THE PSALM OF MERCY: OR, A MEDITATION upon the 51. Psalm, by a true Penitent.  
LONDON, Imprinted by Felix Kyngston, and are to be sold by Matthew Lownes. 1625.   

TO MY REVEREND FRIEND Mr. JOHN DOWNAME, bachelor in Divinity and Preacher of God's Word.  
REVEREND SIR.  
WHen first I fell into my grievous affliction, as a man surprised with a mighty Tempest, I did in the midst of mine astonishment, bethink myself, how to apply my courses to the appeasing of God's anger, (whence 〈◊〉 cross proceeded) and the saving of my perplexed soul, the main mark whereat 〈◊〉 aimed. In that case I suddenly and strongly resolved to take God's Book into my hand, & by it, as by the true Card and compass; to sail safely thorough the sea of this world's troubles, in hope joyfully in the end to arrive at the haven of rest and true 〈◊〉. Among the books of holy Writ, I 〈◊〉 mine eyes and thoughts specially upon the Psalms of David, which are a short and sweet 〈◊〉 of all Scripture, and 〈◊〉 mysteries therein comprised. Among the Psalms I conversed more frequently, in those that are singled from the rest, and styled by a special title, The penitentials, as the fittest medicines for my malady, which are (as one saith) the Anatomy of the spirit and the heart, as it were, of the new man. True it is, (which I confess ingenuously, though to mine own reproach) that albeit I had very often heretofore heard and red those Psalms (wherein David his pangs and passions, are lively described) with a kind of 〈◊〉 delight, and pleasing regret, as men behold Tragedies on a stage, and read lamentable stories: Yet could I not fully relish, and truly taste them, whiles I lived in quietness and contentment, nor indeed, until I had by personal experience, felt in some proportion David his 〈◊〉 and wounded spirit. So true is that, which sundry of the Fathers have observed, 
Bern. ad frat. in Mon.  and Saint Bernard delivers in these words; You shall never rightly understand David, until by experience, you have put on the very affections, in which David his Psalms were indicted; for none can express a passion that feels it not, neither can the pen deliver but what it copieth out of the 〈◊〉.  
Now being best acquainted with mine own disabilities and defects; I did 〈◊〉 choose this Plainsong to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, being the prime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Penitential, and a lively Character of a true Mourner, though shaped to the particular condition of David, yet fitting every penitent sinner, because it seems to require the compunction of the heart, rather than the consideration of the head; an imitation rather than an interpretation, an application, rather than an explication.  
This is The Psalm of Mercy, by excellency, so called, because it beginneth with Miserere, which prisoners indicted, and convicted, for lesser felonies, at our Assizes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, do so often call and 〈◊〉 for, at the judge's hands. For 〈◊〉 that can neither understand nor read the Latin tongue, can say it by rote (as they say) and do crave mercy, in desiring to be put to read, this Psalm of mercy. But without all question, the most holy, and just man upon earth, had need to beg of the great judge of heaven and earth, that he will 〈◊〉 to hear him read with his tongue, and tune with his heart, this sweet, though 〈◊〉 Psalm of mercy in his daily 〈◊〉, lest he be condemned when he comes to be arraigned at the grand Assizes: When all offenders without witness or jury, are to be accused & convicted 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of their own consciences; 〈◊〉 not to appear, it will be impossible, and to appear without this Psalm of mercy, it will be intolerable.  
For who is he among the sons of men, that may not truly say, with that ancient Father? A sinner I am, spotted 
Tertul. de Paenit.  with all manner of stains, borne for nothing else, in this life, but to act repentance all my life (what other person 〈◊〉 I sustain) upon the stage of this world.  
Upon perusal of the Psalm, and some few 〈◊〉 thereof (for I did not 〈◊〉 many) chewing the Cud, as it were; I have cast it and them into mine own mould, expressed the sense in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plain language, and paralleling mine with David's perplexities, applied his plasters to my sores: I 〈◊〉 with the same measure of spirit, I hope with the like success of grace.  
If you marvel, that I being no Divine should adventure the conceiving, much more the publishing of a Meditation of this nature: My answer is briefly; That the subject of it belongs to the art of Christianity (which every man is bound to know) and not only to the profession of Divinity; and that, in absence of the Master, one 〈◊〉 now and than teacheth another, and he that learns of his Schoolefellow, will sometimes apprehended it sooner from 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 from his Master.  
And I hope to suffer the more gentle censure, for suffering this weak Essay to see light in this Age, which is active in scribbling and printing, even to riot and excess: because I see men's wills of their gifts to charitable uses daily printed, to incite others by their example, to the like courses. Why then may not any man declare & publish, the pious bequest of his soul, (as it were) and set the press on work, to express and record his repentance, build his tomb of black-Marble, & erect it in the Temple of God's people; that by looking upon 〈◊〉 Ensigns, and reading the Epitaph, others may be moved, as in Christian affection to condole with him, so by a kind of reflection, to mourn for themselves.  
If a man would provide a mourning suit for his sorrowful heart, what hurt or loss were it, to see diverse forms and fashions to make choice of for patterns? The more course the Stuff, and less curious the fashion, the fitter for the great Dueil or solemn mourning. My model may better please some mourner, than a better. If no other use be made, The often iteration, and frequent renovation of this matter, 〈◊〉 usual and ordinary resort to houses of mourning, may give occasion to refresh and revive that divine passion, which should ever live in us, till it die with us, to wit, Repentance.  
What fruit others may reap by this my meditation, I know not, but sure I am, that by entertaining the time, and employing my thoughts upon this subject, I have excluded a world of idle fancies, and tumultuous cogitations (which otherwise would have seized upon me) and swallowed many indignities, and discontentments that would have disturbed the peace of my soul, had it not been foreprized, by an exercise of this nature, as an Antidote against such poisons.  
The cause why I present and submit it to your view and censure, is not only for that I reverence your great learning and singular piety, well known to our whole Church by your sundry books; but specially in a recognition of the much contentment I found in that work of yours, which deservedly bears the Title of Consolations for the afflicted, or the Third part of the Christian Warfare, which gave the first overture to our accquaintance, and begat sundry conferences, between us sithence, to my no small comfort, as I do in all thankfulness profess. Whether it shall dye in your hands, upon your private perusal, or live a while, and so pass further, through the hands of others, I leave wholly to your discretion. You shall bear the blame on the one side; howsoever, you be like, to receive small thanks on the other.  
The God of all consolation, return with interest, into your own bosom, those comforts, which you so freely and plentifully have imparted unto other.  
Yours in true Christian affection. I. B.   

THE PSALM OF MERCY, OR A MEDITATION upon the 51. Psalm, by a true Penitent.  
To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.  

THE ARGUMENT.  
AFter that David in many successful battles was become a Conqueror, and had defeated and destroyed the Syrians and Mesopotamians, who came to succour the Ammonites his Opposites, having now no enemy abroad, of any account to encounter withal, he was surprised by his dangerous enemy at home, and taken prisoner by Security, he grew by Plenty and Prosperity, (as it commonly fares with men, in such case) forgetful of his former miseries, and God his singular mercies, and was captivated wholly, by his lustful desires, and sinful concupiscence. For not contented to take by stealth, Vriah his wife from him, in his absence, while he was employed in his service, but (which is the nature of sin, still to increase and multiply) to his foul Adultery, he added cruel Murder, giving order to his trusty Commander joab, to marshal him in the front and point of those Israelites, who did assail the Suburbs of Rabbah, when there was no possibility, at least, no probability of prevailing, and (which could not but be, more displeasing to God) was wittingly contented that many other his best servants and soldiers, under Vriah his command, should perish with Vriah for company, to cloak and disguise his particular wicked design against him. To omit his practice, in calling Vriah from the Wars, and sending him home (both sober and drunk, though he went not at all) to cover the shame, and shadow the sin, which David had committed, (she being then with child by him:) no sooner was Vriah slain, but he married the widow, whom being a wife, he had defiled; and so securely enjoyed the forbidden fruit of his filthy pleasure, and mischievous Policy, till Nathan the Prophet was specially sent, as an Herald, to summon and challenge, check, and reprove him, for these manifold defections, and manifest rebellions against God.  
Now the time of Nathan his coming to David, is purposely recorded, to show that David was in a kind of Lethargy for about a years space (as it is collected by the story) which is a strange and remarkable thing, that so great a person, so endued with God his excellent Spirit, could sleep and snort in the bed of security, as if he had been quite bereaved of the sense and life of Piety, and out of his wits, (as it were) for so large a time. For who would not think and say, he was bewitched by Satan, & benumbed with the spirit of slumber, & grown, if not obstinately contemptuous, yet recklessly careless of God his judgements? Which circumstance, as it doth much aggravate his fault, that he felt not true remorse of conscience, till the Prophet Nathan came to rouse and raise him; so doth it exceedingly amplify the mercy and goodness of God, who when ordinary means of Prayer, reading and meditating of God's Word, could not work and prevail with him, (for who can imagine, that such a person could altogether in that time want such helps,) addressed an extraordinary Ambassador, even one of his Prophets; a Prophet, to a Prophet; a Physician, to a Physician; but to a sick Physician, who could not cure himself, to handle and search his wounds, to touch him to the quick, and so to reduce him to a sound and sincere repentance.  
Now, who on the one side, doth not tremble and quake, to think of this fearful example, that so holy a Prophet, so worthy a King, could, after so foul a fall, lie so long, in this dirt and mire, and be so overwhelmed with such a beastly and senseless sluggishness?  
On the other part, whose heart is not ravished with delight, and even resolved into tears of joy and comfort, to behold such a mirror of God's mercy, in David, after he had plunged himself into so many and manifold great and grievous sins, as were folded up in those capital crimes of Adultery and Murder, that he should yet find grace to rise again by Repentance, obtain pardon of all his sins, and be restored and reintegrated into God his special love and favour?  
So then the Title tells both the time and occasion of composing this Psalm, which doth passionately declare, and lively express David his humiliation, sorrow and discontentment, for the offences he had done, and publish, and record to posterity, a form and Model, (as it were) of penitent prayer, to be used, by Sorrowful Sinners, in all succeeding ages.  
This excellent Ditty of the sweet Singer of 〈◊〉, was (as the Title purports) recommended to him that excelled, to wit, the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 Chanter, to be 〈◊〉 into a note 〈◊〉 tune fit for it, and to be played upon an Instrument of Music, called Neginoth, that the Art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might 〈◊〉, as all other humane arts ought to be accessary and serviceable, to the advancement of divine glory. For the fashion was in those times, to sing such Hymns artificially set and tuned to some Instrument, in the public Assemblies, that by the melody of the ear, the jubilation of the heart might be enlarged.   

THE ANALYSIS or Resolution of the Psalm.  
THis is a penitential Psalm, and the chief of the penitentials, in common account, a lively mirror of a true penitent, and a zealous prayer of a mournful soul, oppressed with the weight, and perplexed with the sight of sin.  

The prayer is either  
Special for himself; such are all the petitions to the 18. verse.  
General for the whole Church, in the 18. verse, and so to the end.   

As repentance hath two parts,  
To lament and 〈◊〉 sins past.  
To prevent and avoid sin to come.   

So the petitions of the Psalm, are either for  
justification by pardon of sins committed, to the 10. verse.  
Sanctification, by future holiness, in the rest.   
But the 〈◊〉 doth not exactly pursue this method, but rather the order of his own judgement, often iterating and varying his petition for one & the same thing, by the Metaphors of washing, cleansing, purging, blotting out and doing away his sins, and in the midst of his prayer for sanctification, abruptly and passionately interlacing his suit, for pardon of his crying crime of Murder.  
O Miserable wretch that I am, what shall I say? What shall I do? Which way shall I turn? To whom shall I address myself? Hell will not; the earth cannot relieve me, and I dare not lift up mine eyes to Heaven, having so highly offended against Heaven, and before thee the great King of Heaven. I am assailed on every side, assailed by mine own iniquities, assailed by thy graces. Where may I shroud myself from my sins? How can I hide me from myself? Where may I expect succour? Whence may I hope for help; sithence thy graces, which I have turned into wantonness, do convince me of foul ingratitude, do multiply iniquities upon me, and even arm thy mercies against me? The extremity of my Condition is such, as will afford no long time of deliberation. In brief, there is one only way left of escape, and evasion, and that is, by flying from thee, to fly to thee; to appeal from thy seat of justice, to thy throne of Mercy, as to thy Court of last resort, which is always open. Either that way or no way, can I be rescued from utter destruction. The most odious sin of desperation, will but plunge me further, into the depth of damnation. But with the Lord, there is marvellous mercy, and plenteous redemption. By this means it is possible; without it, impossible to save my sinful soul. Wherefore my resolution is; in the lowest degree of humiliation, in the deepest strain of contrition, faithfully, (and yet, (in a sort) fearfully) to repose myself upon his infinite, and unspeakable compassion. I will pierce mine entralles, and prick the heart of my corrupt heart to the quick. I will let out a flood of tears, which are the blood of my soul: I will mingle my zealous and humble prayers, with those salt and brackish tears: I will knock hard at his mercy gate, and cry aloud, Miserere.    

A MEDITATION UPON THE PSALM of Mercy.  

1. Have mercy, upon me, O God, according to thy great mercy, and according to the multitude of thy tender compassions, blot out my transgressions.  
THAT which I beg at thy hands, O God, is mercy: for of many properties in thee, which are all essential to thee, there is none so useful, none so delightful, to my perplexed soul, as is thy mercy.  
Were it not for thy Mercy, thy Majesty would affright, thy Wisdom confound, thy justice condemn, and thy Power destroy me; as on the other part, through the sweet mixture of thy Mercy, thy Majesty will revive, thy Wisdom enlighten, thy justice acquit, & thy Power preserve me, and every of thy other Attributes will contribute to the advancement of my inestimable benefit, and endless good.  
In Mercy all my prayers and petitions are comprised; by Mercy all my defects and desires are satisfied; for Mercy all my praises and thanks are returned.  
Every thing that hath being, doth naturally affect continuance, and well being.  
Every Man doth or should desire his chief good, and true happiness, which consists in thy remission of his sins, in his reconciliation to thee, and that is the blessed, and kindly fruit of thy gracious and tender mercy alone.  
A sinner I am, and who is not? Therefore I cannot seek for happiness in freedom from sin (that is above the nature of man,) but in the free pardon of my sin, by grace, which surmounts all the sins of all the world. Thou didst look down, O Lord, from all eternity, out of thy highest throne of Heaven, by way of Survey, among the sons of men in all ages and generations, (all things and persons being ever present unto thee) to see, if there were any, that would understand and seek after thee. But upon exact enquiry return was made, they were all found corrupt and abominable, There was not one that did good; no not one. Which for greater vehemency and evidence of the truth, is repeated the second time, and purposely recorded, by an infinite foresight, to take away all colour of doubt, and to impose perpetual Silence, to such as afterwards might deceive themselves, and abuse others with an opinion of their own justice and holiness, as answerable to thy divine law, and meritorious of thy loving favour.  
Wherefore I present this lamentable supplication, and sing this doleful ditty, though framed for myself 〈◊〉, yet fitting every of the sons of Adam generally: Have Mercy upon me, O God. I call upon thee, O God, at this time, by the name of Elohim, which purports the Trinity of Persons; and not of jehovah, which denotes the Unity of substance, in the Godhead: for my threefold sin doth justly occasion me, to fix mine eyes upon the Three persons distinctly. Upon thee, O Father, who art power, against whom I have offended, by abuse of my regal Power, in murdering Captain Vriah, and his whole troop; Upon thee, O Son, who art Wisdom, by using fineness and fraud in carrying closely, and cunningly contriving the murder. Upon thee, O holy Ghost, who art goodness, whom I have grieved, by defiling my hands with blood, and body with 〈◊〉, which is, or should be thy temple and habitation.  
When I implore thy great Mercy, I imply my great misery. The Physic 
Aug. in 〈◊〉. 51.  of the body must be attempered to the malady. If the receipt be given under the due Dosis, it may move, but it will not remove the peccant humours. Desperate diseases must have sovereign 〈◊〉: for mean medicines will never cure great griefs. If the plaster be too scant for the sore; If the wound be not throughly teinted, and wholly covered, it will never be well cured, or sound recovered. As it is in the diseases and sores of he body; so is it also in 〈◊〉 of the soul. One deep 〈◊〉 another: the depth of sin requires the depth of grace; and a depth of misery calleth for a depth of mercy.  
If I ask myself, why is thy Mercy great? for that, there is no cause of thy mercy, but thy Mercy. I must answer by the effect, Because thou canst 〈◊〉 my soul from the nethermost hell, from such anguish of body, from such perplexity of spirit, from such terrors and torments, as are ready to overwhelm me, in the pit of destruction.  
If I ask how great is 
Chrysost. in hunc Psalmum.  thy Mercy? I must give an answer answerless; I know it to be marvellous great, but how great it is, I cannot comprehend. The immensity of it I have assayed to shadow out, by such resemblances as the world affords to outward sense, for the shallow conceits, and weak capacities of mortal men, being not able with my thoughts to reach, much less with my tongue or pen to express it.  
The height of thy mercy I 〈◊〉 to the altitude of the Heaven above the Earth, the breadth 
Psal. 103.  to the distance of the East from the West, the depth, to the affection of parents to their children: butalas, these are no even matches: for that which is limited and finite, hath no proportion at all, with that which is unlimited, and infinite.  
Thy Mercy, O Lord, is as thou art: thou art great without quantity, as thou art good without quality. Thou art not merciful, but mercy: not good, but goodness: not loving, but Love itself, in the abstract. The extent of thy goodness, love, and mercy is such as hath no bounds, the depth is such as hath no bottom.  
The influence of it, will make me feel that which no eloquence can utter, no 
Melius impressum quam expressum innotescit.  intelligence can contain. No man can tell how sweet honey is, but he 
In his non capit intelligentia, nisi quantum attingit 〈◊〉. Bern. in Cant. 3.  that tasteth it.  
I see, O Lord, great fruit of thy rich root of Mercy. For were not thy mercy exceeding great, few or none could live 
Qui non gustaverit, non intelliget, quam 〈◊〉 sapit mel, Aug. in Psal. 30.  here the life of grace, or there, the life of glory. Look how many Saints there be in heaven or on earth, by inchoation here, in perfection there: So many worthy examples, so many infallible demonstrations there are, of thine unspeakable mercy, without which, they should 〈◊〉 have perished and sunk down to Hell.  
If therefore thy justice lift up itself as the high Mountains, to eclipse the light of thy gracious countenance from me, I will raise myself yet higher, in confidence of thy Truth, which reacheth to the clouds, and thy Mercy, which mounts even to the heaven of heavens. I will frame this comfortable consequence to my distressed soul: if thy mercy be magnified above thy justice, it must needs be far above my transgressions.  
O Lord, I have caused my sin to abound, far beyond the banks and bounds of thy Law, but it is thy property, to pardon, and the property of thy Mercy, where sin abounds, 
Rom. 5.  there to superabound.  
Thy mercy doth even cross and control thy justice; and as the highest Orb doth by violence carry with it the inferior Spheres, against their proper inclinations and motions; So the force of thy powerful mercy doth overrule my natural and wilful courses, running to wickedness, and in that race, hasting to just condemnation.  
My sins therefore, how great soever, cannot stop the flowing of thy vast Ocean of Mercy.  
When I fall into computation, and comparison of my sins on the one side, and thy mercies on the other; I find by divine Arithmetic, and the true jacobs-staff, (to my singular comfort) that my sins, how great, and how many soever, yet may be both measured and reckoned; but on the other part, that neither the magnitude nor the multitude 
Miserationum Dei, nec magnitudo mensurari, nec multitudo numerari potest, Basil.  of thy mercies can be either fathomed or numbered.  
I beg thy great Mercy, because thy lesser mercies will not do the turn, which my miserable condition requires. For they may ease me of lesser miseries, of afflictions in body, of distresses in estate, of other encumbrances in the world; but it is thy larger Mercy that must forgive, not my lesser only, but my greater sins, which have provoked thy just and heavy indignation against me.  
Thy ways, O God, are not as man's ways, nor thy mercies, as man's mercies. Man's mercy is short and scant, mingled with hardness, and maimed with sundry imperfections. In civil matters some man will forgive the interest, but not the principal: some man will forgive the half, but not the whole debt: some man will forbear to demand the debt, yet will not forgo the Bond; he will keep that, to curb his debtor, upon all occasions. In matters criminal, one will forgive the fault, but not the punishment: another will remit a part, but not all the penalty: a third will forgive, but not forget the injury. But thy Mercy, O Lord, is great & large, free and absolute, entire, and indefinite, or rather infinite; Thou forgivest both the fault and punishment royally and really: all is acquitted and discharged at once, in accomplishment of that comfortable clause in the close of thy new Covenant, Thou wilt remember our 
jerem. 31.  iniquities no more.  
The multitude of my sins occasions me, to parallel them with the multitude of thy mercies, that there may be a medicine for each malady, a salve for every sore. I touch still upon one and the same string, though with some variety, because the meditation and modulation of this mercy of thine, is as sweet Music in mine ear, and a joyful jubilee in my soul. I strive to express one and the same thing in diverse words or phrases; great mercy, and a multitude of mercies, being all one in sense and meaning: for great mercy comprehends a multitude of mercies, and a multitude of mercy's amounts to one great mass of mercy.  
The greatest mercy, that the greatest person can do to the most miserable wretch upon earth, is not to be compared to the least of thy mercies, which thou affoordest to the holiest man that lives, in regard of the infinite disproportion that is between the Offender and the Offended, the Creator of Heaven and earth, and dust and ashes. Howbeit, even in thine infinite mercy, as it hath relation to sinful man, there be degrees, whereof we cannot better take the skantling, then by our greater or lesser offences committed against thy divine Majesty: for the Law of gratitude amongst men, teacheth me to acknowledge, that thy love is greater to them, to whom thou forgivest greater, than to such as thou acquitest of smaller debts. Therefore as my more heinous sins, at the Tribunal of thy justice, do call for severer punishment; so at thy throne of mercy (which is above thy seat of justice, and to which I appeal, as to thy Court of last resort) they beg and crave, for thy more great and tender compassions.  
Debt is a burden; and a great debt, is an heavy burden: he that bears an honest mind, cannot be quiet in mind, so long as he continues in debt. My sins are my debts, and that score runs still in my mind, whereon I have run so fast and so far; I profess truly, that my sins have gone over, not my 
Psal. 38.  body only, but my head also, and that they are a burden too heavy for me to bear. I know, O Lord, thou keeper of men, that thou markest 
job. 7.  what is amiss in me, thou scorest up my sins, my wild and wand'ring thoughts, my vain and wicked words, my foul and filthy actions; thou keepest a day and a debt-book of them, to charge me by way of account, whensoever it pleaseth thee: thou settest them down in capital and red letters, (to declare thine anger:) thou gravest them with the point of a Diamond, and writest them with a pen of Iron, both in thy Registry of Heaven, and in the Tablet of mine own conscience on earth, placing on the right side thereof, the strait rules of thy Law, and mine Obliquities on the left, each as a foil to set forth the other: Debts must either be paid or forgiven, else they cannot be discharged. Pay, O Lord, I cannot, I am become bankrupt, I am not able, (no not, by way of composition) to answer thee one for a thousand. Therefore it remains only that I beseech thee, whose property it is to have mercy, and forgive, to cross this debt-book, to wipe out the score, to cancel the hand-writing, and deface the record that is against me, to put away and blot out my transgressions, that there may remain no memory of them, either to provoke thy heavy vengeance, or to affright my distressed soul.  
Wash me, wash me again and again, or wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. As my sins, being in nature of debts, are registered in thy book, and set upon thy score: so like spots and stains, they blemish and deface the Image of thy divine nature, engraven in my soul at the Creation of it, in such sort, as thou canst hardly discern it to be thy workmanship: and therefore I entreat thee, to wash me often and throughly, that I may appear clean and holy in thy pure and piercing eyes.  
There is nothing so pure, (O Lord) as thou art in thy divine nature, nothing so foul, as I am by natural and actual corruption: Wherefore I think nothing too much, to bring the most defiled thing on earth to the 〈◊〉 Essence in heaven, and that makes me to beg again and again, that thou wilt wash me again and again.  
Sin is filthy to think of, more filthy to speak and hear of, most filthy to act and commit; there is nothing in it, or any part or passage of it, but vileness, baseness, and filthiness.  
All the washings in thy Leviticall Law, were types and figures of this Spiritual washing in the blood of the Lamb, slain from the beginning of the world.  
Wash me, O Lord, with the water of thy grace, with that water, whereof whoso drinketh, shall never thirst: wash me with the water of mine own tears, with the water of thy Word, with the water of thy Sacraments. I know, O Lord, that unless thou wash me, I can have no part or portion in the. e Wherefore I beseech thee to wash, not my feet 
john 13.  only, but my head also, and all the parts and members of my body; yea to rinse and scour my soul and all the powers and faculties thereof, that I may present both soul and body, an holy and acceptable sacrifice 
Rom. 12.  unto thee.  
It is thy blessed business, O Christ, to 〈◊〉 me in this world, that thou mayst render me spotless to thy Father in another world. I sin daily, and therefore had need of daily washing: I sin continually, and therefore had 〈◊〉 of continual washing; for the word including a multiplication of washing, doth imply a multiplication of sinning. For if my soul loathing the filth and mire wherewith she hath soiled herself, even to ugliness, take a course by the tears of contrition, for the clean washing of her face, how soon doth the old dirt of sin spurt into her visage again? So that the business of the soul in this life, (if it be a life of repentance) is never at an end, being indeed nothing else, but the washing of that which is foul, and the fouling of that which was washed.  
There be (as it is reported in the story of nature,) certain flying fishes, whose wings by flying wax dry, and being dry, lose their flying; so as they must ever and anon return to the Sea, by the moisture thereof, to enable their flight again. Even so my soul, washed in the laver of regeneration, and mounting up towards heaven, through this wicked world, her wings, even her best purposes, cogitations and conceptions easily grow dry, by the contagion of earthly conversation, unless they be often bathed and moistened in the waters of repentance, to carry her thorough to her journey's end.  
So then, my case and condition is such, as in regard of many sports hourly falling, and deeply staining my ill favoured and disfigured Soul, 〈◊〉 have just cause to pray earnestly, that I may be both often, and throughly washed, and by thee, who canst alone make me clean, and cleanse me from my sins.  
As I have a great debt to be discharged, much filthiness to be washed, so have I a loathsome Leprosy of sin, to be cleansed; wherefore I pray thee, O Lord, to cleanse me from from my sins.  
This Leprosy, and the cure of it, were shadowed out, and figured also by sundry purgations & cleansings in thy Leviticall law, all pointing to that blood of the Lamb, whereby my sins are purged.  
The Leprosy (as Physiicans tell us) is an hereditary disease, descending from the Father to the Child. An ignominious and odious disease, banishing the Leper from all company; a contagious disease, spreading from man to man, 〈◊〉 then the Plague; a dull and stupid disease, that makes him insensible altogether; and a dangerous, or rather desperate disease, 〈◊〉 or not at all to be cured.  
In all which 〈◊〉, sin may fitly be resembled to a 〈◊〉: for sin comes by propagation from our first Parents, to all their posterity. It separates us from thy presence, from the company of thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of Angels, and all good men. It infecteth others, and poyloneth not only with the breath, but with the sight of it too. It benumbs us so, as we feel not thy fearful judgements. It is utterly incurable, otherwise then by the blood of the Lamb. It hath been observed, that the tears of a Vine, when it bleeds, are a very good medicine for curing of the bodily Leprosy. 〈◊〉 so the tears 
〈◊〉.  of the heart, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and lies low, as doth 〈◊〉 Vine, that 〈◊〉 and mourns in humility for sin, avail much to 〈◊〉 cleansing of this Leprosy of the soul. My sin, as a Leprosy, doth overspread both my soul and body, from the crown of the head, to the sole of the foot, from the highest faculty of my understanding, to the lowest affection of my will, there is no sound part in me, my disease is grown to the height, to full ripeness, or rather foul rottenness: it hath put out the scab (as they say) by enormous and scandalous actions. Wherefore I beseech thee, who art the prime and sovereign Physician, to look upon me with the eye of pity, and to cleanse, and cure me of my Leprous sin and sinful Leprosy.   

2. I know mine own wickedness, and my sin is ever before me, or, my sin is ever against me.  
BEfore the Prophet Nathan was sent as a special bailiff, to summon me, by a writ, ad meliùs inquirendum, I cast mine eye carelessly, I did not fix it fully, I looked slightly and superficially, as in passage, not sadly and mournefully, upon my grievous sins: I did not behold them so seriously as I ought to have done: I saw but the Epitome, or gross sum of them: I did not view them in the large volume, written at length, or rather painted out as now they are, in their true shapes and colours.  
Every man, by the light of nature, must needs see somewhat of this kind, in the glass of his own conscience; but through the corruption of nature, no man is willing to take a perfect survey, and make a full portraiture of his own transgressions.  
There is in man an affected 
Ut liberiùs 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 ignorant. Bern. de grad. humi.  ignorance and blindness, in this behalf: and who so blind, as he that will not see? who so ignorant, as he that will not know? As we put off the evil day so long as we can; so we put by the evil object, so far as we may, from our sense and sight.  
I knew, I had offended; but I knew not, that I had so highly offended: I thought thou didst see my sins; but I did little think that thou hadst taken such special and exact notice of them, as to send an Herald, or extraordinary Ambassador, of purpose to challenge, and reprove me for them, and to rouse me out of my sound sleep and snorting security, in them.  
It was thy great mercy, (O God) to send a Prophet, to check, admonish, and correct me; and it is of thy gracious goodness that crosses, which are thy Messengers for that purpose, afflictions of body or mind, outward or inward, one or other, are ordinarily laid upon thy children, to make them know themselves; and by knowing themselves, to know thee; and by knowing, to love thee; and by loving thee, to be beloved of thee.  
This is that golden chain, every link whereof is fastened within another, whereby a man is tied and nexed to thee: this is that Ladder of jacob, by which thou descendest to him, and he ascends to thee.  
None is so dangerously 
Nemo est 〈◊〉 insanabilior, qui sibi sanus 〈◊〉. Greg. in 〈◊〉.  sick, as he that doth not find, and feel himself to be sick. I know mine own maladies, and therefore 
Initium salutis, notitia 〈◊〉.  resort to thee the great Physician, to be eased and 
Qui peccarese nescit, corrigi non vult.  cured thereof. It is in vain to seek health and help, unless I lay open my 
〈◊〉. Frustrà medicantis auxilium expectat, qui valnus non 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉.  wounds, and discover the malignity of my disease, which is, morbus complicatus (as the Physicians term it) not a simple or single, but a compound disease, wherein many diseases are folded, and wrapped together: so as, if there 
Non 〈◊〉 scire quo modo morbos curare conveniat, qui unde hi sunt ignorat. Cornel. Cels. de Re 〈◊〉. lib. 〈◊〉.  be not extraordinary care taken, to apply somewhat, to each ill affected part, respectively, I may soon come ad diliquium animae, to the fainting, and failing of my spiritual life.  
I know my sins in the plural number, which albeit they flowed from one and the same fountain; yet ran they into diverse streams, for as much as to my adultery, I added both treachery and murder; neither did I betray and expose to slaughter, one man alone, or a few persons, but a whole band and troop of men, fight in mine own quarrel, and in defence of thy Church. Wherefore it is not without cause, that in one gross body of sin, I represent unto myself, many several branches, and kinds of sin, by multiplication, and sever it into sundry parts, by division.  
He that knows his sin, knows himself: which the Heathens held to be a 
〈◊〉 coelo descendit, etc.  divine lesson, and most profitable instruction. For what can he understand that knows himself, but that the imaginations of his heart, the words of his mouth, the works of his 
Gen 6.  hands, are evil only, and wicked continually?  
On the other part, he is not a sinner only, that is, one that hath sin in him, and somewhat also besides sin: but he is a great lump and entire mass of 
Chrysol.  sin: nothing but sin, that doth not know himself to be a sinner; and that, he hath committed many and manifold sins.  
He that knows himself and his sins, cannot but displease himself, and thereby please thee; as also, he that neither knows himself nor his sins, may haply please himself, but he cannot possibly but displease thee.  
He knows his own sin (as is fitting) who is sorry for it, and displeased with it; he that is ready to abide God's chastisement, and man's reproof, for his amendment; he that resolves for the time coming, to avoid sin, and all occasions of sinning; who seriously considers what the malignity of sin is, of what good things it bereaves him, to what penalties it makes him liable, how venomous 〈◊〉 poison of it is at home, how contagious the example of it is abroad.  
Thou hast given me (O Lord) the knowledge of thy Law, and by the knowledge of thy Law, the knowledge of my sin. 
Rectum index sui, & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  For that which is right and strait, doth both show itself, and that which is crooked also. But if thy written Law were silent, and dumb, and did conceal itself, or my sins, from me; yet thy unwritten Law graven in every man's heart, both jew and Gentile, doth accuse me, so oft as I transgress the limits thereof, and leave me without excuse. Mine own conscience cries aloud, and lays wide open, before mine eyes, the Book wherein my enormous sins are 〈◊〉 in capital Characters, so that I may run and read them. It stands Sentinel in the watch-towre of my soul, and doth keep me waking, when my sense or sensuality would fain be sleeping, it doth restlessly raise, and rouse my dull, and dead spirits, out of the deep dungeon, and spiritual Lethargy of carnal security.  
The true fence and full knowledge of my sins, makes me so anxious and ardent, in begging pardon, because I cannot rest, till I have made my peace, and wrought my reconciliation with thee. The extremity of my danger and distress, doth cause me incessantly to importune thee, for relief and remedy; and my strong hope is, that this force will not be displeasing to thy tender mercy.  
My sin is ever before me.] I do not only know and understand my sins, and there leave the matter: I do not, upon a bare enumeration and cogitation of them, cast them carelessly behind my back, but I muster them before my conscience daily, I behold them as in a Table set before mine eyes continually, that upon sight of the ugliness of them, I may be humbled and cast down; of the terror and horror of them, I may tremble and quake for fear; of the baseness and filthiness of them, I may loathe them, & myself for them.  
For sins committed, being truly felt, and lively represented to the conscience, like furies or ghosts of hell, fright their beholders away, with their ugly shapes, & deformed forms.  
Sin is of that ill nature and condition, that it will cast him that hath done it, in the teeth (as they say;) it will lie upon the conscience, as unsavoury oil floats upon the stomach, it will neither be disgorged, nor digested. Thou toldest Cain, If thou 
Gen. 4.  dost evil, sin lies at the door: it is restless, it will not be still, it will not keep house, it will not hide itself in a corner of the heart; it will lie in the way, so as thou canst neither come in, nor go forth, but thou must needs stumble upon it.  
A sinner is fitly resembled to a dreamer, not only 
Peccatores somniantibus similes. joan. Her.  because the pleasure of sin doth quickly and lightly vanish away, like a shadow, or dream, but also, because the shapes and forms of his day-sinnes, do represent themselves to him in the night, the pleasurable actions thereof for the time, do beget hideous apparitions afterwards.  
On the other part, a sinner's conscience, is like a grave, that casts up the earth again, as fast as he casteth it in. It is a grave 
Insepulta sepultara.  ever open, though he close it never so often.  
It is reported of the Indian Bracmanni, that to the end they might still be occasioned to think of their end, they kept their graves ready digged, and always open before their houses, that at their coming in, and going out, they might be ever mindful of their journey and passage to death.  
If those Heathen, by the light of nature, took so wise a course; how much more ought Christians, by the lamp of grace, still behold their sins as their Graves, wherein their souls must lie eternally buried, unless they be timely raised, and thoroughly renewed by repentance?  
As the sight of the Brazen Serpent, did cure the sting of the serpents; so the 〈◊〉 and displeasing sight of my sins, doth take away the biting of these serpents.  
So then, in the midst of the discontent which I find in this fearful and woeful sight of my grievous sins, there is this singular comfort, that thou in mercy turnest thy face from them, thou castest them behind thee, while I set them before me. They do not deeply displease thee and me, at one and the same time; when they procure my sorrow and humiliation, they cease to provoke thine anger and indignation. My sins 
Peccata non nocent, si non placent. August. de temp.  never 〈◊〉 me, but when they delight me; they never displease thee, but when they please me; Wherefore as fóule as the object, as odious as the 〈◊〉 is; in my better judgement, I am contented with an impatient patience, still to represent it to my soul; because howsoever in itself ugly, it ushers me by degrees, to the view and contemplation of thy undeserved love and favour, which at length, as the bright sun, dispels all the clouds of care, and mists of Melancholy, and raises my dejected heart, to the participation of unspeakable consolation.  
Wretched and unhappy I was, in committing so great and grievous sins; but I am happy in a sort, in this unhappiness, if I have eyes to see my sins, being committed, to see them as it were thorough a perspective glass, so as they may seem in full proportion, as great to me, as they are in deed.  
Satan deals with his vassals, as the Raven doth with the Lamb; the Raven first picks out the silly creature his eyes, and then carries him out of the way, securely to devour him. First, Satan blinds me in sin, and then he binds me in the chains of darkness, as fast as he can, of purpose to throw me into utter darkness.  
When after shipwreck, I see the Rock, which I could not foresee, before I fell upon it; I strive by all means to avoid it the second time.  
When I see my sins past, in the true lineaments of their ugly shape, I cannot but be shy and wary to shun the like monsters ever after.  
When the baited hook of sin is cast before me, I see the bait of pleasure only, but not the hook of thy judgements: but after I have been catched, and felt and seen the bare hook without a bait, I become circumspect, and suspect every bit I swallow, for fear lest I be ensnared again.  
My sin is ever against me;] ranged as it were, and marshaled in battle array against me. My sin doth proudly affront, and directly oppose me, nay it doth even outface me shamelessly.  
Before Nathan came unto me, I had cast my sins behind my back; his message hath caused me to transpose them; for now they are set before my face, they stand stoutly against me, even to my face.  
My sin (O Lord) as it is a witness, so is it an informer against my conscience, it charges and convicts me before thy judgement seat, I have no hope of prevarication, I see no way of evasion. It makes hue and cry against me, with eager pursuit; it will not give over, till I be apprehended, and deliveted into the hands of justice.  
When there is no man to vex me outwardly, I torment myself inwardly, as holy job confessed in those words; Why hast thou 
Job.  set me over against thee? I am become burden some, even to myself. Thou didst set his sins against him, which made him conceive that thou didst set him against thee, as a mark to shoot thine arrows of anger at; but when 〈◊〉 began thoroughly to feel, thou didst begin graciously to ease him of his burden.  
My sin as it opposes against me; so it interposes between thee and me, in such sort, as neither my prayers can ascend to thee, nor thy graces descend to me, unless thy mercy intervene to keep the peace, and clear the passage between us.  
Against thee, thou, only, have I 〈◊〉.] Now my enclosed sorrow must have vent, my oppressed conscience must be disburdened: This knowledge, and 
Meum cognoscere, Meum agnoscere, Tuum ignoscere.  representation, breeds an acknowledgement and recognition of my sin. The contrition of my heart forceth 
August. Explorandum, 〈◊〉 Implorandum. 〈◊〉. Syst.  from me, a confession of my mouth: I can hold no longer, but must needs, with tears in mine eyes, and anguish in my soul, cry out, Peccavi, and with an ingemination, by way of aggravation: Against thee, against thee, only; to declare my just indignation against myself, for committing so foul and grievous faults against that great Majesty, and that gracious goodness, which I have so highly offended.  
And thus do I limit, and (as it were) appropriate my offences, as committed against thee alone, for many causes: For, although I have sinned against Heaven, and against Earth; yet is there no witness of my sin on earth, but thou, O God, in Heaven; so closely and cunningly have I carried it. That I defiled the wife, & (to conceal that) destroyed the life of Vriah, was not known to the world, that I so treacherously and cruelly exposed to slaughter, a great troop of Soldiers, fight for me and under my command, (to cover my wicked design against Vriah,) was hidden from the eyes of men. Thou knowest and seest all things; wherefore against thee only have I sinned.  
Again, though there be no man that dare reprove me, that will accuse me, that can punish me, being a King, and above 
Omne sub regno graviore regnum est. 〈◊〉.  the Law; yet every King and kingdom upon earth, is subject to thee the King of Kings, and thy sovereignty; I must render thee an account of my demeanour, which I tremble and quake to think of.  
Moreover, although I have not only sinned against thee in Heaven, but scandalized men on earth also; yet it vexeth me beyond all comparison, that I have wittingly and presumptuously offended thee.  
Although all the world should 〈◊〉 emee; yet it is too too much to me, to find and feel thee my judge, that mine own conscience doth summon me before thy Tribunal, and frame my process against me, before thy judgement seat. In this case, no flattery of my servants (who (according to the fashion of Court) do sooth and claw their Masters) can lessen my pain, assuage mine anguish, or pacify my conscience. Say what they will or can, I must say still; Against thee, against thee, only, I have offended.  
Furthermore, none but thou that art just and without sin, hast of right the 
Chrysol.  cognizance of sin, and coercion of offenders. Sinners are not competent judges of sinners. Men do murmur and grudge to give account of their sinful actions to sinful men, who are tainted with the same, or greater vices; but the nocent cannot but yield and submit to such, as in the same and in all other kinds, are innocent and faultless. Wherefore against thee only, have I offended, who only mayest ask confidently; Who can reprove me of sin?  
Now, albeit thou know (O Lord) my sins, not only before I confess, but before I commit them too; yet I finde, that thou art well pleased to take knowledge of them, by my acknowledgement, and 
Fac illum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, quem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉.  that thy Saints have ever held it a point of honest policy, to make thee propitious, by confessing, whom they could not find ignorant, by denying or concealing their faults.  
Finally, though the hurt redound to many men; 〈◊〉 the sin is committed a 'gainst thee only, because thou art supreme Lord and sovereign King, the transgression of whose just Law, giveth being and birth to all sin. In which regard I may truly say, that against thee, thee only, I have sinned.  
I have done this evil in thy sight.] Since, I profess to know mine own wickedness; I will yet confess it more freely, because the more vile I am in mine own, the more acceptable I shall be in thine eyes. By doing this evil, by falling into this enormous sin, I have fallen into a kind of Atheism (at the very name whereof I tremble,) for although I have not blasphemously and shamelessly spoken with my mouth: yet have I impiously, and sinfully said in my heart; There is no God; or, which is tantamount, all one in effect; God hides his face, and will never see. Which when I call to remembrance, me thinks, I hear Nathan the Prophet again, fearfully thundering, and directly charging me, Thou art the man that thinkest, There is no God.  
For to deny expressly, or tacitly, thy science and wisdom (who art all eye, and wisdom itself) is to deny thy very essence and being. Whereupon, my soul even melteth within me, and resolveth itself into tears, to think that I could be so impudently bold, and insolently careless, as in thy sight and presence (though none else beheld) to commit such foul and ugly offences.  
He is held a desperate 
Chrysol.  Malefactor, that commits an outrage in presence of the Magistrate, and before the judge his own face. Such (in true judgement) is my case; and this consideration alone (if there were nothing else,) ought to be, instead of a bridle to restrain, and in stead of a bogle to terrify me from all sinful and wicked actions.  
I was loath that man should see me; and yet not afraid that thou shouldest behold me, whilst I did those foul and odious facts, which (in my better judgement) I find to be so gross an absurdity, as I am exceedingly, both aggrieved and ashamed, that I forbore not, to do that, when thou lookedst on with thy pure eyes, which I should have been abashed to have done, if the meanest servant in my house, or the basest groom in my stable had been by.  
A frank and sincere confession, (such as this) is a full and direct conviction in itself, and of itself, in courts held upon earth, 
Chrysost.  and before men, in foro fori, (as the Lawyers speak.) Whereupon the judge hath no other part to act, but to pronounce sentence of condemnation.  
But in foro Poli, in thy court of Heaven, the course of proceeding is far otherwise; the best way there, is to confess before accusation, or when thou art impleaded, by and by, to plead guilty; for a free confession, moves thy gracious compassion: and that, without any more ado, grants forthwith a full and final absolution.  
This confession of mine 
Confessio peccati, est professio desinendi. Hilar.  doth imply of congruity, or rather of necessity, a profession, and a kind of obligation, of forsaking such sins in time to come, as I confess myself to have heretofore committed. Else is my confession idle and counterfeit, such as may deceive me that make it, but not mock Thee, to whom it is made.  
The heathen man, by the dusky light of nature, derived from the nature of thy supernatural light, can say; If I were assured that 
Seneca.  neither men should know, nor gods would punish what I did; yet would I disdain to commit an act, in it own nature foul and filthy.  
How much more ought a faithful man, who besides the obscure glimpse of nature, hath the pure light of thy Spirit, and the bright lamp of thy Word shining unto him, to be careful and wary, that he do not wittingly and willingly, or rather wilfully offend in the sight of thee, the omnipotent and omniscient God, who dost not only threaten the loss of thy favour, but the execution of thine eternal vengeance, for the breach of thy commandments?  
That thou mayst be justified in thy sayings, and pure when thou art judged.] And thus I make this frank acknowledgement of my foul faults, as to ease mine oppressed soul, so to vindicate thine honour from all unjust aspersions. For as the scandal lies upon the judge, when punishment is 
Reatus redundat ad iudicem si Poena percellat innoxium. Chrysol.  inflicted upon an innocent person; so the ingenuous and voluntary confession of the party, touching his own guilt, prevents and excludes all imputation that may be cast upon the judge or judgement. My desire is, as it is my duty, to take my sins wholly to myself, and upon myself. I will yield the glory to thee, to whom it is due; I will reserve the shame to myself, to whom it appertaineth. I know, O Lord, that thy judgements are right; that thou hast afflicted me justly. I cannot impute any 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉.  thing to thee, O most just God, (whose will is perfect justice) that thou hast either provoked me to this enormous evil, or consented to the committing of it; for even thy permission of this, was a just punishment for my other sins; Mine own frail and perverse nature, my inbred corruption cast in the seed: mine own will, or wilfulness rather, cherished and nourished it; mine own consent and delight fashioned it in the womb of my sinful soul; and, at last, brought it to light, as one of Satan's bastards, to my just confusion. But thou, O Lord, art ever, and every way just, and so to be esteemed. Thou hast dealt justly in all that is come upon me; it is I that have done wickedly. I cannot say, that thy severity or rigour is overmuch against me. I have deserved more than is laid upon me. He that is aware of his own ill desert, and weigheth it in an indifferent balance, doth rather thankfully wonder at thy indulgent mercy, then unpatiently repine at thy rigorous severity. O Lord, thou art just when thou speakest, pure when thou judgest.  
True it is, that the wicked cease not to grunt and bark against thee, though they cannot bite thee. There is an overgreat boldness and naughtiness in men, that they desire nothing more, then to lift up themselves, and cast out ill words against thee at all adventures. The creatures 
Nisi homini Deus placuerit, Deus non erit.  pass their bounds so far, that thou the Creator, must needs be blasphemed 
Homo iam Deo propitius esse 〈◊〉. Tertul. Apolog.  and reproached, and thy creatures (O indignity!) must become thy judges. But yet for all this, thou art, and ever shalt be found just and pure: and it is my part, as, to believe there is equity and justice in all thy proceedings, (〈◊〉 sometimes, through my blindness I cannot, sometimes through my 〈◊〉, I will not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉;) so, even when 〈◊〉 do most bitterly smart, to bridle my unruly passions, and with a calm and subdued heart, to kiss the rod wherewith I have been scourged, and to endeavour by all means, that thy righteousness, as it is indeed, so it may shine clear and bright, to the face of all the world.  
Behold, I was borne in iniquity, and in sin hath my mother conceived me:] Upon the strait inquisition, and exact survey of myself, and my sins, searching and ransacking every corner of my house of clay, I have found a noisome sink, and filthy puddle, or rather a poisoned and poisonous spring, a paternal, or a parental sin, an hereditary, a radical, and original sin, whence all the sins of my thoughts, words, and deeds, are continually and plentifully derived. This is that canker of sin, which being bred in the bone, will never out of the flesh. This is the law of my members, which doth always resist the Law of my mind; the everliving seed of rebellion, which maintains the implacable war, between the flesh and the Spirit; which will never 〈◊〉, till mortality hath put on immortality, and death, the last enemy, be swallowed up in victory. This is peccatum peccans, a sinning, or a spurning sin. It is a sin, a punishment 
Peccatum, poena peccati, causa peccati.  of sin, and a cause of sin. 
Aug. contra juli. 〈◊〉.   
Which yet I do not allege, to excuse or extenuate, but rather to accuse myself, and aggravate my sin; knowing right well, that the viler I am in mine own, the more acceptable I shall be in thy sight, and hoping, that the frank confession of my miserable condition, proceeding from true humiliation, and contrition, will the rather move thy tender compassion; as beggars 
Chrysost.  upon earth, to stir the bowels of pity in their beholders, lay open to their view, their grievous sores, and loathsome diseases. The greater misery is, the fitter object of thy greater mercy; & the more desperate the malady, the more honourable will the cure be to the Physician. Where my sin abounds, thy grace delighteth to superabound.  
For the only and singular sin of Adam, as of him that bore the person of all his posterity, is justly the sin of the whole posterity; and all being guilty of sin, by his singular sinful act, thou, O God, in thy justice, didst permit the natural propagation of sin in his offspring, which deserved such a punishment, for such a sin. Hereupon it cometh, that my inbred corruption, and the inherent sting of sensuality, in me (who sinned in adam's, as Levi tithed in Abraham's loins) is not the first cause of my guilt, but a fruit or reward thereof, according to thy just judgement, whence it may well be termed, the penalty of sin. For that prime sin, the chief source of sin, which the further it runneth, the faster it increaseth, by this stream falling into it, grows in the end, to such a strong and forcible current, as doth even carry, and compel me violently to sin, if thy grace do not resist the 〈◊〉 thereof; because hence do flow my sinful passions, my evil affections, my sinister inclinations, and from them, my sins of action, or omission (which are sins of action also) in their full perfection, or imperfection rather, which I daily, or rather hourly and continually commit. In which regard, (my woe arising from mine own wickedness) my case is most deplorable, every way. Wherefore I beseech thee, with the eyes of pity and mercy to behold it.  
I was conceived in sin:] And therefore there is no 
Aug. 〈◊〉.  sin that I am not apt and ready to conceive, yea, to engender, and produce from imagination, to assent; from assent, to delectation; from delectation, to resolution; from resolution, to execution; if thou, O Lord, do not beget me anew, by the immortal seed of thy Word; if thou do not quell and extinguish in me this old seed, which will always be springing and sprouting in the rank soil of my sinful flesh.  
When my mother first warmed me in her bowels, she conceived sin; when she brought me forth into the world, she was delivered of a child of sin.  
The child in the mother's womb, is held to be a part of the mother; and undoubtedly the mother hath a great share in the Child; before she depart with it, besides her nature and substance, she imparts unto it her qualities, inclinations, and dispositions, being as it were a scion taken from her tree, and a collop cut out of her flesh. That which is borne of flesh, is flesh: and therefore holy 〈◊〉, asketh this unanswerable 
〈◊〉 14.  question; Who shall appear clean before thee? or, Who 〈◊〉 bring a clean thing out of an 〈◊〉?  
Not only actual 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉, and natural; not the second motions of it only, put into form, but the first, that are unshapen, do plot and contrive the treason, are authors, if not actors of it; they bring fuel to the fire, which afterwards is kindled and set a burning; that fomentation of sin, is not only the cause of sin, and the punishment of sin, but sin itself. This is that threefold cord, every part and piece whereof is sinful, that binds me fast to the bar of thy justice: First, Adam his primitive sin; then, the dirivation of sin to all his posterity: and afterwards, the particular actions of sin, proceeding from them both.  
Now, if I were a sinner 
〈◊〉. 〈◊〉.  in my mother's womb; when, and where shall I be faultless? If I were so bad, before I saw the light, how should I not be much worse, when through the corruption of the world, and the contagion of sin, I have sucked in the infectious air thereof? How can it be, but that my inbred naughtiness must needs gain strength, and gather increase?  
And what can the progress and end be, when the beginning of my life is so 〈◊〉 and sinful?  
If I be cast out of my mother's womb, into the roade-way of sin, and travel the journey of sin, still onward: let me but recount the vanity of 〈◊〉 childhood, the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my youth, the slips, or rather falls of my 〈◊〉 age, the infirmities of my old age, and I shall 〈◊〉 find, that from my 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉, to my death and 〈◊〉, I trod the way, not of life, but of sin.   

5. 〈◊〉, I was conceived in sin. 6. Behold, thou lovest Truth, etc.  
IN these two Ecces, which are happily sorted together, I desire to intimate two remarkable things. The one is, the misery of my wretched condition: The other, the largeness of thy tender affection. The first Ecce, is on thy part: Behold, O Lord, my conception and birth in sin; behold me drowned and overwhelmed in a sea of sin. The other Ecce, is on my part: I behold in thee, O Lord, a fire of love, because thou lovest the least sparkles of grace in me, (which mounting upwards, make me look towards heaven) thou dost nourish and cherish them, thou art utterly unwilling to quench or extinguish them, and when thou findest but such an inclination in my will, thou dost strengthen it with wisdom in my understanding. When the understanding and will concur, that I both know what to do, and am desirous to do it, then do I bring it to effect, or (which is all one in effect) thou in thy gracious goodness dost accept it, as if it were effected.  
Thou lovest truth, O Lord,] for thou lovest thyself, who art Truth itself, essential Truth, Truth, not in words only, but in actions, and even in thoughts also; that is to say, Verity and Sincerity in all things.  
Thou lovest truth in the reins] not in the shadows of my outward actions (which I can disguise at pleasure) but in the most hidden, close, and covert imaginations of the heart, which thou seest continually, and knowest exactly.  
Thou art, by a paramount power, and a peculiar attribute, styled, The searcher of the heart and reynes, (Who knows my heart, but thou alone?) therefore thou canst not but love truth in the heart and reynes; that is the most pleasing and delightful object, thy pure and All-seeing Eye can fix upon.  
As thou lovest truth and sincerity in the heart and reynes; so thou hatest all dissimulation and hypocrisy. Thou canst not abide that which is fair in show, and foul in deed.  
Thou canst not abide dissembled holiness, feigned repentance. Thou abhorrest such as make a sour face, & hang down their heads like bulrushes, that they may seem to fast and mourn; that make false semblance of piety, in 
Sapiens 〈◊〉 Deus est, 〈◊〉 fractumnon recipiet. 〈◊〉 Bernard. de gradib. obed.  their outward fashion, and in the sight of men, when thou seest their hearts to be far from that they should, or pretend to be.  
The light (faith job) is 
job 36.  as the shadow of death, to such, the hollow-hearted do but heap up and increase wrath.  
No man deserves 〈◊〉 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meretur, quam amicum simuans inimicus. 〈◊〉. de Conuers. cap. 27.  of God, or man, than 〈◊〉 enemy pretending friendship: yea, thou so lovest truth in the inward parts, as thou acceptest them for just and righteous, who 〈◊〉 such only, in respect of their desire, study and endeavour, though their practice be most imperfect, 
Tota vita honi Christiani, est sanctum desiderium. Aug. in 〈◊〉.  such as sincerely and heartily affect to serve & please thee, though they come far short of the due performance of thy Word 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tota posita est in voluntate faciendi bona. Lact. 〈◊〉. l. 6.  and will.  
As a husband passeth by with connivance, and beareth with patience, many faults and imperfections in his wife, so long as she is true and loyal, and keepeth herself chastely and solely to him: Even so, thou (O God) winckest at many errors, and pardonest many offences in thy people, (to whom thou hast married thyself in mercy) so long as they be such as they ought to be, in the main point: that is, in the truth of their affection, and the sincerity of their devotion towards thee.  
To increase the comfort, which I apprehend, in this sweet Meditation and Admiration, I follow the scent (as it were) and represent to my mind and memory, the sundry traces and footsteps of thy marvelous mercy.  
First, That it is not so much the quantity, as the 〈◊〉; not so much the 〈◊〉, as the sincerity of grace, which thou regardest.  
A little 〈◊〉 and course 
Melius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 auri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. in Cantic.  gold, is of much more value, than much bright copper, than much shining brass. An 〈◊〉 of gold is true gold, 〈◊〉 it be mingled with much dross. Nor will a man 
Nec vinum 〈◊〉 etsi fecem habeat, 〈◊〉 aurum, quamuis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  that is in his right wits, cast away his gold for the foulness, be it but a grain or two, wrapped up in a great mass of other earth, but will keep the one with the other, till he have fined and severed the one from the other.  
In like manner, thy grace in the hearts of thy children, though it be still mixed with many imperfections, and corruptions too; yet it is true grace, and 〈◊〉 all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 shows of it, that are 〈◊〉 in the lives, either of Heathens, or 〈◊〉.  
〈◊〉, I hope strongly, 〈◊〉 wilt not reject it, though it be never so small in 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and refine nee; so as my 〈◊〉 osse may be 〈◊〉, and thy grace more and more 〈◊〉 in me.  
〈◊〉, that in thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, thou art wont to 〈◊〉 the will, for the work; and the desire, for the deed. As in evil, 
Voluntas pro facto 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉. Ep. 77. 〈◊〉. juris.  the very desire and endeavour of ill doing, makes me to stand guilty before thee, though the evil be 
Res mira ille vivit, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 homicida. Illa casta, tu tamen 〈◊〉. Aug. de verb. Dom.  not actually done; (He that lusts after a woman, He that hates his brother; the one is an adulterer, the other a murderer:) So in goodness, the settled study, true desire, and earnest endeavour of holiness and piety, causes me to be esteemed pious and holy in thy sight, though I cannot attain to that measure of it, that I would and should; for thou, Lord, regardest more what I affect, and desire to be, than what I am; more what I endeavour and strive to do, than what I do.  
Such, undoubtedly, is thy disposition, such aught to be my apprehension, unless I will needs, to thy 
Nisi fortè putetur in 〈◊〉, quam in bono, etc.  dishonour, and mine own disadvantage, peevishly and perversely imagine, that Thou (being Love itself) art more prone to punish, 〈◊〉 to pardon; that Thou (being Mercy itself) art more forward to revenge, then to reward thy servants and children.  
Thirdly, that thou dost 
Nos etsi 〈◊〉 minus diligimus quá 〈◊〉; diligimus 〈◊〉 qu〈◊〉 valemus, 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 ut à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unde amplius diligamus. 〈◊〉. Epist. 85.  exact no more of thine, than thou hast bestowed upon them. For I observe, (to my singular contentment) in the legal sacrifices and oblations, how low thou dost, in mercy, descend. Thou art content to accept a Sheep or two, or a Lamb or two, for a Sacrifice; or if a man be not 〈◊〉 to bring so much, thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleased with one, or if he want means for a Lamb, thou art not 
〈◊〉. 5. 6 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉, 14, 21, 30.  unwilling to take a pair of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or two little Pigeon, instead of it: yea, if a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not able to 〈◊〉 so far 〈◊〉; a handful or two of flower, with a 〈◊〉 of salt or two, doth s 〈◊〉, where it is offered with an honest heart.  
There is a curse laid upon the coozener, who 
Mal. 1. 14.  〈◊〉 a sound or a fat male in his flock, bringeth a corrupt carrion, or a lean starveling to thee, for a sacrifice: But he is not accursed who bringeth no better, because he hath no better to bring. And I find it often iterated for the comfort of poor and weak ones, that being not able to offer as the rich did, might therefore doubt of the like acceptation: 
Leu. 14. 22, 30, 31, 32.  Look, what he is able, according to his ability, even what his hand is able to reach unto, and it shall be accepted: for thou measurest the gift, not by the worth or greatness of it; but by the might and mind only of the giver. Thou dost not so much 
2. Cor. 8.  regard, what I should, as, what I can, and am willing to do. What I would, but 
quicksands quid vis & non potes, 〈◊〉 Deus reputat. Aug.  cannot do, thou dost account it as done. Thou crownest willingness, when thou findest not ableness in me to perform.  
Cain offered sacrifices, 
Gen. 4.  but thou didst not accept them, because thou didst see his cruel heart. But Abel his sacrifices were pleasing, because they were offered with a loving and sincere heart unto thee.  
Thou dost not accept the person for the sacrifice, but the sacrifice for the persons sake. The truth and sincerity of the heart is all in all with thee.  
Lastly, that it is not so 
Si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ea, quae 〈◊〉 merita nostra, sunt spei quaedam seminaria. bernard. de 〈◊〉 & lib. arbit.  much any uprightness in me, in regard of the worth and dignity, much less of the perfection and purity of it, that ministers this comfort unto me, but as it is a fruit of thy favour, and a token of thy love, not itself so much, as that whereof it giveth me assurance, and that in two respects.  
First, as it is a sign and seal of my Adoption; assuring me, that I am thine adopted child: For my regeneration, whereby this sincerity is wrought in me, doth ratify and seal up my Adoption (the old man harboureth no such guest.) None are thy Adopted, but such as are thy regenerated children; and on the other part, all that are thine by Regeneration, are thine by Adoption also. Now as earthly 
Si non dilexisset 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amicos. Sicut nec quos 〈◊〉. essent, si non dilexisset, qui nondum erant. Bern. in Cant. 20.  parents love their children, not so much for their wit and comeliness, as because they are theirs; so dost thou, O God, love thy children, because they are thy children. If thou dost not love them before they have, they shall never have any thing, to 
Queen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invenit, neminem saluat, nisi quem 〈◊〉. idem de 〈◊〉 & li ber. a. b 〈◊〉. 10.  make them be loved of thee. So then, this beginning of true grace argueth thy child; and a weak child of thine, being yet thy child as well as a strong, may, in that regard, expect a child's portion, in thy heavenly inheritance.  
Secondly, as it is an earnest, 
Arra potius, quam 〈◊〉, quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, arra 〈◊〉.  or Godspenny of my glorification. For this sincerity is the earnest of that Spirit, which thou givest 
August de 〈◊〉. Apost.  me beforehand, for full 〈◊〉 of the faithful performance of all thy gracious promises afterward. Therefore as a penny given in earnest, been death as strongly, as a pound, (the person that giveth it, being a sufficient man:) Even so the least measure of true grace, being thy earnest, binds thee to the faithful ac complishment of all thy 
Pignus donum est verbo 〈◊〉 (ut jureconsulti) nec potest esse sine pacto pignus.  favours, promised to all thy faithful servants whatsoever.  
It is thou only (o Lord) that preparest my heart, and workest this truth in it, and thou wilt never frustrate the desire, that thou thyself hast there wrought. As no man canseeke thee, but he that hath found thee; so no man can desire grace, but he that hath grace: for evermore he that desireth Grace, hath grace to desire it.  
It is thy gracious Proclamation: 
Ipse ut diligeretur dedit, qui non dilectus dilexit. Aug. in Joan.  The Lord God will be merciful, yea, he hath been already, and is merciful to those, that set their hearts aright, that desire to fear his name. Whereupon I take heart, and say: Then shall I not be 
Psa. 119. 6.  confounded, when I have respect to all thy precepts, and when I am upright with my God.  
The loving kindness of the Lord is from ever, and for ever upon those that think upon his commandments to do them: and therefore unto such also, is joy, in plain terms promised; The righteous 
Psal. 64.  shall be glad in the Lord, and trust in him, and all, (without exception) that are but upright in heart, shall rejoice. And therefore having by warrant of the blessed Spirit, pronounced them blessed, not that never sinned, but that have sincerely repent their sins, and in whose soul there is no guile, I conclude with an Injunction, awarded under the seal of the same Spirit, and laid 
Psal. 32.  upon all such; to rejoice: Be glad, ye righteous, and rejoice 
Psal. 32. 11.  in the Lord: be merry (not only in your own selves: and souls) but even with acclamations and iubilations: shout for joy, all you that are upright in heart.  
The sum of all is: I do not find my heart so free from sin, or so full of grace, as it would and should be; but I find it to be true, plain, and upright (wherein I appeal to thee, O thou searcher of hearts) not such as hath no sin, (for it hath in a manner nothing but sin) but such as loves no sin, not such as wants no grace, but such as is hum bled for want of grace, having the grace to feel that want.   

6. In the secret of my heart thou shalt teach me wisdom: or, Thou shalt teach the secrets of wisdom in my heart, or hidden part.  
THe conscience of my unfeigned sorrow for sin, on the one side, & my true desire to serve thee better hereafter, on the other, do raise my dciected soul, and make me believe and hope, that thou in thy gracious goodness wilt teach me more wisdom, even the mystery of godliness, and art of Religion (which is the soul of the soul) in the secret of my heart; I say, thou shalt, because I beg earnestly, and hope confidently, that thou wilt teach me such Wisdom.  
The teaching of the inward man, by the true instruction of heavenly wisdom, the end whereof is eternal salvation, belongeth to thee alone. It is thy proper and peculiar work; whereupon thine elect ones are termed, The taught of God: for flesh and blood reveals not these things unto me. He hath 
Cathedram in Coelo habet, 〈◊〉 docet. August.  his chair in heaven, that teacheth the heart: and to thy scholars, it is only given to know the secrets of thy Kingdom.  
Therefore, I trust, thou wilt teach me thy ways, and thy statutes, thou wilt open mine eyes, that I may sce the wonders of thy Law, thou wilt give me true understanding, and send me thy good Spirit, as a perfect Pilot to lead and guide me into all truth & goodness.  
This is the wisdom of 
Sol non omnes, quibus lucet, etiam calesacit.  the heart and breast, not of the head and brain: whereby I shall become, 
Sic sapientia 〈◊〉, quos docet 〈◊〉 sit facien dum, non 〈◊〉 accendu ad 〈◊〉. Bern. in Cant. Non 〈◊〉 sapientem, sed timor facit, quia & afficit. Grego.  not more learned or politic, but more godly 〈◊〉 virtuous; not more able to discourse and dispute, but to do, and live well: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 become righteous, that is, (by a little variati on of the word) right wise. For when all is said & done. That is right wisdom, which makes me wise unto Salvation: That is not seeming and shining, but sound and solid wisdom: that is real and operative, 
Nunquam nimis dicitur, quod nunquam satis dicitur.  not speculative and formal wisdom. The true information, and thereby Reformation of the soul, is the soul of wisdom.  
It is never taught enough, which is never sufficiently learned; and this wisdom is of that nature, that the soul is never satiated therewith, but is still hungry, and covetous of more. I have heard and read many lessons, by way of instruction, in this wisdom; but either through my dulness, I could not apprehend them; or through my oblivion, I could not remember them; or through my infirmity, I could not practise them: Howbcit, by the supereminent authority of thee, the Teacher; the excellency of the matter taught, and the increase of my diligence (all happily concurring together,) I hope at length, to attain the depth of wisdom, in the deep and secret corners of my heart.   

7 Purge me with Hyssop, and I shall be clean.  
THe tongue will be licking, 
Lingua sequitur dentem dolentem.  where the tooth is aching; the finger will be touching, where the pain 
Vbidolor, ibidigitus.  is fretting.  
The Leprosy of my sin is so irksome and loathsome unto me, as I cannot but it erate my earnest Petition, and reinforce my humble Prayer, to be purged thereof, and for the fitter application, and better operation of the purgation, to be purged with Hyssop.  
Thou, O Lord, didst appoint Hyssop to be used in thy Law for diverse purposes. In the institution of 
Ex. 12. 22.  the Passeover, the blood of the Lamb was appointed to be sprinkled upon the door cheeks, with a bunch of Hyssop, and with a Scarlet lace. In the purgation of the Leper, 
Leu. 14. 6.  the bunch of Hyssop was to be dipped in the blood of the Sparrow. In the burning of the red Heifer 
Num. 19  (which was to be chosen without spot or wrinkle) the Priest was to put in Hyssop, besides Cedar wood and Scarlet.  
By the blood of the Lamb, the Sparrow and the red Heifer, the blood of that immaculate Lamb was undoubtedly prefigured and represented. By the bunch of Hyssop, the besprinkling of the soul with that blood; and the applying of it thereunto by faith: by the red, or crimson lace, the union and communion of thy Saints was shadowed, who are tied together by a True-love's knot, and sprinkled with that same blood, for the remission of their sins.  
Whiles I survey the virtues and qualities of this herb, (to unfold this riddle of thy Law) I may justly take occasion, as to magnify thy goodness (O God) who hast provided so powerful a medicine, to cure all man's corruptions; so to observe thy wisdom, who, for our better apprehension, hast so fitted the sign and figure to the thing signified and represented thereby, Hyssop: whence I borrow, this Allegory hath many things whereby it doth aptly and nearly resemble Christ.  
It is obscure, base, and low; the Hyssop, as the 
Proverb.  lowest herb, is opposed to the Cedar, as the tallest tree. In the person of Christ, I have said, I am a 
Vermis, non homo.  worm, and no man, the reproach of men, and despised of the people: all they that see me, do scoff at me, they 〈◊〉 a mow with the lip, and they wag the head. Hyssop grows of itself, among stones, not planted by man: Christ was hewed out of the Rock, without hands.  
Hyssop is bitter and sour, unpleasing to the taste; so Christ his Cross, by which we are crucified to the world, & the world unto us, is harsh and unsavoury to flesh and blood.  
Though Hyssop be sour, it is wholesome for the body: The bitter medicines are ever the better: so the Recipe of repentance, albeit odious to the flesh, is most profitable to the soul. The doctrine which is seasoned with salt and Hyssop, is fitter for us, then that which is sweetened with honey: For on the one side, honey was never appointed to be used in any sacrifice; on the other side, not any sacrifice, 
Omnis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  but was to be seasoned with salt.  
Hyssop (as Physicians 
〈◊〉. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉.  tell) is powerful to purge the lungs. The humility of Christ, like Hyssop, doth purge our pride, which floateth in the lungs, and is discovered by the fuming, puffing, and blowing thereof.  
Hyssop, being hot in operation, 
Cyrill.  doth cut and extenuate the gross and phlegmatic humours of the body. So true grace takes away all the dulness and drowsiness of my Spirit, makes me fervent in prayers, and zealous in holy duties.  
Hyssop evacuateth the 
Hug. Card. Lorin. in Psal. 51.  body, nourisheth the native colour, cureth the biting of Serpents, provoketh the appetite, sharpeneth the sight, warmeth the blood, cooleth Fevers. So grace purgeth by contrition, spiteth forth by confession, warmeth by charity, seasoneth by temperance, quencheth the fiery inflammations of unruly passions, maketh us hungry after righteousness, quicksighted to discern our own errors and faults, yieldeth remedies against the stings of concupiscence, restores again that spiritual vigour, which we daily lose by our manifold transgressions.  
Hyssop hath many virtues and properties, (if well used) for the health of our bodies. But that which is shadowed by it, towit, the blood of Christ, cures all the diseases of the soul, and cleanseth us from all our sins.  
With Hyssop this blood is sprinkled upon us, that is, by faith it is applied to our consciences, to purge and purify them from dead works.   

7 Wash me, O Lord, and I shall be whiter than snow.  
BEcause I find myself so spotted with the stains, so polluted with the dirt and dross of my sin, so soon soiled again after my washing, even in the tears of repentance; so prone, with the Dog, to return to my vomit, with the Hog to the mire, wherein I formerly wallowed: therefore I harp still upon this string, which I touched before, I do iterate this Petition also, and cry again; Wash me, etc.  
If thou, Lord, be pleased to wash me often and thoroughly, I shall not only be freed from the foul blackness which my grievous sins have cast upon me, but I shall become neat, fair, and white, yea, whiter than snow.  
If I wash myself with 
job 9 30.  snow water, (saith holy job) and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch or mire, that is, thou shalt discover an uncleanness in me (which was not perceived before) and mine own clothes shall abhor me. But if thou, Lord, be pleased to wash me, I shall be whiter than snow; that is, I shall abandon all evil affections, and preserve my heart pure and holy, consecrating all the faculties of my soul, and members of my body, to thy true and sincere service.  
Can the Blackamoor 
jer. 13. 23.  change his skin, or the Leopard quit his spots? If that cannot be; yet thou, O Lord, canst so wash me, that I shall be whiter than snow.  
That which is impossible by nature, is possible and factible by grace. That foulness which is propagated to me by descent, and bred in me by natural generation, as also nourished and increased by continual actual transgression, is not only removed, but quite changed by free justification, and supernatural regeneration.  
If my sins be as red as 
Esay 1.  scarlet, thou canst make them as white as wool; if they be like crimson, thou canst make them whiter than snow. O wonderful mystery! O incomprehensible miracle! that blood should make me white, that the washing and bathing of my soul in the blood of that immaculate Lamb, should make we whiter than snow! that even the garments 
Reuel. 7.  of thy Saints, by washing in this blood, should become white, which yet shall be revealed to, and wrought upon thy Saints!  
I shall be white here by grace, yea, whiter than snow; I shall be bright hereafter in glory, brighter than the stars, yea, than the Sun in the firmament; grace here shall be the beginning of glory there, and glory there shall be the compliment and perfection of grace here.  
This is arcanum 〈◊〉 divini, a secret of thy Divine state and government, which thou shalt (I am hopeful, thou wilt) not only teach by infallible demonstration, but also work by thy blessed Spirit, his powerful operation in the secrets of my heart.  
The cause of the snow his whiteness, is held (by Philosophers) to be the store of air, shut up, by the extremity of cold, in the clear water that distilleth from the clouds.  
Thy celestial air and light, which surpasseth all bodily and natural whiteness, being gathered into my soul, when it is melting into the tears of repentance, makes it clear and bright, even to admiration.  
Christ, by washing my soul, hath taken my spots out of me, upon himself: he himself remains all 〈◊〉 and stained with my sins; insomuch, that the Spouse is amazed at it, and wondering demands; Wherefore dost thou wear garments all spotted and died with blood, like unto them that 
Esa. 63.  stamp grapes in the winepress?  
Thy servant Moses, out 
Num. 12.  of his kind and undeserved love, took an Aethiopian woman to his wife. No wife is deformed in 
Nulla uxor proprio marito deformis. 〈◊〉.  her own husband's eyes, if he be such a husband as he ought to be.  
The mystical Moses, who in love hath married himself unto his Spouse the Church, not only black and deformed, but ugly and filthy in herself, hath by his gracious election of her, though neither by her beauty nor manners recommended unto him, made her (because he so esteemeth her) fair, comely and graceful, he hath changed her colour and complexion, yea, and her nature and condition too, so as she sticks not to say, I was black by nature, 
Nigra & formosa. Cantic. 1. 5.  but I am fair by grace.  
Can that which is black as Pitch, or Ebeny, become perfectly white, and whiter than snow? yes verily, for my state by adoption and regeneration in Christ, is of more perfection, than Adam his happiest condition in Paradise; This might and did fail: that can never alter or decay, but abides firm and sure, to all eternity.  
Black by the art of man, can take no other hue: nor can this whiteness by the fraud or force of the prince of darkness, be ever either darkened or defaced.  
Snow is white without and within, on every side. Thy Grace will make me, not like a painted sepulchre fair without, and foul within, not hypocritically specious, but really sound and sincere, and the beauty of the soul thus washed, will infinitely exceed the whiteness of any body, yea, even of snow itself.  
Make me to hear of 〈◊〉 and gladness, etc.] O Lord, I beg of thee the whole tree of life, growing by the river side in the Garden of Eden, whose root is justification, by remission of my sins, and whose fruit is true joy and consolation, in thy gracious favour. There may be a 
Potest esse radix sine 〈◊〉, stipes sine fructu, sed nec stipes nec fructus sine radice.  root without a stock, as when a Tree is hewed down: a stock without 〈◊〉, as in the winter season: but nor fruit nor stock, where no root is. The forgiveness of my sin is the root of all my joy. O Lord, give me the fruit of that root, and that will assure me of the root of that fruit.  
Unless thou make me, I cannot hear; Unless thou open mine ear, the voice of gladness will not enter; or if it go in at the one, it will go out at the other ear, I shall be never the better for hearing. Thou must not only tell me the tale, but find me ears also; thou must not only present the object, but enable my faculty also, to perceive, or receive it.  
The Adder or Cockatrice, is (as some say) naturally, (as some others) cunningly deaf, laying the one ear close to that ground, & stopping the other with his tail, purposely to prevent the skill of the Charmer, who seeks to enchant him in such sort, as he shall not be able, either to bite, or sting.  
So man, in his pure, or rather impure naturals, is either sencelesly deaf, and cannot, or voluntarily deaf, and will not hear any voice, that tends to the spiritual solace of his soul, no not the sound of sound joy, not the melodious noise of true gladness, unless thou that sendest the tidings of Grace, do give him the grace also to entertain those tidings.  
Now what is the end and endeavour, either of this corruption by nature, or perverseness by will, but that none of thy words or spells (O God) none of thy holy Spirit his motions or inclinations may have power (wickedness being so powerful) to charm or inchant me, but that I may still bite, and sting, still hurt and annoy, both myself and others.  
I desire joy and gladness doubled, that is, both of soul and body, and I cannot rest contented with one or two, or a few comforts; I seek to have them multiplied, that as my tribulations were increased, so, in like proportion, my consolations may be enlarged; and I term this joy and gladness indefinitely, because this is the only solid joy, and true gladness. All other joys are but toys, like false fires, and counterfeit 〈◊〉, such as deserve not the name of joys at all.  
I beseech thee, O Lord, not only to blot out my transgressions, and to take away the guilt of my sins, but (for the raising of my dejected, the relieving of my distressed soul) to let me know so much, also: let me hear this joyful Word, in the ear of my heart, from thine own mouth, by thine holy breath and Spirit, Thy sins, 
Mat. 9 2.  are forgiven thee.  
Not only be unto me a Saviour, but say unto my 
Psal. 35. 3.  soul; I am thy salvation. For I may stand pardoned and justified in thy gracious, 〈◊〉 and certain resolution, and yet not know so much; and not knowing it, how can I be but grievously perplexed, & fearfully distracted in my conscious & distrustful cogitations? Wherefore, O Lord, let thy Spirit certify my spirit, that All is peace. Let my soul sensibly feel, though it cannot fully conceive this peace, which passeth all understanding.  
To a Prisoner convicted and condemned for high treason, to cruel death, and every hour expecting execution, according to course of justice, what greater joy can there be, then to hear of a gracious and free pardon, of all his offences, from his Sovereign?  
This is the true character of myself, and every other sinner, in respect of our spiritual condition. We were damned before 
〈◊〉 antequam nati. Bern.  we were borne in sin: since our birth we have lived in sin, we have multiplied sin upon sin, we have drunk up iniquity, 
job 15. 16.  as a fish drinketh up water, we have committed sundry heinous and horrible treasons against thy divine 〈◊〉: (to say nothing of other capital crimes) we have after all this, wilfully drawn down thine indignation, and called for thine eternal vengeance upon us: In this deplorable, and even desperate case, what more welcome tidings, then to hear of this jubilee?  
Sin doth not only bring me into a dull slumber, but even into a dead sleep also. In sleep all my senses are bound up, as it were, in chains; when I am fast asleep, I hear nothing at all. Wherefore awake me, O Lord, and make me to hear.  
Make me to hear thy Word (the conduit of comfort) openly taught, with such diligence and devotion as is meet; make me to hear the secret whisperings of thy blessed Spirit, with such reverence and obedience as is requisite: make me so to hear, as I may believe (faith cometh by hearing with thy blessing) and then I shall not fail to hear of this redoubled joy and gladness, which my sorrowful & perplexed soul doth so much hunger and thirst after.  
I do the more earnestly desire, and affectionately long to hear of this joy, because it is an assay and foretaste of that joy, which I hope fully to enjoy in heaven: it is not the 
〈◊〉 redditur, arra 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉.  pawn or pledge (that must be returned again but the earnest, or Godspenny (which continues still with the receiver) of a far greater joy hereafter, and where thou givest earnest, thou never failest to perform the bargain. This joy is great in 
Bernard. Gaudium in praesenti exhibitione. Gaudium in futurâ expectatione.  the present exhibition, far greater in the future expectation, no mean joy in the mean time, while I live in this valley of tears, the life of grace, but glorious 
Et res plena gaudio, & 〈◊〉. Idem. Gaudium in fine, sed gaudium sine fine. Bernard.  and unspeakable joy hereafter in the life of glory; such joy in the end as shall be without end, in the heavenly 〈◊〉, where there shall be peace without trouble, plenty without want, light without darkness, health without sickness, melody without discord, security without fear, felicity without misery, joy without interruption or intermission, joy upon joy, joy exceeding all joy, without, or beyond which, there is no joy at all.  
If I hear this word of comfort in this life, which giveth me title and interest; (Thy sin is forgiven thee:) I shall be sure then to hear the warrant for possession and fruition; (Enter, good servant, into thy Master's joy.) Without this joy, there is nothing but disquiet and discomfort, nothing but 〈◊〉 and horror, nothing but apprehension of wrath and vengeance.  
The wicked, who heareth nothing of this joy, feeleth no serenity or tranquillity of mind, but (as holy job saith) is like a 
job 15. 35.  woman that is always in travail, like the raging sea, 
Esa. 57 20.  still foaming and casting up dirt and mire; on the other part, the penitent sinner, who in anguish of soul harkeneth after these tidings, deriveth joy from the wel-head, where there is God's plenty (as they say) fullness of most sweet and delightful comforts, even a torrent, or strong running stream of pleasures, flowing perpetually.  
He shall have incomparably more joy than the worldling, whose corn, and wine, and oil, are increased, and therefore may lay him down in peace, 
Psal. 4.  and rest in security, because thou makest him to dwell in safety.  
Such as the matter is, 
cum de transitorijs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non poterit non transire laetitia, 〈◊〉 iis, de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignis. 〈◊〉. de Temp.  whereof joy ariseth and consisteth, such is the joy itself. If the matter be slight, flitting, and momentary, (as the world and the flesh are,) how can the joy be constant, solid, and durable? On the other side, the joy that is grounded upon so precious a foundation, as remission of sin, and reconciliation with thee, how can it be but unchangeable and inexplicable?  
This joy will eat up all false joys and flitting delights which men fancy, to take in the pleasures of sin, as the Rod of Aaron 
Exod. 7. 〈◊〉.  did devour the rods of the Egyptian Sorcerers. This joy, like water, will quench and extinguish all the hot desires and fiery lusts of the world and the flesh whatsoever.  
That the bones which thou hast broken, may rejoice.] I made my moan heretofore, that my bones were 
Psal. 32.  sore vexed, that there was no peace or rest in them, by reason of my sin. I now profess, that they were not only crushed and bruised, but even disjointed and broken, that is, the most strong & able powers and faculties of my soul and body (which I describe by the name of bones) have been oppressed, & battered, as it were, with the terrible pangs and restless tortures which I have suffered, by the hammer of thine indignation, conceived against my grievous and enormous transgressions.  
But if thou, Lord, wilt now be pleased, after my unfeigned repentance, to make me hear of this joy and gladness, all these bones, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the 〈◊〉 and marrow of thy 〈◊〉, shall in just 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, cry out, Lord, who is 〈◊〉 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  unto thee?  
It is thy 〈◊〉 and manner of proceeding, O Lord, with thy dearest 
Deut. 32.  children. Thou makest the wound, and bindest it upagaine; thou smitest, and healest again; thou killest, and quickenest again; thou castest down to the nethermost hell, and thou raisest up again to the heaven of heavens, showing and declaring thereby, thine irresistible power, to work mine humble obedience; 〈◊〉 unspeakable wisdom, to breed my reverend admiration; thy severe justice, to beget mine awful fear; thy supereminent tender mercy, to purchase mine affectionate love towards thee.  
The deeper mine humiliation is, the greater will be mine exaltation; the sourer the sorrow is, the sweeter will the succeeding gladness prove, when thou shalt please to afford it unto me: for not my spirit only, but all the parts of my soul and body, will exceedingly rejoice, when after these tempestuous storms, I shall safely arrive at the haven of rest and contentment.  
For as water is more grateful to the way-faring man, after a long drought, and a calm more 〈◊〉 to a seafaring man, after a terrible tempest: so will my deliverance be, after my tribulation. O how beautiful will thy mercy appear, after the depth of my miserable affliction. How shall I rejoice, 〈◊〉 ever I was sorrowful. How shall my bones be glad, that ever they were broken! I shall gratefully acknowledge, that thy 〈◊〉 
Psal. 23.  and thy staff have 〈◊〉 me; that is, I shall take comfort that ever I was chastised with them, and that according to the multitude of my griefs, thy consolations have made my mind joyful, that is, for every sorrow that I received in time of my tribulation, I shall receive a consolation after my deliverance.  
O then what a madness is it, to buy a little vain, idle, frothy, and momentany pleasure, at so dear a rate, as the vexation and anguish, the terrors and tortures, both of soul and body? which none can conceive by imagination, but he that feeleth, and he that feeleth, is not able by any representation to express.  
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot 〈◊〉 all my transgressions.] Because my sin is the source of my sorrow, and the bane of my bliss, I make this the burden of my song, and do reiterate my Prayer, for pardon: I beseech thee once again, O Lord, either to remove thy sense from the object, or the object from thy sense; hide thine eyes from such an ugly sight, look another way, behold any thing rather than it; or if being all Eye, thou canst not but see all things that are, and so all my sins, (if they be at all) O Lord, blot them out, let not them be to be seen, blot them out all, and at once, una litura, with one dash of thy pen, efface all my transgressions.  
Hide thy face not from me, but from my sins: Thou hast charged me lovingly; Seek my face; and 
Psal: 27. 8.  I have answered resolutely; Thy face, Lord, will I seek. If thou withdraw thy face from me, woe is me, I shall be like those that go down into the bottomless pit: wherefore still show me the light of thy countenance: look upon thy creature, which thy hands have made and fashioned; look upon thine own Image, which thou hast stamped upon me; look not upon my sins, which have blemished and disfigured my soul, which have almost quite defaced that thine Image, and in stead thereof have placed the very portraiture of Satan.  
Although custom of sinning have made my sin another nature in me, although I be so compassed with infirmities, so enclosed in my corruptions, as they may seem to be incorporated in me, and become my very substance; yet thou, O Lord, canst distinguish between the 〈◊〉 and the rust, between thine own and Satan's work, between man and a sinner. 
Duo nomina; Homo, Peccator. August.  Thou canst look on that which thou hast made, and look off that which I have marred, with one and the same Eye of pity and mercy.  
When thou seekest a 
Chrysol.  sinner, thou 〈◊〉 the man, and not his sin, that thou mayest despise the sin, which is man's work, and not lose the man, which is thy work.  
He that loseth a precious 
Chrysol.  jewel, seeketh it in all the sluts corners, and stickketh not to rake the kennel, and stir the dunghill to find it.  
The judge, when he will 
Chrysol.  pardon, looks upon the man, & not upon his fault: the father, when he is disposed to pity his child, thinks upon his own affection, and not upon his son's transgression: Even so, O Lord, thou art mindful of thine own work, that thou mayest forget the work of another; thou turnest thy face to the tone, that thou mayest hide thy face from the tother.  
O Lord, at least hide thine angry face from me. I cannot deny, but that I need correction, and am not therefore altogether unwilling to bear it; if thou holdest it meet. Correct me, but not in thy fury; chastise me, but not in thy displeasure; let mine 
August. in Psal. 103  afflictions be instructions, & not destructions; rather medicines, than punishments; castigations, not condemnations. Let them 
〈◊〉 a diligentis.  be the wounds of a lover. Let me perceive thy grace even when thou dost seem to frown upon me; let me discern the sweet sunshine of thy mercy, thorough the thickest clouds of thy fiercest wrath.  
I will follow the way, which thou hast taught me; I will set my sins before mine own face, that thou mayest hide thy face from them; I will remember, that thou mayest forget them: I will confess, that thou mayest forgive them.  
I am much ashamed and aggrieved to see mine own sins: I am much more ashamed and aggrieved, that thou with thy pure eyes, and bright face shouldest behold the foulness and filthiness, the folly, and madness, the absurdity and grossness of them. Yet, O Lord, let me behold my sins always, so as thou wilt be pleased to hide thy face from them altogether.  
Thou canst, but thou dost not always, because thou wilt not, sometimes in favour, see the faults 〈◊〉 thy people. Thou didst not, because thou wouldst not see iniquity in Jacob, nor, perverseness in Israel.  
If thou canst not, in justice but look towards my sins; yet I beseech thee in mercy, to suffer the Blood of thine Immaculate Lamb, to intervene between thy glorious face, and my loathsome corruptions. Let that spectacle either divert or restrain thy sight, and hinder the representation of the ugly shapes of my faults, to thy pure and perceiving eyes: Look upon that precious object first, and there stay and terminate thy sight; or, at least, look through it, as men look through a coloured glass, that the foul object may appear in the colour of the glass, and not in his own colours. Let the robe of the Lamb's innocency, cover the shameful nakedness of my unrighteousness, so as it may be hidden from thy angry face and fearful countenance.  
Blot out all my transgressions.] When a man feels his soul laden with the burden, and his 〈◊〉 affrighted with the apparition of some one or two grievous offences lately done, he begs earnestly for pardon of those sins in particular, or 〈◊〉 his sins indefinitely, 〈◊〉 falls not at the first, into computation or consideration of the rest of his sins, in former times committed. The fresher wounds seem, ever the more fearful; and the new terrible object doth so dazzle and confound the soul's sight, as it cannot look either beyond or beside it.  
But the more grievous and enormous sins, after awhile do occasion us to make a more narrow inquisition, and take a more exact survey of the whole course of our sinful life; whereby we cannot but find, that we have run into many errors, and manifold crimes, the remembrance and recognition whereof we had formerly, in a sort neglected.  
Then we begin seriously to consider, that in this general muster, there is not any one sin, (seem it never so light or slight) but being an offence against an infinite Majesty, and a violation of the whole Law of God, deserveth an heavy judgement, in the severity of 〈◊〉, and that, if some of our sin's 〈◊〉 be remitted, and others retained, we remain still in a most woeful condition; & therefore do not content ourselves with a prayer that some, or many of our spots and sins may be wiped out, but crave, with a note of universality, an abolition of them all. Blot out all my transgressions, my sins in thought, word and deed, my sins of omission, and my sins of action; my sins of childhood, youth, middle-age, and elder years; my sins of infirmity, and my sins of presumption; my sins within, and my sins without my body; my bloody and my unbloody sins; my sins committed in mine own person, and my sins committed by others through my ill example: (for they are mine too) my single sins committed by me as a private person, my double sins committed by me as a public magistrate, (who when he sinneth, doth rather teach then act sin) my lesser and my greater sins (the sins of Sovereigns, are 〈◊〉 sins) my secret and open, my known and unknown sins, (who can tell how 〈◊〉 he offendeth?) my sins past, present, yea and to come, (for whilst I live in this body of death, I cannot but sin) all my sins whatsoever, when I say all, I except none; no minion or darling sin at all.  
Thou didst command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
Levit. 〈◊〉.  be 〈◊〉 away. Who is not sinfully 〈◊〉? and whose sins are not more in number then the hairs of his head? Let them all come under the Raisor of true repentance, and then they will come within the reach of thy free remission. Not one Egyptian escaped, out of the red Sea. Saul was 
1. Sam. 15.  commanded to kill all the Amalekites; men, such as offend of malice, women, such as offend of infirmity, children, such as transgress out of ignorance only.  
Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.]  
Whoso beggeth justification, which is the foundation, will seek Sanctification also, which is the goodly frame 〈◊〉 thereupon, and cannot but after sins committed and remitted, shine and flourish in holiness of life and conversation. He that hath that fire, cannot be without this heat; he that hath that Sun, cannot be without this light.  
When my great and enormous sins had plunged me into the sea of misery, finding no other mean of help in that fearful danger, I catched up, and took hold of the plank, or boordof Repentance, to save me from drowning.  
Repentance hath two faces, and so looketh two ways, backward and forward, to sins past, and holiness to come. I have grievously lamented my offences formerly done, and importunately begged pardon for them, accounting this remission (because thou art pleased, O God, so to esteem it) my justification.  
I now earnestly crave a clean heart, and a new spirit, that being cleansed, I may keep myself clean; that being renewed, I may entertain newness of life for my sanctification.  
For if I fall again upon the same rock of presumption, which caused my shipwreck before; it will plainly appear, that I have not really acted, but formally counterfeited repentance; in which case I must pronounce an heavy doom against myself, for dissembled holiness, is 
Simulata aequitas non est aequitas, sed duplex iniquitas, quia & 〈◊〉, & simulatio. August. in Psal. 63.  double wickedness; wickedness masking under the sinful veil and vizard of hypocrisy. Repentance never attains her Crown and Garland, till she have brought forth amendment of life; after lamentation for sin, to make some kind of reparation.  
That which thou requirest of me, O God, is my heart, and how can I deny thee one thing, that hast given me all things? for what have I, that I have not received of thee?  
Well then, I resolve (as it is meet) to give thee my heart: But when I look into my heart, by the help of thy survey (for it is thou that declarest unto man, what, and how ill his heart 
Amos 4.  is) I find it so foul and full of corruption, as I am ashamed to present it unto thee in that plight. Nay, I tremble to think, that thy Pure and Radiant Eyes, should behold such a puddle and sink of sin as lurketh in my heart. For, alas, every imagination of the thoughts of my heart, is only evil continually. Were my heart such as it should be, I would cheerfully give thee my heart. O Lord, therefore, create in me a clean heart. Thou madest my heart first in Adam; he marred it, (and I in him) by disobedience; from him to all his posterity, the contagion of this pollution is spread and propagated; wherefore create my heart again, create it a clean heart, either a clean heart, or no heart at all.  
I affect purity of heart by thy grace: for indeed I cannot so much as affect, much less effect it, without thee. Unless thou take the work in hand, it will be undone. My heart, that is originally and totally unclean by natural generation, and daily soiled by actual transgression, cannot become clean and neat, without spiritual washing, and supernatural regeneration, and that is thy proper operation.  
Seek not to new make & mould my defiled hart, out of the forebeing matter thereof. (That may seem a strange enterprise and fruitless work.) But thou, O God, who by thy power madest the world of nothing, by thy powerful grace, Create (which is thy peculiar attribute) a clean heart within me.  
To create, is not to make a thing out of the power of any subject or matter formerly being. But to create, is to make a thing of nothing, and that is an act of divine power, that is a case excepted, and a prerogative reserved to thee alone. The production of grace in a graceless heart, is a wonderful and gracious creation.  
Create in me powerfully, and of nothing, without any 〈◊〉 matter; create in me 〈◊〉, and for nothing, without any precedent merit of mine, a pure heart; so 〈◊〉 thou crown in me, not my deserts, but thine 〈◊〉 gifts, if ought proceed from my heart, to my tongue or hand, not displeasing unto thee.  
Work this work thyself, and take the praise of 
Psal. 115.  it to thyself alone, O God. Not unto me, not unto me (I do iterate and ingeminate my disclaimer) but unto thy Name give all the glory.  
It is another manner of power to make the quality, than the substance of the heart; yea, it is a harder task to make a heart clean, that hath been soiled with the filth, and tainted with the putrefaction of sin, then to make a pure and innocent heart at the first. The more shall be my thankfulness, if thou, O Lord, vouchsafe me so great a favour.  
I will not curiously inquire into the means or manner of achieving this work. Let me henceforth really find, by the imaginations and inclinations of it, that it is a clean heart, conformed (as it may be in the frailty of 〈◊〉 flesh) 〈◊〉 thy holy 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 all is well.  
As a woman 〈◊〉 by the stirring of the 〈◊〉 in her womb, that 〈◊〉 hath conceived: so 〈◊〉 me feel, by the effectual motions of thy good 〈◊〉, that I am begotten anew unto a lively 〈◊〉, by the resurrection of Christ, according to his abundant mercy.  
The sum of all is; Give me, O Lord; what thou enjoinest, and then enjoin me what thou pleasest. I am of no ability to do what thou commandest, and therefore am enforced to beseech thee thyself to do in me, what thou requirest to be done of me. Create a clean heart in me.  
If my heart, as the spring and conduit head, be pure and clean; the waters that flow thence, though conveyed in earthen pipes, will be clear still: my secret thoughts, my open words, my visible works, though they savour somewhat of earth and flesh, will not be altogether unclean and unsavoury.  
A man must be twice borne, ere he can enter into the kingdom of heaven. As he is made to the 
1. Cor. 15.  similitude of the first Adam, so must he be made to the similitude of the second Adam: and the regeneration is a more excellent work then the generation; the re-creation, than the creation. In the first, man was wrought out of clay; in the other, God works grace out of sin. In the former, he breathed a soul into the dead body; here he breatheth his holy Spirit into a dead heart. In the creation, he made man perfect in all his members. In this re-creation, not only all the members of the body, but the faculties of the soul also, must be framed anew. It is a greater matter to raise a man dead in sin, then to raise a rotten carcase out of the grave.  
In the one birth and the 
Primum 〈◊〉. Arist.  other, the heart is the first 〈◊〉 that is enlyved: my 〈◊〉 must first take fire, 〈◊〉 can I never be 〈◊〉 with the true zeal of 〈◊〉 glory, and mine own salvation.  
In the first creation, this 〈◊〉 Chaos and dark 〈◊〉, was covered by thy 〈◊〉, without any contradiction or resistance: Thou spakest but the word, and all was readily done, and perfectly framed. But in my re-creation, my flesh or my spirit, or my fleshly spirit, doth oppose and encounter thy holy Spirit, grieveth and maketh it sad, laboureth to quench it, even then when it striveth to revive, repair, and reform me. This is notoriously verified, not only in the aliens & reprobates, but even in the domestics of the household of faith, in thy most enlightened and best disposed children, even in the Elect themselves, and those that are sealed up for the Day of Redemption.  
Wherefore I must say freely, as I may truly, I am thy workmanship, not only of thy power, (as all other creatures are) but of thy mercy also, created in Christ unto good works, whereof he is the sole Author and Actor, working effecaciously in me, both the will and the deed, according to his good pleasure.  
O Lord, give me a lively Faith (thy Gift alone) which hath power, to quicken my dull, to enlyve my dead, to purify my impure heart: Give me grace steadfastly to believe thy Word, to take sure hold of thy promises, evermore to cleave and stick fast to thy goodness: Kindle this fire in my soul, which will inflame my love of all good duties on the one, and on the other side, waste and consume, eat up and the voure my concupiscence, and all my carnal desires, and cause them to return into that dead sea, whence they were first exhaled.  
Renew a right Spirit within me.] He whose spirit is deserted by God's Spirit, loseth the vigour and vivacity of his spirit, his spirit waxeth old & crooked in him. Sin, where it invades, makes such spoil and havoc of all goodness and virtue in the soul, as it cannot subsist, unless it be timely repaired, and truly renewed by repentance.  
When a man lies grovelling upon earthly, and hover upon fleshly desires: his spirit, which should directly 〈◊〉 upward, is bowed down and made crooked. A 〈◊〉 spirit then, is a sincere and upright heart, raised and lifted up into heaven and heavenly things.  
What is sin else, but an obliquity, a deprivation or depravation of that rectitude, and uprightness, which was originally, and should be continually, in the soul; if it were throughly purged and purified?  
I have impaired this rectitude and uprightness, which once I had in some measure, by my heinous and enormous transgressions, and therefore, resort to thee for help, who only art able to renew and repair it again.  
Give me, O Lord, a spirit rectified in itself, directed by thy Spirit, corrected by thy discipline, and erected to thy glory; a spirit firm without failing, constant without varying, and durable without decaying; that I may happily choose new ways, walk in them carefully, and persevere in them constantly: give me grace to turn over a new leaf (as they say) to abandon the old man with the lusts and affections thereof, and to put on the new man, and so to serve thee in holiness and newness of living, all the days of my life hereafter.  
I do wittingly and thankfully ascribe the purity of my heart, to thy Creation, the uprightness of my spirit, to thy renovation alone; as to give thee thy due honour, so to prevent and anticipate the proud and fond conceit of those men, (if any such there be, or shall be hereafter) who to grace themselues, will abate the power, & diminish the lustre of thy grace, who though they cannot but confess, that they need the assistance of thy Spirit, & that they are holpen by thy, both preventing and following, grace; yet between those two graces, (for their own credit) will needs vainly interpose, or rather violently intrude man's reason, whereby he chooseth what is good; and man's will, whereby he assenteth to thy divine power, in the blessed work of regeneration.  
But hereby, I take secret comfort in myself, to preserve my perplexed soul from utter despair, that I discern the foulness of my heart, & feel the weakness of my spirit; and therefore pray earnestly, for a purification of the one, and a renovation of the other: for I know, I cannot crave either of those graces, without some measure of grace. As the sun cannot be seen but by the Sun, nor the light be perceived, but by means of the light; so neither can I beg a full cleansing of my heart, without some cleanness in it, nor a through-renovation, without some newness, in my decayed spirit, at least, in true affection, and unfeigned desire.  
Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me.] I fear, and cannot but fear thy face; and yet I fear withal to be cast from thy face 〈◊〉 presence. Mine own 〈◊〉 makes me, on the one side, to fear the face of a severe judge, and my worthless weakness on the other, (being not able to subsist at all, without the light of thy countenance,) makes me desire thy presence and sight.  
Whatever thou do with me, while thou lookest upon me, I shall endure, though not without fear and perplexity; But if thou cast me quite away from thy presence, I am utterly undone for ever.  
The presence of the Physician is a present, if not help, yet comfort to the sick patient. But thy presence, Lord, being the sovereign Physician, ministers all comforts, and cures all maladies both of soul and body.  
Therefore I love the habitations of thy house, and the place where 〈◊〉 honour dwelleth.  
As the hunted and chased 
Psal. 42.  Hart desireth the water brooks; So longeth my soul after thee: When shall I come and appear before thee?  
O how amiable are thy 
Psal. 84.  Tabernacles? My soul even longeth, and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. One day in thy Courts (where thou art present and resident,) is better than a thousand elsewhere. I had rather be a dorekeeper there, then to dwell at liberty, and in jollity, in the tents of the ungodly.  
The privation of God's presence, is the position of all misery, and the withdrawing of his countenance, draws with it all manner of discomforts.  
Heaven itself were not heaven, if thou wert not there present, and Hell could not be hell, if thou wert not absent thence.  
To be cast out of thy presence, is to be cast out of joy, into sorrow; out of light, into darkness; out of life, into death; (not the first only, but the second also) out of heaven, into hell.  
The very sight and vision of thee, is of itself, and in itself, the height of happiness. In thy presence is the fullness of joy, and at thy right hand is plenty, without satiety of pleasure and delight, for evermore.  
Wherefore though I have multiplied and increased my contumacy beyond all measure; yet I beseech thee, O Lord, not to excommunicate me. I submit myself, with tears in mine eyes, and anguish in my heart, humbly and wholly to thy discipline; I am content to endure any penance, rather than to be banished from thy presence.  
What the want of this presence is, none can know but he that feeleth; and he that feeleth, cannot make another know by any relation. He may endeavour to shadow it out slenderly, but he is not able fully to express it.  
If the Master turn his servant out of doors; if the Father abandon his son from his fight; if the King command his subject from the Court, (that he come not within the Verge) how grievous and irksome will the damage and disgrace be, to every, or any of these respectively? Thou, O God, art our Master, and to serve thee, is to reign with thee. Thou art our Father; and what greater preeminence then to be the Son of God? Thou art our King, and to be in subjection to thee, is our chiefest dominion. How then doth it concern me, being an unfaithful Servant, a prodigal Child, and a traitorous Subject, to beg earnestly of thee, my bountiful Master, my loving Father, my gracious Sovereign, that thou wilt not take away thy 〈◊〉, banish me from thy fight, nor expel me from thy Courts?  
As the soul doth excel the body, and the 〈◊〉 the flesh, beyond proportion; so the one loss is incomparably greater than the other.  
Thou, O God, art present with me, by thy good Spirit; and so long as I have this Guest in my soul, I have the fruition of thee and thy presence; wherefore suffer not this noble Guest to be dislodged and taken from me. Thou and thy Spirit are undivided companions: If thou cast me from thy presence, thou takest thy holy Spirit from me; and if thou takest 〈◊〉 Spirit, thou takest thyself from me.  
I do yet enjoy thy presence, in a sort; I behold thy countenance, though full of anger; I feel thy Spirit within me, though sad and grieved: for I find contrition in my heart, confession in my mouth, and confusion in my face, for my grievous offences. I hate my sins, and myself for my sins. This smoke cannot ascend, but from that fire of thy Spirit; this fruit cannot grow, but from that root of repentance. Howbeit, when I behold the ugliness of my offences, with an unpartial eye, and consider how hard & harsh a thing it is, for Purity and Holiness, to dwell or abide with wickedness and filthiness: I tremble and quake in an awful fear, that thou wilt (as justly thou mayest) deprive me of thy gracious presence, and bereave me of thy blessed Spirit.  
Lord, thou art in all things by thine Essence, thou art in all places, and at once, by thy Power and presence. I may well be asked; Whither wilt thou 
Psal. 1 39  fly from his Spirit, or whither wilt thou go from his presence, & c? If thou shalt say; The darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about thee. Yet thou canst, and wilt cast me from thy presence, and withdraw thy holy Spirit from me, if I be settled upon the dregs of my sins without remorse, in contempt of thy Majesty, and abuse of thy mercy. If thou in thy just judgement and wrathful indignation, abandon me from thy presence, thou castest me out of thy providence and protection, thy blessed Spirit doth quite desert me, I am banished out of the land of the living, into the Desert of desolation, (which is without the compass of the whole Universe, that thou didst create, and d'st uphold.) In that case, happy were I to be no more, but I shall be most unhappy, to be and continue helpless and hopeless in endless misery.  
Thy holy Spirit is, by a special title, styled, The Comforter, by excellency, because all other comforters and comforts, are cold and uncomfortable, without and beside it. I have (I confess with grief) many times checked this Spirit, when it hath presented good motions to my mind, and good desires to my hart; I have grieved it exceedingly, while I carelessly neglected, and stubbornly refused the good counsel it ministered unto me. Howbeit, sithence without this Comforter, I must be for ever comfortless in the depth of discomfort, I 〈◊〉 thee, not to take utterly and finally thy holy Spirit from me.  
Thy gifts, O Lord, are 
〈◊〉. 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉  without repentance (therefore I trust I shall never be without repentance) whom 
〈◊〉. 13. 1.  thou lovest once, thou 
〈◊〉. 31. 3.  dost ever love; if thou begin, 
Semel 〈◊〉, semper 〈◊〉.  thou wilt persevere to love. Although I do not 
Mulier soetum conceptum non semper molitantem 〈◊〉; ubi tamen semel & iterum 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 se esse non ambigit. Spin. de 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉.  always feel the graces of thy Spirit in my sinful soul; yet I shall (〈◊〉 trust) have 〈◊〉 ever, because once I had them. My sin may take away the sense and 〈◊〉 for a while, but not the interest and property (if I may so say) which I have in thy blessed Spirit: Which notwithstanding, the fruition of this Spirit being so precious, and the loss of it so invaluable, I cannot but in fear and anxiety of soul, instantly pray, that it may not be taken from me.  
Although the seed of 
1. Pet. 1. 23.  thy Word, whereby I am begotten again to a lively Hope, be immortal and incorruptible; yet it is so choked with the weeds of fleshly desires, so entangled with worldly allurements, it lieth so buried in the furrows of my hard and stony heart, as I may much doubt, and, in a manner, distrust the shooting and springing of it up again, without an extraordinary influence of thy heavenly grace, which cannot descend upon me, unless my humble and earnest prayers ascend up to thee. Wherefore retain me, O Lord, in thy favour, and permit thy blessed Spirit, not only to sojourn for a season, but to remain continually with me. Let me so keep a door in the Sanctuary of my soul, (which is one of thy Courts) as I may never suffer this Guest to go out of it.   

12 Restore unto me, the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy firm Spirit, or establish me with thy free Spirit.  
I Do not say; Give me what I never had, but restore unto me what I had, and have lost by mine own fault and folly. It is a greater favour to restore 
Tertull. de poenit.  then to give, in as much as it is a greater unhappiness to lose a jewel 
Quid boni sanitas habet, languor ostendit. Hier.  which I had, than never to have had it. Privation is a greater punishment than want: It is the height of 
Gratior est reddita quam retenta sanit as.  misery to have been happy. To come out of darkness 
Post tempestatem dulcior serenitas. Quint. Desiderata dulcius obtinentur.  into light, out of sickness into health, out of perplexity into security, out of sorrow & sadness, into joy and gladness; and so by the contrary, to 
August. de Verb. Dom.  come out of cheerfulness into pensiveness, sets out more lively, and causes to be felt more sensibly, both the one and the other condition. One contrary is a foil unto another.  
We then make the true. 
Quoniam ob bona 〈◊〉, gratias Deo non agimus, necessaria nobis est privatio, ut quid habutrimus sentiamus.  est valuation of thy greatest mercies, O Lord, when we are for a time deprived of them, which is one special cause why thou takest them from us, that by the want, we may learn the worth of them, 
Basil. Plus sensimus quod habuimus, postquam habere desinimus. Hier. in Consol.  and show ourselves accordingly thankful, because thou didst vouchsafe us the fruition of them so long, and much more joyfully embrace, and charily preserve them, when thou pleasest to restore them to us again.  
For as the eyes cannot discern a goodly object when it is held close unto them, but when it is removed in some distance; so our untoward & unthankful hearts cannot judge of the excellency and sweetness of present graces; but when they are withdrawn a while from us, then do we more cheerfully behold, and fully observe the riches of thy bounty & mercy in them.  
This joy of thy salvation, consisteth in an assured hope and hopeful assurance of eternal happiness. This hope, is the heart of my soul, and the very life of my life. It putteth spirit into my decayed spirit, and vigour into my dead heart; for a hopeless, is a heartless life, and were it not for this hope, (amidst the inward and outward crosses of this life) my very heart would break.  
All the joys upon earth cannot make me cheerful, until I be seized of this joy, nor can all the crosses and calamities which the world affords, dishearten me, while I find and feel this joy of thy salvation.  
What greater joy to an afflicted soul, lying 〈◊〉 oppressed under the heavy apprehension of thy wrathful indignation, and for a long and tedious time, suffering even hell out of hell, then to receive a gracious pardon of all his sin, freely granted unto him by thee, through the mediation of thy Christ, sealed by thy blessed Spirit, and delivered to his spirit into the hand of faith.  
Wherefore turn, O Lord, my mourning into dancing; lose my sackcloth, and gird me with gladness, O Lord; let me shout out songs of deliverance from the captivity and thraldom of sin and Satan.  
I have wilfully put myself out of possession of this joy, which I so happily enjoyed. O Lord, restore it unto me again, by a new order & injunction, out of thy Court of equity and mercy; let me return into it, by Remitter, & hold it, as in my former ancient right.  
I have just cause to style it, Thy salvation. For I am the patient only, thou, O God, the only agent: thou hast not the greatest share, but all the interest, in this affair. Thou art the sole, not only Author, but also actor in it. For the purchase thereof, I need thy first grace of Initiation, and thy second of Confirmation, thy prevenient and thy subsequent grace, thy accompanying, and thy persevering grace. All is thy grace, and thou art all in all, and therefore to thee alone, I ascribe all the honour and glory. It is merely and entirely thy salvation.  
Christ his righteousness imputed and imparted to me, is the true root; joy and peace are the happy fruit; and faith is the rooting of it in my soul. Though there come a winter of affliction, to restrain the sap, and hinder the show: yet the Summer of cheerfulness will make all to flourish again in perfect lustre.  
But how can I expect the serenity and Sunshine of this joy in the valley of tears? Why should I desire this garment of gladness, when my heart ought continually to wear the sables of sadness, and the mourning weed of repentance, for my daily or rather hourly sins? how can there be any time or place left for joy, when there is almost a 〈◊〉 of sorrow enjoined?  
He that will reconcile himself to thee, O God, may easily reconcile these different passions, & make them dwell together in his soul, with amity and unity. Else thou that hast required me ofttimes to mourn, wouldst never have commanded me to rejoice always. The faithful man hath a sorrow mingled with joy, and a joy mingled with sorrow. There is a grief in joy, as there is a joy in grief, nay (which may yet seem more strange) the greater grief sometimes, the greater joy, and the greater joy, the greater grief; for one and the same man, at one and the same time, may be exceeding sorry for his sin, and exceeding joyous with the apprehension of thy mercy, in the free forgiveness of his sin.  
The greater grief he conceiveth for his sin, the more comfort he may justly take, even in that regard. And the greater joy he feeleth in the hopeful assurance of thy favour, the greater sorrow must he needs conceive for his sin, that bred thy displeasure: for, the more assurance he hath of thy love towards him, the more he will love thee: (Love is the loadstone 〈◊〉 love, and will draw love even from an iron heart) and the more he loveth thee, the more his soul must melt into tears, when he recounts & considers, how by his wicked and rebellious courses, he hath demeaned himself, wretchedly and unworthily, towards that God whom he findeth so graciously and pitifully affected towards him.  
Sorrow may be sometimes unseasonable, but this spiritual joy (as we say of some kind of meats) is never out of season.  
The precept of rejoicing, though conceived in the affirmative, doth always bind, & at all times. Rejoice in all things, and 
1. 〈◊〉. 5. 16.  evermore rejoice.  
The grace I beg, is the compliment, crown and garland of all the graces I have formerly craved. For although I be washed never so clean from my former stains; though my hart be never so throughly purged from old corruptions, my spirit never so well renewed and rectified for the time to come: yea, though I obtain a full restauration of the joy of thy salvation, which I had and have lost; yet, unless thou be pleased to confirm and establish me with thy firm and free 〈◊〉 none of those blessings apart, nor all of them 〈◊〉 together, can much avail me.  
For without this 〈◊〉 and establishment, I 〈◊〉 never be able to 〈◊〉 and persevere in true Piety of Religion, in sincere probity of 〈◊〉. Well I may, like a bankrupt Merchant (supplied by friends or credit,) set up my trade of godliness awhile, but I shall soon be enforced to shut up shop again. Well I may begin to run the race of godliness, but I shall never get the goal; well I may enter the lists afresh, with my old and deadly enemy, the Devil, and his two valiant Champions, the World and the Flesh; but I shall quickly be foiled, I shall never 〈◊〉 the victory fully and finally.  
Wherefore do not only raise me that am fall'n, but uphold me when I am raised; sustain me continually with thy firm Spirit, that I may not only begin well, and proceed cheerfully, but also persevere constantly, and end happily.  
I did endeavour when time was, in some sort to serve and please thee; I frequented public assemblies in thy holy Tabernacle; I sent up sundry Prayers from my private Oratory, and the secret closer of my heart, unto thy Majesty; I laboured to govern my people with justice and equity, to punish wilful offenders severely, to reward well-deseruers cheerfully, to deliver the oppressed, to relieve the needy; but (this notwithstanding) how soon, alas, was I taken with the sight of Bathsheba, and, through my frailty, carried captive into Adultery, to satisfy my 〈◊〉; and into Murder, to conceal my Adultery! Wherefore settle, confirm, and establish me, O Lord. I have directed generally.  
All you that trust in the Lord, be strong, and he shall establish your heart; he keepeth the faithful, and upholdeth the just; by him alone the steps of men are established, that is, firmly directed and perfected.  
My spirit, which must be wrought upon by thy Spirit, through the contagion of my flesh, and the carnality of it, is become almost wholly carnal, and by that means weak and frail, soon weary of well doing; it quickly slips from good Meditations and Actions; slides from honest purposes and proceedings, unless it be sustained by thy Spirit.  
But being quickened and enlyved by thy Spirit, though otherwise dead, I shall live in thee, by thee, & for thee: all my thoughts, words and works shall breathe continually thy praise and glory.  
Thy Spirit, O Lord, is the life of my soul, as my spirit is the life of my body; if my spirit fail, my body perisheth; if thy Spirit desert my soul, my soul cannot but fall irrecoverably. Wherefore uphold me with thy Spirit.  
Thy Spirit is free in itself. As the wind bloweth, so the Spirit breatheth where it listeth. As it is a free, so it is a freeing Spirit, a Spirit of liberty, which delivereth me from the bondage of Sin; a Spirit of Adoption, whereby I cry, Abba, Father. As the Spirit 
Rom. 8. 15.  is free, so are those that are led by the Spirit, free, ingenuous, bold, and courageous: it infranchizeth and naturalizeth me in the heavenly Jerusalem.  
This Spirit hath power to help all my infirmities; it hath skill and will to frame my Supplications within me to be expressed, if not by tongue & voice, yet by sighs and groans unutterable, but still intelligible to thee; it can preserve me from falling; it can raise me after I have fall'n; and then so establish me, that I shall never come again into danger of relapse or recidivation.  
My spirit, thus upheld and established by thy free Spirit, what is it else but a cheerful alacrity and forward disposition to embrace any thing that is good, for it own sake, and for thy sake, without any by or secondary respect whatsoever; banisheth all drowsy dulness and untoward listlessness in thy service; that putteth wings to my obedience, and maketh it not to walk slowly, but to fly nimbly in the accomplishment of thy errands and directions; that causeth me to do ingenuously what becometh me, for love of virtue, and not for fear of the whip, basely?  
When thou hadst appointed that the first 〈◊〉 of every beast should be set apart to thee; thou didst specially ordain, 
Ex. 13. 13.  that if it were the Foal of an Ass, it should be redeemed with a Lamb; if it were not, the neck of it should be broken; thou wouldst not have it sacrificed unto thee at any hand. Surely, it may well seem, that this is, alterius rei 〈◊〉, a kind of riddle; and that by this shadow, thou wouldst show thy 〈◊〉 of slothfulness and 〈◊〉, want of life and cheerfulness in thy service, that an Ass being one of thy dullest creatures (Sloth is wont to be pictured riding on an Ass) thou wouldst not be honoured by the sacrifice of such a beast.  
Thou, O Lord, lovest a swift hearer, a cheerful giver, a zealous Petitioner, a voluntary Soldier, and a diligent 〈◊〉 for all which purposes, thy free and firm Spirit will strongly enable and support me continually. Wherefore establish me with thy free Spirit, O Lord.   

13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners, or impious persons, shall be converted unto thee.  
WHen thou hast vouchsafed graciously to bestow upon me those graces, whereof I have gracelesly 〈◊〉 myself, then will I 〈◊〉 myself grateful unto thee, I will 〈◊〉 that duty of thankfulness, so suitable to humanity, so agreeable to piety; it being a thing good and commendable, 〈◊〉 and profitable, pleasant and delectable, 〈◊〉 & graceful to return praises and thanks to thee for thy mercies, duly to acknowledge, and truly to 〈◊〉 thy singular favours; in such manner as I can, and by such means as are within the reach of my weak and worthless ability.  
I will not follow the common fashion of worldly men, who, like barrels, sound when they are empty, but are still when they are full; who crave earnestly when they feel want, but are dumb and silent when their turn is served. I solemnly vow, and will really perform thankful acknowledgement for so great benefits, when I have received them.  
Thou, O God, by difburthening man of his sin, 
Onerat nos Deus 〈◊〉, quando 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Aug. in Ps.  dost impose a burden of gratitude upon him. A benefit is a burden to an ingenuous mind, that cannot rest quietly, but lieth shut up (as it were) in prison straightly, till it have procured liberty, by venting some kind of retribution.  
Although there can be no proportion between thy infinite goodness, and my, not only finite, but infinitely weak means of requital; yet inasmuch, as for a more bountiful favour, a larger return of 〈◊〉 is (of congruence) required, and the greatest blessing that can be bestowed upon a mortal man in this life, is peace of conscience, intended by the joy of thy salvation, and employed in the firm support of thy free Spirit: I will endeavour, in way of 〈◊〉, to do thee the best service that any man can perform upon earth; that is, I will teach thy ways to Transgressor's, and cause (as much as in me lieth) sinners to be converted unto thee.  
I will teach such as wander and go aftray, how to come into the way: Again, those that go byways, I will teach thy ways; that is, the ways of thy directions, which lead us by a right line (as it were) through the maze of this miserable world, to the land of Canaan, that happy country, which we should so love and long for. Converted sinners, are 
〈◊〉 iniquorum 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 quia tales 〈◊〉.  the fittest converters of sinners. The sickly Physician, who hath not only read in his Book, but felt in his body, the maladies whereupon he is consulted, is the likeliest man to work a cure upon his patient.  
Goodness of it own 
Bonum naturá sui diffusiwm.  nature, is apt to spread and enlarge itself. It is the 
Naturalis. opus viven. gignere sibi simile. Arist.  most natural and kindly work of each living creature, to engender a like unto itself. As in nature, so is it in nurture also. An honest well-disposed man, will strive as much as he can, to make others good and godly. A chaste and sober man, will endeavour to restrain and reclaim others from wantonness and drunkenness; the like may be said of all other virtues and vices.  
The rule of Charity requires, that he, who hath been raised out of the dirt, and rescued out of the mire, should lift up others, who lie wallowing therein. If we be once inflamed with the love of God and godliness, we shall labour to kindle the zeal of others, & set them on fire also. Bad men are, and why should not good men much more become, Incendiaries.  
This is the matter and effect of my gratitude, which though it may seem to be no great matter: For my goodness extendeth not to thee, neither art thou any whit the better, for my being better any way, (the grace is thine, the good is mine alone,) yet I know it to be very aceptable and highly pleasing unto thee, being so loving and gracious, so covetous of man's salvation, as thou dost even hunger and thirst after his conversion. Thou dost even long for our return home, from out of those far remote countries, wherein we have wandered, and spent our patrimony of thy gifts, in wickedness, to the house of thy habitation.  
ay, even I that lost my way in my pilgrimage, and fell among thieves who rob me of my garment of godliness, of my 〈◊〉 of righteousness, of my girdle of gladness, and wounded me with bitter Arrows, and 〈◊〉 darts, almost to death; I (I say) being reduced into the way again, refreshed and comforted, raised and set on horseback (as it were) will teach others, carefully to keep themselves in the right way, to shun idleness, and security, and all other occasions of sin, to avoid such inconveniences, as by woeful experience I have found, and felt with intolerable grief.  
I will teach Transgressor's 
Homines malunt exempla quam verba. 〈◊〉. act. 〈◊〉 ver. sap. Validior 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam oris, oratio. Greg.  by instruction, and 〈◊〉 will teach them by example also. Men are more effectually persuaded by the works they see, then by the words they hear; 
Regis ad exemplum nec sic inflectere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 edicta valent, ac vita regentis. Claud.  by Prince's acts, then by their Edicts. I will join both precept and practice together; my words shall be working words, and my deeds shallbe speaking deeds. Nay, I will not only 
Habent & opera suam linguam.  teach them, by my words, and by my deeds, 
Author de dupl. martyr.  but by my writings also. I will cause my Psalms (the webs which my restless soul hath woven) to be sung in God's Tabernacle, while I live; & when I die, bequeath them to God his Church, to be used in all succeeding ages; which (I hope) will be of some force, to mollify and qualify the hard and stony hearts of reckless and impenitent sinners.  
I will use all the ways I can, to teach sinners, in thy ways, and I will endeavour to reclaim all sorts of sinners from their evil ways, As there be several sorts and degrees of transgressors; so I will apply my counsels and admonitions, in several kinds, respectively.  
I will teach sinners of 
Sin of infirmity.  infirmity; that they yield not at all to the assaults and allurements of sin; that they fight courageously in that never-dying combat between the flesh and the Spirit; that in no wise they suffer themselves to be carried away Captives to sin; that they let not sin reign, howsoever it will remain, 
Rom. 6.  in their mortal bodies. I can, and will tell them (out of knowledge and experience,) that if they give the water passage but a little, they shall not be able to withstand the Current of their own concupiscence; that a little spark of a wanton look upon Bathsheba, bred such a huge flame of lust in me, as I could not quench. That Satan is subtle and will cunningly insinuate himself every way; he will seek to make the breach where thy fortification is weakest; he will undermine, if he cannot batter thy strongest castle; if he see where thou mynest, he will countermine: That he makes semblance sometimes to strike at one place, when he intends to hit another; that now and then he feigns to make a retreat, when he returns suddenly again, to find thee the more unprovided. That he is like those Pirates which always carry in their ships, flags of peace, when they intent nothing but war; that when they hold out those flags, their enemies may hold them for friends, and so become their prisoners; and that therefore it behoveth them to watch continually, and carefully to keep Sentinel over themselves, and in time of peace, more than in time of war. The ship that saileth, many times incurs more danger when the Sea is quiet, then when storms arise: for in the calm water, the Sailors ride without care, or dread of danger; but in time of tempest they provide for every mischief that may befall.  
I will tell them, that sinners 
Vitia catenata inter se.  are linked and chained, nexed and twisted together, so as one still draweth on another, and the lesser ever a greater; that Satan that foul thief, and old Setter, hath in each pack of thieves, little sins, 
〈◊〉. in lib. Sapient.  like little boys, to creep in at the windows, or other narrower passages, & then open doors for greater sinners, like greater thieves, to enter sreely, & so spoil the goodman of the house of all goodness & virtue, at their pleasure.  
I will teach sinners of 
Sin of presumption.  presumption, that as God is merciful, so he is just; that we must not so remember 
Volo te praesumere, ne diffidas, 〈◊〉 praesumere, ne torpescas. Bern. Ep. 87.  his mercy, as we forget his justice. Our Lord is sweet, but yet upright. All his ways are mercy and truth. These be the two feet, whereby he walketh 
Psal.  in his ways; that every sinner that will truly turn to God, must lay handfast on both these feet: for if he lay hold on 
Bernard.  mercy only, letting pass justice and truth, he must needs perish by presumption; If he apprehend justice only, without mercy, he cannot but perish by desperation. Let him therefore kiss both these feet, that he may, in respect of God's justice, retain fear; & in respect of his mercy, conceive hope. I 〈◊〉 teach them to tune their notes to my ditty; I 〈◊〉 
Psal. 101. 1  sing of mercy and 〈◊〉 I will not sing unto thee 〈◊〉 mercy alone, nor judgement alone (O God) 〈◊〉 mercy and judgement joined together. I will teach 
Absit ut redundantia clementiae coelestis, libidinem faciat humanae temeritatis.  them, what an absurd consequence, and unkindly kind of reasoning it is: In as much as God is merciful, loving and long suffering, therefore I will abuse his 
Tertul. de poenit.  mercy, and continue my 
Pravicordis est ideò 〈◊〉 esse, quia Deus bonus est. Bern. in Cantic.  wicked courses; I will do what liketh my wilful appetite; that, the Argument, in moral congruity, as well as logical divinity, holds strongly in the quite contrary form; God is gracious, and expects my conversion; and the longer he expecteth, the heavier will be my punishment when it cometh, if I neglect, or rather contemn the riches of his patience and gentleness; and therefore I ought, even to day, before to morrow, to hear his voice, and presently to accept of his undeserved mercy.  
Whereunto I will add another consideration, of great weight and much fear; and that is, Though 
Qui 〈◊〉 poenitenti veniam, non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. August.  God promise pardon to him that reputes, yet he doth not promise repentance to him that offends: (Repentance is his gift alone.) Though he offer thee grace to day, thou knowest not whether he will offer it again to morrow; though he afford thee life and memory this week, little dost thou know whether thou shalt enjoy these favours the next.  
Finally, I will teach them to take my whole period together, and not to catch at one piece only, for their advantage, or disadvantage rather, (which is against the rules both of Law and Logic,) for when I have said; The eyes 
Psal. 34. 15  of the Lord are upon the just, and his ears are bend to hear his prayers: I add on the other side, in the same sentence: But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to root out their memory from off the earth.  
My last Corollary and conclusion shall be; Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord: Therefore serve the 
Psal. 2. 11.  Lord in fear, and rejoice in him with reverence.  
I will teach transgressors 
Sin of Desperation.  in all kinds and degrees, that they do not at any hand, through the terror of their own sins, or apprehension of God's displeasure, either by cowardice or carelessness, quite despair of God's abundant mercy. I will use my best skill, and bestow the most powerful persuasion I can devose or find 〈◊〉 for the purpose. I will tell them of my soliloquy, and the secret conference between me and my soul, to this effect; Though, unhappy man that I am, I have not alone slipped, but fall'n; and not fall'n only, but fall'n foully too: though I have not only done much evil carelessly; but This Evil; This Evil in God's sight contemptuously, (This Evil, which is a massy chain of enormous iniquities, nexed and linked together, strongly binding, and grievously burdened my soul:) yet will I not do worse, or rather, what is worst of all; I will not still add sin unto sin; I will not fill up the full measure of my wickedness, with that horrible sin of sins; I will not stab my soul (if I may so say) with the deadly dagger of final impenitency; for the depth of desperation, is the height of impious abomination. I will not wilfully wayve, and scornfully reject his general, free, and gracious Pardon, proclaimed to all penitent sinners, without any exception or limitation at all. His benefits are infinite, endless, and inestimable; therefore the Origen, fountain, and wellspring of all these favours, graces, and good-turns, is infinite, unmeasurable, and far surpassing all the compass of man's understanding. But specially, he loveth souls, which are his by a manifold interest; created by him, when they were not; saved by him, when they were lost; marked for his, with the stamp of his own Image. far be it therefore from me to fall into that desperate resolution, which, of all other offences upon earth, doth most exasperate his anger, and doth deprive his divine Majesty of that most excellent property, wherein he chiefly delighteth and glorieth, which is, his infinite and unspeakable mercy.  
I am his workmanship (his hands have made me, and fashioned me:) The workman cannot choose but be favourable to his own work, especially so excellent and bountiful a workman as he is, towards such a work as man is, framed to his own shape and likeness. He is my Creator, and thereby privy to my frailty, of how brittle and weak a metal I was 
〈◊〉 1 3.  made. He is my Father, (which is the title of the greatest love and conjunction that nature hath left to men in this world;) and 
Facilè impetratur quod filius 〈◊〉. Tertul. de 〈◊〉.  therefore cannot but affect his child: His divine Majesty is so earnest and vehement to give assurance in this behalf; that being not contented to represent his love unto us by the love of a father's heart; he goeth further yet, and protesteth that his heart is more tender towards us, than the heart of any mother can be to the only child of her own womb. Can the mother 
Esa. 49.  forget her own infant? if she could, yet can I not forget or reject thee. Nay, he is my heavenly Father, who in 
Tam pater nemo, tam 〈◊〉 nemo. 〈◊〉. depoenit.  this perfection of true fatherly love, so far exceedeth all earthly parents put together, as in power, clemency and goodness he surpasseth the infirmity of his feeble creatures; and therefore his bowels and entralls of tender and endless mercy, will be moved (I know) in commiseration towards me, unfeignedly returning unto him.  
Nay, I have yet a further claim, and title to his gracious favour & compassionate mercy, in that he is not only my Creator, and Father, but my Redeemer 
job 19 25.  also. I know (with holy job) that my Redeemer liveth, for I have 〈◊〉 it by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; that 〈◊〉 will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
〈◊〉. 16. 1.  hell, nor suffer his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉 this be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the 〈◊〉 by the act 〈◊〉 execution and performance 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 in the fullness of time, it will be accomplished and acted, to the admiration of all the earth, and the amplification of his eternal glory. Not his Son only, but his only Son, will take my nature upon him, become flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bones, will vouchsafe to be borne of a Virgin, descended of mine own race and pedigree; he will converse upon the earth, in the similitude of sinful flesh; he will, in the nature and property of man, not only suffer hunger and thirst, but also all manner of indignities, affronts, and disgraces; he will be content to be beaten, and buffeted, lanced, & pierced, wounded and crucified for me, and for my sake; he will shed his blood upon the Cross, as a malefactor, to satisfy God's justice, and to purchase my freedom from hell, and everlasting damnation. And sithence he hath in his immutable decree given him, and will in his time, apparently give him to such a shameful death, for gaining me unto him; how should he not, but with him give all 
Rom. 8. 31.  things else whatsoever? I know and am assured, that he who believeth in Christ to come, hath as 〈◊〉 and full interest in his excessive love, and this inestimable benefit, as he who shall believe in him, when and after he is come. The times must be changed, 
〈◊〉 variata 〈◊〉, non fides. August. in Psal. 51.  but it is and will be one and the same faith, yea and one & the same object of faith, in substance, in all times.  
His promises of pardon, whereby he hath obliged himself to sorrowful sinners, are affectionate, absolute, and universal. First, Whosoever shall 
2. Cor. 6.  depart from his wicked ways, & turn unto him, shall be received of him. Secondly, At what time soever 
Ezek. 18.  a sinner doth repent him of his sin, and turn to him, his wickedness shall not hurt him. Thirdly, If your sins were as 
Esa. 1.  red as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow.  
How then can I mistrust myself to be excluded from this assurance of mercy, wherein all sorts of people, all kinds of sins, all times and seasons are comprehended? His Love, that calls me to repentance, is inexplicable. His Truth, and certainty of promise, is infallible. His Power of performance, is omnipotent and endless.  
This threefold cord, or rope (which cannot be broken) bindeth me fast to the bar of his mercy, and will not suffer me to slip away, or start a side, till I have obtained full remission of all my sins.  
Cain, my unhappy precedent 
Gen. 4.  in murder, did more offend God, by those words; My sin is greater, then that I can 
August.  hope for pardon, then, by all his former iniquities. My confidence in this mercy is assured, and my hope invincible; therefore I resolve, though he kill me, 
Job 13. 15.  yet to trust in him, with holy job.  
I will tell such hopeless, and reckless persons, that my sins are set before them, for caution; my repentance, for imitation; that they which stand, may warily look to their 
August. in Psal. 51.  footing, that they fall not; and they that have 〈◊〉, may rise hopefully and speedily, by 〈◊〉, and not ingulfe themselves into the depth of all detestable enormities, specially the gulf of desperation.  
I will tell them, that their vouching of my example, to extenuate, is an 
August. ibid.  odious circumstance, to aggravate, such sins as I have committed. So as he that shrouds himself under this sinful shadow, offends, even in that respect, in a higher degree than I did; because he wittingly propounds an unwarrantable precedent to warrant his wickedness; whereas I fell only through frailty, without alleging, or thinking of any such pretence or pattern. I will tell them, that Nathan the Prophet was sent to rouse me out of security, but I am sent as a Prophet 
August. in Psal. 51.  to raise them to repentance, and to rescue them from 〈◊〉: I will advise them, that are prone to 〈◊〉 God his bundant mercy, to hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉; to hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 with me; to hear me wailing and weeping, and to join their tears 〈◊〉 mine; to hear me reform, and to rejoice with me; that howsoever 〈◊〉 could not stay the current of their own sins, they stop not the 〈◊〉 of God's mercy, 〈◊〉 they have sinned; that howsoever they could not bar sin from entering in, they exclude not hope of pardon, out of the doors of their sinful souls.  
Hast thou sinned? Repent, 
Chrysost. in Psal. 51.  Hast thou sinned a thousand times wretchedly? Repent a thousand times unfeignedly. This is the only Oil, that may be poured into thy wounded soul, and afflicted conscience, to revive, and refresh it at all times. This sovereign salve is of power, to cure, and recover thy most incurable, and desperate sores, and diseases of sin, yea, if thou be upon thy deathbed, and ready to breathe out thy soul and spirit, even at the last gasp, fear not to repent, 
Nec enormitas criminis, nec extremit as temporis.  for that God's mercy is not restrained, either by the enormity of Crime, or extremity of time; and for that, between the bridge 
Inter pontem & fontem.  and the brook (as they say) when thou art fall'n from the one, and not fall'n into the other, God's grace may intervene, to save thee from downing.  
Howbeit, let not this ftrong water, and most comfortable Cordial of the tears of repentance, make thee negligent, to delay thy conversion to God; both, because repentance will not come at thy beck and call, (being by custom habituated in sin;) and because also, though true repentance be never too late, yet late 
Sera 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 vera.  repentance is seldom true, and such as it should be: but let it only revive and animate thy confidence in Gods bottomless mercy, if, and when thou art in the greatest straits, and come to the last exigent, to preserve thee from utterly fainting, and falling into the deadly swoone of desperation.  
The impious persons, or sinners shall be converted unto thee. I do not, I may not, say, I will convert sinners unto thee; for conversion of sinners, is a peculiar belonging to thine own jurisdiction; a case reserved to thy power alone; a branch of thy Prerogative and honour, which thou wilt not impart to any other. Well I may plant by my instructions and admonitions; I may water by my practice and example: but it is the influence of thy grace, that must give the increase. I will by the assistance of thy Spirit, do my best and uttermost endeavour, with fidelity and diligence ministerially to help, and cooperate with thee the prime Agent and principal Efficient in this most difficult and important affair: for a greater business it is to regenerate, then to create; to build a new house upon a false and rotten foundation, than it was to erect the first Fabric. And I hold myself the more obliged to this service, because I have not only scandalised thine own people, the jews, by my heathenish iniquities; but I have caused thy holy name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles also: for me thinks, I hear thine own people whispering and murmuring among themselves, in this sort; If this King and Prophet did believe what he pretends and professes, his behaviour would be suitable to his belief; his actions answerable to his profession; his words and deeds would better tune together, and not make such a harsh discord as they do. Surely, sithence works are surer testimonies than words, of our hearts affections, we may justly conceive, that he useth Religion only, as a stalking horse, to serve the turn for policy and worldly respects, that he thinks and says in his hart, though not with his mouth, There is no God.  
The Gentiles, on the other side, who are Aliens from God his covenant, & strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel, me thinks, I hear them boldly, and broadly speaking to this effect: That King that seeks by all means, both of prowess, & policy, to reduce us under his obedience, to the worship of his God, and the embracing of his Religion, we see how he carries himself; we can discern by our light, that he violates the law of nature imprinted in all men's hearts; that he shamelessly defiles the beds of his Subjects, and kills them cruelly and treacherously, at his pleasure, to attain his lustful desires. We will be still irreligious, rather, of no religion, than his religion; we will submit ourselves to any Prince's yoke; we will fall into any man's hands, rather than his.  
To make amends for these faults, and to repair these ruins, I will teach at home and abroad, jews and Gentiles, such as err either in Religion, or conversation, the ways of God and godliness, by instruction, by discipline, by example; what hath fallen to the ground by my evil, I will build up again by my good demeanour; my light shall so shine before Domestickes & Foreigners; before mine own Subjects, and before others, both Princes & people, as they shall glorify the God of Israel, they shall believe 
Psal. 48. 1. & 95. 3.  and say, Great is the Lord, and worthy to be served above all gods; Blessed is the Lord, even the God of Israel for ever.   

14 Deliver me from blood 〈◊〉, O Lord, thou that art the God of my salvation.  
AMong all my sins, which are sans number, & many of them heinous in their quality; this horrible and crying sin of murder lieth heaviest upon my distressed soul, in the general muster of my sins; the shedding of so much innocent blood, makes the most fearful and hideous apparition to my tormented conscience. In regard whereof I cry out, Deliver me, not from blood, but from bloods, in the plural number.  
I begged first indefinitely, 
〈◊〉 2.  that God would cleanse me from mine iniquities; then, that he would blot out all my transgressions universally. 
Verse 9  I presented and iterated this petition in humility and faith, knowing that my prayers, if they were not so accompanied, could not prevail. Howbeit, because this sin seems so enormous, so exorbitant, that it can hardly be comprised and involved in the generality of all my sins; I send up a single petition as a special messenger for more surety, in no other errand, but to solicit at the Court of Heaven, that this grievous, this bloody sin, may be not only necessarily employed and enfolded, but expressly named and specified in my general and gracious pardon.  
Thou didst in thy Leviticall 
Levit. 7. 26 27.  Law forbid thy people to eat any flesh, with the blood thereof (whatsoever soul eateth any manner of blood of Fowl, or Beast, that soul shall be cut off from the people) that thou mightest make them so much the more to abhor the blood of man, wherein his life consisteth.  
Deliver me (O God) from the guilt of that blood which I have spilt by the 〈◊〉 of Captain 〈◊〉, and so many Soldiers under his command, from the punishment of that sin threatened by Nathan, (that blood should not depart from my house) and finally from future blood, that I may never imbrue my hands in blood hereafter.  
The tears of those widows, whose husbands were slain in that disastrous assault made at Rabbah; the cries of those children, whose Fathers then lost their lives; have mounted up to 〈◊〉, do frame my indictment, and make my Process against me before thy Tribunal, and do call instantly for judgement, according to the just law of Retaliation; He that sheddeth man's blood, his blood shall be shed.  
Wherefore, that I may the sooner obtain my pardon in such latitude as I desire it, I do reinforce my prayer with all manner of zeal and earnestness. Deliver me, O God, thou that art the God of my salvation. I double thy Name, when I tender this single supplication, hoping by my affectionate insinuation, and vehement compellation, to draw thy gracious compassion towards me: I take hold of thee, as it were, with both my hands: I cry incessantly for pardon of this sin, which cries so eagerly in thine ears for vengeance against me.  
Thou God of my salvation. 
Psal. 3. 8.  I said elsewhere, that salvation is the Lords, because it can flow from no other fountain; but here I desire to apply it particularly, to draw the water to mine own Mill, and to appropriate it, as it were, wholly to myself. Thou art of that gracious nature, as we cannot better please thee, then by challenging a special interest in thy love, by assuring ourselves that thou art ours: so that howsoever our premises be general for remission of sins, our conclusion must be special, proper, and peculiar: Thou art my God, and the God of my salvation.  
I will sing joyfully, or aloud of thy Righteousness.] The satisfaction should be answerable to the trespass done, and the retribution to the benefit received, in some proportion. As to a greater sin, a deeper repentance is due; so for a more bountiful favour, a larger return of thankfulness is, (of congruence) required. I have grieved beyond measure for my bloody sin; for the inestimable benefit of my free pardon, I know not what to render again. In brief, I can return nothing but praises and thanks; (a poor requital for so rich a mercy:) But sithence I can yield no better, no other; it is meet I should improve this, and set it forth to the utmost advantage. Wherefore I will sing joyfully, with a lively spirit, with a cheerful heart, I will sing vocalissimè Alleluia. My tongue shall become a Trumpet of thy praises, which shall sound them out lustily and loudly: I will bestow all my breath and strength in proclaiming thine honour: I will become a chief Chanter: I will elevate the note in the highest strain: I will so chant out thy praises, as thou shalt take notice of it abundantly, and so, as the noise may be heard, not only in my private Chapel, or Oratory, but in the chief Cathedral Churches, in the greatest congregations on Earth, yea, even in the blessed Synod of Angels and Saints in heaven. Nay, I will not only sing myself, but I will call in others also to make up a full Choir: O come, 〈◊〉 us sing 
Psal. 95.  loudly, let us 〈◊〉 rejoice, etc.  
Thy righteousness, that is, Thy faithfulness and truth, in accomplishment of thy gracious promises to such, as truly and sincerely repent, and humbly & hopefully crave pardon for their sins: for true justice doth much consist in the due performance of promises. Thou thyself hast made thyself our debtor, 
Debitorem se fecit, deus non accipiendo, Sed 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉, etc.  not by receiving from us. but by promising to us. No man can say unto thee, Render, Lord, what thou hast received: but every 
Augus. Psal. 25. 10  man may, and must say; Perform, O Lord, what thou hast promised.  
All thy ways are mercy and truth; Mercy, whereby thou forgivest sinners, and Truth, whereby thou makest good thy promises. O then, how happy are the people, whose God is the Lord, who by his 〈◊〉 promise is become their faithful debtor, and whose justice gives assurance of his mercy, whose mercy and truth are met together, and whose righteousness and peace have kissed each other! So as by a reverend confidence, and a holy kind of boldness, I may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thee in this 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 by the worth of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of thy promise, not to lay my sins to my charge; be they never so many, never so great, I may plead my interest in the death of my Saviour, and in thy faithful promise, and free pardon, to this effect:  
O my God, thou that art the God of my salvation; it is agreeable to divine and humane justice, to keep promise, to perform covenant. In the new and sacred covenant, it is the Article of Inprimis (as they say) that thou wilt forgive the sins of thy people: & remember their iniquities no more. Make good then thy word, and full agreement, really and effectually. It stands not with thy justice to exact twice one and the same debt of me. My surety and elder Brother Christ jesus, hath paid the debt which I owed, hath suffered the punishment which I deserved: wherefore enter not into judgement with thy unworthy servant, O Lord; but for the 〈◊〉 of his death and passion, accepted by thee; with free consent, for full satisfaction, let me be acquitted and discharged of all my transgressions whatsoever. I will rely and repose myself securely, upon thy word and promise, because thou hast ratified and confirmed it with an oath, with a solemn oath. Thou hast sworn by thyself, (because there is no greater to swear by) by thy 〈◊〉; the Lord jehovah 
Psal. 132. 11.  swore unto David; Truth, that is, a true oath, a faithful promise: or Truth, that is, God swore unto David; He will not turn away the face of his Anointed, his seed shall endure for ever: thou hast sworn by thy life; I will not the death of a 
Ezech. 33. 11.  sinner, if he repent, he shall live. Oh happy people, for 
O nos soelicis quorum causd Deus iurat! O nos 〈◊〉, si nec Deo, etc. Tertul. 〈◊〉.  whose cause thou vouchsafest to swear! Oh most miserable wretches, if we believe thee not when thou swearest! Thy word (O Lord) is an 〈◊〉 in itself and of itself, (so faithful thou art) but to give us full 〈◊〉, thou dost condescend to our capacity and infirmity, thou makest assurance to men, after the manner of men (with whom, a promise clothed with an oath, seems of greater strength and validity, than a bare and naked word) and therefore out of abundance of thy love, dost use a protestation, or adjuration (otherwise needless) to remove out of our incredulous hearts, all distrust, and colour of dubitation.   

15 Open thou my lips, O Lord, and, etc.  
But I have been too forward (now I think of it) to engage myself, so deeply, to sing joyfully, and sound loudly thy righteousness. I confess I have promised more than I can perform; I have assumed and presumed, to do that 〈◊〉 is out of my power, unless thou (O Lord) be pleased, by thy gracious favour, to enable me for accomplishment thereof. It is graceful to me to show my sefe grateful to thee; yea, it is just, that for the singular benefit of thy justice, in performing promised and undeserved mercies, I 〈◊〉 render all possible thanks, and return all manner of praises, unto thee; but this I am not able to make good, without thy goodness. As I could not repent, nor believe; so neither can I yield thanks or praises, but by thy gifts & grace alone.  
I am blind, and cannot see; deaf, & cannot hear; dumb, and cannot speak thy wonders, thy words, thy praises, unless thou open mine eyes, ears, and lips. It is thou alone that must speak in me, that must work in me, both to will and to do, nay, thou must do in me, and for me, what thou requirest to be done by me; else it will be unsaid, and undone; thou must be all in all to 〈◊〉, else all will be nothing.  
Who is he among the sons of Adam, that cannot sing and say any thing that is evil, by his own power and will, by Satan's instigation, (howbeit, not without God his permission) that cannot speak vain and wicked words, that cannot sing wanton and ribald songs, scandalous and scurrilous libels, that cannot blaspheme thee, slander his neighbours, that cannot flatter his superiors basely, lie to his equals cunningly, reproach his inferiors scornfully, that cannot say and unsay, swear and forswear, and what not? But it is a good thing to sing praises to thee; That he cannot do, nor say aught else that is good, unless thou put the thoughts into his heart, and the words into his mouth. Wherefore open thou my lips, O Lord, circumcise them, untie the strings of my tongue, and 〈◊〉, (not before) my mouth shall show forth thy praise, My lips shall speak thy praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.  
It is possible for a man, that is stirred up and prevented by thy grace, to think and conceive well, what is to be said: but to utter & deliver that well, is a further blessing, and requires a new supply and help of grace, for guiding and governing the tongue, in that behalf. Nay, there is yet a further and subsequent grace required, to take a fit occasion and opportunity, seasonably to utter what is well conceived and digested, both in regard of the speaker and hearers, that all intervenient impediments may be removed and taken away. And in our case, this is the more requisite, because our prayers and praises commonly go together (as is meet) so as at one and the same time, we are, both to encounter Satan (who is then most busy to distract and disturb us,) and God himself, to whom by the fervent importunity of our prayers, we must offer a kind of violence, as jacob did, when he was said to have wrestled with thee.  
Wherefore there is required a long Chain, fastened by many several links of grace, to bind together this blessed work, of setting forth thy just and due praises.  
My mouth shall show forth thy praise,] not only in Psalms and Hymns, with all manner of jubilation, but in the instruction, admonition and correction of wicked and impious ones, and the reduction of them to thy law and lore. Nay, I will play the Advocate, & open my mouth for widows, orphans, and other miserable creatures, such as are tongue-tied and cannot, as are overawed, and dare not speak for themselves. I will in earnest and effectual manner recommend the care and protection of them also, to all my subordinate Magistrates and Ministers. He that speaks for such Clients, may be said to be thine own mouth, because thou 〈◊〉 the Patron of all those that are oppressed, for want of assistance and defence, and men undertake their causes by thy special assignment and deputation, which redounds to thy praise and glory, in an extraordinary manner.  
True it is, that the thankfulness of the heart, is the heart of thankfulness; there is the wellspring. The heart, as a King, commands this duty to be done; the tongue, like an Herald, sounds the Trumpet. As the heart is the hart, & the tongue the trumpet; so the life, is the life of thankfulness, it must be acted indeed, as well as proclaimed with the mouth. Then will the tune be perfect, when there is a true consort, between the heart, and the tongue, and the deed. The thanks and praises must be cordial, vocal, and real, all together.  
I do sometimes, in contemplation and admiration of thy wonderful blessings & bountiful favours, wherewith thou hast laden my soul (as it were) break out into this exclamation and interrogation; Quid retribuam? What shall 
Quid retribuam.  I render to thee, Lord, for all 
Psal. 116. 12.  thy mercies? In an amazed astonishment, when I can give myself no satisfactory answer, knowing, that all I can do, is less than nothing, in comparison of what thou hast done to me, or I should and would do to thee; yet thinking 
Inuenit 〈◊〉 aliquid. Aug.  that I find (as it were) something, I resolve to make some show of return at least, and to take the Cup of salvation, or of health, and call upon the name of 〈◊〉, according to the custom of our Church and people, who for benefits received, use to offer peace or thanke-offerings, whereof they eat and rejoice before the Lord, and at their banquets take up the Cup of wine, in their hands, and bless God (called thereupon, The Cup of Blessing.)  
When I seek seriously what I might render unto thee, I find nothing but what is thine already, and therefore I must desire thee to give me, to give thee, & when all is done, I must give thee of thine own, else I can give thee nothing.  
For who hath prevented thee, or been aforehand with 
job 22. 2.  thee? Who hath given thee first? Wherefore, when 
1 Cor. 4. 7.  the question is pursued and pressed yet further, who hath given me this Cup of salvation? I must ingeniously confess, that even thou hast furnished me with this kind of retribution, I cannot make this good without thy goodness; I cannot praise thee, unless 〈◊〉 open my lips with the key of thy grace, and tune my tongue and voice to sing; Praise thou 
Psal. 103.  the Lord, etc. O my soul.  
I have nothing of mine own to give but my sin, and that may not be presented unto thee. My sin is mine indeed, and not thine, (I have the full interest and ownership thereof.) Whatsoever I have else is thine, and not mine, thou art the sole Author and proprietary thereof. Mine is only the fruition and use by thy permission, and as a Tenant at will. I am but instrumentum animatum, a mere instrument, living by thy breath.  
Thou must open my lips, else my mouth cannot utter thy praises. The very sound and voice in me, is thine, I am but the Echo to resound and return it again. As the Rivers flow from the the sea, and reflow back into it: so even thy praises must come from thy 〈◊〉, to set forth thy glory.  
Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it, or had given it.] In regard of the heavy burden of many sins, oppressing my soul, and the fearful apprehension of thy just indignation conceived against me, to ease and free myself, to appease and please thee, what would I not do? what would I not suffer? what would I not offer? But I have nothing whereby I might redeem thy favour towards me. For if I had Mountains of Gold, if I had Rivers of Oil, if I had ten thousand sacrifices to bestow upon thee, it booted me nothing; they are all thine own already; and beside, thou makest not account or esteem of any of these things at all, which I do not deliver to disallow, or altogether disualue all kind of 〈◊〉, by slaughter of Beasts and Birds, appointed by thee, and prescribed by thine own Law; but because these are signs only, and representations to the weak capacities of mortal men, of that real, effectual, renowned, and eternal sacrifice, once to be offered for the redemptition of mankind. I know (O Lord) by the illumination of thy holy Spirit, that it is an inward and internal, not an outward or external sacrifice, which thou (being a spirit) delightest in: Thou lookest upon the heart, and pious affections thereof alone.  
I conceive, that to draw 
〈◊〉. cont. Mar cio.  thine own people from the superstitious Idolatry whereunto the Gentiles (through the blindness of their understanding, and the delusions of Satan) were so prone, and so much addicted, and to teach them to embrace such worship of thee, as thou shouldest prescribe, not themselves 〈◊〉, thou hast instituted sundry kinds of sacrifices, upon several occasions to be offered unto thee, with an indulgent respect to our infirmity, (who being carnal, delight in outward shows, without which we cannot so easily comprehend those inward services and spiritual duties, to be performed by us) and ever with relation to the true substance of the hearts affections, to be erected, and consecrated wholly to thine honour.  
For thou hast not 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thyself. 〈◊〉 wouldst not drink the blood of Bulls and Goats. 
〈◊〉. 50.  The eternal God doth neither hunger nor thirst, etc. But a single and sincere mind fearing God, of those that offer such things as they have from thee, is a sweet smelling and wellpleasing sacrisice to thee, by thy gracious acceptation: who dost not so much regard the thing that is done, in this kind, as the mind where with it is done, and the end wherefore it is done, to wit, thine own glory.  
Thou dost not respect the shadow, but the substance; not the shell, but the kernel; not the chaff, but the corn; not the sign, but the thing signified. At least thou doeft not esteem the type without the truth, nor the figure in any degree of comparison, with that which is represented thereby, and therewith to be presented unto thee, that is, a broken heart.  
The sacrifices of God (in the plural number) because this one is many sacrifices, this one is all the sacrifices that thou expectest at our hands.  
A broken heart, a contrite spirit, (diverse words importing one and the same thing) is a heart wounded, a spirit dejected and perplexed with the sight and sense of sin committed, mourning and melting into tears, through the remorse of conscience, grievously lamenting that it was so wretched and wicked, as gracelesly and ungratefully to reject the just laws of so powerful a judge, and to neglect the kind invitations of so pitiful a Father, and all for a little vain, idle, foolish, frothy, and fruitless pleasure, which was mingled with 〈◊〉 in that little time, wherein it was so greedily 〈◊〉, and pleasingly 〈◊〉.  
Now, 〈◊〉 doth thy gracious goodness wonderfully show and 〈◊〉 forth itself, that thou not only 〈◊〉 to teach us what to do, and what to say, how to 〈◊〉 our actions, and frame our supplications, that, both in word and deed, we may please thee; but also when we have offended & displeased thee; to tell us how to pacify and appease thee again; The Sacrifices of God are, etc.  
Nay further, thou dost not require such a sacrifice, as must be procured and purchased from abroad, with much care and cost, far fetched and dear bought (as they say) but such a sacrifice as we have, or may have, in our own bosoms. 〈◊〉 à te extrâ 
〈◊〉. PP.  to quaeritur: Thou requirest nothing from me, but what is within me.  
Beyond all this, thou dost us the honour, and trustest us, with the office of Priests that we may be sure to see this Sacrifice duly performed. We must our selnes, for our 〈◊〉, offer up our 〈◊〉, in humility & contrition (which is 〈◊〉 only 〈◊〉 and unbloody 〈◊〉) 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thee.  
Every 〈◊〉 as a 〈◊〉 Priest, 〈◊〉 a victim 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Aug in 〈◊〉.  within 〈◊〉, to offer the franke-Incense that must be put upon the Altar, in his own bowels; in his own heart, a Sacrifice, that is of force, to 〈◊〉 and win thee to compassion, he need not seek for a beast abroad to slaughter, and burn to ashes, he hath within himself, that he may and should kill. He may slay sin, he may mortify his earthly members, he may strike with the hammer of sound repentance, upon the hard Anuile of his stony heart, till it be mollified, bruised, and brayed to pieces, and then it will be thy time & turn (as it is thy greatest honour,) to bind up and heal the wounded and broken hearted.) He may kill and sacrifice to thee, his Bull of pride, his Goat of lasciviousness, his Ram of stubbornness, his Birds of flying and wandering imaginations, and so the rest of his carnal & sensual affections which being beastly, do turn men into beasts, defacing that Image of thee, wherein they were created to holiness, and righteousness; The moral whereof, is this; He may, in a life of virtue and piety offer up, the death of his vices & iniquities to thee.  
He that reputes his sins, 
Omnis quem poenitet, rixatur secum. Aug. in Psal. 33.  doth chide and brawl, quarrel and brabble, he doth expostulate and fall out with himself, in this tune; Oh unhappy wretch, why wouldst, how couldst thou, so basely stoop, to the lure of fleshly wantonness, of worldly profit, of spiteful revenge, of treacherous infidelity? how couldst thou be induced to sell thine inheritance for a mesle of Pottage, thy ever during treasure in heaven, for a little flitting and unconstant trash of the world? What fruit hast thou now of 〈◊〉 the forbidden fruit, of enjoying those sinful and momentany pleasures, whereof thou art so much ashamed? was not the terrible voice of the Law, thundering out hell and damnation, of power to fright thee from rebellion, were not the sweet promises of the Gospel, of force to invite thee to the 〈◊〉 and constant service of God?  
Nay, beyond chiding and brawling, a true penitent, must chastise and punish himself. Thy Justice, O God, although it be fully satisfied, by that all sufficient obedience and propitiatory Sacrifice of the Lamb, slain from the beginning of the world, yet as a fruit of our repentance, expects from us a holy revenge upon ourselves. We must judge our 
Peccatores, vindica 〈◊〉, exige de te poenas, crucia teipsum, etc. Aug. in Psa. 140  selves, that we be not judged, and lest our judgements become fruitless and elusory, We must put them in execution, severely, without pity, or partiality. Let us therefore prevent his face of Majesty, his countenance of Authority, by confession, (which confession, is a profession of forsaking our former faults.) The judge 
Currat poenitentia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sententia. Cbrys.  we cannot, the judgement we may prevent, if we take the opportunity, and repent truly and timely of our sins, thou wilt mercifully and graciously repent thee of the judgements, denounced & doomed against us. Therefore it be houeth every man, to keep a Court at home, and therein to sit, as chief justice, to indict and arraign himself at the bar of his own conscience, & where he finds the fault, there to inflict punishment. In as much as at these Assizes, the heart must needs be found the greatest offender, because from the heart doth flow, all vain and sinful imaginations, all idle and wicked words, all lewd and scandalous actions; let him do justice upon his heart, in the first place, let him correct the pride of it, by humiliation, the wantonness of it, by contrition, the jollity of it by sorrow, the stubornenesse of it by weeping, the gluttony of it by fasting, the covetousness of it by almes-giving; and so according to the rule of Physic, cure each contrary by his contrary affection.  
The physic must be applied to that part of the body, which is ill affected, the salve laid upon the place that is sore. Where the sin breeds & swells, there must the sinner cut and lance. He must prick his heart to the quick, and let out store of tears, as the former, and latter rain. As our hearts have been fatted and pampered (as it were) with sin; so they should grow lean and meager again, by sorrow for sin.  
Look how much the 
In quantum tibi non peperceris, in tantum tibi Deus parcet. Tertul. de poenit.  less I spare myself, so much the more wilt thou spare me. My repentance doth in a sort execute thy vengeance, and with a temporal vexation, doth prevent and avoid thine eternal damnation, by casting me down, it lifts me up, by making me ugly in mine own, it presents me pure in thine eyes, by accusing, it doth excuse, by condemning, it doth acquit me.  
It is a kind of unhappiness, to be seared and cauterised with an hot iron, and fretted with an eating powder; but those means and medicines, which do cure by sharpness and sourness, by the benefit which they procure, do excuse their distastfulnes, and by the succeeding profit, do allay the present pain.  
By sin, thy spirit takes occasion to increase grace, not by the nature of sin, but by the sovereignty of that spirit, which even of sins makes a plaster against sin. For I being as sick of sorrow as of sin, may hopefully resort to thee, the Physician of my soul, whose end of coming into the world is, to cure the sick, especially such as feel themselves sick, enen at the heart.  
I must break my golden 
Exod. 32.  Calf, that is, any idol of sin, which my corrupt heart doth serve and worship, I must burn it with zeal, and with contrition grind it to powder, and then strowing it upon the water of tears, drink it up again. By this thy gracious means, an Antidote will be drawn out of poison, the oil will cure the bitings of Scorpions, the worm will gnaw the wood, the moth the cloth that bred it, the very excrements of my sinful soul, like dung and manor, will fatten and make it fruitful in goodness.  
The hunted and wounded 
Tertul. de poeniten.  Hart, by eating of an herb knows how to help 
〈◊〉.  and heal himself, and to make the arrow that pierced his ribs, to fall to the ground.  
The Swallow when she hath put out the eyes of her young ones; knows by an herb of her own name, how to restore their sight again.  
Thy herb of grace, the juice whereof, is our repentance, doth expel the fiery darts of Satan shot by sin into our souls, and this eye-salue doth cause us though never so much blinded with sin, to see, both our error, in committing, and thy mercy in pardoning our offences.  
The most powerful rhetoric, to move thee to pity, is repentance, and the most delightful Music in thine ears, is that doleful ditty, tuned to a trembling tongue and a quavering voice, peccavi in coelum, etc. Against thee, against thee only, I have offended.  
The string bends the 
Nerve curuabitur arcus. Igne Chalibs.  strongest bow, the fire mollifies the hardest steel, the Goat's blood breaks 
Adamas, Sanguine, cord Deus. Mantuan.  even the Adamant; I hope my hearts humble and melting repentance, will appease thy hottest and heaviest indignation conceived against me.  
The most worn and torn linen, by contusion and grinding in the Mill, makes smooth and white paper. Even so, my most base and rotten rags of vanity and wickedness, by true contrition (with thy benediction) will produce a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. The corruption and consumption of the one, will prove the generation or regeneration of the other.  
To sacrifice & to kill, are expressed by one and the same word, in holy writ, because every sacrifice was slain in thy Leviticall law, but this breaking of my heart, and offering my body in sacrifice to thee, is an evangelical sacrifice, because therein (which may 
Hostia 〈◊〉 ctatur & vivit. Crysol. in 12. Rom.  seem strange) the sacrifice is slain, and yet liveth: For it is my faith, not my death, which thou seekest, thou thirstest for my holy desires, not my polluted blood, thou art appeased with my willingness to renounce the world, not with my departure out of the world. This was Abraham the Father of all thy faithful ones, his sacrifice, which thou requiredst of him. For what did Abraham, but offer his own body in his Son? What didst thou require of him but his Faith, who, as thou didst command 
Sicut offerri iussit sic non 〈◊〉 occidi. Chrysol.  his Son to be offered, so thou wouldst not suffer him to be killed. I hold it a wise and an advantageous course in any man, to dye to sin that he may live to righteousness, to mortify the old man, that he may be quickened in the new, to dye daily, that he may live eternally. Wherefore I will dye, that I may not dye, I will wound my hart with temporary contrition, that I may avoid the deadly wounds of 〈◊〉, who desires my everlasting destruction. I will live a dying life, that I may not dye a 〈◊〉 death: For thy sake are we killed all the day long, and right dear in thy sight is this death of thy Saints. Here I can be contented to stir up an holy emulation between those that thus dye, and such as are stoned, burned, or otherwise done to death for defence of thine honour and testimony of thy truth, 
Cyprian. de dupl. 〈◊〉.  who, by excellency are termed Martyrs. These die but once, and at once, their pain is soon past, but the other die a linger death, they die daily and continually. It is accounted 
Genus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cito occidere. Seneca.  a mitigation of cruelty, and a kind of mercy, to put men to death quickly. This Martyrdom 
Morsque minus poenam quam mora 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Maxim Eleg.  of mortification, God doth highly prize, without that other, which is by effusion of blood; this must go before that, 
Non Mar 〈◊〉 Sola sanguinis effusio consummat nec solam dat Palmam, exustio illa 〈◊〉. Multi ducunt 〈◊〉, in 〈◊〉 Aug.  and that without this, is of no worth, nor deserves the name of Martyrdom at all. Whose Martyrdom shall I dare to compare, with the various, hideous and tedious sufferings of holy job? The best is; this contention for immortality, 
Auth. de dupl. Martyr.  will not only be mortal, but soon at an end. The Martyrs of both sorts (so I term them, because they die in, and for thee) shall have fullness of felicity to satiate their largest desires, for they both shall have, both, joy without measure, and life without end, they shall both enjoy abundance of pleasures, at thy right hand for evermore.  
The sum of all is, I must drench and drown my sins, and the corrupt affections of my wicked heart, in the sea of sorrowful repentance, and then my soul will nimbly and swiftly swim to the land of promise, and haven of happiness.  
They that will offer this sacrifice, their hearts must fall from the high mountain of pride, down into the lowest valley of humiliation, and they must be bruised with the fall, & pained with the bruise. I will present an humble, bruised, and sorrowful heart unto thee.  
Thou, O Lord, art nigh to them that are of a contrite 
job. 30. 29.  spirit, who speak to thee, in bitterness their soul, who cry like the Dragon and Ostrich, for grief of their sins committed. They who cry, De profundis, out of the 
August. in Psal.  deep, are not in the deep their very cry rears and raises them up. Thine ear is within man's heart, thou perceivest the hearts first relenting, before it come to the tongues relating. I did purpose, and say, within myself, I will confess my 
Psal. 32.  sin; and thou tookest notice thereof, and forgivest the iniquity of my sin.  
Thus saith the High and 
Esay 57  lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose Name is holy, 〈◊〉 dwell in the High and holy place, with whom? with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to what end? to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.  
Thou wilt not despise, nay, thou wilt highly prise, graciously receive, 〈◊〉 and comfort thou wilt give them beauty for 
Esay 61. 3.  ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of gladness, for the spirit of heaviness. As a bone in the arm, or leg once 
Firmior est fides quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉. 5.  broken, and being well set again, grows stronger than if it had never been broken: so our hearts, being well and sound healed by true repentance, of the sores and bruises of sin, become more firm and stable then ever they were before. Thus my foul fall becomes foelix culpa, I am after a sort happy in my unhappiness, for out of my great misery, through thy greatest mercy, a greater happiness doth arise, than ever I felt before.   

18 O be favourable to Zion, for thy good pleasure.  
HE that prays to thee, must not pray for himself alone. Howsoever he begin with prayer for himself (when he hath gained some interest in thee for himself, he may the sooner prevail for others) he must end with prayer for thy Church, he must not end till he have recommended the whole Church in his prayers unto thee. He that is a lively and feeling member of that mystical body, whereof thy Christ is the head, must pray for the whole body. As in the natural body the heart feels the akeing of the head, and the head the oppression of the heart, the heart and head both do resent a felon in one of the fingers, and the gout in one of the toes, the stomach simpathizeth with the brain, and the brain with the stomach; so, and much more is it in the mystical body. True Christians are like those Twins, who are reported to have wept and laughed, slept and waked, lived and died together. They must weep with them that weep, mourn with those that lament, suffer hunger, thirst, nakedness, and imprisonment, with others their brethren afflicted with such crosses, participate with them in all their miseries and adversities what soever. Captain Vriah mine honest servant could say; The Ark, and Israel, and judah abide in Tents, and my Lord joab, and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open field; and shall I then go into my house to eat and drink, and lie with my Wife: While they are in jeopardy, I cannot be in jollity; while they live in fear, I cannot enjoy security.  
Wherefore be favourable to Zion, to thy Church and chosen; I being one of them, must abide one and the same fortune and condition with them.  
This is that union of the Saints in thy Christ, that communion of them among themselves, which cannot easily be comprehended, much less fully expressed, and yet must it be constantly believed, and will be in some measure continually resented.  
The Church is represented by the name of Zion. Zion the holy Mountain in Jerusalem, which thou lovest, from whence thy law should come, and where thou wilt dwell for ever. jehovah hath chosen Zion, and desired it for his 
Psal. 132. 14.  seat, and said, This is my rest, here will I sit, even to perpetuity.  
But besides this general, I acknowledge myself tied by a special obligation to pray for Zion: for there was no let, on my part, but that the whole kingdom of thy Christ might have fallen to the ground; for, I being raised from the dunghill, to the Diadem; from the Park, to the Palace; from following the Ewes great with young, to feed thy people, and anointed King, to the end I should gather thy Church together, by my Apostasy have scattered and wasted it, so far forth as there is great cause to fear the utter ruin and desolation thereof.  
Wherefore by force, and in remorse of conscience, I beg for the sustentation and preservation of thy Church, through thy free and undeserved mercy. Thou, O Lord, art the only founder of this choice Company and corporation. As out of thy love only thou didst single and select them from other refuse people, before the foundation of the world, as by the same love thou hast supported and preserved them (amids all dangers and disasters) ever sithence; so, I beseech thee still to continue thine ancient, accustomed, and affectionate favour to them. Let not my unhappiness impeach their happiness; let not the dark and foggy mists of my wickedness, eclipse the light and lustre of thy countenance towards them; let them be still as dear unto thee as the apple of thine own eye; do not spill them for my faults, but spare me and them for thine own sake.  
Thou dost often, and mayest always punish the people for the sins of their Princes. Wherefore I beseech thee not only to pardon my sins to myself, but to be favourable to my people also, and not to suffer them to smart, and suffer for my offences.  
It is I that have sinned and done evil indeed, but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand be on me, and my Father's house, but not on thy people, that they should be plagued. Let not the contagion of my corruption spread unto them, let not the punishments which I (their head) have deserved, fall upon their heads; be favourable to them, howsoever thou be displeased with me.  
I do acknowledge, that look how far Kings do exceed other men in place and dignity; so far do their sins surpass other men's sins in quality. Their sins, though less in their own nature, are greater by reason of their persons, they are crying, capital, and sinning sins. Wherefore it behoves me to repent more deeply to pray more earnestly, not only for myself, but for my people also, whom I have scandalised by my ill example, and exposed, as much as in me lay, to thy heaviest vengeance.  
For thy good pleasure, in thy good pleasure, according to thy good pleasure. I can propound no other motive, to induce thee, I can name no Saint, nor Angel in heaven, for whose 〈◊〉 I should entreat thee. Therefore for thy good pleasure, be favourable to Zion. No sacrifice, either without or within me is sacred enough, no sincerity in my thoughts, no holiness in my words, no uprightness in my actions, is of power to merit the least grace from thee. I for myself, and as Procurator for thy Church, do renounce all right, disclaim all desert, by means of any 〈◊〉 all of these. It is thine own loving kindness that must over come thee. There is no reason of thy love, but thy love, no reason of thy good will, but thy good pleasure. Stat pro ratione voluntas. 
Saluian.  Thy will is perfect 
Saluian.  justice, & stands for a law. Thou art not only loving, but love itself, for thou 
Non Elegit 〈◊〉, sed etc. Aug.  didst love thy Church and chosen first, thou didst not choose them worthy, but by choosing, didst make them worthy to inherit thy Kingdom, thou didst 
Quare gratia? quia gratis datur. Quare gratis datur? quia merita tua non 〈◊〉, sed beneficia Dei te 〈◊〉. Aug. in Psal. 30.  love them gratis, freely. Grace is not grace any way, unless it be free and gracious every way, without any precedent merit, or so much as love, on our parts.  
Build thou the walls of jerusalem.] I pray as for thy Church, so for thy Commonwealth, Zion, thy Church, jerasalem, thy City, Zion, thy holy habitation, jerusalem, the mother City of the Kingdom of Israel. I have done wrong to both, and therefore desire to make reparation, to both. That I can in no wise make, but by thy gracious favour, upon mine humble and earnest supplication. jerusalem, though a City of peace (as the word Salem imports) yet must be prepared and fortified for war, It must have Castles Towers, and walls, to defend them against the encounters of their enemies, which are many and mighty. There be walls of this City, which the world sees not, for thou, O Lord) art a wall of brass about her, and a wall of fire, to consume her foes, thine Angels pitch their tents about her Inhabitants. She hath also visible walls, framed of a number of lively stones, which being first rough, are hewed by affliction, in the quarry of this world, squared by repentance, and cemented by love, and so polished and made fit for the heavenly jerusalem, that truly glorious City. But I will not pray only for the defence and safety, but also for the peace and prosperity of the earthly jerusalem. O pray for the peace of jerusalem, they shall prosper that love her, peace be within her walls, and plenty within her palaces; because of my brethren, neighbours and companions, for the love I bear them out of natural affection and civil respect I pray for jerusalem; but chiefly and mainly, for thy House sake, O jehovah. This house is the heart of this body, it puts life into all the outward parts and members thereof and in a 〈◊〉 relation (though not in like proportion) those outward parts, do guard, and defend and cherish his heart.  
Thine Israel must needs be in much affliction and reproach, whiles the walls are unbuilded. Thou hast forbidden thy people to offer in every place. There thou art well pleased to have thy name called upon.  
I have much battered these walls, I have made large breaches in them, by my heinous offences, O Lord, I beseech thee who art the Arch-builder, to re-repaire these breaches, to build up these walls, that jerusalem may continue in safety, and 〈◊〉 in prosperity, not 〈◊〉 a few months or 〈◊〉, but even till the coming of thy Christ.  
Zion is the joy of the the whole earth; not only all the creatures, but all other men also, are created, 〈◊〉 and disposed for her good. For thy love of them, I must love them, for I cannot love thee, unless I love thy spouse, in whom thou delightest, which is mystically, yet really, one flesh with thee?  
I pray for favour to Zion, in the first place, for building the walls of jerusalem, in the second place, for good to the Kingdom in regard of the good that will thereby accrue to thy Church, the prosperity whereof, is the the prime object, and last compliment of my desires.  
Then when thou art become favourable to Zion, thy Church and chosen, when the place is builded, which thou hast singled out for thy seat and service, then wilt thou accept, and the people offer their sacrifices, inward and outward unto thee. This correspondency, and restipulation, as it were, between thee and thy people, that they shall offer cheerfully, and thou graciously entertain their services, is the foundation and height of true felicity.  
But they must be right sacrifices, or the sacrifices of righteousness, such as are required by thee, and in faith tendered unto thee, else will they not hit the mark whereat they aim. For it is not the deed done alone, that will avail, or work any good effect: it is not enough that the thing that is done be good, but it must be well done also. Bonum, benè the Noun without the Aducrbe, is of no value, or virtue at all.  
The burnt offerings of beasts and birds and other things wholly given up, in fire, by the Priests, and consumed to Ashes; the other oblations of peace and thanksgiving, made by the Laity according to thy prescription, though thou do not esteem them at all, when they are disjoined from an humble and penitent heart, yet being happily conjoined & consorted together, will be most grateful, and highly pleasing unto thee.  
They shall offer Bullocks upon thine Altar, and there slay them (which is the sign & figure) they shall withal, tender the calves of their lips, in praises and prayers, which is the substance and body thereby repesented. Thy Christ as their high Priest shall offer himself the sasacrifice, and upon him as their Altar they shall put their Incense of hearty devotion, by that mean, to become sweet smelling, in thy nostrils. He shall be the Priest, the Sacrifice Altar, all in all, himself. To him & be all honour and glory, etc.    

A SUMMARY PRAYER FRAMED OUT OF the Psalm, and Meditation together.  
O Most powerful wise and merciful, God, who hast created all things in heaven, & earth for the service of man, and man for thy service, who hast disposed all things, in number, 〈◊〉 and measure, who hast caused all things contained in holy Writ, to be recorded for the instruction and direction of thy Church and chosen: give me grace so to behold this mirror of humane frailty, and divine mercy, with the eye of true judgement, that I may not with the Spider draw poison, to the destruction, but with the Bee, suck such honey, as may be gathered out of it, to the solace of my sinful soul.  
Thou didst permit David, being an holy Prophet as well as a mighty King, advanced & anointed specially for the government of thy people, to fall foully into the heinous and grievous sins of Adultery and Murder, that no man might presume of thy favour or confide in his own strength; but evermore serve thee in fear, and rejoice in thee, with reverence.  
Thou didst also endue him with grace after his fall, by humiliation and repentance, to rise again and recover his former estate, notwithstanding his long security and careless continuance, upon the dregs of his wickedness, (as it were) in contempt of thy justice; that no man might despair of thy rich and tender mercy.  
Thou didst propound his fall, for caution; that all men might shun that dangerous rack, whereon he suffered shipwreck: his repentance, for imitation; that every man plunged into the sea of sin, might catch hold of the plank of repentance, to save himself from drowning.  
As thou didst bring light out of darkness, and life out of death, so dost thou, in an incomprehensible manner draw good out of evil, & turn the very sins of thy servants to thy glory, and their good.  
far be it from me, to vouch this example, by way of excuse, or defence, much less warrant to offend, as he did, howbeit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hope confidently with David, when and after I have offended (through thy gracious, goodness, and free promise by the tears of mine eyes, the contrition of my heart, and prayer of my spirit,) to obtain a full and gracious pardon, of all my offences whatsoever.  
Thou canst not, O Lord, but be highly displeased, when worms of the earth, dust and ashes, rottenness and corruption, having, without any desert at all, been adorned with thy gifts, and enlightened with thy graces, shall presume of thy favour, so far, as ungraciously and ungratefully instead of thanks and praises, to return contempts, and dishonours, to thy divine Majesty.  
But on the other side, thou canst in no wise endure, that the most wretched caitiff, the most shameful and wilful sinner that Satan can furnish out of hell, should despair of thine endless and bottomless mercy, wherein, above all other things thou dost so much delight and glory, & which doth so far surmount thy justice, as thou dost continually woo, & invite, thy greatest enemies, to the participation thereof.  
O Lord, being a sinner, as David was, I cannot but pray for mercy, as he did, and because I have grievosly sinned, pray for great mercy, and because I have 
Have mercy upon me, O Lord, etc.  many times, and many ways, multiplied my sins, so as they are grown to a number numberlesses, pray for a multitude of thy tender mercies, that the whole debt-book, wherein my sins are registered, may be quite crossed and defaced.  
I must beg again and 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.  again, that thou wilt wash me again & again, wash me thoroughly, from the pollution and filth of my sin.  
Give me grace, O Lord, 
I know my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉, etc.  to see my sins fully, to confess them freely, entirely to give thee the glory to take the shame to myself deservedly.  
Give me leave to lay open 
Behold, I was borne in iniquity, etc.  my festered wounds, and loathsome sores, to thy view, in abasement and humiliation, to stir thy bowels of tender commiseration.  
Make me to love in my 
Behold, thou lovest truth in the 〈◊〉, etc.  self, what thou lovest inme, to wit, truth and sincerity of heart, accept, O Lord, my honest study, and faithful endeavour, for true and full performance. Let me solace my soul, in the conscience of my unfeigned sorrow, for my sins past, and my true, though, weak, desires to serve thee 
And in the 〈◊〉 of my heart, etc.  better in time to come, for which purpose, enable me with wisdom, teach me the art of godliness, and the mysteries thereof, in my hidden parts.  
And because the Leprosy 
Purge me with Hyssop, etc.  of sin, hath infected me from top to toe; temper and prepare for me a powerful purgation, with those ingredients, which are of strongest operation, that is, (without shadows or figures) the blood of that Immaculate Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, applied by a lively faith, to my diseased soul.  
Be pleased to bathe my 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and I 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉, etc.  ugly soul in thy Laver of justification till I become white and bright, in thy pure and piercing eyes.  
Let me, when I am 
Make me to hear of joy, etc.  confounded in myself, and cast down into the Dungeon of Sorrow, through the sight of my sins, yet hopefully and zealously seek joy and comfort, in thee, and thy salvation.  
Let me so place my 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sins, etc.  sins, before mine own sorrowful face, that thou mayest hide thy face, at least, thine angry face from them, or rather, so quite deface them, that they may 〈◊〉 be to be seen hereafter, that they may 〈◊〉 rise up in judgement, either to shame me in this, or condemn me, in the next world.  
And because my justification, which consists in 
Create in me a clean heart, etc.  thy free remission of my sins, cannot subsist without sanctification, and holiness of conversation, as the light of that Lamp, and heat of that fire: And because it is impossible to draw a clean out of an unclean thing; I beseech thee, Lord, to work a wonder on me, that is, to create a clean heart within me. Purge the fountain, and then the streams which 〈◊〉 from it in my thoughts, words and actions, will be clearer and purer.  
Give me a 〈◊〉 spirit, 
Renew a right spirit within me, etc.  that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carry myself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thee, and for 〈◊〉 this spirit 〈◊〉 becomes decayed and distorted by the perverseness of my nature, and obliquity of my transgressions; vouchsafe to renew it in me from time to time, by a continual supply of thy heavenly grace.  
Although I have many 
Cast me not away from thy presence etc.  ways and times deserved thy just indignation; yet for thy mercy's sake abandon me not from thy presence, banish me not from thy Courts; let me behold thy face, though overclouded with a storm of displeasure.  
Although I have grieved, 
Take not thy holy spirit from me etc.  yea, and despighted thy good spirit; when it endeavoured my reformation, direction, and consolation; yet I beseech thee, not to take it utterly from me, let not that holy fire, though raked up under the ashes of my sins, be quite extinguished.  
When thou dost for 
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, etc.  my sins bereave me of the comfortable confidence I found in the assurance of thy salvation, give me leave to claim still mine interest in it, even when I tremble and quake at thy judgements: and thereby to crave a restitution of that tranquillity of mind, and peace of conscience, which I formerly enjoyed with contentment, make me by the want rightly to value the worth of so great a favour, than which a greater cannot be bestowed upon the soul of man, whiles it is confined within this valley of tears, enclosed within this body of death.  
And because through 
Uphold me with thy free, or firm spirit.  the frailty of my flesh, and the fraud of Satan, I am so prone to recidivation and back shding, so ready to fall away from thee, (even 〈◊〉 many Apostasies pardoned) unless I be still upheld and supported: give me thy free spirit, that 〈◊〉 may cheerfully; thy firm spirit, that I may constantly accomplish thy blessed will, and 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 good duties that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto me.  
And for that thankfulness 
Then will I teach 〈◊〉, etc.  is the best return for benefits received, and the strongest means to purchase new favours; give me grace, as to promise, so to perform gratitude every way, and evermore highly to esteem, and zealously to affect the reducing, reclaiming, and converting of sinners, and impious persons, those that err in their religion, or conversation, or both, as the most acceptable service that can be done unto thee upon earth.  
Teach me to use all earnest 
Deliver me from blood, etc.  compellation, and powerful insinuation, to 
Thou, God, of my salvation, etc.  win thy favour again, when I have forfeited it by committing some grievous sin, especially quicken me by faith, to make a particular application and appropriation (as it were) of thy salvation to mine own soul; which pious presumption and holy ambition thou art well pleased withal.  
Give me grace with the 
I will sing aloud of thy righteousness, etc.  deepest strain of my hart, and the loudest tone and tune of my voice, to magnify thy marvelous goodness. Though I be less than the least of thy mercies; yet teach me in duty and discretion for more bountiful favours, to return more plentiful praises. If I be delivered from a crying sin, I ought (of congruence) to sing aloud of thy justice, which giving assurance of thy mercy, by performance of thy covenant of grace, cannot but produce an exultation of the heart, and an exaltation of the voice and tongue, in the celebration of thy just praises.  
But alas, how can I make that poor return for thy 
O Lord, open thou my lips, etc.  rich mercies, which me thinks I ought to vow and promise? When all is done, I must therein also crave thy blessed assistance, that thou wilt be pleased to open my lips, and to untie my tongue strings, I must owe thee for that grace also, and go on thy score even for those praises, which only by Echo I resound unto 〈◊〉.  
Blessed be thy name, O 
The sacrifices of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.  Lord, who in my deepest distress, and heaviest condition for my sins, when I seek for ease and relief, tellest me the means whereby thine anger may be appeased, and thy favour redeemed. Thou requirest no sacrifice that with labour and charge should be purchased abroad, but such as is or should be at home, and within me; thou expectest no other satisfaction from me, but the humiliation of my proud heart, and the sorrow of my rebellious soul, O wonderful goodness! O unspeakable mercy! What more favourable terms, can be devised, or propounded, then that thou wilt accept my submission, and reconciliation? so as I will ask thee forgiveness humbly, and freely profess, and express effectually mine hearty repentance, for the manifold sins, I have committed against thy divine Majesty. Out of the the apprehension of this loving kindness and tender compassion (if there 
A broken and a contrite heart, etc.  were nothing else) I ought to melt into tears of grief, break my herded hart, bruise my obstinate spirit, which have transported me, so far, and plunged me so deep, into thy displeasure.  
O Lord, enable me, whom thou hast ordained a Priest, for this purpose, to offer daily and duly, this acceptable sacrifice unto thee, which I should the more willingly present, because it no way intends the destruction of my body, but the correction of my soul. I am only to slay my sensuality, to quell my unruly affections, and subdue them to thy holy will (for mine own good) not to impech nature, but to increase grace; and for my better encouragement to this mortification, thou art graciously pleased, to use this protestation, that If I judge myself thou wilt not judge me, if I chastise myself, thou wilt not condemn me, if I execute my own just and unpartial sentence against mine own heart (the capital offender) thou wilt favourably spare, and mercifully pardon me, for ever.  
O Lord, I pray not for myself alone, but for thy whole Church, wheresoever dispersed, howsoever distressed, upon the face of the earth. As I pray that thou wilt be merciful to me particularly; so I beg also, that thou wilt be favourable 
Be favourable to Zion, etc.  to Zion universally. Being a member of that mystical body, whereof thy Christ is the head, so long as I have spiritual life in me, I cannot but resent, such afflictions, as any of thy chosen, do sustain: o Lord, I pray thee for jerusalem, the kingdom wherein I live, that peace may be within her walls, prosperity 
Build 〈◊〉 the walls 〈◊〉 jerusalem, etc.  in her palaces, I cannot but out of honest affection, wish well to my brethren neighbours and companions, that their persons may be protected, their walls (of wood or stone) re-edified, foe often as need requireth, & that not for necessity only, but for comeliness also. But I must still profess, that I regard the Case for the 〈◊〉 sake, which is compassed therewith, the Commonwealth for thy house, and that portion of thy Church, that is preserved therein; I respect chiefly Zion, thy darling, and the joy of the whole earth. My precious goods are embarked in that ship; What fortune betides them, I am contented shall befall me; I will sympathize, rejoice, and mourn with them, upon all occasions. I do acknowledge, no nearer affinity, no dearer consanguinity, no better fraternity, then is Christianity, nay, my spiritual kindred is of more esteem with me, 〈◊〉 any natural or legal conjunction whatsoever.  
O Lord, show thy favour 
For thy good 〈◊〉, etc.  to Zion, for thy good pleasures sake, she hath no other motive to induce thee, no other mediator to intercede with thee. Be gracious to her, for his sake, in whom thou art well pleased. Be pleased of thyself, thine own goodness; for thyself, thine own glory, to show this love, unto thy Spouse, though foul in her own nature, yet fair, by thy gracious acceptation.  
These graces, O Lord, 
Then 〈◊〉 thou accept, etc.  which I beg zealously, for myself and others. I beseech thee to grant mercifuly, that I may 〈◊〉 thee with praise, and praise thee with love, that I may thankfully acknowledge thy gracious goodness, and in testimony thereof, render unto thee, all honour and glory, all manner of praises and thanks, all the days of my life, even for ever and ever.  
Amen.  
FINIS.