still in their sins, and will never leave their wickedness; which contemn my word, and trust me not; from them, indeed, health must needs be far away. But, as for thee, repent, and the kingdom of heaven shall draw nigh, Matt. iii. Trust, and thy faith shall save thee, Matt. ix.

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For as Moses hath exalted the serpent in the desert, so hath my Son been exalted, that every man, believing in him, might be saved, and have life everlasting, John iii.

"I would have all men to be saved and no man to perish, 1 Tim. ii. my fashion is ever to raise him up, lest he perish utterly, which is cast down. It is not my will, believe me, that one of these little ones be cast away, whom I have ever loved so well that I would vouchsafe to give my only Son for them, Matt. xviii. But thy trespasses are great, wherefore thou art not persuaded to trust in my mercy.

"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, 1 Tim. i. He is thine Advocate, and an atonement for thy sins, and not for thine only, but for the sins of the whole world, 1 John ii. He came to call transgressors, not the just, and to save that which was lost, Matt. ix.

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'I am, dear son, I am he that putteth away thy sins for myself, and will give my glory to none other. Suppose thy sins be as red as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow; I have scattered them as clouds, and as mists have dispersed them. Turn to me, for I have redeemed thee. Such is my facility, so gentle I am, such is my benignity, so great is my mercy, which thy most loving brother and Advocate, Christ, that washed thee from thy sins in his blood, hath purchased, continually praying for thee. Why dost thou not open the examples of my word, as a table, or glass, wherein thou mayest well learn how exorable I am, how ready and willing to forgive? Consider with thyself how heinous faults I have pardoned them, Jer. iii. Go to, therefore, be of good cheer, lift up thine eyes, mistrust me no longer, turn to me and thou shalt be saved, Isa. xlv. Commend thy spirit into my hands, and the prince of this world shall have nothing to do with thee, for by me, the Lord of truth, thou art truly redeemed."

Who, hearing these words of his heavenly Father, as they are His words indeed, so sweetly alluring him, so earnestly comforting him, so pleasantly drawing him to

Some other arguments are used which have been already given, p. 33 and 34.

himself, will any more doubt of his mercy? Despair you not utterly, dear friend, nor yet be you sorrowful for anything; but if your false enemy the devil approach, objecting against you the multitude and grievousness of your sins, turn to God, and say unto him, Turn away thy face from my sins, good Lord, and look on the face of thy Christ Jesus. Thy sins, saith your enemy, in number pass the sands of the sea. Answer, The mercy of God is much more plenteous.-How canst thou hope for the reward of justice, being altogether unjust? Christ Jesus is my justice.Shalt thou, being covered with sins, enter into rest with Peter and Paul? Nay, but with the thief, who heard on the cross, This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.How hast thou this trust, who never didst good? I have a good Lord, an exorable Judge, and a gracious Advocate.-Thou shalt be drawn to hell. My head is in heaven already, and from it the inferior members cannot be severed. Thou shalt be damned. Thou art a false accuser, no judge; a damned spirit, no condemner.-Many legions of devils do wait for thy soul. I should despair indeed if I had not a Defender, which hath overcome your tyranny.God is unjust if he give for evil deeds everlasting life. He is just and keepeth his promise, and I have already appealed from his justice to his mercy.-Thou dost flatter thyself with vain hope. The truth cannot lie; to make false promises belongeth unto thee.-What thou leavest here thou seest, but what thou shalt have thou seest not. Things which are seen are temporal, but things which are not seen are eternal.-Thou goest hence laden with evil deeds, and naked of all good works. I shall desire God to exonerate me of mine evils, and to cover me with his goodness. God heareth no sinners. Yet he heareth them that repent, and for sinners he died.-Thy repentance is too late. It was not too late for the thief.-The thief had a stedfast faith, thine is wavering. I desire God, that he will increase my faith.-Thou dost falsely persuade thyself to find God merciful, which punisheth thee with pains after this sort. Herein he playeth the part of a gentle physician.-Why would he that death should be so bitter? He is the Lord, he willeth nothing but that which is good. And why should I, a servant unprofitable, refuse to suffer that which the Lord of glory hath suffered?—It is a miserable thing to die. Blessed be the dead that die in the Lord. But the death of sinners is most wretched. He is

no longer a sinner which hath acknowledged his fault, with repentance and hope of mercy.-Thou shalt leave this world. I shall go from painful banishment into my country.-Look what a heap of good things thou leavest behind thee. Yet a great deal more evil.-Thou leavest thy riches. They are the world's, I do carry all that is mine away with me.-What canst thou carry with thee? thou hast nothing that is good. That is truly mine, mine own, that Christ hath freely forgiven me.-Thou must forsake thy wife and thy children. They are the Lord's, I do commend them to him.—It is a hard thing to be drawn from thy dearly beloved. They shall shortly follow me..-Thou art plucked from thy pleasant friends. I hasten to friends more pleasant.

Thus thou are taught, not to give place to the devil, endeavouring to overthrow thee, but boldly to repel every dart that he can hurl at thee. Neither let the care for thy friends, wife, and children, trouble thee, mistrusting not but God shall provide as well for them, and peradventure better, in thine absence, than he did in thy life-time. For thou must consider that thine own power hath not all this while sustained thee or them, and procured things necessary, but God, in whom we live, move, and are, hath done it. God, which feedeth, nourisheth, and saveth both man and beast, which royally clotheth the grass in the field, covereth the heavens with clouds, careth for the birds of the air, and prepareth meat for the very chickens of the ravens, shall much more regard thy friends, being his people, confessing his name.

Call to remembrance how mercifully he provided for the poor widow and her children, spoken of in 2 Kings iv. By the benignity of God, this poor woman with her children was much better provided for after the death of her husband, though he were a holy man, than she was before. God is even the same God now that he was then, and can do as much for christian men now, in these days, as he could then for the Jews. And he, doubtless, if thou fear him, will regard thy wife, children, and friends, no less than he did the wife and children of this prophet.

Further, call to remembrance how that they, many times, who are left of their friends rich, and in great honours, are after brought to poverty, yea, and to the beggar's staff. On the other side, that they which are left poor and beggarly of their friends, at the length come to great riches,

authority, and honour. Wherefore I do think, as I oft have said, not I, but the prophet, that both riches and poverty come of God. And that men shall have what it shall please God to give them. Yet I will not blame an honest provision for men's children. Therefore commit them to God, for they are his, let them cast their care on the Lord, and he by his promise shall nourish them.

And to you that are his friends here, to you I speak. What meaneth this your heaviness? Why do you sorrow after this sort; to what purpose do you trouble yourselves with weepings? why do ye, as it were in a manner draw into dispute the will of God with your unjust complaints? Do ye think him to be a meet matter of lamenting, sorrowing, and wailing, because he is delivered from dangers to safety, from bondage to liberty, from diseases to immortality, from earthly things to heavenly, from men to the company of God's angels? Wherein hath he offended you, that you so envy the good which hath befallen him? If ye do not envy, what needs all these tears? I am sure if ye knew to what felicity he is going, you would banquet, and be joyful, at the least if ye love his welfare.

Christ said to his disciples, when they were sad that he would depart, If ye loved me you would be glad, forasmuch as I go to my Father. Wherein he declared, that we ought not to be sad, but joyful, at the departure of our friends from hence. What, I pray you, shall you lose by the death of your friend, but that he shall be out of your sight, and that but a time? nevertheless you may at all times, in the mean space, in your minds and memories, see him, talk with him, and embrace him. Mourn no more for him, for he offers you no cause of mourning, but if ye will needs mourn, mourn for yourselves, in that ye are are not so nigh the port of our sweet country, flowing with milk and honey, as he is. This mourning is more fit for the Scythians, and such other barbarous people who know not the condition of faithful souls, than for you which know, or might all this while have learned.

Let them, I pray you, weep and howl like brutes, let them cut their ears and noses as they were wont to do, at the death of their friends. Let us be joyful. Let Admetus, Orpheus, and such other infidels, mourn at the death of their friends, and require them again of Proserpine. Let not us require our friends of God again, though we might

have them, since it must be with the loss of their wealth and prosperous being.

Were you not to be counted unreasonable, and to your friend no friend, if you should require him to dine or dwell with you, having nothing in your house but horsebread,* and stinking water, where he may go to a friend more faithful than you are, and have at all times all kinds of dainties? And will you be counted reasonable, who would by your wills hinder this your friend, going to the house of his most faithful friend Christ, where he shall have heavenly dainties, and meat of the holy angels, in comparison of which, your cheer is worse than horsebread and stinking water indeed. Mourn no more for him, I say, but be glad that your friend shall attain to such felicity.

What other thing is it for us christians to mourn at the death of our friends, than to give an occasion to the infidels to reprehend and accuse us, forasmuch as we do deny the thing in deed, that we do profess with our mouths? For in words we say that the soul of man is immortal, and that there is another life better than this. In our mourning we seem to show ourselves to be of another opinion.

What profit is it, I pray you, to pronounce virtue in words, and in deeds to destroy the truth? St. Paul doth reprove and blame them which are heavy in the departure of their friends, saying, I would not have you ignorant, O brethren, as touching them that sleep, that ye be not sad, as others that have no hope. It belongeth to them to weep, and to be sorry at the death of their friends, which nave no hope of another life to come, and not to us which believe that our souls are immortal, and that our bodies shall arise again. Mourn no more for him therefore, but prepare and make ready yourselves to follow him, living virtuously, for that ye know not the day or hour.

Now to you again, my friend. See that you are joyful in God, and let not this short affliction of your body disquiet your mind. But sauce it rather, and make it pleasant with the hope of everlasting blessedness, remembering that as you shall be quickly delivered from this sickness, so you shall no more hereafter be subject to any sorrows, pains, or pensiveness. It should never grieve a man to fare evil at dinner, knowing that he shall have a supper most dainty

Bread made of beans and other coarse sorts of grain, for the food of horses.