it, by living up to its principles, or not concern yourselves any farther about it. For this I am sure of, while such as you pretend to it, it loses much more by the disgrace which your lives do cast upon it, than ever it is like to gain by your zeal and your clamour for it.

2. Hence I also infer, how extremely insufficient that repentance is, which the church of Rome doth frankly approve and allow of; which is such as plainly evacuates and supersedes the necessity of bringing forth the natural fruits of repentance; as any one may easily apprehend, that will but take the pains impartially to consider the chain of that church's principles. For first, the council of Trent teaches, that attrition, which is nothing but a sorrow for sin, proceeding from the fear of punishments, doth dispose men to receive grace in the sacrament of penance; and that all sacraments of the gospel, of which penance is one, do actually confer grace upon those that are disposed for it. So that if he hath but the grace to be afraid of hell, and to be sorry that he is in danger of it, it is but confessing his sins to a priest, and undergoing a short trifling penance, and upon a few words of absolution he shall presently be dubbed a true penitent, and be as effectually instated in the favour of God, as if he had brought forth all the fruits of repentance. And this, Bellarmine tells us, is the current judgment of all their divines; which if it be true, poor Judas had very ill luck to be damned: for, according to this doctrine, he was throughly disposed for justification, it being out of mere attrition that he hanged himself: so that had he had but a priest to have administered penance and absolution to him, that grace that made

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him hang himself, would have entitled him to heaIt is true indeed, they tell us, there is a certain penance which men must undergo for their sins in this life; and that, if they should not perform what is imposed upon them, or if what is imposed should not be sufficient to satisfy God's justice, they must be forced to make it up by their sufferings in purgatory. But even against this too that church hath contrived an excellent remedy; and that is, the treasury of the superabundant merits of Christ and the saints; of which, at very reasonable rates, men may purchase such a share as will immediately pay off all their purgatory scores, how great soever their present sins, and how small soever their present penances are. For out of this treasury of merit you may have indulgence for a hundred, a thousand, or a hundred thousand years; and if this will not satisfy, you may, besides this, have full indulgence, fuller indulgence, and fullest indulgence; and it is impossible you should ever want merit to keep your soul out of purgatory, if you have but money and hearts to pay for it. But if you should still be doubtful, you may secure all, if you please, by listing yourself in an holy confraternity: for if you will but turn brother of St. Francis his cord, you shall presently be entitled to such a stock of indulgences, as all the sins you can commit will never be able to outspend. For at your first putting on this sacred implement, you have as full and as effectual pardon as was ever vouchsafed in the sacrament of baptism. And afterwards, should you fall into mortal sin, it is but taking so much pains as to walk after the monthly procession, and you shall have a plenary indulgence which shall attend your holy cord to the very article of your

death. Besides which, you shall have your share in all the superabundant merits of the saints, of the order of saint Rose's, and saint Clara's, and saint Francis himself, who, by preaching to beasts, and teaching larks and swallows their catechism, and silly sheep to bleat out their canonical hours, with sundry other such like holy feats, could not fail to treasure up a vast stock of merits in the common bank of his fraternity. Or, if you would be surer yet, you may enter yourself a brother of the holy fraternity of the hundred and fifty beads of St. Dominic; where, for saying over an hundred and fifty Ave-Marys and fifteen Paternosters in a week, you shall not only be allowed your dividend of the superabundant merits of all the saints from Adam, and as many indulgences as you can possibly have occasion for yourself, but such an overplus as will be sufficient to redeem an hundred and fifteen souls yearly out of purgatory. And it would be a very hard case if with all this tackle you should go to purgatory yourself. But if the worst come to the worst, it is but enrolling yourself a brother of St. Simon's scapular, and then, if you should go to purgatory, the Virgin Mary hath engaged herself, if pope John XXII. doth not foully belie her, to come down to purgatory every Saturday night, and pull up every soul thence that hath worn this sacred vestment into the holy hill of eternal life. And when a friar's cord, or rochet, or string of beads, are such excellent tools for men to work out their salvation with, what need they trouble themselves to bring forth the fruits of repentance? Had these things been only the conceits of some particular members of that church, I should not have mentioned them in this place; because to us they

cannot but look to be extremely ridiculous: but, alas! they are cheats that have been founded and established on the bulls of their popes, avowed and contended for by their gravest doctors, and reverenced and believed by the devoutest members of their communion. And how can they be obliged to bring forth the fruits of repentance, who are furnished with so many pretty devices to get to heaven without them?

3. And lastly, Hence therefore let us all be persuaded heartily to comply with this injunction, and bring forth the natural fruits of repentance: first, to form a hearty and deliberate resolution against our sins; and then to put it into execution, by forsaking all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, and righteously, and godly in this present world. I do not deny but in this undertaking there are many times very great difficulties, especially when we first enter upon it, when after a long course of folly we begin to reform: for then we must wrestle against our own inclinations, and struggle with inveterate habits; and this, perhaps, will put us to a greater trial of our courage and constancy than we are now aware of. But if, upon a due consideration of the arguments on both sides, we can but once persuade ourselves to a thorough resolution of amendment, in all probability we have broke the heart of the main difficulty of repentance. It is, I confess, a hard thing for a man to persuade himself against all his habits and inclinations, to resolve without any reserve, in cold and deliberate thoughts, upon a universal reformation; at once to resolve to bid adieu for ever to all his darling lusts and their appendant pleasures. This, as our Saviour describes it, is like the cutting off of a right hand, and the plucking out

of a right eye; and therefore must doubtless be attended with vehement strugglings and reluctances: but when this is done, the sharpest pang of our repentance is over; and if now we do not wilfully miscarry, these our bitter throes, like the virgin mo ther's, will soon conclude in songs and magnificats. For by arming a firm resolution against them, we have already broken the main strength of our lusts; so that now we have nothing to do but to pursue our victory; and if we have but courage to keep the ground we have gotten, and to stand firm to our resolution, that so our conquered foe may not be able to rally and reinforce himself against us, we shall soon be crowned with the joys of a victory that will lead us into an everlasting triumph. For our evil habits being for a while kept under a constant and severe restraint, will by degrees decay and languish, and at last expire, and then the trouble of contending will be over, and all our consequent religion will be sweet, and natural, and easy; and we shall reap far more pleasure and delight from it, than ever we did from the most jolly course of sinning. For besides that a religious life is in itself more agreeable to our rational faculties, and consequently more grateful unto human nature, whose noblest pleasures do result from the exercise of her highest faculties, and whose highest faculties are never so vigorously exercised as within the sphere of a religious life; besides which, I say, we shall therein find an unspeakable satisfaction of mind, and such a calm of conscience, and such ravishing joys and delights springing out of our sense of the love of God, and our hopes of a blessed immortality hereafter, as will abundantly compensate all our labours past, and ren