is his own clemency! No sins, can superabound his grace, if we do not sin presumptuously, because grace abounds.

Yet the poor publican will beat his breast, and cry out dolefully,' My sins are many; they are more in number than the hairs of my head.' The bill of indictment is a true bill: who can tell how oft he offendeth? Scarce any sin we act, but hath a nest of sins in it; then think we what a heap will they make, when they are put all together? Peter, it seems, misdoubted, that if a man were forgiven, that had trespassed often, it would be scandalous, and encourage the offender; therefore he thought it fit to stint indulgence to some mediocrity, as it is,* "Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?-until seven times? Jesus answereth, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven times." So that Christ commends a boundless forgiveness in a finite number for an infinite. And doubtless, himself would not stick with us for the same number. God forbid we should think he taught to be more merciful, or of greater perfection than himself. "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven."+

Be thankful, and admire the mercies of our Father, both for nailing our great sins to the cross of Christ, and for acquitting us from the innumerable fry of minim sins, those of daily incursion; because when one of the least is remitted, all are remitted together. Mark that considerately. One that committed some foul and leprous sin, goes mourning upon the deep sense of it, and especially the horror of it makes him fear damnation; yet he greatly deceives himself if he think his other sins are passed over, and this great one, or a few such, do remain to his perdition.

For

do you hope comfortably that some faults of omission, some idle words, some garish and customary fashion of pride, are remitted to you? With the same affiance, leaning on Christ, you may hope that you are discharged from your greatest enormities. For all unrighteousness is covered at once to them, with whom God is well pleased. No sin is forgiven to him that is not in Christ,—and against him that is in Christ, there is no condemnation. They are the sons of God, to whom the Lord doth graciously remit any fault; but where any fault is not remitted, they are his enemies. He that is justified from any sin, must be truly penitent; but a true penitent is sorry for all sins together, hates them, eschews them all alike. Then follows a plenary absolution from all iniquity, through Christ our Lord.

And beware that you overlook not these multitudes of sins of the under size, as if little grief or anxiety would serve for them. Are they not numberless corns of sand? And may not a weight of too much sand sink a ship as soon as a burden of too much iron? The dailiness of sin must be bewailed with the dailiness of sorrow. And then, "when thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid; yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet."* Now, tell me, if this balm be not enough to heal the bleedings and bruisings of despair? Talents of sins, and sins in small money, you may hide them all in the wounds of Christ. It is possible for God to do the benefit, and possible for thee to receive it. "Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption; and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities."+

3. It must now be added, how that which hope waits for, is possible, since it may find satisfaction

from long and constant experience. In the younger days of the world, somewhat might be said to excuse the backwardness of hope: they wanted proof and demonstration in those times. Even Cain was the sooner overtaken with despair, crying out, "My sin is greater than can be forgiven me. He had not lived so long to be taught the contrary by experience. But every age hath given advantage to hope to be satisfied better and better. "O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have declared unto us, the noble works that thou didst in their days, and in the old time before them."* The records of God do tell us how the armies of aliens have been discomfited before his children; how the rocks have given them drink, and the barren wilderness bread; how the church hath been scattered and re-collected; the righteous continually supported, either with deliverance or patience; that the dead have been raised up to life; nay, that Enoch and Elias were taken up alive into heaven, to implant into our minds, that both they that are in the graves, shall hear the voice of Christ, and come forth; and that such as shall be found living at that day, shall be caught up in the clouds, and be translated into heaven. And I challenge hope to instance, if it can surmise, that any thing is impossible to be brought to pass, since there is a precedent in every thing to demonstrate, that the right hand of the Lord hath brought mighty things to pass. There is one thing, I confess, for which there is no example, neither can be evidenced, till all things be accomplished, that is, the coming of the Lord Christ, with the new heavens and the new earth; and yet, to confirm us in that mystery to come, St. John did see the idea or glimpse of it in his revelation.

* Psalm xliv. 1.

The use of all this is to remember the transactions of God in the times that are gone before. Who ever saw the righteous forsaken? or the wicked flourish long? Was there ever any persecution of the church which hath not ended in its triumph? But stay for it, and pray for it, and condole for the delays of God's providence, till you may say in earnest, "My soul fainteth for thy salvation."* How easy is it for a Christian that hath any nostril, to run after God in the odour of his sweet ointments, and trace his steps from point to point? and then to say with David, “I have remembered thy judgments of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself."+ And from another prophet,‡ "Ye shall see their way, and their doings, and ye shall be comforted concerning all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem."

The great storehouse of consolation is hope: therefore all this, and more, must be said to keep it fresh, like a green olive tree, having never a sear or withered bough upon it. I come now to complete it; I have shown it aims only at good, and that which is only and excellently good: at such a good whose harvest is not brought in all in a year, but still there is more and more to be had, and the most to come. It is possible, through the greatness of God's power and mercy, as all ages have witnessed.

IV. But lastly; that which may seem to pinch is, that it is 'bonum arduum,' 'a good not easily attained,' but with great labour and diligence, to give warning against sloth and security. It were not worth our longing, to say we hope for petty things, easy, and at hand; but for things of value, for which we must struggle with many lets and impediments to possess them. No man need to hope to find cockle shells on the shore; but to find pearls in the sea, that is an object for the adventure of a jeweller. Neither is the

• Psalm cxix. 31. Psalm cxix. 52. Ezek. xiv. 22.

jewel of christian hope easily purchased. But as Elijah said to Elisha, "Thou hast asked a hard thing; nevertheless, if thou see me, when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee." Much after that sort I commune with my heart, and say, "It is good to seek for eternal life, pursue it, as the hart brayeth after the rivers of waters: there will be much ado to get it, for many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able.' Nevertheless, if thou canst see the Lord, as if he were continually before thee, thou shalt not miss of that thou desirest: for all things are possible to him whose eyes are ever toward the Lord."

These difficulties upon which I strike, are either in ourselves, or in our adventure: in ourselves, partly through natural imbecility, partly through contracted impotency.

1. Our natural languor is that of original contagion, which makes us so weak, that there is none that doeth good, no, not one: which is not to be extenuated, as if the malignity of it might be suppressed with a little resistance. It is good to know the power of so strong an enemy, that we may be fortified against it. It is a root of bitterness never to be digged up out of corrupt nature : a coal of fire spitting out sparks of temptations continually as inward to us as the marrow is in our bones. Yet there is hope in Christ to slake this fire, though not utterly in this life to quench it. It is a body of death, a whole body, consisting of all the members of sin; yet a body is but flesh, and a spirit is mightier than flesh. Apply that of the prophet Zechariah to it, as we may read it by the direction of our margin, and keep to the original: "If it be difficult in the eyes of this people, shall it be difficult in mine eyes, saith the Lord?" Therefore, since God is our help against the insurrection of this rebellious sin, let us be comforted in his * 2 Kings ii. 10. Luke xiii. 24. Chap. viii. 6.