THE

LAMENTATION OF A SINNER.

THE FIRST CHAPTER.

Of an humble confession of sins to the glory of God.

WHEN I consider, in the bethinking of mine evil and wretched former life, mine obstinate, stony, and untractable heart, to have so much exceeded in evilness, that it hath not only neglected, yea contemned, and despised God's holy precepts and commandments; but, also, embraced, received, and esteemed, vain, foolish, and feigned trifles, I am partly, by the hate I owe to sin, which hath reigned in me, and partly, by the love I owe to all christians, whom I am content to edify; even, with the example of mine own shame, forced, and constrained, with my heart and words, to confess and declare to the world, how ingrate, negligent, unkind, and stubborn, I have been to God my Creator, and how beneficial, merciful, and gentle, he hath been always to me his creature, being such a miserable and wretched sinner.

Truly, I have taken no little small thing upon me. First, to set forth my whole stubbornness and contempt in words; the which is incomprehensible in thought, as it is in the nineteenth Psalm, Who understandeth his faults? Next this, to declare the excellent beneficence, mercy, and goodness of God, which is infinite, and unmeasurable. Neither can all the words of angels and men make relation thereof, as appertaineth to his most high goodness. Who is he, that is not forced to confess the same, if he consider what he hath received of God, and doth daily receive? Yea, if men would not acknowledge and confess the same, the stones would cry it out. Truly, I am constrained and forced to speak, and write thereof, to mine own confusion and shame, but to the glory and praise of God. For he, as a loving Father, of most abundant and high goodness, hath heaped upon me innumerable benefits; and I,

contrary, have heaped manifold sins, despising that which was good, holy, pleasant, and acceptable in his sight, and choosing that which was delicious, pleasant, and acceptable, in my sight.

And no marvel it was that I so did, for I would not learn to know the Lord, and his ways, but loved darkness better thau light, yea, darkness seemed to me light. I embraced ignorance, as perfect knowledge, and knowledge seemed to me superfluous and vain. I regarded little God's word, but gave myself to vanities, and shadows of the world. I forsook him, in whom all truth is and followed, the vain, foolish imaginations of my heart. I would have covered my sins with the pretence of holiness; I called superstition godly meaning, and true holiness error. The Lord did speak many pleasant and sweet words unto me, and I would not hear; he called me diversely, but through frowardness, I would not answer.

Mine evils and miseries are so many, and so great, that they can accuse me even to my face. Oh, how miserably and wretchedly am I confounded, when, for the multitude and greatness of my sins, I am compelled to accuse myself! Was it not a marvellous unkindness, when God did speak to me, and also call to me, that I would not answer him? What man, so called, would not have heard? Or what man, hearing, would not have answered? If an earthly prince had spoken, or called, I suppose there are none, but would willingly have done both. Now, therefore, what a wretch and caitiff am I, that, when the Prince of princes, the King of kings, did speak many pleasant and gentle words unto me, and also called me so many and sundry times, that they cannot be numbered; and yet, notwithstanding these great signs and tokens of love, I would not come unto him, but hid myself out of his sight, seeking many crooked and by-ways, wherein I walked so long, that I had wholly lost his sight. And no marvel, or wonder, for I had a blind guide, called Ignorance, who dimmed so mine eyes, that I could never perfectly get any sight of the fair, goodly, straight, and right ways of his doctrine; but continually travelled, uncomfortably, in foul, wicked, crooked, and perverse ways; yea, and because they were so much haunted of many, I could not think, but that I walked in the perfect and right way, having more regard to the number of the walkers, than to the order of the walking; believing also, most assuredly, with company, to

have walked to heaven, whereas, I am most sure, they would have brought me down to hell.

I forsook the spiritual honouring of the true living God, and worshipped visible idols, and images made of men's hands, believing, by them, to have gotten heaven; yea, to say the truth, I made a great idol of myself, for I loved myself better than God. And, certainly, look, how many things are loved, or preferred, in our hearts, before God, so many are taken and esteemed for idols, and false gods. Alas! how have I violated this holy, pure, and most high precept and commandment of the love of God! Which precept bindeth me to love him with my whole heart, mind, force, strength, and understanding and I, like unto an evil, wicked, and disobedient child, have given my will, power, and senses, to the contrary, making, almost, of every earthly and carnal thing, a god!

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Furthermore, the blood of Christ was not reputed by me sufficient for to wash me from the filth of my sins; neither such ways, as he had appointed by his word; but I sought for such riffraff as the bishop of Rome hath planted in his tyranny and kingdom, trusting, with great confidence, by the virtue and holiness of them, to receive full remission of my sins. And so I did, as much as was in me, obfuscate* and darken the great benefit of Christ's passion, than the which, no thought can conceive anything of more value. There cannot be done so great an injury and displeasure to almighty God, our Father, as to tread under foot Christ, his only begotten and well beloved Son. All other sins in the world, gathered together in one, are not so heinous and detestable in the sight of God. And no wonder, for, in Christ crucified, God doth show himself most noble and glorious, even an almighty God, and most loving Father, in his only dear and chosen blessed Son.

And, therefore, I count myself one of the most wicked and miserable sinners in the world, because I have been so much contrary to Christ my Saviour. St. Paul desired to know nothing, but Christ crucified; after he had been rapt into the third heaven, where he heard such secrets, as were not convenient and meet to utter to men, but counted all his works and doings as nothing to win Christ. And I, most presumptuously thinking nothing of Christ crucified, went about to set forth mine own righteousness, saying, with the proud pharisee, "Good Lord, I thank thee, I am * Obscure.

not like other men: I am none adulterer, nor fornicator, and so forth;" with such like words of vain glory, extolling myself, and despising others; working as an hired servant for wages, or else for reward; and not, as a loving child, only for very love, without respect of wages or reward, as I ought to have done. Neither did I consider how beneficial a Father I had, who did show me his charity and mercy, of his own mere grace and goodness, that, when I was most his enemy, he sent his only begotten and wellbeloved Son into this world of wretchedness and misery, to suffer most cruel and sharp death for my redemption. But my heart was so stony and hard, that this great benefit was never truly and lively printed in my heart, although, with my words it was oft rehearsed, thinking myself to be sufficiently instructed in the same, and being, indeed, in blind ignorance; and yet I stood so well in mine own judgment and opinion, that I thought it vain to seek the increase of my knowledge therein.

Paul calleth Christ the wisdom of God; and, even the same Christ, was, to me foolishness. My pride and blindness deceived me, and the hardness of my heart withstood the growing of truth within it. Such were the fruits of my carnal and human reason-to have rotten ignorance in price for ripe and seasonable knowledge; such, also, is the malice and wickedness that possesseth the hearts of men; such is the wisdom and pleasing of the flesh. I professed Christ in my baptism, when I began to live, but I swerved from him after baptism, in continuance of my living, even as the heathen, which never had begun.

Christ was innocent, and void of all sin; and I wallowed in filthy sin, and was free from no sin. Christ was obedient unto his Father, even to the death of the cross; and I disobedient, and most stubborn, even to the confusion of truth. Christ was meek and humble in heart, and I most proud and vain-glorious. Christ despised the world, with all the vanities thereof, and I made it my god, because of the vanities. Christ came to serve his brethren, and I coveted to rule over them. Christ despised worldly honour, and I much delighted to attain the same. Christ loved the base and simple things of the world, and I esteemed the most fair and pleasant things. Christ loved poverty, and I wealth. Christ was gentle and merciful to the poor, and I hardhearted and ungentle. Christ prayed for his enemies, and I hated mine. Christ rejoiced in the conversion of sinners,

and I was not grieved to see their reversion* to sin. By this declaration, all creatures may perceive how far I was from Christ, and without Christ; yea, how contrary to Christ, although I bare the name of a christian: insomuch that, if any man had said, I had been without Christ, I would have stiffly denied and withstood the same; and yet, indeed, I neither knew Christ, nor wherefore he came.

As concerning the effect and purpose of his coming, I had a certain vain and blind knowledge, both cold and dead, which may be had with all sin; as doth plainly appear by this my confession and open declaration.

THE SECOND CHAPTER.

A Lamentation of a Sinner, with a hearty repentance in Faith, to obtain absolution and remission, through the merits of Christ.

WHAT cause now have I to lament, sigh, and weep, for my life and time so evil spent! With how much humility and lowliness ought I to come, and acknowledge my sins to God, giving him thanks, that it hath pleased him, of his abundant goodness, to give me time of repentance! For I know my sins, in the consideration of them, to be so grievous, and, in the number, so exceeding, that I have deserved, very often, eternal damnation. And for the deferring of God's wrath, so manifoldly due, I must incessantly give thanks to the mercy of God; beseeching also, that the same delay of punishment cause not his plague to be the sorer, since mine own conscience condemns my former doings. But his mercy exceedeth all iniquity. And if I should not thus hope, alas, what should I seek for refuge and comfort? No mortal man is of power to help me; and, for the multitude of my sins, I dare not lift up mine eyes to heaven, where the seat of judgment is, I have so much offended my God. What! shall I fall in desperation ? Nay, I will call upon Christ, the Light of the world, the Fountain of life, the Relief of all careful consciences, the Peacemaker between God and man, and the only health and comfort of all true repentant sinners.

He can, by his almighty power, save me, and deliver me out of this miserable state, and hath will, by his mercy, to save even the whole sin of the world. I have no hope nor

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