be the fifteenth"; "I repent too late of my sins.' He bids him answer, It is not late if it be true and to the thief upon the cross Christ said, This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise: and afterward, a short prayer easily pierceth heaven, so it be darted forth with a vehement force of the spirit. Truly the history of the Kings tells, that David, who was so great a sinner, used but three syllables; for he is read to have said no more but Peccavi,' I have sinned. For St. Ambrose said, the flame of the sacrifice of his heart ascends up to heaven. Because we have a f Lib. 3. c. 11,

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e Epist. 4.

merciful and gentle Lord: and the correction of our sins needs not much time, but great fervour.'-And to the same purpose are the words of Alcuinus the tutor of Charles the Great: "It behoves us to come to repentance with all confidence, and by faith to believe undoubtedly, that by repentance our sins may be blotted out: etiamsi in ultimo vitæ spiritu commissa pœniteat,'' although we repent of our sins in the last breath of our life.""

Now after all these grounds of hope and confidence to a sinner, what can be pretended in defiance of a sinful life; and since men will hope upon one ground, though it be trifling and inconsiderable, when there are so many doctrinal grounds of hopes, established propositions, parts of religion and articles of faith, to rely upon (for, all these particulars before reckoned, men are called upon to believe earnestly, and are hated and threatened and despised, if they do not believe them), what is there left to discourage the evil lives of men, or to lessen a full iniquity, since upon the account of the premises, either we may do what we list without sin, or sin without punishment, or go on without fear, or repent without danger, and without scruple be confident of heaven?

And now if moral theology rely upon such notices as these, I thought my work was at an end before I had well finished the first steps of my progression. The whole sum of affairs was in danger, and therefore I need not trouble myself or others with consideration of the particulars. I therefore thought it necessary first to undermine these false foundations; and since an inquiry into the minutes of conscience, is commonly the work of persons that live holily, I ought to take care that this be accounted necessary, and all false warrants to the contrary be cancelled, that there might be many idonei auditores,'' persons competent to hear,' and read, and such who ought to be promoted and assisted in their holy intendments. And I bless God there are very many such; and though iniquity does abound, yet God's grace is conspicuous and remarkable in the lives of very many, to whom I shall design all the labours of my life, as being dear to God, and my dear brethren in the service of Jesus. But I would fain have the churches as full as I could before I begin; and therefore I esteemed it necessary to publish these papers before my other, as containing the greatest

lines of conscience, and the most general cases of our whole life, even all the doctrine of repentance, upon which all the hopes of man depend through Jesus Christ.

But I have other purposes also in the publication of this book. The ministers of the church of Rome (who ever love to fish in troubled waters, and to oppress the miserable and afflicted, if they differ from them in a proposition) use all the means they can to persuade our people, that the man that is afflicted, is not alive; that the church of England, now it is a persecuted church, is no church at all; and though (blessed be God) our propositions, and doctrines, and Liturgy, and communion, are sufficiently vindicated in despite of all their petty oppositions and trifling arrests, yet they will never leave making noises and outcries; which for my part I can easily neglect, as finding them to be nothing but noise. But yet I am willing to try the rights and excellences of a church with them upon other accounts; by such indications as are the most proper tokens of life, I mean, propositions of holiness, the necessities of a holy life: for certainly that church is most to be followed, who brings us nearest to God; and they make our approaches nearest, who teach us to be most holy, and whose doctrines command the most excellent and severest lives. But if it shall appear that the prevailing doctrines in the church of Rome do consequently teach, or directly warrant impiety, or, which is all one, are too easy in promising pardon, and for it have no defences, but distinctions of their own inventing, I suppose it will be a greater reproof to their confidence and bold pretensions, than a discourse against one of their immaterial propositions, that have neither certainty nor usefulness. But I had rather that they would preach severity, than be reproved for their careless propositions, and therefore am well pleased that even amongst themselves some are so convinced of the weakness of their usual ministries of repentance, that as much as they dare, they call upon the priests to be more deliberate in their absolutions, and severe in their impositions of satisfactions, requiring a longer time of repentance before the penitents be reconciled.

Monsieur Arnauld, of the Sorbonne, hath appeared publicly in reproof of a frequent and easy communion, without the just and long preparations of repentance, and its proper exercises