Lord Let us confess our unworthiness before him; but yet let us trust in God's free mercy for Christ's sake, for the pardon of the same. And from henceforth let us endeavour ourselves to walk in a new life, as new-born babes, whereby we may glorify Our Father which is in heaven, and thereby to bear in our consciences a good testimony of our faith; so that at the last, to obtain the fruition of everlast ing life, through the merits of our Saviour: to whom be all praise and honour for ever. Amen.

Let no one imagine that repentance and faith are of the same import, for the one precedes the other though intimately connected with it, Repentance prepares the mind for pardon. Faith accepts it. By repentance we are sensible that we deserve punishment for every deviation in our tempers, words, and actions. By faith we are conscious that our Advocate with the Father, is pleading for us, and thereby continually turning aside all condemnation and punishment from us. Repentance disclaims the possibility of ob taining any help but through Christ. Faith accepts all the help we need from him that hath all power in heaven and earth. I 0 990 biz oz

The third Part of the Homily of Repentance.

IN the Homily last spoken unto you, right wellbeloved people in our Saviour Christ, ye heard of the true parts and tokens of repentance; that is, hearty contrition and sorrowfulness of our hearts, unfeigned confession in word of mouth for our aúworthy living before God, a stedfast faith to the merits of our Saviour Christ for pardon, and a1 purpose of ourselves by God's grace to renounce our former wicked life, and a full conversion to God in a new life to glorify his name, and to live orderly and charitably, to the comfort of our neighbour, in all righteousness, and to live soberly and modestly to ourselves, by using abstinence and temperance in

word, and in deed, in mortifying our earthly mem bers here upon earth, Now, for a further persuasion to move you to those parts of repentance, I will declare unto you, some causes, which should the rather move you to repentance.

First, the commandment of God, which in so many places of the holy and sacred Scriptures doth bid us return unto him. O ye children of Israel,' saith he, turn again from your infidelity, wherein ye drowned yourselves. Again, Turn you, turn you, from your evil ways: for why will ye die, O ye house of Israel? And in another place, thus doth he speak by his holy prophet Hosea: O Israel, return onto the Lord thy God; for thou hast taken a great fall by thine iniquity.' Take unto you these words with you, when you turn unto the Lord, and say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, so will we offer the calves of our lips unto thee. In all these places we have an express commandment given unto us of God for to return unto him. Therefore we must take good heed unto ourselves, lest, whereas we have already by our manifold sins and transgressions provoked and kindled the wrath of God against us, we do by breaking this his commandment double our offences, and so heap still damnation upon our own heads by our daily of fences and trespasses, whereby we provoke the eyes of his Majesty, we do well deserve (if he should deal with us according to his justice) to be put away for ever from the fruition of his glory. How much more then are we worthy of the endless torments of hell, if when we be so gently called again after our rébellion, and commanded to return, we will in no wise hearken unto the voice of our heavenly Father, but walk still after the stubbornness of our own hearts!

Secondly, the most comfortable and sweet promise that the Lord our God did of his mere mercy and good

Isa. xxxi. Ezek. xxxiii. Hosca xiv.

ness join unto his commandment. For he doth not only say, Return unto me, O Israel;' but also, 'if thou wilt return, and put away all thine abominations out of my sight, thou shalt never be moved.' These words also have we in the Prophet Ezekiel, ‘At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sin from the bottom of his heart, I will put all his wickedness out of my remembrance, saith the Lord, so that they shall be no more thought upon.' Thus are we sufficiently instructed, that God will, according to his promise, freely pardon, forgive, and forget all our sins, so that we shall never be cast in the teeth with them, if, obeying his commandment, and allured by his sweet promises, we will unfeignedly return unto him.

Thirdly, the filthiness of sin, which is such, that as long as we do abide in it, God cannot but detest and abhor us, neither can there be any hope that we shall enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, except we be first made clean and purged from it. But this will never be, unless, forsaking our former life, we do with our whole heart return unto the Lord our God, and, with a full purpose of amendment of life, flee unto his mercy, taking sure hold thereupon through faith in the blood of his Son Jesus Christ. If we should suspect any uncleanness to be in us, wherefore the earthly prince should loathe and abhor the sight of us, what pains would we take to remove and put it away! How much more ought we, with all diligence and speed that may be, to put away that unclean filthiness, that doth separate and make a division betwixt us and our God, and that hideth his face from us, that he will not hear us! And verily herein doth appear how filthy a thing sin is, sith that it can by no other means be washed away but by the blood of the only begotten Son of God. And shall we not from the bottom of our

Jer. iv. Ezek. xviii. Isa. liv.

hearts détest and abhor, and with all earnestness flee from it, with that it hd cost the dear heart-blood of the only begotten Son of God, our Saviour and Res deemer, to purge us from it? Plato doth in a certain place write, that, if virtue could be seen with bodily eyes, all men would wonderfully be inflamed and kindled with the love of it: even so, on the contrary, if we might with our bodily eyes behold the filthiness of sin, and the uncleanness thereof, we could' in no wise abide it, but, as most present and deadly poi son, hate and eschew it. We have a common expe rience of the same in them, which when they have committed any heinous offence, or some filthy and abominable sin, if it once come to light, or if they chance to have a thorough feeling of it, they be so ashamed, their own conscience putting before their eyes the filthiness of their act, that they dare look no man in the face, much less that they should be able to stand in the sight of God. N

a Fourthly, the uncertainty and brittleness of our own lives, which is such, that we cannot assure our selves that we shall live one hour, or one half quar ter of it. Which by experience we do find daily to be true, in them that being now merry and lusty, and sometimes feasting and banquetting with their friends, do fall suddenly dead in the streets, and otherwise under the board when they are at meat. These daily examples, as they are most terrible and dreadful, so ought they to move us to seek for to be at one with our heavenly Judge, that we may with a good conscience appear before him, whensoever it shall please him for to call us, whether it be suddenly or otherwise, for we have no more charter of our life than they have. But as we are most certain that we shall die, so are we most uncertain when we shall die. For our life doth lie in the hand of God, who will take it away when it pleaseth him. And verily when the highest summer of all, which is death, shall come, he will not be said hay; but NO. 20.

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