A Golden Chain

The answer which Christ made to his prayer was, This night shalt thou be with me in Paradise. Whereby he testifies in the middest of his sufferings the power which he had over the souls of men: and verifies that gracious promise, Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you: and withal confutes the popish purgatory. For if any man should have gone to that forged place of torment, then the thief upon the cross, who repenting at the last gasp wanted time to make satisfaction for the temporal punishment of his sins. And by this conversion of the thief we may learn that if any of us would turn to God and repent, we must have three things. I. The knowledge of our own sins. II. From the bottom of our hearts we must confess and condemn our selves for them, and speak the worst that can be of our selves, in regard of our sins. III. We must earnestly ⟨p. 361⟩crave pardon for them, and call for mercy at Gods hands in Christ, withal reforming our lives for the time to come: if we do, we give tokens of repentance; if not, we may think what we will, but we deceive our selves, and are not truly converted. And here we must be warned to take heed least we abuse, as many do, the example of the thief, to conclude thereby that we may repent when we will, because the thief on the cross was converted at the last gasp. For there is not a second example like to this in all the whole Bible: it was also extraordinary. Indeed sundry men are called at the eleventh hour, but it is a most rare thing to find the conversion of a sinner after the eleventh hour, and at the point of the twelfth. This mercy God vouchsafed this one thief; that he might be a glass in which we might behold the efficacy of the death of Christ, but the like is not done to many men, no not to one of a thousand. Let us rather consider the estate of the other thief, who neither by the dealing of his fellow, nor by any speech of Christ could be brought to repentance. Let us not therefore defer our repentance to the hour of death: for then we shall have sore enemies against us: the world, the flesh, the devil, and a guilty conscience; & the best way is before hand to prevent them. And experience shows that if a man defer repentance to the last gasp, often when he would repent he cannot.

The answer which Christ made to his praier was, This night shalt thou bee with me in Paradise. Whereby he testifies in the middest of his sufferings the power which he had ouer the soules of men: and verifies that gratious promise, Aske and ye shall receiue, seeke and ye shall finde, knocke and it shall be opened to you: and withall confutes the popish purgatory. For if any man should haue gone to that forged place of torment, then the theife vpon the crosse, who repenting at the last gaspe wanted time to make satisfaction for the temporall punishment of his sinnes. And by this conuersion of the thiefe we may learne that if any of vs would turne to God and repent, we must haue three things. I. The knowledge of our owne sinnes. II. From the bottome of our hearts wee must confesse and condemne our selues for them, and speake the worst that can be of our selues, in regard of our sinnes. III. We must earnestly