XXVI. SERMONS (Never before Published) PREACHED BY THAT Learned and Reverend.  
DIVINE John Donne, Doctor in Divinity, Late DEAN of the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul's, London.  
The Third Volume.  
DUM PREMOR ATTOLLOR   blazon or coat of arms 
LONDON. Printed by Thomas Newcomb, and are to be sold at the several Book-Sellers-shops in London, and at Westminster-Hall. 1661.   

To His most Sacred Majesty, CHARLES II. By the Grace of God King of ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, FRANCE and IRELAND, Defender of the Faith etc.  
Most Dread and Gracious Sovereign,  
IN this great Revolution, when every body is come to pay unto Caesar, those things that are due unto Caesar, I am bold to present to Your Sacred Majesty these Sermons, not only due unto You, as You are Head of the Church, but as they were most of them preached in Your Chapel, and approved by Your Royal Progenitors. Your Statues, Pictures, and Medals, famous for their Workmanship, and Antiquity, cannot pretend to a greater Elegancy or a nobler Descent, than the Doctrine that is here taught; For, it is primitively Christian, not depending upon the absolute Authority of any present visible company of Men, nor, yet refusing to be guided by those Ancient Fathers of the Church, that concur with the Apostolical Writers, as being the Supreme Rule of our Faith; And, though the Author be many times very severe against the Roman-Church, yet he is never very indulgent to her Rigid Opposers, not being desirous to make a rent in that Garment, which is to cover and keep alive the Flock of Christ, which being immediately committed to Your Majesty's Care in these Your Realms, cannot be better preserved, then by that exemplar Piety, that reigns in Your Sacred Majesty, which will be a Living Sermon, even to those Reverend Pastors, that Your care, and God's Providence has now appointed to restore His Church to her ancient Splendour, and to have awakened that Light of the Gospel, which we could never have expected, but by Your Glorious Return, or a new Fiat.  
Your Majesty's most humble, and most devoted Subject, JOHN DONNE.   

TO THE READER.  
UPon the Death of my Father Dr. Donne, sometimes Deane of Paul's, I was sent to, by his Majesty of Blessed Memory, to recollect and publish his Sermons; I was encouraged by many of the Nobility, both Spiritual and Temporal, and indeed, by the most Eminent Men that the Kingdom than had, of all Professions, telling me, what a public good I should confer upon the Church, and, that by this means I should not only preach to all the Parishes of England, but to those, whose Affairs carried them into Foreign Countries; and to those, whose infirmities did not suffer them to come to their own Churches at home, But, above all, I was encouraged by the example of St. Paul, who, though he took wages of other Churches, and yet served the Corinthians, thought himself excusable, in that, he was always doing service to the Church of Christ.  
The first Volume that I published, consisting of Fourscore Sermons, I dedicated to his Majesty then living, by whom, it was not only graciously received, but I had fresh Encouragements to proceed: For the Second Volume, I was forced to take Protection from those that were then in Authority, lest (our duty to our King being so often, and so pathetically urged) they might have incurred the danger, First, to have been voted No Sermons, and then, that No Sermons should have been burnt by the hand of the Public Executioner; and, the use that might have been made of them, by keeping up the Banks of the Church, against that Torrent of Heretics, that did then invade her, might have been absolutely defeated: for now began to swarm and muster the Ebionites, Sabellians, Jovinians, Eutichians, Corpocratians, Sethians, Cerinthians, Theodotians, Nicolaitans, Samocetanians, Apolenarians, Montaneans, all against the second Person of the Trinity.  
And, although, in some parts of the World the Sun may see the Men eating their god, and in six hours' journey farther, he may see the gods eating the Men, though he may have beheld as many Religions, as he produced Infects, yet he could tell us of no such Python, as appeared here, who swallowing up all the other Heretics, pretended that he himself was the very Son of God; not knowing how dearly that Imposter paid for it, that adventured upon that design, but in the days of Queen Elizabeth; for though it be true, That he that is baptised into Christ, may put on Christ, his Person, nay Him, so that God may take him for his own Christ, and look upon him, as all Mankind; Yet, 'tis a hard matter to appear so before Man, for Homo homini daemon, we see nothing, we hear of nothing but the Imperfections of one another, and then we are not only content to ground our Faith upon slight Reports, but to believe, even Impossibilities.  
The People concluded Paul to be a Murderer, but first, they saw a Viper seize upon him after he had escaped Shipwreck; but still proceeding upon new Evidence, when they saw him shake off that Viper, they said he was a God; and certainly, though a Calumniator, with a two-edged tongue, sharper and more venomous than the teeth of any Viper, may traduce the reputation of any man, so far as to make impressions upon some pious and godly persons, yet if those persons would but retreat from those sudden assaults unto those Forts which their Charity may, nay, aught to erect, but to reasonable Evidences; they may reasonably conclude, that if many thousands were converted by one Sermon to the Christian Faith; he that has spent so many years, in publishing so many Sermons for the propagation of that Faith, and preserving the Light of that Gospel, so as to dazzle and extinguish those New Lights, those ignes fatuas, with their great Leader William-a-the-Wispe, (who drawing men, first out of the known paths, carries them into Boggs, Quagmires, and Whirlepools of Confusion) cannot possibly be but a well- grounded Christian.  
When the Jews intended the building of the Temple, their wise King Solomon sent to Hiram many thousand measures of corn, knowing that the Fellers of Timber, the hewers of stone, and those that bore the burden, must be provided for, as well as the great Officers, the Overseers. Fac hoc & vives, was often repeated to me when I undertook this work, and a fair reward was promised me; but at last I am constrained, hoc facere ut vivam, to publish them at my own cost that I may sell them; which I had not been able to perform, if I had not been assisted by the bounty of our most Honourable Lord Chancellor, (who is not only content, that the Churches should be furnished with good Preachers, but that those Preachers should have good Sermons) and I am to rest satisfied with that Text, that tells us, that To those that have much, more shall be given; and to those that have nothing (and there is nothing so near of kin to Nothing, as a Reversion) that that they have shall be taken away.  
A better method (I confess) might have been observed in their Publication; whereby those that are called to the service of private Churches, and have not the convenience of Public Libraries, might have made more use of them, (for, I have seen many great Edifices, many noble Palaces erected without one stone taken out of the Quarry) but, so near an Age, where Holy Confusion is prescribed to the Preacher, a little disorder (I hope, Gentle Reader) may be pardoned in the Publisher.  
JO. DONNE.  
Postscript.  
BY the Dates of these Sermons, the Reader may easily collect, that although they are the last that are published, they were the first that were Preached; and I did purposely select these from amongst all the rest, for, being to finish this Monument, which I was to erect to his Memory, I ought to reserve those materials that were set forth with the best Polish: The Impression consists only of Five hundred, which will somewhat advance the Price; but the buyer being at liberty, he can receive no prejudice.   

Upon the sending the First Volume of these SERMONS to the Right Reverend Father in God, the Bishop of Peterborough, than my Diocesan, I received this Letter.  
SIR,  
YOu have sent me a Treasure, and I would not share time to tell you so, till I had somewhat satisfied the thirst I had to drink down many of those Excellent Sermons, which I have so long desired: And by this I have the advantage, that I can know what I thank you for, though I could presumptuously value them, by the rest of his which I have heard, and read formerly, (for I think I have all those, that in the Press did foreran these) yet by this time, I can sensibly acknowledge to you, how great cause so many of us have to thank you: How well may your Parishioners pardon your silence to them, for a while, since by it you have Preached to them and their children's children, and to all our English Parishes for ever: For; certainly, many ages hence when they shall be made good, or confirmed in goedness, by studying your Father, they shall account these times Primitive, in which he Preached; and you will then, if not now, be in danger to lose your propriety in him, he will be called a Father of the Church.  
Sir, Though this Book, with his former Printed Sermons be a great Stock to the Church, from one man, yet if you shall please to perform the trust of a good Executor, there is, I presume, a great remainder of his Legacy, which, when you have taken breath, we must call you to account for, in a Court of Equity; though you may think this will abundantly satisfy, yet believe it, Sir, it will but increase our appetite: We shall give you time, Sir, but no general release, yet his God and yours assist you, to whose blessing I commend you, and am Sir  
Your very Friend in Christ Jesus Jo. Peterborough. Peterborough, July 20. 1640.   

THE CONTENTS.  

SERMON I. 
A Lent Sermon Preached at Whitehall, February 20. 1617.  Luc. 23.40. Fearest thou not God, being under the same condemnation? Page 1  
SERMON II. 
A Lent Sermon Preached at Whitehall, February 12. 1618.  Ezek. 33.32. And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely Song, of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an Instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not. p. 15  
SERMON III. 
A Lent Sermon Preached at Whitehall, February 20. 1628.  James 2.12. So speakye, and so Do, as they that shall be judged by the law of Liberty. p. 28  
SERMON. iv 
A Lent Sermon Preached before the King at Whitehall, February 16. 1620.  1 Tim. 3.16. And without controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into Glory. p. 45  
SERMON V 
A Lent Sermon Preached to the King at Whitehall, February 12. 1629.  Mat. 6.21. For, where your Treasure is, there will your heart be also. p. 61  
SERMON VI 
A Sermon Preached at Whitehall, April 21. 1616.  Eccles. 8.11. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil. p. 75  
SERMON VII. 
A Sermon Preached at Whitehall, Novemb, 2. 1617.  Psal. 55.19. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. p. 89  
SERMON VIII. 
A Sermon Preached to the Household at Whitehall, April 30. 1626.  Mat. 9.13. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. p. 101  
SERMON X. 
A Sermon Preached at Whitehall, April 2. 1620.  Eccles. 5. There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the Sun: Riches reserved to the owners thereof, for their evil. And these riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a Son, and in his hand is nothing. Ver. 12. & 13. in Edit. 1. In alia 13. & 14. p. 129  
SERMON XI. 
A Sermon Preached at Greenwich April 30. 1615.  Esa. 52.3. Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money. p. 153  
SERMON XII. 
A Sermon Preached at Whitehall April 12. 1618.  Gen. 32.10. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. p. 169  
SERMON XIII. 
A Sermon Preached at Whitehall, April 19 1618.  1 Tim. 1.15. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, That Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners, of which I am the chiefest. p. 177  
SERMON XIV. 
A Second Sermon Preached at Whitehall, April 2. 1621.  1 Tim. 1.15. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, That Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners, of which I am the chiefest. p. 190  
SERMON XV. 
A Sermon Preached, at Whitehall, February 29. 1627.  Acts 7.60. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. p. 205  
SERMON XVI. 
A Sermon Preached at Whitehall, February 22. 1629.  Mat. 6.21. For where your Treasure is, there will your heart be also. p. 220  
SERMON XVII. James 2.12. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty. p. 241  
SERMON XVIII. 
A Sermon Preached to Queen Anne, at Denmark-house, Decemb. 14. 1617.  Prov. 8.17. I love them that love me, and they that seek me early shall find me. p. 257  
SERMON XIX. 
A Sermon of Valediction at my going into Germany, at Lincolns-Inne, April 18. 1619.  Eccles. 12.1. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. p. 269  
SERMON XX. 
Two Sermons, to the Prince and Princess Palatine, the Lady Elizabeth at Heydelberg, when I was commanded by the King to wait upon my L. of Doncaster in his Embassage to Germany. First Sermon as we went out, June 16. 1619.  Rom. 13.11. For now is our Salvation nearer than when we believed. p. 281  
SERMON XXI. 
A Sermon Preached at St. Dunstan's, January 15. 1625. The first Sermon after our dispersion by the Sickness.  Exod. 12.30. For there was not a house where there was not one dead. p. 285  
SERMON XXII. 
A Sermon Preached at the Temple.  Esther 4.16. Go and assemble all the Jews that are found in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and eat not, nor drink, in three days, day nor night: I also, and my Maids will fast likewise; and so I will go in to the King, which is not according to the Law: And if I perish, I perish. p. 298  
SERMON XXIII. 
A Sermon Preached at Lincolns-Inne, Ascension-day, 1622.  Deut. 12.30. Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them after they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these Nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise. p. 311  
SERMON XXIV. 
A Sermon Preached at Paul's Cross to the Lords of the Council, and other Honourable Persons, 24 Mart. 1616. It being the Anniversary of the Kings coming to the Crown, and his Majesty being then gone into Scotland.  Prov. 22.11. He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the King shall be his friend. p. 322  
SERMON XXV. 
A Sermon Preached at the Spittle upon Easter-Monday, 1622.  2 Cor. 4.6. For, God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. P. 357  
SERMON XXVI. Psal. 68.20. And unto God, the Lord, belong the issues of Death. (from Death.) P. 397    

A Lent-SERMON Preached at WHITEHALL, February 20. 1617. SERMON I. 
Serm. 1.   Luc. 23.40. 
Fearest not thou God, being under the same condemnation?  
THe Text itself is a Christning-Sermon, and a Funeral-Sermon, and a Sermon at a Consecration, and a Sermon at the Canonization of himself that makes it. This Thief, whose words they are, is Baptised in his blood; there's his Christening: He dies in that profession; there's his Funeral: His Diocese is his Cross, and he takes care of his soul, who is crucified with him, and to him he is a Bishop; there's his Consecration: and he is translated to heaven; there's his Canonization. We have sometimes mention in Moses his book of Exodus, according to the Roman Translation, Operis Plumarii, of a kind of subtle and various workmanship, employed upon the Tabernacle, for which it is hard to find a proper word now; we translate it sometimes Embroidery, sometimes Needlework, sometimes otherwise. It is evident enough, that it was Opus variegatum, a work compact of divers pieces, curiously inlaid, and varied for the making up of some figure, some representation: and likeliest to be that which in sumptuous buildings, we use to call now Mosaic work: for that very word originally signifies, to vary, to mingle, to diversify. As the Tabernacle of God was, so the Scriptures of God are of this Mosaic work: The body of the Scriptures hath in it limbs taken from other bodies; and in the word of God, are the words of other men, other authors, inlaid & inserted. But, this work is only where the Holy Ghost is the Workman: It is not for man to insert, to inlay other words into the word of God. It is a gross piece of Mosaic work, to insert whole Apocryphal books into the Scriptures. It is a sacrilegious defacing of this Mosaic work, to take out of Moses Tables, such a stone as the second Commandment; and to take out of the Lords Prayer, such a stone as is the foundation-stone, the reason of the prayer, Quia Tuum, For thine is the kingdom, etc. It is a counterfeit piece of Mosaic work, when having made up a body of their Canon-Law, of the rags and fragments torn from the body of the Fathers, they attribute to every particular sentence in that book, not that authority which that sentence had in that Father from whom it is taken, but that authority which the Canonization (as they call it) of that sentence gives it; by which Canonization, and placing it in that book, it is made equal to the word of God. 
Thesaurus Catholicus.  It is a strange piece of Mosaic work, when one of their greatest authors pretending to present a body of proofs, for all controverted points, from the Scriptures, and Counsels, and Fathers (for, he makes no mention in his promise of the Mothers of the Church) doth yet fill up that body with sentences from women, and obtrude to us the Revelations of Brigid, and of Katherine, and such She-fathers' as those. But when the Holy Ghost is the workman, in the true Scriptures, we have a glorious sight of this Mosaic, this various, this mingled work; where the words of the Serpent in seducing our first parents, The words of Balaams' Ass in instructing the rider himself, The words of profane Poets, in the writings and use of the Apostle, The words of Caiaphas prophesying that it was expedient that one should die for all, The words of the Devil himself (Jesus I know, and Paul I know) And here in this text, the words of a Thief executed for the breach of the Law; do all concur to the making up of the Scriptures, of the word of God.  
Now, though these words were not spoken at this time, when we do but begin to celebrate by a poor and weak imitation, the fasting of our Saviour Jesus Christ, but were spoken at the day of the crucifying of the Lord of life and glory; yet as I would be loath to think, that you never fast but in Lent, so I would be loath to think that you never fulfil the sufferings of Christ Jesus in your flesh, but upon Goodfriday, never meditate upon the passion, but upon that day. As the Church celebrates an Advent, a preparation to the Incarnation of Christ, to his coming in the flesh, in humiliation: so may this humiliation of ours in the text, be an Advent, a preparation to his Resurrection, and coming in glory: And, as the whole life of Christ was a passion, so should the whole life (especially the humiliation) of a Christian, be a continual meditation upon that. Christ began with some drops of blood in his infancy, in his Circumcision; though he drowned the sins of all mankind, in those several channels of Blood, which the whips, and nails, and spear, cut out of his body in the day of his passion. So though the effects of his passion be to be presented more fully to you, at the day of his passion, yet it is not unseasonable now, to contemplate thus far the working of it upon this condemned wretch, whose words this text is, 
Division.  as to consider in them, First, the infallibility, and the dispatch of the grace of God upon them, whom his gracious purpose hath ordained to salvation: how powerfully he works; how instantly they obey. This condemned person who had been a thief, execrable amongst men, and a blasphemer, execrating God, was suddenly a Convertite, suddenly a Confessor, suddenly a Martyr, suddenly a Doctor to preach to others. In a second consideration, we shall see what doctrine he preaches; not curiosities, not unrevealed Mysteries, not Matter of State, nor of wit, nor of carnal delight, but only the fear of God: Nun times Deum? And for a third part, we shall see his Auditory, the Church that he preached to: he contented himself with a small Parish; he had most care of their souls, that needed him most: he applies himself to the conversion of his fellow-Thief. He works upon those sins which he knew to have been in himself. And he works upon him by all these steps: First, Nun Tu? howsoever the rest do revile Christ, because they stay behind, and look for a temporal Messiah, to make this life sweet, and glorious unto them; yet what's that to thee? thou art to have no part in it; howsoever they be, art not thou affected? Nun Tu times? If the bitterness of thy torment cannot let thee love, though thy stomach will not come down to kiss the rod and embrace correction, yet Nun Tu times? Doth it not imprint a fear in thee? Nun times Deum? Though the Law have done the worst upon thee, Witnesses, Advocates, Judges, Executioners can put thee in no more fear; yet, Nun times Deum? Fearest not thou God? who hath another Tribunal, another execution for thee; especially when thou knowest thy condemnation, and such a condemnation; Eandem, the same condemnation; And that this condemnation is not imminent, but now upon thee: when thou art now under the same condemnation, fearest thou not God?  
The first thing than is, the powerfulness and the dispatch of the grace of God in the conversion of them, who are ordained unto it. In Judas, the Devil entered into him when Christ gave him the Sop; 
Part. I. Gratia.  but the Devil had put the treason in his heart before. The tentation had an Inchoation, and it had a Meditation, and it had a Consummation. In Saint Paul, in his conversion, God wrought upon him all at once, without any discontinuance; He took him at as much disadvantage for grace to work, upon as could be; breathing threaten and slaughters against the disciples, and provided with Commissions for that persecution. But suddenly there came a light, and suddenly a stroke that humbled him, and suddenly a voice, and suddenly a hand that led him to Damascus. After God had laid hold upon him, he never gave him over, till he had accomplished his purpose in him.  
Whether this grace, which God presents so, be resistible or no, whether man be not perverse enough to resist this grace, why should any perverse or ungracious man dispute? Hath any man felt a tentation so strong upon himself, but that he could have given another man reason enough to have kept him from yielding to that tentation? Hath any man felt the grace of God work so upon him at any time, as that he hath concurred fully, entirely with that grace, without any resistance, any slackness? Now fashions in men, make us doubt new manners; and new terms in Divinity were ever suspicious in the Church of God, that new Doctrines were hid under them. Resistibility, and Irresistibility of grace, which is every Artificers wearing now, was a stuff that our Fathers wore not, a language that pure antiquity spoke not. They knew Gods ordinary proceeding. They knew his Common Law, and they knew his Chancery. They knew his chief Justice Moses, that denounced his Judgements upon transgressors of the Law; and they knew his Chancellor Christ Jesus, into whose hands he had put all Judgements, to mitigate the rigour and condemnation of the Law. They knew God's law, and his Chancery: But for God's prerogative, what he could do of his absolute power, they knew God's pleasure, Nolumus disputari: It should scarce be disputed of in Schools, much less served in every popular pulpit to curious and itching ears; least of all made tabletalk, and houshold-discourse. Christ promises to come to the door, and to knock at the door, and to stand at the door, and to enter if any man open; 
Revel. 3.  but he does not say, he will break open the door: it was not his pleasure to express such an earnestness, such an Irresistibility in his grace, so. Let us cheerfully rely upon that; His purpose shall not be frustrated; his ends shall not be prevented; his ways shall not be precluded: But the depth of the goodness of God, how much good God can do for man; yea the depth of the illness of man, how much ill man can do against God, are such seas, as, if it be not impossible, at least it is impertinent, to go about to sound them.  
Now, what God hath done, 
Fac.  and will do for the most heinous offenders, we consider in this man: First, as he was execrable to men, a Thief; and then, as he execrated God, a Blasphemer. Now this Thief is ordinarily taken, and so, in all probability, likely to have been a bloody thief, a Murderer: for, for theft only, their laws did not provide so severe an execution as hanging upon the Cross. We find that Judas, who was a thief, made it a law upon himself, by executing himself, to hang a thief; but it was not the ordinary justice of that country. First, then, he had been an enemy to the well-being of mankind, by injuring the possession, and the propriety, which men have justly in their goods, as he was a thief; and he had been an enemy to the very being of mankind, if he were a Murderer.  
And certainly, the sin of theft alone would be an execrable, a detestable sin to us all, but that it is true of us all, Si videbas furem, 
Psal. 50.  currebas cum eo: we see that all men are thiefs in their kinds, in their courses; but yet we know, that we ourselves are so too. We may have heard of Princes that have put down Stews, and executed severe Laws against Licentiousness; but that may have been to bring all the Licentiousness of the City into the Court. We may have heard Sermons against Usury; and this may have been, that they themselves might put out their money the better. We may cry out against Theft, that we may steal the safelier. For we steal our preferment, if we bring no labour, nor learning to the Service; and we steal our Learning, if we forsake the Fountains, and the Fathers, and the Schools, and deal upon Rhapsoders, and Common placers, and Methodmongers. Let him that is without sin, cast the first stone; let him that hath stolen nothing, apprehend the thief: rather, let him that hath done nothing but steal, apprehend the thief, and present himself there, where this thief found mercy, at the Cross of Christ. Every man hath a sop in his mouth; his own robberies will not let him complain of the theft of excessive Fees in all professions; of the theft of preventing other men's merit with their money; (which is a robbing of others, and themselves too;) of the theft of stealing Affections, by unchaste solicitations; or of the great theft of stealing of Hearts from Princes, and Souls from God, by insinuations of Treason, and Superstition, in a corrupt Religion in every corner. No man dares complain of others thefts, because every man is felo de se; not only that himself hath stolen, but that he hath stolen away himself. Yea, he is Homicida sui, 
Tertul.  a Murderer of himself. Omnis peccator homicida, Every sinner is a Murderer. Quaeris quem Occiderit? doth he plead Not guilty, or doth he put me to prove whom he hath murdered? Si quid ad Elogii ambitionem faciat, non inimicum, non extraneum, sed seipsum. It he think it an honour to him, let him know, it is not an enemy, it is not a stranger, that he hath murdered, but himself, and his own soul. And such a Thief, such a Murderer was this; but not only such, but a public Malefactor too; and so execrable to men: which is his first Indisposition.  

Blaspemy.  He had also execrated God; he had reviled Christ. This Evangelist Saint Luke does not say so, that both the Thiefs reviled Christ: but that acquits not this thief, that Saint Luke does not say't, no more than it acquits them both, that S. John does not say, that either of them reviled Christ. And then both the other Evangelists, Saint Matthew and Saint Mark, charge them both with it. 
Mat. 27.4.3. Mar. 15.32.  The same (that is, those reviling words which others had used) the thiefs that were crucified cast in his teeth. And, they also that were crucified with him, reviled him. Athanasius in his Sermon Contra omnes haereses, 
Athanasius.  makes no doubt of it: Duo Latrones; altero execrante, altero dicente, quid execramur? One Thief said to the other, Why do we revile Christ? 
Origen.  so that de facto, he imputes it to them both; both did it. Origen says, Conveniens est, inprimis ambos blasphemasse; not only that that is the most convenient Exposition, but that it was the most convenient way to God, for expressing Mercy, and Justice too, that both should have reviled him. Origen admits a conveniency in it. 
chrysostom.  chrysostom implies a necessity, Ne quis composito rem factam putaret: lest the world should think it a plot, and that this Thief had been well disposed and affected towards Christ before, therefore, says he, first he declares himself to be his enemy, in reviling him, and then was suddenly reconciled unto him. 
Hilarius.  Hilary raises and builds a great point of Divinity upon it; that since both the Thiefs, of which one was elect to salvation, did upbraid Christ with the ignominy of the Cross, Universis etiam fidelibus scandalum Crucis futurum ostendit: This shows, says he, that even the faithful and elect servants of God, may be shaked, and scandalised, and fall away for a time, in the time of persecution. He raises positive and literal Doctrine. And Theophylact raises mystical and figurative Doctrine out of it; 
Theophylact.  Duo latrones figura Gentilium & Judaeorum: both Jews and Gentiles did reproach Christ, Sicut & primo ambo latrones improperabant, as at first both the Thiefs that were crucified did. 
Hierom.  S. Hierome inclines to admit a figure in S. Matthews words: and he saith, that S. Matthew imputes that to both, which was spoken by one: But S. Hierom had no use of a figure here; for himself says, that Matthew, which imputes this to both; and Luke, which imputes it to one, differ not: for, saith he, both reviled Christ at first; and then, one, Visis miraculis credidit, upon the evidence of Christ's Miracles, changed his mind, and believed in him. Only S. Augustine is confident in it, that this Thief never reviled Christ; but thinks, that that phrase of Matthew, and of Mark, 
Augustine.  who impute it to both, is no more, but as if one should say, Rusticani insultant; mean men, base men, do triumph over me: which, says he, might be said, if any one such person did so. Now, this might be true, if it had been said, Thiefs and Malefactors reviled Christ: But, when it is expressly said, The Thiefs that were crucified, I take it to be a way of deriving the greater comfort upon us, and the greater glory upon Christ, and the greater assurance upon the Prisoner, to leave him to the mercy of God, rather than to the wit of Man; and rather to suffer Christ Jesus to pardon him, being guilty, then to dispute for his innocence. For, perchance, we shall lack an example of a notorious Blasphemer, and reviler of Christ, to be effectually converted to salvation (of which example, considering how our times abound and overflow with this sin, we stand much in need) except this thief be our example; that though he were execrable to men, and execrated God, yet Christ Jesus took him into those bowels which he had ripped up, and into those wounds which he had opened wider by his execrations, and had mercy upon him, and buried him in them. And this was his second Indisposition.  
Now, for the speed and powerful working of this Grace, 
Impetus.  to his Conversion; we must not insist long upon it, lest we be longer in expressing it, than it was in doing. We have no impression, no direction of the time, when his conversion was wrought. None of the Evangelists mention when nor how it was done: None, but this Evangelist, that it was done at all. But he mentions it in the clearest and safest demonstration of all; that is, in the effects of his conversion, his desire to convert others. And therefore we may discern, Impetum Gratiae, in impetu poenitentis: the force, the vehemence of God's grace, in the vehemence of his zeal. Christ himself was silent, when this thief reviled him: and yet this thief comes presently to a zealous impatience, he cannot hear his companion revile. Christ had estated his Apostles in heaven; he had given them Reversions of Judiciary places in heaven, twelve Seats, to judge the twelve Tribes: and yet Facit fides innocentes Latrones, facit perfidia Apostolos criminosos: 
Ambr.  he infuses so much faith into this thief, as justifies him; and leaves his Apostles so far to their infirmity, as endangers them. To the chief of these Apostles (in some services) to Peter himself, 
Jo. 13.36.  he says, Wither I go, thou canst not follow me now; and to this thief he says, Hodie mecum eris, This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. So soon did he bring this thief, Cui damnari ad tempus expedivit, 
Ambros.  that had a good bargain of death, that scaped by being condemned, and was the better, and longer lived for being hanged; (for he was thereby, Collega Martyrii, and particeps Regni, 
Cyprian.  partaker of Christ's Martyrdom, and partner of his Kingdom; he brought him so soon to that height of faith, that even in that low state upon the Cross, he prayed for a spiritual Kingdom: whereas the Apostles themselves, in that exaltation, when Christ was ascending, talked to him of a temporal Kingdom. He came to know those Wounds which were in Christ's Body, 
Ambr.  Non esse Christi, sed Latronis, & amare caepit; then he began to love him perfectly, when he found his own wounds in the body of his Saviour. So he came to declare perfect faith, 
Gregory.  in professing Christ's innocence, This man hath done nothing; and perfect Hope, in the Momento Mei, Remember me in thy Kingdom; and perfect Charity, in this increpation and rebuking of his companion. 
August.  He was, as S. Augustine says, Latro Laudabilis & miraculis; such a thief as deserved praise, and afforded wonder: but the best is the last, that he was imitabilis; that he hath done nothing, but that we may do so too, 
Idem.  if we will apprehend that grace that he did. Assumamus vocem Latronis, si non volumus esse Latrones: If we will not steal ourselves out of the number, 
Idem  to whom God offers his saving grace. Ut sedeamus a dextris, pendeamus a dextris; let us be content to suffer, but to suffer in the right. Suffering as Malefactors, is somewhat too much on the left hand; though even that suffering do bring many to the right hand too. But suffering for Schism in pretence of Zeal, suffering for Treason in pretence of Religion; this is both to turn out of this world on the left hand, and to remain on that hand for ever after in the world to come. This thief hung on the right hand, and was suddenly made a Confessor for himself, a Martyr to witness for Christ, a Doctor to preach to his fellow. If the favour of a Prince can make a man a Doctor, per saltum, much more the mercy of Christ Jesus, which gives the Sufficiency as well as the Title: as he did in this Thief, this new Doctor, whose Doctrine itself is our next consideration.  

Part. II. Doctrina.  This doctrine was the fear of God, which was a pregnant and a plentiful common place for him to preach upon. And upon such an occasion, and such abundance of matter, we have here one example of an extemporal Sermon; This Thief had premeditated nothing. But he is no more a precedent for extemporal preaching, than he is for stealing. He was a Thief before, and he was an extemporal preacher at last: But he teaches no body else to be either. It is true, that if we consider the Sermons of the Ancient Fathers, we shall find some impressions, some examples of sudden and unpremeditated Sermons. Saint Augustine some times eases himself upon so long Texts, 
Ser. 10 de verbis Hpli.  as needed no great preparation, no great study; for a mere paraphrase upon this Text, was enough for all his hour, when he took both Epistle and Gospel, 
Ser. de Sancto Latrone, etc.  and Psalm of the day for his Text. We may see often in S. Bern. (Heri diximus, and Hesterno die fecimus mentionem) that he preached divers days together. In the second of those Sermons of Saint Basil, which were upon the beginning of Genesis, it seems that Basil preached twice in a day; and in his Sermon de Baptismo, it seems that he trusted upon the Holy Ghost, and his present inspiration: Loquemar prout Sermo nobis dabitur in apertione oris: I intent to speak so, as the Holy Ghost shall give me utterance for the present. But as S. Augustine says in another case, Da mihi Paulum; so Da mihi Basilios, and Augustinos; bring such preachers as Basil and Augustine were, and let them preach as often as they will; and let every man whose calling it is, preach as often as he can; but let him not think that he can preach as often as he can speak. An inordinate opinion of purity, brought some men to keep two Sabbaths a week, and others two Lents every year; and an opinion of a necessity of two Sermons every Sabbath, and two hours every Sermon, may bring them to an opinion, that the sanctifying of the Sabbath consists in the patience of hearing.  
Here was an extemporal Sermon, but a short one: he preaches nothing but the fear of God. It is not De arcanis Imperii, matter of State: nor De arcanis Dei, of the unrevealed decrees of God. The Thief does not say to Christ, Perage quod decreveris; Thou hast decreed my conversion, and therefore that decree must be executed, that must necessarily be performed, which thou hadst determined in thy Kingdom before thou camest from thence; but he says, Memento mei, cum veneris; Take such a care of me, for my salvation, and preservation, and perseverance, as that I may follow thee into that Kingdom, into which thou art now going; for our salvation is opened to us in that way, which Christ hath opened by his death: and without him, we understand no assurance of election; without his second going into his Kingdom, we know nothing of that which he did, before he came from thence. This is then the fear of God, 
Psal. 11.10. Prov. 1.7.  which those royal Doctors of the old Testament, David and Solomon, both preached, and which this Primitive Doctor of the Primitive Church, this new Convertite preached too, That no man may be so secure in his election, as to forbear to work out his salvation with fear and trembling: for God saves no man against his will, nor any man that thinks himself beholding for nothing, after the first decree. 
Dan. 11.38.  There is a name of force, of violence, of necessity attributed to a God, which is Mauzzim: but it is the name of an Idol, not of a true God. The name of the true God is Dominus tzebaoth, the Lord of Hosts; a name of power, but not of force. There is a fear belongs to him; his purposes shall certainly be executed, but regularly and orderly; he will be feared, not because he forces us, imprints a necessity, a coaction upon us; but because, if we be not led by his orderly proceeding, there he hath power to cast body and soul into hell fire; therefore he will be feared, not as a wilful Tyrant, but as a just Judge; not as Mauzzim, the god of Violence, but as Dominus tzebaoth, the Lord of Hosts.  

Part 3.  This then is his Doctrine; and what's his Auditory? He is not reserved for Courts, nor for populous Cities; it is but a poor Parish that he hath; and yet he thinks of no change, but means to die there: and there he visits the poorest, the sickest, the wretchedest person, the Thief. He had seen divers other of divers sorts, 
Mat. 27.38.  revile Christ as deeply as this Thief: They that passed by reviled him: Praetereuntes, they that did not so much as consider him, reviled him. They that know not Christ, yet will blaspheme him: if we ask them when, and where, and how, and why Christ Jesus was born, and lived, and died, they cannot tell it in their Creed; and yet they can tell it in their Oaths: they know nothing of his Miraculous Life, of his Humble Death, of his Bitter Passion, of the Ransom of his Blood, of the Sanctuary of his Wounds; and yet his Life, and Death, and Passion, and Blood, and Wounds, is oftener in their mouths in execrations, then in the mouth of the most religious man in his prayers. They revile Christ Praetereuntes, 
Origen.  as they pass along: not only as Origen says here, Non incedentes recte, blasphemant, they did not go perversely, crookedly, 
Hierom.  wilfully, and so blaspheme: nor as Hierome, Non ambulantes in vero itinere Scripturarum, blasphemant; they did not misinterpret places of Scripture, to maintain their errors, and so blaspheme; but they blasphemed Praetereuntes, out of negligent custom and habit; they blaspheme Christ, and never think of it; that they may be damned obiter, by the way, collaterally, occasionately damned.  

Luke 23.24.  But it was not only they, Praetereuntes, but the people that stood, and beheld, reviled Christ too: men that do understand Christ, even then when they dishonour him, do dishonour him to accompany some greater persons upon whom they depend, in their errors. The Priests, who should have called the Passengers, 
Thr. 1.12.  with that, Have ye no regard, all ye that pass by the way? the Scribes, who should have applied the ancient Prophecies to the present accomplishment of them in the death of Christ: the Pharisees, who should have supplied their imperfect fulfilling of the Law, in that full satisfaction, the death of Christ: the Elders, the Rulers, the Soldiers, are all noted to have reviled Christ: they all concur to the performance of that Prophecy in the person of Christ; and yet they will not see that the Prophecy is performed in him: 
Psal. 22.7. Psal. 69.26.  All they that see me have me in derision: they persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and they add unto the sorrows of him whom thou hast wounded: Our Fathers trusted in thee, they trusted in thee, 
Psal. 22.4.  and were delivered; but I am a worm and no man, a shame to men, and the contempt of the people. Pilate had lost his plot upon the people, to mollify them towards Christ; he brought him out to them, Flagellatum & illusum, scourged and scorned, 
John 19.1.  thinking that that would have reduced them. But this Preacher leaves all the rest, either to their farther obduration, or their fit time of repentance, if God had ordained any such time for them: & he turns to this one, whose disposition he knew to have been like his own, and therefore hoped his conversion would be so too; for nothing gives the faithful servants of God a greater encouragement that their labours shall prosper upon others, than a consideration of their own case, & an acknowledgement what God hath done for their souls. When the fear of God had wrought upon himself, than he comes to his fellow, Nun tu times? fearest not thou? First, 
Times.  Nun tu? We have not that advantage over our auditory, which he had over his, to know that in every particular man, there is some reason why he should be more afraid of God's judgements then another man. But every particular man, who is acquainted with his own history, may be such a Preacher to himself, and ask himself Nun tu, hast not thou more reason to stand in fear of God than any other man, for any thing that thou knowest? Knowest thou any man so deeply indebted to God, so far behindhand with God, so much in danger of his executions as thou art? Thou knowest not his colluctations before he fell, nor his Repentances since: when thou hearest S. Paul say, Quorum maximus, hadst not thou need say, Nun tu? Dost not thou fear, who knowest more by thyself, than S. Paul's History hath told thee of S. Paul? for in all his History thou never seest any thing done by him against his conscience: and is thy case as good as that? But to this thief, this thief presses this no farther, but this, what hope soever of future happiness in this life, by the coming of a Messiah, those that stay in the world can expect, what's all that to thee, who art going out of the world? Quid mihi, says that man, who looked upon the Rainbow when he was ready to drown; though God have promised not to drown the world, what's that to me, if I must drown? I must be bold to say to thee, Quid tibi? if God by his omnipotent power will uphold his Gospel in the world, he owes thee no thanks, if thou do nothing in thy calling towards the upholding of it. Nun tu? Dost not thou fear, that though that stand, God's judgement will fall upon thee for having put no hand to the staying of it?  
Nun tu times? It had been unreasonable to have spoken to him of the love of God first now, when those heavy judgements were upon him. The Fear of God is always the beginning of Wisdom; most of all in calamity, which is properly Vehiculum timoris, the Chariot to convey, and the Seal to imprint this fear in us. Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; 
Gen. 20.9.  therefore I said Sarah was my sister. Where there is not the fear of God in great persons, other men dare not proceed clearly with them, but with disguises and Modifications: they dare not attribute their prosperity, and good success to the goodness of God, but must attribute it to their wisdom: they dare not attribute their crosses and ill success to the justice of God, but must attribute it to the weakness or falsehood of servants and ministers: where there is not this fear of God, there is no directness. Beloved, there is love enough at all hands; it is a loving age every where, love enough in every corner, such as it is; but scarce any fear amongst us. Great men are above fear, no envy can reach them: Miserable men are below fear, no change can make them worse: and for persons of middle rank, and more public fears, of plagues, of famines, or such, the abundant and overflowing goodness of God hath so long accustomed us to miraculous deliverances, that we fear nothing, but think to have miracles in ordinary, and neglect ordinary remedies.  

Deum.  But what should this man fear now? his Glass was run out, his Bell was rung out, he was a dead man, condemned, and judged, and executed; what should he fear? In Rome, as the Vestal Virgins which died, were buried within the city, because they died innocent: so persons which were executed by Justice, were buried there too, because they had satisfied the Law, and thereby seemed to be restored to their innocence. So that condemned persons might seem least of all to fear. But yet, Nun times Deum? fearest not thou God, for all that? Have not the laws of Men, Witnesses, Judges, and Executioners, all men, brought fearful things upon thee already? and is it not a fearful thing, if all those real torments, be but Types and Figures of those greater, which God will inflict upon thee after death? How easily hath a cunning malefactor sometimes deluded and circumvented a mild Justice at home, that lives neighbourly by him, and is almost glad to be deceived in favour of life! but how would this man be confounded, if he came to be examined at the Council-table, or by the King? Omni severius quaestione a te interrogari, was said by one of the Panegyrics to one of the Roman Emperors, That it was worse than the rack, to be examined by him. When we come to stand naked before God, without that apparel which he made for us, without all righteousness, and without that apparel which we made for ourselves; not a fig-leaf, not an excuse to cover us; if we think to deal upon his affections, he hath none; if we think to hid our sins, he was with us when we did them, and saw them: we shall see then by his examination, that he knows them better than we ourselves.  

Tom. 10. in Append. Ser. 49.  And to this purpose, to show Gods particular judgement upon all men, and all actions then, it is, that S. Augustine (if that Sermon which is the 130. de Tempore, be his, for it is in the copies of chrysostom too) reads those words thus: Nun times Deum tuum? fearest not thou thy God? that if a man would go about to wrap up all in God's general providence (all must be as God hath appointed it) he might be brought to this particular consideration, that he is Deus tuus; not only God of the world, and God of mankind, but thy God: so far thine, as he shall be thy Judge: In all senses, and to all intendments, that may make him the heavier to thee, he is thy God: he shall be thy God in his severe examinations, as he is Scrutator Renum, as he searches thy reins: thy God, in putting off all respect of persons, in renouncing kindred, Mater & frater; they are of kin to him, that do his will: and in renouncing acquaintance at the last day, Nescio vos, I know not whence you are: and thy God in pronouncing judgement then, Ite maledicti, go ye accursed. He shall be still Deus tuus, thy God, till it come to Jesus tuus, till it come to the point of redemption and salvation; he shall be thy God, but not thy Redeemer, thy Saviour. And therefore it is well urged in this place by Saint Augustine, Nun times Deum tuum? Fearest not thou thy God?  
Especially this great calamity being actually upon thee now. 
Condemnatio.  Saint Peter when he would have converted Agrippa and all the company, he wishes they were all like him, in all things, 
Act. 26.29.  Exceptis vinculis, excepting his bands. This new convert deals upon his fellow with that argument, Quia in iisdem vinculis; since thou art under the same condemnation, thou shouldest have the same affections. Now the general condemnation, which is upon all mankind, that they must die, this alone scarce frights any man, scarce averts any man from his purposes. He that should first put to Sea in a tempest, he might easily think, it were in the nature of the Sea to be rough always. He that sees every Churchyard swell with the waves and billows of graves, can think it no extraordinary thing to die, when he knows he set out in a storm, and he was born into the world upon that condition, to go out of it again. But when Nathan would work upon David, he puts him a particular case, appliable to himself; and when he had drawn from him an implicit condemnation of himself, than he applies it. When David had said, As the Lord liveth, 
2 Sam. 12.  the man that hath done this shall surely die; and Nathan upon that had said, Thou art the man: Then David came to his Peccavi coram Domino, I have sinned against the Lord; and Nathan to his Transtulit Dominus, 
August.  The Lord hath taken away thy sin. And so this preacher, Qui clavis confixus non habuit sensum confixum, who though he were crucified in body, had his spirit and his charity at liberty, he presses his fellow to this fear, therefore, because he is under a particular condemnation; not because he must die, but because he must die thus: and every man may find some such particular condemnation in himself, and in his own crosses, if he will but read his own history in a true copy.  

Eadem.  It is sub eadem, the same condemnation. If this identity be intended, in comparison with Christ's condemnation, the comparison holds only in this: judgement is given upon you both, execution begun upon you both, both equally ignominious, equally miserable in the eye of the world: why dost thou insult upon him, revile him, who art in as ill state as he? thou seest him, who (though thou knowest it not, hath other manner of assurances, than thou canst have) in Agonies, in Fears, in Complaints, in Lamentations: Why fearest not thou, being under the same condemnation? If this eadem condemnatio be intended in comparison of himself that speaks, than the comparison holds only thus, Thou hast no better a life than I, thou art no farther from thy death than I; and the consideration of my condemnation, hath brought me to fear God: why shouldst not thou fear, being under the same condemnation? especially there being no adjourning of the Court, no putting off the Sizes, no Reprieve for Execution: Thou art now under the same condemnation, the same Execution: why shouldst thou not fear now? why shouldst thou not go so far towards thy conversion this minute? To end all, it is all our cases; we are all under the same condemnation: what condemnation? under the same as Adam, the same as Cain, the same as Sodom, the same as Judas. Quod cuiquam accidit, omnis potest; what sin soever God hath found in any, he may find in us; either that we have fall'n into it, by our misuse of his grace, or should fall into it, if he should withdraw his grace. In those that are damned before, we are damned in Effigy; such as we are, are damned; and we might be, but that he which was Medius inter personas divinas, in his glory, in heaven; and Medius inter prophetas, in his Transfiguration in Mount Thabor; and Medius inter Latrones, in his Humiliation in this text, is Medius inter nos, in the midst of the Christian Church, in the midst of us, in this Congregation, & takes into his own mouth now, the words which he put into the thief's mouth then, and more: Since I have been made a man, and no man; been born, and died; since I have descended, and descended to the earth, and below the earth; since I have done and suffered so much to rescue you from this condemnation, Nun timetis? will ye not fear the Lord, but choose still to be under the same condemnation?   

A Lent-SERMON Preached at WHITEHALL, February 12. 1618. SERMON II. 
Serm. 2.   Ezek. 33.32. 
And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely Song, of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an Instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not.  
AS there lies always upon God's Minister, a vae si non, Woe be unto me, if I preach not the Gospel, if I apply not the comfortable promises of the Gospel, to all that groan under the burden of their sins; so there is Onus visionis, (which we find mentioned in the Prophets) it was a pain, a burden to them, to be put to the denunciation of God's heavy judgements upon the people: but yet those judgements, they must denounce, as well as propose those mercies: woe be unto us, if we bind not up the broken hearted; but woe be unto us too, if we break not that heart that is stubborn: woe be unto us, if we settle not, establish not the timorous and trembling, the scattered, and fluid, and distracted soul, that cannot yet attain, entirely and intensely, and confidently and constantly, to fix itself upon the Merits and Mercies of Christ Jesus; but woe be unto us much more, if we do not shake, and shiver, and throw down the refractory and rebellious soul, whose incredulity will not admit the History, and whose security in presumptuous sins will not admit the working and application of those Merits and Mercies which are proposed to him. To this purpose, therefore, God makes his Ministers speculatores; I have set thee for their watchman, says God to this Prophet; that so they might see and discern the highest sins of the highest persons, in the highest places: they are not only to look down towards the streets, & lanes, and alleys, and cellears, and reprehend the abuses and excesses of persons of lower quality there; all their service lies not below stairs, nor only to look into the chamber, and reprehend the wantonnesses and licentiousness of both sexes there; nor only unto the house top and terrace, and reprehend the ambitious machinations and practices to get thither; but still they are speculatores, men placed upon a watchtower, to look higher than all this, to look upon sins of a higher nature than these, to note and reprehend those sins, which are done so much more immediately towards God, as they are done upon colour and pretence of Religion: and upon that station, upon the Execution of that Commission, is our Prophet in this Text, Thou art unto them a very lovely song, etc. for they shall hear thy words, but they do them not. Through this whole chapter, he presents matter of that nature, either of too confident, or too diffident a behaviour towards God. In the tenth verse, he reprehends their diffidence and distrust in God: This they say (says the Prophet) If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we live? How should you live? says the Prophet: thus you should live, by hearing what the Lord of Life hath said, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. In the 25 verse he reprehends their confidence; they say, Abraham was one, and he inherited this land; we are many, this land is given us for our inheritance: but say unto them, says God to the Prophet there, You lift up your eyes to Idols, and you shed blood, and shall you possess the land? Ye defile one another's wife, and ye stand upon the sword, and shall ye possess the land? We were but one, and are many; 'tis true: God hath testified his love, in multiplying Inhabitants, and in uniting Kingdoms; but if there be a lifting up of eyes towards Idols, a declination towards an Idolatrous Religion; if there be a defiling of one another's wife, and then standing upon the sword, that it must be matter of displeasure, or of quarrel, if one will not betray his wife, or sister, to the lust of the greatest person; shall we possess the land? shall we have a continuance of God's blessing upon us? we shall not. And as he thus represents their over-confident behaviour towards God; God is bound by his promise, and therefore we may be secure: And their over-diffident behaviour; God hath begun to show his anger upon us, & therefore there is no recovery: he reprehends also that distemper, which ordinarily accompanies this behaviour towards God, that is, an Expostulation, and a Disputing with God, and a censuring of his actions: in the 20 ver. they come to say, The way of the Lord is not equal; that is, we know not how to deal with him, we know not where to find him; he promises Mercies, and lays Afflictions upon us; he threatens judgements upon the wicked, and yet the wicked prosper most of all; The ways of the Lord are equal. But, to this also God says by the Prophet, I will judge every one of you after his own ways. The ways of the Lord are unsearchable; look ye to your own ways, for according to them, shall God judge you. And then after these several reprehensions, this watchman raises himself to the highest pinnacle of all, to discover the greatest sin of all, treason within doors, contemning of God in his own house, and in his presence; that is, a coming to Church to hear the word of God preached, a pretence of cheerfulness and alacrity, in the outward service of God, yea a true sense and feeling of a delight in hearing of the word; and yet for all this, an unprofitable barrenness, and (upon the whole matter) a despiteful and a contumelious neglecting of God's purpose and intention, in his Ordinance: for, Our voice is unto them but as a song to an instrument; they hear our words, but they do them not.  
Though then some Expositors take these words to be an increpation upon the people, that they esteemed God's ablest Ministers, endued with the best parts, to be but as music, as a jest, as a song, as an entertainment; that they undervalved and disesteemed the whole service of God in the function of the Ministry, and thought it either nothing, or but matter of State and Government, as a civil ordinance for civil order, and no more: yet I take this increpation to reach to a sin of another nature; that the people should attribute reverence enough, attention enough, credit enough to the preacher, and to his preach, but yet when all that is done, nothing is done: they should hear willingly, but they do nothing of that which they had heard.  
First then, God for his own glory promises here, 
Divisio.  that his Prophet, his Minister shall be Tuba, as is said in the beginning of this Chapter, a Trumpet, to awaken with terror. But then, he shall become Carmen musicum, a musical and harmonious charmer, to settle and compose the soul again in a reposed confidence, and in a delight in God: he shall be musicum carmen, music, harmony to the soul in his matter; he shall preach harmonious peace to the conscience: and he shall be musicum carmen, music and harmony in his manner; he shall not present the messages of God rudely, barbarously, extemporally; but with such meditation and preparation as appertains to so great an employment, from such a King as God, to such a State as his Church: so he shall be musicum carmen, music, harmony, in re & modo, in matter and in manner: And then musicum so much farther (as the text adds) as that he shall have a pleasant voice, that is, to preach first sincerely (for a preaching to serve turns and humours, cannot, at least should not please any) but then it is to preach acceptably, seasonably, with a spiritual delight, to a discreet and rectified congregation, that by the way of such a holy delight, they may receive the more profit. And then he shall play well on an instrument; which we do not take here to be the working upon the understanding and affections of the Auditory, that the congregation shall be his instrument; but as S. Basil says, Corpus hominis, Organum Dei, when the person acts that which the song says; when the words become works, this is a song to an instrument: for, as S. August. pursues the same purpose, Psallere est ex preceptis Dei agere; to sing, and to sing to an instrument, is to perform that holy duty in action, which we speak of in discourse: And God shall send his people preachers furnished with all these abilities, to be Tubae, Trumpets to awaken them; and then to be carmen musicum, to sing God's mercies in their ears, in reverend, but yet in a diligent, and thereby a delightful manner; and so to be music in their preaching, and music in their example, in a holy conversation: Eris, says God to this prophet, such a one thou shalt be, thou shalt be such a one in thyself; and then eris illis, thou shalt be so to them, to the people: To them thou shalt be Tuba, a Trumpet, Thy preaching shall awaken them, and so bring them to some sense of their sins: To them thou shalt be carmen musicum, music and harmony; both in re, in thy matter, they shall conceive an apprehension or an offer of God's mercy through thee; and in modo, in the manner; they shall confess, that thy labours work upon them, and move them, and affect them, and that that unpremeditated, and drowsy, and cold manner of preaching, agrees not with the dignity of God's service: they shall acknowledge (says God to this Prophet) thy pleasant voice; confess thy doctrine to be good, and confess thy playing upon an Instrument, acknowledge thy life to be good too; for, in testimony of all this, Audient (says the text) They shall hear this. Now, every one that might come, does not so; businesses, nay less than businesses, vanities, keep many from hence; less than vanities, nothing; many, that have nothing to do, yet are not here: All are not come that might come; nor are all that are here, come hither; penalty of law, observation of absences, invitation of company, affection to a particular preacher, collateral respects, draw men; and they that are drawn so, do not come; neither do all that are come, hear; they sleep, or they talk: but Audient, says our text, They shall be here, they shall come, they shall hear; they shall press to hear: every one that would come, if he might sit at ease, will not be troubled for a Sermon: but our case is better, Audient, they shall rise earlier than their fellows, come hither sooner, endure more pains, harken more diligently, and conceive more delight than their fellows: Audient, they will hear: but then, after all (which is the height of the malediction, or increpation, Non facient, they will not do it; Non facient quae dixeris, They will do nothing of that which thou hast said to them; nay, non facient quae dixerunt, they will do nothing of that, which during the time of the Sermons, they had said to their own souls, they would do; so little hold shall God's best means, and by his best instruments, take of them; They shall hear thy words, and shall not do them.  
These than are our parts that make up this increpation: First, the Prophet shall do his part fully: Secondly, the people shall do some of theirs: But than lastly, they shall fail in the principal, and so make all uneffectual. First, God will send them Prophets that shall be Tubae, Trumpets; and not only that, but speculatores; not only Trumpets which sound according to the measure of breath that is blown into them, but they themselves are the watchmen that are to sound them: not Trumpets to sound out what airs the occasion of the present time, or what airs the affections of great persons infuse into them; for so they are only Trumpets, and not Trumpeters; but God hath made them both: And, as in civil matters, Angusta innocentia est, ad legem bonum esse, 
Seneca.  That's but a narrow, but a faint honesty, to be no honester than a man must needs be, no honester than the law, or then his bodily sickness constrains him to be; so are these Trumpets shortwinded Trumpets, if they sound no oftener than the Canons enjoin them to sound; for, they must preach in season and out of season: If the Canonical season be but once a month, the preaching between, is not so unseasonable, but that it is within the Apostles precept too. If that be done, if the watchman sound the Trumpet, says the beginning of this Chapter (when you see it is the watchman himself that sounds, and not another to sound him; he is neither to be an instrument of others, nor is he to sound always by others, and spare his own breath) but if the watchman do duly sound, then there is an Euge bone serve, belongs to him; Well done good and faithful servant, enter into thy Master's joy: And if he be not heard, or be not followed, then there is a vae Betsaida, a woe belonging to that City, and to that house; for, if those works had been done in Sodom, if all this preaching had been at Rome, Rome would have repent in sackcloth and ashes. 
Jer. 6.17.  I set watchmen over you, says God in another Prophet, Et dixi, Audite, I said unto you, Harken to them: so far God addresses himself to them, speaks personally to them, super vos, and Audite vos; I sent to you, and hear you: but when they would not hear, than he changes the person, Et dixerunt, says that text, And they said, We will not hear: after this stubbornness, God does not so much as speak to them: it is not Dixistis, you said it; God will have no more to do with them; but it is Dixerunt, they said it; God speaks of them as of strangers. But this is not altogether the case in our text: God shall send Prophets, Trumpets, and Trumpeters, that is, preachers of his word, and not the word of men; and they shall be heard willingly too; for as they are Tubae, Trumpets, so they shall be musicum carmen, acceptable music to them that hear them.  
They shall be so, first In re, in their matter, in the doctrine which they preach. 
In Re.  The same trumpets that sound the alarm (that is, that awakens us from our security) and that sounds the Battle (that is, that puts us into a colluctation with ourselves, with this world, with powers and principalities, yea into a wrestling with God himself and his Justice) the same trumpet sounds the Parle too, calls us to hearken to God in his word, and to speak to God in our prayers, and so to come to treaties and capitulations for peace; and the same trumpet sounds a retreat too, that is, a safe reposing of our souls in the merit, and in the wounds of our Saviour Christ Jesus. And in this voice they are musicum carmen, a lovesong (as the text speaks) in proposing the love of God to man, wherein he loved him so, as that he gave his only begotten Son for him. God made this whole world in such an uniformity, such a correspondency, such a concinnity of parts, as that it was an Instrument, perfectly in tune: we may say, the trebles, the highest strings were disordered first; the best understandings, Angels and Men, put this instrument out of tune. God rectified all again, by putting in a new string, semen mulieris, the seed of the woman, the Messiah: And only by sounding that string in your ears, become we musicum carmen, true music, true harmony, true peace to you. If we shall say, that God's first string in this instrument, was Reprobation, that God's first intention, was, for his glory to damn man; and that then he put in another string, of creating Man, that so he might have some body to damn; and then another of enforcing him to sin, that so he might have a just cause to damn him; and then another, of disabling him to lay hold upon any means of recovery: there's no music in all this, no harmony, no peace in such preaching. But if we take this instrument, when God's hand tuned it the second time, in the promise of a Messiah, and offer of the love & mercy of God to all that will receive it in him; then we are truly musicum carmen, as a lovesong, when we present the love of God to you, and raise you to the love of God in Christ Jesus: for, for the music of the Spheres, whatsoever it be, we cannot hear it; for the decrees of God in heaven, we cannot say we have seen them; our music is only that salvation which is declared in the Gospel to all them, and to them only, who take God by the right hand, as he delivers himself in Christ.  
So they shall be music in re, in their matter, in their doctrine; and they shall be also in modo, 
In modo.  in their manner of presenting that doctrine. Religion is a serious thing, but not a sullen; Religious preaching is a grave exercise, but not a sordid, not a barbarous, not a negligent. There are not so eloquent books in the world, as the Scriptures: Accept those names of Tropes and Figures, which the Grammarians and Rhetoricians put upon us, and we may be bold to say, that in all their Authors, Greek and Latin, we cannot find so high, and so lively examples, of those Tropes, and those Figures, as we may in the Scriptures: whatsoever hath justly delighted any man in any man's writings, is exceeded in the Scriptures. The style of the Scriptures is a diligent, and an artificial style; and a great part thereof in a musical, in a metrical, in a measured composition, in verse. The greatest mystery of our Religion, indeed the whole body of our Religion, the coming, and the Kingdom of a Messiah, of a Saviour, of Christ, is conveyed in a Song, in the third chapped. of Habakkuk: and therefore the Jews say, that that Song cannot yet be understood, because they say the Messiah is not yet come. His greatest work, when he was come, which was his union and marriage with the Church, and with our souls, he hath also delivered in a piece of a curious frame, Solomon's Song of Songs. And so likewise, long before, when God had given all the Law, he provided, as himself says, a safer way, which was to give them a heavenly Song of his own making: for that Song, he says there, he was sure they would remember. 
Deut. 31.  So the Holy Ghost hath spoken in those Instruments, whom he chose for the penning of the Scriptures, and so he would in those whom he sends for the preaching thereof: he would put in them a care of delivering God messages, with consideration, with meditation, with preparation; and not barbarously, not suddenly, not occasionally, not extemporarily, which might derogate from the dignity of so great a service. That Ambassador should open himself to a shrewd danger and surprisal, that should defer the thinking upon his Oration, till the Prince, to whom he was sent, were reading his letters of Credit: And it is a late time of meditation for a Sermon, when the Psalm is singing. Loquere Domine, says the Prophet; speak, O Lord: But it was when he was able to say, Ecce paratus, Behold I am prepared for thee to speak in me: If God shall be believed, to speak in us, in our ordinary Ministry, it must be, when we have, so as we can, fitted ourselves, for his presence. To end this, then are we Musicum carmen in modo, music to the soul, in the manner of our preaching, when in delivering points of Divinity, we content ourselves with that language, and that phrase of speech, which the Holy Ghost hath expressed himself in, in the Scriptures: for to delight in the new and bold terms of Heretics, furthers the Doctrine of Heretics too. And then also, are we Musicum carmen, when, according to the example of men inspired by the Holy Ghost, in writing the Scriptures, we deliver the messages of God, with such diligence, and such preparation, as appertains to the dignity of that employment.  
Now these two, to be Music both these ways, 
Vox suavis.  in matter and in manner, concur and meet in the next, which is, to have a pleasant voice: Thou art a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice. First, A Voice they must have, they must be heard: if they silence themselves, by their ignorance, or by their laziness; if they occasion themselves to be silenced, by their contempt and contumacy, both ways they are inexcusable; for a voice is essential to them, that denominates them: John Baptist hath other great names; even the name of Baptist, is a great name, when we consider whom he baptised; him, who baptised the Baptist himself, and all us, in his own blood. So is his name of Preacher, the forerunner of Christ (for in that name he came before him, who was before the world;) so is his Propheta, that he was a Prophet, and then, more than a Prophet; and then, the greatest among the sons of women; these were great names, but yet the name that he chose, is Vox clamantis, The voice of him that cries in the wilderness. What names and titles soever we receive in the School, or in the Church, or in the State; if we lose our voice, we lose our proper name, our Christian name. But then, John Baptists name is not A voice, Any voice, but The voice: in the Prophecy of Esay, in all the four Evangelists, constantly, The voice. Christ is verbum, The word; not A word, but The word: the Minister is Vox, voice; not A voice, but The voice, the voice of that word, and no other; and so, he is a pleasing voice, because he pleases him that sent him, in a faithful executing of his Commission, and speaking according to his dictate; and pleasing to them to whom he is sent, by bringing the Gospel of Peace and Reparation to all wounded, and scattered, and contrite Spirits.  

Instrumentum.  They shall be Music both ways, in matter, and in manner; and pleasing both ways, to God, and to men: but yet to none of these, except the Music be perfect, except it be to an Instrument, that is, as we said at first, out of S. Basil, and S. Augustine, except the Doctrine be expressed in the life too: Who will believe me when I speak, if by my life they see I do not believe myself? how shall I be believed to speak hearty against Ambition and Bribery in temporal and civil places, if one in the Congregation be able to jog him that sits next him, and tell him, That man offered me money for spiritual preferment? To what a dangerous scorn shall I open myself, and the service of God, if I shall declaim against Usury, and look him in the face that hath my money at use? One such witness in the Congregation, shall outpreach the Preacher: and God shall use his tongue (perchance his malice) to make the service of that Preacher uneffectual. Quam speciosi pedes Evangelicantium! says S. Paul, 
Rom. 10.  (and he says that out of Esay, and out of Nahum too, as though the Holy Ghost had delighted himself with that phrase in expressing it) How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel! Men look most to our feet, to our ways: the power that makes men admire, may lie in our tongues; but the beauty that makes men love, lies in our feet, in our actions. And so we have done with all the pieces that constitute our first part: God, in his promise to that Nation, prophesied upon us, that which he hath abundantly performed, a Ministry, that should first be Trumpets, and then Music: Music, in fitting a reverend manner, to religious matter; and Music, in fitting an instrument to the voice, that is, their Lives to their Doctrine. Eris, said God here, to this Prophet, All this thou shalt be: and that leads us into our second part.  
Now, in this second part, there is more; for it is not only Eris, 
Part. II. Eris illis.  thou shalt be so in thyself, and as thou art employed by me; but Eris illis, thou shalt be so unto them, they shall receive thee for such, acknowledge thee to be such: God provides a great measure of ability in the Prophet, and some measure of good inclination in the people. Eris illis Tuba, thou shalt be to them, they shall feel thee to be a Trumpet: they shall not say in their hearts, There is no God; they shall not say, Tush, the Lord sees us not, or he is a blind, or an indifferent God, or, the Lord is like one of us, he loves peace, and will be at quiet; but they shall acknowledge, that he is Dominus Exercituum, the Lord of Hosts, and that the Prophet is his Trumpet, to raise them up to a spiritual battle. Eris illis Tuba, thou shalt be to them a Trumpet, they shall not be secure in their sins; and Eris illis carmen musicum, by thy preaching they shall come to confess, That God is a God of harmony, and not of discord; of order, and not of confusion; and that, as he made, so he governs all things, in weight, and number, and measure; that he hath a Succession, and a Hierarchy in his Church; that it is a household of the Faithful, and a Kingdom of Saints, and therefore regularly governed, and by order, and that in this government no man can give himself Orders, no man can baptise himself, nor give himself the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, nor preach to himself, nor absolve himself; and therefore they shall come to thee, whom they shall confess to be appointed by God, to convey these graces unto them: Eris illis carmen musicum: from thee they shall accept that music, the orderly application of God's mercies, by visible and outward means in thy Ministry in the Church. Eris illis vox suavis, they shall confess thou preachest true Doctrine, and appliest it powerfully to their consciences; and Eris illis vox ad Citharam, thou shalt be a voice to an Instrument; they shall acknowledge thy life to be agreeable to thy Doctrine; they shall quarrel thee, challenge thee in neither, not in Doctrine, not in Manners.  
Such as God appoints thee to be, Eris, thou shalt be; and Eris illis, they shall respect thee as such, and reward thee as such: and they shall express that, in that which follows, Audient, 
Audient.  they shall hear thy word. The worldly man, though it trouble him to hear thee, though it put thorns and brambles into his conscience, yet though it be but to beget an opinion of holiness in others, Audiet, he will hear thee. The fashionall man, that will do as he sees great men do, if their devotion, or their curiosity, or their service and attendance, draw him hither, Audiet, he will come with them, and he will hear. He that is disaffected in his heart, to the Doctrine of our Church, rather than incur penalties of Statutes and Canons, Audiet, he will come, and hear: yea, there is more than that, intended, Audient, they shall hear willingly; and more than that too, Audient, they shall hear cheerfully, desirously. Here is none of that action which was in S. Stephen's persecutors, 
Act. 7.57.  Continuerunt aures, they withheld their ears, they withdrew themselves from hearing, they kept themselves out of distance; here is no such Recusancy intended; 
Psal. 58.  neither is there any of their actions, Qui obturant aures, as the Psalmist says, the Serpent does, who (as the Father's note often) stops one ear with laying it close to the ground, and the other with covering it with his tail: here is none of their action, 
Jer. 7.26. Prov. 28.9.  Qui in durant, nor qui declinant; none that turneth away his ear (for even his prayer shall be an abomination, says Solomon; his very being here is a sin) here, in our case, in our Text, is none of these indispositions; but here is a ready, a willing, and (in appearance) a religious coming to hear: Expectation, Acceptation, Acclamation, Congratulation, Remuneration, in a fair proportion; we complain of no want in any of these now. Sumus, God hath authorised us, and God hath exalted us, in some measure, to deliver his messages; and Sumus vobis, you do not deny us to be such; you do not refuse, but you receive us, and his messages by us; you do hear our words. And that's all that belonged to our second part.  

Part III.  Now in both these former parts, who can discern, who would suspect any foundation to be laid for an Increpation, 
Non facient.  any preparation for a Malediction or Curse? God will send good Preachers to the people, and the people shall love their preaching; and yet, 
1 Sam. 3.11.  as he said to Samuel, he will do a thing, at which, both the ears of him that hears it shall tingle. Now, what is that in our case? This; he will aggravate their condemnation, therefore, because they have been so diligent herein, Et non fecerunt, they have done nothing of that which they have heard. As our very Repentance contracts the nature of sin, if we persevere not in that holy purpose; but, as though we had then made even with God, sin on again upon a new score: so this hearing itself is a sin, that is, such an aggravating circumstance, as changes the very nature of the sin, to them that hear so much, and do nothing. This is not a preparation of that curse in Ezekiel; 
2.5.  whether they will hear or forbear, yet they shall know, that a Prophet hath been among them; that is, hear, or hear not, subsequent judgements shall bring them to see, that they might have heard: but here God accompanies them with a stronger grace, than so; Audient, they will hear. 
58.  There are Vipers in the Psalm that will not hear, how wisely soever the charmers charm; 
Mat. 3.7.  But there is a Generation of Vipers which do hear, and yet departed with none of their viperous nature: O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come! says John Baptist, there to the Pharisees and Sadduces, that came to his baptism. They had apprehended Tubam, a warning, and they did come; but when they were come, he found them in their Non faciunt, without any purpose of bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance. 
Ver. 8.   
Here then is S. Paul's Judaeus in abscondito, a Jew inwardly. 
Quae dixeris. Rom. 2.29.  Here is the true Recusant, and the true Non-conformitan; Audiunt, sed non faciunt: he comes to hear, but never comes to do; there's Recusancy: he confesses that he hath received good instruction, but he refufes to conform himself unto it; there's Nonconformity. First, Non facient quae dixeris, they will not do those things which thou hast said; and yet, that's strange, since they confess thou sayest true: but yet that's not so strange; for they may be Duri sermons; though it be true that we say, it may be hard, and it may trouble them, and perchance damnify them in their Profit, or mortify them in their Pleasures. It may be we may say, that thy relapsing into a sin formerly repent, submits thee again to all the punishment due to the former sin; and that's Durus sermo, a hard saying: It may be we may say, that a repentance which hath all other formal parts of a true repentance, if it reach not to all the branches, and to all the specifying differences and circumstance of thy sins, so far as a diligent examination of thy conscience can carry thee, is a void repentance; and that's Durus sermo, a hard saying. It may be we may say, That though thou hast truly & entirely repent, though thou do leave the practice of the sin, yet if thou do not also leave that which thou hast corruptly got by the ways of that sin, the sin itself lies upon thee still; and that's Durus sermo, a hard saying: And Christ's own Disciples forsook him, and forsook him for ever, 
John 6.60.  Quia durus sermo, because that which Christ said, seemed to them a hard saying. This we may say; and they may come to hear, and come to say we say true, and yet Non facient quae dixeris, never do any of that which we say, Quia duri sermons, because we press things hardly upon them.  
But yet that's not so strange, as Non facere quae dixerint, 
Qud dixerint.  not to do those things which they have said themselves. That when, as the Apostle says of the Corinthians, Vos estis, you are our Epistle, not written with ink, but with the spirit of the living God: so a man, by hearing, is become Evangelium sibi, a Gospel to himself; and by the preaching of the Gospel, 
Serm. 3.  is come to say, Non amplius, I will go, and sin no more, left a worse thing fall unto me: yet he goes and sins again, fall what will, or can fall; and Non facit quae dixerit, he does not perform his own promise to himself. He is affected with some particular passage in a Sermon, and then he comes to David's Secundum innocentiam; O Lord, deal with me according to my future innocence; show thy mercy to me, as I keep myself from that sin hereafter; 
Job 9.31.  and then, abominantur eum vestimenta ejus, his old clothes defile him again, his old rags cast vermin upon him, his old habits of sin threw new dirt upon him. He goes out of the Church as that man's son went from his father, who sent him to work in the Vineyard, 
Matth. 21.28.  with that word in his mouth, Eo Domine, Sir, I go; but he never went, he turns another way, Non facit quae dixerat, he keeps not his own word, with his own soul: when he is gone out of his right way, a Sickness, a Disgrace, a Loss, overtakes him, the arrows of the Almighty stick in him, and the venom thereof drinks up his spirit; temporal afflictions, and spiritual afflictions meet in him, like two clouds, and beat out a thunder upon him, like two currents, and swallow him like two millstones, and grind him, and then he comes to his Domine quid retribuam? Lord, what shall I give thee, to deliver me now? & non facit quae dixerat, he pays none of those vows, performs no part of that which he promised then. Christ had his Consummatum est, and this sinner hath his: Christ ends his passion, and he ends his action; Christ ends his affliction, and he ends his affection: Distulit securim, attulit securitatem, says S. Augustine of this case; as soon as the Danger is removed, his Devotion is removed too. The end of all is, that what punishment soever God reserves for them, who never heard of the Name of his Son Christ Jesus at all, or for them who have pretended to receive him, but have done it Idolatrously, superstitiously; we that have heard him, we that have had the Scriptures preached and applied to us sincerely, shall certainly have the heavier condemnation, for having had that which they wanted: Our multiplicity of Preachers, and their assiduity in preaching; our true interpretation of their labours, when we do hear, and our diligent coming, that we may hear, shall leave us in worse state than they found us, si non fecerimus, If we do not do that which we hear. And to do the Gospel, is to do what we can for the preservation of the Gospel. I know what I can do, as a Minister of the Gospel, and of God's Word; out of his Word I can preach against Linsey-woolsey garments; out of his Word I can preach against ploughing with an Ox, and with an Ass, against mingling of Religions. I know what I can do, as a Father, as a Master; I can preserve my Family from attempts of Jesuits. Those that are of higher place, Magistrates, know what they can do too: They know they can execute laws; if not to the taking of Life, yet to the restraining of Liberty: 
Serm. 2.  And it is no seditious saying, it is no sauciness, it is no bitterness, it is no boldness, to say, that the spiritual death of those souls, who perish by the practice of those seducers, whom they might have stopped, lies upon them. And how knows he, who lets a Jesuit scape, whether he let go but a Fox, that will deceive some simple soul in matter of Religion; or a Wolf, who, but the protection of the Almighty, would adventure upon the person of the highest of all? Non facient quae dixeris, is as far as the Text goes; they will not do that we say: but Quae dixerint, is more; they will not do that which themselves have said: But, Quae juraverint, is most of all; If they will not do that, which for the preservation of the Gospel, they have taken an Oath to do, The Increpation, the Malediction, intended by God, in this Text, that all our preaching, and all our hearing shall aggravate our condemnation, will fall upon us: And therefore, this being the season, in which, especially, God affords you the performance of that part of this Prophecy, assiduous, and laborious, and acceptable, and useful preaching; where all you, of all sorts, are likely to hear the Duties of Administration towards others, and of Mortification in yourselves, powerfully represented unto you, this may have been somewhat necessarily said by me now, for the removing of some stones out of their way, and the chafing of that wax, in which they may thereby make the deeper and clearer impressions; that so, we may not only be to you, as a lovely song, sung to an Instrument; nor you only hear our words, but do them.  
AMEN.   

A Lent-SERMON Preached at WHITEHALL, 
Serm. 3.  February 20. 1628. SERMON III.  James 2.12. 
So speak ye, and so Do, as they that shall be Judged by the law of Liberty.  
THis is one of those seven Epistles, which Athanasius and Origen called Catholic; that is, universal; perchance because they are not directed to any one Church, as some others are, but to all the Christian world: And S. Hierom called them Canonical; perchance because all Rules, all Canons of holy Conversation are comprised in these Epistles: And Epiphanius, and Oecumenius called them Circular; perchance, because as in a Circle, you cannot discern which was the first point, nor in which, the compass begun the Circle; so neither can we discern in these Epistles, whom the Holy Ghost gins withal, whom he means principally, King or Subject, Priest or People, Single or Married, Husband or Wife, Father or Children, Masters or Servants; but Universally, promiscuously, indifferently, they give All rules, for All actions, to All persons, at All times, and in all places; As in this Text, in particular, which is not, by any precedent, or subsequent relation, by any connexion or coherence, directed upon any company, or any Degree of Men: for the Apostle does not say, Ye Princes, nor ye people; but ye, ye in general, to all, So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty: So these Epistles are Catholic, so they are Canonical, and they Circular so. But yet, though in a Circle we know not where the compass began, we know not which was the first point; yet we know, that the last point of the Circle returns to the first, and so becomes all one; and as much as we know the last, we know the first point. Since then the last point of that Circle, in which God hath created us to move, is a kingdom (for it is the kingdom of heaven) and it is a Court (for it is that glorious Court, which is the presence of God, in the communion of his Saints) it is a fair and a pious conception, for this Congregation, here present now in this place, to believe, that the first point of this Circle of our Apostle here, is a Court too; and that the Holy Ghost, in proposing these duties in his general Ye, does principally intent, ye that live in Court, ye whom God brings so near to the sight of himself, and of his Court in heaven, as that you have always the picture of himself, and the portraiture of his Court in your eyes: for a Religious King is the Image of God, and a Religious Court is a Copy of the Communion of Saints. And therefore be you content to think, that to you especially our Apostle says here, Ye, ye who have a nearer propinquity to God, a more assiduous conversation with God, by having better helps then other inferior stations do afford (for though God be seen in a weed, in a worm, yet he is seen more clearly in the sum) So speak ye, and so Do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.  
Now, 
Divisio.  as the first Devils were in heaven (for it was not the punishment which they feel in Hell, but the sin which they committed in heaven, which made them Devils) and yet the fault was not in God, nor in the place; so if the greatest sins be committed in Courts (as even in Rome, where they will needs have an Innocent Church, yet they confess a guilty Court) the faults are personal, theirs that do them, and there is no higher author of their sin. The Apostle does not bid us say, that it is so in Courts; but lest it should come to be so, he bids us give these rules to Courts, So speak ye, and so Do, as they that shall be judged by a law of liberty. First then, here is no express precept given, no direct commandment, to speak: The Holy Ghost saw, there would be speaking enough in Courts; for, though there may be a great sin in silence, a great prevarication in not speaking in a good cause, or for an oppressed person; yet the lowest voice in a Court, whispering itself, speaks a loud, and reaches far; and therefore, here is only a rule to regulate our speech, Sic loquimini, So speak ye. And then, as here is no express precept for speaking, so here is no express precept for Doing; The Holy Ghost saw, there would be Doing enough, business enough in Court: for, as silence, and half silence, whispering, may have a loud voice; so, even undoing may be a busy Doing; and therefore, here's only a Rule to regulate our Do too, Sic facite, So do ye. And lastly, as there is speaking enough, even in silence, and Doing enough, even in undoing, in Court; So the Court is always under judgement enough. Every discontented person that hath missed his preferment, though he have not merited it; every drunkard that is overheat, though not with his own wine; every conjecturing person, that is not within the distance to know the ends, or the ways of great Actions, will Judge the highest Counsels, and Executions of those Counsels. The Court is under judgement enough, and they take liberty enough; and therefore here is a rule to regulate our liberty, A law of liberty: So speak ye, and, etc. But though for the more benefit of the present congregation, we fix the first point of this Circle, that is, the principal purpose of the Holy Ghost, upon the Court; yet our Text is an Amphitheatre. An Amphitheatre consists of two theatres: Our Text hath two parts, in which, all men, all may fit, and see themselves acted; first, in the obligation that is laid upon us, upon us all, Sic loquimini, sic facite: And then in the Reason of this Holy diligence, and religious cautelousness, Quia judicandi, Because you are all to be judged, by, etc. which two general parts, the Obligation, and the Reason, flowing into many subdivided branches, I shall, I think, do better service, both to your understandings, and to your memory, and to your Affections, and Consciences, to present them as they shall arise anon, in their order, then to pour them out, all at once now.  

Part I. Loquimini.  First then, in our first part, we look to our Rule, in the first Duty, our speaking; Sic loquimini, So speak ye. The Comic Poet gives us a good Caution, Si servus semper consuescat silentio, fiet nequam; That servant that says nothing, thinks ill. As our Nullifidians, Men that put all upon works, and no faith; and our Solisidians, Men that put all upon faith and no works, are both in the wrong; So there is a danger in Multi loquio, and another in Nulli loquio: He that speaks overfreely to me, may be a Man of dangerous conversation; And the silent and reserved Man, that makes no play, but observes, and says nothing, may be more dangerous than he: As the Roman Emperor professed to stand more in fear of one pale man, and lean man, then of twenty that studied and pursued their pleasures, and loved their ease, because such would be glad to keep things in the state they then were, but the other sort affected changes: so for the most part, he that will speak, lies as open to me, as I to him; speech is the Balance of conversation. Therefore, as God is not Merx, but pretium; Gold is not ware, but the price of all ware; So speaking is not Doing, but yet fair speaking prepares an acceptation before, and puts a value after, upon the best actions. God hath made other Creatures Gregalia, sociable, besides man; Sheep, and Deer, and Pigeons, will flock, and herd, and troup, and meet together; but when they are met, they are not able to tell one another why they meet. Man only can speak; silence makes it but a Herding: That that makes Conversation, is speech, Qui datum deserit, respuit datorem, says Tertullian. He that uses not a benefit, reproaches his Benefactor. To declare God's goodness, that hath enabled us to speak, we are bound to speak: speech is the Glue, the Cement, the soul of Conversation, and of Religion too.  
Now, your conversation is in heaven; and therefore loquimini Deo, first speak to him that is in heaven, speak to God. Some of the Platonique Philosophers thought it a profanation of God, to speak to God; They thought, that when our Thoughts were made Prayers, and that the Heart flowed into the Tongue, and that we had invested and apparelled our Meditations with words, this was a kind of Painting, and Dressing, and a superfluous diligence, that rather tasted of humane affections, than such a sincere service, as was fit for the presence of God; Only the first conceptions, the first ebullitions and emanations of the soul, in the heart, they thought to be a fit sacrifice to God, and all verbal prayer to be too homely for him. But God himself, who is all spirit, hath yet put on bodily lineaments, Head, and Hands, and Feet, yea and Garments too, in many places of Scripture, to appear, that is, to manifest himself to us: And when we appear to God, though our Devotion be all spiritual, as he is all spirit, yet let us put on lineaments and apparel upon our Devotions, and digest the Meditations of the heart, into words of the mouth. God came to us in verbo, In the word; for Christ is, The word that was made flesh. Let us, that are Christians, go to God so, too, That the words of our mouth, as well as the Meditations of our heart, may be acceptable to him. Surely, God loves the service of Prayer, or he would never have built a house for Prayer; And therefore we justly call Public prayer, the Liturgy, Service: Love that place, and love that service in that place, Prayer. They will needs make us believe, that S. Francis preached to Birds, and Beasts, and Stones; but they will not go about to make us believe that those Birds, and Beasts, and Stones joined with S. Francis in Prayer. God can speak to all things; that's the office of Preaching, to speak to others: But, of all, only Man can speak to God; and that's the office of Prayer. It is a blessed conversation, to spend time in Discourse, in Communication with God. God went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham. 
Gen. 18. ult.  When we leave praying, God leaves us: But God left not Abraham, as long as he had any thing to say to God; And we have always something to say unto him. He loves to hear us tell him, even those things which he knew before; his Benefits in our Thankfulness, And our sins in our Confessions, And our necessities in our Petitions. And therefore having so many Occasions to speak to God, and to speak of God, David ingeminates that, and his ingemination implies a wonder, O that men would (And it is strange if Men will not) O that men would, says he more than once or twice, O that men would praise the Lord, and tell the wondrous works that he hath done for the sons of Men! for, David determines not his precept in that, Be thankful unto him; for a Tnankfulness may pass in private, 
Psal. 100.4.  But Be Thankful unto him, and speak good of his name. Glorify him in speaking to him, in speaking of him, in speaking for him.  

Diis.  Loquimini Deo, speak to God; And loquimini Diis, speak to them whom God hath called Gods. As Religious Kings are bound to speak to God by way of prayer; so those who have that sacred office, and those that have that Honourable office to do so, are bound to speak to Kings by way of Counsel. God hath made all good men partakers of the Divine Nature; They are the sons of God, The seed of God; But God hath made Kings partakers of his Office, and Administration. And as between man and himself, God hath put a Mediator, that consists of God and Man; so between Princes and People, God hath put Mediators too, who considered in themselves, retain the nature of the people (so Christ did of man) but considered in their places, have fair and venerable beams of his power, and influences of him upon them. And as our Mediator Christ Jesus found always his Father's ears open to him; so do the Church and State enter blessedly and successfully, by these Mediators, into the ears of the King. Of our Mediator Christ himself, 
Heb. 5.7.  it is said, That he offered up prayers, and strong cries, and Tears; Even Christ was put to some difficulties in his Mediation for those that were his; But he was heard, says that text, in that he feared. Even in those things, wherein, in some emergent difficulties, they may be afraid they shall not, these Mediators are graciously and opportunely heard too, in the due discharge of their offices. That which was David's prayer, is our possession, 
Psal. 36.11.  our happiness, Let not the foot of Pride come against us: we know there is no Pride in the Head; and because there is no fault in the Hands neither, that is, in them, into whose hands this blessed Mediatorship is committed, by the great places of power, and Council, which they worthily hold; the foot of pride, foreign, or home-oppression, does not, shall not tread us down. And for the continuation of this happiness, let me have leave to say, with Mordicai's humility, and earnestness too, to all such Mediators, 
4.14.  that which he said to Esther, Who knows, whether thou be'st not brought to this place for this purpose, To speak that, which his sacred and gracious ears, to whom thou speakest, will always be well pleased to hear, when it is delivered by them, to whom it belongs to speak it, and in such humble and reserved manner, as such sovereign persons as owe an account but to God, should be spoke too? Sic loquimini Deo, So let Kings speak to God, (that was our first) Sic loquimini Diis, So let them, whom Kings trust, speak to Kings, whom God hath called Gods, (that was our second.) And then, a third branch in this rule of our first duty, is, Sic loquimini imaginibus Dei, So speak you to God's Images, to Men of condition inferior to yourselves; for they also are Images of God, as you are.  
And this is truly, 
Imaginibus Dei.  most literally the purpose of the Apostle here, That you undervalue no Man for his outward appearance; 
Vers. 2.  That your over-value no man for his goodly apparel, or Gold Rings; That you say not to a poor man, Stand thou there; 
Vers. 3.  or if you admit him to sit, Sat here under my footstool. But it is a precept of Accessibleness, and of Affability; Affability, that is, A civility of the City of God, and a Courtship of the Court of heaven, to receive other Men, the Images of God, 
Apoc. 3.20.  with the same easiness that God receives you. God stands at the Door, and knocks, and stays our leisure, to see if we will open, and let him in: Even at the door of his Beloved, he stood, and knocked, till his head was filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night. 
Cant. 5.2.  But God puts none of us to that, to which he puts himself, and his Christ: But, Knock, says he, and it shall be opened unto you; 
Mat. 7.7.  No staying at the door, opened as soon as you knock. The nearest that our Expositors can come, to find what it was that offended God, in Moses striking of the Rock for water, is, that he struck it twice; 
Num. 20.10.  that he did not believe that God would answer his expectation at one striking. God is no in-accessible God, that he may not be come to; nor inexorable, that he will not be moved, if he be spoken to; nor dilatory, that he does not that he does, seasonably. Daniel presents God Antiquum Dierum, as an Old Man; 
Ambro.  but that is as a Reverend, not as a froward person. Mens in sermonibus nostris habitat, & gubernat verba: The soul of man is incorporate in his word; As he speaks, we think he thinks: Et bonus paterfamilias, in illo primo vestibulo aestimatur, says the same Father. As we believe that to be a free house, where there is an easy entrance; so we doubt the less of a good heart, if we find charitable and courteous language. But yet there is an excess in this too, in this self-effusion, this pouring of a man's self out, in fair, and promising language. Inaccessibleness is the fault, which the Apostle aims at here: and truly the most inaccessible Man that is, is the over-liberal, and profuse promiser: He is therefore the most inaccessible, because he is absent, when I am come to him, and when I do speak with him. To a retired, to a reserved man, we do not easily get; but when we are there, he is there too: To an open and liberal promiser we get easily; but when we are with him, he is away, because his heart, his purpose is not there. But, sic loquimini Deo, so speak ye to God (that's a remembrance to Kings) Sic loquimini Diis, so speak ye to them whom God hath called Gods (that's a remembrance to Mediators between Kings and Subjects.) Sic loquimini Imaginibus Dei, so speak ye to God's Image, to all men (that's a remembrance to all that possess any superiority over others) as that your loquimini may be accompanied with a facite, your saying with Doing, your good words with good actions: for so our Apostle joins them here, So speak ye, and so Do: and so we are come to our second rule; from the rule of our Words, to the Rule of our Actions.  

Facite.  John Baptist was all voice, yet John Baptist was a forerunner of Christ. The best words are but words, but they are the forerunners of Deeds: but Christ himself, as he was God himself, is Purus Actus, all Action, all Doing. Comfortable words are good cordials; They revive the spirits, & they have the nature of such occasional physic: but Deeds are our food, our diet, & that that constantly nourishes us. 
1 John 3.18.  Non verbo, says the Apostle; Let us not love in word, nor in tongue; but in Deed, and in Truth. Not that we may not love in words; but that our Deeds are the true seals of that love, which was also love, 
Ambrose.  when it was in words. But Ne quod luxuriat in flore, attenuetur & hebetetur in fructu; lest that tree that blew early and plentifully, blast before it knit, second your good words with actions too. It is the Husbandry and the Harvest of the righteous man; (as it gathered in David) The Mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom: 
Psal. 37.30.  so we read it; there it is in the Tongue, in words only: The Vulgar hath it, Meditatur, He Meditates it; so the heart is got in. But the Original, Hagah, is noted to signify, fructificavit, He brings forth fruits thereof; and so the Hand is got in too: And when that which is well spoken, was well meant, and hath been well expressed in Action, that's the Husbandry of the righteous Man; then his Harvest is all in. It is the way of God himself; Philo Judaeus notes, 
Exod. 20.18.  that the people are said to have seen the noise, and the voice of God; because, whatsoever God says, it determines in Action: If we may hear God, we may see him; what he says, he does too. Therefore from that example of God himself, S. Gregory directs us; We must, says he, show our Love, Et veneratione sermonis, & Ministerio largitatis, what a fair respect in words, and what a real supply in Deeds. Nay, when we look upon our pattern, that is, God, Tertullian notes well, That God prevented his own speaking, by Doing; Benedicebat, quae benefaciebat; first he made all things Good, and then he Blessed them, that they might be better; first he wrought, and then he spoke. And so Christ's way and proceeding is presented to us too; so far from not Doing when he speaks, as that he Does before he speaks. 
Acts 1.1. Luke ult. 19  Christ began to Do, and to Teach, says S. Luke; but first to Do. And He was mighty in Deeds, and in words; but first in Deeds. We cannot write so well as our Copy, to begin always at Deeds, as God, and his Christ; But yet let us labour to write so fair after it, as first to afford comfortable words; and though our Deeds come after, yet to have them from the beginning in our intention; and that we do them, not because we promised, but promise because we love to do good, and love to lay upon ourselves the obligation of a promise. The instrument and Organ of Nature was the eye; The Natural Man finds God in that he sees, in the Creature. The Organ of the Law, which exalted, and rectified Nature, was the Hand; Fac hoc & vives; perform the law, and thou shalt live. So also, the Organ of the Gospel is the Ear, for faith comes by hearing; But then the Organ of faith itself, is the Hand too; A Hand that lays hold upon the Merits of Christ, for myself; and a Hand that delivers me over to the Church of God, in a holy life, and exemplary Actions, for the edification of others. So that All, All from nature to Grace, determines in Action, in Doing good. Sic facite Deo, so do good to God, in real assisting his cause: Sic facite Diis, so do good to them, whom God hath called Gods, in real second their religious purposes: Sic facite Imaginibus Dei, so do good to the Images of God, in real relieving his distressed Members, as that you do all this, upon that which is made the Reason of all, in the second part of this text, Because you are to be judged by the law of liberty.  
Timor futuri judicii hujus vitae praedagogus. 
Part. II. Basil.  Our Schoolmaster to teach us to stand upright in the last judgement, 
Judicium.  is the Meditation, and the fear of that judgement, in this life. It is our Schoolmaster, and Schoolmaster enough. I said unto the fool, 
Psal. 75.5.  thus and thus, says David: And I said unto the wicked, thus and thus, says he: for, says he, God is the Judge: He thought it enough to enlighten the understanding of the fool, enough to rectify the perverseness of the wicked, if he could set God before them, in that Notion, as a Judge: for, this is one great benefit from the present contemplation of the future judgement, that whosoever does truly, and advisedly believe, that ever he shall come to that judgement, is at it now; He that believes that God will judge him, is God's Commissioner, God's Delegate, and, in his name, judges himself now. Therefore it is a useful mistaking, which the Roman Translation is fallen into, in this Text, in reading it thus, Sicut incipientes judicari; So speak ye, and so Do, as they upon whom the judgement were already begun. For, Qui timet ante Christi Tribunal praesentari, 
Aug.  He that is afraid to be brought to the last judgement, hath but one Refuge, but one Sanctuary, Ascendat Tribunal Mentis suae, & constituat se ante seipsum; Let him cite himself before himself, give evidence himself against himself; and so guilty as he is found here, so innocent he shall stand there. Let him proceed upon himself, as Job did, 
9.28.  and he is safe; I am afraid of all my sorrow, says he; Afraid that I have not said enough against myself, nor repent enough; Afraid that my sorrows have not been sincere, but mingled with circumstances of loss of health, or honour, or fortune, occasioned by my sins; and not only, not principally for the sin itself. I am afraid of all my sorrows, says he: but how much more than of my mirths and pleasures? To judge ourselves by the judgement of flatterers, that depend upon us; to judge ourselves by the event and success of things, (I am enriched, I am preferred by this course, and therefore all's well) to judge ourselves by example of others, (others do thus, and why not I?) All these proceed are Coram non Judice, all these are literally Praemunire cases, for they are appellations into foreign Jurisdictions, and foreign Judicatures. Only our own conscience rectified, is a competent judge. And they that have passed the trial of that judgement, do not so much rise to judgement at last, as stand and continue in judgement: their judgement, that is, their trial, is passed here; and there they shall only receive sentence, and that sentence shall be, Euge bone serve; Well done, good and faithful servant; since thou didst enter into Judgement in the other world, enter into thy Master's Joy in this. But howso ever we be prepared for that judgement, well, or not well; and howsoever the Judge be disposed towards us, well, or not well, there is this comfort given us here, that that judgement shall be per legem, by a Law, we shall be judged by a law of Liberty; which is our second branch in this second part.  

Per Legem.  The Jews that prosecuted the Judgement against Christ, durst not do that without pretending a Law: Habemus legem, say they, we have a law, and he hath transgressed that. The necessary precipitations into sudden executions, to which States are forced in rebellious times, we are feign to call by the name of Law, Martial Law. The Torrents, and Inundations, which invasive Armies pour upon Nations, we are fain to call by the name of Law, The Law of Arms. No Judgement, no Execution, without the name, the colour, the pretence of Law; for still men call for a Law for every Execution. And shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Shall God judge us, condemn us, execute us at the last day, and not by a Law? by something that we never saw, never knew, never notified, never published, and judge me by that, and leave out the consideration of that Law, which he bond me to keep? 
1 Cor. 1.20.  I ask S. Paul's question, Where is the disputer of the world? Who will offer to dispute unnecessary things, especially where Authority hath made it necessary to us, to forbear such Disputations? Blessed are the peacemakers that command, and blessed are the peace-keepers that obey, and accommodate themselves to peace, in forbearing unnecessary and uncharitable controversies: 
1 Tim. 3.16.  but, without controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness; The Apostle invites us to search into no farther mysteries, than such as may be without controversy: the Mystery of Godliness is without controversy; and godliness is, to believe that God hath given us a Law, and to live according to that Law. This, this godliness, (that is, Knowledge and Obedience to the Law) hath the promises of this life, and the next too; all referred to his Law: for, without this, this godliness (which is holiness) no man shall see God: All referred to a Law. This is Christ's Catechism in S. John, That we might know the only true God, 
17.3.  and Jesus Christ whom he sent. A God commanding, and a Christ reconciling us, if we have transgressed that Commandment. And this is the Holy Ghosts Catechism in S. Paul, Deus remunerator, 
Heb. 11.6.  That we believe God to be, and to be a just rewarder of man's actions: still all referred to an obedience, or disobedience of a Law. The Mystery of godliness is great, that is, great enough for our salvation, and yet without controversy; for, though controversies have been moved about Gods first act, there can be none of his last act; though men have disputed of the object of Election, yet of the subject of Execution there is no controversy: No man can doubt, but that when God delivers over any soul actually, and by way of execution to eternal condemnation, that he delivers over that soul to that eternal condemnation, for breaking his Law. In this we have no other adversary, but the over-sad, the despairing soul; and it becomes us all, to lend our hand to his succour, and to pour in our Wine, and our Oil, into his Wounds, that lies weltering and surrounded in the blood of his own pale and exhausted soul: That soul, who though it can testify to itself, some endeavour in the ways of holiness, yet upon some collateral doubts, is still suspicious, and jealous of God. How often have we seen, that a needless jealousy and suspicion, conceived without cause, hath made a good body bad? A needless jealousy and suspicion of his purposes and intentions upon thee, may make thy merciful God angry too. Nothing can alienate God more from thee, then to think that any thing but sin can alienate him. How wouldst thou have God merciful to thee, if thou wilt be unmerciful to God himself? And, Qui quid tyrannicum in Deo, 
Basil.  He that conceives any tyrannical act in God, is unjust to the God of Justice, and unmerciful to the God of Mercy. Therefore in the 17. of our Injunctions, we are commanded to arm sad souls against Despair, by setting forth the Mercy, and the Benefits, and the Godliness of Almighty God (as the word of the Injunction is, the godliness of God) for, to leave God under a suspicion of dealing ill with any penitent soul, were to impute ungodliness to God. Therefore to that mistaking soul, that discomposed, that shivered, and shrivelled, and raveled, and ruin'd soul, to that jealous and suspicious soul only, I say, Let no man judge you, 
Coloss. 2.16.  says the Apostle, intruding into those things which he hath not seen. Let no man make you afraid of secret purposes in God, which they have not, nor you have not seen; for, that by which you shall be judged, is the Law; that Law, which was notified, and published to you. The Law alone were much too heavy, if there were not a superabundant ease and alleviation in that hand, that Christ Jesus reaches out to us. Consider the weight and the ease; and for pity to such distrustful souls, and for establishment of your own, stop your devotions a little, upon this consideration. There is Chyrographum, a hand-writing of Ordinances against me; 
14.  a Debt, an Obligation contracted by our first Parents, in their disobedience, and fall'n upon me. And even that (be it but Original sin) is shrewd evidence; there's my first charge. But, Deletum est, says the Apostle there; that's blotted, that's defaced, that cannot be sued against me, after Baptism: Nay, Sublatum, cruci affixum, it is cancelled, it is nailed to the Cross of Christ Jesus, it is no more sin; in its self it is; but to me, to condemnation, it is not: here's my charge, and my discharge for that. 
28.15.  But yet there is a heavier evidence, Pactum cum inferno, as the Prophet Esay speaks, I have made a covenant with death, and with Hell I am at an agreement; that is, says S. Greg. Audacter, Indesinenter peccamus, & diligendo, amicitiam profitemur: We sin constantly, & we sin continually, and we sin confidently; and we find so much pleasure and profit in sin, as that we have made a league, and sworn a friendship with sin; and we keep that perverse, and irreligious promise, over-religiously; and the sins of our youth flow into other sins, when age disables us for them. But yet there is a Deletum est, in this case too; our covenant with death is disannulled (says that Prophet) when we are made partakers of the death of Christ, in the blessed Sacrament. Mine actual sins lose their act, and mine habitual sins fall from me as a habit, as a garment put off, when I come to that: there's my charge, and my discharge for that. But yet there is worse evidence against me, then either this Chyrographum, the first hand-writing of Adam's hand, or then this pactum, this contract of mine own hand, actual and habitual sin (for of these, one is washed out in water, and the other in blood, in the two Sacraments.) But then there is Lex in Membris, says the Apostle, 
Rom. 7.21.  I find a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Sin assisted by me, is now become a tyrant over me, and hath established a government upon me; and there is a law of sin, and a law in my flesh, which after the water of Baptism taken, and the water of penitent tears given; after the blood of Jesus Christ taken, and mine own blood given (that is, a holy readiness at that time, when I am made partaker of Christ's death, to die for Christ) throws me back, by relapses into those repent sins. This put the Apostle to that passionate exclamation, O wretched man that I am! And yet he found a deliverance, even from the body of this death, through Jesus Christ his Lord: that is, a free, an open recourse and access to him in all oppressions of heart, in all dejections of spirit. Now, when this Chyrographum, this bond of Adam's hand, Original sin, is cancelled upon the Cross of Christ; And this Pactum, this band of mine hand, actual sins, washed away in the blood of Christ; and this, Lex in membris, this disposition to relapse into repent sins (which, as a tide that does certainly come every day, does come every day in one form or other) is beaten back, as a tide by a bank, by a continual opposing the merits and the example of Christ Jesus, and the practice of his fasting, and such other medicinal disciplines, as I find to prevail against such relapses; when by this blessed means, the whole Law, against which I am a trespasser, is evacuated, will God condemn me for all this, and not by a Law? When I have pleaded Christ, and Christ, and Christ; Baptism, and Blood, and Tears; will God condemn me an obliqne way, when he cannot by a direct way; by a secret purpose, when he hath no law to condemn me by? Sad and disconsolate, distorted and distracted soul! if it be well said in the School, Absurdum est disputare, ex manuscriptis, it is an unjust thing in Controversies and Disputations, to press arguments out of Manuscripts, that cannot be seen by every man; it were ill said in thy conscience, that God will proceed against thee ex manuscripto, or condemn thee upon any thing which thou never saw'st, any unrevealed purpose of his. Suspicious soul! ill-presaging soul! Is there something else, besides the day of Judgement, that the Son of Man does not know? Disquiet soul! Does he not know the proceeding of that Judgement, wherein himself is to be the Judge? But that when he hath died for thy sins, and so fulfilled the Law in thy behalf, thou mayst be condemned without respect of that Law, and upon something, that shall have had no consideration, no relation to any such breach of any such Law in thee? Intricated, entangled conscience! Christ tells thee of a Judgement, because thou didst not do the works of Mercy, not feed, not  the poor; for those were enjoined thee by a Law: But he never tells thee of any Judgement therefore, because thy name was written in a dark book of Death, never unclasped, never opened unto thee in thy life. He says unto thee lovingly, and indulgently, Fear not, for it is Gods good pleasure to give you the Kingdom; But he never says to the wickedest in the world, Live in fear, die in anxiety, in suspicion, and suspension for his displeasure: a displeasure conceived against you, before you were sinners, before you were men, hath thrown you out of that Kingdom into utter darkness. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus; the reason is added, because the Law of the Spirit of Life hath made them free from the Law of Sin, and of Death. All, upon all sides, is still referred to Law. And where there is no law against thee (as there is not to him that is in Christ; and he is in Christ, who hath endeavoured the keeping, or repent the breaking of the Law) God will never proceed to execution by any secret purpose never notified, never manifested. Suspicious, jealous, scattered soul, recollect thyself, and give thyself that redintegration, that acquiescence, which the Spirit of God, in the means of the Church offers thee: study the Mystery of godliness, which is without all controversy; that is, endeavour to keep, repent the not keeping of the Law, and thou art safe; for that that you shall be judged by, is a Law. But then this Law is called here a Law of Liberty; and whether that denotation, that it is called a Law of Liberty, import an ease to us, or a heavier weight upon us, is our last disquisition, and conclusion of all: So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty.  

Lex libertatis.  That the Apostle here, by the Law of Liberty, means the Gospel, 
1.25.  was never doubted. He had called the Gospel so, before this place: Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, shall be blessed in his deed; that is, blessed in doing so, blessed in conforming himself to the Gospel. But why does he call it so, a Law of Liberty? Not because men naturally affecting liberty, might be drawn to an affection of the Gospel, by proposing it in that specious name of Liberty, though it were not so. The Holy Ghost calls the Gospel a Pearl, and a Treasure, and a Kingdom, and Joy, and Glory; not to allure men with false names, but because men love these, and the Gospel is truly all these; a Pearl, and a Treasure, and a Kingdom, and Joy, and Glory: And it is truly a Law of Liberty. But of what kind, and in what respect? Not such a Liberty as they have established in the Roman Church, where Ecclesiastical Liberty must exempt Ecclesiastical persons from participating all burdens of the State, and from being Traitors, though they commit treason, because they are Subjects to no secular Prince: nor the liberty of the Anabaptists, that overthrows Magistracy, and consequently all subjection, both Ecclesiastical and Laic; for, when upon those words, Be ye not servants of men, 
1 Cor. 7.23.  S. chrysostom says, this is Christian liberty, Nec aliis nec sibi servire, neither to be subjects to others, nor to ourselves; that's spoken with modification, with relation to our first Allegiance, our Allegiance to God; not to be so subject to others, or to ourselves, as that either for their sakes or our own, we depart from any necessary declaration of our service to God.  

Deo.  First then, the Gospel is a Law of Liberty, in respect of the Author of the Gospel, of God himself, because it leaves God at his liberty. Not at liberty to judge against his Gospel, where he hath manifested it for a Law; for he hath laid a holy necessity upon himself, to judge according to that Law, where he hath published that law. But at liberty so, as that it consists only in his good pleasure, to what Nation he will publish the Gospel, or in what Nation he will continue the Gospel, or upon what persons he will make this Gospel effectual. So Oecumenius (who is no single witness, nor speaks not alone, but compiles the former Fathers) places this liberty in God, that God is at liberty to give this Gospel when he will; and at liberty so, as that he hath exempted no man, how well soever he love him; nor put on such fetters or manacles upon himself, but that he can and will punish those that transgress this law. So it is a Law of liberty to God; nothing determined upon any man, nothing concluded in himself, lies so in God's way, as to hinder him from proceeding in his last judgement, according to the keeping or breaking of this law: still God is at his liberty. And it is a Law of liberty in respect of us: of us, who are Christians; and considered so, 
Nobis.  either with a respect to the natural man, or with a respect to the Jew. For, if we compare the Christian with the natural man, the law of Nature lays the same obligation upon the natural man, as the Gospel does upon the Christian, for the moral part thereof. The Christian is no more bound to love God, nor his neighbour, than the natural man is: therein the natural man hath no more liberty than the Christian; so far their law is equal: And then all the law which the Christian hath, and the natural man hath not, is a law of liberty to the Christian, that is, a law that gives him an ease, and a readier way to perform those duties; which way the natural man hath not, and yet is bound to the same duties. The natural man, if he transgress that law, which he finds in his own heart, finds a condemnation in himself, as well as the Christian; therein he is no freer than the Christian: But he finds no Sanctuary, no Altar, no Sacrifice, no Church; no such Liberties, as the Christian does in the Gospel. So the Gospel is a law of Liberty to us in respect of the natural man, that it sets us at liberty, restores us to liberty, after we are fall'n into prison for debt, into God's displeasure for sin, by affording us means of reconciliation to God again.  
It is so also in respect of the Law given by God to the Jews. 
Judaei.  The Jews had liberties, that is, refuge and help of sacrifices for sin; which the natural man had not: for, if the natural man were driven and followed from his own heart, that he saw no comfort of an innocency there, he had no other liberties to fly to, no comfort in any other thing; no law, no promise annexed to any other action; not to Sacrifice, as the Jews; or to Sacrament, as the Christians, but must irremediably sink under the condemnation of his own heart. The Jew had this liberty, a Law, and a Law that involved the Gospel; but then the Gospel was to the Jew but as a letter sealed; and the Jew was but as a servant, who was trusted to carry the letter, as it was, sealed, to another, to carry it to the Christian. Now the Christian hath received this letter at the Jews hand, and he opens it; he sees the Jews Prophesy made History to him; the Jews hope and reversion, made possession and inheritance to him: he sees the Jews faith made matter of fact; he sees all that was promised and represented in the Law, performed and recorded in the Gospel, and applied in the Church. 
John 15.15.  There Christ says, Henceforth call I you not servants, but friends. Wherein consists this enfranchisement? In this; The servant knoweth not what his master doth (the Jews knew not that) but I have called you friends, says Christ, for all things that I heard of my Father, 
Hebr. 7.19.  I have made known unto you. The Law made nothing perfect, says the Apostle. Where was the defect? he tells us that; the old Covenant (that is, 
Galat 4.24.  the Law) gendereth to bondage. What bondage? he tells us that too, when he says, The Law was a Schoolmaster. The Jews were as Schoolboys, always spelling, and putting together Types and Figure; which things typified and figured, how this Lamb should signify Christ, how this fire should signify a holy Ghost. The Christian is come to the University, from Grammar to Logic, to him that is Logos itself, the Word; to apprehend & apply Christ himself; and so is at more liberty than when he had only a dark law, without any comment, with the natural man; or only a dark comment, that is, the Law, with a dim light, & ill eyes, as the Jews had: for though the Jew had the liberty of a Law, yet they had not the law of Liberty. So the Gospel is a law of Liberty to God, who is still at his liberty to give and take, and to condemn according to that law; and a law of liberty to us, as we are compared to the natural man, or to the Jew. But when we confine ourselves in ourselves, positively, without comparison, it is not such a law of liberty to us, as some men have come too near saying, That the sins of God's children do them no harm; that God sees not the sins of his children; that God was no further out with David in his Adultery, then in his Repentance: But, as to be born within the Covenant, that is, of Christian Parents, does not make us Christians, 
Aug.  (for, Non nascitur, sed renascitur Christianus) the Covenant gives us a title to the Sacrament of Baptism, and that Sacrament makes us Christians: so this law of liberty gives us not a liberty to sin, but a liberty from sin. Noli libertate abuti, ad libere peccandum, says the same Father; It is not a liberty, 
2 Cor. 3.17.  but an impotency, a slavery, to sin. Voluntas libera quae pia, says he, only a holy soul is a free soul. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, 
Leo.  says the Apostle: And Splendidissimum in se quisque habet speculum, Every man hath a glass, a crystal, into which, though he cannot call up this spirit (for the Spirit of God breathes where it pleases him) yet he can see this spirit, if he be there, in that glass: every man hath a glass in himself, where he may see himself, and the Image of God, says that Father, and see how like he is to that. To dare to reflect upon myself, and to search all the corners of mine own conscience, whether I have rightly used this law of liberty; and neither been bold before a sin, upon presumption of an easy; nor diffident after, upon suspicion of an impossible reconciliation to my God: this is Evangelical liberty.  
So then (to end all) though it be a law of Liberty, because it gives us better means of prevention before, and of restitution after, than the natural man, or the Jew had; yet we consider, that it is this law of Liberty, this law that hath afforded us these good helps, by which we shall be judged; and so, though our case be better than theirs, because we have this law of Liberty, which they wanted, yet our case grows heavier than theirs, if we use it not aright. The Jews shall be under a heavier condemnation than the natural man, because they had more liberty, that is, more means of avoiding sin, than the natural man had; and, upon the same reason, the Christian under a heavier condemnation then either, because he shall be judged by this law of Liberty.  
What judgement then gives this law? This; Qui non crediderit, 
Mark 16.16.  damnabitur; and so says this Law in the Lawmakers mouth, He that believes not, shall be damned. And as no less light than Faith itself, can show you what Faith is, what it is to believe; so no less time than Damnation shall last, can show you what Damnation is: for, the very form of Damnation is the everlastingness of it; and, Qui non crediderit, He that believeth not shall be damned: there's no commutation of penance, nor beheading after a sentence of a more ignominious death, in that court. Dost thou believe that thou dost believe? yet this law takes not that answer: This law of Liberty takes the liberty to look farther; Through faith into works; for, so says the Law in the mouth of the Lawmaker; To whom much is given, of him much shall be required. 
Luke 12.48.  Hast thou considered every new title of Honour, and every new addition of Office, every new step into higher places, to have laid new Duties, and new obligations upon thee? Hast thou doubled the hours of thy Prayers, when thy Preferments are doubled; and increased thine Alms, according as thy Revenues are increased? Hast thou done something, done much in this kind? this law will not be answered so; this law of Liberty takes the liberty to call upon thee for all. Here also the Law says in the mouth of the Lawmaker, If thou have agreed with many adversaries, says Christ, 
Mat 5.25.  (let that be, If thou have satisfied many duties) (for duties are adversaries, that is, temptations upon us) yet, as long as thou hast one adversary, agree with that adversary quickly in the way; leave no duty undischarged, or unrepented in this life. Beloved, we have well delivered ourselves of the fear of Purgatory; none of us fear that: but another mistaking hath overtaken us, and we flatter ourselves with another danger, that is, Compensation, that by doing well in one place, our ill doing in another is recompensed: an ill Officer looks to be saved, because he is a good husband to his wife, a good father to his children, a good master to his servants; and he thinks he hath three to one for his salvation. But, as nature requires the qualities of every element which thou art composed of; so this law of Liberty calls upon thee for the exercises of all those virtues, that appertain to every particular place thou hold'st: This liberty, this law of Liberty takes; It binds thee to believe Christ, All Christ; God's Christ, as he was the eternal Son of the Father, God of God; our Christ, as he was made man for our salvation; and thy Christ, as his blessed Spirit, in this his Ordinance, applies him to thee, and offers him into thine arms this minute. And then, to know, that he looks for a retribution from thee, in that measure, in which he hath dealt with thee; much for much; and for several kinds of good, according to those several good things, which he hath done for thee. And, if thou be first defective in these, and then defective in laying hold upon him, who is the propitiation and satisfaction for thy defects in these, this law of Liberty returns to her liberty to pronounce, and he Judge to his liberty to execute that sentence, Damnaberis, thou wilt be cast into that prison, where thou must pay the last farthing; thou must; for, Christ dies not there, and therefore there they must lie, till there come such another ransom as Christ; nay, a greater ransom than Christ was, for Christ paid no debts in that prison. This then is the Christians case, and this is the Abridgement of his Religion; Sic loquimini, sic facite; to speak aright, and to do aright; to profess the truth, and not be afraid nor ashamed of that; and to live according to that profession: for, no man can make God the author of sin; but that man comes as near it as he can, that makes God's Religion a cloak for his sin. To this God proceeds not merely and only by commadment, but by persuasion too; And, though he be not bound to do so, yet he does give a reason. The reason is, because he must give account of both; both of Actions, and of Words; of both we shall be judged, but judged by a Law; a Law which excludes, on God's part, any secret ill purpose upon us, if we keep his Law; a Law which excludes, on our part, all pretence of Ignorance; for no man can plead ignorance of a Law. And then, a law of Liberty; of liberty to God: for God was not bound to save a man, because he made him; but of his own goodness, he vouchsafed him a Law, by which he may be saved; a law of Liberty to us: so that there is no Epicurism, to do what we list; no such liberty as makes us Libertines; for then there were no Law; nor Stoicism, nor fatality, that constrains us to do that we would not do, for then there were no Liberty. But the Gospel is such a law of Liberty, as delivers us, upon whom it works, 
Serm. 4.  from the necessity of falling into the bondage of sin before, and from the impossibility of recovering after, if we be fall'n into that bondage. And this is liberty enough; and of this liberty, our blessed God give us the right use, for his Son Christ Jesus sake, by the operation of that Holy Ghost, that proceeds from both.  
Amen.   

A Lent-SERMON Preached before the KING, At WHITEHALL, February 16. 1620. SERMON IU.  1 Tim. 3.16. 
And without controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the Flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into Glory.  
THis is no Text for an Hourglass: if God would afford me Ezekiah's sign, Ut revertatur umbra, 
2 Reg. 20.9. Josh. 10.11.  that the shadow might go backward upon the Dial; or Joshuah's sign, Ut sistat Sol, That the Sun might stand still all the day, this were text enough to employ all the day, and all the days of our life. The Lent, which we begin now, is a full Tithe of the year; but the hour which we begin now, is not a full tithe of this day, and therefore we should not grudge all that: But payment of Tithes is grown matter of controversy; and we, by our Text, are directed only upon matter without controversy: And without controversy, etc.  
Here is the compass, that the essential Word of God, the Son of God Christ Jesus, went: He was God, humbled in the flesh; he was Man, received into glory. Here is the compass that the written Word of God, went, the Bible; that begun in Moses, in darkness, in the Chaos; and it ends in Saint John, in clearness, in a Revelation. Here is the compass of all time, as time was distributed in the Creation, Vespere & mane; darkness, and then light: the Evening and Morning made the Day; Mystery and Manifestation make the Text.  
The Doctrine of the present Season, is Mortification, Humiliation; and the experience of the present Place, where we stand now in Court, is, that the glory of the persons, in whose presence we stand, occasions Humility in us; the more glorious they are, the humbler we are; and therefore to consider Christ, as he is received into glory, is as much the way of our Humiliation and Mortification, as to consider him in his Passion, in his exinanition: At least, how small account should we make of those things which we suffer for Christ in this world, when we see in this Text, that in the describing the History of Christ from his Incarnation to his Ascension, the Holy Ghost pretermits, never mentions, never seems to consider the Passion of Christ; as though all that he had suffered for man, were nothing in respect of that he would suffer, if the justice of God had required any heavier satisfaction. The Text than is a sufficient Instruction to Timothy, to whom this Epistle is sent, and to us, to whom it is sent too, that thereby we might know how to behave ourselves in the House of God, which is the Church of God, the pillar and ground of Truth; as is said in the verse immediately before the Text, to which the Text hath relation: we know how to behave ourselves in the Church, if we know in the Text that such a Mystery of godliness there is, and know what it is. Our parts therefore, are but two; Mystery and Manifestation. In the first, the Apostle proceeds thus: First, he recommends to us such Doctrine as is without controversy: and truly there is enough of that to save any soul, that hath not a mind to wrangle itself into Hell. And then he says, that this Godliness, though it be without controversy, yet it is a Mystery, a Secret; not present, not obvious, not discernible with every eye: It is a Mystery, and a great Mystery; not the greatest, but yet great, that is, great enough; he that knows that, needs no more. And then, for the second part, which is the manifestation of the Mystery, we shall look upon that by all those beams, which shine out in this Text, Abortu ad Meridium, from Christ's East to his Noon, from his first manifesting in the flesh, to his receiving into glory.  

Part I.  First then, he proposes Doctrine without controversy: for, Quod simpliciter predicatur, 
Augustine.  credendum; quod subtiliter disputatur, intelligendum est. That which Christ hath plainly delivered, is the exercise of my Faith; that which other men have curiously disputed, is the exercise of my understanding: If I understand not their curious disputations; perchance I shall not be esteemed in this world; but if I believe not Christ's plain Doctrine, I am sure I shall not be saved in the next. It is true, that Christ reprehends them often, Quia non intellexerunt, but what? Scripturas, legem: because they understood not the Scriptures, which they were bound to believe. It is some negligence not to read a Proclamation from the King; it is a contempt, to transgress it; but to deny the power from which it is derived, is treason. Not to labour to understand the Scriptures, is to slight God; but not to believe them, is to give God the lie: he makes God a liar, 
1 John 5.10.  if he believe not the Record that God gave of his Son. When I come to heaven, I shall not need to ask of S. John's Angel, nor of his Elders, Ubi Prophetae, ubi Apostoli, ubi Evangelistae; where are the Prophets, where are the Evangelists, where are the Apostles; for, I am sure I shall see them there: But perchance I may be put to ask S. Paul's question, Ubi Scribae? ubi Sapientes? 
1 Cor. 1.20.  where are the Scribes? where are the Wise men? where are the Disputers of the world? perchance I may miss a great many of them there. It is the Text that saves us; the interlineary glosses, and the marginal notes, and the variae lectiones, controversies and perplexities, undo us: the Will, the Testament of God, enriches us; the Schedules, the Codicils of men, beggar us: because the Serpent was subtler than any, 
Gen. 3.1. 2 Cor. 2.3.  he would dispute and comment upon God's Law, and so deceived by his subtlety. The Word of God is Biblia, it is not Bibliotheca; a Book, a Bible, not a Library. And all that book is not written in Balthazars character; in a Mene, Tekel, Upharsim, that we must call in Astrologers, and Chaldeans, and Soothsayers, to interpret it. That which was written so, as that it could not be understood, was written, says the text there, with the fingers of man's hand; It is the hand of man that induces obscurities; the hand of God hath written so, a man may run, and read; walk in the duties of his calling here, and attend the salvation of his soul too. He that believes Christ, and Mahomet, indifferently, hath not proposed the right end: he that believes the Word of God, and traditions, indifferently, hath not proposed the right way. In any Conveyance, if any thing be interlined, the interlining must be as well testified, & have the same witnesses upon the Endorsment, as the conveyance itself had. When there are traditions in the Church (as declaratory traditions there are) they must have the same witnesses, they must be grounded upon the Word of God: for there only is truth without controversy. Pilate asked Christ, Quid veritas, what was truth; 
John 18.38.  and he might have known, if he would have stayed; but, exicit, says the Text there, He went out, out to the Jews; and there he could not find it, there he never thought of it more. Ask of Christ speaking in his Word, there you shall know; produce the Record, the Scripture, 
Judas 1.3.  and there is Communis salus; I wrote unto you of the common Salvation: What's that? Semel tradita sides, says that Apostle there: The Faith which was once delivered to the Saints: where semel is not aliquando; once, is not once upon a time, I cannot tell when; but semel is simul, once is at once: The Gospel was delivered all together, and not by Postscripts. Thus it is, If we go to the Record, to the Scripture: and thus it is, if we ask a Judge (I do not say, The Judge, but A Judge) for, the Fathers are a Judge; a Judge is a Judge, though there lie an appeal from him. And will not the Fathers say so too? Quod ubique, quod semper; that's common salvation, which hath bound the Communion of Saints; that which all Churches always have thought and taught to be necessary to salvation. Ask the Record, ask that Judge, and it will be so; and it will be so, if you ask the Counsel on the other side. Ask the Council of Trent itself, and the Idolaters of that Council will not say, that our Church affirms any Error; neither can they say, that we leave any truth unaffirmed, which the Primitive Church affirmed to be necessary to salvation. For those things which the School hath drawn into disputation since, as their form is, in the beginning of every question, to say, Videtur quod non, one would think it were otherwise; if when they have said all, I return to the beginning again, Videtur quod non, I think it is otherwise still. Must I be damned? The evidence for my salvation is my Credo, not their Probo; And if I must get Heaven by a Syllogism, 
John 10.29.  my Major is Credo in Deum patrem, I believe in God the Father; for, Pater major, the Father is greater than all: And my Minor shall be, Credo in Deum Filium, I believe in God the Son, Qui exivit de patre, he came from God; And my Conclusion, which must proceed from Major & Minor, shall be Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, I believe in the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from Father and Son: And this Syllogism brought me into the Militant Church in my Baptism, and this will carry me into the Triumphant, in my Transmigration; for, doctrine of Salvation is matter without controversy.  

Myster.  But yet, as clear as it is, it is a Mystery, a Secret; not that I cannot see it, but that I cannot see it with any eyes that I can bring: 
Mat. 16.16.  not with the eye of Nature: Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, says Christ to Peter: not with the eye of Learning; Thou hast hid these things from the wise, says Christ to his Father: not with the eye of State, that wheresoever I see a good Government, I should presume a good Religion; for, we do not admit the Church of Rome, and yet we do admire the Court of Rome: nor with the eye of a private sense; 
2 Pet. 1.20.  for no prophecy of any Scripture; for, Quod non nisi instinctu Dei scitur, prophetia est; that which I cannot understand by reason, but by especial assistance from God, all that is Prophecy.) No Scripture is of private interpretation. I see not this mystery by the eye of Nature, of Learning, of State, of mine own private sense; but I see it by the eye of the Church, by the light of Faith, that's true; but yet organically, instrumentally, by the eye of the Church. And this Church is that which proposes to me all that is necessay to my salvation, in the Word, and seals all to me in the Sacraments. If another man see, or think he sees more than I; if by the help of his Optic glasses, or perchance but by his imagination, he see a star or two more in any constellation than I do; yet that star becomes none of the constellation; it adds no limb, no member to the constellation, that was perfect before: so, if other men see that some additional and traditional things may add to the dignity of the Church, let them say it conduces to the well-being, not to the very being; to the existence, not to the essence of the Church; for that's only things necessary to salvation. And this mystery is, Faith in a pure conscience: 
1 Tim. 3.9.  for that's the same thing that is called Godliness in this text: and it is to profess the Gospel of Christ Jesus sincerely, and entirely; to have a conscience testifying to himself, that he hath contributed nothing to the diminution of it, that he labours to live by it, that he hopes to die in it, that he fears not to die for it. This is Mysterium, opertum, & apertum, 
2 Cor. 4.3. Col. 1.26.  hid from those that are lost, but manifested to his Saints: It is a Mystery, & a great Mystery; that's next: not that there is not a greater; 
Magnum.  for the Mystery of Iniquity is greater than the Mystery of Godliness: Compare Creeds to Creeds, and the new Creed of the Trent Council, is greater by many Articles than the Apostles Creed is. Compare Oaths to Oaths; and Berengarians old Oath in the Roman Church, that he must swear to the Frangitur & teritur, that he broke the flesh of Christ with his teeth, and ground it with his jaws; and the new Oath of the Council of Trent, that he must swear that all those subtle School-points, determined there, in which a man might have believed the contrary a few days before, and yet have been a good Roman Catholic too, are true, and true de fide; so true, as that he cannot be saved now, except he believe them to be so: the Berengarians Oath, and the Trent-oath, have much more difficulty in them, then to swear, that K. James is lawful King in all his Dominions, & therefore exempt from all foreign jurisdiction over him. There is a Mystery of Iniquity, declared in a Creed of Iniquity, & in an Oath of Iniquity, greater than the Mystery of Godliness: but yet this is great, that is, great enough; he needs no more, that hath this, saith with a pure conscience: he need not go up to heaven for more, not to a Vicegod, to an infallible Bishop of Rome; 
Deut. 30.12.  he need not go over-sea for more, says Moses there; not to the hills, beyond-sea, nor to the lake beyond-sea: for God hath given him his station in a Church, where this Mystery is sufficiently declared and explicated. The Mystery of Iniquity may be great, for it hath wrought a great while. 
2 Thes. 2.7.  Jam operatur, says the Apostle in his time; the Mystery of iniquity doth already work, and it is likely to work still: It is but a little while since we saw it work under ground, in the vault. But if (as hath been lately, royally, and religiously intimated to us all) their insolency have so far infatuated them, 
In Parliam.  as to think themselves at an end of their work, and promise themselves a holiday, our assurance is in this, Pater operatur adhuc, & ego operor, 
Joh. 5.17.  says Christ: My Father works yet, and I work: and if amongst us the Father work, and the Son work; for all the vain hopes of some, and the vain fears of others, the Mystery of godliness will stand and grow.  

Part II.  Now, how far this Mystery, this great Mystery, this Mystery without controversy is revealed in this Text, we are to look by the several beams thereof; of which, the first is, Manifestatus in carne, God was manifested in the flesh. Coeli enarrant, says David, The heavens declare the glory of God; 
Psal. 19.2.  and that should be the harmony of the Spheres. Invisibilia conspiciuntur, says Saint Paul, Invisible things of God are seen in the visible; 
Rom. 1.20.  and that should be the prospect of this world. The knowledge of God was manifested often in the Prophets; he foretold, therefore he foresaw. His Wisdom was manifested often, in frustrating all Counsels of all Achitophel's against him. And his power was manifested often: In the water; consider it at least in the Red sea, and in Pharaoh, if you will bring it no nearer home; And in the Fire, consider it at least in the fiery Furnace, if you will bring it no nearer home. His Knowledge, his Wisdom, his Power, his Mercy, his Justice, all his Attributes are always manifested in all his works. But, Deus in carne, that the person of God, God himself, should be manifested, and manifested in our flesh, 
Areopag.  Ineffabile omni sermoni, omni ignotum intelligentiae, ipse Angelorum primati non agnitum. And if the Primate of the Angels, the highest orders of them that stand in God's sight, know it not; if no understanding were able to conceive it, that had all the refinings and concoction, that study, and speculation, and zeal to be vir desideriorum (as the Angel said to Daniel) a man that desired to dwell upon the meditation of his God, could give; must not I, who always come with Moses uncircumcised lips, not to speak perswasively; and always with Jeremy's defect, Puer sum, nescio loqui, not to speak plainly; come now with Zachary's dumbness, not to speak at all in this Mystery? But harkening to that which he who only knew this Mystery, hath said, Verbum Caro factum est, The word was made flesh; And Deus manifestatus in carne, God was manifested in the flesh; rest myself in his Word, and pray you in Christ's stead to do so too, in this, and all Mysteries of your Religion, to rest upon the only Word of God: for in this particular, it is nor misgrounded, 
Fulgent.  nor mis-collected by him that says, Omnes pene errores, almost all Errors have proceeded out of this, that this great Mystery, that God was manifested in the flesh, Aut non omnino, aut non sicuti est creditum; is either not at all, or not aright believed. The Jews believe it not at all; and to them Tertullian says enough: 
Tertul.  Since out of their Prophets they confess, that when the Messiah shall be manifested, they must for a time suffer many calamities in this world; if their Messiah should be manifested now (says he) what could they suffer? They say they must suffer banishment; Et ubi dispersio gentis, quae jam extorris? whither shall that Nation be banished, which is already in banishment and dispersion? Red statum Judaeis, let the Jews show me a State, a Kingdom, a Commonwealth, a Government, Magistrates, Judicatures, Merchandise, and Armies; let them show something to lose for a Messiah, and then let them look for a Messiah. The Jews are within the non omnino, they believe not this Mystery at all: And then, for the non sicut est, for the not believing it aright, as the old Valentinians are renewed in the Anabaptists (for both deny that Christ took flesh of the Virgin) so the old Manichaeans are not renewed, but exceeded in the Transubstantiators: for they said the body of Christ was left in one place, in the Sun; these say, it is upon as many Tables, and in as many Boxes as they will. But whether the manifestation of God in the flesh were referred to the Incarnation of Christ; or to his Declaration, when the wise men of the East came to see him at Bethleem; whether when it was done, or when it was declared to be done, hath admitted a question, because the Western Church hath called that day of their coming to him, the Epiphany; and Epiphany is Manifestation. Then therefore is God manifested to us, when, as these wise men offered their Myrrh and Frankincense, we offer the Sacrifice of Prayer; and as they offered their Gold, we offer our temporal wealth for the glory of Christ Jesus: And when the love of him corrects in thee the intemperances' of adorning thy flesh, of pampering thy flesh, of obeying thy flesh, then especially is this Epiphany, God is manifested in the flesh, in thy flesh.  
Now, when he was manifested in the flesh, 
Justificat. in spirit. Rom. 8.3.  it behoved him to be justified in the spirit; for he came in similitudinem carnis peccati: they took him for a sinner, and they saw him converse with sinners: for any thing they could see, it might have been Caro peccati, sinful flesh; and they saw enough to make them sure that it was Caro mortis, mortal flesh. Though he were Panis de coelo, Bread from Heaven, yet himself was hungry; and though he were fons perennis, an everlasting spring, yet himself was thirsty; though he were Deus totius consolationis, the God of all comfort, 
2 Cor. 13.  yet his soul was heavy unto death; and though he were Dominus vitae, the Lord of Life, yet Death had dominion over him. When therefore Christ was manifested in the flesh, flesh subject to Death, Death, which was the reward of Sin; and would take upon him to forgive sins; it behoved him to be extraordinarily justified, extraordinarily declared to the world: and so he was; he was justified in Spiritu, in the Spirit; first, in Spiritu Sancto, in the Spirit, in the Holy Ghost; both when the Holy Ghost was sent to him, and when the Holy Ghost was sent by him, from him. The Holy Ghost was sent to him in his Baptism, and he tarried upon him: Christ was not, a Christian is not justified by one access, one visitation, one approach of the Holy Ghost; not by one religious act: it is a permanency, a perseverance that justifies: that foolishness, and that fascination (as the Apostle calls it) that Witchcraft which he imputes to the Galatians, is not so worn out, but that there are foolish and bewitched Galatians still, that begun in the Spirit, and will be made perfect in the Flesh; that received their Christianity in one Church, and attend a confirmation, a better state, in a worse. Christ was justified by the Holy Ghost, when the Holy Ghost came to him: so he was, when he came from him, at Pentecost, upon his Apostles; and then he came in Tongues, and fiery Tongues. Christ was not, a Christian is not justified in silence, but in declarations and open professions; in tongues: and not in dark and ambiguous speeches, nor infinite and retractable speeches, but in fiery tongues; fiery, that is, fervent; fiery, that is, clear. He was justified so, a Spiritu Sancto; and so he was, a Spiritu suo, by his own Spirit: not only in that protestation of his, Who can accuse me of any sin? for S. Paul could say that he was unreproachable in the sight of men, and yet he could not choose but say, Quorum ego maximus; that he was the greatest sinner of all men. I were a miserable man, if I could accuse Christ of no sin; if I could not prove all my sins his, I were under a heavy condemnation. But that which we intent by his being justified, a spiritu suo, by his own spirit, is, not by the testimony that he gave of himself; but by that Spirit, that Godhead, that dwelled bodily in him, and declared him, and justified him in that high power and practise of Miracles. When Christ came into this world, as if he had come a day before any day, a day before Moses his in principio, before there was any creature (for when Christ came, there was creatures that could exercise any natural faculty in opposition to his purposes) when Nature his Vicegerent gave up her sword to his hands; when the Sea shut up herself like Marble, and bore him; and the Earth opened herself like a book, to deliver out her dead, to wait upon him; when the winds, in the midst of their own roaring, could hear his voice; and Death itself, in putrid and corrupt carcases, could hear his voice; & when his own body, whom his own soul had left & abandoned, was not abandoned by this Spirit, by this Godhead (for the Deity departed not from the dead body of Christ) then was Christ especially justified by this Spirit, in whose power he raised himself from the dead; he was justified in Spiritu Sancto, and in spiritu suo; two witnesses were enough for him. Add a third for thyself, & justificetur in Spiritu tuo, let him be justified in thy spirit: God is safe enough in himself, and yet it was a good declaratory addition, that the Publicans justified God: 
Luke 7.29. Mat. 2.19.  Wisdom is safe enough of herself, and yet Wisdom is justified of her children: Christ is sufficiently justified; but justificetur in Spiritu tuo, in thy spirit. To say, If I consider the Talmud, Christ may as well be the Messiah, as any whom the Jews place their marks upon; if I consider the Koran, Christ is like enough to be a better Prophet than Mahomet; if I consider the Arguments of the Arrians, Christ may be the Son of God for all that; if I consider the Church of Rome, and ours, he is as likely to manifest himself in his own Word here, as there in their word; to say but so, Christ may be God for any thing I know: this is but to bail him, not to justify him; not to quit him, but to put him over to the Sessions, to the great Sessions, where he shall justify himself; but none of them, who do not justify him, testify for him, in spiritu suo, sincerely in their souls: nay, that's not enough: to justify is an act of declaration; 
1 Cor. 2.2.  and no man knows what is in man, but the spirit of man: and therefore he that leaves any outward thing undone, that belongs to his calling, for Christ, is so far from having justified Christ, as that at the last day, he shall meet his voice with them that cried Crucify him, and with theirs that cried, Not Christ, but Barrabas: if thou doubt in thy heart, if thou disguise in thine actions, non justificatur in spiritu tuo, Christ is not justified in thy spirit; and that's it which concerns thee most.  
Christ had all this testimony more, Visus ab Angelis, 
Visus ab Angelis.  he was seen of Angels: which is, not only visited by Angels, served by Angels; waited upon by Angels: so he was, and he was so in every passage, in every step. An Angel told his mother, that he should be born: and an Angel told the Shepherd, that he was born; and that which directed the wise men of the East where to find him, when he was born, is also believed by some of the Ancients, to have been an Angel in the likeness of a Star. When he was tempted by the Devil, Angels came and ministered to him, 
Mat. 4.2.  but the Devil had left him before; his own power, 
Luke 22.43.  had dissipated his. In his Agony in the Garden, an Angel came from heaven to strengthen him; but he had recovered before, and was come to his Veruntamen, Not my will, but thine be done. He told Peter, 
Mat. 26.53.  he could have more than twelve legions of Angels to assist him; but he would not have the assistance of his own sword: he denies not that which the Devil says, that the Angels had in charge, that he should not dash his foot against a stone; 
Mat. 4.6.  but they had an easy service of it; for his foot never dashed, never stumbled, never tripped in any way. As soon as any stone lay in his way, an Angel removed it: 
Mat. 28.2.  He rolled away the stone from the sepulchre. There the Angel testified to the women that sought him, not only that he was not there, (that was a poor comfort) but where he was: He is gone into Galilee, and there you shall find him. There also the Angel testified to the men of Galilee; that looked after him, not only that he was gone up (that was but a poor comfort) but that he should come again. 
Acts 1.2.  The same Jesus shall so come as he went. There in Heaven, they perform that service, whilst he stays there, 
Heb. 1.6.  which they are called upon to do: Let all the Angels of God worship him; and in judgement, when the Son of man shall come in his glory, all the holy Angels shall be with him: in every point of that great compass, in every arch, in every section of that great circle, of which no man knows the Diameter, how long it shall be from Christ's first coming to his second, visus ab Angelis, he was seen, he was visited, he was waited upon by the Angels. But there is more intended in this, than so.  
Christ was seen of the Angels, otherwise now, then ever before: something was revealed to the Angels themselves concerning Christ, which they knew not before; at least, not so as they knew it now. For, all the Angels do not always know all things: if they had, there would have been no dissension, no strife, no difference between the two Angels; 
Dan. 10.  the Angel of Persia would not have withstood the other Angel 21 days; neither would have resisted God's purpose, if both had known it; S. Dionyse, who considers the names, and natures, and places, and apprehensions of Angels, most of any, observes of the highest orders of Angels, Ordin. supremi ad Jesu aspectum haesitabant; the highest of the highest orders of Angels, were amazed at Christ's coming up in the Flesh; it was a new and unexpected thing to see Christ come thither, in that manner. There they say with amazement, Quis iste? 
Isa. 63.1  Who is this that cometh from Edom, with died garments from Bozrah? And Christ answers there, Ego, it is I, I that speak in righteousness, I that am mighty to save. The Angel's reply, Wherefore are thy garments red, like him that treadeth the wine-press? and Christ gives them satisfaction, calcavi; You mistake not the matter, I have trodden the wine-press; and calcavi solus, I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me. The Angels than knew not this, not all this, not all the particulars of this, The mystery of Christ's Incarnation for the Redemption of Man: the Angels knew it in general; for, it was commune quoddam principium; it was the general mark, to which all their service, as they were ministering spirits, was directed. But for particulars, as amongst the Prophets, some of the later understood more than the former (I understand more than the ancients, 
Psal. 119.100.  says David) and the Apostles understood more than the Prophets, even of those things which they had prophesied, 
Ephes. 3.6.  (this Mystery in other ages was not made known, as it is now revealed unto the holy Apostles;) so the Angels are come to know some things of Christ, since Christ came, in another manner then before. 
Ephes. 3.10.  And this may be that which S. Paul intends, when he says, that he was made a Minister of the Gospel, To the intent, that now, unto principalities and powers, in heavenly places, might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God. And S. Peter also speaking of the administration of the Church, 
1 Pet. 1.12.  expresses it so, That the Angels desire to look into it. Which is not only that which S. Augustine says, 
Aug.  Innotuit a seculis per Ecclesiam Angelis, That the Angels saw the mystery of the Christian Religion, from before all beginnings, and that by the Church, Quia ipsa Ecclesia illis, in Deo apparuit; Because they saw in God the future Church, from before all beginnings; but even in the propagation and administration of the Church, they see many things now, which distinctly, effectually, experimentally, as they do now, they could not see before. And so, to this purpose, Visus in nobis, Christ is seen by the Angels, in us and our conversation now. Spectaculum sumus, says the Apostle; 
1 Cor. 4.9.  We are made a spectacle to men and angels. The word is there Theatrum, and so S. Hierom reads it: 
Hierom.  And therefore let us be careful to play those parts well, which even the Angels desire to see well acted. Let him that finds himself to be the honester man by thinking so, think in the name of God, that he hath a particular tutelar Angel, that will do him no harm to think so: And let him that thinks not so, yet think, that so far as conduces to the support of God's children, and to the joy of the Angels themselves, and to the glory of God; the Angels do see men's particular actions: and then, if thou wouldst not solicit a woman's chastity, if her servant were by to testify it; nor calumniate an absent person in the King's ear, if his friends were by to testify it; if thou canst slumber in thyself, that main consideration, That the eye of God is always open, and always upon thee; yet have a little religious civility, and holy respect, even to those Angels that see thee: That those Angels which see Christ Jesus now, sat down in glory at the right hand of his Father; all sweat wiped from his Brows, and all tears from his Eyes; all his Stripes healed, all his Blood staunched, all his Wounds shut up, and all his Beauty returned there; when they look down hither, to see the same Christ in thee, may not see him scourged again, wounded, torn and mangled again, in thy blaspheming, nor crucified again in thy irreligious conversation: Visus ab Angelis, he was seen of the Angels, in himself, whilst he was here: and he is seen in his Saints upon earth, by Angels now; and shall be so to the end of the world: Which Saints he hath gathered from the Gentiles: which is the next branch; 
Praedicat. Gentib. Psal. 85.10.  Predicatus gentibus, he was preached to the Gentiles.  
Mercy and truth meet together, says David: every where in God's proceed, they meet together; but no no where closer, then in calling the Gentiles. Jesus Christ was made a Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God: 
Rom. 15.8.  wherein consisted that truth? to confirm the promises made unto the fathers, says the Apostle there, and that's to the Jews: but was Christ a Minister of the Circumcision only for that, only for the truth? No: Truth and Mercy meet together, as it follows there; and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. The Jews were a holy Nation; 
Gal. 2.15.  that was their addition; Gens Sancta; but the addition of the Gentiles, was peccatores, sinners: we are Jews by nature, and not of the Gentiles, sinners, says S. Paul: He that touched the Jews, touched the apple of God's eye; And for their sakes, God rebuked Kings, and said, Touch not mine Anointed: but upon the Gentiles, not only dereliction, but indignation, and consternation, and devastation, and extermination, every where interminated, inflicted every where, and every where multiplied: The Jews had all kind of assurance and ties upon God; both Law, and Custom; they both prescribed in God, and God had bound himself to them by particular conveyance; by a conveyance written in their flesh, 
Isa. 49.  in Circumcision; and the counterpane written in his flesh; I have graven thy name in the palms of my hands: 
Eph. 2.12.  But for the Gentiles, they had none of this assurance: When they were without Christ (says the Apostle) having no hope (that is, no covenant to ground a hope upon) ye were without God in this world. To contemplate God himself, and not in Christ, is to be without God. And then, for Christ to be preached to such as these, to make this Sun to set at noon to the Jews, & rise at midnight to the Antipodes, to the Gentiles, this was such an abundant, such a superabundant mercy, as might seem almost to be above the bargain, above the contract, between Christ and his Father; more than was conditioned and decreed for the price of his Blood, and the reward of his Death: for when God said, I will declare my decree; That is, what I intended to give him, which is expressed thus, 
Psal. 2.  I will set him my King upon my holy hill of Zion; which seems to concern the Jews only: God adds then, Postula a me, petition to me, make a new suit to me; & dabo tibi gentes: I will give thee not only the Jews, but the Gentiles for thine inheritatnce: And therefore laetentur gentes, 
Psal. 97.1.  says David, Let the Gentiles rejoice; and we in them, that Christ hath asked us at his Father's hand, and received us: And Laetentur insulae, says that Prophet too, Let the Islands rejoice; and we in them, that he hath raised us out of the Sea, out of the ocean sea, that over-flowed all the world with ignorance; and out of the Mediterranean Sea, that hath flowed into so many other lands; the sea of Rome, the sea of Superstition.  
There was then a great mercy in that, Predicatus gentibus, 
Creditus Mundo.  that he was preached to the Gentiles; but the great power is in the next, Creditus mundo, that he was believed in the world. We have a Calling in our Church; that makes us Preachers: and we have Canons in our Church; that makes us preach: and we bring a Duty, and find favour; that makes us preach here: There is a power here, that makes bills of Preachers: But in whose power is it to make bills of Believers? Oportet accedentem credere, says S. Paul, 
Heb. 11.6.  He that comes hither should believe before he comes: But, Benedictus sis egrediens, says Moses, 
Deut. 28.6.  God bless you with the power of believing, when you go from hence: where S. James says, 
1.22.  You deceive yourselves, if you be hearers, and not doers; How far do you deceive yourselves, if you come not half way, if you be hearers, and not believers? Tiberius, who spoke all upon disguises, took it ill, if he were believed: he that was crucified under Tiberius, who always speaks clearly, takes it worse, if he be not believed; for, he hath reduced all to the Tantummodo crede, only believe, and thou art safe: if we take it higher or lower; either above, in hearing only, or below, in working only, we may miss. It is not enough to hear Sermons; it is not enough to live a moral honest life; but take it in the midst, and that extends to all; for there is no believing without hearing, nor working without believing. Be pleased to consider this great work of believing, in the matter, what it was that was to be believed: That that Jesus, whose age they knew, must be antedated so far, as that they must believe him to be elder than Abraham: That that Jesus, whose Father and Mother, and Brothers and Sisters, they knew, must be believed to be of another Family, and to have a Father in another place; and yet he to be as old as his Father; And to have another proceeding from him, and yet he to be no older than that person who proceeded from him: That that Jesus, whom they knew to be that Carpenter's Son, and knew his work, must be believed to have set up a frame, that reached to heaven, out of which no man could, and in which any man might be saved: was it not as easy to believe, that those tears which they saw upon his cheeks, were Pearls; that those drops of Blood, which they saw upon his back, were Rubies: That that spittle, which they saw upon his face, was ennamel: that those hands which they saw buffet him, were reached out to place him in a Throne: And that that Voice which they heard cry, Crucifige, Crucify him, was a Vivat Rex, Long live Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews; As to believe, that from that man, that worm, and no man, ingloriously traduced as a Conjurer, ingloriously apprehended as a Thief, ingloriously executed a Traitor; they should look for glory, and all glory, and everlasting glory? And from that melancholic man, who was never seen to laugh in all his life, and whose soul was heavy unto death; they should look for joy, and all joy, and everlasting joy: And for salvation, and everlasting salvation from him, who could not save himself from the Ignominy, from the Torment, from the Death of the Cross? If any State, if any Convocation, if any wise Man had been to make a Religion, a Gospel; would he not have proposed a more probable, a more credible Gospel, to man's reason, than this? Be pleased to consider it in the manner too: it must be believed by preaching, by the foolishness of preaching, says the Apostle; by a few men, that could give no strength to it; by ignorant men, that could give no reason for it; by poor men, that could give no pensions, nor preferments in it: That this should be believed, and believed thus, and believed by the world, the world that knew him not; He was in the word, and the world knew him not: 
Joh. 1.10.  the world that hated them, who would make them know him; 
15.19. 1 Joh. 5.19.  I have chosen you, says Christ, and therefore the world hateth you: That then when Mundus totus in maligno positus, the world, and all the world, not only was, but was laid in malignity and opposition against Christ; That then the world, and all the world, the world of Ignorance, and the world of Pride, should believe the Gospel; that then the Nicodemus, the learned and the powerful man of the world, should stand out no longer, but to that one Problem, Quomodo, How can a man be born again that is old; and presently believe, that a man might be born again even at the last gasp: That then they which followed him, should stand no longer upon their durus sermo, that it was a hard saying, that they must eat his Flesh, and drink his Blood, and presently believe that there was no salvation, except they did eat and drink that Flesh and Blood: That Mary Magdelene, who was not only tempted (is there any that is not so?) but overcome with the temptations (and how many are so!) and possessed, and possessed with seven Devils, should presently hearken after the powerful charm of the Gospel, and presently believe that she should be welcome into his arms, after all her prostitutions: that the world, this world, all this world, should believe this, 
Rom. 11.33.  and believe it thus; This was the Apostles Altitudo divitiarum, the depth of the riches of God's wisdom: 
Ephes. 3.18.  And this is his Longitudo, and Latitudo, the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, which no man can comprehend. Theudas risen up, dicens se esse aliquem, 
Act. 5.36.  he said he was some body; and he proved no body. Simon Magus risen up, Dicens se esse aliquem magnum, saying, he was some great body; and he proved as little. Christ Jesus risen up, and said himself not to be some body, nor some great body; but that there was no body else, no other name given under Heaven, whereby we should be saved; and was believed. And therefore, if any man think to destroy this general, by making himself a woeful instance to the contrary; Christ is not believed in all the world, for I never believed in Christ; so poor an objection, requires no more answer, but that that will still be true in the general; Man is a reasonable creature, though he be an unreasonable man.  
Now when he was thus preached to the Gentiles, 
Receptus in gloria.  and thus believed in the world, that is, means thus established, for believing in him, he had done all that he had to do here, and therefore, Receptus in gloria, he was received into glory: He was received, assumed, taken; therefore he did not vanish away; he had no airy, no imaginary, no fantastical body; he was true man: and then he was received, re-assumed, taken again, and so was in glory before; and therefore was true God. This which we are fain to call glory, is an inexpressible thing, and an incommunicable: Surely I will not give my glory unto another, says God, in Isaiah. 
48.11.  We find great Titles attributed to, and assumed by Princes, both Spiritual and Temporal: Celsitudo vestra, & vestra Majestas, is daily given, and duly given amongst us: and Sanctitas vestra, & vestra beatitudo, is given amongst others. Aben-Ezra, and some other Rabbins mistake this matter so much, as to deny that any person in the old Testament ever speaks of himself in the plural number, Nos, We: 
1 Reg. 12.9. & 22.3. 2 Chro. 10.9.  That's mistaken by them; for there are Examples. But it is more mistaken in practice, by the Generals, nay Provincials of some Orders of Friars, 
In libros Porret. in Mat. etc.  when they sign and subscribe in form and stile of Princes, Nos Frater, We Friar N. etc. It is not hard to name some, that have taken to themselves the addition of Divus in their life-time; a stile so high, as that Bellarmine denies that it appertains to any Saint in heaven: and yet these men have canonised themselves, without the consent of Rome; and yet remained good Sons of that Mother too: We shall find in ancient styles, that high addition, Eternitas nostra, Our Eternity: and not only in ancient, but in our own days, another equal to that, given to a particular Cardinal, Numen Vestrum, Your Godhead. We find a Letter in Baronius, to a Pope, from a King of Britain (and so Baronius leaves it, and does not tell us which Britain; he could have been content to have had it thought ours; but he that hath abridged his Book, hath abridged his Britain too, there it is Britania minor: 
Spondamus.  But he was a King, and therefore had power, if he filled his place; and wisdom too, if he answered his name; for his name was Solomon) and this King we find reduced to this lowness, as that he writes to that Bishop, Adrian 2. in that stile, Precor omnipotentiam Dignitatis vestrae: he gives him the Title of God, Almighty. But two or three years before, he was far from it; then, when he writ, he placed his own name above the Popes: but it is a slippery declination, if it be not a precipitation, to come at all under him: great Titles have been taken, Ambition goes far; and great given, Flattery goes as far; greater than this in the Text, perchance have; but it hath not fallen within my narrow reading, and observation, that ever Prince took, that ever subject gave this Title, Gloria nostra, or vestra; May it please your Glory, or, It hath seemed good to our Glory. Glory be to God on high; and glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, and no more. As long as that scurff, that leprosy sticks to every thing in this world, Vanitas, Vanitatum, that all is vanity; can any glory in any thing of this world, be other than vainglory? What Title of Honour hath any man had in any State, in Court, that some prison in that State hath not had men of that Title in it? Nay, what Title hath any Herald's Book, that Lucifer's Book hath not? Or who can be so great in this World, but that as great as he have perished in the next? As it is not good for men to eat much honey; 
Prov. 25.27.  so, for men to search their own glory, is not glory. Crowns are the Emblems of Glory; and Kings out of their abundant Greatness and Goodness, derive and distribute Crowns to Persons of Title; and by those Crowns, and those Titles, they are Consanguinei Regis, the King's Cousins. Christ Jesus is crowned with glory in Heaven, and he sheds down Coronets upon you; Honour, and Blessings here, that you might be Consanguinei Regis; contract a spiritual Kindred with that King, and be idem Spiritus cum Domino, as inseparable from his Father, as he himself is. The glory of God's Saints in Heaven, is not so much to have a Crown, as to lay down that Crown at the Feet of the Lamb. The glory of good men here upon earth, is not so much to have Honour, and Favour, and Fortune, as to employ those Beams of Glory, to his glory that gave them. In our poor calling, God hath given us grace; but grace for grace, as the Apostle says, that is, grace to derive, and convey, and seal grace to you. To those of higher Rank, God hath given glory; and glory for glory; glory therefore to glorify him, in a care of his glory. And because he dwells in luce inaccessibili, in a glorious light which you cannot see here; glorify him in that wherein you may see him, in that wherein he hath manifested himself; glorify him in his glorious Gospel: employ your Beams of Glory, Honour, Favour, Fortune, in transmitting his Gospel in the same glory to your Children, as you received it from your Fathers: for in this consists this Mystery of Godliness, which is, Faith with a pure Conscience: And in this lies your best Evidence, That you are already co-assumed with Christ Jesus into glory, by having so laid an unremovable hold upon that Kingdom which he hath purchased for you, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible Blood. To which glorious Son of God, etc.   

A Lent-SERMON Preached to the KING, 
Serm. 5.  At WHITEHALL, February 12. 1629. SERMON V.  MAT. 6.21. 
For, where your Treasure is, there will your Heart be also.  
I Have seen Minute-glasses; Glasses so short-lived. If I were to preach upon this Text, to such a glass, it were enough for half the Sermon; enough to show the worldly man his Treasure, and the Object of his heart (for, where your Treasure is, there will your Heart be also) to call his eye to that Minute-glass, and to tell him, There flows, there flies your Treasure, and your Heart with it. But if I had a Secular Glass, a Glass that would run an age; if the two Hemispheres of the World were composed in the form of such a Glass, and all the World calcined and burnt to ashes, and all the ashes, and sands, and atoms of the World put into that Glass, it would not be enough to tell the godly man what his Treasure, and the Object of his Heart is. A Parrot, or a Stare, docile Birds, and of pregnant imitation, will sooner be brought to relate to us the wisdom of a Council Table, than any Ambrose, or any chrysostom, Men that have Gold and Honey in their Names, shall tell us what the Sweetness, what the Treasure of Heaven is, and what that man's peace, that hath set his Heart upon that Treasure. As Nature hath given us certain Elements, and all Bodies are composed of them; and Art hath given us a certain Alphabet of Letters, and all Words are composed of them: so, our blessed Saviour, in these three Chapters of this Gospel, hath given us a Sermon of Texts, of which, all our Sermons may be composed. All the Articles of our Religion, all the Canons of our Church, all the Injunctions of our Princes, all the Homilies of our Fathers, all the Body of Divinity, is in these three Chapters, in this one Sermon in the Mount: Where, as the Preacher concludes his Sermon with Exhortations to practice, 
7.24.  (whosoever heareth these say of mine, and doth them) so he fortifies his Sermon, with his own practice, (which is a blessed and a powerful method) for, as soon as he came out of the Pulpit, 
8.1.  as soon as he came down from the Mount, he cured the first Leper he saw, and that, without all vainglory: for he forbade him to tell any man of it.  

Divisio.  Of this Noble Body of Divinity, one fair Limb is in this Text, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Immediately before, our blessed Saviour had forbidden us the laying up of Treasure in this world, upon this Reason, That here moths and rust corrupt, and thiefs break in, and steal. There, the reason is, because the Money may be lost; but here, in our Text it is, because the Man may be lost: for where your Treasure is, there your Heart will be also: So that this is equivalent to that, 
Mat. 16.26.  What profit to gain the whole world, and lose a man's own soul? Our Text therefore stands as that Proverbial, that Hieroglyphical Letter, Pythagoras his Y; that hath first a stalk, a stem to fix itself, and then spreads into two Beams. The stem, the stalk of this Letter, this Y, is in the first word of the Text, that Particle of argumentation, For: Take heed where you place your Treasure: for it concerns you much, where your Heart be placed; and, where your Treasure is, there will your Heart be also. And then opens this Symbolical, this Catechistical Letter, this Y, into two Horns, two Beams, two Branches; one broader, but on the left hand, denoting the Treasures of this World; the other narrower, but on the right hand, Treasure laid up for the World to come. Be sure ye turn the right way: for, where your Treasure is, there will your Heart be also.  

Cor fixum.  First then, We bind ourselves to the stake, to the stalk, to the staff, the stem of this Symbolical Letter, and consider in it, That firmness and fixation of the Heart, which God requires. God requires no unnatural things at man's hand: Whatsoever God requires of man, man may find imprinted in his own nature, written in his own heart. This firmness then, this fixation of the heart, is natural to man: Every man does set his heart upon something: and Christ in this place does not so much call upon him, that he would do so, set his heart upon something; as to be sure that he set it upon the right Object. And yet truly, even this first work, to recollect ourselves, to recapitulate ourselves, to assemble and muster ourselves, and to bend our hearts entirely and intensely, directly, earnestly, emphatically, energetically, upon something, is, by reason of the various fluctuation of our corrupt nature, and the infinite multiplicity of Objects, such a Work as man needs to be called upon, and excited to do it. Therefore is there no word in the Scriptures so often added to the heart, as that of entireness; Toto Cord, Omni Cord, Pleno Cord: Do this with all thine heart, with a whole heart, with a full heart: for whatsoever is indivisible, is ; a Point, because it cannot be divided, cannot be moved: the Centre, the Poles, God himself, because he is indivisible, is therefore . And when the heart of man is knit up in such an entireness upon one Object, as that it does not scatter, nor sub-divide itself; then, and then only is it fixed. And that's the happiness in which David fixes himself; not in his Cor paratum, My heart is prepared, O God, my heart is prepared; (for so it may be, prepared even by God himself, and yet scattered and subdivided by us:) But, in his Cor fixum, My heart is fixed, 
Psal. 57.7.  O God, my heart is fixed; Awake my glory, awake my Psaltery and Harp: I myself will awake early, and praise thee, O Lord, among the people. A Triumph that David returned to more than once: for he repeats the same words, with the same pathetical earnestness again. 
Psal. 108.1.  So that his Glory, his Victory, his Triumph, his Peace, his Acquiescence, his All-sufficiency in himself, consisted in this, That his heart was fixed: for this fixation of the heart, argued and testified an entireness in it. When God says, Fili, da mihi Cor; My Son, give me thy heart; God means, the whole man. 
1 Cor. 12.17.  Though the Apostle say, The eye is not the man, nor the ear is not the man; he does not say, The heart is not the man: the heart is the man; the heart is all: and, 
Exod. 10.8.  as Moses was not satisfied with that Commission that Pharaoh offered him, That all the men might go to offer sacrifice; but Moses would have all their young, and all their old; all their sons, and all their daughters; all their flocks, and all their herds; he would have all: So, when Gods says, Fili, da mihi Cor, My Son, give me thy heart, God will not be satisfied with the eye, if I contemplate him in his Works: (for that's but the godliness of the natural man) nor satisfied with the ear, with hearing many Sermons: (for that's but a new invention, a new way of making Beads, if, as the Papist thinks all done, if he have said so many Aves, I think all done, if I have heard so many Sermons.) But God requires the heart, the whole man, all the faculties of that man: for only that that is entire, and indivisible, is immovable; and that that God calls for, and we seek for, in this stem of Pythagoras his Symbolical Letter, is this immovableness, this fixation of the heart. And yet, even against this, though it be natural, there are many impediments: We shall reduce them to a few; to three; these three. First, there is Cor nullum, a mere Heartlesness, no Heart at all, Incogitancy, Inconsideration: and then there is Cor & Cor, Cor duplex, a double Heart, a doubtful, a distracted Heart; which is not Incogitancy, nor Inconsideration, but Perplexity and Irresolution: and lastly, Cor vagum, a wand'ring, a way faring, a weary Heart; which is neither Inconsideration, nor Irresolution, but Inconstancy. And this is a Trinity against our Unity; three Enemies to that fixation and entireness of the Heart, which God loves: Inconsideration, when we do not Debate; Irresolution, when we do not Determine; Inconstancy, when we do not Persevere: and upon each of these, be pleased to stop your Devotion, a few minutes.  

Cor nullum.  The first is, Cor nullum, no Heart at all, Incogitancy, Thoughtlesness. An idle body, is a disease in a State; an idle soul, is a monster in a man. 
2 Thes. 3.10.  That body that will not work, must not eat, but starve: that soul that does not think, not consider, cannot be said to actuate, (which is the proper operation of the soul) but to evaporate; not to work in the body, but to breathe, and smoke through the body. We have seen Estates of private men wasted by Inconsideration, as well as by Riot; and a soul may perish by a thoughtlesness, as well as by ill thoughts: God takes it as ill to be slighted, as to be injured: and God is as much slighted in Cord nullo, in our thoughtlesness and inconsideration, as he is opposed and provoked in Cord maligno, in a rebellious Heart. There is a good nullification of the heart, a good bringing of the heart to nothing. For the fire of God's Spirit may take hold of me, and (as the Disciples that went with Christ to Emmaus, 
Luk. 24.  were affected) my heart may burn within me, when the Scriptures are opened, that is, when God's Judgements are denounced against my Sin; and this heat may overcome my former frigidity and coldness, and overcome my succeeding tepidity and lukewarmness, and may bring my heart to a mollification, 
23.16.  to a tenderness, as Job found it; The Almighty hath troubled me, and made my heart soft: for there are hearts of clay, as well as hearts of wax; hearts, whom these fires of God, his Corrections, harden. But if these fires of his, these denunciations of his judgements, have overcome first my coldness, and then my lukewarmness, and made my heart soft for better impressions; the work is well advanced, but it is not all done: for Metal may be soft, and yet not fusil; Iron may be red hot, and yet not apt to run into another mould. Therefore there is a liquefaction, a melting, a pouring out of the heart, such as Rahab speaks of, 
2.11. & 5.1.  to Joshua's Spies; (As soon as we heard how miraculously God had proceeded in your behalf, in drying up Jordan, all our hearts melted within us, and no man had any spirit left in him.) And when upon the consideration of God's miraculous Judgements or Mercies, I come to such a melting and pouring out of my heart, that there be no spirit, that is, none of mine own spirit left in me; when I have so exhausted, so evacuated myself, that is, all confidence in myself, that I come into the hands of my God, as pliably, as ductily, as that first clod of earth, of which he made me in Adam, was in his hands, in which clod of earth, there was no kind of reluctation against God's purpose; this is a blessed nullification of the heart. When I say to myself, as the Apostle professed of himself, I am nothing; and then say to God, Lord, though I be nothing, 
2 Cor. 12.11.  yet behold, I present thee as much as thou hadst to make the whole world of; O Thou that mad'st the whole world of nothing, make me, that am nothing in mine own eyes, a new Creature in Christ Jesus: This is a blessed nullification, a glorious annihilation of the heart. So is there also a blessed nullification thereof, in the contrition of heart, in the sense of my sins; when, as a sharp wind may have worn out a Marble Statue, or a continual spout worn out a Marble Pavement, so, my holy tears, made holy in his Blood that gives them a tincture, and my holy sighs, made holy in that Spirit that breathes them in me, have worn out my Marble Heart, that is, the Marbleness of my heart, and emptied the room of that former heart, and so given God a Vacuity, a new place to create a new heart in. But when God hath thus created a new heart, that is, re-enabled me, by his Ordinance, to some holy function, then, to put this heart to nothing, to think nothing, to consider nothing; not to know our age, but by the Church-Book, and not by any action done in the course of our lives, for our God, for our Prince, for our Country, for our Neighbour, for ourselves, (our selves are our souls;) not to know the seasons of the year, but by the fruits which we eat, and not by observation of the Public and National Blessings, which he hath successively given us; not to know Religion, but by the Conveniency, and the Preferments to be had in this, or in the other side; to sit here, and not to know if we be asked upon a surprise, whether it were a Prayer, or a Sermon, or an Anthem that we heard last; this is such a nullification of the heart, such an annihilation, such an exinanition thereof, as reflects upon God himself: for, Respuit datorem, 
Tertul.  qui datum deserit, He that makes no use of a Benefit, despises the Benefactor. And therefore, A rod for his back, qui indiget Cord, 
Prov. 10.13.  that is without a heart, without consideration what he should do; nay, what he does. For this is the first Enemy of this firmness and fixation of the heart, without which, we have no treasure; And we have done with that, Cor nullum, and pass to the second, Cor & Cor, Cor duplex, the double, the divided, the distracted heart, which is not Inconsideration, but Irresolution.  
This Irresolution, 
Cor Duplex.  this Perplexity is intended in that Commination from God, The Lord shall give them a trembling heart: 
Deut. 28.65.  this is not that Cor nullum, that melted heart, in which There was no spirit left in them, as in Joshua's time; but Cor pavidum, a heart that should not know where to settle, nor what to wish; but, as it follows there, In the morning he shall say, Would God it were evening; and in the evening, Would God it were morning. And this is that which Solomon may have intended in his Prayer, Give thy servant an understanding heart: 
1 Reg. 3.9.  Cor Docile, so S. Hierom reads it, A heart able to conceive counsel: for that's a good disposition, but it is not all: for, the Original is, Leb shemmeany, that is, Cor audience, A heart willing to hearken to Counsel. But all that, is not all that is asked; Solomon asks there a heart to discern between good and evil; so that it is a Prayer for the spirit of Discretion, of Conclusion, of Resolution; that God would give him a heart willing to receive Counsel, and a heart capable to conceive and digest Counsel, and a heart able to discern between Counsel and Counsel, and to Resolve, Conclude, Determine. It were a strange ambitious patience in any man, to be content to be racked every day, in hope to be an inch or two taller at last: so is it for me, to think to be a dram or two wiser, by harkening to all jealousies, and doubts, and distractions, and perplexities, that arise in my Bosom, or in my Family; which is the rack and torture of the soul. A spirit of Contradiction may be of use in the greatest Counsels; because thereby matters may be brought into farther debatement. But a spirit of contradiction in mine own Bosom, to be able to conclude nothing, resolve nothing, determine nothing, not in my Religion, not in my Manners, but occasionally, and upon Emergencies; this is a sickly complexion of the soul, a dangerous impotency, and a shrewd and ill-presaging Crisis. If Joshua had suspended his assent of serving the Lord, till all his Neighbours, and their Families, all the Kings and Kingdoms about him, had declared theirs the same way, when would Joshua have come to that protestation, I and my house will serve the Lord? If Esther had forborn to press for an audience to the King, in the behalf, and for the life of her Nation, till nothing could have been said against it, when would Esther have come to that protestation, I will go; and if I perish, I perish? If one Millstone fell from the North-Pole, and another from the South, they would meet, and they would rest in the Centre; Nature would con-centre them. Not to be able to con-centre those doubts, which arise in myself, in a resolution at last, whether in Moral or in Religious Actions, is rather a vertiginous giddiness, than a wise circumspection, or wariness. When God prepared great Armies, 
1 Sam. 11.7.  it is expressed always so, Tanquam unus vir, Israel went out, as one man. When God established his beloved David to be King, 
1 Chro. 12.38.  it is expressed so; Uno Cord, He sent them out, with one heart, to make David king. When God accelerated the propagation of his Church, 
Act. 4.32.  it is expressed so; Una Anima, The multitude of them that believed, were of one heart, and one soul. Since God makes Nations, and Armies, and Churches One heart, let not us make one heart two, in ourselves; a divided, a distracted, a perplexed, an irresolved heart: but in all cases, let us be able to say to ourselves, This we should do. God asks the heart, a single heart, an entire heart; for, whilst it is so, God may have some hope of it. But when it is a heart and a heart, a heart for God, and a Heart for Mammon, howsoever it may seem to be even, the odds will be on Mammon's side against God; because he presents Possessions, and God but Reversions; he the present and possessory things of this world, God but the future, and speratory things of the next. So then, the Cor nullum, no heart, Thoughtlesness, incogitancy, Inconsideration; and the Cor duplex, the perplexed, and irresolved, and inconclusive heart, do equally oppose this firmness and fixation of the heart which God loves, and which we consider in this stem and stalk of Pythagoras his Symbolical Letter: And so does that which we proposed for the Third, The Cor Vagum, The Wandering, the Wayfaring, the Inconstant Heart.  
Many times, in our private Actions, 
Cor Vagum.  and in the cribration and sifting of our Consciences, (for that's the Sphere I move in, and no higher) we do overcome the first difficulty, Inconsideration; we consider seriously: and sometimes the second, Irresolution; we resolve confidently: but never the third, Inconstancy: if so far, as to bring holy Resolutions into Actions; yet never so far, as to bring holy Actions into Habits. That word which we read Deceitful, (The heart is deceitful above all things; who can know it? 
Jer. 17.9: ) is in the Original, Gnacob; and that is, not only Fraudulentum, but Versipelle, deceitful because it varies itself into divers forms; so that it does not only deceive others (others find not our heart the same towards them to day, that it was yesterday) but it deceives ourselves; we know not what, nor where our heart will be hereafter. Upon those words of Isaiah, Redite prevaricatores ad Cor; Return, O sinner, to thy heart: Long eos mittit, says S. Gregory, 
46.8.  God knows whither that sinner is sent, that is sent to his own heart: for, Where is thy heart? Thou mayst remember where it was yesterday; at such an Office, at such a Chamber: But yesterday affections are changed to day, as to days will be, to morrow. They have despised my judgements; so God complains in Ezekiel; 
20.16.  that is, They are not moved with my punishments; they call all, natural accidents: and then it follows, They have polluted my sabbaths; they are come to a more faint, and dilute, and indifferent way, in their Religion. Now what hath occasioned this neglecting of God's judgements, and this diluteness and indifferency in the ways of Religion? That that follows there, Their hearts went after their Idols: Went? Whither? Every whither: for, 
Hierom.  Quot vitia tot recentes deos; so many habitual Sins, so many Idols: And so, every man hath some Idol, some such Sin; and then, that Idol sends him to a further Idol, that Sin to another: for, every Sin needs the assistance, and countenance of another sin, for disguise and palliation. We are not constant in our Sins, much less in our more holy Purposes. We complain, and justly, of the Church of Rome, that she would not have us receive in utraque, in both kinds: But, alas! who amongst us, does receive in utraque, so, as that when he receives Bread and Wine, he receives with a true sorrow for former, and a true resolution against future sins? Except the Lord of heaven create new hearts in us, of ourselves, we have Cor nullum, no heart; all vanishes into Incogitancy. Except the Lord of heaven con-centre our affections, of ourselves, we have Cor & Cor, a cloven, a divided heart, a heart of Irresolution. Except the Lord of heaven fix our Resolutions, of ourselves, we have Cor vagum, a various, a wandering heart; all smokes into Inconstancy. And all these three are Enemies to that firmness, and fixation of the heart, which God loves, and we seek after. But yet how variously soever the heart do wander, and how little a while soever it stay upon one Object; yet, that that thy heart does stay upon, Christ in this place calls thy Treasure: for, the words admit well that inversion; Where your Treasure is, there will your heart be also, implies this; Where your Heart is, that is your Treasure. And so we pass from this stem and stalk of Pythagoras his Symbolical Letter, The firmness and fixation of the Heart, to the Horns and Beams thereof: A broader, (but on the left hand) and in that, the corruptible treasures of this world; and a narrower, (but on the right hand) and in that, the everlasting Treasures of the next. On both sides, that that you fix your Heart upon, is your Treasure: For, where your Heart is, there is your Treasure also.  

Thesaurus.  Literally, primarily, radically, Thesaurus, Treasure, is no more but Depositum in Crastinum, Provision for to morrow; to show how little a proportion, a regulated mind, and a contented heart may make a Treasure. But we have enlarged the signification of these words, Provision, and, To morrow: for, Provision must signify all that can any way be compassed; and, To morrow must signify as long as there shall be a to morrow, till time shall be no more: But waving these infinite Extensions, and Perpetuities, is there any thing of that nature, as, (taking the word Treasure in the narrowest signification, to be but Provision, for to morrow) we are sure shall last till to morrow? Sits any man here in an assurance, that he shall be the same to morrow, that he is now? You have your Honours, your Offices, your Possessions, perchance under Seal; a Seal of Wax; Wax, that hath a tenacity, an adhering, a cleaving nature, to show the Royal Constancy of His Heart, that gives them, and would have them continue with you, and stick to you. But then, Wax, if it be heat, hath a melting, a fluid, a running nature too: so have these Honours, and Offices, and Possessions, to them that grow too hot, too confident in them, or too imperious by them. For these Honours, and Offices, and Possessions, you have a Seal, a fair and just evidence of assurance; but have they any Seal upon you, any assurance of you till to morrow? Did our blessed Saviour give day, or any hope of a to morrow, to that man, to whom he said, Fool, this night they fetch away thy soul? Or is there any of us, that can say, Christ said not that to him?  
But yet, a Treasure every man hath: An evil man, 
Thesaurus malorum. Luk. 6.45.  out of the evil Treasure of his Heart, bringeth forth that which is evil, says our Saviour: Every man hath some sin upon which his heart is set; and, Where your Heart is, there is your Treasure also. The treasures of wickedness profit nothing, says Job; 'Tis true: But yet, 
10.2.  Treasures of wickedness there are. 
Mic. 6.10.  Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? consider the force of that word, yet; yet, though you have the power of a vigilant Prince executed by just Magistrates; yet, though you have the Piety of a Religious Prince, seconded by the assiduity of a laborious Clergy; yet, though you have many helps, which your Fathers did, and your Neighbours do want, and have (by God's grace) some fruits of those many helps; yet, for all this, Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? No? Are there not scant measures? which are an abomination to God, says the Prophet there; which are not only false measures of Merchandise, but false measures of Men: for, when God says that, he intends all this; Is there not yet supplantation in Court, and mis-representations of men? When Solomon, who understood subdordination of places which flowed from him, as well as the highest, which himself possessed, says, and says experimentally for his own, and prophetically for future times, If a Ruler (a man in great place) harken to lies, 
Prov. 29.22.  all his servants are wicked: Are there not yet mis-representations of men in Courts? Is there not yet Oppression in the Country? A starving of men, and pampering of dogs? A swallowing of the needy? 
Amos 8.5.  A buying of the poor for a pair of shoes, and a selling to the hungry refuse corn? Is there not yet Oppression in the Country? Is there not yet Extortion in Westminster? A justifying of the wicked for a reward, 
Isa. 5.23.  and a taking away of the righteousness of the righteous from him? Is there not yet Extortion in Westminster? Is there not yet Collusion and Circumvention in the City? Would they not seem richer than they are, when they deal in private Bargains with one another? And would they not seem poorer than they are, when they are called to contribute for the Public? 
Ezek. 28.5.  Have they not increased their riches by Trade, and lifted up their hearts upon the increase of their riches? Have they not slackened their trade, 
Amos 2.8.  and lain down upon clothes laid to pledge, and ennobled themselves by an ignoble and lazy way of gain? Is there not yet Collusion and Circumvention in the City? Is there not yet Hypocrisy in the Church? In all parts thereof? Half preach, and half hear? Hear and preach without practise? Have we not national sins of our own, and yet exercise the nature of Islanders, in importing the Sins of foreign Parts? And though we better no foreign Commodity, nor Manufacture that we bring in, we improve the sins of other Nations; and, as a weaker Grape growing upon the Rhine, contracts a stronger nature in the Canaries; so do the sins of other Nations transplanted amongst us. Have we not secular sins, sins of our own age, our own time, and yet sin by precedent of former, as well as create precedents for future? And, not only Silver and Gold, 
Josh. 6.19.  but Vessels of Iron and Brass, were brought into the Treasury of the Lord; not only the glorious sins of high places, and National sins, and secular sins; But the wretchedest Beggar in the street, contributes to this Treasure, the Treasure of sin; and to this mischievous use, to increase this Treasure, the Treasure of sin, is a Subsidy man. He begs in Jesus Name, and for God's sake; and in the same Name, curses him that does not give. He counterfeits a lameness, or he loves his lameness, and would not be cured; for, his lameness is his Stock, it is his Demean, it is (as they call their Occupations in the City) his Mystery. Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, when even they, who have no Houses, but lie in the Streets, have these Treasures?  

Thesaurus Dei hic.  There are: And then, as the nature of Treasure is to multiply, so does this Treasure, this Treasure of sin; It produces another Treasure, Thesaurizamus iram, We treasure up unto ourselves wrath against the day of wrath: 
Rom. 2.5.  for, it is of the sins of the people that God speaks, 
Deut. 32.34.  when he says, Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up amongst my treasures? He treasures up the sins of the disobedient: But where? In the Treasury of his judgements. And then, that Treasury he opens against us in this world, his Treasures of Snow, 
Job 38.22.  and Treasures of Hail, that is, Unseasonableness of Wether, 
Psal. 135.7.  Barrenness and Famine; and he bringeth his winds out of his Treasury, contrary winds, or storms and tempests, to disappoint our purposes; 
Isa. 45.3.  and, as he says to Cyrus, I will give thee (even thee Cyrus, though God cared not for Cyrus, otherwise then as he had made Cyrus his scourge) I will give thee the Treasures of darkness, and the hidden Treasures of secret places. God will enable Enemies (though he loves not those Enemies) to afflict that people that love not him. And these, War, and Dearth, and Sickness, are the Weapons of God's displeasure; and these he pours out of his Treasury, 
Thesaurus Dei in futuro.  in this world. But then, for the world to come, He shall open his treasury, (for, whatsoever moved our Translators to render that word, Armoury, and not Treasury, in that place, yet evidently it is Treasury, 
Jer. 50.25.  and in that very word, Otzar, which they translate Treasury, in all those places of Job, and David, and Isaiah, which we mentioned before, and in all other places) He shall open that Treasury, (says that Prophet) and bring forth the weapons, not as before, of Displeasure, but in a far heavier word, the weapons of his Indignation. And, in the Bowels and Treasury of his Mercy, let me beseech you, not to call the denouncing of God's Indignation, a satire of a Poet, or an Invective of an Orator: As Solomon says, There is a time for all things; there is a time for Consternation of Presumptuous Hearts, as well as for Redintegration of Broken Hearts; and the time for that, is this time of Mortification, which we enter into, now. Now therefore, let me have leave to say, That the Indignation of God is such a thing, as a man would be afraid to think he can express it, afraid to think he does know it: for the knowledge of the Indignation of God, implies the sense and feeling thereof: all knowledge of that, is experimental; and that's a woeful way, and a miserable acquisition, and purchase of knowledge. To recollect, Treasure is Provision for the future: No worldly thing is so; there is no certain future: for the things of this world pass from us; we pass from them; the world itself passes away to nothing. Yet a way we have found to make a treasure, a treasure of sin; and we teach God thrift and providence: for, when we arm, God arms too; when we make a treasure, God makes a treasure too; a treasure furnished with Weapons of Displeasure for this World, and Weapons of Indignation for the World to come. But then, As an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil; so, (says our Saviour) the good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, 
Luk. 6.45.  bringeth forth that which is good: Which is the last stroke that makes up Pythagoras his Symbolical Letter, that Horn, that Beam thereof, which lies on the right hand; a narrower way, but to a better Land; thorough straits; 'tis true; but to the Pacifique Sea, The consideration of the treasure of the Godly Man in this World, and God's treasure towards him, both in this, and the next.  
Things dedicated to God, are called often, The treasures of God; 
Thesaurus Bonorum. 1 Chro. 28.12.  Thesauri Dei, and Thesauri sanctorum Dei: the treasures of God, and the treasures of the servants of God, are, in the Scriptures, the same thing; and so a man may rob God's treasury, in robbing an Hospital. Now, though to give a Talon, or to give a Jewel, or to give a considerable proportion of Plate, be an addition to a treasury; yet to give a treasury to a treasury, is a more precious, and a more acceptable present; as to give a Library to a Library, is more than to give the works of any one Author. A godly man is a Library in himself, a treasury in himself, and therefore fittest to be dedicated and appropriated to God. Invest thyself therefore with this treasure of Godliness: What is Godliness? Take it in the whole compass thereof, and Godliness is nothing but the fear of God: for, he that says in his first Chapter, 
Prov. 1.7.  Initium sapientiae, The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; says also, in the 22. Finis Modestiae, The fear of God is the end of modesty; 
22.4.  the end of humility: No man is bound to direct himself to any lower humiliation, then to the fear of God. When God promised good Ezekias all those Blessings, 
Isa. 33.6.  Wisdom, and Knowledge, and Stability, and Strength of Salvation; that that was to defray him, and carry him through all, was this, The fear of the Lord shall be his treasure. 
1 Tim. 6.19.  And therefore, Thesaurizate vobis fundamentum, Lay up in store for yourselves a good foundation against the time to come. Do all in the fear of God: In all warlike preparations, remember the Lord of Hosts, and fear him; In all Treaties of Peace, remember the Prince of Peace, and fear him; In all Consultations, remember the Angel of the great Council, and fear him: fear God as much at Noon, as at Midnight; as much in the Glory and Splendour of his Sunshine, as in his darkest Eclipses: fear God as much in thy Prosperity, as in thine Adversity; as much in thy Preferment, as in thy Disgrace. Lay up a thousand pound to day, in comforting that oppressed soul that sues; and lay up ten thousand pound to morrow, in paring his Nails that oppresses: Lay up a million one day, in taking God's Cause to heart; and lay up ten millions next day, in taking God's Cause in hand. Let every soul lay up a penny now, in resisting a small temptation; and a shilling anon, in resisting a greater; and it will grow to be a treasure, a treasure of Talents, of so many Talents, as that the poorest soul in the Congregation, would not change treasure with any Plate-Fleet, nor Terra-firma Fleet, nor with those three thousand millions, which (though it be perchance a greater sum than is upon the face of Europe, at this day, after a hundred years emboweling of the earth for treasure) David is said to have left for the treasure of the Temple, 
Villalp. Tom. 2. par. 2. li. 5. Dip. 3. cap. 43. fol. 503. Phil. 3.20. Apoc. 21.2.  only to be laid up in the Treasury thereof, when it was built: for, the charge of the building thereof, was otherwise defrayed. Let your Conversation be in heaven: Cannot you get thither? You may see, as S. John did, Heaven come down to you: Heaven is here; here in God's Church, in his Word, in his Sacraments, in his Ordinances; set thy heart upon them, The Promises of the Gospel, The Seals of Reconciliation, and thou hast that treasure which is thy Viaticum, for thy Transmigration out of this World, and thy Bill of Exchange for the World thou goest to. For, as the wicked make themselves a treasure of sin and vanity, and then God opens upon them a treasure of his Displeasure here, and his Indignation hereafter: So the Godly make themselves a treasure of the fear of God, and he opens unto them a treasure of Grace and Peace here, and a treasure of Joy and Glory hereafter. And when of each of these treasures, Here, and Hereafter, I shall have said one word, I have done.  

Thesaurus Dei erga Bonos hîc. 2 Cor. 4.7.  We have treasure, though in earthen Vessels, says the Apostle. We have; that is, We have already the treasure of Grace, and Peace, and Faith, and Justification, and Sanctification: But yet, in earthen Vessels, in Vessels that may be broken; Peace that may be interrupted, Grace that may be resisted, Faith that may be enfeebled, Justification that may be suspected, and Sanctification that may be blemished. But we look for more; for Joy, and Glory; for such a Justification, and such a Sanctification, as shall be sealed, and riveted in a Glorification. Manna putrified if it were kept by any man, but a day; but in the Ark, it never putrified. That treasure, which is as Manna from Heaven, Grace, and Peace, yet, here, hath a brackish taste: when Grace, and Peace, shall become Joy and Glory in Heaven, there it will be sincere. Sordescit quod inferiori miscetur naturae, 
August.  etsi in suo genere non sordidetur: Though in the nature thereof, that with which a purer Metal is mixed, be not base; yet, it abases the purer Metal. He puts his Example in Silver and Gold; Though Silver be a precious Metal, yet it abases Gold. Grace, and Peace, and Faith, are precious parts of our Treasure here; yet, if we mingle them, that is, compare them with the Joys, and Glory of Heaven; if we come to think, That our Grace, and Peace, and Faith here, can no more be lost, than our Joy and Glory there; we abase, and over-allay those Joys, and that Glory. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a Treasure, says our Saviour. 
Matth. 13.44.  But is that all? Is any Treasure like unto it? None: For, (to end where we begun) Treasure is Depositum in Crastinum, Provision for to morrow. The treasure of the worldly man is not so; He is not sure of any thing to morrow. Nay, the treasure of the Godly man is not so in this world; He is not sure, that this day's Grace, and Peace, and Faith, shall be his to morrow. When I have Joy and Glory in Heaven, I shall be sure of that, to morrow. And that's a term long enough: for, before a to morrow, there must be a night; And shall there ever be a night in Heaven? No more than day in Hell. 
Apoc. 21.23.  There shall be no Sun in Heaven; therefore no danger of a Sunset. And for the treasure itself, when the Holy Ghost hath told us, 
18.  That the Walls and Streets of the City are pure Gold, That the Foundations thereof are all precious Stones, and every Gate of an entire Pearl; what hath the Holy Ghost himself left to denote unto us, what the treasure itself within is? The Treasure itself, is the Holy Ghost himself, and Joy in him. As the Holy Ghost proceeds from Father and Son, but I know not how; so there shall something proceed from Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and fall upon me, but I know not what. Nay, not fall upon me neither; but enwrap me, embrace me: for, I shall not be below them, so as that I shall not to be upon the same seat with the Son, at the right hand of the Father, in the Union of the Holy Ghost: Rectified by the Power of the Father, and feel no weakness; Enlightened by the Wisdom of the Son, and feel no scruple; Established by the Joy of the Holy Ghost, and feel no jealousy. Where I shall find the Fathers of the first Age, dead five thousand years before me; 
Serm. 6.  and they shall not be able to say they were there a minute before me. Where I shall find the blessed and glorious Martyrs, who went not per viam lacteam, but per viam sanguineam; not by the milky way of an Innocent Life, but by the bloody way of a Violent Death; and they shall not contend with me for precedency in their own Right, or say, We came in by Purchase, and you but by Pardon. Where I shall find the Virgins, and not be despised by them, for not being so; but hear that Redintegration, which I shall receive in Christ Jesus, called Virginity, and Entireness. Where all tears shall be wiped from mine Eyes; not only tears of Compunction for myself, and tears of Compassion for others; but even tears of Joy, too: for, there shall be no sudden joy, no joy unexperienced there; There I shall have all joys, altogether, always. There Abraham shall not be gladder of his own Salvation, then of mine; nor I surer of the Everlastingness of my God, then of my Everlastingness in Him. This is that Treasure, of which the God of this Treasure, give us those Spangles; and that single Money, which this Mint can coin, this World can receive, that is, Prosperity, and a good use thereof, in worldly things; and Grace, and Peace, and Faith, in spiritual. And then reserve for us the Exaltation of this Treasure, in the Joy and Glory of Heaven, in the Mediation of his Son Christ Jesus, and by the Operation of his Blessed Spirit.  
AMEN.   

A SERMON Preached at WHITEHALL, April 21. 1616. SERMON VI.  ECCLES. 8.11. 
Because sentence against an evil work, is not executed speedily, Therefore the heart of the children of men, is fully set in them, to do evil.  
WE cannot take into our Meditation, a better Rule, then that of the Stoic, Nihil infaelicius faelicitate peccantium; 
Seneca.  There is no such unhappiness to a sinner, as to be happy; no such cross, as to have no crosses: nor can we take a better Example of that Rule, than Constantius the Arrian Emperor, in whose time first of all, the Cross of Christ suffered that profanation, as to be an Ensign of War, between Christian and Christian: When Magnentius by being an usurping Tyrant, and Constantius by being an Arrian Heretic, had forfeited their interest in the Cross of Christ, which is the Ensign of the universal Peace of this world, and the means of the eternal Peace of the next; both brought the Cross to cross the Cross, to be an Ensign of War, and of Hostility; both made that Cross, when the Father accepted for all mankind, the blood of Christ Jesus, to be an instrument for the sinful effusion of the blood of Christians. But when this Heretical Emperor had a Victory over this usurping Tyrant, this unhappy happiness transported him to a greater sin, a greater insolence, to approach so near to God himself, as to call himself Eternum principem, The eternal Emperor; and to take into his stile, and Rescripts, this addition, Eternitatem nostram, Thus and thus, it hath pleased our Eternity to proceed: Yea, and to bring his Arrian followers, who would never acknowledge an eternity in Christ, nor confess him to be the eternal Son of God, to salute himself by that name, Eternum Caesarem, The eternal Emperor: so venomous, so deadly is the prosperity of the wicked to their own souls, that even from the mercy of God, they take occasion of sinning; not only Thereby, but even Therefore; They do not only make that their excuse, when they do sin, but their Reason why they may sin; as we see in these words, Because sentence against an evil work, is not excuted speedily, etc.  

Divisio.  In which words, we shall consider, first, The general perverseness of a natural man, who by custom in sin, comes to assign a Reason why he may sin; intimated in the first word, Because. And secondly, The particular perverseness of the men in this Text, who assign the patience of God, to be the Reason of their continuance in sin, Because sentence is not executed speedily. And then lastly, The illusion upon this, what a fearful state this shuts them up in, That therefore their hearts are fully set in them, to do evil. And these three, The perverseness of colouring sins with Reasons, and the impotency of making God's mercy the Reason, and the danger of obduration thereby, will be the three parts, in which we shall determine this Exercise.  

Part I.  First then, in handling the perverseness of assigning Reasons for sins, we forbidden no man the use of Reason in matters of Religion. As S. August. says, Contra Scriptura, nemo Christianus, No man can pretend to be a Christian, if he refuse to be tried by the Scriptures: And, as he adds, Contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus, No man can pretend to love order and Peace, if he refuse to be tried by the Church: so he adds also, Contra Rationem nemo sobrius, No man can pretend to be in his wits, if he refuse to be tried by Reason. He that believes any thing because the Church presents it, he hath Reason to assure him, that this Authority of the Church is founded in the Scriptures: He that believeth the Scriptures, hath Reasons that govern and assure him that those Scriptures are the Word of God. Mysteries of Religion are not the less believed and embraced by Faith, because they are presented, and induced, and apprehended by Reason.  
But this must not enthrone, this must not exalt any man's Reason so far, as that there should lie an Appeal, from God's Judgements to any man's reason: that if he see no reason, why God should proceed so, and so, he will not believe that to be God's Judgement, or not believe that Judgement of God, to be just: For, of the secret purposes of God, 
Mat. 11.26.  we have an Example what to say, given us by Christ himself, Ita est, quia complacuit; It is so, O Father, because thy good pleasure was such: All was in his own breast and bosom, in his own good will and pleasure, before he Decreed it; And as his Decree itself, so the ways and Executions of his Decrees, are often unsearchable, for the purpose, and for the reason thereof, though for the matter of fact, they may be manifest. They that think themselves sharp-sighted and wise enough, to search into those unrevealed Decrees; they who being but worms, will look into Heaven; and being the last of Creatures, who were made, will needs inquire, what was done by God, before God did any thing, for creating the World, In ultimam dementiam reverant, says S. Chrysost. They are fallen into a mischievous madness, Et ferrum ignitum, quod forcipe deberent, digitus accipiunt: They will needs take up red hot Irons, with their bare fingers, without tongs. That which is in the Centre, which should rest, and lie still, in this peace, That it is so, because it is the will of God, that it should be so; they think to toss and tumble that up, to the Circumference, to the Light and Evidence of their Reason, by their wrangling Disputations.  
If then it be a presumptuous thing, and a contempt against God, to submit his Decrees to the Examination of humane reason, it must be a high treason against the Majesty of God, to find out a reason in him, which should justify our sins; To conclude out of any thing which he does, or leaves undone, that either he doth not hate, or cannot punish sinners: For this destroys even the Nature of God, and that which the Apostle lays, for the foundation of all, To believe that God is, 
Heb. 11.6.  and that he is a just Rewarder. Adam's quia Mulier, The woman whom thou gavest me, gave me the Apple: And Eve's quia Serpens, Because the Serpent deceived me; and all such, are poor and unallowable pleas, which God would not admit: For there is no Quia, no Reason, why any man, at any time, should do any sin. God never permits any perplexity to fall upon us, so, as that we cannot avoid one sin, but by doing another: or that we should think ourselves excusable by saying, Quia inde minus malum, There is less harm in a Concubine, then in another wife; Or, Quia inde aliquod bonum, That my incontinence hath produced a profitable man to the State or to the Church, though a bastard; much less to say, Quia obdormivit Deus, Tush, God sees it not, or cares not for it, though he see it.  
If thou ask then, why thou shouldst be bound to believe the Creation, we say, Quia unus Deus, Because there can be but one God; and if the World be eternal, and so no Creature, the World is God. If thou ask why thou shouldst be bound to believe Providence, we say, Quia Deus remunerator, Because God is to give every man according to his merits. If thou ask why thou shouldst be bound to believe that, when thou seest he doth not give every man according to his merits, we say, Quia inscrutabilia judicia ejus; O how unsearchable are his Jugdements, and his ways past finding out! For, thou art yet got no farther, in measuring God, but by thine own measure; and thou hast found no other reason to lead thee, to think, that God doth not govern well, but because he doth not govern so, to thine understanding, as thou shouldst, if thou wert God. So that thou dost not only make thy weakness, but thy wickedness, that is, thy hasty disposition, to come to a present Revenge, when any thing offends thee, the Measure, and the Model, by which the frame of God's Government should be erected; and so thou comest to the worst distemper of all, insanire cum ratione, to go out of thy wits, by having too much, and to be mad with too much knowledge; not to sin out of infirmity, or tentation, or heat of blood, but to sin in cold blood, and upon just reason, and mature considerations, and so deliberately and advisedly to continue to sin.  

Part II.  Now the particular reason, which the perverseness of these men produceth here, in this Text, is, Because God is patiented and long-suffering. So he is; so he will be still: Their perverseness shall not pervert his Nature, his goodness. As God bade the Prophet Osea do, 
1.2.  he hath done himself: Go, says he, and take to thee, a wife of fornication, and children of fornication; so hath he taken us, guilty of spiritual fornication. But as in the fleshly fornications of an adulterous wife, the husband is, for the most part, the last that hears of them: so, for our spiritual fornications, such is the loathness, the patience, the longanimity of our good and gracious God, that though he do know our sins, as soon as they speak, as soon as they are acted, (for that's peccatum cum voco, says S. Gregory, A speaking sin, when any sinful thought is produced into act) yea, before they speak, as soon as they are conceived; yet he will not hear of our sins, he takes no knowledge of them, by punishing them, till our brethren have been scandalised, and led into tentation by them; till his law have been evacuated, that that use of the law, which is, to show sin to our consciences, be annihilated in us; till such a Cry come up to him by our often and professed sinning, that it concerns him in his Honour, (which he will give to none) and in his Care of his Churches, which he hath promised to be, till the end of all, to take knowledge of them. Yea, though this Cry be come up to his Ears, though it be a loud Cry, either by the nature of the sin, (as heavy things make a great noise in the moving) or by reason of the number of the sins, and the often doing thereof, (for, as many children, will make as great a noise as a loud Crier; so will the custom of small sins Cry as loud, as those which are called peccata clamantia, Crying sins) Though this cry be increased by this liberty, and professed sinning, that, as the Prophet says, 
Esa. 3.9.  They declare their sins, and hid them not, as Sodom did; Though the cry of the sin be increased by the cry of them, that suffer oppression by that sin, as well as by the sin itself, as the voice of Abel's blood cried from earth to heaven; yea, 
Gen. 4.10.  though this cry ring about God's ears, in his own bedchamber, under the Altar itself, in that Usquequo Domine? when the Martyrs cry out with a loud voice, How long, Lord, holy and true, 
Revel. 6.10.  dost thou not judge and avenge our blood! yet God would fain forbear his Revenge, he would fain have those Martyr's rest for a little space, till their fellow servants and their brethren were fulfilled. God would try, what Cain would say to that Interrogatory, Where is thy brother Abel? And though the cry of Sodom were great, and their sin exceeding grievous, yet, says God, I will go down, and see, whether they have done altogether according unto that cry; and if not, I may know: God would have been glad to have found Error in their Indictment; and when he could not, yet if Fifty, Forty five, Thirty, Twenty, Ten, had been found righteous, he had pardoned all: Adeo malum, 
Gregory.  quasi cum difficultate credidit, cum audivit; so loath is God to believe ill of man, when he doth hear it.  
This then is his patience: 
Sententia.  But why is his patience made a reason of their continuance in sins? Is it because there is no sentence denounced against sin? These busy and subtle Extractors of Reasons, that can distil, and draw Poison out of Manna, Occasions of sin, out of God's Patience, will not say so, That there is no sentence denounced. The word that is here used, Pithgam, is not truly an Hebrew word: And though in the Book of Job, and in some other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures, we find sometimes some foreign and outlandish word, derived from other Nations; yet, in Solomon's writing very rarely; neither doth Solomon himself, nor any other Author, of any part of the Hebrew Bible, use this word, in any other place, than this one. The word is a Chaldee word; and hath amongst them, the same signification and largeness, as Dabar in Hebrew; and that includes all A verbo ad legem; from a word suddenly and slightly spoken, to words digested and consolidated into a Law. So that, though the Septuagint translate this place, Quia non est facta contradictio; as though the reason of this sinner's obduration might have been, That God had not forbidden sin; and though the Chaldee Paraphrast express this place thus, Quia non est factum verbum ultionis; As though this sinner made himself believe, that God had never spoken word of revenge against sinners: yet, this sinner makes not that his reason, That there is no Law, no Judgement, no Sentence given: for, every Book of the Bible, every Chapter, every Verse almost, is a particular Deuteronomy, a particular renewing of the Law from God's mouth, Morte Morieris, Thou shalt die the death; and of that Sentence from Moses mouth, Pereundo peribitis, You shall surely perish; and of that Judgement from the Prophet's mouth, Non est Pax impiis, There is no peace to the wicked. And if this obdurate sinner could be such a Goth and Vandal, as to destroy all Records, all written Laws; if he could evacuate and exterminate the whole Bible, yet he would find this Law in his own heart, this Sentence pronounced by his own Conscience, Stipendium peccati Mors est, Treason is Death, and sin is Treason.  
His reason is not, That there is no Law; he sees it: nor that he knows no Law; his heart tells it him: nor that he hath kept that Law; his Conscience gives judgement against him: nor that he hath a Pardon for breaking that Law; for he never asked it: and, besides, those Pardons have in them that clause, Ita quod se bene gerat; Every Pardon binds a man to the good behaviour; and by Relapses into sin, we forfeit our Pardons for former sins. All their Reason, all their Comfort, is only a Reprieve, and a Respite of Execution: 
August.  Distulit Securim, attulit Securitatem: God hath taken the Axe from their necks, and they have taken Security into their hearts; Sentence is not executed.  

Executed.  Execution is the life of the Law; but then, it is the death of the Man: And therefore whosoever makes quarrels against God, or arguments of Obduration, out of this respite of Execution, would he be better pleased with God, if God came to a speedy Execution? But let that be true, Where there is no Execution, there is no reverence to the Law; there is truly, and in effect, no Law: The Law is no more a Law without Execution, than a Carcase is a Man. And so much, certainly, the word, which is here rendered sententia facta, doth properly signify; A Judgement perfected, executed. 
Gen. 25.25.  When Esau was born hairy, and so in the likeness of a grown and perfect man, he was called by the word of this text, Gnesau, Esau, factus, perfectus. And so, when God had perfected all his works, 
Gen. 1. ult.  that is, said then, that he saw, that all was good that he had made; where there is the same word, That he had perfected. So that, if the judgements of God had been still without execution; if all those Curses, 
Deut. 28.15.  Cursed shalt thou be in the town, and cursed in the field; cursed in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy land, and in the fruit of thy ; cursed when thou comest in, and when thou goest out. The Lord shall send thee curse, and trouble, and shame, in all thou setst thy hand to. The Lord shall make a pestilence cleave to thee, and a consumption, and a fever. The Lord shall make the heavens above, as brass, and the earth under thee, as iron; with all those Curses and Maledictions, which he flings, and slings, and stings the soul of the sinner, so vehemently, so pathetically, in that catalogue of Comminations, and Interminations, in that place; if all these were never brought into execution, we should say, at best, of those Laws, and judgements of God, as the Roman Lawyer did of that severe Law of the Twelve Tables, by which Law, he that was indebted to many men, and not able to pay, was to be cut in pieces, and divided proportionably amongst his Creditors, Eo consilio tanta immanitas poenae denuatiata est, ne ad eam unquam perveniretur: Therefore so grievous a punishment was inflicted, that that Law might never come to execution: for, from the enacting of that Law, to the last times, in that government, there was never any example, of one execution of that Law: so we should say, That God laid those severe penalties upon sins, only to deter men from doing them, and not with any purpose to inflict those penalties. In Laws, to the making whereof, there concurs, besides the authority of the Prince, the counsel and the consent of the Subject, there are sometimes Laws made, without any purpose of ordinary execution; of which, the Civil Wisdom, and the Religious Conscience, and the godly Moderation of the Prince, is made a Depository, and a Feoffee in trust; and those Laws are only put into his hands, as a Bridle, the better to rule and govern that great Charge committed to him, in emergent necessities, though not in an ordinary execution of those penal Laws. But who was a counsellor to God, or who inserted any Prouisoes or Nonobstante's into his Laws? or who conditioned them, with any such reservations, that they should have no ordinary execution? And therefore an ordinary execution they have always had.  
The reason why they are sometimes, and why they are not always executed, St. chrysostom hath assigned; Si nullus puniretur, nemo existimaret Deum pre-esse rebus humanis; si omnes, nemo expectaret futuram resurrectionem: If God should punish no sins here, no man would believe a God; and if God should presently punish all here, no man would be afraid of a future judgement. There the obdurate man may find a reason of the manner of Gods proceeding, in the execution of his judgements: And if he dare stand the arguing of this case, out of Precedent, out of Record, out of the history of God, in his Word, he must hear heavy judgements denounced, and executed, in cases, where he would hardly discern any sin to have been committed, at least, no sin proportionable to that punishment. 
Act. 5.  If he were in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, of having reserved a little of their own, whatsoever should befall, he would never see Counsel, nor petition the judge, never apprehend danger in this case; and yet, God declared by the mouth of Peter, that Satan had filled their hearts, and that they had lied to the holy Ghost; and a heavy judgement of present death, was executed upon them both. If he had been of the Jury, for that man of God, who, 
1 Reg. 13.  though God had forbidden him to eat and drink in that place, yet, when an old Prophet came to him, and told him, that God had spoken to him by an Angel, that he should go with him, and eat, did go, and eat with him, he would have acquitted him of any offence herein; and yet God's judgement overtook him, and he was slain by a lion. But if he will hear the case of Saul, 
1 Sam. 15.  who did but reserve some of the spoil, and that purchased with the blood of the people, and that pretended to be reserved for God's service, for sacrifice; and yet Saul heard that judgement, Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and transgression is idolatry: because thou hast cast away the word of the Lord, therefore he hath cast thee away from being king. 
Jos. 7.  If he will hear Achan's case, who had taken an excommunicate thing to his own use, and the heavy judgement thereupon, Inasmuch as thou hast troubled us, the Lord shall trouble thee this day: and so, all Israel stoned him. If he will hear Helie's case, 
1 Sam. 4.  against whom, only for indulgence to his sons, God prepared, and studied, and meditated judgements, and threatened beforehand, when he said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, whereof whosoever shall hear, his two ears shall tingle: and so, soon after, upon the heavy news, that Israel was discomfited, that the Ark was taken, 
2 Sam. 6.  that his two sons were slain, Heli fell from his seat, and broke his neck, and died. If he remember Oziah's case, who for putting his hand to the Ark, when it was ready to fall, felt the wrath of God, and died in the place. If he study all this Title, of God's heavy judgements upon sins, not great in the outward appearance; and then come to them by the consideration of the nature of the first sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and finds there, such a lightness in that sin of eating forbidden fruit, that he durst do it, if it were to do again; as though it were no more to disobey God, when he forbade the eating of fruit, then to disobey his Physician in that point; and yet shall see the heavy judgement of God upon all posterity for that sin, (which he esteems so small a one) to extend so far, as that all his particular sins, even this very sin of undervaluing Adam's sin, and his very sin of obduration, is but a punishment of Adam's sin. If he shall climb by this ladder, to the highest step of all, from Adam in paradise, to the Angels in heaven, and see, that in those Angels, a sin only of Omission, of a not turning toward God, (for there was no creature then to turn upon) in so pure Natures, and done but once, was so heavily punished, as that the blood of Christ Jesus hath not washed it away; certainly the hardness, the flintiness of this obdurate sinner, must necessarily be so much mollified, so much entendered, as to confess, that he can make no good argument out of that, That the judgements of God are not executed.  

Speedily.  But yet, howsoever that be, they are not executed speedily. How desperate a state art thou in, if nothing will convert thee, but a speedy execution, after which, there is no possibility, no room left for a Conversion? God is the Lord of hosts, and he can proceed by Martial Law: he can hang thee upon the next tree; he can choke thee with a crumb, with a drop, at a voluptuous feast; he can sink down the Stage and the Player; The bed of wantonness, and the wanton actor, into the jaws of the earth, into the mouth of hell: he can surprise thee, even in the act of sin; and dost thou long for such a speedy execution, for such an expedition? Thou canst not lack Examples, that he hath done so upon others, and will no proof serve thee, but a speedy judgement upon thyself? Scatter thy thoughts no farther then; contract them in thyself, and consider Gods speedy execution upon thy soul, and upon thy body, and upon thy soul and body together. Was not God's judgement executed speedily enough upon thy soul, when in the same instant that it was created, and conceived, and infused, it was put to a necessity of contracting Original sin, and so submitted to the penalty of Adam's disobedience, the first minute? Was not God's judgement speedily enough executed upon thy body, if before it had any temporal life, it had a spiritual death; a sinful conception, before any inanimation? If hereditary diseases from thy parents, Gouts and Epilepsies, were in thee, before the diseases of thine own purchase, the effects of thy licentiousness and thy riot; and that from the first minute that thou beganst to live, thou beganst to die too? Are not the judgements of God speedily enough executed upon thy soul and body together, every day, when as soon as thou commitst a sin, thou art presently left to thine Impenitence, to thine Insensibleness, and Obduration? Nay, the judgement is more speedy than so: for, that very sin itself, was a punishment of thy former sins.  
But though God may begin speedily, yet he intermits again, he slacks his pace; and therefore the execution is not speedy. As it is said of Pharaoh often, Because the plagues ceased, (though they had been laid upon him) Ingratum est cor Pharaonis, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. But first we see, by that punishment which is laid upon Heli, That with God it is all one, to begin, and to consummate his judgement: (When I begin, I will make an end. 
1 Sam. 3.12. ) And when Herod took a delight in that flattery and acclamation of the people, It is the voice of God, and not of man; 
Acts 12.22.  the angel of the Lord smote him immediately, & the worms took possession of him, though (if we take Josephus relation for truth) he died not in five days after. Howsoever, if we consider the judgements of God in his purpose, and decree, there they are eternal: And for the execution thereof, though the wicked sinner dissemble his sense of his torments, and, as Tertullian says of a persecutor, Herminianus, who being tormented at his death, in his violent sickness, cried out, Nemo sciat, ne gaudeant Christiani; Let no man know of my misery, lest the Christians rejoice thereat: so these sinners suppress these judgements of God, from our knowledge, because they would not have that God, that inflicts them, glorified therein, by us: Yet they know, their damnation hath never slept, nor let them sleep quietly: and, in God's purpose, the judgement hath been eternal, and they have been damned as long as the devil; and that's an execution speedy enough. But because this appears not so evidently, but that they may disguise it to the world, and (with much ado) to their own Consciences; Therefore their hearts are fully set in them, to do evil. And so we pass to our third Part.  

Part III.  This is that perverseness, which the Heathen Philosopher Epictetus, apprehends, and reprehends; That whereas every thing is presented to us, Cum duabus sausis, with two handles, we take it still, by the wrong handle. This is tortuositas serpentis, The wryness, the knottiness, the entangling of the Serpent. This is that which the Apostle takes such direct knowledge of, 
Rom. 2.4.  Despisest thou the riches of God's bountifulness, and long-suffering, not knowing that it leads thee to repentance? St. Chrysostome's comparison of such a sinner to a Vulture, that delights only in dead carcases, that is, in company dead in their sins, holds best, as himself notes, in this particular, that the Vulture perhorrescit fragrantiam unguenti, He loathes, and is ill affected with any sweet savour: for so doth this sinner find death, in that sovereign Balm of the patience of God, and he dies of God's mercy: Et quid infelicius illis, qui bono odour moriuntur? says S. Augustine: In what worse state can any man be, then to take harm of a good air? But, as the same Father adds, Numquid quia mori voluisti, malum fecisti odorem? This indisposition in that particular man, does not make this air, an ill air; and yet this abuse of the patience of God, comes to be an infectious poison, and such a poison, as strikes the heart; and so general, as to strike the heart of the children of men; and so strongly, as that their hearts should be fully set in them, to do evil.  
First then, what is this setting of the heart upon evil; and then, what is this fullness, that leaves no room for a Cure? When a man receives figures and images of sin, into his Fancy and Imagination, and leads them on to his Understanding and Discourse, to his Will, to his Consent, to his Heart, by a delightful dwelling upon the meditation of that sin; yet this is not a setting of the heart upon doing evil. To be surprised by a Tentation, to be overthrown by it, to be held down by it for a time, is not it. It is not when the devil looks in at the window to the heart, by presenting occasions of tentations, to the eye; nor when he comes in at the door, to our heart, at the ear, either in lascivious discourses, or Satyrical and Libellous defamations of other men: It is not, when the devil is put to his Circuit, to seek whom he may devour, and how he may corrupt the King by his Council, that is, The Soul by the Senses: But it is, when by a habitual custom in sin, the sin arises merely and immediately from myself: It is, when the heart hath usurped upon the devil, and upon the world too, and is able and apt to sin of itself, if there were no devil, and if there were no outward objects of tentation: when our own heart is become spontanea insania, & voluntarius daemon, Such a wilful Madness, 
Chrysost.  and such a voluntary and natural Devil to itself, as that we should be ambitious, though we were in an Hospital; and licentious, though we were in a wilderness; and voluptuous, though in a famine: so that such a man's heart, is as a land of such Giants, where the Children are born as great, as the Men of other nations grow to be; for those sins, which in other men have their birth, and their growth, after their birth, they begin at a Concupiscence, and proceed to a Consent, and grow up to Actions, and swell up to Habits; In this man, sin gins at a stature and proportion above all this; he gins at a delight in the sin, and comes instantly to a defence of it, and to an obduration and impenitibleness in it: This is the evil of the heart, by the mis-use of God's grace, to divest and lose all tenderness and remorse in sin.  
Now for the Incurableness of this heart, it consists first in this, that there is a fullness; It is fully set to do evil: & such a full heart hath no room for a Cure; as a full stomach hath no room for Physic. The Mathematician could have removed the whole world with his Engine, if there had been any place to have set his Engine in. Any man might be cured of any sin, if his heart were not full of it, and fully set upon it: which setting, is indeed, in a great part, an unsetledness, when the heart is in a perpetual motion, and in a miserable indifferency to all sins: it may be fully set upon sin, though it be not vehemently affected to any one sin. The reason which is assigned, why the heart of man, if it receive a wound, is incurable, is the palpitation, and the continual motion of the heart: for, if the heart could lie still, so that fit things might be applied to it, and work upon it, all wounds in all parts of the heart, were not necessarily mortal: So, if our hearts were not distracted, in so many forms, and so divers ways of sin, it might the better be cured of any one. St. Augustine had this apprehension, when he said, Audeo dicere utile esse cadere in aliquod manifestum peccatum, ut sibi displiceant: It is well for him, that is indifferent to all sins, if he fall into some such misery by some one sin, as brings him to a sense of that, and of the rest. St. Augustine, when he says this, says he speaks boldly in saying so, Audeo dicere: but we may be so much more bold, as to say further, That that man had been damned, if he had not sinned that sin: For the heart of the indifferent sinner baits at all that ever rises, at all forms and images of sin: when he sees a thief, he runs with him; 
Psal. 50.  and with the adulterer he hath his portion: and as soon as it contracts any spiritual disease, any sin, it is presently, not only in morbo acuto, but in morbo complicato; in a sharp disease, and in a manifold disease, a disease multiplied in itself. Therefore it is, as St. Gregory notes, that the Prophet proposes it, as the hardest thing of all, for a sinner to return to his own heart, and to find out that, after it is strayed, and scattered upon so several sins. Redite prevaricatores ad cor, says the Prophet: 
Esa. 46.  and, says that Father, Long eye mittit, cum ad cor redire compellit: God knows whither he sends them, when he sends them to their own heart: for, since it is true which the same Father said, Vix sancti inveniunt cor suum, The holiest man cannot at all times find his own heart, (his heart may be bend upon Religion, and yet he cannot tell in which Religion; and upon Preaching, and yet he cannot tell which Preacher; and upon Prayer, and yet he shall find strayings and deviations in his Prayer) much more hardly is the various and vagabond heart of such an indifferent sinner, to be found by any search. If he inquire for his heart, at that Chamber where he remembers it was yesterday, in lascivious and lustful purposes, he shall hear that it went from thence to some riotous Feasting, from thence to some Blasphemous Gaming, after, to some Malicious Consultation of entangling one, and supplanting another; and he shall never trace it so close, as to drive it home, that is, to the consideration of itself, and that God that made it; nay, scarce to make it consist in any one particular sin. That which St. Bernard feared in Eugenius, when he came to be Pope, and so to a distraction of many worldly businesses, may much more be feared in a distraction of many sins, Cave ne te trahant, quo non vis; Take heed lest these sins carry thee farther, than thou intendest: thou intendest but Pleasure, or Profit; but the sin will carry thee farther: Quaeris quo? says that Father; Dost thou ask whither? Ad cor durum, To a senslesness, a remorslesness, a hardness of heart: nec pergas quaerere, (says he) quid illud sit; Never ask what that hardness of heart is: for, if thou know it not, thou hast it.  
This then is the fullness, and so the Incurableness of the heart, by that reason of perpetual motion; because it is in perpetual progress from sin to sin, he never considers his state. But there is another fullness intended here, That he is come to a full point, to a consideration of his sin, and to a station and setledness in it, out of a foundation of Reason, as though it were, not only an excusable, but a wise proceeding, Because God's judgements are not executed. But when man becomes to be thus fully set, God shall set him faster: 
Job 14.17.  Iniquitas tua in sacculo signata; His transgression shall be sealed up in a bag, and God shall sow up his iniquity: And, Quid cor hominis nisi sacculus Dei? 
Gregor.  What is this bag of God, but the heart of that sinner? There, as a bag of a wretched Miser's money, which shall never be opened, never told till his death, lies this bag of sin, this frozen heart of an impenitent sinner; and his sins shall never be opened, never told to his own Conscience, till it be done to his final condemnation. God shall suffer him to settle, where he hath chosen to settle himself, in an unsensibleness, an Inintelligibleness, (to use Tertullian's word) of his own condition: And, 
Aug.  Quid miserior misero non miserante seipsum? Who can be more miserable than that man, who does not commiserate his own misery? How far gone is he into a pitiful estate, that neither desires to be pitied by others, nor pities himself, nor discerns that his state needs pity? Invaluerat ira tua super me, & nesciebam, says blessed St. Augustine: Thy hand lay heavy upon me, and I found it not to be thy hand: because the Maledictions of God are honeyed and candied over, with a little crust or sweetness of worldly ease, or reprieve, we do not apprehend them in their true taste, and right nature. Obsurdueram stridore catenarum mearum, says the same Father: The jingling and rattling of our Chains and Fetters, makes us deaf: The weight of the judgement takes away the sense of the judgement. This is the full setting of the heart to do evil, when a man fills himself with the liberty of passing into any sin, in an indifferency; and then finds no reason why he should leave that way, either by the love, or by the fear of God. If he prosper by his sin, than he finds no reason; if he do not prosper by it, yet he finds a wrong reason. If unseasonable floods drown his Harvest, and frustrate all his labours, and his hopes; he never finds, that his oppressing, and grinding of the Poor, was any cause of those waters, but he looks only how the Wind sat, and how the ground lay; and he concludes, that if Noah, and Job, 
Ezek. 14.14.  and Daniel had been there, their labour must have perished, and been drowned, as well as his. If a vehement Fever take hold of him, he remembers where he sweat, and when he took cold; where he walked too fast, where his Casement stood open, and where he was too bold upon Fruit, or meat of hard digestion; but he never remembers the sinful and naked Wantonnesses, the profuse and wasteful Dilapidations of his own body, that have made him thus obnoxious and open to all dangerous Distempers. Thunder from heaven burns his Barns, and he says, What luck was this? if it had fallen but ten foot short or over, my barns had been safe: whereas his former blaspheming of the Name of God, drew down that Thunder upon that house, as it was his; and that Lightning could no more fall short or over, than the Angel which was sent to Sodom, could have burnt another City, and have spared that; or then the Plagues of Moses and of Aaron could have fallen upon Goshen, and have spared Egypt. His Gomers abound with Manna, he overflows with all for necessities, and with all delicacies, in this life; and yet he finds worms in his Manna, a putrefaction, and a mouldering away, of this abundant state; but he sees not that that is, because his Manna was gathered upon the Sabbath, that there were profanations of the Name and Ordinances of God, mingled in his means of growing rich. To end all, This is the true Use that we are to make of the long-suffering and patience of God, That when his patience ends, ours may begin: That if he forbear others rather then us, 
21.7.  we do not expostulate, as in Job, Wherefore do the wicked live, and become old, and grow mighty in power? but rather, if he chastise us rather than others, 
Psal. 44.18.  say with David, Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy ways, though thou hast sore broken us, in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death: And that if sentence be executed upon us, we may make use of his judgement; and if not, we may continue, and enlarge his mercies towards us.  
AMEN.   

A SERMON Preached at WHITEHALL, 
Serm. 7.  Novemb. 2. 1617. SERMON VII.  PSAL. 55.19. 
Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.  
IN a Prison, where men withered in a close and perpetual imprisonment; In a Galley, where men were chained to a laborious and perpetual slavery; In places, where any change that could come, would put them in a better state, than they were before, this might seem a fit Text, then in a Court, where every man having set his foot, or placed his hopes upon the present happy state, and blessed Government, every man is rather to be presumed to love God, because there are no changes, then to take occasion of murmuring at the constancy of God's goodness towards us. But because the first murmuring at their present condition, the first Innovation that ever was, was in Heaven; The Angels kept not their first Estate: Though as Princes are Gods, so their well-governed Courts, are Copies, and representations of Heaven; yet the Copy cannot be better than the Original: And therefore, as Heaven itself had, so all Courts will ever have, some persons, that are under the Increpation of this Text, That, Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God: At least, if I shall meet with no conscience, that finds in himself a guiltiness of this sin, if I shall give him no occasion of repentance, yet I shall give him occasion of praising, and magnifying that gracious God, which hath preserved him from such sins, as other men have fallen into, though he have not: For, I shall let him see first, The dangerous slipperiness, the concurrence, 
Divisio.  the co-incidence of sins; that a habit and custom of sin, slips easily into that dangerous degree of Obduration, that men come to sin upon Reason; they find a Quia, a Cause, a Reason why they should sin: and then, in a second place, he shall see, what perverse and frivolous reasons they assign for their sins, when they are come to that; even that which should avert them, they make the cause of them, Because they have no changes. And then, lastly, by this perverse mistaking, they come to that infatuation, that dementation, as that they lose the principles of all knowledge, and all wisdom: The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; and, Because they have no changes, they fear not God.  

Part I.  First then, We enter into our first Part, The slipperiness of habitual sin, with that note of S. Gregory, Peccatum cum voce, est culpa cum actione; peccatum cum clamore, est culpa cum libertate; Sinful thoughts produced into actions, are speaking sins; sinful actions continued into habits, are crying sins. There is a sin before these; a speechless sin, a whispering sin, which no body hears, but our own conscience; which is, when a sinful thought or purpose is born in our hearts, first we rock it, by tossing, and tumbling it in our fancies, and imaginations, and by entertaining it with delight and consent, & with remembering, with how much pleasure we did the like sin before, and how much we should have, if we could bring this to pass; And as we rock it, so we swath it, we cover it, with some pretences, some excuses, some hopes of coveraling it; and this is that, which we call Morosam delectationem, a delight to stand in the air and prospect of a sin, and a loathness to let it go out of our sight. Of this sin S. Gregory says nothing in this place, but only of actual sins, which he calls speaking; and of habitual, which he calls crying sins. And this is as far, as the Schools, or the Casuists do ordinarily trace sin; To find out peccata Infantia, speechless sins, in the heart; peccata vocatia, speaking sins, in our actions; And peccata clamantia, crying and importunate sins, which will not suffer God to take his rest, no nor to fulfil his own Oath, and protestation: He hath said, As I live, I would not the death of a sinner; and they extort a death from him. But besides these, Here is a farther degree, beyond speaking sins, and crying sins; beyond actual sins and habitual sins; here are peccata cum ratione, and cum disputatione; we will reason, we will debate, we will dispute it out with God, and we will conclude against all his Arguments, that there is a Quia, a Reason, why we should proceed and go forward in our sin: Et pudet non esse impudentes, as S. Augustine heightens this sinful disposition; Men grow ashamed of all holy shamefacedness, and tenderness toward sin; they grow ashamed to be put off, or frighted from their sinful pleasure, with the ordinary terror of God's imaginary judgements; ashamed to be no wiser than S. Paul would have them, to be moved, or taken hold of, by the foolishness of preaching; or to be no stronger of themselves then so, 
1 Cor. 1.21.  that we should trust to another's taking of our infirmities, 
Matth. 8.  and bearing of our sicknesses; Or to be no richer, or no more provident than so, To sell all, and give it away, 
Luc. 12.  and make a treasure in Heaven, and all this for fear of Thiefs, and Rust, and Canker, and Moths here. That which is not allowable in Courts of Justice, in criminal Causes, To hear Evidence against the King, we will admit against God; we will hear Evidence against God; we will hear what man's reason can say in favour of the Delinquent, why he should be condemned; why God should punish the soul eternally, for the momentany pleasures of the body: Nay, we suborn witnesses against God, and we make Philosophy and Reason speak against Religion, and against God; though indeed, Omne verum, omni vero consentiens; whatsoever is true in Philosophy, is true in Divinity too; howsoever we distort it, and wrest it to the contrary. We hear Witnesses, and we suborn Witnesses against God; and we do more; we proceed by Recriminations, and a cross Bill, with a Quia Deus, because God does as he does, we may do as we do; Because God does not punish Sinners, we need not forbear sins; whilst we sin strongly, by oppressing others, that are weaker, or craftily by circumventing others that are simple. This is but Leoninum, and Vulpinum, that tincture of the Lion, and of the Fox, that brutal nature that is in us. But when we come to sin, upon reason, and upon discourse, upon Meditation, and upon plot, This is Humanum, to become the Man of Sin, to surrender that, which is the Form, and Essence of man, Reason, and understanding, to the service of sin. When we come to sin wisely and learnedly, to sin logically, by a Quia, and an Ergo, that, Because God does thus, we may do as we do, we shall come to sin through all the Arts, and all our knowledge, To sin Grammatically, to tie sins together in construction, in a Syntaxis, in a chain, and dependence, and coherence upon one another: And to sin Historically, to sin over sins of other men again, to sin by precedent, and to practice that which we had read: And we come to sin Rhetorically, perswasively, powerfully; and as we have found examples for our sins in History, so we become examples to others, by our sins, to lead and encourage them, in theirs; when we come to employ upon sin, that which is the essence of man, Reason, and discourse, we will also employ upon it, those which are the properties of man only, which are, To speak, and to laugh; we will come to speak, and talk, and to boast of our sins, and at last, to laugh and jest at our sins; and as we have made sin a Recreation, so we will make a jest of our condemnation. And this is the dangerous slipperiness of sin, to slide by Thoughts and Actions, and Habits, to contemptuous obduration.  

Part II.  Now amongst the manifold perversnesses and incongruities of this artificial sinning, of sinning upon Reason, upon a quia, and an ergo, of arguing a cause for our sin; this is one, That we never assign the right cause: we impute our sin to our Youth, to our Constitution, to our Complexion; and so we make our sin our Nature: we impute it to our Station, to our Calling, to our Course of life; and so we make our sin our Occupation: we impute it to Necessity, to Perplexity, that we must necessarily do that, or a worse sin; and so we make our sin our Direction. We see the whole world is Ecclesia malignantium, 
Psal. 26.5.  a Synagogue, a Church of wicked men; and we think it a Schismatical thing, to separate ourselves from that Church, and we are loath to be excommunicated in that Church; and so we apply ourselves to that, we do as they do, with the wicked we are wicked; and so we make our sin our Civility. And though it be some degree of injustice, to impute all our particular sins, to the devil himself, after a habit of sin hath made us spontaneos daemons, 
Chrysost.  devils to ourselves; yet we do come too near an imputing our sins to God himself, when we place such an impossibility in his Commandments, as makes us lazy, that because we cannot do all, therefore we will do nothing; or such a manifestation and infallibility in his Decree, as makes us either secure, or desperate; and say, The Decree hath saved me, therefore I can take no harm; or, The Decree hath damned me, therefore I can do no good. No man can assign a reason in the Sun, why his body casts a shadow: why all the place round about him, is illumined by the Sun, the reason is in the Sun; but of his shadow, there is no other reason, but the grossness of his own body: why there is any beam of light, any spark of life, in my soul, he that is the Lord of light and life, and would not have me die in darkness, is the only cause; but of the shadow of death, wherein I sit, there is no cause, but mine own corruption. And this is the cause, why I do sin; but why I should sin, there is none at all.  
Yet in this Text the Sinner assigns a cause; and it is, Quia non mutationes, Because they have no Changes. God hath appointed that earth, which he hath given to the sons of men, to rest, and stand still; and that heaven which he reserves for those sons of men, who are also the sons of God, he hath appointed to stand still too: All that is between heaven and earth, is in perpetual motion, and vicissitude; but all that is appointed for man, man's possession here, man's reversion hereafter, earth and heaven, is appointed for rest, and stands still; and therefore God proceeds in his own way, and declares his love most, where there are fewest Changes. This rest of heaven, he hath expressed often, by the name of a Kingdom, as in that Petition, Thy kingdom come: And that rest which is to be derived upon us, here in earth, he expresses in the same phrase too, when having presented to the children of Israel, an Inventary and Catalogue of all his former blessings, he concludes all, includes all in this one, Et prosperata es in regnum, I have advanced thee to be a kingdom: which form, God hath not only still preserved to us, but hath also united Kingdoms together; and to give us a stronger body, and safer from all Changes, whereas he hath made up other Kingdoms, of Towns and Cities, he hath made us a Kingdom of Kingdoms, and given us as many Kingdoms to our Kingdom, as he hath done Cities to some other. God's gracious purpose then to man, being Rest, and a contented Reposedness in the works of their several Callings; and his purpose being declared upon us, in the establishing and preserving of such a Kingdom, as hath the best Body, (best united in itself, and knit together) and the best Legs to stand upon, (Peace and Plenty) and the best Soul to inanimate and direct it, (Truth of Religion) and the best Spirits to make all parts answerable and useful to one another, (Wisdom and Vigilancy in the Prince, Gratitude and Cheerfulness in the Subject:) And since God hath gone so far, once in our time already, in expressing his care of our Rest and Quiet, as to give us a Change without Change, an alteration of Persons, and not of Things, that we saw old things done away, in the Secession of one, and all things made new in the Succession of another Sovereign, and all this newness done without Innovation; so that, 
Psal. 76.9.  as David says of the whole earth, we might say again of this Land, Terra tremuit & quievit, The earth shaked, and stood still at once; it was all one act, to have been afraid, and to have been instantly secured again, since nothing beyond that, nothing equal to that Change, can be imagined by us from God; may it be ever his gracious pleasure, to continue to us, the enjoying of our present Rest, without showing us any more Changes. As (to end this Branch) it were a strange enormity, a strange perverseness in any man, to plant a Garden in any place, therefore, because he foresaw an Earthquake in that place, that would disorder and discompose his Garden again; or to build in any place therefore, because the fire were likeliest to take hold of that street; that is, to make any thing the cause of an action, which should naturally enforce the contrary: so is it an irreligious distemper, to be the bolder in sin, because we have no Changes, or to defer our conversion from sin, till Changes, till Afflictions come. For, Satan knew the air, and complexion, and disposition of the world, well enough: he argued not impertinently, nor frivolously, for the general, though he were deceived in the particular, in Job, when he said to God, 
2.5.  Stretch out thy hand, and touch his bones, and his flesh, and see if he will not blaspheme thee to thy face. Afflictions, and Changes in this life, do not always direct us upon God: The displeasure of a Prince may make a harsh person more supple, more appliable than before; his graces received may make him more accessible, more equal, more obsequious, then before: and losses and forfeitures sustained, or threatened, may make him more apt to give, to bleed out, to redeem his dangers, than before: But these Changes do not always make him an honester man, nor a better Christian then before. 
1 Thess. 4.11.  And therefore, says the Apostle, Study to be quiet; Labour to find a testimony of God's love to you, in your present estate, and never put yourself, either for temporal, or spiritual amendment, upon Changes.  
To proceed then: This shutting up of themselves against the fear of God, is not merely quia non mutationes, because there are no changes; but, quia non illis, because They have no changes. It is a dangerous preterition, not to bring a man's self into Consideration; but to consider no man but himself, to make himself the measure of all, is as dangerous a narrowness. The Epigrammatist describes the Atheist so, That he desires no better argument to prove that there is no God, but that he sees himself, Dum negat ista beatum, prosper well enough, though he do not believe this prosperity to proceed from God. What miseries soever fall upon others, affect not him. He may have seen, since he was born, the greatest Kingdom in Christendom likely to have been broken in pieces, and cantoned into petty Signories, and so left no Kingdom: he may have seen such a danger upon our next neighbours, as that, when the powerfullest Enemy in Christendom hung over their heads, and lay upon their backs, they bred a more dangerous enemy in their own bosoms, and bowels, by tearing themselves in pieces, with Differences, in Points of subdivided Religion, and impertinent Scruples, unjustly called Points of Religion; in which, men leave Peace, and Unity, and Charity, the true ways of Salvation, and will inquire nothing, but how soon, how early God damned them: They must know, sub quibus Consulibus, in whose Reign, in whose Mayoralty, what hour of the day, and what minute of that hour, God's eternal Decree of Election or Reprobation was made. Many, very many of these Changes he may have seen and heard; but all these he hears, as though he heard them out of Livy, or out of Berosus, or in Letters from China, or Japan; and not as though they concerned his Time, or his Place, or his Observation. To contract this: We have all been either in Wars, and seen men fall at our right hand, and at our left, by the Bullet; or at Sea, and seen our Consort sunk by Tempest, or taken by Pirates; or in the City, and seen the Pestilence devour our Parents above us, our Children below us, our Friends round about us; or in the Court, and seen Gods judgements overtake the most secure, and confident: we have all seen such Changes as these everywhere; but quia non nobis, because the Bullet, the Shipwreck, the Pirate, the Pestilence, the Judgements have not reached us, in our particular persons, they have not imprinted the fear of God in us.  
And the word of the Text, carries it farther than so: 
Non habent.  it is not because There are no Changes, for they abound; nor because They have had none, for none escapes; but it is, Qui a non habent, because they have no present, nor imminent danger in their contemplation now; because no affliction lies upon them now, therefore they are secure. It is not Quia non habuerunt; every person, every State, every Church, hath had Changes: Because the Roman Church will needs be all the world, we may consider all the world in her, so far; she hath had such a Change, as hath awakened other Princes to reassume, and to restore to themselves, and their Crowns, their just Dignities; so she hath had a Change in Honour and Estimation. She hath had such a Change, as hath contracted and brought her into a narrower channel, and called in her overflowings; so she hath had a Change in Power and Jurisdiction. She hath had such a Change, as hath lessened her Temporal treasure everywhere, and utterly abolished her imaginary Spiritual treasure, in many places; she hath had a change in Means, and Profit, and Revenue: she hath had such a change, as that they who by God's commandment are come out from her, have been equal, even in number, to them who have adhered to her; such a change, as hath made her Doctrine appear, some to be the doctrines of men, and some the doctrines of devils: such a change in Reputation, in Jurisdiction, and in Revenue, and in Power, and in manifestation of her Disguises, she hath had: But quia non habet, because she decays not every day, the Reformation seems to her to be come to a period, as high as it shall go: Because she hath a misapprehension of some faintness, some declinableness towards her again, even in some of our Professors themselves, who (as she thinks) come as near to her, as they dare: Because she hath gained of late upon many of the weaker sex, women laden with sin; and of weaker fortunes, men laden with debts; and of weaker consciences, souls laden with scruples; therefore she imagines that she hath seen the worst, and is at an end of her change; though this be but indeed a running, an ebbing back of the main River, but only a giddy and circular Eddy, in some shallow places of the stream, (which stream, God be blessed, runs on still currently, and constantly, and purely, and intemerately, as before) yet because her corrections are not multiplied, because her absolute Ruin is not accelerated, she hath some false conceptions of a general returning towards her, and she fears up herself against all sense of Truth, and all tenderness of Peace; and because she hath rid out one storm, in Luther and his successors, therefore she fears not the Lord for any other, Quia non habent, Because she hath no changes, now.  
Habuerunt then, They have had changes; and Habebunt, They shall have more, and greater: Impii non stabunt, says David, The wicked shall not stand: In how low ground soever they stand, and in how great torment soever they stand, yet they shall not stand there, but sink to worse; and at last, non stabunt in judicio, They shall not stand in judgement, but fall there, from whence there is no rising: Non stabunt: They shall not stand, though they think they shall; they shall counterfeit the Seals of the Holy Ghost, and delude themselves with imaginary certitudes of Salvation, and illusory apprehensions of Decrees of Election: nay, non stabunt, They shall not be able to think that they shall stand: that which the Apostle saith, 
1 Cor. 10.12.  Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall, belongs only to the godly; only they can think, deliberately, and upon just examination of the marks and evidences of the Elect, that they shall stand: God shall suffer the wicked to sink down, not to a godly sense of their infirmity, and holy remorse of the effects thereof; but yet lower than that, to a diffident jealousy, to a desperate acknowledgement, that they cannot stand in the sight of God: they shall have no true rest at last: they shall not stand; nay, they shall not have that half, that false comfort by the way; they shall not be able to flatter themselves by the way, with that imagination that they shall stand.  
Now, both the ungodly, and godly too, must have Changes: in matter of Fortune, changes are common to them both: and then, in all, of all conditions, Mortalitas Mutabilitas, says St. Augustine: even this, That we must die, is a continual change. The very same word, 
14.14.  which is here, kalaph, is in Job also: All the days of my appointed time, till my changing come. And because this word which we translate changing, is there spoken in the person of a righteous man, 
Symma.  some Translators have rendered that place, Donec veniat sancta nativitas mea, Till I be born again: the change, the death of such men, is a better birth: And so the Chaldee Paraphrasts, the first Exposition of the Bible, have expressed it, Quousque rursus fiam, Till I be made up again by death: He does not stay to call the Resurrection a making up; but this death, this dissolution, this change, is a new creation; this Divorce is a new Marriage; this very Parting of the soul, is an Infusion of a soul, and a Transmigration thereof out of my bosom, into the bosom of Abraham. 
Bernard.  But yet, though it is all this, yet it is a change; Maxima mutatio est Mutabilitatis in Immutabilitatem, To be changed so, as that we can never be changed more, is the greatest change of all. All must be changed so far, as to die: yea, those who shall, in some sort, escape that death; those whom the last day shall surprise upon earth, though they shall not die, yet they shall be changed. Statutum est omnibus, semel mori, All men must die once; 
Heb. 9.27.  we live all under that Law. But statutum nemini hic mori: since the promise of a Messiah, there is no Law, no Decree, by which any man must necessarily die twice; a Temporal death, and a Spiritual death too. It is not the Man, but the Sinner, that dies the second death: God sees sin in that man, or else that man had never seen the second death. So we shall all have one change, besides those which we have all had; good and bad must die: but the men in this text, shall have two. But whatsoever changes are upon others in the world, whatsoever upon themselves; whatsoever they have had, whatsoever they are sure to have; yet, Quia non habent, non timent Deum; Because they have none now, they fear not God. And so we are come to our third and last Part.  
They fear not God: This is such a state, 
Part III. Non timent.  as if a man who had been a Schoolmaster all his life, and taught others to read, or had been a Critic all his life, and ingeniosus in alienis, over-witty in other men's Writings, had read an Author better, than that Author meant, and should come to have use of his Reading to save his life at the Bar, when he had his Book, for some petty Felony, and then should be stricken with the spirit of stupidity, and not be able to read then. Such is the state of the wisest, of the learnedest, of the mightiest in this world: If they fear not God, they have forgot their first letters; they have forgot the basis and foundation of all Power, the reason and the purpose of all Learning, the life and the soul of all Counsel and Wisdom: for, The fear of God is the beginning of all. They are all fallen into the danger of the Law; they have all sinned: they are offered their Book, the merciful promises of God to repentant sinners, in his Word; and they cannot read, they cannot apply them, to their comfort: There is Scripture, but not translated, not transferred to them: there is Gospel, but not preached to them; there are Epistles, but not superscribed to them.  
It is an hereditary Sentence, 
Psal. 111.10. Prov. 1.7. Ecclus 1.16.  and hath passed from David in his Psalms, to Solomon in his Proverbs, and then to him that gleaned after them both, the Author of Ecclesiasticus, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All three profess all that, and more than that. It is Blessedness itself, says the father, David; Blessedness itself, says the son, Solomon; and Plenitudo Sapientiae, and Omnis Sapientia, says the other, The fullness of wisdom, and the only wisdom. Job had said it before them all, Ecce, timor Domini, 
28.  ipsa est sapientia; The fear of the Lord, is wisdom itself: And the Prophet Esai said it after, of Ezechias, 
33.6.  There shall be stability of thy times, strength, salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; for, the fear of the Lord shall be thy treasure. It is our supply, if we should fear want, and it is our reason that we cannot fear want; for, he that fears God, fears nothing else. As therefore the Holy Ghost hath placed the beginning of wisdom in this fear; so hath he the consummation and perfection of this wisdom, even in the perfect pattern of all wisdom, 
Esai. 11.3.  in the person of Christ himself, The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon thee, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of God. For, without this fear, there is no courage, no confidence, no assurance: And therefore Christ begun his Passion with a fear, in his Agony, Tristis anima, My soul his heavy; but that fear delivered him over to a present conformity to the will of God, in his Veruntamen, Yet not my will, but thine be done: And he ended his Passion with a fear, Eli, Eli, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? and that fear delivered him over to a present assurance, In manus tuas Domine, confidently to commend his spirit into his hands, whom he seemed to be afraid of.  
Since then the Holy Ghost, whose name is Love; since God, who is Love itself, disposes us to this fear, we may see in that, That neither God himself, nor those of whom God said, Ye are gods, that is, all those who have Authority over others, can be loved so as they should, except they be feared, so as they should be too: If you take away due Fear, you take away true Love. Even that fear of God, which we use to call servile fear, which is but an apprehension of punishment, and is not the noblest, the perfectest kind of fear, yet it is a fear, which our Saviour counsels us to entertain; 
Matth. 10.  Fear him that can cast soul and body into hell; even that fear, is some beginning of wisdom. That fear Job had use of, when he said, 
31.  Quid faciam cum surrexerit ad judicandum Deus? Here I may lay hold upon means of Restitution; but when the Lord shall raise himself to judgement, how shall I stand? So also had David use of this fear, 
Psal. 119.  A judiciis tuis timui: However I was ever confident in thy mercy, yet I was in fear of thy judgement. It is that fear which St. Basil directs us to, upon those words, 
Psal. 33.  Timorem Domini docebo vos, I will teach you the fear of the Lord, Cogita profundum barathrum, To learn to fear God, he sends us to the meditation of the torments of hell. And so it is that fear, which wrought that effect in St. Hierome: Ego ob Gehennae metum carcere isto me damnavi; For fear of that execution, I have shut myself up in this prison; for fear of perishing in the next world, I banish myself from this: There is a beginning, there is a great degree of wisdom, even in this fear.  
Now, as the fear of God's punishments disposes us to love him, so that fear which the Magistrate imprints, by the execution of his Laws, establishes that love which preserves him, from all disestimation and irreverence: for, whom the Enemy does not fear, the Subject does not love. As no Peace is safe enough, where there is no thought of War; so the love of man towards God, and those who represent him, is not permanently settled, if there be not a reverential fear, a due consideration of greatness, a distance, a distinction, a respect of Rank, and Order, and Majesty. If there be not a little fear, by Justice at home, and by power and strength abroad, mingled in it, it is not that love, which God requires, to be first directed upon himself; and then reflected upon his Stewards and Vice-gerents: for, as every Society is not Friendship, so every Familiarity is not Love.  
But, to conclude: As he will be feared, so he will be feared, no otherwise, then as he is God: Non timuerunt Deum, is the increpation of the Text, They feared not God. It is timor Dei, and not timor Jehovae: God is not here expressed by the name of Jehovah, that unexpressible and unutterable, that incomprehensible and unimaginable name of Jehovah. God calls not upon us, to be considered as God in himself, but as God towards us; not as he is in heaven, but as he works upon earth: And here, not in the School, but in the Pulpit; not in Disputation, but in Application. It is not timor Jehovae, nor it is not timor Adonai: God does not call himself in this place, The Lord: for, to be Lord, to be proprietary of all, this is potestas tam utendi quam abutendi, It gives the Lord of that thing power, to do, absolutely, what he will with that which is his: And so, God, as absolute Lord, may damn without respect of sin, if he will; and save without respect of faith, if he will. But God is pleased to proceed with us, according to that Contract which he hath made with us, and that Law which he hath given to us, in those two Tables, Tantummodo crede, Only believe, and thy faith shall save thee; and, Fac hoc & vives, Live well, and thy good works shall make sure thy salvation. Lastly, God does not call himself here Dominum exercituum, The Lord of hosts; God would not only be considered, and served by us, when he afflicts us with any of his swords, Famine, War, Pestilence, Malice, or the like; but the fear required here, is to fear him as God, and as God presented in this name, Elohim; which, though it be a name primarily rooted in power and strength, (for El is Deus fortis, The powerful God; and as there is no love without fear, so there is no fear without power) yet properly it signifies his Judgement, and Order, and Providence, and Dispensation, and Government of his creatures. It is that name, which goes thorough all Gods whole work of the Creation, and disposition of all creatures, in the first of Genesis: in all that, he is called by no other name then this, the name God; not by Jehovah, to present an infinite Majesty; nor by Adonai, to present an absolute power; nor by Tzebaoth, to present a Force, or Conquest: but only in the name of God, his name of Government. All ends in this; To fear God, is to adhere to him, in his way, as he hath dispensed and notified himself to us; that is, as God is manifested in Christ, in the Scriptures, and applied to us out of those Scriptures, by the Church: not to rest in Nature without God, nor in God without Christ, nor in Christ without the Scriptures, nor in our private interpretation of Scripture, without the Church. Almighty God fill us with these fears, these reverences; that we may reverence him, who shall at last bring us, where there shall be no more changes; and hath already placed us in such a Government, as being to us a Type and Representation of the Kingdom of heaven, we humbly beg, may evermore continue with us, without changes, in Government, or in Religion.  
AMEN.   

A SERMON Preached to the Household at WHITEHALL, 
Serm. 8.  April 30. 1626. SERMON VIII.  MATTH. 9.13. 
I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.  
SOme things the several Evangelists record severally, one, and no more. S. Matthew, and none but S. Matthew, 
1.14.  records joseph's jealousy and suspicion, that his wife Mary had been in a fault, before her marriage; And than his temper withal, not frequent in that distemper of jealousy, not to exhibit her to open infamy for that fault; And yet his holy discretion too, Not to live with a woman faulty that way, but to take some other occasion, and to put her away privily: In which, we have three elements of a wise husband; first, not to be utterly without all jealousy and providence, and so expose his wife to all trials, and tentations, And yet not to be too apprehensive and credulous, and so expose her to dishonour and infamy; but yet not to be so indulgent to her faults, when they were true faults, as by his connivance, and living with her, to make her faults, his: And all this we have out of that which S. Matthew records, and none but he. S. Mark, and none but S. Mark records, that story, 
7.31.  of Christ's recovering a dumb man, and almost deaf, of both infirmities: In which, when we see, that our Saviour Christ, though he could have recovered that man with a word, with a touch, with a thought, yet was pleased to enlarge himself in all those ceremonial circumstances, of imposition of hands, of piercing his ears with his fingers, of wetting his tongue with spittle, and some others, we might thereby be instructed, not to undervalue such ceremonies as have been instituted in the Church, for the awakening of men's consideration, and the exalting of their devotion; though those ceremonies, primarily, naturally, originally, fundamentally, and merely in themselves, be not absolutely and essentially necessary: And this we have from that which is recorded by S. Mark, 
2.42.  and none but him. S. Luke, and none but S. Luke, records the history of Mary and Joseph's losing of Christ: in which we see, how good and holy persons may lose Christ; and how long? They had lost him, and were a whole day without missing him: A man may be without Christ, and his Spirit, and lie long in an ignorance and senslesness of that loss: And then, where did they lose him? Even in Jerusalem, in the holy City: even in this holy place, and now in this holy exercise, you lose Christ, if either any other respect then his glory, brought you hither; or your minds stray out of these walls, now you are here. But when they sought him, and sought him sorrowing, and sought him in the Temple, than they found him: If in a holy sadness and penitence, you seek him here, in his House, in his Ordinance, here he is always at home, here you may always find him. And this we have out of that which S. Luke reports, and none but he. S. John, 
2.11.  and none but S. John, records the story of Christ's miraculous changing of water into wine, at the marriage in Cana: In which, we see, both that Christ honoured the state of Marriage, with his personal presence, and also that he afforded his servants so plentiful a use of his creatures, as that he was pleased to come to a miraculous supply of wine, rather than they should want it. Some things are severally recorded by the several Evangelists, as all these; and then some things are recorded by all four; as John Baptist's humility, and low valuation of himself, in respect of Christ; which he expresses in that phrase, That he was not worthy to carry his shoes. The Holy Ghost had a care, that this should be repeated to us by all four, That the best endeavours of God's best servants, are unprofitable, unavailable in themselves, otherwise then as God's gracious acceptation inanimates them, and as he puts his hand to that plough which they drive or draw. Now our Text hath neither this singularity, nor this universality; it is neither in one only, nor in all the Evangelists: but it hath (as they speak in the Law) an interpretative universality, a presumptive universality: for that which hath a plurality of voices, is said to have all; and this Text hath so; for three of the four Evangelists have recorded this Text: only S. John, who doth especially extend himself about the divine nature of Christ, pretermits it; but all the rest, who insist more upon his assuming our nature, and working our salvation in that, the Holy Ghost hath recorded, and repeated this protestation of our Saviour's, I came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance.  
Which words, being spoken by Christ, 
Divisio.  upon occasion of the Pharisees murmuring at his admitting of Publicans and sinners to the Table with him, at that feast which S. Matthew made him, at his house, soon after his calling to the Apostleship, direct our consideration upon the whole story, and do, not afford but require, not admit but invite this Distribution; That, first, we consider the occasion of the words, and then the words themselves: for of these twins is this Text pregnant, and quick, and easily delivered. In the first, we shall see the pertinency of Christ's answer; and in the second, the doctrine thereof: In the first, how fit it was for them; in the other, how necessary for us: First, the Historical part, which was occasional; and then the Catechistical part, which is doctrinal. And in the first of these, the Historical and Occasional part, we shall see, first, That Christ by his personal presence justified Feasting, somewhat more than was merely necessary, for society, and cheerful conversation: He justified feasting, and feasting in an Apostles house: though a Churchman, and an Exemplar-man, he was not deprived of a plentiful use of God's creatures, nor of the cheerfulness of conversation. And then he justified feasting in the company of Publicans and sinners; intimating therein, that we must not be in things of ordinary conversation, overcurious, over-inquisitive of other men's manners: for whatsoever their manners be, a good man need not take harm by them, and he may do good amongst them. And then lastly, we shall see the calumny that the Pharisees cast upon Christ for this, and the iniquity of that calumny, both in the manner, and in the matter thereof. And in these Branches we shall determine that first, The Historical, the Occasional part: And in the second, The Catechistical and Doctrinal, (I came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance) we shall pass by these steps: first, we shall see the Actions; venit, he came; that is, first, venit actu: whereas he came by promise, even in Paradise; and by frequent ratification, in all the Prophets; now he is really, actually come; venit, he is come, we look for no other after him; we join no other, Angels nor Saints, with him: venit, he is actually come; and then, venit sponte, he is come freely, and of his goodwill; we assign, we imagine no cause in us, that should invite him to come, but humbly acknowledge all to have proceeded from his own goodness: and that's the Action, He came. And then the Errand, and purpose for which he came, is vocare, he came to call: It is not, Occurrere, That he came to meet them, who were upon the way before; for no man had either disposition in himself, or faculty in himself, neither will nor power to rise and meet him, no nor so much as to wish that Christ would call him, till he did call him: He came not occurrere, to meet us; but yet he came not cogere, to compel us, to force us, but only vocare, to call us, by his Word, and Sacraments, and Ordinances, and lead us so; and that's his errand, and purpose in coming. And from that, we shall come to the persons upon whom his coming works: where we have first a Negative, a fearful thing in Christ's lips; and then an Affirmative, a blessed seal in his mouth: first, an Exclusive, a fearful banishment out of his Ark; and then an Inclusive, a blessed naturalisation in his Kingdom: Non justos, I came to call, not the righteous, but sinners. And then lastly, we have, not as before, his general intention and purpose, To call; but the particular effect & operation of this calling upon the godly, it brings them to repentance. Christ does not call us to a satisfaction of God's justice, by ourselves; that's impossible to us: it is not ad satisfactionem; but than it is not adgloriam, he does not call us to an immediate possession of glory, without doing any thing before; but it is ad Resipiscentiam; I came to call, not the righteous, but sinners, to Repentance. And so have you the whole frame marked out, which we shall set up; and the whole compass designed, which we shall walk in: In which, though the pieces may seem many, yet they do so naturally flow out of one another, that they may easily enter into your understanding; and so naturally depend upon one another, that they may easily lay hold upon your memory.  

Part I. Ambrose.  First then, our first Branch in the first Part, is, That Christ jufied Feasting, festival and cheerful conversation. For, as S. Ambrose says, Frustra fecisset; God, who made the world primarily for his own glory, had made Light in vain, if he had made no creatures to see, and to be seen by that light, wherein he might receive glory: so, frustra fecisset, God, who intended secondarily man's good in the Creation, had made creatures to no purpose, if he had not allowed Man a use, and an enjoying of those creatures. Our Mythologists, who think they have conveyed a great deal of Moral doctrine in their Poetical Fables, (and so, indeed they have) had mistaken the matter much, when they make it one of the torments of hell, to stand in a fresh River, and not be permitted to drink; and amongst pleasant fruits, and not to be suffered to eat; if God required such a forbearing, such an abstemiousness in Man, as that being set to rule and govern the creatures, he might not use and enjoy them: Privileges are lost, by abusing; but so they are, by not using too. Of those three Opinions, which have all passed through good Authors, Whether, before the Flood had impaired and corrupted the herbs and fruits of the earth, men did eat flesh or no; of which, the first is absolutely Negative, both in matter of law, and in matter of fact, No man might, no man did; and the second is directly contrary to this, Affirmative in both, All men might, all men did; and the third goes a Middle way, It was always lawful, and all men might, but sober and temperate men did forbear, and not do it: of these three, though the later have prevailed with those Authors, and be the common opinion; yet the later part of that later opinion, would very hardly fall into proof, That all their sober and temperate men did forbear this eating of flesh, or any lawful use of God's creatures. God himself took his portion in this world so, in meat and drink, in his manifold sacrifices; and God himself gave himself in this world so, in bread and wine, in the blessed Sacrament of his body and his blood: And the very joys of heaven after the Resurrection, are conveyed to us also, in the Marriage-supper of the Lamb. That mensa laqueus, which is in the Psalm, is a curse: 
69.22.  Let their table be made a snare, let their plenty and prosperity be an occasion of sin to them, that's a malediction: but for that mensa propositionum, The table of Shewbread, 
Num. 4.7.  where those blessings which God had given to man, were brought again, and presented in his sight, upon that table; the loaves were great in quantity, and many in number, and often renewed: God gives plentifully, richly, and will be served so himself. In all those festivals, amongst the Jews, which were of God's immediate institution, as the Passover, and Pentecost, and the Trumpets, and Tabernacles, and the rest, you shall often meet in the Scriptures, these two phrases, Humiliabitis animas; and then, Laetaberis coram Domino: first, upon that day, you shall humble your souls, (that you have, Levit. 16.29. and very often) and then, upon that day, You shall rejoice before the Lord; (and that you have, Deut. 16.11. and very often besides.) Now some Interpreters have applied these two phrases to the two days; That upon the Eve we should humble our souls in Fasting, and upon the Day rejoice before the Lord in a festival cheerfulness: but both belong to the Day itself; that first we should humble our souls, as we do now, in these holy Convocations; and then return, and rejoice before the Lord, in a cheerful use of his creatures, ourselves, and then send out a portion to them that want, as it is expressly enjoined in that feast, Nehem. 8.10. and in that, Esth. 9.22. where their feasting is as literally commanded, as their giving to the poor. And besides those Stationary and Anniversary Feast, which were of God's immediate institution, And that Feast which was of the Church's institution after, in the time of the Macchabees, which was the Encoenia, The Dedication of the Temple; the Jews at this day, in their Dispersion, observe a yearly Feast, which they call Festum Letitiae, The feast of Rejoicing, in a festival thankfulness to God, that he hath brought the year about, and afforded them the use of the Law, another year. When Christ came to Jairus house, and commanded away the Music, and all the Funeral-solemnities, it was not because he disallowed those solemnities, but because he knew there was no Funeral to be solemnised in that place, to which he came with an infallible purpose to raise that maid which was dead. Civil recreations, offices of society and mutual entertainment, and cheerful conversation; and such a use of God's creatures, as may testify him to be a God, not of the valleys only, but of the mountains too, not a God of necessity only, but of plenty too; Christ justified by his personal presence at a Feast; which was our first: and then, at a Feast in an Apostles house; which is our second circumstance.  

In Domo Apost.  The Apostle then had a house, and means to keep a house, and to make occasional Feasts in his house, though he had bound himself to serve Christ in so near a place as an Apostle. The profession of Christ's service, in the Ministry, does not take from any man, the use of God's creatures, nor cheerfulness of conversation. As some of the other Apostles are said to have followed Christ, relictis retibus, They left their nets, and followed him; and yet upon occasion, they did at times return to their nets and fishing after that; for Christ found them at their nets, after his resurrection: so S. Matthew followed Christ, as S. Luke expresses it; Relictis omnibus, 
5.28.  He left all, and followed Christ; but not so absolutely all, 
Basil.  as S. Basil seems to take it, Adeo ut non solum lucra, sed & ipsa pericula contempserit, that he did not only neglect the gain of his place, but the danger of displeasure by such a leaving of his Place: for S. Matthew was a Publican, and so a public Officer, and an Accountant to the State: But though he did so far leave all, as that nothing retarded him from an immediate following of Christ; yet, no doubt but he returned after, to the settling of his Office, and the rectifying of his Accounts. When God sees it necessary or behoveful for a man to leave all his worldly state, that he may follow him, God tells him so; he gives him such a measure of light by his Spirit, as lets him see, it is God's will; and then, to that man, that is a full commandment, and binds him to do it, and not only an Evangelical counsel, as they call it, which leaves him at liberty, to do it, or leave it undone: Christ saw how much was necessary to that young man in the Gospel, and therefore to him he said, Vade & vend, Go and sell all that thou hast, and then follow me: And this was a commandment to that man, though it be not a general commandment to all; upon Matthew Christ laid no such commandment, but only said to him, Sequere me, Fellow me; and he did so; but yet not so divest himself of his worldly estate, as that he had not a house, and means to keep a house, and that plentifully, after this. When Eliah used that holy fascination upon Elisha, 
1 Reg. 19.19.  (we may not, I think, call it a fascination; fascination, I think, hath never a good sense) but when Eliah used that holy Charm and Incantation upon him, to spread his Mantle over him, and to draw him with that, as with a net, after him; yet after Elisha had thus received a character of Orders, after this imposition of hands in the spreading of the Mantle, after he had this new filiation, by which he was the son of the Prophet, yet Elisha went home, and feasted his friends after this. So Matthew begun his Apostleship with a feast; and though he, in modesty forbear saying so, S. Luke, 
5.29.  who reports the story, says that it was a great feast. He begun with a great, but ended with a greater: for, (if we have S. Matthews history rightly delivered to us) when he was at the greatest feast which this world can present, when he was receiving and administering the blessed Sacrament, in that action, was he himself served up as a dish to the table of the Lamb, and added to the number of the Martyrs then; and died for that Saviour of his, whose death for him, he did then celebrate. This than was festum Ablactationis; Abraham made a great feast, 
Gen. 21.8.  that day that Isaac was weaned: Here was Matthew weaned ab uteribus mundi, from the breasts of this world; and he made a feast, a feast that was a Type of a Tyye, a prevision of a vision, 
Act. 10.  of that vision which S. Peter had after, of a sheet, with all kind of meats clean and unclean in it: for at this Table was the clean and unspotted Lamb, Christ Jesus himself; and at the same Table, those spotted and unclean Goats, the Publicans and sinners; which is our third, and next circumstance, He justified feasting, feasting in an Apostles house, feasting with Publicans and sinners.  
Is there then any conversation with notorious sinners justifiable, excusable? 
Cum publicanis.  We see when S. Paul came to be of that High Commission, to judge of notorious sinners, how he proceeded: he delivered Alexander and Hymenaeus to Satan; and there, surely, 
1 Tim. 1.20.  he did not mean that any man should keep them company. What was their fault? It was but one Heretical point; a great one indeed; for they denied the Resurrection; and for this, the Apostle (as it is also said there) sends them to Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme: And may there not be thus much intimated in that, That a man may learn more blasphemy with some men, then with Satan himself? That may be true: but the sending and delivering to Satan, is the excluding of that man from the Kingdom, that is, from the visible Church of Christ, by a just Excommunication: for, all without the Church, is Satan's jurisdiction. Of which fearful state, 
Nyssen.  Gregory Nyssene speaks pathetically; Si haberet oculos anima, If thy soul had eyes, to see souls, Ostenderem tibi, tibi segregato, I would show thee, thou who haste wilfully incurred, and dost rebelliously continue under an Excommunication rightly grounded, duly proceeded in, and justly denounced; I would show thee the picture of a man burning in Hell, for that's thy picture, says that Father, to that man; Non Episcopalis arrogantiae existimes, says he, Think it not a passionate act of an insolent Bishop; Caepit in Lege, confirmatur in Gratia, God began it in the Law, and confirmed it in the Gospel; and where it is justly grounded, and duly proceeded in, it is a fearful thing to be delivered over to Satan by excommunication; and S. Paul is so far from conversing with an Heretic in one point, as that he proceeds so far with him, as to deliver him to Satan.  
Nay, for a fault much less than this, not opposed against God, as Heresy, but against Natural Honesty, the Apostle proceeds as far, 
1 Cor. 5.5.  in Incest; Gather you, says he, with my spirit, and the power of the Lord Jesus, to deliver that incestuous man to Satan. Nay, in less faults then that, 
v. 11.  he forbids Conversation; If a fornicator, if a drunkard, if a covetous person, with him eat not. Nay; for that which is less than these, 
2 Thes. 3.6, 14.  he is as severe; We command ye, Brethren, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. Where, Calvin thinks, (and, I think, aright, and many others must think so too; for a Jesuit thinks so, as well as Calvin) that the Apostle by the word disorderly, 
Cornel. Lapid.  does not mean persons that live in any course of notorious sin; but by disorderly, he means Ignavoes, Inutiles, idle and unprofitable persons; persons of no use to the Church, or to the State: that whereas this is Ordo Divinus, the order that God hath established in this world, that every man should embrace a Calling, and walk therein; they who do not so, pervert God's order: and they are S. Paul's disorderly persons.  
This then being so, that the Holy Ghost by S. Paul, separates not only from all spiritual Communion, but from all civil Conversation, all notorious sinners, and disorderly persons, how descends Christ to this facility, and easiness of conversation with Publicans and Sinners? For, (to speak a word by the way, of the Office of a Publican) though Customs, and Tributes, and Impositions were due to the Kings of Jewry, due in natural right, and due in legal right, 
1.17.  fixed and established by that Law in Samuel; and so the Farmers of those Customs, and Collectors of those Tributes, in that respect not to be blamed, or ill thought of; and though in the Roman State, (under whose Government, at this time the Jews were) the Office of a Publican were an honourable Office, 
Cicero.  (for so that great Statesman and Orator tells us, Flos Equitum Romanorum, Ornamentum Civitatis, Firmamentum Reipub. Men of the best Families and Extraction in the State, Men of the best Credit and Reputation in the State, Men of the best Revenues and Possession in the State, were Publicans; yet when the Romans governed Jewry as a Province, and that these honourable Roman Publicans forbore to execute that Office in those remote parts, and making under-farmers' there, for the better advancing of that service, employed the Jews themselves, who best understood the ways and the persons: these Jews became more cruel and heavy to their Brethren, in these Exactions, than any strangers; and so, and justly, the most odious persons amongst them: and then why would Christ afford this conversation to these, and such as these, to Publicans and sinners? Christ was in himself a Dispensation upon any Law, because he was the Lawmaker. But here he proceeded not in that capacity; he took no benefit of any Dispensation; he fulfilled the intention and purpose of the Law; for the Laws therefore forbade conversation with sinners, lest a man should take infection by such conversation: 
Exod. 34.  so the Jews were forbidden to eat with the Gentiles; but it was, lest in eating with the Gentiles, they might eat of things sacrificed to Idols: so they were forbidden conversation with leprous persons, 
Num. 5.  lest by such conversation the disease should be propagated; but where the danger of infection ceased, all conversation might be open; and Christ was always far enough from taking any infection, by any conversation with any sinner. He might apply himself to them, because he could take no harm by them; but he did it especially, that he might do good upon them. Some forbear the company of sinners, out of a singularity, and pride in their own purity, and say, with those in Esay, Stand by thyself, come not near me, 
65.5.  for I am holier than thou. But, Bonus non est, qui Malos tolerare non potest, says S. August. upon those words, Lilium inter spinas, 
Cant. 2.2.  That Christ was a Lily, though he grew amongst Thorns. A Lily is not the less a Lily, nor the worse, nor the darker a Lily, because it grows amongst Thorns. That man is not so good as he should be, that cannot maintain his own integrity, and continue good; or that cannot maintain his charity, though others continue bad. It was S. Paul's way, I am made all things to all men, that I might save some. 
1 Cor. 9.22.  And in that place, which we mentioned before, 
1 Cor. 5.11.  where the Apostle names the persons, whom we are to forbear, amongst them, he names Idolators; and, as he does the rest, he calls even those Idolators, Brethren; If any that is called a Brother, be an Idolater, etc. In cases where we are safe from danger of infection, (and it lies much in ourselves, to save ourselves from infection) even some kind of Idolators, are left by S. Paul under the name of Brethren; and some brotherly, and neighbourly, and pious Offices, belong to them, for all that. These faults must arm me to avoid all danger from them, but not extinguish all charity towards them. And therefore it was an unjust calumny in the Pharisees, to impute this for a fault to Christ, that he applied himself to these men; which is the next and last Circumstance in this first part, The Calumny of these Pharisees.  
Now in the manner of this Calumny, 
Calumnia.  there was a great deal of iniquity, and a great deal in the matter: For, for the manner; That which they say of Christ, they say not to Christ himself, but they whisper it to his servants, to his Disciples. A Legal and Juridical Accusation, is justifiable, maintainable, because it is the proper way for remedy: a private reprehension done with discretion, and moderation, should be acceptable too; but a privy whispering is always Pharisaical. The Devil, himself, though he be a Lion, yet he is a roaring Lion; a man may hear him: but for a privy Whisperer, we shall only hear of him. And in their plot there was more mischief; for, when Christ's Disciples plucked ears of Corn, 
Matth. 12.  upon the sabbath, the Pharisees said nothing to those Disciples, but they come to their Master, to Christ, and they tell him of it: Here, when Christ eats and drinks with these sinners, they never say any thing to Christ himself, but they go to his servants, and they tell him of it. By privy whisper and calumnies, they would alien Christ from his Disciples, and his Disciples from him; the King from his Subjects by some tales, and the Subject from the King by other: and they took this for the shortest way to disgrace both their preaching, to discredit both their lives; to defame Christ for a Wine-bibber, and a lose Companion, and to defame his Disciples for profane men, and Sabbath-breakers: 
Gregor.  for, Cujus vita despicitur, restat ut ejus predicatio contemnatur, is an infallible inference and consequence made by S. Gregory; Discredit a man's life, and you disgrace his Preaching: Lay imputations upon the person, and that will evacuate and frustrate all his preaching; for whether it be in the corruption of our nature, or whether it be in the nature of the thing itself, so it is, if I believe the Preacher to be an ill man, I shall not be much the better for his good Sermons.  
Thus they were injurious in the manner of their calumny; they were so too in the matter, to calumniate him therefore, because he applied himself to sinners. The Wiseman in Ecclesiasticus institutes his meditation thus: 
11.12.  There is one that hath great need of help, full of poverty, yet the eye of the Lord looked upon him for good, and set him up from his low estate, so that many that saw it, marvelled at it. Many marvelled, but none reproached the Lord, chid the Lord, calumniated the Lord, for doing so. And if the Lord will look upon a sinner, and raise that bedrid man; if he will look with that eye, that pierces deeper than the eye of heaven, the Sun, (and yet with a look of that eye, the womb of the earth conceives) if he will look with that eye, that conveys more warmth than the eye of the Ostrich, (and yet with a look of that eye, that Bird is said to hatch her young ones, without sitting) that eye that melted Peter into water, and made him flow towards Christ; and ratified Matthew into air, and made him flee towards Christ; if that eye vouchsafe to look upon a Publican, and redeem a Goshen out of an Egypt, hatch a soul out of a carnal man, produce a saint out of a sinner, shall we marvel at the matter? marvel so, as to doubt God's power? shall any thing be impossible to God? or shall we marvel at the manner, at any way by which Christ shall be pleased to convey his mercy? 
Chrysolog.  Miraris eum peccatorum vinum bibere, qui pro peccatoribus sanguinem fudit? shall we wonder that Christ would live with sinners, who was content to die for sinners? Wonder that he would eat the bread and Wine of sinners, that gave sinners his own flesh to eat, and his own blood to drink? Or if we do wonder at this, (as, indeed, nothing is more wonderful) yet let us not calumniate, let us not misinterpret any way, that he shall be pleased to take, to derive his mercy to any man: but, 
Clem. Alex.  (to use Clement of Alexandria's comparison) as we tread upon many herbs negligently in the field, but when we see them in an Apothecary's shop, we begin to think that there is some virtue in them; so howsoever we have a perfect hatred, and a religious despite against a sinner, as a sinner; yet if Christ Jesus shall have been pleased to have come to his door, and to have stood, and knocked, and entered, and supped, and brought his dish, and made himself that dish, and sealed a reconciliation to that sinner, in admitting him to that Table, to that Communion, let us forget the Name of Publican, the Vices of any particular profession; and forget the name of sinner, the history of any man's former life; and be glad to meet that man now in the arms, and to grow up with that man now in the bowels of Christ Jesus; since Christ doth now begin to make that man his, but now declares to us, that he hath been his, from all eternity: For in the Book of Life, the name of Mary Magdalen was as soon recorded, for all her incontinency, as the name of the blessed Virgin, for all her integrity; and the name of St. Paul who drew his sword against Christ, as soon as St. Peter, who drew his in defence of him: for the Book of life was not written successively, word after word, line after line, but delivered as a Print, all together. There the greatest sinners were as soon recorded, as the most righteous; and here Christ comes to call, not the righteous at all, but only sinners to repentance. And so we have done with those pieces which constitute our first part; Christ by his personal presence justified feasting, and feasting in an Apostles house, and feasting with Publicans and sinners, though the Pharisees calumniated him, maliciously in the manner, injuriously in the matter; and we pass to our other part; from the Historical and Occasional, to the Catechistical, the Doctrinal Part.  
The other Part, the Occasion, the Connexion was of the Text; 
Part II.  and we cannot say properly that this Part, the answer is in the Text; for, indeed, the Text is in it: the Text itself is but a piece of that Answer, which Christ gives to these Calumniators. First, Christ does afford an Answer even to Calumniators; for that is very often necessary: 
Respondet Calumniae.  not only because otherwise a Calumniator would triumph, but because otherwise a calumny would not appear to be a calumy. A calumny is fixed upon the fame of a good man; he in a holy scorn, and religious negligence, pretermits it; and after, long after, the generation of those vipers come to say, In all this time, who ever denied it? A seasonable and a sober answer interrupts the prescription of a calumny, discontinues the continual claim of a calumny, disappoints and avoids that Fine which the calumny levied, to bar all posterity, if no man arise to make an answer. Truly, there are some passages in the Legend of Pope Joan, which I am not very apt to believe; yet, it is shrewd evidence, that in so many hundreds of years, six or seven, no man in that Church should say any thing against it: I would they had been pleased to have said something, somewhat sooner: for if there were slander mingled in the story, (and if there be, it must be their own Authors that have mingled it) yet slander itself should not be neglected. Christ does not neglect it; he justifies his conversation with these sinners: and he gives answers proportionable to the men, with whom he dealt. First, because the Pharisees pretended a knowledge and zeal to the Scriptures, 
Ose 6.6.  he answers out of the Scriptures, out of the Prophet, Misericordiam volo, Mercy is better than sacrifice; and an Evangelical desire to do good upon sinners, better than a Legal inhibition to come near them. And Christ seems to have been so full of this saying of Ose, as that he says it here, where the Pharisees calumniate him to his disciples; and when they calumniate the disciples about the sabbath, he says it there too. He answers out of Scriptures, because they pretend a zeal to them; and then because the Pharisees were learned, and rational men, he answers out of Reason too, The whole have no need of the Physician: I come in the quality of a Physician, and therefore apply myself to the sick. For, we read of many blind and lame, and deaf and dumb, and dead persons, that came or were brought to Christ to be recovered; but we never read of any man, who being then in a good state of health, came to Christ to desire that he might be preserved in that state: The whole never think of a Physician; and therefore Christ, who came in that quality, applied himself to them that needed. And that he might give full satisfaction, even to Calumniators, every way, as he answered them out of Scriptures, and out of Reason; so because the Pharisees were Statesmen too, and led by Precedents and Records, he answers out of the tenor and letter of his Commission and Instructions, (which is that part of his answer that falls most directly into our Text) Veni vocare, I came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance.  
First then, venit, he came, he is come: venit actu; he came in promise, often ratified before: 
Venit Actu.  now there is no more room for John Baptist's question, Tune ille, Art thou he that should come, or must we look for another? For another coming of the same Messiah, we do look, but not for another Messiah; we look for none after him, no post-Messias; we join none, Saints nor Angels, with him, no sub-Messias, no vice-Messias. The Jews may as well call the history of the Flood Prophetical, and ask when the world shall be drowned according to that Prophecy; or the history of their deliverance from Babylon Prophetical, and ask when they shall return from thence to Jerusalem, according to that Prophecy, as seek for a Messiah now amongst their Prophets, so long after all things being performed in Christ, which were prophesied of the Messiah; Christ hath so fully made Prophecy History.  
Venit actu, He is really, personally, actually come; 
Venit sponte.  and then venit sponte, he is come freely, and of his own mere goodness: How freely? Come, and not sent? Yes, he was sent: God so loved the world, as that he gave his only begotten Son for it; There was enough done to magnify the mercy of the Father, in sending him. How freely then? Come and not brought? Yes, he was brought: The holy Ghost overshadowed the blessed virgin, and so he was conceived: there was enough done to magnify the goodness of the holy Ghost in bringing him. He came to his prison, he abhorred not the Virgin's womb; and not without a Mittimus; he was sent: He came to the Execution; and not without a desire of Reprieve, in his Transeat Calix, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; and yet venit sponte, he came freely, voluntarily, of his own goodness. No more than he could have been left out at the Creation, and the world made without him, could he have been sent into this world, without his own hand to the Warrant, or have been left out at the decree of his sending. As when he was come, no man could have taken away his soul, if he had not laid it down; so, (if we might so speak) no God, no person in the Trinity, could have sent him, if he had not been willing to come. Venit actu, he is come; there's our comfort: venit sponte, he came freely; there's his goodness. And so you have the Action, Venit, He came.  
The next is his Errand, his Purpose, what he came to do, 
Vocare.  Venit vocare, He came to call. It is not vocatus, That Christ came, when we called upon him to come: Man had no power, no will, no not a faculty to wish that Christ would have come, 
Non occurrere.  till Christ did come, and call him. For, it is not Veni occurrere, That Christ came to meet them who were upon the way before: Man had no pre-disposition in Nature, to invite God to come to him. 
August.  Quid peto, ut venias in me, qui non essem si non esses in me? How should I pray at first, that God would come into me, when as I could not only not have the spirit of prayer, but not the spirit of life, and being, except God were in me already? Where was I, when Christ called me out of my Rags, nay out of my Ordure, and washed me in the Sacramental water of Baptism, and made me a Christian so? Where was I, when in the loins of my sinful parents, and in the unclean act of generation, Christ called me into the Covenant, and made me the child of Christian parents? Can I call upon him, to do either of these for me? Or if I may seem to have made any step towards Baptism, because I was within the Covenant; or towards the Covenant, because I was of Christian parents: yet where was I, when God called me, when I was not, as though I had been, in the Eternal Decree of my Election? What said I for myself, or what said any other for me then, when neither I, nor they had any being? God is found of them that sought him not: Non venit occurrere, He came not to meet them who were, of themselves, set out before.  

Non Cogere.  But then, non venit cogere, He came not to force and compel them, who would not be brought into the way: Christ saves no man against his will. There is a word crept into the later School, that deludes many a man; they call it Irresistibility; and they would have it mean, that when God would have a man, he will lay hold upon him, by such a power of grace, as no perverseness of that man, can possibly resist. There is some truth in the thing, soberly understood: for the grace of God is more powerful than any resistance of any man or devil. But leave the word, where it was hatched, in the School, and bring it not home, not into practice: for he that stays his conversion upon that, God, at one time or other, will lay hold upon me by such a power of Grace, as I shall not be able to resist, may stay, till Christ come again, to preach to the spirits that are in prison. 
1 Pet. 3.19.  Christ beats his Drum, but he does not Press men; Christ is served with Voluntaries. There is a Compelle intrare, 
Luk. 14.23.  A forcing of men to come in, and fill the house, and furnish the supper: but that was an extraordinary commission, and in a case of Necessity: Our ordinary commission is, Ite, praedicate; Go, and preach the Gospel, and bring men in so: it is not, Compelle intrare, Force men to come in: it is not, Draw the Sword, kindle the Fire, wind up the Rack: for, when it was come to that, 
Mat. 22.10.  that men were forced to come in, (as that Parabolical story is reported in this Evangelist) the house was filled, and the supper was furnished, (the Church was filled, and the Communion-table frequented) but it was with good and bad too: for men that are forced to come hither, they are not much the better in themselves, nor we much the better assured of their Religion, for that: Force and violence, pecuniary and bloody Laws, are not the right way to bring men to Religion, in cases where there is nothing in consideration, but Religion merely. 'Tis true, there is a Compellite Manere, that hath all justice in it; when men have been baptised, and bred in a Church, and embraced the profession of a Religion, so as that their allegiance is complicated with their Religion, than it is proper by such Laws to compel them to remain and continue in that Religion; for in the Apostasy, and Defection of such men, the State hath a detriment, as well as the Church; and therefore the temporal sword may be drawn as well as the spiritual; which is the case between those of the Romish persuasion, and us: their Laws work directly upon our Religion; they draw blood merely for that, ours work directly upon their allegiance, and punish only where pretence of Religion colours a Defection in allegiance. But Christ's end being merely spiritual, to constitute a Church, Non venit Occurrere, as he came not to meet man, man was not so forward; so he came not to compel man, to deal upon any that was so backward; for, Venit vocare, He came to call.  
Now, this calling, implies a voice, as well as a Word; 
Veni vocare.  it is by the Word; but nor by the Word read at home, though that be a pious exercise; nor by the word submitted to private interpretation; but by the Word preached, according to his Ordinance, and under the Great Seal, of his blessing upon his Ordinance. So that preaching is this calling; and therefore, as if Christ do appear to any man, in the power of a miracle, or in a private inspiration, yet he appears but in weakness, as in an infancy, till he speak, till he bring a man to the hearing of his voice, in a settled Church, and in the Ordinance of preaching: so how long soever Christ have dwelled in any State, or any Church, if he grow speechless, he is departing; if there be a discontinuing, or slackening of preaching, there is a danger of losing Christ. Adam was not made in Paradise, but brought thither, called thither: the sons of Adam are not born in the Church, but called thither by Baptism; Non Nascimur sed renascimur Christiani; 
August.  No man is born a Christian, but called into that state by regeneration. And therefore, as the Consummation of our happiness is in that, that we shall be called at last, into the Kingdom of Glory, in the Venite Benedicti, Come ye blessed, and enter into your Master's joy: so is it a blessed Inchoation of that happiness, that we are called into the Kingdom of Grace, and made partakers of his Word and Sacraments, and other Ordinances by the way. And so you have his Action, and Errand, He came, and, came to call.  
The next, is the persons upon whom he works, whom he calls; 
Non Justos.  where we have first the Negative, the Exclusive, Non Justos, Not the righteous. In which, Grego: Nyssene, is so tender, 
G. Nyssen.  so compassionate, so loath, that this Negative should fall upon any man, that any man should be excluded from possibility of salvation, as that he carries it wholly upon Angels: Christ took not the nature of Angels, Christ came not to call Angels: But this Exclusion falls upon men; What men? upon the righteous: Who are they? We have two Expositions, both of Jesuits, both good; I mean the Expositions, not the Jesuits: they differ somewhat; for, though the Jesuits agree well enough, too well, in State-business, in Courts, (how Kings shall be deposed, and how massacred; how Kingdoms shall be deluded with Dispensations, and how invaded with Forces, they agree well enough) yet in Schools, and in Expositions, 
Maldonat. Mat. 18.12.  they differ, as well as others. The first, Maldonat, he says, That as in that parable, where Christ says, that the good shepherd left the ninety nine sheep, that had kept their pastures, and went to seek that one, which was strayed, he did not mean, that there is but one sheep of a hundred, that does go astray; but that if that were the case, he would go to seek that one: so when Christ says here, he came not to call the righteous, he does not mean that there were any righteous; but if the world were full of righteous men, so that he might make up the number of his Elect, and fill up the rooms of the fallen Angels, out of them; yet he would come to call sinners too. 
Barradas.  The other Jesuit Barradas, (not altogether Barrabas) he says, Christ said, Non Justos, Not the righteous, because if there had been any righteous, he needed not to have come: according to that of S. Aug. Si homo non periisset, 
August.  filius hominis non venisset; If Man had not fallen, and lain irrecoverably under that fall, the Son of God had not come to suffer the shame, and the pain of the Cross: so that they differ but in this; If there had been any righteous, Christ needed not to have come; and though there had been righteous men, yet he would have come; but in this, they, and all agree, 
Rom. 8.30.  that there were none righteous. None? Why, whom he predestinated, those he called; and were not they whom he predestinated, and elected to salvation, righteous? Even the Elect themselves have not a constant righteousness in this world: such a righteousness, as does always denominate them, so, as that they can always say to their own conscience, or so as the Church can always say of them, This is a righteous man: No, nor so, as that God, who looks upon a sinner with the eyes of the Church, and considers a sinner, with the heart and sense of the Church, and speaks of him with the tongue of the Church, can say of him, then, when he is under unrepented sin, This man is righteous: howsoever, if he look upon him, in that Decree which lies in his bosom, and by which he hath infallibly ordained him to salvation, he may say so. No man here, though Elect, hath an equal and constant righteousness; nay, no man hath any such righteousness of his own, as can save him; for howsoever it be made his, by that Application, or Imputation, yet the righteousness that saves him, is the very righteousness of Christ himself. 
Hilary.  S. Hilaries Question then, hath a full Answer, Erant quibus non erat necesse ut ventret? Were there any that needed not Christ's coming? No; there were none; who then are these righteous? we answer with S. Chrysost. and S. Hiero. and S. Ambrose, and all the stream of the Fathers; They are Justi sua Justitia, those who thought themselves righteous; those who relied upon their own righteousness; those who mistook their righteousness, as the Laodiceans did their riches; they said, They were rich, and had need of nothing; 
Apoc. 3.17.  and they were wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. So, these men, being ignorant of God's righteousness, 
Rom. 10.3.  and going about to establish a righteousness of their own, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God; that is, depend wholly upon the righteousness of Christ. He calls it Suam, their righteousness, because they thought they had a righteousness of their own; either in the faculties of Nature, or in the exaltation of those faculties by the help of the Law: And he calls it Suam, their righteousness, because they thought none had it but they. And upon this Pelagian righteousness, it thought Nature sufficient without Grace; or upon this righteousness of the Cathari, the Puritans in the Primitive Church, that thought the Grace which they had received sufficient, and that upon that stock they were safe, and become impeccable, and therefore left out of the Lords Prayer, that Petition, Dimitte nobis, Forgive us our trespasses; upon this Pelagian righteousness, and this Puritan righteousness, Christ does not work. He left out the righteous, not that there were any such, but such as thought themselves so; and he took in sinners, not all effectually, that were simply so, but such as the sense of their sins, and the miserable state that that occasioned, brought to an acknowledgement, that they were so; Non Justos, sed peccatores. 
Peccatores.   
Here then enters our Affirmative, our Inclusive, Who are called; peccatores: for here no man asks the Question of the former Branch: there we asked, Whether there were any righteous? and we found none; here we ask not whether there were any sinners, for we can find no others, no not one. He came to call sinners, and only sinners; that is, only in that capacity, in that contemplation, as they were sinners; for of that vain and frivolous opinion, that got in, and got hold in the later School, That Christ had come in the flesh, though Adam had stood in his innocence; That though Man had nor needed Christ as a Redeemer, yet he would have come to have given to man the greatest Dignity that Nature might possibly receive, which was to be united to the Divine Nature: of this Opinion, one of those Jesuits whom we named before, Maldonat, who oftentimes making his use of whole sentences of calvin's, says in the end, This is a good Exposition, but that he is an Heretic that makes it. He says also of this Opinion, That Christ had come, though Adam had stood; this is an ill Opinion, but that they are Catholics that have said it. He came for sinners; for sinners only; else he had not come: and then he came for all kind of sinners: 
Mat. 21.31.  for, upon those words of our Saviour's, to the High Priests and Pharisees, Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of Heaven before you, good Expositors note, that in those two Notations, Publicans and Harlots, many sorts of sinners are employed: in the name of Publicans, all such, as by their very profession and calling, are led into tentations, and occasions of sin, to which some Callings are naturally more exposed than other, such as can hardly be exercised without sin; and then in the Name of Harlots, and prostitute Women, such as cannot at all be exercised without sin; whose very profession is sin: and yet for these, for the worst of these, for all these, there is a voice gone out, Christ is come to call sinners, only sinners, all sinners. Comes he then thus for sinners? What an advantage had S. Paul then, to be of this Quorum, and the first of them; Quorum Ego Maximus, That when Christ came to save sinners, he should be the greatest sinner, the first in that Election? If we should live to see that acted, 
Mat. 24.41.  which Christ speaks of at the last day, Two in the field, the one taken, the other left, should we not wonder to see him that were left, lay hold upon him that were taken, and offer to go to Heaven before him, therefore, because he had killed more men in the field, or rob more men upon the Highway, or supplanted more in the Court, or oppressed more in the City? to make the multiplicity of his sins, his title to Heaven? Or, two women grinding at the Mill, one taken, the other left; to see her that was left, offer to precede the other into Heaven, therefore, because she had prostituted herself to more men, than the other had done? Is this S. Paul's Quorum, his Dignity, his Prudency; I must be saved, because I am the greatest sinner? God forbidden: God forbidden we should presume upon salvation, because we are sinners; or sin therefore, that we may be surer of salvation. S. Paul's title to Heaven, was, not that he was primus peccator, but primus Confessor, that he first accused himself, & came to a sense of his miserable estate; for that implies that which is our last word, and the effect of Christ's calling, That whomsoever he calls, or how, or whensoever, it is ad Resipiscentiam, 
Non ad satisfactionem.  to repentance. It is not ad satisfactionem, Christ does not come to call us, to make satisfaction to the justice of God: he called us to a heavy, to an impossible account, if he called us to that. If the death of Christ Jesus himself, be but a satisfaction for the punishment for my sins, (for nothing less than that could have made that satisfaction) what can a temporary Purgatory of days or hours do towards a satisfaction? And if the torments of Purgatory itself, sustained by myself, be nothing towards a satisfaction, what can an Evenings fast, or an Ave Marie, from my Executor, or my Assignee, after I am dead, do towards such a satisfaction? Canst thou satisfy the justice of God, for all that blood which thou hast drawn from his Son, in thy blasphemous Oaths and Execrations; or for all that blood of his, which thou hast spilt upon the ground, upon the Dunghill, in thy unworthy receiving the Sacrament? Canst thou satisfy his justice, for having made his Blessings the occasions, and the instruments of thy sins; or for the Dilapidations of his Temple, in having destroyed thine own body by thine incontinency, and making that, the same flesh with a Harlot? If he will contend with thee, 
Job 9.9.  thou canst not answer him one of a thousand: Nay, a thousand men could not answer one sin of one man.  
It is not then Ad satisfactionem; but it is not Ad gloriam neither. 
Non ad Gloriam.  Christ does not call us to an immediate possession of glory, without doing any thing between. Our Glorification was in his intention, as soon as our Election: in God who sees all things at once, both entered at once; but in the Execution of his Decrees here, God carries us by steps; he calls us to Repentance. The Farmers of this imaginary satisfaction, they that fell it at their own price, in their Indulgencies, have done well, to leave out this Repentance, both in this text in S. Matthew, and where the same is related by S. Mark. In both places, they tell us, that Christ came to call sinners, but they do not tell us to what; as though it might be enough to call them to their market, to buy their Indulgencies. The Holy Ghost tells us; it is to repentance: Are ye to learn now what that is? He that cannot define Repentance, he that cannot spell it, may have it; and he that hath written whole books, great Volumes of it, may be without it. In one word, (one word will not do it, but in two words) it is Aversio, and Conversio; it is a turning from our sins, and a returning to our God. It is both: for in our Age, in our Sickness, in any impotency towards a sin, in any satiety of a sin, we turn from our sin, but we turn not to God; we turn to a sinful delight in the memory of our sins, and a sinful desire that we might continue in them. So also in a storm at sea, in any imminent calamity, at land, we turn to God, to a Lord, Lord; but at the next calm, and at the next deliverance, we turn to our sin again. He only is the true Israelite, the true penitent, that hath Nathaniel's mark, In quo non est dolus, In whom there is no deceit: For, to sin, and think God sees it not, because we confess it not; to confess it as sin, and yet continue the practice of it; to discontinue the practice of it, and continue the possession of that, which was got by that sin; all this is deceit, and destroys, evacuates, annihilates all Repentance.  
To recollect all, and to end all: Christ justifies feasting; he feasts you with himself: And feasting in an Apostles house, in his own house; he feasts you often here: And he admits Publicans to this feast, men whose full and open life, in Court, must necessarily expose them, to many hazards of sin: and the Pharisees, our adversaries, calumniate us for this; they say we admit men too easily to the Sacrament; without confession, without contrition, without satisfaction. God in heaven knows we do not; less, much less than they. For Confession, we require public confession in the Congregation: And in time of Sickness, upon the deathbed, we enjoin private and particular Confession, if the conscience be oppressed: And if any man do think, that that which is necessary for him, upon his deathbed, is necessary, every time he comes to the Communion, and so come to such a confession, if any thing lie upon him, as often as he comes to the Communion, we blame not, we dissuade not, we dis-counsel not that tenderness of conscience, and that safe proceeding in that good soul. For Contrition, we require such a contrition as amounts to a full detestation of the sin, and a full resolution, not to relapse into that sin: and this they do not in the Roman Church, where they have souple and mollified their Contrition into an Attrition. For Satisfaction, we require such a satisfaction as Man can make to Man, in goods or fame: and for the satisfaction due to God, we require that every man, with a sober and modest, but yet with a confident and infallible assurance believe, the satisfaction given to God, by Christ, for all mankind, to have been given and accepted for him in particular. This Christ, with joy and thanksgiving we acknowledge to be come; to be come actually; we expect no other after him, we join no other to him: And come freely, without any necessity imposed by any above him, and without any invitation from us here: Come, not to meet us, who were not able to rise, without him; but yet not to force us, to save us against our wills, but come to call us, by his Ordinances in his Church; us, not as we pretend any righteousness of our own, but as we confess ourselves to be sinners, and sinners led by this call, to Repentance; which Repentance, is an everlasting Divorce from our beloved sin, and an everlasting Marriage and super-induction of our everliving God.   

A SERMON Preached at  April 2. 1620. 
Serm. 10.  SERMON X.  ECCLES. 5. 
There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the Sun: Riches reserved to the owners thereof, for their evil. And these riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and in his hand is nothing.  Ver. 12. & 13. in Edit. 1. In alia 13. & 14. 
THe kingdom of heaven is a feast; to get you a Stomach to that, we have preached abstinence. The kingdom of heaven is a treasure too, and to make you capable of that, we would bring you to a just valuation of this world. He that hath his hands full of dirt, cannot take up Amber; if they be full of Counters, he cannot take up gold. This is the Book, 
Hierm.  which St. Hierome chose to expound to Blesilla at Rome, when his purpose was to draw her to heaven, by making her to understand this world; It was the book fittest for that particular way: and it is the Book which St. Ambrose calls Bonum ad omnia magistrum; 
Ambros.  A good Master to correct us in this world, a good Master to direct us to the next. For though Solomon had asked at God's hand, only the wisdom fit for Government, yet since he had bend his wishes, upon so good a thing as wisdom, and in his wishes, even of the best thing, had been so moderate, God abounded in his grant, and gave him all kinds, Natural and Civil, and heavenly wisdom. And therefore when the Fathers and the latter Authors in the Roman Church, exercise their considerations, 
August.  whether Solomon were wiser, than Adam, than Moses, than the Prophets, than the Apostles, they needed not to have been so tender, as to except only the Virgin Mary, for though she had such a fullness of heavenly wisdom, as brought her to rest in his bosom, in heaven, who had rested in hers upon earth, yet she was never proposed for an example of natural, or of civil knowledge. Solomon was of all; and therefore St. Austin says of him; Prophetavit in omnibus Libris suis, Solomon prophesied in all his books; and though in this book his principal scope be moral, and practic wisdom, yet in this there are also mysteries, and prophecies, and many places concerning our eternal happiness, after this life.  
But because there is no third object for man's love. This world, and the next, are all that he can consider, as he hath but two eyes, so he hath but two objects, and then Primus actus voluntatis est Amor, 
Aquinas.  Man's love is never idle, it is ever directed upon something, if our love might be drawn from this world, Solomon thought it a direct way to convey it upon the next: And therefore consider Solomon's method, and wisdom in pursuing this way: because all the world together, hath amazing greatness, and an amazing glory in it, for the order and harmony, and continuance of it (for if a man have many Manors, he thinks himself a great Lord, and if a Man have many Lords under him, he is a great King, and if he have Kings under him, he is a great Emperor: and yet what profit were it, to get all the world and lose thy soul; Therefore Solomon shakes the world in pieces, he dissects it, and cuts it up before thee, that so thou mayest the better see, how poor a thing, that particular is, whatsoever it be, that thou sets thy love upon in this world. He threads a string of the best stones, of the best Jewels in this world, knowledge in the first Chapter, delicacies in the second, long life in the third, Ambition, Riches; Fame, strength in the rest, and then he shows you an Ice, a flaw, a cloud in all these stones? he lays this infamy upon them all, vanity, and vexation of spirit.  

Vanitas.  Which two words, vanity and vexation, because they go through all, to every thing Solomon applies one of them; they are the inseparable Laeven, that sowers all, and therefore are intended as well of this Text, as of the other text; we shall by the way make a little stop upon those two words, first how could the wisdom of Solomon and of the Holy Ghost, avile and abase this world more, then by this annihilating of it in the name of vanity, for what is that? It is not enough to receive a definition; it is so absolutely nothing, as that we cannot tell you, what it is. Let Saint Bernard do it; vanum est, quod nec confert plenitudinem continenti; for who amongst you hath not room for another bag, or amongst us for another benefice; nec fulcimentum innitentï, for who stands fast upon that, which is not fast itself? and the world passeth, and the lusts thereof; Nec fructum laboranti, for you have sown much, and bring in little, ye eat, but have not enough, ye drink but are not filled, ye are clothed, but wax not warm, 
Agg. 1.16.  and he that earneth wages, puts it into a bag with holes, midsummer runs out at Michalmas, and at years' end he hath nothing.  
And such a vanity is this world, lest it were not enough, to call it vanity alone, simply vanity, though that language in which Solomon, and the Holy Ghost spoke, have no degrees of comparison, no superlative, (they cannot say vanissimum, the greatest vanity,) yet Solomon hath sound a way to express the height of it, another way conformable to that language, when he calls it, vanitatem vanitatum, for so doth it; Canticum Canticorum; The Song of Songs, Deus Deorum, the God of gods, Dominus dominantium, The Lord of Lords; Coeli Coelorum, The Heaven of Heavens, always signify the superlative, and highest degree of those things; vanity of vanities is the deepest vanity, the emptiest vanity, the veriest vanity that can be conceived. Saint Augustin apprehended somewhat more in it, but upon a mistaking; 
Aug. Retract.  for accustoming himself to a Latin copy of the Scriptures, and so lighting upon copies, that had been miswritten, he reads that, vanitas vani antum: O the vanity of those men that delight in vanity; he puts this lowness, this annihilation not only in the thing, but in the Men themselves too. And so certainly he might safely do; (for though, as he says, in his Retractations, his Copies milled him,) yet that which he collected even by that error, was true, they that trust in vain things are as vain, as the things themselves. If Saint Augustin had not his warrant to say so from Solomon here, yet he had it from his Father before, who did not stop at that, when he had said Man is like to vanity, 
Psal. 144.4.39.5.  but proceeeds farther; surely that is without all contradiction every Man, that is without all exception; in his best state, that is, without any declination, is altogether vanity. Let no man grudge to acknowledge it of himself; The second man that ever was begot and born into this world, (and then there was world enough before him to make him great) and the first good man, had his name from vanity; Cain, the first man, had his name from possession; but the second, Habel, had his name from vacuity, from vanity, from vanishing; for it is the very word, that Solomon uses here still for vanity. Because his parents repose no confidence in Habel, for they thought that Cain was the Messiah, they called him vanity. Because God knew that Habel had no long term in this world, he directed them, he suffered them to call him vanity. But therefore principally was he and so may we, be content with the name of vanity, that so acknowledging ourselves to be but vanity, we may turn, for all our being, and all our well being, for our essence, and existence, and subsistence, upon God in whom only we live and move and have our being; for take us at our best, make every one an Abel, and yet that is but Evanescentia in nihilum, a vanishing, an evapourating. When the Prophets are said to speak the motions, 
Jer. 23.16.  and notions, the visions of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord, then because that was indeed nothing, (for a lie is nothing) they are said (in this very word) to speak vanity. And still, 
1 Cor. 8.4.  where the Prophets have that phrase, in the person of God, provocaverunt me vanitatibus, They have provoked God with their vanities, the Chaldee Paraphrase ever expresseth it, Idolis, with their Idols; and Idolum nihil est, an Idol, 
1 Cor. 8.4.  that is vanity, is nothing. Man therefore can have no deeper discouragement, from inclining to the things of this world, then to be taught that they are nothing, nor higher encouragement, to cleave to God for the next, then to know that himself is nothing too. This last of ourselves, is St. Paul's humility, 
2 Cor. 12.11. Esa. 40.15.  I am nothing; The first of other Creatures, is the Prophet Isaiahs' instruction, The nations are as a drop of the bucket, as the dust of the balance, the Isles are as a little dust: This was little enough; but, all nations are before him as nothing; that was much less; for the disproportion between the least thing, and nothing, is more infinite then between the least thing, and the whole world. But there is a diminution of that too, they are all less than nothing; and what's that, vanity; in that place, Nihilum, & in ane, and that's as low as Solomon carries them.  

Vexatio. Gen. 6.5.  But because all the imaginations of the thoughts of man's heart, are only evil continually, as Moses heightens the Corruption of man, and therefore men are not so much affrighted with this returning to nothing, for they could be content to vanish at last and turn to nothing, there appears no harm to them in that, that the world comes to nothing; what care they, when they have no more use of it? and there appears an ease to them, if their souls might come to nothing too; therefore Solomon calls this world not only nothing, vanity, but affliction, and vexation of spirit. Tell a natural voluptuous man, of two sorts of torments in hell, Poena damni, and Poena sensus, one of privation, he shall not see God, and the other of real Torments, he shall be actually tormented; the loss of the sight of God will not so much affect him, for he never saw him in his life; not in the marking of his grace, not in the glass of his creatures, and he thinks it will not much trouble him there to lack his sight, whom he never saw here; But when he comes to think of real Torments, he sees some examples of them here in this life upon himself. And if he have but the toothache, he will think, that if that were to last eternally, it were an unsufferable thing. And therefore Solomon affects us with that sensible addition, love not this world; why? It is vanity, it will come to nothing: I care not for that; I will love it, as long as it is something; do not so, for it is not only vanity, but affliction, vexation too. It will be nothing at last, it ends; but it is vexation too, that shall never end. The love of the world, is but a smoke, there's the vanity; but such a one, as putts out our eyes, there's the vexation; we do not see God here, we shall not see God hereafter.  
These two words then, 
Divisio.  as to all the other parts in Solomon's Anatomy, and cutting up of the world, so they do belong to that particular disposition, in this Text; This reserving of Riches to the owner, for his evil, and that which follows, is vanity, and vexation; But now we have passed that general consideration, there is thus much more to be considered. First an imputation laid upon the reserving, the gathering of Riches: though Riches be not in themselves ill, yet we are to be abstinent from an overstudious heaping of them, because naturally they are mingled with that danger, that they may be for the owners evil: And therefore because it may come to that, It is a sickness to gather Riches; and it is an evil sickness, for all sickness is not so: and it was no imaginary, but a true sickness, it was seen, it was under the sun; for that death itself, which is not seen, spiritual death in the torments of hell, is not so much thought of; this is seen; but it was the part of a wise man to see it, Solomon saw it, there is an evil sickness, that I have seen under the Sun: Riches reserved to the owners thereof, for their evil. And those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son; and in his hand is nothing.  
There follows a dangerous, and deadly Symptom of this sickness, that the riches perish. There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the Sun: Riches reserved to the owners thereof for their evil. And those Riches perish by evil travail: And he begetteth a son; and in his hand is nothing.  
But that will not fall into this exercise.  

Imputatio.  First then, the imputation that is generally laid upon riches, appears most in those difficulties, which in the Gospels are so often said to lie in the rich man's way to heaven: Particularly, where it is said to be, as hard for a rich man to enter into heaven, as for a Camel to pass a needle's eye; God can do this; but if a rich man shall stay for his salvation, till God do draw a Camel through a needle's eye, he may perchance stay, 
Epist. 160.7.1.  till all be served, and all the places of the Angels filled. St. Hierom made it not a proverb, but he found it one, and so he citys it, Dives, aut iniquus est, aut iniqui haeres: A rich man is dishonest himself, or, at least he succeeds a dishonest predecessor: Proverbs have their limits, and rules have exceptions; but yet the proverb, and the rule lays a shrewd imputation, ut plurimum, for the most part it is so. It is not always so; we have a better proverb, 
Prov. 22.4.  against that proverb, The reward of humility, and the fear of God is Riches, and glory, and life; If we were able to digest, and concoct these temporal things into good nourishment; Gods natural way is, and would be, to convey to us the testimony of his spiritual graces in outward and temporal benefits; as he did to the jews in abundance of wine, and honey, and milk, and oil, and the like. He had rather we wer● Rich, because we might advance his glory the more: At least they are equal: and any great measure of either, either of Riches, or of Poverty, are equal in their danger too. 
Bernard.  Et quae mulcent, et quae molestant, timeo; Poverty, as well as Riches, may put us from our Christian constancy; 
Prov. 30.  and therefore they are both prayed against, Divitias et paupertates ne dederis; How Riches are to be esteemed when they are compared with Poverty, is another question; but how compared with heaven, is no question: We may see that by the place from whence they are said to come.  
Christ is presented there in the person of wisdom; and there it is said, length of days, that is Eternity, in her right hand, and in her left hand Riches, and Glory: Nolite sitire sinistram; press not too much upon God's left hand for Riches here, 
Bernard.  lest that custom imprint a Bias in you, and turn you on the left hand here, and bring thee to God's left hand in heaven too. Briefly they have an imputation upon them, they have an ill name, as hindrances to the next life, and they have it also as Traitors to their Masters, That they are reserved to the hurt of their owners in this life; And then, if that Vae, be well placed, Woe be unto you, that are rich, for you have received your consolation, 
Luke 26.24.  what a woeful thing is it, to have received no consolation in them, but to have had harm here by them?  
To proceed then, riches may do harm to their owners. 
Owners.  It is no easy matter for a rich man, to find out the true owners of all his riches. Thou art not owner of all, that the right owner cannot recover of thee; that all that is his by law, should be his. Certainly no rich Man hath dealt much in this world, but he hath something, of which himself knows not the right owner, when he receives usury for his money, that interest is not his money, but when he receives usury again for that, there neither the interest, nor principal was his own money; he takes usury for that money of which himself was not the owner, because it was ill gotten: If thou do truly know the owner, restore it to him; if after a diligent examination of thyself, thou do not know the particular owner, yet thou knowest it is none of thine, and therefore give it him, whose it was at first; both before thou hadst it, and before he from whom thou gottest it corruptly, had it; give it to God, in giving it to his poor, and afflicted members; give it him, and give it willingly, and give it now, for that that thou givest at thy death thou dost but leave by thy last will, thou dost not give; he only gives that might keep, thou givest unwillingly; howsoever they have it, by thy will, yet it is against thy will that they have it, thou givest then, but art sorry, that they to whom thou givest, that which thou givest, came so soon to it. And then saepe infirmitatis servi efficimur, we become slaves to our last sickness often; 
Bernard.  oftentimes Apoplexies stupefy us and we are dull, and Fevers enrage us and we are mad; we are in a slavery to the disease, Et seruï non testantur, says the law, slaves have no power to make a Will; Testare Liber, 
Idem.  make thy Will, and make it to be thy Will, give it the effect, and execute thy Will whilst thou art a free man, in state of health; restore that which is not thine; for even that of which thou art true owner may be reserved to thy harm, much more that, 
Harm.  which is none of thine.  
Every man may find in himself, that he hath done some sins, which he would not have done, if he had not been so rich: for there goes some cost to the most sins; his wantonness in wealth makes him do some; his wealth hath given him a confidence, that that fault would not be looked into, or ●hat it would be bought out, if it were. Some sins we have done, because we are rich; but many more because we would be rich; And this is a spiritual harm, the riches do their owners. And for temporal harm, if it were hard to find in our own times, examples of men, which have incurred great displeasure, undergone heavy calamities, perished in unrecoverable shipwreck, all which they had escaped, if they had not been eminently, and enormously rich; we might in ancient history both profane and holy, find such precedents enough, as Naboth was; who if he had had no such vineyard, as lay convenient for so much greater a person, might have passed for an honest and religious Man to God, and a good subject to the King, without any indictment of blasphemy against either, and never have been stoned to death. 
1 Reg. 21.  The rich Merchant at Sea, is afraid that every fisherman is a Pirate, and the fisherman fears not him. And if we should survey the body of our penal Laws, whensoever the abuse of them, makes them snares and springes to entangle men, we should see that they were principally directed upon rich men; neither can rich men comfort themselves in it, that though they be subject to more storms then other men, yet they have better ground tackling, they are better able to ride it out then other men; for it goes more to the heart of that rich Merchant, which we spoke of, to cast his goods over board, than it does to the fisherman to lose his boat: 
Bernard. Idem.  and perchance his life. Sudat pauper foris; It is true the poor man's brow sweats without; Laborat intus dives, the rich man's heart bleeds within; and the poor man can sooner wipe his face, than the rich man his heart, Gravius fastidio, quam ille inedia cruciatur; the rich man is worse troubled to get a stomach, than the poor man to satisfy his: and his loathing of meat, is more wearisome, than the others desire of it. Summe up the diseases that voluptuousness by the ministry of riches imprints in the body; the battery that malice, by the provocation of riches, lays to the fortune; the sins that confidence in our riches; heaps upon our souls; and we shall see, that though riches be reserved to their owners, yet it is to their harm.  

Sickness.  As then the burden of that song in the furnace, where all creatures were called upon to bless the Lord, was still, praise the Lord, 
ver. 36.  and magnify him for ever; And as the burden of that Psalm of thanksgiving, where so many of God's miracles are recorded, is this, for his mercy endureth for ever; so the burden of Solomon's exclamation against worldly things, is still in all these Chapters, vanity, and vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit; so he adds thus much more to this particular distemper of reserving Riches, naturally disposed to do us harm. That it is a sickness; Mow, Sanitas naturalis; 
Bernard.  Nature abhors sickness, and therefore this is an unnatural desire. For whether we take this phrase of Solomon, for a Metaphor and comparison, that this desire of Riches, is like a sickness, that it hath the pains, and the discomforts, and the dangers of a sickness, or whether we take it literally, that it is a disordering, a discomposing, a distemper of the mind, and so truly, and really a sickness, and that this sickness induceth nothing but eternal death, nothing should make us more afraid than this sickness, (for, the root of all evil is the desire of money.) And then if it be truly a sickness all the way, and Morbus complicatus, (a dropsy, and a consumption too) we seem great, but it is but a swelling, for our soul is lean; what a sad condition will there be, when their last bodily sickness, and this spiritual sickness meet together; a sick body, & a sick soul, will be but ignorant Physicians, and miserable comforters to one another.  
It is a sickness, and an evil sickness; 
Evil.  & there is a weight added in that addition; for though all sickness have rationem mali, some degrees of the evil of punishment in it, yet sometimes the good purpose of God, in inflicting a sickness, and the good use of man, in mending by a sickness, overcome and weigh down that little dram, and washes away the pale tincture of evil, which is in it. There is a wholesome sickness, Et est sanitas, quae viaticum ad peccatum, health sometimes victuals us, 
Basil.  and fuels us, and arms us for a sin, and we do those sins, which, 
Bernard.  if we were sick, we could not do: And then, Mala sanitas carnis, quae ducit ad infirmitatem animae. It is an unwholesome health of the body, that occasions the sickness of the soul.  
It is true, that in bodily Sickness, Tua dimicant contra te arma. 
Bernard.  It is a uncomfortable war, when thou fightest against thyself; In ipso gemis, in quo peccasti, that that flesh in which thou hast sinned, comes to vex, and anguish thee; that thy body is become but a bottle of rheum: Thy Sinews but a bundle of thorns, and thy bones but a furnace of vehement ashes. But it thou canst hear God, as St. Augustin did. Ego novi unde aegrotes, Ego novi u●de saneris, I know thy disease, 
Augustin.  and I know thy cure. Gratia mea sufficit, my grace shall serve thy turn. Thou shalt come to that disposition of the Apostle too; Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, because when I am weak, 
2. Cor. 12.10.  then am I strong: when thou art come to an apprehension of thy own weakness, thou comest also to a recourse to him, in whom only is thy saving healthand recovery. But this Sickness of gathering those riches which are reserved for our evil, comes not to that; it comes to the Sickness, but not to the physic. In small diseases (saith St. Basil,) we go to the Physician's house; in greater diseases, we send for the Physician to our house; but in violent diseases, in the stupefaction of an Apoplexy, in the damp of a leturgy, in the furnace of a Pleurisy; we have no sense, no desire of a Physician at all. When this inordinate love of Riches gins in us, we have some tenderness of Conscience, and we consult with God's Ministers: After we admit the reprehensions of God's Ministers when they speak to our Consciences; but at last, the habit of our sin hath seared us up, and we never find that it is we, that the Preacher means; we find that he touches others, but not us. Our wit, and our malice is awake, but our conscience is asleep; we can make a Sermon a libel against others, and cannot find a Sermon in a Sermon, to ourselves. It is a sickness, and an evil sickness.  

Visibilis.  Now this is not such a sickness, as we have only read of, and no more. It concerns us not only so, as the memory of the sweat, of which we do rather wonder at the report, then consider the manner, or the remedies against it. Those divers plagues which God inflicted upon Pharaoh, for withholding his people. That devouring Pestilence, which God struck David's kingdom with for numbering his people. That destruction which God kindled in Sennacheribs army for oppressing his people. These, because God hath represented them, in so clear, and so true a glass as his word, we do in a manner see them. Things in other stories we do but hear; things in the Scriptures we see: The Scriptures are as a room wainscotted with looking-glass, we see all at once. But this evil sickness of reserving riches to our own evil, is plainer to be seen; because it is daily round about us, daily within us, & in our consciences, & experiences. There are sins, that are not evident, not easily discerned; & therefore David annexes a Schedule to his prayer after all, Ab occultis meis mundame, saith David. There are sins, which the difference of religion, makes a sin, or no sin; we know it to be a sin, to abstain from coming to Church, our adversaries are made believe it is a time to come. There are middle-men, that when our Church appoints coming, and receiving, and anoother Church forbids both, they will do half of both; they will come, and not receive: and so be friends with both. There are sins recorded in the Scriptures, in which it is hard, for any to find the name, & the nature, what the sin was; how doth the School vex itself, to find out what was the nature of the sin of the Angels, or what was the name, of the sin of Adam? There are actions recorded in the Scriptures, in which by God's subsequent punishment, there appears sin to have been committed, and yet to have considered the action alone, without the testimony of God's displeasure upon it; a natural man would not easily find out a sin. 
Numb. 22.  Balaam was solicited to come, and curse God's people; he refused, he consulted with God: God bids him go, but follow such instructions as he should give him after; And yet the wrath of God was kindled, because he went. 
Numb. 20.  Moses seems to have pursued God's commandment exactly, in drawing water out of the Rock, and yet God says, Because you believed me not, you shall not bring this congregation into that land of promise. There are sins hard to be seen, out of the nature of Man, because Man naturally is not watchful upon his particular actions, for if he were so, he would escape great sins; when we see sand, we are not much afraid of a stone; when a Man sees his small sins, there is not so much danger of great. But some sins we see not out of a natural blindness in ourselves, some we see not out of a natural dimness in the sin itself. But this sickly sin, this sinful sickness, of gathering Riches, is so obvious, so manifest to every man's apprehension, as that the books of Moral men, and Philosophers are as full of it as the Bible. But yet the Holy Ghost, (as he doth always, even in moral Counsels) exceeds the Philosophers; for whereas they place this sickness in gathering unnecessary riches injuriously; the Holy Ghost in this place extends i● further, to a reserving of those riches; that when we have sinned in the getting of them, we sin still in the not restoring of them. But to thee, who shouldest repent the ill getting; Veniet tempus, quo non dispensasse, poenetebit, there will come a time when thou shalt repent the having kept them: Hoc certum est, Ego sum sponsor, 
Basil.  of this I dare be the surety (saith St. Basil) But we can leave St, Basil out of the bond; we have a better surety and undertaker, the Holy Ghost in Solomon; So that this evil sickness may be easily seen, it is made manifest enough to us all, by precedent from God, by example of others, by experience in ourselves. 
Solomon.   
To see this then, is an easy, a natural thing; but to see it so, as to condemn it, and avoid it, this is a wiseman's slight; this was Solomon's slight. The wiseman seethe the plague, 
Psal. 50.18.  and shuneth it; therein consists the wisdom. But for the fool when he sees a thief, he runneth with him; when he sees others thrive by ill getting, and ill keeping, he runs with them, he takes the same course as they do. Beloved, It is not intended, that true and heavenly wisdom may not consist with riches: job, and the Patriarches abounded with both; And our pattern in this place, Solomon himself, saith of himself; That he was great, 
Eccles. 2.9.  and increased above all that were before him in jerusalem, and yet his wisdom remained with him. The poor man and the rich are in heaven together; and to show us how the rich should use the poor; Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom; The rich should secure and relieve, and defend the poor in their bosoms. But when our Saviour declares, a wisdom belonging to Riches, (as in the parable of the unjust Steward) he places not this wisdom, 
Luk. 16.  in the getting, nor in the holding of Riches, but only in the using of them; make you friends of your Riches, that they may receive you into everlasting habitations. There's no Simony in heaven, that a man can buy so much as a doorkeepers place in the Triumphant Church: There's no bribery there, to see Ushers for access; 
Gen. 28.  But God holds that ladder there, whose foot stands upon the earth here, and all those good works, which are put upon the lowest step of that Ladder here, that is, that are done in contemplation of him, they ascend to him, and descend again to us. Heaven and earth are as a musical Instrument; if you touch a string below, the motion goes to the top: any good done to Christ's poor members upon earth, affects him in heaven; And as he said, Quid me per sequeris. Saul Saul why, persecutest thou me? So he will say, Veni●e benedicti, pavistis me, visitastis me. This is the wisdom of their use; but the wisdom of their getting and keeping, is to see, that it is an evil sickness to get too laboriously, or to reserve too gripingly, things which tend naturally to the owners evil: For, therefore in that parable doth Christ call all their Riches generally, universally, Mammonas iniquitatis, Riches of iniquity, not that all that they had was ill got (that's not likely in so great a company) but that whatsoever, and howsoever they had got it, and were become true owners of it, yet they were Riches of iniquity; because that is one iniquity to possess much, and not distribute to the poor; and it is another iniquity to call those things riches, which are only temporal, and so to defraud heavenly graces, and spiritual treasure of that name, that belongs only to them; And the greatest iniquity of all is towards ourselves. To take those riches to our heart, which Christ calls the thorns that choke the good seeds; 
Mat. 13.22.  and the Apostles calls tentations, and snares, and foolish, and noisome lusts, which drown men in perdition, and in destruction, 
1. Tim. 6.9.  and which the wise man hath seen, and hath showed us here, to be reserved to the owners for their evil. To return to our beginning, & make an end; Heaven is a feast, and Heaven is a treasure: If ye prepare not for his feast, by being worthy guests at his table, if you embrace not his treasure, by being such Merchants as give all for his pearl; another feast, and another treasure are expressed, and heightened in two such words, as never any tongue of any Author, but the Holy Ghost himself spoke; Inebriabit absinthio, there's the feast, you shall be drunk with wormwood, you shall taste nothing but bitter affliction, and that shall make you reel, for you shall find in your affliction no rest for your souls. And for the treasure, Thesaurizabis iram dei; you shall treasure up wrath against the day of wrath; 
Rom. 2.5.  and this will be an exchequer ever open, and never exhausted. But use the creatures of God, as creatures, and not as God, with a confidence in them, and you shall find juge convivium, in a good conscience, and Thesauros absconditos, all the hid treasures of wisdom and knowledge; 
Col. 29.3.  you shall know how to be rich in this world by an honest getting of riches, and how to be rich in the next world by a christianly use of those riches here.   

THE SECOND SERMON Preached at   Upon ECCLES. 5.12, & 13. 
There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the Sun: Riches reserved to the owners thereof, for their evil. And these riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and in his hand is nothing.  
THat then which was intended in the former verse, That Riches were hurtful even to the owners, St. Augustin hath well and fully expressed, 
Aug. in Psal. 131.  Eris proeda hominum, qui jam es diaboli; The devil hath preyed upon thee already, by knowing what thou wouldst have, and great Men will pray upon thee hereafter, by knowing what thou hast. But because the rich man thinks himself hard enough for both, for the devil, and for great men, if he may keep his riches; therefore here is that, which seems to him a greater calamity inflicted; first, his riches shall perish; 
Divisio.  and secondly those riches, those which he hath laboured and travailed for; And thirdly, they shall perish in travail, and labour, and affliction. And then not only all his present comfort shall perish, but that which was his future hope: The son, which he hath begot, shall have nothing in his hand.  

2 Part. Perish. Prov. 28.8.  He that increaseth his riches by usury and interest, gathereth them for him that will be merciful to the poor, says Solomon. Is there a discomfort in this? There is. It is presented there for an affliction, and vexation to a rich Man, to be told, that his money shall be employed in any other way, not only then he gathered it for, but then he gathered it by. It would grieve him to know, that his heir would purchase land, or buy an office with his money; for all other means of profit then himself hath tried, he esteems unthriftiness, casual, and hazardous; difference of seasons may change the value of his land, affections of Men may change the value of an office; but whether the year be good or bad, a year it must be, and nothing can lengthen, or shorten his two harvests in the year, from six months to six. Always, but his own, displease him in his heir; but if his heir will be giving to the poor (as Solomon says) then here are two mischiefs met together, that he could never abide the poor, and giving; and therefore such a contemplation is a double vexation to him; but much more must it be so, to hear that his riches shall perish; that they shall come to nothing, for though, if we consider it aright, it is truly all one, whether a covetous man's wealth do perish, or no, for so much, as he hoards up, and hides, and puts to no use; it is all one whether that thousand pound be in his chest or no, if he never see it, yet since he hath made his gold his God, he hath so much devilish Religion in him as to be loath that his God should perish. And this, that is threatened here is an absolute perishing, an absolute annihilation; It is the same word, by which David expresses the abolition, and perishing of the wicked. The way of the wicked shall perish; 
Psal. 1.6.  and which Moses repeats with vehemency twice together pereunao peribitis; I pronounce unto you this day you shall surly perish. So Judas, 
Deut. 30.18  and his money perished. The money that Judas had taken; he was weary of keeping it, and they who had given it, would none of it neither. Se primum mulctavit pecunia, deinde vita. 
Aug.  First he fined himself, and then he hanged himself; first he cast back the money, and then he cast himself headlong and burst: often times the money perishes, and the man too: yea it is not here only that they shall perish, in the future; that were a repreive; it were a stalling of a debt; but (as both our Translations have it) they do perish, they are always melting; yea as the Original hath it, vadit et periit, They are already perished, they were born dead; ill gotten riches, bring with them from the beginning a Contagion that works upon themselves, and their Masters.  
The riches shall perish, though they be his, though his title to them be good, if he put his trust in them; And those riches, those which he hath got by his travail, Those which he hath reserved by his parsimony, and frugality. There is sometimes a greater reverence in us, towards our ancient inheritance towards those goods, which are devolved upon us, by succession; There is another affection expressed towards those things, which dying friends have left us, for they preserve their memories; another towards Jewels, or other Testimonies of an acceptation of our services from the Prince: but still we love those things most, which we have got with our own labour, and industrey. When a man comes to say with Jacob, 
Gen. 32.10.  with my staff came I over jordan, & now have I gotten two bands, with this staff came I to London, with this staff came I to Court, and now am thus and thus increased, a man loves those addisions, which his own Industry hath made to his fortune. There are some ungrateful Natures that love other men the worse, for having bound them by benefits, and good turns to them: but that were a new ingratitude, not to be thankful to ourselves, not to love those things, which we ourselves have compassed. We have our reason to do so, in our great example, Christ Jesus, who loves us most, as we are his purchase, as he hath bought us with his blood; And therefore, though he hath expressed a love too, to the Angels, in their confirmation, yet he cannot be said to love the Angels, as he doth us, because his death hath wrought nothing upon them, which were fallen before; and for us, so he came principally to save sinners: the whole body and band of Angels, are not his purchase, as all mankind is. This affection is in worldly men too; they love their own get; and those shall perish. They have given their pleasant things for meat, 
Chron. 1.11.  to refresh their souls: whatsoever they placed their heart upon, whatsoever they delighted in most, whatsoever they were loath to part withal, it shall perish; and the measure of their love to it and the desire of it shall be the measure of God's judgement upon it; that which they love most, shall perish first.  

In occupatione.  Those riches then, those best beloved riches shall perish, and that, saith the text, by evil travail,; which is a word, that in the original signifies both Occupationem, Negotiationem, labour and Travail, and afflictionem, vexationem; affliction, and vexation: They shall perish in occupatione, then when thou art labouring, and travailing in thy calling, then when thou art harkening after a purchase, and a bargain, then when thy neighbours can impute no negligence, thou wast not negligent in gathering, nay no vice to thee, thou wast not dissolute in scattering, then when thou risest early, liest down late, and eatest the bread of sorrow, then shalt thou find, not only that that prospers not, which thou goest about, and pretendest to, but that that which thou hadst before, decays, and molders away. If we consider well in what abundance God satisfied the children of Israel with Quails, and how that ended, we shall see example enough of this: You shall eat, saith God, 
Num. 11.19.  not one nor two days, nor five, nor ten, nor twenty, but a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and be loathsome unto you; here was the promise, and it was performed for the plenty, 
ver. 31.  that quails fell a day's journey round about the Camp, and they were two cubits thick upon the earth; The people fell to their labour, and they arose, and gathered all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, saith the Text; 
32.  and he that gathered least, gathered ten Gomers full; But as the promise was performed in the plenty, so it was in the course too; whilst the flesh was yet between theïr teeth before it was chewed, even the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and he smote them with an exceeding great plague. 
ver. 33.  Even whilst your money is under your fingers, whilst it is in your purposes determined, and digested for such, and such a purpose, whilst you have put it in a ship in Merchandise, to win more to it; whilst you have sowed it in the land of borrowers, to multiply, and grow upon Mortgages, and usury, even when you are in the midst of your travail, storms at Sea, thiefs at land, enviers at court, informations at Westminster, whilst the meat is in your mouths, shall cast the wrath of God upon your riches, and they shall perish, In occupatione, then, when you travail to increase them. The Children of Israel are said in that place, only to have wept to Moses, out of a lust, and a grief, for want of flesh. God punished not that weeping; it is a tenderness, a disposition, that God loves; but a weeping for worldly things, and things not necessary to them (for Manna might have served them) a weeping for not having, or for losing such things of this world, is always accompanied with a murmuring; God shall cause thy riches to perish in thy travail, not because he denies thee riches, nor because he would not have thee travail, but because an inordinate love, an overstudious, and an intemperate,, and overlaborious pursuit of riches, is always accompanied with a diffidence, in God's providence, and a confidence in our own riches.  
To give the wicked a better sense of this, God proceeds often the same way, with the righteous too; but with the wicked, because they do with the righteous, lest they should trust in their own riches. We see in jobs case, It was not only his Sons, and daughters, who were banqueting, nor only his asses, and sheep, and camels that were feeding, that were destroyed; but upon his Oxen, that were ploughing, upon his servants, which were doing rheir particular duties, the Sabaeans came, and destruction in their sword; His Oxen, and his servants perished, in occupatione, in their labour, in their travail, when they were doing that, which they should do. And if God do thus to his children, to humble them beforehand, that they do not sacrifice to their own nets, not trust in their own industry, nor in their own riches, how much more vehemently shall his judgements burn upon them, whose purpose in gathering Riches, was pricipally, that they might stand of themselves, and not need God. There are beasts that labour not, but yet furnish us, with their wool alive, and with their flesh, when they are dead; as sheep; there are men, that desire riches, and though they do no other good, they are content to keep good houses, and that their Heir should do so, when they are dead; There are beasts that labour, and are meat at their death, but yield no other help in their life, and these are Oxen; there are men that labour to be rich, and do no good with it, till their death; There are beasts that only labour, and yield nothing else in life, nor death, as horses: and there are some, that do neither, but only prey upon others, as Lions, and others such; we need not apply particularly; there are all bestial natures in rich men; and God knows how to meet with them all; and much more will he punish them, which do no good, in life, nor death, nay that labour not for their riches, but surfeit upon the sweat of other men, since even the riches of those, that trust in riches, shall perish in Occupatione, in the very labour, and in the very travail, which (if it were not done with a confidence in the riches, when they, are got,) were allowable, and acceptable to God.  
You may have a good Emblem of such a rich man, whose riches perish in his travail, if you take into your memory, and thoughts, a Sponge that is overfilled; If you press it down with your little finger, the water comes out of it; Nay, if you lift it up, there comes water out of it; If you remove it out of his place, though to the right hand as well as to the left, it pours out water; Nay if it lie still quiet in his place, yet it wets the place, and drops out his moisture. Such is an over-full, and spongy covetous person: he must pour out, as well as he hath sucked in; if the least weight of disgrace, or danger lie upon him, he bleeds out his money; Nay, if he be raised up, if he be preferred, he hath no way to it, but by money, and he shall be raised, whether he will or no, for it. If he be stirred from one place to another, if he be suffered to settle where he is, and would be, still these two incommodities lie upon him; that he is loathest to part with his money, of any thing, and yet he can do nothing without it. He labours for riches, and still he is but a bag, for other men: Pereunt in occupatione, as fast as he gather by labour, God raises some occasion of drawing them from him again, It is not then with Riches in a family, as it is with a nail in a wall, that the hard beating of it in, makes it the faster. It is not the hard and laborious getting of money, the fixing of that in a strong wall, the laying it upon lands, and such things as are vulgarly distinguished from moveables, (as though the world, and we were not moveables) nor the beating that nail hard, the binding it with Entails, of Iron, and Adamant, and perpetuities of eternity, that makes riches permanent, and sure; but it is the good purpose in the getting, and the good use in the having. And this good use is not, when thou makest good use of thy Money, but when the Commonwealth, where God hath given thee thy station, makes use of it: The Commonwealth must suck upon it, by trade, not it upon the Commonwealth, by usury. Nurses that give such to children, maintaint hemselves by it too; but both must be done; thou must be enriched so, by thy money, as that the state be not impoverished. This is the good use in having it; and the good purpose in getting it, is, that God may be glorified in it; some errors in using of Riches, are not so dangerous; for some employing of them in excesses, and superfluities, this is a rust, without, it will be filled of with good counsel, or it will be worn of in time; in time we come to see the vanity of it: and when we leave looking at other men's , or thinking them the better men for their , why should we think, that others like us the better for our ; those desires will decay in us. But an ill purpose in getting of them, that we might stand of ourselves, and rely upon our Riches, this is a rust, a cancer at the heart, and is incurable. And therefore, if as the course, and progress of money hath been in the world from the beginning. (The observation is St. Augustins, but it is obvious to every man acquainted with history.) That first the world used Iron money, and then Silver money, and last of all, Gold; If thy first purpose in getting, have been for Iron, (that thou have intended thy money to be thy strength, and defence in all calamities.) And then for silver (to provide thee abundance, and ornaments, and excesses.) And then for gold, to hoard, and treasure up in a little room. 
Rom. 2.5.  Thesaurisasti iram. Thou hast treasured up the anger of God, against the day of anger.  
Go the same way still; account Riches Iron, (naturally apt to receive those rusts which we spoke of, in getting, and using) account them silver, (naturally intended to provide thee of things necessary) but at last come to account them gold, naturally disposed to make thee a treasure in heaven, in the right use of them.  
This is the true value of them; and except thou value them thus, Nisi Dominus edificaverit insi Dominius custodierit. 
Psal. 127.  Except the Lord build, except the Lord watch, the house, and city perish; so except the Lord and his glory, be in thy travail, it is not said thou shalt not get by thy travail. Sed pereunt in occupatione. Even in the midst of thy travail, that which thou gettest, shall perish.  
And then that which makes this loss the more insupportable is, (as we noted the words to signify too) pereunt in afflictione, they shall perish then, when thou art in affliction, and shouldst have most use of them, most benefit by them, most content in them. If the disfavour of great persons lie heavy upon me abroad, mihi plaudo domi, I may have health, and wealth, and I can enjoy those at home, and make myself happy in them; if I have not all that, but that sickness lie heavy upon me, yet gold is cordial: that can provide all helps, that may be had, for my recovery, and it gives me that comfort to my mind, ●hat I shall lack no attendance, no means of reparation. But if I suffer, under the judgement of the Law, under the anger of the Prince, under the vehemency of sickness, and then hear, that I am begged for, some offence, hear of fines, and confiscations, and extents, hear of tempests and shipwrecks, hear of men's breaking, in whose hands my estate was, This is the wrath of God's anger, in this signifigation o● the word, percunt in afflictione. Those riches perish then, when nothing, but they, could be of use to thee.  

Mala.  And all this hath one step lower yet, They perish in evil Travail, and in evil affliction. Now travail, did not begin in that curse, In Sudore vultus; for Adam was appointed to dress paradise, and to keep paradise before; and that implied a travail. But than became his travail to be evil travail, when seeing that he could not get bread without travail; still that refreshed to him the guiltiness of that sin, which had dejected him, to that misery. Then doth the rich Man see, That his riches perish by evil travail, when he calls himself to account, and finds that he trusted wholly to his own travail, and not to the blessings of God. So also every affliction is not evil: it is rather evil to have none; if ye be without correction, you are bastards, and not sons. God's own and only essential Son, Christ Jesus, suffered most; and his adopted sons, must fulfil his sufferings in their flesh, we are born Gods sons, and heirs, in his purpose at first; and we are declared to be so, in our second birth of Baptism, but yet we are not come to years, not come to a trial, how we can govern ourselves, till we suffer afflictions, but then doth this affliction become evil, when that which God intended for physic, we turn into poison: when God hearkens after this affliction, to hear what voice it produces, and when he looks for repentance, he hears a murmuring, and repining, when he bends down his ear, for a Tibi peccavi, he hears a Quare non mortuus? Why died I not in my birth? 
job. 3.11. Act. 7. Jam. 3.64.  When he hearkens after: a domine ne statuas, Lord lay not this sin to their charge, a prayer for our persecutors, he hears a Red eyes vicem, Give them a recompense O Lord, according to their work, Give them a sorrow of heart, thy curse to them; as it is there,) (though there, not by way of murmuring, but by way of foresight, and Prophesy, that God would do so.) But to end this part, then when the Rich man can make no good use of his affliction, when he finds, Nullam ansam, no handle in it, to take hold of God by, when he can find no comfort in the next world, he shall lose all here too. And his Riches, Those Riches, which his labour hath made dear unto him, shall not only be taken from him, and he put to his recovery, but they shall perish, and they shall perish in the midst of those labours, which are evil, and eat him up, and macerate him. And they shall perish in these afflictions which are evil too, which shall not work, nor conduce to his good.  
We come now to the second part: 
2. Part.  which respects more the future; He begotteth a Son; first that may seem to give him some ease; every body desires it. And secondly, It may seem to give him some excuse of his gathering, because having children, he was bound to provide for them. But such is God's indignation for the getting of Riches with a confidence in them, that he loses all, all comfort in his Son, all excuse in himself, for in the hands of his Son shall be nothing. First then, for the having of children, and the testimony of God's love in that blessing, this diminishes Nothing, the honour due to the first chastity, the chastity of virginity. There is a chastity in Marriage: But the chastity of virginity, is the proper, and principal chastity. Barcenus, amongst the jews was an ignominious thing; but it was considered only in them which did marry, and were barren: God hath given us Marriage for Physic; but it is an unwholesome wantonness to take Physic before we need it: Marriage, In God's institution at first, had but two ends; In prolem, and in adjutorium; After man was fallen sick, than another was added, In remedium. Marriage is properly according to God's institution, when all these concur: where none do it is scarce a Marriage. When we have taken the Physic, yet we are not come to the state of strength, and health, which is intended in Marriage, 
Psal. 12.7.3.  till we have Children to be the staff of our age; Behold Children are the inheritance of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb his reward; He gives Marriage for Physic; but Children are a real blessing, in itself, and reserved to him. And therefore, when God hath given us that use of Marriage, (we are married) he is at an end of his Physic; he doth not appoint us to take Physic again for children: he does not forbid us to take physic, to preserve our bodies in a good, and healthy costitution; but drugs, and broths, and baths, purposely for children, come not out of his shop; they are not his ingredients. It is his own work, the gift of children: And therefore when Rachel came to say to Jacob; 
Gen. 30.1.  Give me children, or else I die, jacob's anger was kindled against her, Anne ego pro Deo: Am I a God to do this. And therefore it is not inconveniently noted, that as the first man Cain, was called Acquisitus a domino, he was possessed from the Lord; so after, so very many names in the Scriptures, held that way of testifying the gift to come from God, that as Samuel, which is, postulatus a deo, so all the names that have that termination, El, have such a signification in them; And so in the declining of the Jews state, Matheus, is Domini Dei, and Johanes, is gratia Dei; and in the beginning of the Christian Church, every where they abounded with, Deo date, Deus dedit, & quod vult Deus, and such names, as were acknowledgements, that children were the immediate gift of God. 
Gen. 15.1.  And therefore when God said to Abraham; I will be thine exceeding great reward, and Abraham said, O Lord God what wilt thou give me, seeing I am childless? God comes to particulars with him first in that, that he would give him children: And therefore, as to all men, so to this rich man; in our text, it may be naturally admitted for a comfort, that he had a Son.  
Now as it was a just comfort, to have children, so it was a just excuse, 
1. Tim. 5.8.  a just encouragement to provide for them; If there be any that provideth not for his own, he denieth the faith; (that is, in his actions, and works of faith,) and he is worse than an Infidel; for Infidels do provide for their own. Christianismi famam negligit, 
Chrysost.  he betrays the honour, and dignity of the Christian Religion; if he neglect his children, and he hath opened a large gate of Scandal to the Gentiles. And therefore saith St. Augustin, quicunque vult: Whosoever will disinherit his Sons, 
Augu.  though it be upon pretext of doing good service, by building, or endowing a Church, or making the Church his heir. Quaerat alterum qui suscipiat, non Augustinum Immo, deo propitio, neminem inveniet: Let him find another that will accept his offer; for Augustin will not; nor, by God's grace any other. 
Hier. epist. 47.  The tye, the obligation of providing for our Children, binds us strictly; for it is, secunda, post Deum faederatio; next to the band of Religion, next to our service to God, our first duty is to provide for them.  

Chrysost.  But yet, Dic obsecro, cum liberos a Deo petiisti; when thou didst pray to God to give thee Children, didst thou add this clause to thy prayer, Da liberos, give me Children, that I may thereby have an excuse, of my covetousness, of my breach of thy Commandment, of my profaning thy Sabaths, of my usury, of my perjury; was this in thy prayer, saith he. If it were, the Child shall surely die, as Nathan said to David: God will panish thee, in taking those children from thee, ●hich were the colours of thy sin: 
Eccles. 40.13.  The children of the ungodly, shall not obtain many branches; not extend to many generations; If they do, if his children be in great number, the sword shall destroy them; His remnant shall be buried in death, and his widows shall not weep. Howsoever, as the words of the text stand, 
job. 27.14.  the Holy Ghost hath left us at our liberty, to observe one degree of misery more in this corrupt man. That he is said, to have begot his Son, after those Riches are perished. He had a discomfort in evil travail, and in evil affliction before; he hath another now, that when all is gone, than he hath children, the foresight of whose misery must needs be a continual affliction unto him. 
Augustin.  For St. Augustin reports it, not as a leading Case, likely to be followed, but as a singular Case, likely to stand alone; that when a rich man, who had no child, nor hope of any, had given his Estate to Auretius Bishop of Carthage, and after, beyond all expectation came to have children, that good Bishop unconstrained by any law, or intent in the donor, gave him back his Estate again. God, when he will punish ill getting, will take to himself that which was robbed from him, and then, if he give Children, he will not be bound to restitution.  
But if this rich man have his riches, and his Son together, the Son may have come from God, and the riches from the devil, and God will not join them together. Howsoever, he may in his mercy provide for the son otherwise, yet he will not make him heir of his father's estate. The substance of the ungodly shall be dried up like a river; 
Eccles. 40.  and they shall make a sound like a thunder, in rain. It shall perish, and it shall be in Parabolam, it shall be the wonder, and the discourse of the time. If they be not wasted in his own time, yet he shall be an ill, but a true prophet upon himself; he shall have impressions, and sensible apprehensions of a future waist, as soon, as he is gone: he shall hear, or he shall whisper to himself that voice: O fool, This night they will fetch away thy soul; he must go under the imputation of a fool, where the wisdom of this generation, (which was all the wisdom he had, 
Luk. 12.20. ) will do him no good; he must go like a fool. His soul must be fetched away; he hath not his, In manus tuas, his willing surrender of his soul ready; It must be fetched in the night of ignorance, when he knows not his own spiritual state; It must be fetched in the night of darkness, in the night of solitude, no sense of the assistance of the communion of Saints in the Triumphant, nor in the Militant Church; in the night of disconsolatenes; no comfort in that sea. Absolution, which by by the power committed to them, God's Ministers came to the penitent, In the name of the Father, the Son, & the holy Ghost; and it must be fetched this night, the night is already upon him, before he thought of it. All this, that the soul of this fool, shall be fetched away this night, is presented for certain, and inevitable; all this admits no question; but the, Qua perasti, cujus erunt, there's the doubt; Then, whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? If he say, they shall be his Sons, God saith here, In his hand shall be nothing; for, though God may spare him, that his riches be not perished before his death, though God have not discovered his iniquity, by that manner of punishment, yet, Quod in radice celatur, in ramis declara●ur; God will show that in the bough which was hid in the root, the iniquity of the father in the penury of the son. And therefore, To conclude all, since riches are naturally conditioned so, as that they are to the owner's harm, either testimonies of his former hard dealing in the world, or tentation to future sins, or provocations to other men's malice, since that though, thou may have repent the ill getting of those riches, yet, thou mayest have omitted restitution, and so there hovers an invisible owner over thy riches, which may carry them away at last, since though, thou mayest have repent, and restored, and possess thy riches, that are left, with a good Conscience; yet as we said before, from nathan's mouth, the Child may die, God, that hath many ways of expressing his mercies, may take this one way of expressing his judgement, that yet thy son shall have nothing of all that in his hand, put something else into his hand; put a book, put a sword, put a ship, put a plough, put a trade, put a course of life, a calling, into his hand; And put something into his head, the wisdom, and discretion, and understanding of a serpent, necessary for those courses, and callings. But principally, put something into his heart, a religious fear, and reverence of his Maker; a religious apprehension, and application of his Saviour, a religious sense, and acceptation of the comforts of the Holy Spirit; that so, if he feel, that for his father's hard dealing, God hath removed the possession from him, he doth not doubt therefore of God's mercy to his father, nor dishonour his father's memory, but behave himself so in his course, as that the like judgement may not fall upon his son; but that his riches increasing, by his good travail, they may still remain in the hands of his son, whom he hath begotten.   

A 
Serm. 11.  SERMON PREACHED AT GREENWICH April 30. 1615. SERM. XI.  Esay 52.3. 
Ye have sold yourselves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money.  
IT is evident in itself, and agreed by all, that this is a prophecy of a deliverance; but from what calamity it is a deliverance, or when this prophecy was accomplished, is not so evident, nor so constantly agreed upon. All the expositions may well be reduced to three; first, that it is a deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, and then the benefit appertains only to the Jews, and their deliverer, and Redeemer is Cyrus; Secondly, that it is a deliverance from persecutions in the primitive Church, and so it appertains only to Christians, and their Redeemer, from those persecutions is Constantine; And thirdly that it is a deliverance from the sting and bondage of death by sin; and so it appertains to the whole world, and the Redeemer of the whole world is Christ Jesus: For the first, since both the Chaldee Paraphrase, and the Jewish Rabbins themselves, do interpret this to be a prophecy of the Messiah, because they labour ever more, as strongly as they can, to wring our weapons out of our hands, and to take from us, many of those arguments, which we take from the Prophets, for the proof of the Messiah: it concerns us therefore to hold fast, as much as they grant us, and not to interpret this place of a temporal deliverance from Babylon, but of the deliverance by the Messiah. And for the second, which is the deliverance of the christians, from the persecutions in the primitive times, though the Christians did then with a holy cheerfulness suffer those persecutions, when they could not avoid them, without prevaricating, and betraying the hour of Christ Jesus, yet they did not wilfully thrust themselves into those dangers, they did not provoke the Magistrate; And the word which is here translated, ye sold yourselves, vendictistis vos, implies actionem spontaneam, a free and voluntary action, done by themselves, and therefore cannot well be understood of the persecutions in the Primitive Church. The third therefore, as yet is the most useful, and most received, so it is the most proper acceptation of the word, that it is a deliverance from the bondage of sin, to be wrought by Christ: for as Saint Hierome says, this Prophet Esay, is rather an Evangelist, than a Prophet, because almost all that Christ did, and said, and suffered, is foretold, and prophetically antedated in his prophecy, and almost all his prophecy hath some relation (at least in a secondary sense of accommodation, (where it is not so primarily) and literally) to the words and actions, and passions of Christ.  
Following then this interpretation in general of the word, that it is a deliverance from the wages of sin, Death, by Christ we may take, in passing a short view, of the miserable condition of man, wherein he enwraped himself, & of the abundant mercy of Christ Jesus in withdrawing him from that universal calamity, by considering only the sense, and largeness, and extension of those words, in which the holy Ghost hath been pleased to express both these in this Text. For first, the word in which our action is expressed, which is Machar verdidistis, ye have sold, signifies in many places of Scripture, dare proreatia, a permutation, an exchange of one thing for another; and in other places it signifies Dedére, upon any little attempt to forsake and abandon our defences, and to suffer the enemy easily to prevail upon us; so also it signifies Tradere, not only to forsake ourselves, but to concur actually to the delivering up of ourselves; and lastly, it signifies Repellere, to join with our enemies in beating back any that should come to our relief, and rescue. And then, as we have so sold ourselves, for the substance of the Act, as is expressed in that word Machar, we have exchanged ourselves at an undervalue, and worse than that, we have yielded up ourselves upon easy tentations, and worse than that, we have offered ourselves, exposed ourselves, invited the devil, and tempted temptations, and worse than that, we have Rejected the succours and the supplies which have been offered us in the means and conduits, and seals of his Graces. As it stands thus with us, for the matter, so for the manner, how we have done this, that is expressed in that other word, kinnan which signifies fecit, as it is here, Gratis, for nought. And in another place, Frustra, to no purpose; for it is a void bargain, because we had no title, no interest in ourselves, when we sold ourselves; and it signifies, temere, rashly, without consideration of our own value, upon whom God had stamped his Image; And then again it signifies, Immerito, undeservedly, before God, in whose jurisdiction we were by many titles, had forsaken us, or done any thing to make us forsake him. So that our action in selling ourselves for nothing, hath this latitude, That man whom God hath dignified so much, as that in the Creation he imprinted his Image in him, and in the Redemption he assumed not the Image, but the very nature of man, That man whom God still preserved as the Apple of his Eye, and (as he expresses himself often in the Prophets) is content to reason, and to dispute with man, and to submit himself to any trial whither he have not been a gracious God unto him: That this man should thus abandon this God, and exchange his soul for any thing in this world, when as it can profit nothing, to gain the whole world and lose our own soul, and not exchange it, but give it away, thrust it off, and be a devil to the devil, to tempt the tempter himself to take it. But then, as the word aggravates our condemnation, so it implies a consolation too; for it is fructra, That is unprovidently, unthriftily, inconsiderately, vainly, and that multiplies our fault, but than it is invalidly, and uneffectually too; that is, it is a void bargain; and when our powerful Redeemer, is pleased to come, and claim his right, and set on foot his title, all this improvident bargain of ours is voided, and reversed, and not though, but because we have sold ourselves, for nought, we shall be redeemed without money.  
For the other word, in which the action of our Redeemer is expressed, though it have somewhat different uses in the Scriptures, yet it is evermore spoken of him, Qui habet jus re dimendi, no man, by the Law could redeem a thing, but he who had a title to that thing. So the word is used, where there are given Cities of refuge from the avenge● .. There the word is, a redemptor, from him that hath right to redeem his kinsman's blood, to bring an Appeal, and to prosecute for the death of his kinsman, who was slain. So is the word used also, where that Law is given, etc. If thy brother be impoverished, & he sell his possession then his redeemer etc. That is, he that is next to that land; And so also, when a man died without issue, he who had the right, and the obligation, to raise seed to the dead man, he was the redeemer: I am thy kinsman, saith Booz to Ruth, but saith he, Alius Redemptor magis propinquus. Thou hast another Redeemer, nearer in blood then I am. How ill a bargain soever we made for ourselves, Christ Jesus hath not lost his right in us, but is our Redeemer in all these acceptations of the world: He is our sanctuary and refuge; when we have committed spiritual murder upon our own Souls, he preserves us, and delivers us to the redemption ordained for us: when we have sold our possessions, our natural faculties, He supplies us with grace, and feeds us with his Word, and  us with his Sacraments, and warms us with his Absolutions, against all diffidence, which had formerly frozen us up: and in our barrenness, he raises up seed unto our dead souls, thoughts, and works, worthy of repentance. All this, thy Redeemer hath right to do; &, when it pleases him to do it, he does it, sine argento, without money; when the now Cas●ph, signifies not only money, but, Omne appe●ibile, any thing that we can place our desires, or cast our thoughts, upon. This Redemption of ours, is wrought by such means, as the desire of man could never have fortuned upon; The Incarnation of God, and then the death and Crucifying of that God, so Incarnate, could never have fallen within the desire, nor wish of any man; neither would any man o● himself ever have conceived, That the Sacraments of the Church, poor and naked things of themselves, (for all that the wit of man could imagine in them, or allow to them) should be such means to seal, and convey the graces, which accompany this Redemption of our souls, to our souls.  

Divisio.  So then, Having thus represented unto you, a model, and design, of the miserable condition of man, and the abundant mercy of our Redeemer, so far, as those words which the Holy Ghost hath chosen in this text, hath invited and led us, That we may look better upon some pieces of it, that we may take such a sight of this Redeemer here, as that we may know Him, when we meet Him at home, at our house, in our private meditations, at His house, in the last judgement. I shall only offer you two considerations; Exprobrationem, and Consola●ionem: First, an exprobration, or increpation from God to us, And then a consolation, or consolidation of the same God upon us; And in the exprobration, God reproaches to us, first, our Prodigality, that we would sell a reversion, our possibility, our expectance of an inheritance in heaven; And then, our cheapness, that we would sell that, for nothing.  

Prodigality  First then, Prodigality is a sin, that destroys even the means of liberality. If a man wast so as that he becomes unable to relieve others; by this waist, this is a sinful prodigality; but much more if he wast so, as that he is not able to subsist, and maintain himself: and this is our case, who have even annihilated ourselves, by our profuseness; For, it is his mercy that we are not consumed. It is a sin, and a viperous sin; it eats out his own womb; The Prodigal consumes that that should maintain his Prodigality: It is peccatum Biathana ton, a sin that murders itself,  
Now, as in civil Prodigality's, in a wastfulness of our temporal estate, the Laws inflicts three kinds of punishment, three incommodities upon him that is a Prodigal, so have the same punishments a proportion, and somethings that answer them, in this spiritual prodigality of the soul by sin. The first is, bonis suis interdicitur; He that is a Prodigal, in the Law, cannot dispose of his own Estate; whatsoever he gives, or sells, or leases, all is void, as of a madman, or of an Infant. And such is the condition of a man in sin; He hath no interest in his own natural faculties; He cannot think, he cannot wish, he cannot do any thing of himself; the venem and the malignity of his sin goes through all his actions, and he cannot purge it.  
The second incommodity is, Testamentum non facit, The Prodigal person hath no power allowed him by the Law, to make a will, at his death: And this also doth an habitual sinner suffer: For, when he comes to his end, he may dictate to a Notary, and he may bid him write, Imprimis, I give my Soul to God, my Body to such a Church, my Goods to such, and such persons: But if those Goods be liable to other debts, ●he Leg●tarie; shall have no profit; If the person be under excommunication, he shall not lie in that Church; If his soul be under the weight of unrepented sins, God will do the devil no wrong, he will not take a soul, that is sold to him before.  
The third Incommodity that a Prodigal incurs by the Law, is, Exhaeredatus creditur, He is presumed to be disinherited by his father; that whereas, by that Law, if the father, in his Will, leave out any of his children's names, and never mention him, yet that child which is pretermitted, shall come in for a child's part, except the father have assigned a particular reason why he left him out; If this child were a Prodigal, there needs no other reason to be assigned, but Exhaeredatus Creditur, He is presumed to be disinherited. And so also, if we have seen a man prodigal of his own soul, and run on in a course of sin, all his life, except there appear very evident signs of resumption into God's grace, at his end, Exhaeredatus Creditur, we have just reason to be afraid, that he is disinherited. If any such sinner seem to thee to repent at his end, Fa●eor vobis non negamus, quod petit, saith St. Augustin: I confess, we ought not to deny him, any help that he desires in that late extremity? Sed non praesumimus quia bene exit, I dare not assure you, that that man dies in a good state; he adds that vehemence, non praesumo, non vos fallo, non praesumo: I should but deceive you, if I should assure you, that such a man died well. There was one good and happy Thief, that stole a Salvation, at the crucifying of Christ; but in him, that was throughly true, which is proverbially spoken, Occasio facit furem, the oppotunity made him a thief: and when there is such another opportunity, there may be such another thief; when Christ is to die again, we may presume of mercy, upon such a late repentance at our death. The preventing grace of God, made him lay violent hands upon heaven. But when thou art a Prodigal of thy soul, will God be a prodigal too, for thy sake, and betray and prostitute the kingdom of Heaven for a sigh, or a groan, in which thy pain may have a greater part than thy repentance. God can raise up children out of the stones of the street, and therefore he might be as liberal as he would of his people, and suffer them to be sold for old shoes; but Christ will not sell his birthright for a mess or pottage, the kingdom of Heaven, for the dole at a Funeral. Heaven is not to be had in exchange for an Hospital, or a Chantry, or a College erected in thy last will: It is not only the selling all we have that must buy that pearl, which represents the kingdom of Heaven; The giving of all that we have to the poor, at our death, will not do it; the pearl must be sought, and found before, in an even and constant course of Sanctification; we must be thrifty all our life, or we shall be to poor for that purchase.  
It is then an unthrifty, a perplexed bargain, when both the buyer, and the seller lose; our loss is plain enough, for we lose our souls: And certainly, howsoever the devil be expressed to take some joy at the winning of a sinner, howsoever his kingdom be thereby enlarged, yet Almighty God suffers not his treason, his undermining of man, to be unpunished, but afflicts him with more and more accidental torments, even for that; as a licentious man takes pleasure in the victory of having corrupted a woman, by his solicitation, but yet insensibly overthrows his constitution by his sin; so the withdrawing of God's Subjects, from his allegiance, induces an addition of punishment upon the devil himself.  
Consider a little further, our wretchedness, in this prodigality; we think, those Laws barbarous and inhuman, which permit the suit of men in debt, for the satisfaction of Creditors; but we sell ourselves, and grow the farther in debt, by being sold; we are sold, and to even rate our debts, and to aggravate our condemnation. We find in the history of the Muscovites, that it is an ordinary detainder amongst them, to sell themselves, and their posterity, into everlasting bondage, for hot drink: In one winter, a wretched man will drink himself, and his posterity, into perpetual slavery. But we sell ourselves, not for drink, but for thirst: we are sorry when our appetite too soon decays, and we would fain sin more than we do. At what a high rate did the blessed Martyrs sell their bodies; They built up God's Church with their blood: They sowed his field, and prepared his harvest with their blood: they got heaven for their bodies, and we give bodies, & souls for hell.  
In a right inventary, every man that ascends to a true value of himself, considers it thus; First, His Soul, than His life; after his fame and good name: And lastly, his goods and estate; for thus their own nature hath ranked them, and thus they are (as in nature) so ordinarily in legal consideration preferred before one another. But for our souls, because we know not, how they came into us, we care not how they go out; because, if I ask a Philosopher, whither my soul came in, by propagation from my parents, or by an immediate infusion from God, perchance he cannot tell, so I think, a divine can no more tell me, whither, when my soul goes out of me, it be likely to turn on the right, or on the left hand, if I continue in this course of sin. And then, for the second thing in this inventary, Life; the Devil himself said true, skin for skin, and all that a man hath, will he give for his life; Indeed we do not easily give away our lives expressly, and at once; but we do very easily suffer ourselves to be cozened of our lives: we pour in death in drink, and we call that health, we know our life to be but a span, and yet we can wash away one inch in riot, we can burn away one inch in lust, we can bleed away one inch in quarrels, we have not an inch for every sin; and if we do not pour out our lives, yet we drop them away. For the third piece of ourselves, our fame and reputation, who had not rather be thought an usurer, than a beggar? who had not rather be the object of envy, by being great, than of scorn and contempt, by being poor, upon any conditions? And for the last of all which is our goods, 
Seneca.  though our covetousness appears most, in the love of them, in that lowest thing of all (Adeo omnia homini cariora seipso, so much does every man think every inferior thing better than himself, than his fame, than his body, than his soul; which is a most perverse undervaluing of himself, and a damnable humility) yet even with these goods also, (as highly as he values them) a man will past if to fuel, and foment, and maintain that sin, that he delights in: that which is the most precious, our souls, we undervalue most; and that which we do esteem most, (though naturally it should be lowest) our estate, we are content to waste, and dissipate for our sins: And whereas the Heathens needed laws to restrain them, from an expensive, and wasteful worship of their Gods, every man was so apt to exceed in sacrifices and such other religious duties, till that law, Deus frugi Colunto Let men be thrifty & moderate in religious expenses, was enacted, (which law was a kind of mortmain, and inhibition, That every man might not bestow what he would, upon the service of those Gods) we have turned our prodigality the other way, upon the devil, whom we have made Haeredem in esse and our sole executor, and sacrificed soul, and life, and fame, and fortune, all the gifts of God, and God himself, by making his religion, and his Sacraments, and the profession of his name, in an hypocritical use of them, to be the devil's instruments, to draw us the easilyer, and hold us the faster; and what prodigality can be conceived to exceed this, in which we do not only misspend ourselves, 
Nihil.  but misspend our God.  
The other point in this exprobration is, that, as we have prodigally sold ourselves, so we have inconsiderately sold ourselves for nothing; we have in our bargain, diseases, and we have poverty, and we have unsensibleness of our miseries; but diseases are but privations of health, and poverty but a privation of wealth, and unsensibleness but a privation of tenderness of Conscience; all are privations, and privations are nothing. if a man had got nothing by a bargain but repentance, he would think, and justly, he had got little: but if thou hadst repentance in this bargain, thy bargain were the better; if thou couldst come to think thy bargain bad, it were a good bargain; but the height of the misery is in this, that one of those nothings, for which we have sold ourselves is a stupidity, an unsensibleness of our own wretchedness.  
The Laws do annul, and make void fraudulent conveyances; and then the laws presume fraud in the conveyance, if at least half the value of the thing be not given: now if the whole world be not worth one soul, who can say, that he hath half his value? it were not merely nothing, if (considering that inventary, which we spoke of before) we had the worse for the better; that were but an ill exchange, but yet it were not nothing. If we had bodies for our souls, it were not merely nothing; but we find, that sin that sells our souls, decays and withers our bodies; our bodies grow incapable of that sin, unable to commit that sin, which we sold our souls for. If we had fame and reputation for out bodies, it were not nothing: but we see, that Heretics, that give their bodies to the fire, are by the very law, infamous, and they are infamous in every man's apprehension. If we had worldly goods for loss of fame, and of our good name, yet still it were not nothing; but we see that witches, who are infamous persons, for the most part, live in extreme beggary too. So that the exprobration is just, we have sold ourselves for nothing; and however the ordinary murmuring may be true, in other things, that all things are grown dearer, our souls are still cheap enough, which at first were all sold in gross, for (perchance) an Apple, and are now retailed every day for nothing.  
Joseph was sold underfoot by his brethren; but it is hard to say, for how much; some Copies have that he was sold for 20 pieces, and some for 25, and some for 30: and S. Ambrose and S. Augustin, collects arguments, at least, allusions, from this variety of Copies: but all these say, it was but so many pieces of silver. The Septuagints, in their translation, extend them to gold, to so many crowns, or such: Josephus multiplies them to pounds, so many pounds: all think it too low a price for Joseph, to be sold for twenty pieces of silver. But yet if it were so, this was not for nothing; and for this selling, his brethren had some pretence of excuse ne polluantur manus, they would but sell him, lest their hands should be defiled with blood: but we sell ourselves, ut polluantur manus, therefore, that our hands may be defiled with blood, even with our own blood, with the loss of our bodies, which we consume by sin, and of our souls, which perish eternally by it.  
Our Saviour Christ, every drop of whose blood was of infinite value (for one of our souls is more worth than the whole world, and one drop of his blood had been sufficient for all the souls of 1000 worlds, if it had been applied unto them) was sold scornfully and basely, at a low price; at most, not above six pound of our money; but we sell ourselves, and him too, we crucify him again every day, for nothing: & when our sin is the very crucifying of him, that should save us, who shall save us? Earthly Princes have been so jealous of their honours, as that they have made it Treason, to carry their pictures into any low Office, or into any irreverend place. Beloved, whensoever we commit any sin, upon discourse, upon consideration, upon purpose, and plot, the image of God which is engraved and imprinted in us, and lodged in our understanding, and in that reason which we employ in that sin, is mingled with that sin; we draw the image of God into all our incontinencies, into all our oppressions, into all our extortions, and supplantations: we carry his image, into all soul places, which we haunt upon earth; yea we carry his image down with us, to eternal condemnation: for, even in Hell, uri potest, non exuri Imago Dei, says S. Bernard; The image of God burns in us in hell, but can never be burnt out of us: as long as the understanding soul remains, the Image of God remains in it, and so we have used the image of God, as witches are said to do the images of men; by wounding or melting the image, they destroy the person: and we by defacing the image of God in ourselves by sin, to the painful & shameful death of the Cross.  

Gen. 31.  Rachel and Lea complained of their father Laban, thus, He hath sold us, and hath eat, and consumed the money; they lamented it much, to see themselves sold, and by their father, and their father never the better for the bargain. But still our case is worse than any; the devil hath bought us, and he, he who hath bought us, hath eaten and consumed the money: he pretends to buy us, by giving us pleasure, or profit for ourselves, and then those very pleasures, and those riches, which he pretends to give us, are his food, and his instruments, to effect his mischievous, and tyrannous purposes upon us. And therefore let no man think himself exempt from this challenge, that he hath sold himself for nothing. Let no man present his Dutals, his Court-rolls, his Bacus, his good Debts, his titles of honour, his Maces, or his Staves, or his Ensigns of power and Office, and say, call you all this nothing? Compare all these with thy soul, and they are nothing. Now, whilst thou wallowest in all these here, thou mayest hear God say, Quid habes, quod non accepisti, What hast thou of all this, which thou hast not received; but when the Bell tols, than he shall say, in the voice of that Bell, Quid habes quod accepisti, What hast thou of all that thou hast received? Is not all that come to nothing? and than thou that thoughtest thyself strong enough in purse, in power, in favour, to compass any thing, and to embrace many things, shalt not find thyself able to attain to a doorkeepers place in the kingdom of heaven.  
Let no man therefore take too much joy, to apply to himself those words of the parable, Filii saeculi, The children of this world (which grow rich) are wiser than the children of light; for it is but, In generatione sua, Wiser in their generation; and how little a while that generation shall last, God knows; and what fools they shall appear to be, for all generations after, we know. They are called the wisest amongst men, as the Serpent was called the wisest amongst Beasts, that is, still, the fittest for the devil to work in, to make his instruments, and engines to desire a curse upon themselves, and their posterity. Let no man wrest God's example to his purpose, and say, if he do sell himself for nothing, he does but as God himself did, and as David told him he did, 
Psal. 44.  Thou sellest thy people without gain, and dost not increase their price. That was not for nothing; God had his end in that: neither was it an absolute sale; but a short term: God sells us over to sickness, to tribulations, to afflictions, for sometime; perchance for the whole term, of this short life; but all this is but to improve us, and that we may be the fit for him when he Takes us into his own hand again, in that surrender of ourselves, In manus tuas, when we shall deliver up our souls: to him, that gave them: for here no propriety is Destroyed, still here is meum & tuum between God and me; It is still my soul, and still his soul; and when God looked mercifully towards Job then Satan's lease expired. God doth not give his saints ●or Nothing; for sanguis Semen, The blood of the Martyrs was the seed of the Church & ye are bought with a price says the Apostle; 
1. Cor. 6.  It is pretiore ye are preciously bought, even with the precious blood, of the only Sun of God. And for our temporal and secular value, in God's account, we see how God expressed his care of the people, when he diverted Sennachrib, from afflicting them, 
Esa. 43.  by turning him upon other wars. I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia, and seba for the, because thou wast precious in my sight, and thou wast honourable, and I loved the; therefore will I give man for the, and people for thy sake. And this leads us in to the second part, The Consolation, that Though, nay, because we have sold ourselves for nothing, we shall be Redeemed with out money.  
Into this part then, there is at first a strange Entrance; 
2 Part.  Therefore, That therefore, because we have sold ourselves we should be redeemed; Therefore because we have been prodigal, we should be made rich. But, this Therefore, this reason, relates to the prize, not to the work of the Redemption, Because it was for nothing, that we were sold, it is without money, that we are Redeemed: for, for that, there is reason in Equity: but for the Redemption itself, there is no therefore, no reason at all: to be assigned, but only the Eternal goodness of God himself, and the Eternal purpose of his will: Of which will of God, whosoever seeks a reason, Aliquid majus Deo quaerit, says S. Augustin, he that seeks what persuaded or inclined the will of God, seeks for something wiser, and greater than God himself.  
In this redemption than God pursues the devil, in all those steps, by which he had made his profit, of a prodigality; for, first, as we gave away ourselves, so he restores us to ourselves again. It is well expresed in the parable of the prodigal; 
Luc. 15.  and his case is ours. The portion which he asked of his father, was the use of his freewill. God gave it him; adam's first Immortality was, posse non mori he needed not to have died: It was in his own power whether he would keep a freewill, or, no, and he spent that stock, he lost that freewill. He spent not his freewill so as Bellarmin understands this spending, that that man may be said to spend his life ill, that misimployes it, but yet he hath this life in him still: But the prodigal, Adam, spent is utterly: he spent it so, that he and we have no freewill at all left. But yet; even the prodigal said, that he would return to his father, and he came; He had not only some sudden thoughts of Repentance, but he put himself actually in the way: come long abesset, says that parable, when he was a great way off, yet because he was in the way, his father met him and kissed him, and put that Robe upon him, which was not only Dignitas, quam perdidit Adam, as S. Austin qualifies it, a restitution to the same integrity, which Adam had and had lost, but that was Amictus sapientiae, (so S. Ambrose calls it) it was an ability to preserve himself in that integrity, to which he was restored. It was a Robe that was put upon him; it was none of his own; but when it was put upon him, it rectified and restored those faculties, which were his own: as the eye sees in a man restored to life, though the soul enable the eye and not the eye itself, so the faculty of freewill works in us as well as it did in Adam though only the grace of God enable that faculty.  
When God hath wrought that first cure (which he does by incorporating us, in the Church by baptism) that we are ourselves again, then (as in the case of prodigals in the law) as they had Tutors, and Curators appointed them, so he sends the Holy Ghost, to be our Guardian our Curator: and as the office of that person, in that law, was double, first to reverse all contracts and bargains, which that prodigal person, in that state, had made, and secondly to inhibit, and hinder him, from making new contracts, so this blessed Spirit of consolation, by his sanctification, seals to our consciences a Quietus est, a discharge of all former spiritual debts, he cancels all them, he nails them to the cross of Christ, and then he strengthens us against relapses into the same sins again.  
He proceds farther than this; beyond restering us, beyond preserving us; for he betters us, he improves us, to a better condition, than we were in, at first. And this he does, first by purging and purifying us, and then by changing, and transmuting us. He purges us by his sunshine, by his temporal blessings; for, as the greatest globes of gold lie nearest the face and top of the earth, where they have received the best concoction from the heat of the sun; so certainly, in reason, they who have had Gods continual sunshine upon them, in a prosperous fortune, should have received the best concoction, the best digestion of the testimonies of his love, and consequently be the purer, and the more refined mettle. If this purging prevail not, than he comes to purge those whom he means to lay up in his treasure, with tribulation; he carries them from the sunshine into the fire, and therefore, if those tribulations fall upon thee in a great and heavy measure, think thy dross needed this vehemence, and do not make afflictions, Arguments of God neglecting thee, for he that is presented to have suffered very much, is also presented to have been very righteous, that is job; And he that was the most innocent of all, suffered most of all, Christ jesus thy Saviour.  
From this purifying comes our transmutation, that we are changed in semen Dei, made the seed of God: for, so God calls children that are derived from honest, and godly parents, 
Mal. 2.  The seed of God, in the Prophet: but more fully in the Apostle, whosoever is born of God sinneth not, for his seed remaineth in him: 
1 joh. 3.  for this generation, is our regeneration, 
jacob. 1.  of his own will begat he us, with the word of truth: this grace makes us as properly the seed of God, as sin makes us the seed of the Devil, of the Serpent, 
3.  and so we are expressly called in Gen. and so also in the Apostles, you are of your father the devil, 
Io. 8.  and the lusts of your father, you will do. So we are changed in naturam Dei, as S. Peter expresses: 
2.1.  it By his precious promises we are made partakers of the divine nature: not Ab anteriori, nor a posteriori; not that we are so derived from the nature and essence of God, as that our souls should be of his very substance, as the Manichees imagined, nor, as Origen mistook, upon misinterpreting these words to the Corinthians, ut Deus sit omnia in omnibus, 
1.15.  That God should be all in all, so as that at last, the whole nature of mankind, and indeed, all other natures and substances (if Origen have been rightly understood by some men near his own times) should be swallowed up, and drowned in the very substance of God himself. But this transmutation is a glorious restoring of God's image in us, and it is our conformity to him; and when either his temporal blessings, or his afflictions, his sun, or his fire, hath tried us up to that height, to a conformity to him, then come we to that transmutation, which admits no re-transmutation, which is a modest, but infallible assurance of a final perseverance, so to be joined to the Lord, as to be one spirit with him; for as a spirit cannot be divided, so they who are thus changed into him, are so much His, so much He, as that nothing can separate them from him; and this is the ladder, by which we may try, how far we are in the way to heaven.  
And when we are come to this, than we are able to see, and to consider, the poverty, and the value of him, who had before bought us, for nothing, and entrhalled us. 
2 Cor. 4.  The Devil is called the Lord of the world; but that is, in the person of Infidels; and we are none of that world. Though we have to do with Principalities, and spiritual wickedness, 
Ephes.  yet St: Paul motion's it thus much, Est nobis Colluctatio, He arms us at all points, in that chapter, fit to endure any violent, or any long attempt, and yet he tells us, that all that we have to do with the Devil, is but Colluctatio, but a wrestling; we may be thrown, but we cannot be slain. So also is the same state of the saints of Gods described. That the Devil labours to Devour, That he walks about, and seeks, Those who are without the pale, without the Church, and these that are Rebellious and refractory within it, these he may devour without any resistance: they fall into his mouth; but for us, who are embraced by thy redemption, he is put to his labour, and to lose his labour too; He is put to seek, and put to miss too. He was put to sue out a Commission, for Jobs good; till than he confessed to God, Thou hast put a hedge about him. He was put to renew this commission, for his person; Touch his bones? but further he durst not ask. He hath a Kingdom, but no body knows where: I would we might still dispute, whether it were in the Earth, or in the Air, and not find this Kingdom in our own hearts. Expel him thence; and God's spirit is as the Air, that admits no vacuity, no emptiness: destroy this kingdom of Satan in yourselves, and God will establish his, God will be content with his place. Himself you cannot see; that's one degree of his tyranny, to Reserve himself, and not be seen; for his deformities would make ye hate him: but in his glazes in the riches, & in the vanities of this world, you see him and know him not; you see him, and know him, and embrace him, St. Chrysost. hath convinced you, in all that can be said, for the love of this world; If thou wilt (says he) that I must therefore look after worldly things, because they are necessary, E regione respendeo, says he: Therefore thou needest not look after them, because they are necessary: Si essent superflua, non deberes confidere quia sunt necessaria, non debes ambigere: for that which is more than necessary, thou shouldest not labour, and for that which is necessary thou shouldst not doubt, for, whatsoever God does not give thee, he knows was not necessary for thee, for he can make thee happy without these temporal things, as his way in this text is, to redeem without money, which is our last circumstance.  

Sine Argento.  In delivering his people out of Egypt, he gave no money for them; nay, he made them get money and Jewels at their coming away. In delivering them out of Babylon, he brought them away rich; Here, in this redemption, it had been bribery to have given, in so good a cause: and it had been a new kind of Simony, never heard of, to give money for the exercise of their own grace. He gave no money then; not because he had it not; 
Amos 3.  for Domini est terra, The earth and all in it, is his: ye have taken my silver, and my gold, says God in one Prophet; 
Agg. 2.  and he makes his continual claim, in another, The silver is mine, and the gold is mine. But it was God and not the devil, that was to be satisfied. In devilish trading there is no passing without money: in the Temple itself there were, In the Church, and Church affairs there are buyers, and sellers too; if there were no buyers there would be no sellers; but there was a third sort that was whiped out too; which were Changers. But in our case it was God, that was to be satisfied; and therefore we were not redeemed with corruptable things, as silver and gold, 
1 Pet. 1.  but with the precious blood of Christ.  
Now this blood of Christ jesus was not within the Compass of this word, which is here translated Money: though, as I noted at the beginning, this word Casaph includes all that the heart can wish, or desire: for though the Application of the blood of Christ, now that is shed is to be wished by every sinner to his own soul, Though the shedding of that blood might have been wished by the patriarches, to whom God had revealed, that in the fullness of time it should be shed, at the second coming of Christ, and the Resurrection may be wished for, by us now, yet, if we take Rem integram, if we take the matter at first, without any such revealing of God's purpose as he in his Scripture hath afforded us; so no man might have wished, or prayed, without a greater sin in that wish and in that prayer than all his former sins, that the Son of God might come down and die for his sins: If it could possibly have fallen into his imagination, that this might have been a way for his redemption; yet he ought not to have wished that way: neither might it, neither certainly did it ever fall within the desire of any despairing sinner, that thought, that the death of Christ appertaind not to him, to wish that God the father, or God the Holy Ghost, would come down, and become man and shed his blood for him. Th' blood of Christ by which we are redeemed was not this Casaph it was not Res appetibilis, a thing that a sinner might, or could desire to be shed for him, though being shed, he must desire, that it may be applied to him. And hence it is that some of the fathers argue, that when the Devil began to tempt Christ, he knew him not to be the Son of God: for even to the devil himself, the blood of Christ; could not be Res appetibilis, a thing that deliberately he could have desired should have been shed. If the devil had considered, that the shedding of that blood, would have redeemed us, would he have hastened the shedding of that blood?  
He redeemed us then without money; And as he bought so he sells: He paid no money, he asks no money: but he proclaims freely to all, 
Esa. 55.  Ho every one that thirsteth come to the waters, and ye that have no silver, come, buy, and eat; come, I say, buy wine, and milk, without silver, and without money. But you must come; and you must come to the market; to the Magazine of his graces, his Church; And you must buy, though you have no money: he paid obedience, and he asks obedience to himself, and his Church, at your hands. And then, as Joseph did to his brethren, he will give you your corn, and your money again; he will give you grace, and temporal blessings too: he will refresh and re-establish your natural faculties, and give you supernatural. He hath already done enough for all, even in his mercy, he was just; just to the Devil himself: for as we had done, so he did; he gave himself; both to the first death, as long as it could hold him, and to the second death, as far as it could reach him. But though all this be already done, yet, to conclude, there is a particular circumstance of Comfort, in this word, you shall be: that though the act of our redemption be past the Application is future: and in the elect and regenerate child of God, though his conscience tells him every day, that he sells away himself, yet his conscience shall tell him too, he shall be redeemed without money, he shall not perish finally: as we cannot carry our thoughts to so high a time, but that God elected us, before that, so we cannot continue our sins of infirmity so long, but that God will have mercy upon us after that: I cannot name a time, when Gods love began, it is eternal, I cannot imagine a time, when his mercy will end, it is perpetual.   

A SERMON PREACHED AT  April 12. 1618. 
Serm. 12.  SERM. XII.  Gen. 32.10. 
I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands.  
THis text is in the midst of jacob's prayer; and this prayer is in the midst of jacob's preparation in the time of danger. His dangers were from persons near him, from his Alliance, by marriage, and from his nearest kindred by blood. Laban, into whose house he had married, made advantages upon him, deluded him, oppressed him, pursued him. And Esau his own brother lay how in his way, when he was returning from Mesopotamia to Canaan, from his father-in-law, to his natural father, from Laban, to Isaac. He had sent messengers to try his brother's disposition towards him; they returned with relation of great preparation that Esau made to come forth towards him, but whether in hostile or friendly manner, they could inform nothing. Then was Jacob greatly afraid, and sore troubled, but not so afraid, nor so troubled, as that he was stupefied, or negligent in providing against the imminent dangers. First then he makes as sure as he can at home; 
ver. 7.  He disposes his troops, and his  so, as that, if his brother should come hostilly, he might do least harm. And he provides as well as he could that he should not come hostilly, he sends him presents, and he sends him respective and ceremonious messages. He neglects not the strengthening of himself, that so he might make his peace when he were able to sustain a war; he neglects not the removing of all occasions, that might submit him to a war: And in the midst of these two important and necessary cares, love of peace, and provision for war, his chief recourse is to God; to him he prays; and he prays to him first, as he was (as we may say) Deus familiaris, a God to his family, and race O God of my father Abraham, 
ver. 9  and God of my father Isaac; and as a God, from whom this familiarity did not take away the reverence; for he adds there presently the great name of Jehova, the Lord he present to him his obedience to his commandment, Thou saidst unto me, Return unto thy Country, and to thy kindred, he presents to him his confidence in his promises, Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed, as the sand of the sea; and upon these grounds and inducements, he comes to the formal prayer, Erue me, I pray thee deliver me from the hand of my brother; and he prays for others as well as himself; for I fear he will smite me, and the Mothers upon the Children: He solicits God for all that are committed to him. And as in the Midst of danger, he came to preparation, and in the midst of his preparations, he came to this prayer, so in the midst of this prayer, he comes to this humble and grateful consideration, that God had been already more bountiful unto him than he could have proposed to his hopes or to his wishes, I am not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies and of all the Truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.  

Divisio.  First then this part of the prayer, hath in it, that which is the Centre and Basis, and establish-ment of all true prayers A disclaiming of Merit; for when a man pretends Merit, it is so far from a prayer, as that it is rather a challenge, an increpation, an exprobration of his slackness, to whom we speak that he gives us not with out ask: I am not worthy says Jacob. But yet though Jacob confess humbly this unworthiness in himself, yet he does not say that he is, or was Nothing at all, in respect of these benefits It is not Nihil same, but katon, parvus sum Impar Sum; Man is no such thing as can invite God to work upon him, but he is such a thing, as nothing else is capable of his working but man. It is not much that he is; 
Serm. 11.  but something he is: But parvus sum, prae omnibus, prae singulis; whether I take myself altogether, thus grown up in honour, in office, in estate, or whether I take myself in pieces, and consider every step, that thy mighty hand hath led me; I am not worthy of all these, nor of any of these degrees; not of the least of these. Not whether I consider thy mercies, which are the promises that God makes to us at first, out of his mere gracious goodness, or whether I consider thy truth, the assuredness of those promises, to which he hath been pleased to bind himself; non sum dignus, not whether we consider this Truth, and fidelity of God in Spe, in our own hope, and confident, and patiented expectation, that they shall be performed unto us, or whether we consider them in Re, in our thankfulness, and experience, as truths already performed unto us; the truth which thou hast showed, for all these mercies, and all these truths, all these promises, and all these performances, as they found no title at all in me to them at first, so they imprint no other title in me by being come, but to make me his servant, to use them to his glory. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. And then for a second part, all this consideration Jacob seals with a reason, for; it is not a fashional compliment with God, it is not a sad and melancholic dejection, and undervaluing of himself; but he assigns his particular reason, and that is, what his former state was, what his present state is. I came over Jordan, he was forced to leave his Country; and he came over it but with a staff, in a poor and ill provided manner; and with his staff, no assistance but his own. And he returns again, there's his first comfort; and he returns now; now that God had spoken to him before he set out, and now that God had revealed to him an army of Angels in his assistance, and now that God had increased his temporal state so far, as that he was become two bands, so that though he should lose much, yet he had much left.  
In benefits that pass from men of higher rank, to persons of lower condition, it is not the way to get them, to ground the request upon our own merit; Merit implies an obligation, that we have laid upon them; and that implies a debt. And a Petition for a due debt is an affront; it is not so much a Petition delivered as a writ served upon him, to call him to answer his injust detaining of a just debt. Thus it is amongst men between whom their may be true merit; but toward God there can be none; and therefore much more there boldness to proceed with him upon pretence of merit. Et de Deo, no tuanquam de benefico largitore, sed tanquam de tardo debitore cogitare; That if we come not to our ends, and preferment quickly, we should give over considering God as a gracious, and free giver in his time, and begin to consider him as a slack pay master, and ill debtor, because he pays not at our time. No Man was worthy to be biden to the supper; 
Mat. 22.8.  But those that were biden, were not worthy; that invitation made them not worthy. No spark of worth in us, before God call us; but that first grace of his, doth not presently make us worthy. If we love Christ a little and allow him his share, 
Mat. 13.37.  but love father and mother more, if we renounce all other love, we are not ambitious, but yet would live quiet, without troubles, without crosses, if we take not up our cross, or if we take it, and sink under it, if we do not follow or if we take it, and sink under it, if we do not follow, or if we follow a wrong guide, bear our afflictions with the stupidity of a Stoic, or with the pertinacy of an Heretic, If we love not Christ, more than all, and take our cross, and follow, and follow him, non digni sumus we are not worthy of him. Nay all this doth not make us worthy really, 
Luk. 23.25.  but imputatively; they shall be counted worthy to enjoy the next world, and the resurrection, says Christ. We are not worthy as to profess our unworthiness; It is a degree of spiritual exaltation, to be sensible of our lowness; 
Mar. 1 7.  I am not worthy to stoop down, and unloose his shoe latchet, says John Baptist; even humility itself is a pride, if we think it to be our own. Only say thus to Christ with the Centurion, non dignus ut venirem, I was not worthy to come to thee, 
Luk. 7.7.  non dignus ut intres, I was not worthy, that thou shouldest come to me, and let others say of thee, as those Elders, whom the Centurion sent, said of him, dignus est, he is worthy, that Christ should do for him. Be thou humble in thyself, and thou shalt be worthy of a double honour; thou shall be truly worthy in the sight of man, and thou shalt be counted worthy in the sight of God.  

Parvus.  Now for all this unworthiness, Jacob doth not so much extenuate himself, as to annihilate himself. The word is Katon; it is not Elil, it is parvus sum not nihil sum. It is but little; that man is, proportioned to the working of God; but yet man is that creature, who only of all other creatures can answer the inspiration of God, when his grace comes, and exhibites acceptable service to him, and cooperate with him. No other creature is capable of grace, if it could be offered to them. It is true and useful, 
Cyp.  that Cyprian presses, nihil est nostrum; nam quid habes quod non accepisti, What hast thou that thou hast not received? Her's a Nihil nostrum; but he doth not press it so far as to say nihil nos; her's a nihil habemus, we have nothing, but not a nihil sumus; that we are nothing; it is true, and useful, that Hierom says, ipsum meum, 
Hier. Epist. 1. ad.  sine Dei semper auxilio non erit meum, without the continual concurrence o● God's grace, that which is mine now, would be lost, and be none of mine; but it is as true, that Augustin says too, Cer●um est nos velle & facere ●um volumus & facimus, It is we ourselves, that choose, and perform those spiritual actions, which the grace of God only enables us to choose and perform. It is truly and elegantly said by Ambrose, of our power, and out will, Ei committi, nihil aliud quam dimitti, to be delivered to our own will, is to be delivered to the executioner, for nihil habet in suis vicibus, nisi periculi facilitatem, it hath nothing in it, but a nearness or danger; but yet, God hath made a natural man only capable of his grace; and in those men, in whom he hath begun a regeneration, by his first grace, his grace proceeds not, without a cooperation of those men. This humility than is safely limited in jacob's bounds, parvus sum, it is no great matter that I am; but yet come not to such a nihil sum, such an extenuation of thyself, as to think, that grace works upon thee, as the sun does upon gold, or precious stones, to purify them to that concoction, without any sense in themselves.  
Now this littleness, how poor, and small a thing Man is, 
Proe omnibus.  appears to him, whether he consider himself in omnibus, or in singulis, as the word imports here, as he is altogether, or as he is taken a sunder. Take man at his best, and greatest growth as he is honourable, for, as there is a stamp, that gives values to gold, so doth honour, and estimation to the temporal blessings of this life. Honour is that which God esteems most, and is most jealous of in himself, his honour he will give to none, and it is the broadest, and apparantest outward seal, by which he testifies his love to man, but yet what greatness is this, in which David repeats that infirmity twice in one Psalm, 
Psal. 49.12.20.  Man shall not continue in honour, but is like the beast that die: Man is in honour, and understandeth not; he is like to the beasts that perish. In nature things that are above us, show as little, as things below us; men upon a hill are as little to them in the valley, as they in the valley to them that are raised. It is so in nature; but we have forced an unnatural perverseness in ourselves, to think nothing great but that which is a great way above us; whereas if we will look downward, and see above how many better deservers God hath raised us, we shall find at least such a greatness in ourselves, as deserves a great thanksgiving, but yet take thyself altogether at thy greatest, and say with Jacob, parvus sun●, all this is but a little greatness, but a poor riches, but an ignoble honour. In all this, thou dost but wrap up a snowball upon a coal of fire; there is that within thee that melts thee, as fast, as thou growest: thou buildest in Marble, and thy soul dwells in those mud-walls, that have moldred away, ever since they were made. Take thyself altogether, and thou art but a man; and what's that: ask Aristotle, says S. chrysostom, 
Chrysost.  and he will tell thee, Animal rationale, man is a reasonable Creature; but ask God and he will tell thee, Animal irreprehensible; a man is a good man. There was a man in the land of H●z, called Job; an upright and just man that feared God; All men, truly men are Copies of this man. And sine hac humanitate, without being such a man as he, whose man soever thou be'st, and whose master, whosoever thou be'st, parvus es, all is but a small matter, considered together, and at best.  

Proe singulis.  But we may better discern ourselves in singulis, then in omnibus; better by taking ourselves in pieces, than altogether, we understand the frame of man's body, better when we see him naked, than apparelled, howsoever; and better by seeing him cut up, than by seeing him do any exercise alive; one desection, one Anatomy teaches more of that, than the marching, or drilling of a whole army of living men. Let every one of us therefore dissect and cut up himself, and consider what he was before God raised him friends to bring those abilities, and good parts, which he had, into knowledge, and into use, and into employment; what he was before he had by education, and study, and industry, imprinted those abilities in his soul; what he was before that soul was infused into him, capable of such education; what he was, when he was but in the list, and catalogue of creatures, and might have been left in the state of a worm, or a plant, or a stone; what he was, when he was not so far, but only in the vast and unexpressible, and unimaginable depth, of nothing at all. But especially let him consider, what he was when he lay smothered up in massa damnata, in that leavened lap of Adam, where he was wrapped up in damnation. And then let him consider forward again, that God in his decree severed him out, in that lump, and ordained him to a particular salvation; that he provided him parents, that were within the Covenant, that should prepare, and pour out a body for him; that he himself created, and infused an immortal soul into him; that then he put a care in his parents, perchance in strangers, to breed him to a capableness of some course. That then God took him by the hand, and led him into the Court; that there he held him by the hand, and defended him against envy, and practise; that he hath clothed him with the opinions of good men; that he hath adorned him with riches, and with titles; let a man stand thus, and ruminate, and spell over God's several blessings to him, syllable by syllable, and he shall not only say, parvus sum, when he considers himself at his growth and altogether, but parvus eram I was too mean a subject for thee to look or work upon in the least of these expressings of thy goodness.  
And thus it is whether we consider this goodness of God, in miserationibus, In his mercies, or in veritate, in his truth. 
Miserationis  Not that God's mercy and truth are ever severed; But we take his mercy to be that promise, that covenant, which out of his own free goodness he was pleased to make to man and which is grounded upon nothing, but his own pleasure, and we take truth, and fidelity, to be the performance, and execution of those merciful promises, which truth is grounded upon his promise. Now for his mercies, first, though we say as truly as School terms can reach too, Miserecordia presumit miseriam, we can consider no mercy, till something be miserable, upon whom mercy may work, and so cannot properly place mercy in God, before the fall of man in such a respect, yet though the work of creation, were not a work of mercy, being intended only and wholly to his glory, yet to create man, in an ability to glorify him in that way, and that measure as he did, this was a work of mercy, because man had been less happy without that ability. So that of this mercy to man, of being dignified above all other creatures, in the contributing to the glory of the Creator, but especially of that mercy of electing certain men, in whom he would preserve that dignity, which others should forfeit, of this general mercy, mankind was not worthy, of this particular mercy these particular men were not worthy, for neither these men, nor this mankind was then at all, when God had this mercy upon them.  
But for our understanding the goodness of God, 
Veritates.  and thereby our own unworthiness, it appears best in the consideration of his truth, of the performance of these his promises for, by the strength of his truth, and fidelity in God, is my soul raised to that, that that which is ordinarily, and naturally the terror of the conscience of a sinner, is the peace of mine, that which is naturally a tempest, is my calm, that which is naturally a rock to shipwreck at, is my Anchor to ride out all foul weather: and that is, the justice of God; that which would shake, and shiver my conscience, if there were no mercy nor promise, settles it now because there is a truth, that that promise shall be performed to me.  
Briefly, God was merciful, it was mere mercy in him, to promise a Messiah Christ Jesus, when Adam was fallen; but to give him when he had promised him, was justice, and truth, and fidelity. So that he applies Christ Jesus to me by the working of his blessed Spirit, this is mere mercy; but that when Christ is thus applied to me, I have peace of conscience and an inchoation of the kingdom of heaven here, this is his Justice, and Truth, and fidelity: So that the next, and immediate resting place for my salvation, and my peace, is the Justice of God. Now, for the expressing of his Largeness, in exhibiting to us those blessings, which belong to this promise, It is an useful consideration, 
Numb. 17.  which arises out of that miraculous budding of the rodds of the Twelve tribes: God's promise goes no farther but that, for that Man whom he would choose virga germinabit: His rod should bud forth, but when Moses; on the morrow went to loock how his promise was performed, Levies rod had budded, and blossomed, and born perfect fruit; In his mercies, he exceeds his promises; In his judgements he contracts them; as we see he contracted David's pestilence of three days, into less than one. He punishes to the third, and forth generation; but he shows mercy unto thousands. 
Exod. 20.  He gives more than he promises; and he does it sooner; 
Chrys.  as St chrysostom observes: That whereas man's fashion is to demolish and pull down that in one day, which spent many months in the setting up, God dispatches faster in his building, and reparation, than in his ruin and destruction; He built all the world in six days, (says he) and when he would destroy but one Town, Jericho, he employed Eight; Consider him then in Miserationibus, in his mercies, or in veritate in his truth, and wherein were we worthy of the least of these promises, or performances.  

Expectatio.  Now, of these mercies grounded upon God's will, and of these truths grounded upon his word, we must necessarily acknowledge an unworthiness in ourselves, if they were proposed to us, but as expectancies, but as reversions, that should be had; nay but as possibilities, that they might be had: 
Aug.  for Perdidimus possibilitatem boni; that's our case now; that we have lost all possibility of doing, or receiving any good of ourselves. In decimations upon popular rebellions, when they tithe men for execution, every man conceives a just hope; for it is ten to one he may scape with his life. In Lotteries, though the odds be great on the other side, every man hopes, he that is never so far off in a remainder for land, would be loath to have his name expunged, 
Joh. 5.  and razed out. He that had been sick thirty eight years, and could never get into the pool, yet he came still in hope that he should get in at last: It is thus in civil and moral things; it is much more so in divine; even expectation from God is a degree of fruition. There is no pain in David's expectance expectam Dominum, 
Psal. 40.2.3.  in waiting patiently for the Lord, as long as we know, Habakkuks veniens veniet Dominus, because the Lord will surely come, says he, therefore he does not tarry. It is no loss to stay Gods coming, because God will stay when he comes: when we are sure that God will come to secure us, to weaken our enemies, That's a mercy, and that's a truth, which we are not worthy of though he be not come yet.  
But Jacob considers here, 
Experientia.  and every man may in his particular, the mercies, and truths which God had showed him already; neither doth the word which both our translations have accepted here, answer the original nor reach home. It is not only, showing; God may show mercy, and truth, by way of offering it, and withdraw it again, as he doth from unworthy receivers of the Sacrament; he may show it, by way of example; and encourage us by seeing how he hath dealt with others; he may show it, and exclude us from it; as he shown Moses the land of promise. But there it is only Videre fecit, 
Deut. ult.  but here it is fecit itself; there it was a land which God shown, here it is Mercies, and Truths, quas fecisti, which thou hast done, and performed towards me; and then comes David especially to his quid retribuam tibi, when he considers omnia quae tribuisti mihi. 
Psal. 116.  Thine O Lord, says he, is greatness, and power, and glory and victory and praise; all that is in heaven, and earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, riches, and honour come of thee, in thy hand it is to make great, 
1 Cro. 29.14.  and to give strength: But who am I said David, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer willingly, after this sort: all things came from thee; and of thine own hand, have we given thee. Why thus much was David, thus much was his people, thus much are all they, to whom God hath done so, in mercy, and in truth, and hath made gracious promises, and performed them, that they are thereby become debtors to God, his stewards, his servants; which is jacob's last step in this part, mercies and truths which thou hast showed, to thy servant.  
All this greatness, makes him not proud: for all this, 
Servus.  he is not the less his servant, whose service is perfect freedom. Here men that serve inferior masters, when they mend in their estate, or in their capacity, they affect higher services, and at last the Kings; when they are there, they can serve no better master, but they may serve him, in a better, and better place; if thou have served the world, and Mammon, all this while, yet now that thou hast wherewithal, come into God's service; show thy love to God, in employing that which thou hast, to his glory; if thou gottest that which thou hast, in his service (as if thou gottest it by honest ways, in thy calling, thou hast done so) yet come to serve him in a better place; in gathering, thou hast but served him in his mines, 
Aug.  in distributing thou shalt serve him in his treasury. If thou have served him in fetters, Noli timere serve compedite, sed confitere, Domino & vertentur in ornamenta; let not thy fetters, thy narrow fortune, terrify thee; thy fetters, thy low estate, shall be rings, and collars, and garters, not only sufficiencies, but abundance, and ornaments to thee: what dishes soever he set before thee, still let this be thy grace, Parvus sum, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.  

2. Part Quia.  We have passed through all the branches, of that which we proposed for the first part, the confession of his own unworthiness. We found a second part implied in this word, for; which was, that this acknowledgement of his proceeded not out of formality and custom, or stupidity, and dejection, but out of debatement, and consideration and reason; and then we found that reason deduced and derived into these two great branches, what his former state had been, With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and what his present state was, I am become two bands. For the reason in general, he that does any spiritual duty even towards God, in praising, and magnifying him, and not upon good, reason, this man flatters God; not that he can say more good, than is always true of God; but towards God, as well as towards man, it is true, that he that speaks more good than himself believes to be true, he flatters, how true soever it be that he speaks. 
Pro. 27.14.  Such praise shall be counted as a curse; and such oil breaks a man's head. Those Sceptic philosophers, that doubted of all, though they affirmed nothing, yet they denied nothing neither, but they saw no reason in the opinions of others.  
Those Sceptic Christians, that doubt whether God have any particular providence, any care of particular actions; those which doubt, whether the history of Christ be true, or no; those doubting men, that conform themselves outwardly with us, because that may be true, that we profess, for any thing they know, there may be a Christ, & they might be the worse, for any thing they know, if they left him out, they might prove worse, and in the mean time they enjoy temporal peace, & benefit of the Laws by this outward profession of theirs; those men that sacrifice to Christ Jesus only, ne noceat, lest if there be such a God, they should lose him for want of a sacrifice, that worship Christ Jesus with a reservation of the pretended God, that if he prove God at last, they have done their part, if he do not, yet they are never the worse; these men, who if they come to Church, think themselves safe enough, but they are deceived; The Militant, and the Triumphant Church is all one Church, but above in the triumphant Church, there are other Churchwardens, than here, & though he come to do the outward acts of religion, if he do it without a religious heart, they know him to be a Recusant, for all his coming to Church here, he shall be excommunicate in the triumphant there. He praises not God, he prays not to God, he worships him not, whatsoever he does, if he have not considered it, debated it, concluded it, to be rightly done, and necessarily done. If he think any thing else better done, this is not well done.  
Jacob had concluded it out of the contemplation of his former, and present state; 
Exul.  first he had been banished from his Country; I came over Jordan, Herein he was a figure of Christ; he received a blessing ●rom his father, and presently he must go into banishment; Christ received presents and adoration from the Magis of the east, and presently he submits himself to a banishment in Egypt, for the danger that Herod intended. Christ's Banishment, as it could not be less than four years, so it could not be more than seven; jacob's was twenty, a banishment, and a long banishment. Banishment is the first punishment executed upon man; he was banished out of Paradise; and it is the last punishment, that we shall be redeemed from, when we shall be received entirely body and soul, into our Country, into heaven. It is true our life in this world is not called a banishment any any where in the Scripture: but a pilgrimage, a peregrination, a travel; but peregrinatio cum ignominia conjunctu, exilium; he that leaves his Country because he was ashamed, or afraid to return to it, or to stay in it, is a banished man. Briefly for jacob's case here, S. Bernard expresses it well in his own, est common exilium, there is one banishment common to us all, in corpore peregrinamur a duo, we travel out of our Country at least; but, Accessit & speciale, quoth me pene inpatientem reddit quod cogarvicere sine vohis. This was a particular misery, in his banishment, that Jacob must live from his father, and mother, and from that Country, where he was to have the fruits, and effects of that blessing which he had got.  
He came away then, and he came away poor: 
Baculus.  in baculo with a staff; God expresses sometimes abundance, and strength, in baculo, in that word. Oftentimes he calls plenty, by that name, the staff of bread. But jacob's is no Metaphorical staff, it is a real staff, the companion, and the support of a poor travelling man. When Christ enjoins his Apostles to an exact poverty, for one journey, which they were to dispatch quickly, S. Matthew expresses his commandment thus, possess no moneys, nor two coats nor a shoe, nor a staff; S. Mark expresses the same commandment thus, take none of those with you, except a staff only. The fathers go about to reconcile this, by taking staff in both places figuratively; that the staff forbidden in Matthew, should be potestas puniendi, the power of correcting which the Apostle speaks of, Num quid vultis vemam in virga? 
1 Cor. 4.21.  shall I come to you with a rod, or in love? And that the staff allowed in Mark, is potestas consolandi, 
Psal. 25.4.  the power of comforting which David speaks of, Virga tua, & baculus tuus, ipsa me consolata sunt, Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Christ spoke this but once, but in his language, the Syriack, he spoke it in a word that hath two significations. Shebat, is both Baculus defensorius, and Baculus sustentatorius. A staff of sustentation, and a staff of defence; God that spoke in Christ's Syriack, spoke in the Evangelists Greek too; and both belong to us; and both the Evangelists intending the use of the staff, and not the staff itself, 3. Matthew in that word forbids any staff, of violence or defence, S. Mark allows a staff of sustentation, and support; and such a staff, and no more had Jacob, a staff to sustain him upon his way. Hath this then been thy state with Jacob, that thou hast not only been without the staff of bread, plenty, and abundance of temporal blessings, but without the staff of defence, that when the world hath snarled and barked at thee, and that thou wouldst justly have beaten a dog, yet thou couldst not find a staff, thou hadst no means to right thyself? yet he hath not left thee without a staff of support, a staff to try how deep the waters be, that thou art to wade through, that is thy Christian constancy, and thy Christian discretion: use that staff aright, and as Christ, who sent his Apostles without any staff of defence once, 
Luke 22.36  afterward gave them leave to carry swords, so at his pleasure, and in his measure, he will make thy staff, a sword, by giving thee means to defend thyself, and others over whom he will give thee charge, and jurisdiction in exalting thee.  

Suus.  But herein in doing so, God assists thee with the staff of others; with the favour and support of other men; Jacob was first in Baculo, and in suo, nothing but a staff; no staff but his own; truly his own for we call other staffs ours, 
Hos. 4.12.  which are not ours, My people ask counsel of their stocks, and their staff teacheth them; that is, they have made their own wisdom, their own plots, their own industry, their staff; upon which they should not rely, & so we trust to a broken staff of reed, 
2 Reg. 18.21.  on which, if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it, when God hath given thee a staff of thine own, a leading staff, a competency, a conveniency to lead thee through the difficulties, and encumbrances of this world, if thou put a pike into thy staff, murmuring at thine own, envying superiors, oppressing inferiors, than this piked staff is not thy staff, nor God's staff, but it is Baculus inimici hominis; and the envious man in the Gospel, is the devil. If God have made thy staff to blossom, and bear ripe fruit in a night, enriched thee, preferred thee a pace, this is not thy staff; it is a Mace, & a mark of thy office, that he hath made thee his Steward of those blessings. To end this, a man's own staff, truly, properly, is nothing but his own natural faculties: nature is ours, but grace is not ours; and he that is left to this staff of his own, for heaven, is as ill provided, as Jacob was, for this world, when he was left to his own staff at Jordan, when he was banished; and banished in poverty, and banished alone.  
Thus far we have seen Jacob in his low estate; 
Revertitur.  now we bring him to his happiness: in which it is always one degree to make haste; and so we will; all is comprised in this that is, was present. Now I am two bands, now; it was first now, quando revertitur, now when he returned to his Country, for he was come very near it, when he speaks of Jordan, as though he stood by it, I came over this Jordan. It is hard to say, whether the returning to a blessing, formerly possessed, and lost for a while, be not a greater pleasure, than the coming to a new one. It is S. Augustins' observation, that that land, 
Aug.  which is so often called the land of promise, was their land from the beginning, from the beginning Sem, of whom they came dwelled there: and though God restored them by a miraculous power, to their possession, yet still it was a returning: and so the blessing is ever more expressed; a return from Egypt, a return from Babylon; and a return from their present dispersion is that, which comforts them still, Christ himself had this apprehension, clarifica me, Glorify me, thou father, 
Joh. 17.5.  with that glory, which I had with thee before the world was. Certainly our best assurance of salvation, is but a returning to our first state, in the decree of God for our election; when we can consider, our interest, in that decree we return. Our best state in this life, is but a returning, to the purity, which we had in our baptism; whosoever surprises himself in the act or in the remorse of any sin that he is fallen into, would think himself in a blessed state, if he could bring his conscience to that peace again, which he remembers, he had the last time he made up his accounts to God, and had his discharge sealed in the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ Jesus. Cleanse thyself often therefore, and accustom thy soul to that peace, that thou mayest still, when thou fallest into sin, have such a state in thy memory, as thou mayest have a desire to return to: and the Spirit of God shall still return to thee, 
Eccles. 12.7.  who lovest to receive it, and at last thy spirit, shall return to him that gave it, and gave his own spirit for it.  
jacob's happiness appears first now, quando revertitur; 
Jubenr● Domino.  and now, quando jubente Domino, now, when he returned, and now when he returned upon Gods bidding, God had said unto him, 
Gen. 31.3.  turn again into the land of thy fathers, and I will be with thee, Think no step to be directly made towards preferment, if thou have not heard God's voice directing the way. Stre in usque; stand upon the ways, and inquire not of thy fathers, but of the God of thy fathers, which way thou shalt go: for God's voice may be heard in every action, if we will stand still a little, and hearken to it. Remember ever more, that Applica Ephod; 
1 Sam. 30.7.  where David comes to ask counsel of the Lord, he said to Abiathar, Applica Ephod; bring the Ephod; and there David asks, Shall I follow this company, shall I overtake them? when thou doubtest of any thing, Applica Ephod, take this book of God: if, to thine understanding, that reach not home punctually to thy particular case, thou hast an Ephod in thyself; God is not departed from thee; thou knowest by thyself, it is a vain complaint that Plutrarch makes, desectu oraculorum, that oracles are ceased; there is no defect of oracles in thine own bosom; as soon as thou askest thyself, how may I corrupt the integrity of such a Judge, undermine the strength of such a great person, shake the chastity of such a woman, thou hast an answer quickly it must be done by bribing, it must be done by swearing, it must be done by calumniating. Here is no defectus Oraculorum no ceasing of Oracles, there is a present answer from the Devil. There is no defect of the Vrim, and Thummim of God neither, If thou wilt look into it, for as it is well said of the Moral Man, Sua cuique providentia Deus every man's Diligence, and discretion, is a God to himself so it is well said, of the Christian Father Augustin Rectaratio Verbum Dei a rectified Conscience is the word of God. Applica Ephod, bring thine Actions to the question of the Ephod, to the debatment of thy conscience rectified, and still shalt hear, Jubentem Dominus or duni Revocantem, God will bid thee stop, or God will bid thee go forwards in that way.  

Angeli.  But herein had Jacob another degree of happiness, That the Commandment of God, was pursued with the Testimony of Angels. Not that the voice of God needs strength; Teste me ipso witness myself, was always witness enough; and Quia os Domini Locutum. The Mouth of the Lord: hath spoken it was always seal enough. But that hath been God's abundant, And overflowing goodness ever to succour the infirmity of Man, with sensible and visible things; unto the pillars in the Wilderness; with the Tabarnacle after; and with the temple and all the Mysterious, and significative furniture thereof after all. So God leaves not Jacob to the general knowledge, that the Angels of God protect God's Children, but he manifested those Angels unto him, Occurrerunt ei. the Angels of God met him. The word of God is an infallible guide to thee, But God hath provided thee also visible, and manifest assistants, the Pillar, his Church and the Angels his Ministers in the Church. The Scripture is thine only Ephod, but Applica Ephod, apply it to thee by his Church, and by his visible Angels, and not by thine own private interpretation.  
This was jacob's nunc; now, when he was returned, 
2. Turmae.  returned upon God's Commandment; upon God's Commandment pursued, and testified by Angels, and Angels visibly manifested; now, he could take a comfort in the contemplation of his fortune, of his estate, to see, that he was two bands. Here's a great change; we see his vow; and we see how far his wishes extended at his going out; 
Gen. 28.20  If God will give me bread to eat, and  to put on, so that I come again unto my father's house in safety, then shall the Lord be my God, In which vow is included all the service that he could exhibit, or retribute to God. Now his staff is become a sword; a strong Army; his one staff now is multiplied; his wives are given for staffs to assist him, and his children given also for staffs to his age. His own staff is become the greatest, and best part of Laban's wealth; In such plenty, as that he could spare a present to Esau, of at least five hundred head of cattles. The fathers make Moral expositions of this; That his two bands are his Temporal blessings and his spiritual: And St. Augustin finds a tipical allusion in it of Christ, 
Aug.  Baculo Crucis Christus apprehendit mundum; & cum duabus turmis duobus populis, ad patrem rediit: Christ by his staff, his Cross, mustered two bands, that is Jews, and Gentiles. We find enough for our purpose, in taking it literally, as we see it in the Text; That he divided all his company, and all his cattles into two troops, that if Esau come, and smite one, the other might scape. For then only is a fortune full, when there is something for Leakage, for waste; when a Man, though he may justly fear, that this shall be taken from him, yet he may justly presume, that this shall be left to him; though he lose much, yet he shall have enough. And this was jacob's increase and height; and from this lowness; from one staff, to two bands. And therefore, since in God we can consider but one state Semper idem immutable; since in the Devil, we can consider but two states Quomodo cecidit filius Orientis, that he was the son of the Morning, but is, and shall ever be for ever the child of everlasting death; since in Jacob and in ourselves we can consider first, that God made man righteous, secondly that man betook himself to his one staff, and his own staff, The imaginations of his own heart, Thirdly; That by the word of God manifested by his Angels, he returns with two bands, Body and Soul, to his heavenly father again, let us attribute all to his goodness, and confess to him and the world, That we are not worthy of the least of all his Mercies, and of all the Truth which he hath showed unto his Servant, for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.   

A SERMON Preached at Whitehall. 
Serm. 13.  April 19 1618. SERMON XIII.  1 Tim. 1.15. 
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners; of which I am the chiefest.  
THE greatest part of the body of the old-Testament is Prophecy, and that is especially of future things: The greatest part of the new-Testament, if we number the pieces, is Epistles, Relations of things past, for instruction of the present. They err not much, that call the whole new-Testament Epistle: For, even the Gospels are Evangelia, good Messages, and that's proper to an Epistle, and the book of the Acts of the Apostles is superscribed, by Saint Luke, to one Person, to Theophilus, and that's proper to an Epistle; and so is the last book, the book of Revelation, to the several Churches; and of the rest there is no question, An Epistle is collucutio scripta, says Saint Ambrose, Though it be written far off, and sent, yet it is a Conference, and seperatos copulat, says he; by this means we overcome distances, we deceive absences, and we are together even then when we are asunder: And therefore, in this kind of conveying spiritual comfort to their friends, have the ancient Fathers been more exercised then in any other former, almost all of them have written Epistles: One of them, Isidorus, him whom we call Peluciotes, Saint Chrysostom's scholar is noted to have written Myriad, 
Nicephor.  and in those Epistles, to have interpreted the whole Scriptures: St. Paul gave them the example, he writ nothing but in this kind, and in this exceeded all his fellow Apostles, & pateretur Paulus, quod Saulus seceret, says St. Austin, That as he had asked Letters of Commission of the State to persecute Christians, so by these Letters of Consolation, he might recompense that Church again, which he had so much damnified before: As the Hebrew Rabbins say, That Rahab did let down Jofuah's spies, out of her house, with the same cord, with which she had used formerly to draw up her adulterous lovers, into her house. Now the holy-Ghost was in all the Authors, of all the books of the Bible, but in Saint Paul's Epistles, there is, says Irenaeus, Impetus Spiritus Sancti, The vehemence, the force of the holy-Ghost; And as that vehemence is in all his Epistles, so amplius habent, quae e vinculis (as Saint chrysostom makes the observation) Those Epistles which were written in Prison, have most of this holy vehemence, and this (as that Father notes also) is one of them; And of all them, we may justly conceive this to be the most vehement and forcible, in which he undertakes to instruct a Bishop in his Episcopal function, which is, to propagate the Gospel; for, he is but an ill Bishop that leaves Christ where he found him, in whose time the Gospel is yet no farther than it was; how much worse is he, in whose time the Gospel loses ground? who leaves not the Gospel in so good state as he found it. Now of this Gospel, here recommended by Paul to Timothy, this is the Sum; That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners, etc.  

Division.  Here than we shall have these three Parts; First Radicem, The Root of the Gospel, from whence it springs; it is fidelis sermo, a faithful Word, which cannot err: And secondly, we have Arborem, Corpus; the Tree, the Body, the substance of the Gospel, That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; And then lastly, fructum Evangelii, the fruit of the Gospel, Humility, that it brings them who embrace it, to acknowledge themselves to be the greatest sinners, And in the first of these, the Root itself, we shall pass by these steps: First, that it is Sermo, the Word; That the Gospel hath as good a ground as the Law; the new-Testament as well founded as the Old; It is the word of God: And then it is fidelis Sermo, a faithful Word: now both Old and New are so, and equally so; but in this, the Gospel is fidelior, the more faithful, and the more sure, because that word, the Law, hath had a determination, an expiration, but the Gospel shall never have that. And again, It is Sermo omni acceptatione dignus, Worthy of all acceptation; not only worthy to be received by our Faith, but even by our Reason too; our Reason cannot hold out against the proofs of Christians for their Gospel: And as the word imports it deserves omnem acceptationem, and omnem approbationem, all approbation, and therefore, as we should not dispute against it, and so are bound to accept it, to receive it, not to speak against it; so neither should we do any thing against it; as we are bound to receive it by acknowledgement, so we are bound to approve it, by conforming ourselves unto it; our consent to it shows our acceptation, our life our approbation; and so much is in the first Part, the Root; This is a faithful Word, and worthy of all acceptation. And in the Second, the Tree, the Body, the substance of the Gospel; That Jesus Christ is come into the World to save Sinners; First, here is an Advent, a coming of a new Person into the World who was not here before, venit in mundum, he came into the World; And secondly, he that came, is first Christ, a mixed Person, God and Man, and thereby capable of that Office, able to reconcile God and Man; And Christus so to, a person anointed, appointed, and sent for that purpose, to reconcile God and Man; And then he is Jesus, one did actually and really do the office of a Saviour, he did reconcile God and Man; for, there we see also the Reason why he came; He came to Save, and whom he came to Save; to save Sinners: And these will be the branches and limbs of this Body. And then lastly, when we come to consider the fruit, which is indeed the seed, and kernel, and soul of all virtues Humility; then we shall meet the Apostle confessing himself to be the greatest Sinner, not only with a fui, that he was so whilst he was a Persecutor, but with a present sum, that even now, after he had received the faithful Word, the light of the Gospel, yet he was still the greatest Sinner; of which (Sinners) I (though an Apostle) am (am still) the chiefest,  
First then, the Gospel is founded and rooted in sermone, 
Part 1.  in verbo, in the Word; it cannot deserve omnem acceptationem, if it be not Gospel, and it is not Gospel, if it be not in sermone, rooted in the Word: Christ himself, as he hath an eternal Generation, is verbum Dei, Himself is the Word of God; And as he hath a humane Generation, he is subjectum verbi Dei, the subject of the Word of God, of all the Scriptures, of all that was shadowed in the Types, and figured in the Ceremonies, and prepared in the preventions of the Law, of all that was foretold by the Prophets, of all that the Soul of man rejoiced in, and congratulated with the Spirit of God, in the Psalms, and in the Canticles, and in the cheerful parts of spiritual joy and exultation, which we have in the Scriptures; Christ is the foundation of all those Scriptures, Christ is the burden of all those Songs; Christ was in sermone then, than he was in the Word. The joy of those holy Persons which are noted in the Scriptures, to have expressed their joy at the birth of Christ, in such spiritual Hymns and Songs, is expressed so, as that we may see their joy was in this, That that was now in actu, that was performed, that was done which was before in sermone, in the Promise, in the Word, in the Covenant of God. They rejoiced that Christ was borne; but principally that all was done so, sicut locutus, as God had spoken before, that all should be done; done of the seed of a Woman, as God had said in Paradise, done by a Virgin, as God had said by Esai, done at Bethlehem, as he had said by Micheas; and done at that time, as he had said by Daniel; Sicut locutus est, says Zacharie, in his exultation, All is performed as he hath spoke by the mouth of the Prophets, which have been since the World began. There in the Word, the Gospel gins, and there, and there only, it shall continue for ever, as long as there is any spiritual seed of Abraham, any men willing to embrace it, and apply it, as the blessed Virgin expresses it, when her Soul magnifies the Lord, and her Spirit rejoices in God her Saviour; sicut locutus, as God hath spoken to our Fathers, to Abraham and his seed for ever: so then there never was, there never must be any other Gospel than is in sermone, in the written word of God in the Scriptures. The particular comfort that a Christian conceives, as it is determined and contracted in himself, is principally in this, that Christ is come; his comfort is in this, that he is now saved by him; and he might have this comfort, though Christ had never been in sermone, though he had never been prophesied, never spoken of before: But yet the proof and ground of this comfort to himself, that is, the assurance that he hath, That this was that Christ that was to save us; and then, the munition and artillery by which he is to overthrow the forces of the enemy, the arguments and objections of Jews, Gentiles and Heretics, who deny this Christ in whose salvation he trusts, to have then any such Saviour: And then the Band of the Church, the Communion of Saints, by which we should prove, That the Patriarches and the Apostles, our Fathers in the old and new Testament, do belong all to one Church; this assurance in ourselves; this ability to prove it to others; this joining of these two walls, to make up the household of the faithful: This is not only that, that the sum of the Gospel is risen, in that Christ is come, but in this, that he is come sicut locutus est, as God had spoken of him, and promised him by the mouth of his Prophets from the beginning, as he was in sermone, in the word.  
In the first Creation, when God made heaven and earth, that making was not in sermone, for that could not be prophesied before, because there was no being before; neither is it said, that at that Creation God said any thing, but only creavit, God made heaven and earth, and no men; so that that which was made sine sermone, without speaking, was only matter without form, heaven without light, and earth without any productive virtue or disposition, to bring forth, and to nourish creatures. But when God came to those specifique forms, and to those creatures wherein he would be sensibly glorified after, they were made in sermone, by his word; Dixit & facta sunt, God spoke, and so all things were made; Light and Firmament, Land and Sea, Plants and Beasts, and Fishes and Fowls were made all in sermone, by his word. But when God came to the best of his creatures, to Man, Man was not only made in verbo, as the rest were, by speaking a word, but by a Consultation, by a Conference, by a Counsel, faciamus hominem, let us make Man; there is a more express manifestation of divers persons speaking together, of a concurrence of the Trinity; and not of a saying only, but a mutual saying; not of a Proposition only, but of a Dialogue in the making of Man: The making of matter alone was sine verbo, without any word at all; the making of lesser creatures was in verbo, by saying, by speaking; the making of Man was in in sermone, in a consultation. In this first Creation thus presented there is a shadow, a representation of our second Creation, our Regeneration in Christ, and of the saving knowledge of God; for first there is in Man a knowledge of God, sine sermone, without his word, in the book of Creatures: Non sunt loquelae, says David, 
Psal. 19  They have no language, they have no speech, and yet they declare the glory of God. The correspondence and relation of all parts of Nature to one Author, the consinuity and dependence of every piece and joint of this frame of the world, the admirable order, the immutable succession, the lively and certain generation, and birth of effects from their Parents, the causes: in all these, though there be no sound, no voice, yet we may even see that it is an excellent song, an admirable piece of music and harmony; and that God does (as it were) play upon this Organ in his administration and providence by natural means and instruments; and so there is some kind of creation in us, some knowledge of God imprinted, sine sermone, without any relation to his word. But this is a Creation as of heaven and earth, which were dark and empty, and without form, till the Spirit of God moved, and till God spoke: Till there came the Spirit, the breath of God's mouth, the word of God, it is but a faint twilight, it is but an uncertain glimmering which we have of God in the Creature: But in sermone, in his word, when we come to him in his Scriptures, we find better and nobler Creatures produced in us, clearer notions of God, and more evident manifestations of his power, and of his goodness towards us: for if we consider him in his first word, sicut locutus ab initio, as he spoke from the beginning in the Old Testament, from thence we cannot only see, but feel and apply a Dixit, fiat lux, that God hath said, let there be light; and that there is a light produced in us, by which we see, that this world was not made by chance, for than it could not consist in this order and regularity; and we see that it was not eternal, for if it were eternal as God, and so no Creature, than it must be God too; we see it had a beginning, a beginning of nothing, and all from God. So we find in ourselves a fiat lux, that there is such a light produced: And there we may find a fiat firmamentum, that there is a kind of firmament produced in us, a knowledge of a difference between Heaven and Earth; and that there is in our constitutions an earthly part, a body, and a heavenly part, a soul, and an understanding as a firmament, to separate, distinguish and discern between these. So also may we find a congregenter aquae, that God hath said, Let there be a sea, a gathering, a confluence of all such means as are necessary for the attaining of salvation; that is, that God from the beginning settled and established a Church, in which he was always careful to minister to man means of eternal happiness: The Church is that Sea, and into that Sea we launched the water of Baptism. To contract this sine sermone, till God spoke, in his Creatures only, we have but a faint and uncertain, and general knowledge of God: in sermone, when God comes to speak at first in the Old Testament, though he come to more particulars, yet it was in dark speeches, and in vails, and to them who understood best, and saw clearest into God's word; still it was but the futuro, by way of promise, and of a future thing. But when God comes to his last work, to make Man, to make up Man, that is, to make Man a Christian by the Gospel, when he comes not to a fiat homo, Let there be a Man (as he proceeded in the rest) but to a faciamus hominem, Let us make Man: Then he calls his Son to him, and sends him into the world to suffer death, the death of the Cross for our salvation: And he calls the Holy Ghost to him, and sends him to teach us all truth, and apply that which Christ suffered for our souls, to our souls. God leaves the Nations, the Gentiles, under the non locutus est; he speaks not at all to them, but in the speechless creatures: He leaves the Jews under the locutus est, under the kill letter of the Law, and their stubborn perverting thereof: And he comes to us, sicut locutus est, in manifesting to us that our Messiah, Christ Jesus, is come, and come according to the promise of God, and the foretelling of all his Prophets; for that is our safe anchorage in all storms, that our Gospel is in sermone that all things are done, so as God had foretold they should be done; that we have infallible marks given us before, by which we may try all that is done after.  
All the word of God than conduces to the Gospel; the Old Testament is a preparation and a poedagogie to the New. All the word belongs to the Gospel, and all the Gospel is in the word; nothing is to be obtruded to our faith as necessary to salvation, except it be rooted in the Word. And as the locutus est, that is, the promises that God hath made to us in the Old Testament; and the sicut locutus est, that is, the accomplishing of those promises to us in the New-Testament, are thus appliable to us; so is this especially, Quod adhuc loquitur, that God continues his speech, and speaks to us every day; still we must hear Evangelium in sermone, the Gospel in the Word, in the Word so as we may hear it, that is, the Word preached; for howsoever it be Gospel in itself, it is not Gospel to us if it be not preached in the Congregation; neither, though it be preached to the Congregation, is it Gospel to me, except I find it work upon my understanding and my faith, and my conscience: A man may believe that there shall be a Redeemer, and he may give an Historical assent, that there hath been a Redeemer, that that Redeemer is come, he may have heard utrumque sermonem, both God's ways of speaking, both his voices, both his languages; his promises in the Old Testament, his performances in the New Testament, and yet not hear him speak to his own soul: Farm Apostoli plus laborarunt, says S. Chrys. It cost the Apostles, and their Successors, the preachers of the Gospel, more pains and more labour, ut persuaderent hominibus, dona Dei iis indulta, To persuade men that this mercy of God, and these merits of Christ Jesus were intended to them, and directed upon them, in particular, then to persuade them that such things were done: they can believe the promise, and the performance in the general, but they cannot find the application thereof in particular; the voice that is nearest us we least hear, not because God speaks not loud enough, but because we stop our ears; nor that neither; for we do hear, but because we do not hearken then, nor consider; no nor that neither, but because we do not answer, nor cooperate, nor assist God, in doing that which he hath made us able to do, by his grace towards our own Salvation. For (not to judge De iis qui foris sunt) of those whom God hath left (for any thing we know) in the dark, and without means of Salvation, because without manifestation of Christ; we are Christians incorporated in Christ in his Church; and thereby, by that Title, we have a new Creation, and are new creatures; and as we shall have a new Jerusalem hereafter, so we have a new Paradise already, which is the Christian Church. In this Paradise saith St. Augustine, Quatuor Evangelia ligna fructifera; In the books of the Gospel, as they grow, and as they are suplicated in the Church, grows every Tree pleasant for the sight, and good for meat: And there, says that Father, lignum vitae Christus, Christ Jesus himself (as he is taught he that gives life to all our actions; and even so our faith itself, which faith qualifies and dignifies those actions: And then, says from the Scriptures, in the Church) is the Tree of Life, for it is he, As Christ alone, in this Paradise, that is, the christian Church, is this Tree of life, so lignum scientiae boni & mali, The Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, is Proprium voluntatis arbitrium, the good use of our own Will, after God hath enlightened us in this Paradise, in the Christian Church, and so restored our dead will again, by his Grace precedent and subsequent, and concommitant: for, without such Grace and such succession of Grace, our Will is so far unable to pre-dispose itself to any good, as that nec scipso, homo, nisi perniciose uti potest (says he still) we have no interest in ourselves no power to do any thing of, or with ourselves, but to our destruction. Miserable man! a Toad is a bag of Poison, and a Spider is a blister of Poison, and yet a Toad and a Spider cannot poison themselves; Man hath a dram of poison, originall-Sin, in an invisible corner, we know not where, and he cannot choose but poison himself and all his actions with that; we are so far from being able to begin without Grace, as then where we have the first Grace, we cannot proceed to the use of that, without more. But yet, says Saint Augustine; The Will of a Christian so rectified and so assisted, the lignum scientiae, the Tree of knowledge, and he shall be the worse for knowing, if he live not according to that knowledge; we were all wrapped up in the first Adam, all Mankind; and we are wrapped up in the second Adam, in Christ, all Mankind too; but not in both alike; for we are so in the first Adam, as that we inherit death from him, and incur death whether we will or no; before any consent of ours be actually given to any Sin, we are the children of wrath, and of death; but we are not so in the second Adam, as that we are made possessors of eternal life, without the concurrence of our own Will; not that our will pays one penny towards this purchase, but our own will may forfeit it; it cannot adopt us, but it may disinherit us. Now, by being planted in this Paradise, and received into the Christian Church, we are the adopted sons of God, and therefore, as it is in Christ, who is the natural Son of God, Qui non nascitur & desinit, as Origen expresses it, He was not born once and no more, but hath a continual, because an eternal generation, and is as much begotten to day, as he was 100 1000 1000 millions of generations passed; so since we are the generation and offspring of God, since Grace is our Father, that Parent that begets all goodness in us, In similitudine ejus, says Origen, conformable to the Pattern Christ himself, Qui non nascitur & desinit, who hath a continual generation, Generemur Domino per singulos intellectus, & singula opera, in all the acts of our understanding, and in a ready concurrence of our Will, let us every day, every minute feel this new generation of spiritual children; for it is a miserable short life, to have been borne when the glass was turned, and died before it was run out: to have conceived some good Motions at the beginning, and to have given over all purpose of practice at the end of a Sermon. Let us present our own will as a mother to the father of light, and the father of life, and the father of love, that we may be willing to conceive by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, and not resist his working upon our Souls; but with the obedience of the blessed Virgin, may say, Ecce ancilla, Behold the servant of the Lord, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum, Be it done unto me according to thy Word; I will not stop mine ears to thy Word, my heart shall not doubt of thy word, my life shall express my having heard and hearkened to thy word, that word which is the Gospel, that Gospel which is peace to my Conscience, and reconciliation to my God, and Salvation to my Soul; for, hearing is but the conception, meditation is but the quickening, purposing is but the birth, but practising is the growth of this blessed child.  

Fidelis.  The Gospel then, that which is the Gospel to thee, that is, the assurance of the peace of Conscience, is grounded in sermone, upon the word; not upon imaginations of thine own, not upon fancies of others, nor pretended inspirations, nor obtruded Miracles, but upon the word; and not upon a suspicious and questionable, not upon an uncertain or variable word, but upon this, that is fidelis sermo, This is a faithful saying. It is true, that this Apostle seems to use this phrase of speech, as an earnest asseveration, and a band for divers truths in other places: He says sometimes, This is a true saying, and This is a faithful saying, when he does not mean, that it is the word of God, but only intends to induce a moral certitude, when he would have good credit to be given to that which follows, he uses to say so, fidelis sermo, it is a true, it is a faithful saying: But in all those other places where he uses this phrase, he speaks only of some particular duties, or of some particular point of Religion; but here he speaks of the whole body of Divinity, of the whole Gospel, That Christ is come to save Sinners, and therefore more may be intended by this phrase here, then in other places: When he speaks of that particular point, The Resurrection, he uses this phrase, It is a true saying; If we be dead with him we shall also live with him; 
2 Tim. 2.11.  when he would invite men to godliness, even by the reward which accompany it in this life, he uses this addition, this confirmation, For this is a true saying, and worthy to be received; 
1 Tim. 4 9  when he gives a dignity to the function and office of the Ministry, he proposes it so, It is a true saying; If any man desire the Office of a Bishop, 
1 Tim. 3.5.  he desireth a good work; it is a work, not an occasion and opportunity of ease. And lastly, when he provokes men to glorify God, by good works, he labours to be believed, by the same phrase still, This is a true saying, and these things I would thou shouldst affirm, 
Tit. 3.8.  That they which have believed in God, might be careful to show forth good works. Till he have found faith, and belief in God, he never calls upon good works, he never calls them good; but when we have Faith, he would not have us stop nor determine there, but proceed to works too. It is a phrase which the Apostle does frequently, and almost proverbially use in these many places, but in all these places, upon particular and lesser occasions; but here, preparing the doctrine of the whole Gospel, this phrase admits a larger extent, That as it is grounded upon the Word, that is, we must have something to show for it; so it is upon a faithful word, upon that which is clearly, and without the encumbrance of disputation, the infallible word of God; no traditional word, no apocryphal word, but the clear and faithful word. Now of all the attributes, of all the qualities that can be ascribed to the word of God, this is most proper to itself, and most available, and most comfortable to us, that it is fidelis, a faithful word; For, this being a word that hath principally respect and relation to the fidelity of God, it implies necessarily a Covenant, a Contract with us, which God hath bound himself faithfully to perform unto us; and therefore God calls his Covenant with David by this name, fideles miserecordias David, An everlasting Covenant, 
Esai. 55.3 15.11.  even the sure mercies of David. And when the Prophet Jeremy apprehended a fear that God would break that Covenant which he had made with that Nation, which had broken with him, he expresses that passion in a word, contrary to this, and imputes out of his hasty fear, even infidelity to God, Why art thou unto me (says he there) as a Liar, & sicut aquae infideles, as unfaithful water, that I cannot trust to; or Aquae mendaces, as it is in the Original, lying waters, deceitful waters, that promise a continuance and do not perform it? Why dost thou pretend to make a Covenant with thy people and wilt not perform it faithfully? Most of Gods other attributes are accompanied with this in the Scriptures, whatsoever God is called besides, he is called fidelis, faithful too. In one place he is fortis & fidelis, 
Deut. 7 9  he is powerful; but if he turn his power vindicatively upon me, I were better if he were less powerful; but he hath made a Covenant with me, that he will turn his power upon those whom he hath called his Enemies, because they are mine, and therein lies my comfort, that he is a powerful and a faithful God. In another place, 
Esay. 49 7.  he is fidelis & sanctus; he is a holy God; but if he be so, and but so, how shall I, who am unholy, stand in his sight? He hath made a Covenant with me, that as they who looked upon the Serpent in the Wilderness, shed and cast out the venom of that serpent who had stung them before; so when I looked faithfully upon my Saviour, all my unholiness falls off as rags, and I shall be invested in his Righteousness, in his Holiness; and so in that lies my comfort, that he is a Holy and a Faithful God. Howsoever we consider God in the Schools, in his other attributes, yet here is my University and my Chair, here I must take my Degree, in my Heart, in my Conscience; and this is that that brings God home, and applies him closely to me, that he is fidelis, a faithful God; that in his mercy he hath made a Covenant with us, and in his faithfulness he will perform it. And therefore consider God in his first great work, 
1 Pet. 4.19.  his Creation, so he is fidelis Creator, let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit their Souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. He had gracious purposes upon us in our Creation, and he is faithful to his purposes; and so this faithful God is God the Father. Consider God in his next great work, the Redemption, 
Heb. 2.17.  and so he is fidelis Pontifex, a faithful high-Priest, in things concerning God, that he might make reconciliation for the sins of the People, and so this faithful God is God the Son. Consider God in his continuance and dwelling in the Church, usque ad consummationem, 
Apocal. 1.5.  till the end of the world, so he is fidelis Testis, He shall be evermore presenting to God, and testifying in our behalf, the Covenant which he hath sealed to the Church in his blood, and testifying to our spirit, that that seal belongs unto us; and so this faithful God is God the holy-Ghost; so that when we consider our Creation, we are not to consider a Creation to condemnation; God forbidden: When we consider a Redemption, we are not to consider it exclusively, as not intended to us; God forbidden: And when we consider God's presence and government in the Church, we are not to consider it in a Church whose doors are shut up against any of us, so as that we can have no Repentance, no absolution; God forbidden, we are not to consider God in those Decrees, wherein we cannot consider him as fidelem Deum; In those Decrees, which are not revealed to us, we know not whether he be faithful, or no; for we know not what his promise, what his purpose was: But as he hath manifested himself in his Word, as he hath made a conditional contract with us, so as that if we perform our part, he will perform his, and not otherwise; so we may be sure that he is fidelis Deus, a God that will stand to his word, a God that will perform his promises faithfully; for, though it were merely his Mercy, that made those promises, yet it is his fidelity, his Truth, his faithfulness, that binds him to the performance of them. 
Psal. 31.4. Rom. 3.9.  The faithful word of God hath said it; in the old-Testament, and in the New too; Let God be true, and every man a Lyar. The word of the man of Sin, the God of Rome, is a ; Pope Stephen abrogates all the Decrees of Pope Formosus, and so gives that  to him: Next year Pope Romanus abrogates all his, and so gives that  to him; and within seven years, Servius all his; and where was fidelis sermo, the faithful word all this while? When they send forth Bulls and Dispensations to take effect occasionally, and upon emergencies, That rebus sic stantibus; If you find matter in this State, this shall be Catholic Divinity; if not, than it shall be Heresy; where is this fidelis sermo, this faithful word amongst them? If for the space of a 1500 years, the twelve Articles of the Apostles Creed might have saved any man, but since as many more, Trent Articles must be as necessary; still where is that fidelis sermo, that faithful word which we may rely upon? God hath not bound himself, and therefore neither hath he bound us to any word but his own; In that only, and in all that we shall be sure to find him, Fidelem Deum, A faithful God.  
Now the Truth and Faithfulness of the Word, 
Acceptatio.  consists not only in this, quod verax, that it is true in itself, but in this also, quod testificatus, that it is established by good testimony to be so. It is therefore faithful because it is the word of God, and therefore also because it may be proved to be the word of God by humane testimonies; which is that which is especially intended in this clause, Omni acceptatione dignus, It is worthy of all acceptation; worthy to be received by our Faith, and by our Reason too: Our Reason tells us, that Gods will is revealed to Man somewhere, else man could not know how God would be worshipped; and our Reason tells us, that this is that Word in which that Will is revealed. And therefore the greatest part of the Latine-fathers', particularly Ambrose and Augustine, read these words otherwise; not fideliter, no, but Humanus sermo; and so many Greek Copies have it too, That it is a speech which man, not as he is a faithful man, but even as he is a reasonable man may comprehend, not as Saint Hierom will needs understand those words: Si Humanus & non Divinus, non esset omni acceptatione dignus; for that's undeniably true; if it came merely from man, and not from God, it were not worthy to be received by faith; but as S. Augustine expresses that which himself and S. Ambrose meant, sic Humanus & Divinus, quomodo Christus Deus & homo, as Christ is God too, so as that he is Man too; so the Scriptures are from God so, as that they are from Man too: the Gospel is a faithful word essentially, as it is the word of God, derived from him, and it is a faithful word too, declaratively, as it is presented by such light and evidence of Reason, and such testimonies of the Church, as even the reason of Man cannot refuse it: So that the reason of man accepts the Gospel, first out of a general notion, That the will of God must be revealed somewhere, and then he receives this for that Gospel, rather than the Alcoran of the Turks, rather than the Talmud of the Jews, out of those infinite and clear arguments which even his reason presents to him for that. And then, as when he compares Scripture with the book of Creatures and Nature, he finds that evidence more forcible than the other; and when he finds this Scripture compared with other pretended Scriptures, Koran or Talmud, he finds it to be of infinite power above them; so when he comes to the true Scriptures, and compares the new-Testament with the Old, the Gospel with the Law, he finds this to be a performance of those promises, a fulfilling of those Prophecies, a revelation of those Types and Figures and an accomplishment, and a possession of those hopes and those reversions; And when he comes to that argument which works most forcibly, and most worthily upon man's reason, which is Antiquistrum, That's best in matter of Religion that was first, there he sees the Gospel was before the Law: 
Gal. 3.17.  This I say, says the Apostle, that the Law, which was four hundred thirty years after, cannot disannul the Covenant, which was confirmed of God in respect of Christ; so shall always in respect of faith and in respect of Reason, It is worthy of acceptation; for, would thy Soul expatiate in that large contemplation of God in general? 
Rom. 1.1.  It is Evangelium Dei, the Gospel of God: wouldst thou contract this God into a narrower & more discernible station? 
Mar. 1.1.  It is Evangelium Jesu Christi, the Gospel of Jesus Christ: wouldst thou draw it nearer to the consideration of the effects? It is Evangelium pacis, 
Ephes. 6.15. Mar. 1.14. Revel. 14.6.  the Gospel of peace,; wouldst thou consider it here? Here it is Evangelium Regni, the Gospel of the kingdom, wouldst thou consider it hereafter? It is Evangelium aternum, the eternal Gospel, 
Act. 20.24.  wouldst thou see the way by it? it is Evangelium Gratiae, the Gospel of Grace; wouldst thou see the end of it? it is Evangelium gloriae, 
1 Tim. 1.11.  the Gospel of glory: It is worthy of all acceptation from thee, 
Gal. 1.  for the Angels of heaven can preach no other Gospel, without being accursed themselves.  
But the best and fullest acceptation is that which we called at first an Approbation, to prove that thou hast accepted it by thy life and conversation: That as thy faith makes no staggering at it, 
Approbatio.  nor thy Reason no argument against it, so thy actions may be arguments for it to others, to convince them that do not, and confirm them that do believe in it; for this word, which signifies in our ordinary use; the Gospel, Evangelium, was verbum , verbum forense a word of civil and secular use, before it was made Ecclesiastical; and as it had before in civil use, so it retains still, three significations: First it signified Bonum nuntium, a good and a gracious Message: And so, in spiritual use, it is the Message of God, who sent his Son; and it is the message of the Son, who sent the holy-Ghost. Secondly it signified Donum offerenti datum, the reward that was given to him that brought the good news: and so in our spiritual use, it is that spiritual tenderness that Religious good nature of the Soul (as we may have leave to call it) that appliableness, that Ductilenesse, that holy credulity which your bring to the hearing of the word, and that respect which you give to Christ, in his Ministers, who brings this Gospel unto you. And then Thirdly, it signifies Sacrificium Datori Immolatam, the Sacrifice which was offered to that God who sent this good Message; which in our spiritual use, is that which the Apostle exhorts the Romans to with the most earnestness, 
Rom. 1.12.  (and so do I you) I beseech you brothers by the mercies of God, that ye give up your Bodies a living Sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable serving of God: Now a reasonable service is that which in reason we are bound to do, and which in reason we think would most glorify him, in contemplation of whom that service is done; and that is done especially, when by a holy and exemplar life, we draw others to the love and obedience of the same Gospel which we profess: for then have we declared this true and faithful saying, this Gospel to have been worthy of all acceptation, when we have looked upon it by our reason, embraced it by our Faith, and declared it by our good works; and all these considerations arose out of that which at the beginning we called Radicem, the Root of this Gospel, the Word, the Scripture, the Tree itself, the Body of the Gospel, that is The coming of Christ, and the Reason of his coming, To save Sinners; And then the fruit of this Gospel, that Humility, by which the Apostle confesseth himself to be the greatest Sinner, we reserve for another exercise.   


Serm. 14.  A Second SERMON Preached at Whitehall. April 2. 1621. SERMON XIV.  1 Tim. 1.15. 
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners; of which I am the chiefest.  
WE have considered heretofore that which appertained to the Root, and all the circumstances thereof. That which belongs to the Tree itself, what this acceptable Gospel is, That Christ Jesus came into the World, to save Sinners; and then, that which appertains to the fruit of this Gospel, the Humility of the Apostle, in applying it to himself, Quorum ego, Of which Sinners I am the chiefest, were reserved for this time. In the first of these, that which we call the Tree, the Body of this Gospel, there are three branches; first an Advent, A coming; and secondly, the Person that came; and Lastly, the work for which he came. And in the first of these, we shall make these steps; First, that it is a new coming of a Person who was not here before, at least, not in that manner as he comes now, venit, He came; And Secondly, that this coming is in Act, not only in Decree; so he was come and slain ab initio, from all eternity, in God's purpose of our Salvation; nor come only in promise, so he came wrapped up in the first promise of a Messiah; in Paradise, in that ipse conteret, He shall bruise the Serpent's head; nor come only in the often renewing of that promise to Abraham, in semine tuo, In thy seed shall all Nations be blessed, nor only in the ratification and refreshing of that promise to Judah, Donec Silo, Till Silo come; and to David, in Solio tuo, The Sceptre shall not departed; nor as he came in the Prophets, in I says virgo concipiet, That he should come of a virgin, nor in Michaeas, Et tu Bethlem, That he should come out of that Town; but this is a Historical, not a Prophetical, an Actual not a Promissory coming; it is a coming already executed; venit, he came, he is come. And then Thirdly, venit in mundum, He came into the World, into the whole World, so that by his purpose first extends to all the Nations of the World, and then it shall extend to thee in particular, who art a part of this world; He is come into the world, and into thee. From hence, we shall descend to our second branch, to the considerations of the person that comes; and he is, first Christus, in which one name we find first his capacity to reconcile God and man, because he is a mixed person, uniting both in himself; and we find also his Commission to work this Reconciliation, because he is Christus, an anointed person, appointed by that unction, to that purpose; And thirdly, we find him to be Jesus, that is, actually a Saviour; that as we had first his capacity and his Commission in the name of Christ, so we might have the execution of this Commission in the name of Jesus. And then lastly, in the last branch of this part, we shall see the work itself, Venit salvare, He came to save; It is not offer, to offer it to them whom he did intent it to, but he came really and truly to save; It was not to show a land of promise to Moses, & then say, there it is, but thou shalt never come at it; It was not to show us salvation, & then say there it is, in Baptism it is, in Preaching, and in the other Sacrament, it is; but soft, there is a Decree of predestination against thee, and thou shalt have none of it; But venit salvare, He came to save; And whom? Sinners. Those, who the more they ackowledg themselves to be so, the nearer they are to this salvation.  
First then for the Advent, this coming of Christ, 
Part 1.  we have a Rule reasonable general in the school, Missio in divinis est novo modo operatio, Then is any person of the Trinity said to be sent, or to come, when they work in any place, or in any person in another manner or measure than they did before; yet that Rule doth not reach home, to the expressing of all come of the persons of the Trinity: The second person came more pretentially than so, more than in an extraordinary working and Energy, and execution of his power, if it be rightly apprehended by those Fathers, who in many of those Angels which appeared to the Patriarcks, and whose service God used in delivering Israel out of Egypt, and in giving them the Law in Sinai, to be the son of God himself to have been present, and many things to have been attributed to the Angels in those histories, which were done by the son of God, not only working, but present in that place, at that time. So also the Holy Ghost came more presentially than so, more than by an extraordinary extension of his power, when he came presentially and personally in the Dove, to seal John's Baptism upon Christ. But yet, though those pretential come of Christ as an Angel in the old Testament, and this coming of the Holy Ghost in a Dove in the New, were more than ordinary come, and more than extraordinary workings too, yet they were all far short of this coming of the son of God in this Text: for it could never be said properly in any of those cases, That that or that Angel, was the son of God, the second person, or that that Dove was the Holy Ghost, or the third person of the Trinity; but in this Advent, which we have in hand here, it is truly and properly said, this man is God, this son of Mary is the son of God, this Carpenter's son, is that very God that made the world. He came so to us, as that he became us, not only by a new and more powerful working in us, but by assuming our nature upon himself.  
It is a perplexed question in the School, (and truly the Balance in those of the middle age, very even) whether if Adam had not sinned, the son of God had come into the world, and taken our nature and our flesh upon him. Out of the infinite testimonies of the abundant love of God to man many concluded, that howsoever, though Adam had not sinned, God would have dignified the nature of man in the highest degree, that that nature was any ways capable off: and since it appears now, (because that hath been done) that the nature of man was capable of such assuming, by the Son of God, they argue, that God would have done this though Adam had not sinned. He had not come, say they, ut medicus, if man had not contracted that infection's sickness by Adam's sin; Christ had not come in the nature of a Physician, to recover him; non ut Redemptor say they, If man had not forfeited his interest and state in heaven by Adam's sin; Christ had not come in the nature of a Redeemer, but ut frater, ut Dominus, ad nobilitandum genus humanus, out of a brotherly love, and out of a royal favour, to exalt that nature which he did love, to impart and convey to us a greater and nobler state, than we had in our Creation: in such a respect, and to such a purpose, he should have come. But since they themselves who follow that opinion come to say, That that is the more subtle opinion, and the more agreeable to man's reason, (because man willingly embraces, and pursues any thing that conduces to the dignifying of his own nature) but that the other opinion, that Christ had not come, if our sins had not occasioned his coming, is magis conformis scriptures & magis honorat Deum, is more agreeable to the Scriptures, and derives more honour upon God: we cannot err, if we keep with the Scriptures, and in the way that leads to God's glory, and so say with St. August. Si homo non periisset, filius hominis non venisset, If man could have been saved otherwise, the son of God had not come in this manner: ot if that may be interpreted of his coming to suffer only, we may enlarge it with Leo, Creatura non fieret qui Creator mundi, He who was Creator of the world, had never become a Creature in the world, if our sins had not drawn him to it. It is usefully said by Aquinus, Deus ordinavit futura, ut futura erant: God hath appointed all future things to be, but to be so as they are, that is, necessary things necessarily, and contingent things contingently; absolute things absolutely, and conditional things conditionally; He hath decreed my salvation, but that salvation in Christ; He had decreed Christ's coming into this world, but a coming to save sinners. And therefore it is a frivolous interogatory, a lost question, an impertinent article, to inquire what God would have done if Adam had stood. But Adam is fallen, and we in him; and therefore though we may piously wish what St. Augustine, utinam non fuisset miseria ne iste misericordia esset necessaria, I would man had not been so miserable, as to put God to this way of mercy; yet since our sins had induced this misery upon us, and this necessity (if we may so say) upon God, let us change all our disputation into thanksgiving, and all our utrums, and quaeres, and quando's of the school, to the Benedictus, and Alelujahs and Osanna's of the Church; Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath visited and redeemed his people; blessed that he would come at all, which was our first, and blessed that he is come already, which is our second consideration; venit, He came, He is come. 
Venit.   
As in the former branch the Gentiles the Heathens are our adversaries, they deny the venit, that a Messiah is to come at all; so in this, the Jews are our enemies, they confess the veniet, a future coming, but they deny the venit that this Messiah come yet. In that language in which God spoke to man there is such assurance intimated, that whatsoever God promises shall be performed; that in that language ordinarily in the Prophets, the times are confounded, and when God is intended to purpose or to promise any thing in the future, it is very often expressed in the time past; that which God means to do, he is said to have done; future, and present, and past is all one with God: But yet to man it is much more, that Christ is come, then that he would come; not but that they who apprehended faithfully his future coming, had the same salvation as we, but they could not so easily apprehend it as we: God did not present so many handles to take hold of him in that promise, that he would come, as in the performance, that he was come. They had most of these handles that lived with him, and saw him, and heard him; but we that come after, have more than they which were before them, we have more in the history than they had in the Prophets.  
It was time for him to come in the beginning of the world, for the Devil was a murderer from the beginning. 
Joh. 8 44.  As the Devil was felo de se, a murderer of himself; as he killed himself Christ gave him over; he never came to him in that line, he never pardoned him that sin: but as he practised upon man, Christ met with him from the beginning: He saved us from his kill, by dying himself for us; for being dead, & having taken us into his wounds, and being risen, and having taken us into his glory; if we be dead in Christ already, the Devil cannot kill us, if we be risen in Christ the Devil cannot hold us: And so he was Agnus occisus ab origine mundi, the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, that is, as soon as the world had any beginning in the purpose of God. God saw from all eternity that man would need Christ, and as soon as there was conceived an ego occido, I will kill, in the Devil's mouth, than was an ego vivificabo, I will raise from death in God's mouth; and so, there was an early coming from all eternity; for he is the Ruler of Israel, says the Prophet, 
M●ch. 5.2.  and his go forth have been from the beginning, and from everlasting: it is go in the plural; Christ hath divers go forth, divers come, & all from the beginning; not only from Moses his In principio, which was the beginning of the Creation, (for then also Christ came in the promise of a Messiah) but from St. John's In principio, that beginning which was without beginning, the eternal beginning, for there Christ came in that eternal decree, that he should come. Neither is this only as he is Germane Jehovae, the bud of Jehovah, issuing from him as his eternal Son, 
Esa. 4 2.  but as the Prophet Michaeas says in that place, cited before, it is, as he shall come out of Bethlem, and as he shall be a Ruler of Israel: so as he came in our humane nature, as he came to die for us, as he came to establish a Church, so his coming is from all eternity for all this was wrapped up in a decree of his coming: And therefore we are not carried upon the consideration of any decree, or if any means of salvation higher or precedent to the coming of Christ, for that were to antedate eternity itself.  
So then this coming in the Text, is the execution of that coming in the decree, which is involved in St. John's In principio, and it is the performance of it coming, which was enwrapped in the promise, in Moses In principio, 
10.24.  it is his actual coming in our flesh: that coming of which Christ said in St. Luke many Prophets and Kings; 
13.17.  and in St. Matth. many Prophets and righteous men, desired to see these things which you see, and have not seen them: the prophets who in their very name were videntes, seen, saw not this comining thus; 
Joh. 8.56.  your Father Abraham, rejoiced to see my day saith Christ, and he saw it, and was glad. All times and all Generations before time was were Christ's day; but yet he calls this coming in the flesh especially his day, because this day was a holy Equinoctial, and made the day of the Jews and the day of the Gentiles equal; and Testamenta copulat, says St. Chrisostome, it binds up the two Testaments into one Bible; for if the Partriarks had not desired to see this day, and had not seen it in the strength of faith, they and we had not been of one communion. We have a most sure word of the Prophet, 
2 Pet. 1.19.  says the Apostle, and to that we do well that we take heed; but how far? As unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts. But now since this coming, 
1 Joh. 1.2.  This light hath appeared, and we have seen it, and bear witness and show it unto you. Simon had an assurance in the Prophets, and more immediately than so in the vision; but herein was his assurance and his peace established, Lord now lettest thou thy servant departed in peace, 
Luk. 2.19.  for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. The kingdom of Heaven was but a reversion to them, and it is no more to us; but to them it was a reversion, as after a Grandfather, and father; two lives, two come of Christ before they would come to their state; Christ must come first in the flesh, and he must come again to Judgement. To us, and in our case one of these lives is spent; Christ is come in the flesh: and therefore as the earth is warmer an hour after the sun sets, than it was an hour before the sun risen, so let our faith and zeal be warmer now after Christ departing out of this world, then theirs was before his coming into it: and let us so rejoice at this Ecce venit Rex tuus, that our King our Missias is already come, as that we may cheerfully say, veni Domine Jesus, come Lord Jesus come quickly, and be glad if at the going out of these doors, we might meet him coming in the clouds. 
In Mundum   
Thus far then he hath proceeded already, venit He came, and venit in mundum, He came into the world; it is not in mundam, into so clean a woman as had no sin at all, none contracted from her Parents, no original sin; for so Christ had placed his favours and his honours ill, if he had favoured her most who had no need of him: to die for all the world, and not for his mother, or to die for her, when she needed not that hell, is a strange imagination: she was not without sin; for then why should she have died? for even a natural death in all that come by natural generation, is of sin: But certainly as she was a vessel reserved to receive Christ Jesus, so she was preserved according to the best capacity of that nature, from great and infections sins. Marry Magdalen was a holy vessel after Christ had thrown the Devil out of her; the Virgin Mary was much more so, into whom no reigning power of the Devil ever entered; in such an acceptation than Christ came per mundam in mundum, by a clean woman into an unclean world. And he came in a purpose, as we do piously believe) to manifest himself in the Christian Religion to all the nations of the world; and therefore, laetentur Insulae, says David, The Lord reigneth let the Island rejoice the Island who by reason of their situation, provision and trading, have most means of conveying Christ Jesus over the world. He hath carried us up to heaven & set us at the right hand of God, & shall not we endeavour to carry him to those nations, who have not yet heard of his name? shall we still brag that we have brought our clothes, and our hatchets, and our knives, and bread to this and this value and estimation amongst those poor ignorant Souls, and shall we never glory that we have brought the name, and Religion of Christ Jesus in estimation amongst them? shall we stay till other nations have planted a falls Christ among them? and then either continue in our sloth, or take more pains in rooting out a false Christ then would have planted the true? Christ is come into the world; we will do little, if we will not ferry him over, and propagate his name, as well as our own to other Nations.  
At least be sure that he is so far come into the world, as that he become into thee. Thou art but a little world, a world but of a few spanns in length; 
〈◊〉.  and yet Christ was sooner carried from east to west, from Jerusalem to these parts, than thou canst carry him over the faculties of thy Soul and Body; He hath been in a pilgrimage towards thee long, coming towards thee, perchance 50, perchance 60 years; and how far is he got into thee yet? Is he yet come to thine eye? Have they made Jobs Covenant, that they will not look upon a Maid; yet he is not come into thine ear? still thou hast an itching ear, delighting in the libellous defamation of other men. Is he come to thine ear? Art thou rectified in that sense? yet voluptousness in thy taste, or inordinateness in thy other senses keep him out in those. He is come into thy mouth, to thy tongue; but he is come thither as a diseased person, is taken into a spittle to have his blood drawn, to have his flesh cauterised, to have his bones sawed; Christ Jesus is in thy mouth, but in such exrecations, in such blasphemies, as would he Earthquaks to us if we were earth; but we are all stones, and rock, obdurate in a senselessness of those wounds which are inflicted upon our God. He may be come to the skirts, to the borders, to an outward show in thine actions, and yet not be come into the land, into thy heart. He entered into thee, at baptism; He hath crept farther and farther into thee, in catechisms and other infusions of his doctrine into thee; He hath pierced into thee deeper by the powerful threaten of his Judgements, in the mouths of his messengers; He hath made some survey over thee, in bringing thee to call thyself to an account of some sinful actions; and yet Christ is not come into thee; either thou makest some new discoveries, and fallest into some new ways of sin; and art loath that Christ should come thither yet, that he should trouble thy conscience in that sin, till thou hadst made some convenient profit of it; thou hast studied and must gain, thou hast bought and must sell, and therefore art loath to be troubled yet; or else thou hast some land in thee, which thou thyself hast never discovered, some ways of sin which thou hast never apprehended, nor considered to be sin; and thither Christ is not come yet: He is not come into thee with that comfort which belongs to his coming in this Text, except he had overshadowed thee all, and be in thee entirely.  

Person.  We have done with his coming; we come next to the person; in which we consider first, that he was capable of this great employment to reconcile God to man, as he was a mixed person of God and man; and then, that he had a Commission for this service, as he was Christus, anointed, sealed to that office; and then, that he did actually execute this commission, as he was Jesus. Now when we consider his capacity & fitness, to save the would this capacity & fitness must have relation to that way, which God had chosen; which was by Justice. For God could have saved the world by his word, as well as he had made it so. Adetur venia now had been as easy to him, as a fiat lux at the beginning; a general pardon & a light of grace, as easy as the spreading of the light of nature. but God having purposed to himself the way of Justice, then could none be capable of that Employment but a mixed person; for God could not die, nor man could not satisfy by death; & both these were required in the way of Justice, a satisfaction that by death. Now as this unexpressible mixture & union of God & man made him capable of this employment, 
Christi.  so he had a particular Commission for it, employed in the same name too; for every capable person is not always employed; & this was his unction as he is Christus, anointed, severed, sealed for that purpose, for that office. Now whether this unction, that is, this power, to satisfy God's Justice for all the sins of all mankind, were ex ratione sua formali intrinsica, that is, whether the merit of Christ were therefore infinite in itself, because an infinite Godhead resided in his person, or whether this power and ability by one act, to satisfy for all sins arose ex pacto & acceptatione, by the contract they had passed between the Father and Him, that it was so because it was covenanted between them that it should be so; this hath divided the School into that great opposition which is well known by the name of Thomist and Scotish. The safest way is to place it in pacto, in the contract, in the covenant; for if we place it absolutely in the person, and cause the infiniteness of the merit from that, than any act of that person, the very incarnation itself had been enough to save us; but his unction, his Commission was to proceed thus & thus, and no otherwise then be did in the work of our Redemption. His unction was his qualification; He was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, else the season of his enduring the cross, 
Ps. 45.7.  could nor have been joy: He was anointed liberally by that woman, when he himself was sold for 30 pieces of silver, 
Mar. 14.3.  beyond the value of 300 pieces in ointment upon him: He was honourably embalmed by Joseph, and Nicodemus, who brought an 100 pound weight of Myrrh and Aloes to bury him: every way anointed more than others, by others. All his garment smell of Myrrh, 
Job. 19  and Aloes, and Cassia, as it is in the Canticles; even in the garments of Religion, the Ceremonies of the Church, there is a sweet savour of life: Oleum effusum nomen ejus, even in the outward profession of the name of Christ there is a savour of life, an assistance to salvation; for even in taking upon us this name Christ, we acknowledge, both that he was able to reconcile, and sent purposely to reconcile God and man.  
But then, the strength of our consolation lies in the other name; 
Jesus.  as he was Jesus, actually he executed that Commission, to which, as he was Christ he was fitted and anointed. Now this is a name, which though the Greeks have translated it into soter, yet the great Master of Latin language, Cicero, professes that there is no word, which expresses it; and that great Minter of Latin words Tertullian doth so often call by the name of salutificator: for Jesus is so; not only a bringer, an applier, a worker of our salvation, but he is the author of the very decree of our salvation, as well as of the execution of that Decree: there was no salvation before him, there was no salvation intended in the book of Life, but in him; yea, no Grammarian can clear it, whether this name Jesus signify salvatorem or salutem, the Instrument that saves us, or the salvation that is afforded us; for it is not only his person, but it is his very righteousness that saves us. It was therefore upon that ground that this name was given him, 
Matth. 1.21.  thou shalt call his name Jesus, says the Angel at his conception: why? for he shall save his people from their sins: not only that he shall be able to do it, nor only that he shall be sent to do it: so far he is but Christus a mixed person, and an anointed person; but he shall actually do it, and so he is Jesus. Names of children are not always answered in their manners, and in the effects: Non omnes Joannes qui vocantur Joannes, says St. Chrisost. every nominal John is not a real John: Absalon's name was Patris pax, his Father's peace, but he was his Father's affliction; but the name of Jesus had the effect, He was called a Saviour, and he was one.  

1.21.  It may seem strange that when St. Matthew says, That Mary was to bring forth a child and call his name Jesus, He says also that this was done that the Prophecy of Esai might be fulfilled, who said, That a virgin shall bring forth a child, & who shallbe called Emanuel; to fulfil a prophecy, of being called Emanuel, he must be called Jesus. Indeed, to be Jesus is a fulfilling of his being Emanuel: Emanuel is God with us, a mixed person, God and man; but Jesus is a Saviour the performer of that salvation, which only he who was God and man could accomplish. He was Emanuel, as soon as he was conceived, but not Jesus till he began to submit himself to the Law for us; which was first in his circumcision, when he took the name of, Jesus, and began to shed some drops of blood for us. The name of Jesus was no new name when he took it; we find some of that name in the Scriptures, and in Josephus, we find one officer, that was his enemy, and another a great robber, who lighted upon Josephus more than once, of that name and yet the Prophet Esai says of Christ, (& St. Cyril. 
62.2.  interprets those words of this particular man Jesus) thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name: And how was this a new name, by which so many had been called before? The newness was not in that, that none other had had that name, but that the Son of God, had not that name, till he began to execute the office of a Saviour. 
Esa. 4.2. ●.  He was called Germane Jehovae, the bud of Jehova, before; and he was called the counsellor, and the wonderful, and the Prince of peace, by the same Prophet. But it is the observation of Origen, and of Lactantius after, (and it appears in the text itself) That Moses never calls Oshea the son of Nun, Joshuah, (which is the very name of Jesus) till he was made General, 
Num. 13.17.  to deliver and save his people, so what names soever were attribu- to the Son of God before; the name of Jesus was a new name, to him then, when he began the work of salvation in his circumcision. Take hold therefore of his name Emanuel, as God is with us, as there is a person fit to reconcile God and man; and take hold of him as he is Christus, a person sealed and anointed for that reconciliation: But above all, be sure of thy hold upon the name Jesus thy Saviour. This was his name, when he was carried to the Altar to circumcision, and this was his name when he carried his Altar the Cross; this was his stile there, Jesus Nazarenus, Jesus of Nazareth: and in the virtue of that name, he shall give thee a circumcised heart, and circumcised lips in the course of thy life; and in the virtue of that name he shall give thee a joyful consummatum est, when thou comest to finish all upon thy last Altar, thy deathbed. 
Servare.   
Now from this consideration of the person, so far as arose out of his several names, we pass to his action, He was able to redeem man, He was sent to redeem man, He did redeem man; How? Servavit, He came to save. And here also is that word, which as we said before, is above expressing; for the word which we content ourselves with, To save, implies but a preserving from falling into ruin; but we were absolutely fallen before. The word signifies salutem dare, medici, and it signifies salutem esse; and Christ is truly both, both the Physician and the Physic. 
9 13.  But how is it ministered? we see his method is in St. Matth. veni vocare, I came to call: his way is a voice now, vocat non cogit; God doth but call us he does not constrain us, He does not drive us into a pound; He calls us as Birds do their young, and he would gather us as a Hen doth her Chickens. It is true there is a Trahit, but there is no cogit; no man comes to me, says Christ, except the Father draw him, But, 
Joh 6 44.  non inviti trahimur, non inviti credimus, says St. Augustine, God draws no man against his will, no man believes in God against his will, non adhibitus violentia sed voluntas exitatur, says the same Father, God only excites and exalts our will, but he does not force it: He makes use of that of the Poet, Trahit sua quemque voluptas, our carnal desires draw us, but this drawing is not a constraining; for than we should not be commanded to resist them, nor to fight against them, for no man will bid me do so against a Cannon bullet that comes with an inevitable, and irresistible violence now, 
August.  habet sensus suas voluptates, & animus deseritur a suis? shall our carnal affections draw us, though they do not force us, and shall not Grace do the same office too? shall we still trust to such a power, or such a measure of that Grace, at last, as that we shall not be able to resist, but shall convert us whether we will or no, and never concur willingly with God's present grace? Draw me, and I will run after thee, says the Spouse: 
Cant. 1.4.  she was called before, now she awakens; and she does not say draw me, and so I shall be screwed up unto thee, and lay all upon the force of grace, but draw me and I will run; she promises an application and concurrence on her part. So then venit salvare, is venit vocare, He came to save by calling us, as an eloquent and a persuasive man draws his Auditory, but yet imprints no necessity upon the faculty of the will; so works God's calling of us in his word. God expresses it fully in the Prophet, 
Hose. 11.3.  I sought Ephraim to go,; we are not able to go, to rise, to move without him; But how did he teach him? I took them by their arms; God made use of their faculties, which faculties are the limbs of the Soul: so he enlightened their understanding, and he rectified their will; but still their underding, and their will I draw them says God their; But how, and with what? With cords of man says he, and with bands of love; with the cords of man, the voice of the Minister, and the power which Gods Ordinance hath infused into that, and with the band of love, that is, of the Gospel so proposed unto us: and as it is added there, I took off the yoke from their jaws, and I laid meat before them: God takes off our yoke, the weight of our sins, and the indisposition of our natural infirmities, and he lays meat before us, the Word and the Sacraments in his Church. So that his venit salvare, is venit solvere; solvere, that is, to pay our debt, in his death, and solvere, that is, to untie our bands, and by his grace to make our natural faculties, formerly bound up in a corrupt inability, to do so, now able to concur with him, and cooperate to good actions. He prepared and he prescribed this physic for man, 
August.  when he was upon earth; etiam cum occideretur medicus erat, then when he died, he became our physician; medici sanguinem fundunt, ille de ipso sanguine medicamenta facit: other Physicians draw our blood, He makes physic of blood, and of his own blood. So he came to save, in preparing and prescribing, and he came to save in applying, when by the preaching of his word, Joseph who is in the well, and Jeremy who is in the Dungeon, do as much as they can, for the tying and fitting of that rope which is offered and let down to them, to draw them. God saves us by a calling, and he saves us by drawing; but he calls them that harken to him, and he draws them that follow upon his drawing; He saves us who acknowledge that we could not be saved without him, and desire, and that with a faithful assurance to be saved by him; which is that which is intended in the next word, peccatores, he came to savesinners.  

Peccatores.  He came not to call the righteous, but sinners: Is that intended of all effectually? all have sinned, and all are deprived of the glory of God; 
Rom. 2.23.  But sinners here are those sinners, who ackowledg themselves to be sinners; for says he, I came to call them to repentance: and that's the meaning of that exclusion of the righteous; He came not to call the Righteous; not to call them who call themselves Righteous, and thought themselves so, but sinners; not all whom he knew to be sinners, but all who would be brought to know themselves to be so. Them he came to call by the power of Miracles when he lived upon earth, and them he stays to call by the power of his word, now he is ascended into heaven; for as a furnace needs not the same measure and proportion of fire to keep it boiling, as it did to heat it; but yet it doth need the same fire, that is, fire of the same nature, (for the heat of the Sun will not keep it boiling how hot soever,) so the Church of God needs not miracles now it is established; but still there is the same fire, the working of the same spirit to save sinners: for that was the end of miracles, and it is the end of preaching, to make men capable of salvation by acknowledging themselves to be sinners. And this hath brought us to the last part of this text, that which at first we called the fruit of the Gospel, Humility. 
Third part.   
This brought St. Paul to be of that Quorum, Quorum ego maximus, not only to discern and confess himself to be a sinner, but the chiefest and greatest sinner of all. Nihil humilitate sublimius; it is excellently, but strangely said by St. Hierome; He might rather and more credibly have used any word then that: He might have been easily believed if he had said, nihil sapientius, there is no wiser thing than humility, for he that is low in his own, shall be high in the eyes of others; and to have said nihil perfective, there is not so direct a way to perfection as humility: But nihil sublimius, must needs seem strangely said, there is nothing higher than lowness; no such exaltation as dejection; no such revenge as patience; and yet all this is truly and safely said, with that limitation which St. Hierome gives it there, apud Deum, in the sight of God, there is no such exaltation as humiliation. We must not coast and cross the nearest way, and so think to meet Christ in his end, which was glory, but we must go after him in all his steps, in the way of humiliation; for Christ's very descent was a degree of exaltation; and by that name he called his crucifying a lifting up, an exaltation. The Doctrine of this world goes for the most part otherwise; here we say, lay hold, upon something, get up one step; in all want of sufficiency, in all defection of friends, in all changes, yet the place which you hold which raise you to better. In the way to heaven, the lower you go, the nearer the highest and best end you are. Duo nobis necessaria says St. August. Ut cognoscamus quales ad malum, quales ad bonum: There are but two things necessary to us to know, how ill we are, and how good we may be; where nature hath left us, and whether Grace would carry us. And Abraham, (says that Father.) expresses this two fold knowledge, when he said to God, Loquar ad Dominum, qui pulvis sum & cinis, I know I am but dust and ashes, 
Gen. 18.  says Abraham, and there is his first knowledge Qualis ad molum, how ill a condition naturally he is in: but then, Loquar ad Dominum, for all this, though I be but dust and ashes, I have access to my God, and may speak to him; there's his improvement and his dignity. Vere pulvis omnis homo; says he; truly every man is truly dust; for as dust is blown from one to another corner by the wind, and lies dead there till another wind remove it from that corners; so are we hurried from sin to sin, and have no motion in ourselves, but as a new sin imprints it in us: so vere pulvis, for our disposition to evil we are truly dust; and vere cinis, we are truly dry ashes; for ashes produceth no seed of itself, nor gives growth to any seed that is cast into it; so we have no good in us naturally, neither can we nourish any good that is insused by God into us, except the same Grace that sowed it; water it, and weed it, and cherish it, and so meant it after. To know that we have no strength of ourselves, and to know that we can lack none if we ask it of God, these are St. Augustine's two Arts and Sciences, and this is the humility of the Gospel in general.  

Quo umprimus  To come to St. Paul's more particular expressing of his humility here, Quorum ego primus, of which sinners I am the chiefest, as it is true veritas non nititur mendatio, no truth needs the support or assistance of any lie; a man must not belie himself, nor accuse himself against his own conscience, so also, Humilitas non nititur stupiditati, An undiscerning stupidity is not humility, for humility itself implies and requires discretion, for humiliation is not precipitation when the Devil enticed the Jesuit at his midnight studies, and the Jesuit risen and offered him his chair, because howsoever he were a Devil, yet he was his better; this was not regulated humility: and therefore this which St. Paul says of himself, that he was the greatest sinner was true in his own heart, and true in a convenient sense, and so neither falsely nor inconsiderately spoken. How then was this true? As there is nothing so fantastical and so absurd, but that some Heretics have held it Dogmatically; so Aquinas notes here, that there were Heretics that held, that the very soul of Adam was by a long circuit and transmigration come at last into Paul, and so Paul was the same man (in his principal part, in the soul) as Adam was; and in that sense it was literally true that he said, he was primus peccatorum the first of all sinners, because he was the first man Adam: but this is an heretical fancy, ●● a Pythagorean bubble. Great Divines have referred this Quorum ad salvandos, that Christ came to save sinners; of which sinners that are saved say they, S. Paul acknowledges himself to be the greatest; not the greatest sinner in the world, but the greatest of them upon whom the grace of God hath wrought effectually. St. Augustine's interpretation is for one half thereof, for the negative part sake; primus says he, non tempore; He says he was the first sinner, but he does not mean the first that sinned, the first in time; but then for the affirmative part, which follows in Augustine, that he was primus malignitate, the first, the highest, the greatest sinner, why should we, or how can we charge the Apostle so heavily? Beloved, to maintain the truth of this which St. Paul says, we need not say that it was materially true, that it was indeed so; it is enough to defend it from falsehood, that it was formally true, that is, that it appeared to him to be true, and not out of a sudden and stupid inconsideration but deliberately: First, he respected his own natural disposition, and proclivity to great sins, and out of that evidence condemned himself: As when a man who professed an art of judging the disposition of a man by his face, had pronounced of Socrates, (whose virtue all the world admired) that he was the most incontinent and licentious man, the greatest thief and extortioner of any man in the world; the people despised and scorned the Physiognomer and his art, and were ready to offer violence unto him: Socrates himself corrected their distemper again, and said, It is true that he says, & his Judgement is well grounded, for by nature no man is more inclined to these vices than I am. And this disposition to the greatest sins, St. Paul knew in himself. He that hath these natural dispositions is likely to be the greatest sinner, except he have some strong assistance to restrain him: and then, he that hath the offer of such helps, and abuses them, is in a farther step of being the greatest sinner: And this also St. Paul had respect to now, that he had had a good and learned education, a good understanding of the law and the Prophets, a good mortification, by being of the strict sect of the Pharisees; and yet he had turned all the wrong way, and was therefore in this abuse of these manifold graces the greater sinner. He looked farther than into his own nature, or into his resistance of asistances; he looked into those actions which these had produced in him, and there he saw his breathing of threaten and slaugher against the Disciples of the Lord, his hunger and thirst of christian blood: and so says St. Augustine, Nemo acrior inter persecutores, ergo nemo prior inter peccatores, as he found himself the greatest persecutor, so he condemns himself for the greatest sinner. But all these natural dispositions to great sins, negliences, of helps offered, sinful actions produced out of these two, might be greater in many others, then in St. Paul; & it is likely, & it may be certain to us, that they were so; but it was not certain to him, he knew not so much ill by any other man, as by himself. Consider those words in the Proverbs, 
30.2.  Surely I am more foolish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man in me: for though they be not the words of Solomon, yet they are the words of a Prophet, and a Prophet who surely was not really more foolish than any man, then in consideration of something which he found in himself, says so: he that considers himself, shall find such degrees of sin, as that he cannot see than any man hath gone lower: Or if he have in some particular and notorious sin, yet in quovis alio, quid occultum esse potest; quo nobis superior sit: 
August.  He that is fallen lower than thus in some sin, yet may be above thee in Grace; he may have done a greater sin, & yet not be the greater sinner: another hath killed a man, and thou hast not; thou mayst have drawn and drunk the blood of many by usury, by extortion, by oppression. Another in fury of intemperance, hath ravished and thou hast not; thou mayst have corrupted many by thy deceitful solicitations; and then in thyself art as ill as the ravisher, and thou hast made them worse whom thou hast corrupted. Cast up thine own account, Inventary thine own goods; 
Rom. 2.5.  for sin is the wrath of the sinner, and he treasures up the wrath of God) reckon thine own sins, and thou wilt find thyself rich in that wealth, and find thyself of that Quorum, that the highest place in that company and mystery of sinners belongs to thee.  

Sum.  St. Paul does so here; yea then, when he saw his own case, and saw it by the light of the spirit of God; when he took knowledge that Christ was come, and had saved sinners, had saved him; yet still he says sum primus, still he remains in his accusation of himself that he was still the greatest sinner, because he remained still in his infirmity, and aptness to relapse into former sins. As long as we are, we are subject to be worse than we are; and those sins which we apprehend even with horror and amazement, when we hear that others have done them, we may come to do them with an earnestness, with a delight, with a defence, with a glory, if God leaves us to ourselves. As long as that is true of us, sum prmus homo, I am no better than the first man, than Adam was, (and none of us are in any proportion so good) that is true also, Quorum primus sum ego, I am still in a slippery state, and in an evident danger of being the greatest sinner. This is the conclusion for every humble christian, no man is a greater sinner than I was, and I am not sure but that I may fall to be worse than ever I was, except I husband and employ the Talents of God's Graces better than I have done.   

A SERMON Preached at Whitehall. 
Serm. 15.  February 29. 1627. SERMON XV.  Acts 7.60. 
And when he had said this, he fell a sleep.  
HE that will die with Christ upon Good-Friday, must hear his own bell toll all Lent; he that will be partaker of his passion at last, must conform himself to his discipline of prayer & fasting before. Is there any man, that in his chamber hears a bell toll for another man, and does not kneel down to pray for that dying man? and then when his charity breathes out upon another man, does he not also reflect upon himself, and dispose himself as if he were in the state of that dying man? We begin to hear Christ's bell toll now, and is not our bell in the chime? We must be in his grave, before we come to his resurrection, and we must be in his deathbed before we come to his grave: we must do as he did, fast and pray, before we can say as he said, that In manus tuas, Into thy hands O Lord I commend my Spirit. You would not go into a Medicinal Bath without some preparatives; presume not upon that Bath, the blood of Christ Jesus, in the Sacrament then, without preparatives neither. Neither say to yourselves, we shall have preparatives enough, warnings enough, many more Sermons before it come to that, and so it is too soon yet; you are not sure you shall have more; not sure you shall have all this; not sure you shall be affected with any. If you be, when you are, remember that as in that good Custom in these Cities, you hear cheerful street music in the winter mornings, but yet there was a sad and doleful belman, that waked you, and called upon you two or three hours before that music came; so for all that blessed music which the servants of God shall present to you in this place, it may be of use, that a poor bell-man waked you before, and though but by his noise, prepared you for their music. And for this early office I take Christ's earliest witness, his Proto-Martyr, his first witness St. Stephen, and in him that which especially made him his witness, and our example, his his death, and our preparation to death, what he suffered, what he did, what he said, so far as is knit up in those words, When he had said this, he fell a sleep. 
Divisio.   
From which example, I humbly offer to you these two general considerations; first, that every man is bound to do something before he die; and then to that man who hath done those things which the duties of his calling bind him to, death is but a sleep. In the first, we shall stop upon each of those steps; first there is a sis aliquid, every man is bound to be something, to take some calling upon him. Secondly there is a hoc age; every man is bound to do seriously and scedulously, and sincerely the duties of that calling. And Thirdly there is a sis aliquis; the better to perform those duties, every man shall do well to propose to himself some person, some pattern, some example whom he will follow and imitate in that calling. In which third branch of this first part we shall have just occasion to consider some particulars in him who is here proposed for our Example, St. Stephen; and in these three, sis aliquid, be something, profess something; and then hoc age, do truly the duties of that profession; and lastly, sis aliquis, propose some good man, in that profession to to follow, and in the things intended in this text, propose St. Stephen, we shall determine our first part. And in the other we shall see that to them that do not this, that do not settle their consciences so, death is a bloody conflict, and no victory at last, a tempestuous sea, and do harbour at last, a slippery height, and no footing, a desperate fall and no bottom. But then to them that have done it, their pill is gilded, and the body of the pill honey too; mors lucrum, death is a gain, a treasure, and this treasure brought some in a calm too; they do not only go to heaven by death, but heaven comes to them in death; their very manner of dying is an inchoative act of their glorified state: therefore it is not called a dying but asseeping; which one metaphor intimates two blessings, that because it is a sleep it gives a present rest, and because it is a sleep, it promises a future waking in the resurrection.  

First part. Sis aliquid.  First, Then for our first branch of our first part, we begin with our beginning, our birth; man is born to trouble; so we read it, to trouble. The original is a little milder than so; yet there it is, Man is born unto labour, 
Job. 5 7.  God never meant less than labour to any man. Put us upon that which we esteem the honourablest of labours, the duties of martial discipline, yet where it is said, that man is appointed to a warfare upon earth, it is seconded with that, His days are like the days of an hireling. 
7.1.  How honourable soever his station be, he must do his day's labour in the day, the duties of the place in the place. How far is he from doing so, that never so much as considers why he was sent into this world; who is so sar from having done his errand here, that he knows not, considers not what his errand was; nay knows not, considers not, whether he had any errand hither or no. But as though that God, who for infinite millions of millions of generations, before any creation, any world, contented himself with himself, satisfied, delighted himself with himself in heaven, without any creatures, yet at last did bestow six day's labour upon the Creation & accommodation of man, as though that God who when man was soured in the whole lump, poisoned in the fountain, perished at the chore, withered in the root, in the fall of Adam, would them in that dejection; that exainantion, that evacuation of the dignity of man, and not in his  better estate, engage his own Son, his only, his beloved Son, to become man by a temporary life, and then to become no man by a violent, and yet a voluntary death; as though that God who he was pleased to come to a creation, might yet have left thee where thou wast before, amongst privations, a nothing; or if he would have made thee something, a creature, yet he might have shut thee up in the closely prison of a bare being and no more, without life or sense, as he hath done earth and stones; or if he would have given thee life and sense, he might have left thee a toad, without the comeliness of shape, without that reasonable and immortal Soul, which makes thee a man; or if he had made thee a man, yet he might have lost thee upon the common amongst the Heathen, and not have taken thee into his enclosures, by giving the a particular form of religion; or if he would have given thee a religion, He might have left thee a Jew; or if he would have given thee Christianity, He might have left thee a Papist, as though this God who had done so much more for thee, by breeding thee in a true Church, had done all this for nothing; thou pussest through this world as a flash, as a lightning or which no man knows the beginning or the ending, as an ignis fatuus in the air, which does not only not give light for any use, but does not so much as portend or signify any thing; and thou passest out of the world, as a hand passes out of a basin, or a body out of a bath, where the water may be the fouler for thy having washed in it, else the water retains no impression of thy hand or body, so the world may be the worse for thy having lived in it, else the world retains no marks of thy having been there. When God placed Adam in the world, God enjoined Adam to fill the world, to subdue the world, and to rule the world; when God placed him in 〈◊〉 Paradise, He commanded him to dress Paradise, and to keep Paradise; when God placed him children in the land of promise, he enjoined them to fight his battles against Idolatry, and to destroy Idolators; to every body some errand, some task for his glory; and thou comest from him into this world, as though he had said nothing to thee at parting, but go and do as thou shalt see cause, go and do as thou seest other men do, and serve me so far, and save thine own Soul so far, as the times, and the places, and the persons, with whom thou dost converse, will conveniently admit. God's way is positive, and thine is privative: God made every thing something, and thou makest the best of things, man, nothing; and because thou canst not annihilate the world altogether, as though thou hadst God at an advantage, in having made an abridgement of the world in man, there in that abridgement thou wilt undermine him, and make man, man, as far as thou canst, man in thyself nothing. He that qualifies himself for nothing, does so; He whom we can call nothing, is nothing: this whole world is one entire creature, one body; and he that is nothing may be excremental nails, to scratch and gripe others, he may be excremental hairs for ornament, or pleasurableness of meeting; but he is no limb of this entire body, no part of God's universal creature, the world. God's own name is I am: Being, is God's name, and nothing, is so contrary to God as to be nothing. Be something, or else thou canst do nothing; and till thou have said this, says our text, that is, done something in a lawful calling, thou canst not sleep Stephen's sleep, not die in peace. Sis aliquid, propose something, determine thyself upon somehing, be, profess something, that was our first; and then our second consideration is, hoc age, do seriously, do scedulously, do sincerely the duties of that calling.  

Hoc Age.  He that stands in a place and does not the duty of that place, is but a statue in that place; and but a statue without an inscription; Posterity shall not know him, nor read who he was. In nature the body frames and forms the place; for the place of the natural body is that proxima arcis superficies, that inward superficies of the air, that invests and clothes, and apparals that body, and obeys, and follows, and succeeds to the dimensions thereof. In naturet he body makes the place, but in grace the place makes the body: The person must actuate itself, dilate, extend and propagate itself according to the dimensions of the place, by filling it in the execution of the duties of it. Pliny delivers us the history of all the great Masters in the art of painting: 
L. 35. C. 3.  He tells us who began with the extremities and the out lines at first, who induced colours after that, & who after superinduced shadows; who brought in Argutias vultus as he calls them, not only the countenance, but the meaning of the countenance, & all that so tightly, that (as he says there) Divinantes diem mortis dixerunt, Physiognomers would tell a man's fortune as well by the picture as by the life; he tells us, quis pinxit quae pingi non possunt, who first adventured to express inexpressible things; Tonitrua, perturbationes animas; they would paint thunder which was not to be seen, but heard: and affections, and the mind, the Soul which produced those affections. But for the most part he tells us all the way, in what places there remained some of their pieces to be seen, and copied in his time. This is still that that dignifies all their works, that they wrought so, as that posterity was not only delighted, but improved and bettered in that art by their works: For truly that's one great benefit that arises out of our doing the duties of our own places, in our own time, that as a perfume intended only for that room, where the entertainment is to be made breaths, upward and downward, and round about it; so the doing of the duties of the place, by men that move in middle Spheres, breath upwards and downwards, and about too, that is, cast a little shame upon inferiors if they do not so, and a little remembrance upon Superiors that they should do so, and a thanksgiving to Almighty God for them that do so: And so it is an improvement of the present, and an Instruction and a Catechism to future times. The duty in this Text is expressed and limited in speaking. Cum dixisset, When he had said this he fell a sleep, and truly so, literally so, in speaking, and no more, it stretches far: Many duties, in many great places consist in speaking; Ours do so: And therefore, when Vices abound in matter of Manners, and Schisms abound in matter of Opinions, Antequam dixerimus hoc, till we have said this, that is, that that belongeth to that duty, we cannot sleep Stephen's sleep, we cannot die in peace. The Judge's duty lies much in this too, for he is bound not only to give a hearing to a Cause, but to give an End, a Judgement in the Cause too: And so, for all them whose duty lies in speaking, from him who is to counsel his friend, to him who is to counsel his Master in the family (for Job professes that he never refused the counsel of his Servant) Antequam dixerint, till they have said this, that is still, that that belongs to that duty, they cannot sleep Stephen's sleep, they cannot die in peace: and when we ascend to the consideration of higher Persons, they and we speak not one language, for our speaking is but speaking but with great Persons, Acta Apothegmata, their Apothegms are their Actions, and we hear their words in their deeds. God, whose Image and Name they bear does so: If we consider God; as a second Person in the Godhead, the Son of God, God of God, so God is Logos, Sermo, Verbum, Oratio; The Word, Saying, Speaking; But God considered primarily and in himself so, is Actus purus, all Action, all doing. In the Creation there is a Dixit in God's mouth, still God says something; but evermore the Dixit is accompanied with a Fiat, Something was to be done, as well as said. The Apostles are Apostles in that capacity as they were sent to preach that's Speaking; But, when we come to see their proceeding, it is in Praxi, in the Acts of the Apostles. In those Persons whose duty lies in speaking, there is an Antequam dixerint; in those where it lies in Action, there is an Antequam fecerint; till that be said, and done, which belongs to their particular callings, they cannot sleep Stephen's sleep, they cannot die in peace; and therefore, Non dicas de Deo tuo gravis mihi est, 
Ambro. Ep. 17.  say not of thy God, that he lies heavy upon thee, if he exact the duties of thy plaat thy hands; Nec dicas de loco tuo, inutilis mihi est, say not of thy place, that it is good for nothing, if thou must be put to do the duties of the place, in the place; for it is good for this, that when thou hast done that thou mayst sleep Stephen's sleep, die in Peace. Sis aliquid, Be something, that was our first, and then hoc age, do truly the duties of that place without pretermitting thine own, without intermeddling with others, which was our second; and then our third consideration is, Sis aliquis, Be somebody, be like somebody, propose some good example in thy calling and profession to imitate.  

Sis aliquis.  It was the counsel of that great little Philosopher Epictetus, whensoever thou undertakest any action, to consider what a Socrates, or a Plato; what a good and a wise man would do in that Case, and to do conformably to that. One great Orator, Latinus Rufus, proposed to himself Cicero for his example, and Cicero propounded Demosthenes, and he Pericles, and Pericles Pisistratus; and so there was a concatenation, a genealogy, a pedigree of a good Orator; 
Hieron.  Habet unumquodque propositum principes suos: In every Calling, in every Profession, a man may find some exemplar, some leading men to follow. The King hath a Josias, and the beggar hath a Job, and every man hath some: But here we must not pursue particulars, but propose to all, him whom our Text proposes, Saint Stephen; 
Stephanus.  and in him we offer you first his name, Stephen. Stephen, Stephanos is a leading, an exemplar name, a Significative, a Prophetical, a Sacramental, a catechistical name; a Name that carries much instruction with it. Our Countryman Bede takes it to be an Hebrew name, and it signifies (saith he) Normam vestram, Your Rule, Your Law: To obey the Law, to follow, to embrace the Law is an acceptable service to God, especially the invariable Law, the Law of God himself: But we are sure that this name Stephen, Stephanos signifies a Crown; to obey the Crown, to follow, to serve the Crown, is an acceptable service to God, especially the immarcessible Crown, the Crown of Glory. Nomen Omen; scarce any man hath a name, but that name is Legal and Historical to him: His very name remembers him of some rules, and laws of his actions; So his name is legal, and his name remembers him of some good men of the same name; and so his name is historical. Nomina Debita: In the old formularies of the Civil Law, if a man left so many names to his Executors, they were so many specialties for debts. Our Names are Debts, every man owes the world the signification of his name, and of all his names; every addition of honour, or of office, lays a new Debt, a new Obligation upon him; and his first name, his Christian-Name above all. For, when new names are given to men in the Scriptures, that doth not abolish or extinguish the old: Jacob was called Jacob after God had called him Israel; & Gedeon Gedeon after he was called Jerubaal and Simon when he was Peter too, was called Simon. Changes of Office and additions of Honour must not extinguish our Christian, Name; The duties of our Christianity, and our Religion must preponderate and weigh down the duties of all other places, and for all together. Saint Gregory presents us a good use of this diligence to answer our Names, Quo quis timet magis, ne quod dicitur non esset, eo plus quam dicitur erit; The more a man is afraid that he is not worthy of the name he bears, whether the name of office or his Christian-Name, the better Officer and the better Christian he will be for that fear, and that solicitude; and therefore it is an useful and an appliable Prayer for great Persons, which that Father makes in their behalf, Praesta, quaesumus Domine, ut quod in ore hominum sumus, in conspectu tuo esse valeamus: Grant, O Lord, that we may always be such in thine eyes, as we are in their tongues that depend upon us, and justify their acclamations with thy approbations. And so far Stephen's name, as his name signifies the Law, and as his name signifies the reward of fulfilling the Law; a Crown hath carried us to the consideration of the duty of answering the signification of our names; But then there are other passages in his History and Actions that carries us farther.  
First then we receive Saint Stephen to have been Saint Paul's kinsman in the flesh, and to have been his fellow pupil under Gamaliel, 
Discipulus.  and to have been equal to him, at least in the foundations, in natural faculties, and in the superedifications too, in learn of acquisition and study; And then to have had this great advantage above him, That he applied himself as a Disciple to Christ before Saint Paul did; and in that profession became so eminent (for all the Sects, the Libertines themselves taking the liberty to dispute against him, 
Act. 6.9.  they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke) as that his Cousin Paul, then but Saul, envied him most, and promoved and assisted at his execution: For upon those words but two verses before our Text, That they that stoned Stephen, laid down their clothes at Saul 's feet, Saint Augustine says, 
7.58.  In manu omnium eum lapidavit, That it was Saul that stoned Stephen, though by the hands of other executioners. Men of the best extraction and families, Men of the best parts and faculties, Men of the best education and proficiencies, own themselves to God by most obligations. Him that dies to day, God shall not only ask, where is that Soul? Is it as clean as I made it at first? No stain of Sin? or is it as clean as I washed it in Baptism? No sting? No venom of original sin in it? Or is it as clean as I left it when we met last at the Sacrament? No guiltiness of actual sin in it? God shall not only ask this, Where is that Soul? Nor only ask where is that Body? Is it come back in that Virginal integrity in which I made it? Or is it no farther departed from that then Marriage, which I made for it, hath made it? Are those Maritales ineptiae (that we may put Luther's words into God's mouth) the worst that is fallen upon that body? God shall not only ask for that Soul and that Body but ask also, Where is that Wit, that Learning, those Arts, those languages which by so good education I afforded thee? Truly when a weak and ignorant man departs into any vicious way, though in that case he do adhere to the Enemy, and do serve the Devil against God, yet he carries away but a single Man, and serves but as a common Soldier: But he that hath good parts, and good education, carries a Regiment in his person, and Armies and munition for a thousand in himself. Though then thy kinsmen in the flesh, and thy fellow pupils under Gamaliel, men whom thou hast accompanied heretofore in other ways, think thy present fear of God, but a childishness and pusilanimity, and thy present zeal to his service but an infatuation, and a melancholy and thy present application of thyself to God in prayer, but an argument of thy Court-dispaire, and of thy falling from former hopes there; yet come thou early, if it be early yet; and if it be not early, come apace to Christ Jesus: how learned soever thou art, thou art yet to learn thy first letters, if thou know not that Christ Jesus is Alpha and Omega, he in whom thou must begin and determine every purpose: Thou hast studied thyself but into a dark and damnable ignorance, if thou have laboured for much learning only to prove that thou canst not be saved, only to dispute against the person and the Gospel of Christ Jesus. But propose to thine imitation Stephen, who though enriched with great parts, and formerly accustomed to the conversation of others of a different persuasion, applied himself early to Christ as a Disciple, 
v. 5.  & more than in that general application, in a particular function and office as a Deacon, as is expressed in the former Chapter.  

Diaconus.  The Roman Church that delights in irresolutions and gains, and makes profit in holding things in suspense, holds up this question undetermind, whether that office and function which Stephen too of Deacon, be so è sacris, a part of holy Orders, as that it is a Sacrament, or any part of the Sacrament of Orders. Durand. a man great in matter of Ceremony, Cajetan, a man great in matter of substance, do both deny it; and divers, many, very many besides them; and they are let alone, and their Church says nothing against them, or in determination of the opinion. But yet howsoever the stronger opinion even in that Church lead the other way, and the form of giving that office by imposition of hands, and the many and great capacities that they receive, that they receive it, carry it to a great height, yet the use that we make of it here shall be but this, that even Stephen, who might have been inter Doctores, Doctor, (as Chrysologus says of him) a Doctor to teach Doctors; and inter Apostolos Apostolus, an Apostole to lead Apostles, contented himself with a lower degree in the service of Christ in his Church, the service of a Deacon, which very name signifies service, and ministation. It is a diminution of regal dignity, that the Roman Church accounts the greatest Kings, but as Deacons, and assigns them that rank and place in all their Ecclesiastical Solemnities, in their Ceremonials. But Constantine knew his own place without their marshalling: In the midst of Bishops, and Bishops met in Council, he calls himself Bishop, and Bishop of Bishops: and the greatest Bishop of this land, 
St. Dunst●n.  in his time, professed his Master the King, to be Pastor Pastorum, a Shepherd of Shepherds. It is a name due to the King, for it signifies inspection and superintendency; as the name of Priest is also given to secular Magistrates that had no part in Ecclesiastical function in the Scriptures; particularly, in Putipher, 
Gen. 41.45.  and to divers others in divers other places. But yet though that name of superintendancy be due unto him, let him who is crowned in his office as Stephen was in his name, accept this name and office of ministration of Deacon, since the holy Ghost himself hath given him that name, The Minister of God for good, 
Rom. 13.4  (there's the word of ministration, the name Diaconos imprinted upon the King) and since our Super-Supream Ordinary, our Super-Soveraign head of the Church, Christ Jesus himself calls himself, by that name, The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; 
Mar. 10.45.  there's this word of ministration, the office, the name of Deacon imprinted upon Christ himself. And though in our interest, in him who is also a King and a Priest; we are all regale Sacerdotium, 
1 Pet. 2.9.  Kings and Priests too, yet let us accept the name, and execute the office of Deacon, of ministration, especially upon ourselves: for as every man is a world in himself, so every man is a Church in himself too: and in the ancient Church, it was a part of the Deacons office, to call out to the Church, to the Congregation, Nequis contra aliquem, nequis in Hipocrisi; let no man come hither to Church, (indeed not whether, for every place, because God is present in every place, is a Church,) either in uncharitableness towards others, or in Hypocrisy & in dissimulation in himself: Bring always a charitable opinion towards other men, and sincere affections in thyself, and thou hast done the right office of a Deacon, upon the right subject thou hadst ministered to thine own Soul. But then the height of Stephen's exemplariness, (which is the consideration that we pursue in this branch of this first part) is not so much in his active as in his passive part; not so much in that he did, as in that he suffered; not as he answered & discharged the duties of his name; so we have proposed him to you; nor as he was an early Disciple, and came to Christ betimes, we have proposed him so too; nor as he made his ambition only to serve Christ, and not to serve him in a high place, but only as a Deacon; for in that line also we have proposed him to you; But as he was a constant and cheerful Martyr, and laid down his life for Christ, and in that qualification propose him to yourselves, and follow him as a Martyr.  
Eusebius the Bishop of Caesarea, 
Martyr.  was so in love with Pamphilus the Martyr, as a Martyr, that he would needs take his name, before he could get his addition; and though he could not be called Martyr then, yet he would be called Pamphilus and not Eusebius. The name of Stephen hath enough in it to serve not only the vehementest affection, but the highest ambition; for there is a Coronation in the Name as we told you before. And therefore in the Ecclesiastical story and Martyrologes of the Church, there are (I think) more Martyrs of this name, Stephen, then of any other Name; indeed they have all that Name, for the Name is a Coronation. And therefore the Kingdom of heaven, which is expressed by many precious Metaphors in the Gospel, is never called a Crown, till after Stephen's death, till our Coronation was begun in his Martyrdom, but after in the Epistles often, and in the Revelation very often. For to suffer for God, man to suffer for God, I to suffer for my Maker, for my Redeemer is such a thing, as no such thing, excepting only Gods sufferings for man can fall into the consideration of man. God's suffering for man was the Nadir the lowest point of God's humiliation, man's suffering for God is the Zenith, the highest point of man's exaltation: That as man needed God, and God would suffer for man, so God should need man, and man should suffer for God; that after God's general Commission, fac hoc & vives, do this and thou shalt live, I should receive and execute a new Commission, Patere hoc & vives abundantius, suffer this and you shall have life, and life more abundantly; 
Joh. 10.10.  as our Saviour speaks in the Gospel, that when I shall ask my soul David's question, 
Psal. 116.12.  Quid retribuam, what shall I render to the Lord, I shall not rest in David's answer, Accipiam Calicem, I will take the cup of salvation, in applying his blood to my soul, but proceed to an Effundam Calicem, I will give God a Cup, a cup of my blood, that whereas to me the meanest of God's servants it is honour enough to be believed for God's sake: God should be believed for my sake, and his Gospel the better accepted, because the seal of my blood is set to it; that that dew which should water his plants, the plants of his Paradise, his Church, should drop from my veins, and that sea that red sea, which should carry up his bark, his Ark, to the heavenly Jerusalem, should flow from me: This is that that pours joy even into my gladness, and glory even into mine honour, and peace even into my security; that exaltes and improves every good thing, 
Colos. 1 24. Phillip 2.17.  every blessing that was in me before, and makes even my creation glorious, and my redemption precious; and puts a farther value upon things inestimable before, that I shall fulfil the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, and that I shall be offered up for his Church, 
1 Pet. 2.21  though not for the purchasing of it, yet for the fencing of it, though not by way of satisfaction as he was, but by way of example and imitation as he was too. Whether that be absolutely true or no, which an Author of much curiosity in the Roman Church says, 
P●rrecta in legem. Not itio ultima.  that Inter tot millia millium, amongst so many thousand thousands of Martyrs in the Primitive Church, it cannot be said that ever one lacked burial, (I know not whence he raises that) certainly no Martyr ever lacked a grave in the wounds of his Saviour, no nor a tomb, a monument, a memorial in this life, in that sense wherein our Saviour speaks in the Gospel, That no man shall leave house, 
Mar. 10.30  or Brother, or wife for him, but he shall receive an hundred fold in this life; Christ does not mean he shall have a hundred houses, or a hundred wives, or a hundred Brethren; but that that comfort which he lost in losing those things shall be multiplied to him in that proportion even in this life. In which words of our Saviour, as we see the dignity and reward of Martyrdom, so we see the extent and latitude, and compass of Martyrdom too; that not only loss of life, but loss of that which we love in this life; not only the suffering of death, but the suffering of Crosses in our life, contracts the Name, and entitles us to the reward of Martyrdom. All Martyrdom is not a Smithfeild Martyrdom, to burn for religion. To suffer injuries, and upon advantages offered, not to revenge those injuries is a Court Martyrdom. To resist outward tentations from power, and inward tentations from affections; in matter of Judicature, between party and party, is a Westminster Martyrdom. To seem no richer than they are, not to make their states better, when they make their private bargains with one another, and to seem so rich, as they are, and not to make their states worse, when they are called upon to contribute to public services, this is an Exchange-Martyrdome. And there is a Chamber-Martyrdome, a Bosome-Martyrdome too; Habet pudicitia servata Martyrium suum, 
Hierome.  Chastity is a daily Martyrdom; and so all fight of the Lords battles, all victory over the Lords Enemies, in our own bowels, all cheerful bearing of God's Crosses, and all watchful crossing of our own immoderate desires is a Martyrdom acceptable to God, and a true copy of our pattern Stephen, so it be inanimated with that which was even the life and soul and price of all Stephen's actions and passions, that is, fervent charity, which is the last contemplation; in which we propose him for your Example; that as he, you also may be just paymasters in discharging the debt, which you own the world in the signification of your Names; and early Disciples and appliers of yourselves to Christ Jesus, and humble servants of his, without inordinate ambition of high places; and constant Martyrs, 
1 Cor. 15.31  in dying every day as the Apostles speaks, and charitable intercessors, and Advocates and Mediators to God, even for your heaviest Enemies.  
We have a story in the Ecclesiastical story of Nicephorus and Sapricius, formerly great friends, and after as great Enemies: 
Charitas  Nicephorus relented first, and sued often for reconciliation to Sapricius, but was still refused: he was refused even upon that day, when Sapricius being led out to execution, as a Martyr for the Christian religion, Nicephorus upon the way, put himself in his way, and upon his knees begged a reconciliation, and obtained it not. The effect of his uncharitableness was this Sapricius, when he came to the stake recanted, and renounced the christian religion, and lost the crown of Martyrdom, and Nicephorus who came forth upon another occasion professed Christ, and was received to the Coronation of Martyrdom. Though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing says the Apostle; but if I have not charity I shall not be admitted to that Sacrifice, to give my body to be burnt. St. Augustine seems to have delighted himself with that saying (for he says it more than once) Simo Stephanus non orasset, if St. Stephen had not prayed for Saul, the Church had had no Paul: and may we not justly add to that, If Stephen had not prayed for Saul, Heaven had had no Stephen, or Stephen had had no Heaven: suffering itself is but a stubborness, and a rigid and stupid standing under an affliction; it is not a humiliation, a bending under God's hand, if it be not done in charity. Stephen had a pattern, and he is a pattern; Christ was his, and he is our Example; ut hoc dicam tibi, at te primo audivi, says St. Augustine in Stephen's person to Christ, Lord thou taughtest me this prayer upon the cross; receive it now from me, as the Father received it from thee then. He prayed for his enemies as for himself; and thus much more earnestly for them then for himself, that he prayed for himself standing, and kneeling for them. Stephen was the Plaintiff, and when he comes to his Nolo prosequi, and to release, what hath the Judge to say to the Defendant. If a potent adversary oppress thee to ruin, to death, if thou pass away uncharitably towards him, thou raisest an everlasting Trophy for thine enemy, and preparest him a greater triumph than he proposed to himself; he meant to triumph over thy body, and thy fortune, and thou hast provided him a triumph over thy Soul too by thy uncharitableness; and he may survive to repent, and to be pardoned at God's hands and thou who art departed in uncharitableness canst not; he shall be saved that ruind thee unjustly, and thou who wast unjustly ruind by him, shalt perish irrecoverably. And so we have done with all those pieces which constitute our first part, Sis aliquid, profess something, Hoc age, do seriously the duties of that profession, and then Sis aliquis, propose some good man in that profession for thine imitation; as we have proposed Stephen for general duties, falling upon all professions. And we shall pass now to our other part, which we must all play, and play in earnest, that conclusion in which we shall but begin our everlasting state, our death, When he had said this he fell asleep.  

Second part. Mors impti.  Here I shall only present to you two Pictures, two pictures in little: two pictures of dying men; and every man is like one of these, and may know himself by it; he that dies in the Bath of a peaceable, & he that dies upon the wrack of a distracted conscience. When the devil imprints in a man, a mortuum me esse non curo, I care not though I were dead, it were but a candle blown out, and there were an end of all, where the Devil imprints that imagination: God will imprint an Emori nolo, a loathness to die, and fearful apprehension at his transmigration: As God expresses the bitterness of death, in an ingemination, morte morietur, in a conduplication of deaths, he shall die, and die, die twice over; So aegrotando aegrotabit, in sickness he shall be sick, twice sick, body-sick and soul-sick too, sense-sick and conscience-sick together; when, as the sins of his body have cast sicknesses and death upon his Soul, so the inordinate sadness of his Soul, shall aggravate and actuate the sickness of his body. His Physician ministers, and wonders it works not; He imputes that to phlegm, and ministers against that, and wonders again that it works not: He goes over all the humours, and all his Medicines, and nothing works, for there lies at his Patient's heart a damp that hinders the concurrence of all his faculties, to the intention of the Physician, or the virtue of the Physic. Lose not, O blessed Apostle, thy question upon this Man. 
1 Cor. 15.55  O Death where is thy sting? O Grave where is thy victory? for the sting of Death is in every limb of his body, and his very body, is a victorious grave upon his Soul: And as his Carcase and his Coffin shall lie equally insensible in his grave, so his Soul, which is but a Carcase, and his body, which is but a Coffin of that Carcase, shall be equally miserable upon his Deathbed; And Satan's Commissions upon him shall not be signed by Succession, as upon Job, first against his goods, and then his Servants, and then his children, and then himself; but not at all upon his life; but he shall apprehend all at once, Ruin upon himself and all his, ruin upon himself and all him, even upon his life; both his lives, the life of this, and the life of the next world too. Yet a drop would redeem a shower, and a Sigh now a Storm then: Yet a tear from the eye, would save the bleeding of the heart, and a word from the mouth now, a roaring, or (which may be worse) a silence of consternation, of stupefaction, of obduration at that last hour. Truly, if the death of the wicked ended in Death, yet to scape that manner of death were worthy a Religious life. To see the house fall, and yet be afraid to go out of it; To leave an injured world, and meet an incensed God; To see oppression and wrong in all thy professions, and to foresee ruin and wastefulness in all thy Posterity; and Lands gotten by one sin in the Father, molder away by another in the Son; To see true figures of horror, and lie, and fancy worse; To begin to see thy sins but then, and find every sin (at first sight) in the proportion of a Giant, able to crush thee into despair; To see the Blood of Christ, imputed, not to thee, but to thy Sins; To see Christ crucified, and not crucified for thee, but crucified by thee; To hear this blood speak, not better things, than the blood of Abel, but louder for vengeance then the blood of Abel did; This is his picture that hath been Nothing, that hath done nothing, that hath proposed no Stephen, No Law to regulate, No example to certify his Conscience: But to him that hath done this, Death is but a Sleep.  
Many have wondered at that note of Saint Chrysostom's, 
Mors Piorum.  That till Christ's time death was called death, plainly, literally death, but after Christ, death was called but sleep; for, indeed, in the old-Testament before Christ, I think there is no one metaphor so often used, as Sleep for Death, and that the Dead are said to Sleep: Therefore we wonder sometimes, that Saint chrysostom should say so: But this may be that which that holy Father intended in that Note, that they in the old-Testament, who are said to have slept in Death, are such as then, by Faith, did apprehend, and were fixed upon Christ; such as were all the good men of the old-Testament, and so there will not be many instances against Saint Chrysostome's note, That to those that die in Christ, Death is but a Sleep; to all others, Death is Death, literally Death. Now of this dying Man, that dies in Christ, that dies the Death of the Righteous, that embraces Death as a Sleep, must we give you a Picture too.  
These is not a minute left to do it; not a minute's sand; Is there a minute's patience? Be pleased to remember that those Pictures which are delivered in a minute, from a print upon a paper, had many days, weeks, Month's time for the graving of those Pictures in the Copper; So this Picture of that dying Man, that dies in Christ, that dies the death of the Righteous, that embraces Death as a Sleep, was graving all his life; All his public actions were the lights, and all his private the shadows of this Picture. And when this Picture comes to the Press, this Man to the straits and agonies of Death, thus he lies, thus he looks, this he is. His understanding and his will is all one faculty; He understands God's purpose upon him, and he would not have God's purpose turned any other way; he sees God will dissolve him, and he would feign be dissolved, to be with Christ; His understanding and his will is all one faculty; His memory and his foresight eaten fixed, and concentred upon one object, upon goodness; He remembers that he hath proceeded in the sincerity of a good Conscience in all the ways of his calling, and he foresees that his good name shall have the Testimony, and his Posterity the support of the good men of this world; His sickness shall be but a fomentation to supple and open his Body for the issuing of his Soul; and his Soul shall go forth, not as one that gave over his house, but as one that traveled to see and learn better Architecture, and meant to return and re-edify that house, according to those better Rules: And as those thoughts which possess us most awake, meet us again when we are asleep; So his holy-thoughts, having been always conversant upon the directing of his family, the education of his Children, the discharge of his place, the safety of the State, the happiness of the King all his life; when he is fallen a sleep in Death, all his Dreams in that blessed Sleep, all his devotions in heaven shall be upon the same Subjects, and he shall solicit him that sits upon the Throne, & the Lamb, God for Christ Jesus sake, to bless all these with his particular blessings: for, so God giveth his beloved sleep, so as that they enjoy the next world and assist this.  
So then, the Death of the Righteous is a sleep; first, 
Ps. 127.2. Somnus.  as it delivers them to a present rest. Now men sleep not well fasting; Nor does a fasting Conscience, a Conscience that is not nourished with a Testimony of having done well, come to this Sleep; 
Eccles. 5.11.  but dulcis somnus operanti, The sleep of a labouring man is sweet. To him that laboureth in his calling, even this sleep of Death is welcome. When thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid, saith Solomon; 
Pro. 3.24.  when thy Physician says, Sir, you must keep your bed, thou shalt not be afraid of that sickbed; And than it follows, And thy sleep shall be sweet unto thee; Thy sickness welcome, and thy death too; for, in those two David seems to involve all, 
Ps. 4.8.  I will both lay me down in Peace, and sleep; embrace patiently my deathbed and Death itself.  
So then this death is a sleep, as it delivers us to a present Rest; 
Expergesacti●.  And then, lastly, it is so also as it promises a future waiting in a glorious Resurrection. To the wicked it is far from both: Of them God says, I will make them drunk, 
Jer. 51.39.  and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake; They shall have no part in the Second Resurrection. But for them rhat have slept in Christ, as Christ said of Lazarus, Lazarus Sleepeth, but I go that I may wake him out of sleep, 
Jo. 11.11.  he shall say to his father; Let me go that I may wake them who have slept so long in expectation of my coming: 
1 Thes. 4.14.  And Those that sleep in Jesus Christ (saith the Apostle) will God bring with him; not only fetch them out of the dust when he comes, but bring them with him, that is, declare that they have been in his hands ever since they departed out of this world. They shall awake as Jacob did, and say as Jacob said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and this is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven, And into that gate they shall enter, and in that house they shall dwell, where there shall be no Cloud nor Sun, no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light, no noise nor silence, but one equal music, no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession, no foes nor friends, but and equal communion and Identity, no ends nor beginnings; but one equal eternity. Keep us Lord so awake in the duties of our Callings, that we may thus sleep in thy Peace, and wake in thy glory, and change that infallibility which thou afford us here, to an Actual and undeterminable possession of that Kingdom which thy Son our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the in-estimable price of his incorruptible Blood.  
Amen.   


Serm. 16.  A SERMON Preached at Whitehall. February 22. 1629. SERMON XVI.  Matth. 6.21. 
For where your Treasure is, there will your heart be also.  
I Have seen minute glasses; glasses so short lived: if I were to preach upon this text to such a glass, it were enough for half the Sermon; enough to show the worldly man his Treasure, and the object of his heart, (For where your Treasure is, there will your heart be also) to call his eye to that minute glass, and to tell him there flows, there flies your treasure and your heart with it; but if I had a secular glass, a glass that would run an age; if the two Hemesphears of the world were composed in the form of such a glass, and all the world calcined and burnt to ashes, and all the ashes and sands, and atoms of the world put into that glass, it would not be enough to tell the godly man who this treasure and the object of his heart is, a Parot or a Stare, docil a birds, and of pregnant imitation, will sooner be brought to relate to us the wisdom of a Council table, than any Ambrose or any Chrisostome, men that have gold and honey in their Names, shall tell us what the sweetness, what the treasure of heaven is, and what that man's peace that hath set his heart upon that treasure. As nature hath given us certain Elements, and all bodies are composed of them, and art hath given us a certain Alphabet of letters, and all words are composed of them, so our blessed Saviour in these three Chapters of this Gospel hath given us a Sermon of texts, of which all our Sermons may be composed, all the Articles of our Religion, all the Canons of our Church, all the injunctions of our Princes, all the Homilies of our Fathers, all the body of Divinity is in these three Chapters, in this one Sermon in the mount; where, as the Preacher concludes his Sermon with exhortations to practise, 
7.24.  (whosoever heareth these say of mine and does them,) so he fortifies his Sermon with his own practice (which is a blessed and powerful method,) for as soon as he came out of the pulpit, 
8.1.  as soon as he came down from the mount, he cured the first Leper he saw, and that without all vain glory, for he forbade him to tell any man of it.  
Of this noble body of Divinity one fair limb is in this text; where your treasure is there will your heart be also. immediately before our blessed Saviour had forbidden us the laying up of treasure in this world, upon this reason, that here moths and rust corrupt, 
Divisio.  and thiefs break in and steal, there the reason is, because the money may be lost; but here in our text it is, because the man may be lost, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also; so that this is equivalent to that, 
Mat. 15.26.  what profit to gain the whole world and lose a man's own soul. Our text therefore stands as that proverbial, that Hieroglifical letter Pythagoras his (y) that hath first a stalk, a stem to fix itself, and then spreads into two beams. The stem, the stalk of this letter, this (y) is in the first word of the text, that particle of argumentation, for take heed where you place your treasure; for it concerns you much where your heart be placed; and where your treasure is, there your heart will be also; and then opens this Symbolical, this Catechistical letter, this (y) into two horns, two beams, two branches: One broader, but on the left hand denoting the treasures of this world; the other narrower, but on the right hand, treasure laid up for the world co come, be sure ye turn the right way, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also;  
First we bind ourselves to the stake, to the stalk, to the staff, 
Cor fixum.  the stem of this Simbolical letter, & consider in it, that firmness & fixation of the heart which God requires; God requires no unatural thing at man's hand; whatsoever God requires of man, man may find imprinted in his own nature, written in his own heart. This firmness then, this fixation of the heart is natural to man; every man does set his heart upon something, and Christ in this place does not so much call upon him that he would do so, set his heart upon something, as to be sure he set it upon the right object; and yet truly even this first work to recollect ourselves, to recapitulate ourselves, to assemble and muster ourselves, and to bend our hearts entirely and intensely, directly, earnestly, emphatically, energetically upon something, is by reason of the various fluctuation of our corrupt nature, and the infinite multiplicity of objects, such a work as man needs to be called upon and excited to do it; therefore is there no words in the Scripture so often added to the heart, as that of Entireness, Toto cord, omni cord, pleno cord, do this withal thy heart, with a whole heart, with a full heart; for whatsoever is indivisible, is ; a Point, because it cannot be denied, cannot be moved; the Centre, the Poles, God himself, because he is indivisible is therefore ; and when the heart of man is knit up in such an entireness upon one object, as that it does not flatter nor subdivide itself, then, and then only is it fixed. And that's the happiness in which David fixes himself; not in his Cor paratim, my heart is preparad O God, my heart is prepared, 
Psal. 57 7.  (for so it may be prepared even by God himself, and yet scattered and subdivided by us) But in his Cor fixum; My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed, awake my glory, awake my Psaltery and Harp, I myself will awake early, 
Psal 108 1.  and praise thee O Lord among the people: A triumph that David returned to more than once, for he repeats the same words, with the same pathetical earnestness again; so that his glory, his victory, his triumph, his peace, his acquiescence, his all-sufficiency in himself, consisted in this, that his heart was fixed; for this fixation of the heart argued and testified an entireness in it; when God says, sili da mihi Cor, my Son give me thy heart, God means the whole man; 
1 Cor. 12.17.  though the Apostle saith, The eye is not the man, nor the ear is not the man; he does not say the heart is not the man; the heart is the man; the heart is all. And as Moses was not satisfied with that Commission that Pharaoh offered him, 
Exod. 10 8.  that all the men might go to offer Sacrifice; but Moses would have all their young and all their old, all their Sons and all their Daughters, all their flocks and all their herds, he would have all; so when God says, Fili da mihi cor, my Son give me thy heart, God will not be satisfied with the eye, if I contemplate him in his works, (for that's but the godliness of the natural man) nor satisfied with the ear, with hearing many Sermons; (for that's but a new invention, a new way of making beads, as if the Papist think all done if he have said so many Aves, I think all done, If I have heard so many Sermons) But God requires the heart, the whole man, all the faculties of that man; for only that that is entire, and indivisible is ; and that that God calls for and we seek for, in this stem of Pythagoras his Symbolical letter, is this immoveableness, this fixation of the heart; and yet even against this, though it be natural, there are many impediments; we shall reduce them to a few; to three; these three, First, there is Cor nullum, a mere heartlesness, no heart at all, incogitancy, inconsideration; and then there is, Cor & cor, Cor duplex, a double heart, a doubtful, a distracted heart, which is not incogitancy, nor inconsideration, but purplexity and irresolution; and lastly Cor vagum, a wand'ring, a wayfaring, a weary heart, which is neither, inconsideration, nor irresolution, but inconstancy; and this is a trinity against our unity, three enemies to that fixation and entireness of the heart, which God loves; inconsideration when we do not debate, irresolution when we do not determine, inconstancy when we do not persevere; and upon each of these, 
Cor nullum.  be pleased to stop your devotion a few minutes.  
This first is, Cor nullum, no heart at all, incogitancy, thoughtlesness. An idle body is a disease in a state; an idle soul is a monster in a man; That body that will not work must not eat, 
2 Thes. 3.10.  but starve; that soul that does not think nor consider, cannot be said to Actuate (which is the proper operation of the Soul) but to Evaporate; not to work in the body, but to breath and smoke through the body. We have seen estates of private men wasted by inconsideration, as well as by riot, and a soul may perish by a thoughtlesness, as well as by ill thoughts; God takes it as ill to be slighted as to be injured; and God is as much slighted, in Cord nullo in our thoughtlesness and inconsideration, as he is opposed and provoked in Cord maligno in a rebellious heart: There is a good nullification of the heart, a good bringing of the heart to nothing, for the fire of God's spirit may take hold of me, and (as the Disciples that went with Christ to Emaus, 
Luk. 24.  were affected) my heart may burn within me, when the Scriptures are opened, that is, when God's Judgements are denounced against my sin; and this heat may overcome my former frigidity and coldness, and overcome my succeeding tepidity and lukewarmness, and may bring my heart to a mollification, to a tenderness, as Job found it, The Almighty hath troubled me, and made my heart soft; for there are hearts of clay as well as hearts of wax; hearts whom these fires of God, 
23.16.  his corrections, harden: but if these fires of his, these denuntiations of his Judgements, have overcome first my coldness, and then my lukewarmness, and made my heart soft for better impressions, the work is well advanced, but it is not all done; for mettle may be soft and yet not fusil; iron may be red hot, and yet not apt to run into an other mould. Therefore there is a liquefaction, a melting, a powering out of the heart, such as Rahab speaks of Joshuahs' spies: 
2.11. & 5.1.  as soon as we heard how miraculously God had proceeded in your behalf, in drying up Jurdan, all our hearts melted within us, and no man had any spirit left in him; and when upon the consideration of God's miraculous Judgements or mercies, I come to such a melting and pouring out of my heart, that there be no spirit that is, none of my one spirit left in me, when I have so exhausted, so evacuated myself, that is; all confidence in myself, that I come into the hands of my God as pliably as ductily, as that first clod of earth of which he made me in Adam, was in his hands, in which clod of earth, there was a kind of reluctation against God's purpose; this is a blessed nullification of the heart. When I said to myself as the Apostle professed of himself, I am nothing, and then say to God, 
2 Cor. 12.11.  Lord though I be nothing, yet behold I present thee, as much as thou hadst to make the whole world of; O thou that mad'st the whole world of nothing, make me, that am nothing in my own eyes, a new creature in Christ Jesus; this is a blessed nullification, a glorious annihillation of the heart. So is there also a blessed nullification thereof in the contrition of the heart, in the sense of my sins; when as a sharp wind may have worn out a marble Statue, or a continual spout worn out a marble Pavement; so my holy tears made holy in his blood, that gives them a tincture, and my holy sighs made holy in that spirit that breathes them in me, have worn out my marble heart, that is, the marbleness of my heart, and emptied the room of that former heart, and so given God a vacuity, a new place to create a new heart in: but when God hath thus created a new heart, that is, re-enabled me, by his ordinance to some holy function, then to put this heart to nothing, to think nothing, to consider nothing, not to know our age, but by the Church-book, and not by any action done in the course of our lives, for our God, for our Prince, for our Country, for our Neighbour, for ourselves, (our selves are our Souls,) not to know the seasons of the year but by the fruits; which we eat, and not by observation of the public and national blessings which he hath successively given us; not to know religion but by the conveniency and the preferments to he had in this, or in the other side; to sit here and not to know if we be asked upon a surprise, whether it were a prayer or a Sermon, or an Anthem that we heard last, this is such a nullification of the heart, such an annihillation, such an exinanition thereof as reflects upon God himself; for Respuit datorem, 
Turtullian.  qui datum deserit, he that makes no use of a benefit, despises the benefactor, 
Pro. 10.13.  and therefore a rod for his back, Qui indiget cord that is, without a heart, without consideration what he should do, nay what he does; for this is the first enemy of this firmness and fixation of the heart, without which we have no treasure; and we have done with that, Cor nullum, and pass to the second, Cor & cor, Cor duplex, 
Cor duplex.  the double, the divided, the distracted heart, which is not inconsideration but irresolution. This irresolution, this perplexity is intended in that comination from God, The Lord shall give them a trembling heart; 
Deut. 28.65.  this is not that Cor nullum, that melted heart in which there was no spirit left in them, as in Joshuahs' time, but Cor pavidum, a heart that should not know where to settle, nor what to wish, but as it follows there, in the morning he shall say, would God it were evening, and in the evening would God it were morning; and this is that which Solomon may have intended in his prayer: 
1 Reg. 3.9.  Give thy servant an understanding heart; Cor docile; So St. Hierome reads it, a heart able to conceive counsel; for that's a good disposition, but it is not all; for the original is, lcb. shemeany, that is, Cor audience, a heart willing to hearken to counsel; but all that is, not all that is asked: Solomon asks there a heart to discern between good and evil; so that it is a prayer for the spirit of discretion, of conclusion, of resolution; that God would give him a heart willing to receive counsel, and a heart capable to conceive and digest counsel, and a heart able to discern between counsel and counsel, and to resolve, conclude, determine. It were a strange ambitious patience in any man, to be content to be racked every day in hope to be an inch or two taller at last; so is it for me to think to be a dram or two wiser, by harkening to all jealousies and doubts, and distractions and perplexities that arise in my bosom, or in my family, which is the rack and torture of the soul: A spirit of contradiction may be of use in the greatest Councillors, because thereby matter may be brought into further debatement; but a spirit of contradiction in mine own bosom, to be able to conclude nothing, resolve nothing, determine nothing, not in my religion, not in my manners, but occasionally and upon emergencies; this is a sickly complexion of the Soul, a dangerous impotency, and a shrewd and ill presaging Crisis. If Josuah had suspended his assent of serving the Lord, till all his neighbours and their families, all the Kings and Kingdoms about him had declared theirs the same way, when would Josuah have come to that protestation, I and my house will serve the Lord? If Esther had forborn to press for an audience to the King, in the behalf and for the life of her Nation, till nothing could have been said against it, when would Esther have come to that protestation, I will go, and if I perish, I perish? If one Millstone fell from the North-pole, and another from the South, they would meet, and they would rest in the Centre; nature would concentre them; not to be able to concentre those doubts which arise in myself, in a resolution at last, whether in moral or in religious actions, is rather a vertiginous giddiness, than a wise circumspection or wariness: when God prepared great Armies it is expressed always so, Tanquam unus vir, Israel went out as one man; 
1 Sam. 11.7.  when God established his beloved David to be King, it is expressed so, Uno cord, 
1 Cor. 12.3, 8.  He sent them out with one heart to make David King; when God accelerated the propagation of his Church it is expressed so, Una anima, The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul; 
Act. 4.32.  Since God makes Nations, and Armies, and Churches one heart, let not us make one heart two in ourselves, a divided, a distracted, a perplexed, an irresolved heart; but in all cases let us be able to say to ourselves, this we should do. God asks the heart, a single heart, an entire heart, for whilst it is so, God may have some hope of it; but when it is a heart, and a heart, a heart for God and a heart for Mammon; howsoever it may seem to be even; the odds will seem to be on Mammon's side against God, because he presents possessions, and God but reversions; he the present and possessory things of this world, God but the future and speratory things of the next: so than the Cornullum, no heart, thoughtlesness, incogitancy, inconsideration, and the Cor duplex, the perplexed, and irresolved and inconclusive heart, do equally oppose this firmness and fixation of the heart which God loves, & which we consider in this stem & stalk of Pythagoras his Symbolical letter; and so doth that which we proposed for the third, the Cor vagum, the wand'ring the way faring, the inconstant heart.  
Many times in our private actions, 
Cor vagum.  and in the cribration and sifting of our Consciences (for thas' the Sphere I move in, and no higher) we do overcome the first difficulty, in consideration, we consider seriously; And sometimes the second irresolution we resolve confidently, But never the Third, In constancy; if so far as to bring holy resolutions into actions, yet never so far as to bring holy actions into Habits. 
Jer. 17.9.  That word which we read Deceitful (The heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it?) is in the Original Gnacob; and that is not only fraudulentum, but versipelle, deceitful, because it varies itself into divers forms; so that it does not only deceive others (others find not our heart the same towards them to day, that it was yesterday) but it deceives ourselves, we know not what, nor where our heart will be hereafter. Upon those words of Esai Redite praevaricatores ad Cor; 
46.8.  Return O sinner to thy heart, Long eos mittit, says Saint Gregory, God knows whether that sinner is sent (that is) sent to his own heart; for where is thy heart? Thou mayst remember where it was yesterday; at such an office; at such a Chamber; but yesterday affection's are changed to day, as to days will be to morrow, They have despised my Judgements, so God complains in Ezechiel; 
20.16.  that is, They are not moved with my punishments, they call all: natural accidents; And than it followeth; They have polluted my Sabaths, they are come to a more faint, and dilute, and indifferent way in their Religion; now what hath occasioned this neglecting of God's Judgements, and this diluteness and indifferency in the ways of Religion? That that follows there; Their hearts went after their Idols: Went? Whether? every whither; for, Quot vitia tot recentes Deos; 
Hier.  so many habitual sins; so many Idols; and so every man hath some Idol, some such sin; and then that Idol sends him to a further Idol; that sin to another; for every sin needs the assistance and countenance of another sin, for disguise and palliation. We are not constant in our sins, much less in our more holy purposes; we complain (and justly) of the Church of Rome, that she would not have us receive in utraque in both kinds; but alas, who amongst us doth receive in utraque so, as that when he receives bread & wine, he receives with a true sorrow for former, & a true resolution against future sins; Except the Lord of heaven create new hearts in us, of ourselves we have (Cor nullum) no heart; all vanishes into incogitancies except, the Lord of heaven can centre our affections, of ourselves we have Cor & Cor, a cloven, a divided heart, a heart of irresolution; except the Lord of heaven fix our Resolutions, of ourselves we have Cor vagum, a various, a wand'ring heart, all smokes into inconstancy; and all these three are enemies to that firmness and fixation of the heart, which God loves and we seek after; but yet, how variously soever the heart doth wander, and how little a while soever it stay upon one object; yet, that that thy heart doth stay upon, Christ (in this place) calls thy Treasure; for the words admit well that inversion, Where your Treasure is there will your heart be also, implies this, where your heart is, that is your Treasure: And so we pass from this Stem and Stalk of Pythagoras his Symbolical letter, the firmness and fixation of the heart, to the horns and beams thereof; a broader (but on the left hand) and in that, the corruptible Treasures of this world, and a narrower (but on the right hand) and in that the everlasting Treasures of the next. On both sides, that that you fix your heart upon is your Treasure; for, where your heart is, there is your Treasure also.  
Literally, primarily, radically; Thesaurus, treasure is no more, 
Thesaurus.  but Depositum in Crastinum, provision for to morrow; to show how little a proportion a regulated mind and a contented heart may make a Treasure: but we have enlarged the signification of these words, Provision and to Morrow; for, provision must signify all that can any way be compassed; and to morrow must signify as long as there shall be a to morrow, till Time shall be no more: but waving these infinite extensions and perpetuities, is there any thing of that nature as (taking the word Treasure in the narrowest signification to be but provision for to morrow) we are sure shall last till to morrow? Sits any man here in an assurance that he shall be the same to morrow that he is now: you have your Honours, your Offices, your Possessions, perchance under Seal, a Seal of Wax; Wax that hath a tenacity, an adhering, a cleaving nature to show the royal constancy of his heart that gives them; and would have them continue with you and stick to you: but then, Wax, if it be heat hath a melting, a fluid, a running nature to; so have these Honours, and Offices, and Possessions to them that grow too hot, too confident in them or too imperious by them; for these Honours, and Offices, and Possessions you have a Seal, a fair and just evidence of assurance; but have they any Seal upon you? any assurance of you till to morrow? Did our blessed Saviour give day or any hope of a to morrow to that man to whom he said, Fool this night they fetch away thy soul? or is there any of us that can say, Christ said not that to him?  
But yet a Treasure every man hath, 
Thesaurus malorum. Luc. 6.  An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil, says our Saviour, every man hath some sin upon which his heart is set, and where your heart is, there is your treasure also: The Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, says Job: 'tis true, but yet treasures of wickedness there are: 
10.2. Mich. 6.10.  Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? consider the force of that word, yet, yet, though you have the power of a vigilant Prince executed by just Magistrates, yet, though you have the piety of a religious Prince seconded by the assiduity of a laborious Clergy, yet, though you have many helps which your Fathers did, and your neighbours do want, and have (by God's grace) some fruits of those many helps; yet, for all this, Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? No, Are there not scant measures which are an abomination to God, says the Prophet there; which are not only false measures of merchantdize, but false measures of men; for, when God says that he intends all this, Is there not yet supplantation in Court and misrepresentations of men? When Solomon who understood subordination of places, which flowed from him as well as the highest, which himself possessed, says, and says experimentally for his own, and prophetically for future times, If a Ruler (a man in great place) harken to lies, all his servants are wicked, Are there not yet misrepresentations of men in Courts? Is there not yet oppression in the Country; 
Prov. 29.12. Amos 8.5.  a starving of men and pampering of dogs, A swallowing of the needy, a buying of the poor for a pair of shoes, and a selling to the hungry refuse corn? 
Esai. 5.23.  Is there not yet oppression in the Country? Is there not yet extortion in Westminster? A justifying of the wicked for a reward, and a taking away of the righteousness of the righteous from him? Is there not yet extortion in Westminster? Is there not yet Collusion and Circumvention in the City? would they not seem richer than they are when they deal in private bargains with one another, and would they not seem poorer than they are, when they are called to contribute for the Public? 
Exech. 28.5.  have they not increased their riches by Trade, and lifted up their hearts upon the increase of their riches? 
Amos 2 8.  have they not slackened their Trade, and lain down upon clothes laid to pledge, and ennobled themselves by an ignoble and lazy way of gain? Is there not yet collusion and circumvention in the City? Is there not yet Hypocrisy in the Church? In all parts thereof; half-preaching and half-hearing, hear and preach without practise? have we not national sins of our own, and yet exercise the nature of Islanders in importing the sins of foreign parts? And though we better not foragin commodity, nor manufactures that we bring in, we improve the sins of other Nations: And as a weaker grape growing upon the Rhine contracts a stronger nature in the Canaries, so do the sins of other Nations transplanted amongst us. Have we not secular sins, sins of our own age, our own time, and yet sin by precedent of former, as well as create precedents for future? 
Jos. 6.19.  and not only Silver and gold, but vessels of iron and brass were brought into the Treasury of the Lord, not only the glorious sins of high places and national sins, and secular sins, but the wretchedest beggar in the street contributes to this Treasure, the Treasure of sin, and to this mischievous use, to increase this Treasure. The Treasure of sin is a subsidieman, he begs in Jesus name, and for God's sake, and in the same name curses him that does not give: he counterfeits a lameness, or he loves his lameness and would not be cured; for his lameness is his stock, it is his demean, it is (as they call their occupations in the City) his mystery: Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? when even they who have no houses, but lie in the streets have these Treasures?  

Thesaurus Dei hic.  There are, and then as the nature of treasure is, to multiply; so does this treasure, this treasure of sin, it produces another treasure, Thesaurizamus iram, 
Ro. 2.5.  We treasure up unto ourselves wrath against the day of wrath. 
Deut. 32.34.  For it is of the sins of the people that God speaks, when he says; Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up amongst my treasures? He treasures up the sins of the disobedient; but where? In the treasury of his Judgements. And then that treasury he opens against us in this world, his treasure of snow, and treasures of hail; that is, unseasonableness of weather, barrenness and famine; and he bringeth his winds out of his treasury; contrary winds or storms, and tempests to disappoint our purposes: 
Job 38.22.  And as he says to Cyrus, I will give thee (even thee Cyrus, though God cared not for Cyrus, 
Psal. 135.7.  otherwise then as he had made Cyrus his scourge) I will give thee the treasures of darkness, 
Esa. 45.3.  and the hidden treasures of secret places; God will enable enemies, (though he loves not those enemies) to afflict that people that love not him. And these, war, and dearth, and sickness, are the weapons of God's displeasure; and these he pours out of his treasury in this world. 
Thesaur. Dei in ●●tu●o.  But then for the world to come, he shall open our treasury, (for whatsoever moved our translators to render that word Armoury, and not Treasury in that place, yet evidently it is Treasury, and in that very word Otzar, which they translate Treasury, 
Jer. 50.25.  in all those places of Job and David, and Esai, which we mentioned before, and in all other places,) he shall open that treasury, (says that Prophet) and bring forth the weapons, not as before of displeasure, but in a far heavier word, the weapons of his indignation. And in the bowels and treasure of his mercy, let me beseech you not to call the denouncing of God's indignation, a satire of a Poet, or an invective of an Orator; as Solomon says, there is a time for all things, there is a time for consternation of presumptuous hearts, as well as for redintegration of broken hearts, and the time for that, is this time of mortification which we enter into now. Now therefore let me have leave to say, that the indignation of God is such a thing as a man would be afraid to think he can express it, afraid to think he does know it; for the knowledge of the indignation of God imples the sense & feeling thereof? all knowledge of that is experimental, and that's a woeful way, and a miserable acquisition and purchase of knowledge. To recollect treasure is provision for the future; no worldly thing is so; there is no certain future, for the things of this world pass from us; we pass from them; the world itself passes away to nothing. Yet a way we have found to make a treasure, a treasure of sin; and we teach God thrift, and providence; for when we arm, God arms too; a treasure furnished with weapons of displeasure for this world, and weapons of indignation for the world to come. But then, 
Luc. 6.45.  as an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil, (so says our Saviour) the good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; which is the last stroke that makes up Pythagoras his Symbolical letter, that horn, that beam thereof, which lies on the right hand; a narrow way, but to a better land; through straits: 'tis true, but to the Pacifique sea; the consideration of the treasure of the godly man in this world, and God's treasure towards him, both in this and the next. Things dedicated to God are called often the treasure of God; Thesauri Dei, and Thesauri sanctorum Dei, 
Thesaur. bonorum.  The treasure of God and the treasures of the servants of God, are in the Scriptures the same things; and so a man may rob God's treasury, in robbing an Hospital. 
1 Cor. 28.12.  Now though to give a Talon, or to give a Jewel, or to give a considerable proportion of plate, be an addition to a treasury, yet to give a treasury to a treasury, is a more precious and a more acceptable present; as to give a library to a library, is more than to give the work of any one Author. A godly man is a library in himself, a treasury in himself, and therefore fittest to be dedicated and appropriated to God. Invest thyself therefore with this treasure of godliness: what is godliness, take it in the whole compass thereof; and godliness is nothing but the fear of God; 
Pro. 1.7.  for he that says in his first Chapter Initium sapientiae, The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, 
22.4.  says also in the 22th. Finis modestiae, The fear of God is the end of modesty, the end of humility; no man is bound to deject himself to any lower humiliation then to the fear of God. When God promised good Ezekiah all those blessings, 
Esay. 33.6.  wisdom, and knowledge, and stability, and strength of salvation; that that was to defray him and carry him through all, 
1 Tim. 6.19.  was this, The fear of the Lord shall be his treasure. And therefore Thesaurizate vobis fundamentum, Lay up in store for yourselves a good foundation against the time to come, do all in the fear of God; in all warlike preparations remember the Lord of Hosts, and fear him; in all treaties of peace; remember the Prince of peace, and fear him; in all consultations remember the Angel of the great counsel and fear him; fear God as much at noon as at midnight, as much in the glory and splendour of his Sunshine, as in his darkest Eclipses; fear God as much in thy prosperity as in thine adversity, as much in thy preferment, as in thy disgrace. Lay up a thousand pound to day in comforting that oppressed soul that sues, and lay up ten thousand pound to morrow, in pairing his nails that oppresses; lay up a million one day in taking God's cause to heart, and lay up ten millions next day in taking God's cause in hand: Let every soul lay up a penny now in resisting a small tentation, and a shilling anon in resisting a greater; and it will grow to be a treasure, a treasure of talents, of so many talents, as that the poorest soul in the congregation will not change treasure with any Place-Fleets, nor Terra firma fleet, nor with those three thousand millions, which (though it be perchance a greater sum than is upon the face of Europe at this day, after a hundred years emboweling of the earth for treasure,) David is said to have left for the treasure of the Temple, 
Villalp. To. 2. par. li. 5. Disp. 3. cap. 43. so. 503. Phil. 3.20. Apoc. 21.2.  only to be laid up in the treasury thereof when it was built; for the charge of the building thereof was otherwise defrayed. Let your conversation be in heaven; cannot you get thither? you may see, as St. John did, heaven come down to you; heaven is here; here in God's Church, in his word, in his Sacraments, in his Ordinances; set thy heart upon them, (the promises of the Gospel, the seals of reconciliation) and thou hast that treasure which is thy viaticum, for thy transmigration out of this world, and the bill of exchange for the world thou goest, to; for as the wicked make themselves a treasure of sin and vanity, and then God opens upon them a treasure of his displeasure here, and his indignation hereafter; so the godly make themselves a treasure of the fear of God, and he opens unto them a treasure of grace and peace here, and a treasure of joy and glory hereafter. And when of each of these treasures here and hereafter; I shall have said one word, I have done.  
We have treasure though in earthen vessels, says the Apostle, 
Thesaurus Dei Erga bonos hic. 2 Cor 4.7.  we have, that is, we have already the treasure of grace and peace, and faith, and justification, and sanctification; but yet in earthen vessels, in vessels that may be broken; peace that may be interrupted, grace that may be resisted, faith that may be enfeebled, justification that may be suspected, and sanctification that may be blemished; but we look for more; for joy and glory, for such a justification, and such a sanctification as shall be sealed and riveted in a glorification. Manna putrified, if it were kept by any man but a day; but in the Ark it never putrified. That treasure which is as Manna from heaven, grace and peace; yet here hath a brackish taste, when grace and peace shall become joy and glory in heaven, there it will be sincere. Sordescit quod inferiori miscetur nature, 
August.  & si in suo genere non sordidetur; though in the nature thereof, that with which a purer mettle is mixed be not base, yet it abases the purer mettle: he puts his example in silver and gold: though silver be a precious mettle, yet it abases gold, grace and peace and faith are precious parts of our treasure here; yet if we mingle them, that is, compare them with the joys and glory of heaven, if we come to think that our grace and peace and faith here, can no more be lost, than our joy and glory there, we abase and we over-allay those, joys and that glory. The Kingdom of heaven is like to a treasure, says our Saviour, 
Mar. 13.44.  but is it all? is any treasure like unto it? none; for (to end where we begun) treasure is depositum in crastinum, provision for to morrow: the treasure of the worldly man is not so; he is not sure of any thing to morrow. Nay the treasure of the godly man is not so in this world; he is not sure that this day's grace and peace and faith shall be his to morrow; when I have joy & glory in heaven, I shall be sure of that to morrow. And that's a term long enough; for before to morrow there must be a night; and shall there ever be night in heaven, no more than day in hell, there shall be no Sun in heaven, 
Apoc 21.23.  therefore no danger of Sunset. And for the treasure itself, when the holy Ghost hath told us that the walls & streets of that City are pure gold, that the foundations thereof are all precious stones, and every gate of an entire pearl, what hath the Holy Ghost himself left to denote unto us? what the treasure itself within is? the treasure itself is the Holy Ghost himself and joy in him, As the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, (but I know not how) so there shall something proceed from Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and fall upon me, but I know not what: nay not fall upon me neither, but enwrap me, embrace me; for I shall be below them, so as that I shall not be upon the same seat with the Son, at the right hand of the Father, in the union of the holy Ghost; rectified by the power of the Father, and feel no weakness; enlightened by the wisdom of the Son, and feel no scruple; established by the joy of the holy Ghost, and feel no jealousy. Where I shall find the Fathers of the first ages, dead 5000 years before me, and they shall not be able to say they were there a minute before me. Where I shall find the blessed and glorious Martyrs, who went not Per viam lacteam, but per viam sanguineam, not by the milky way of an innocent life, but by the bloody way of a violent death, and they shall not contend with me for precedency in their own right, or say, we came in by Purchase, and you but by pardon. Where I shall find the Virgins, and not be despised by them for not being so; but hear that redintegration which I shall receive in Jesus Christ, called Virginity and Entireness. Where all tears shall be wiped from my eyes; not only tears of compunction for myself, and tears of compassion for others, but even tears of joy too, for there shall be no sudden joy, no joy unexperienced there; there I shall have all joys altogether, always. There Abraham shall not be gladder of his own salvation then of mine, nor I surer of the everlastingness of my God, then of my everlastingness in him. This is that treasure, of which the God of this treasure gives us, those spangles and that single money which this minute can coin, this world can receive, that is, Prosperity and a good use thereof in worldly things, and grace and peace, and faith in spiritual, and then reserve for us the exaltation of this treasure, in the joy and glory of heaven, in the mediation of his Son Christ Jesus, and by the operation of his blessed Spirit.  
Amen.   

A SERMON. 
Serm. 17.  SERMON XVII.  James 2.12. 
So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty.  
THis is one of those seven Epistles, which Athanasius and Origen called Catholic; that is, universal, perchance because they are not directed to any one Church, as some others are, but to all the Christian World: and Saint Hierome called them Canonical; perchance because all Rules, all Canons of holy conversation are comprised in these Epistles; and Epiphanius and Oecumenius called them circular, perchance because as in a circle, you cannot discern which was the first point, nor in which the compass began the circle; so neither can we discern in these Epistles, whom the Holy Ghost gins withal, whom he means principally, King or Subject, Priest or People, single or married, Husband or Wife, Fathers or Children, Masters or Servants, but universally, promiscuously, indifferently, they give all rules, for all actions, to all persons, at all times and in all places; as in this Text in particular, which is not by any precedent or subsequent relation, by any connexion or coherence, directed upon any company or any degree of men; for the Apostle does not say, ye Princes, nor ye People, but ye, ye in general to all, So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty: so these Epistles are Catholic, so they are canonical, and they are circular too. But yet though in a circle we know not where the compass began, we know not which was the first point yet we know that the last point of the circle returns to the first and so becomes all one, and as much as we know the last, we know the first point. Since then the last point of that circle, in which God hath created us to move is a Kingdom (for it is the Kingdom of Heaven) and it is a Court, (for it is that glorious Court which is the presence of God in the Communion of his Saints) it is a fair and a pious conception; for this congregation, here present now in this place, to believe that the first point of this circle of our Apostle here is a Court too, and that the Holy Ghost in proposing these duties in his general ye, does principally intent, ye that live in Court, ye whom God brings so near to the sight of himself, and of his Court in heaven, as that you have always the picture of himself, and the portraiture of his Court in your eyes; for a religious King is the Image of God, and a religious Court is a copy of the Communion of Saints: And therefore be you content to think, that to you especially our Apostle says here, ye, ye who have a nearer propinquity to God, and more assiduous conversation with God, by having better helps then other inferior stations do afford, (for though God be seen in a weed, in a worm, yet he is seen more clearly in the Sun) so speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be Judged by the law of liberty.  

Divisio.  Now as the first Devils were in heaven, (for it was not the punishment which they feel in hell, but the sin which they committed in heaven, which made them devils) & yet the fault was not in God, nor in the place; so if the greatest sins be committed in Courts, (as even in Rome, where thy will needs have an innocent Church, yet they cause a guilty Court,) the faults are personal, theirs that do them; and there is no higher Author of their sin. The Apostle does not bid us say; that it is so in Courts, but lest it should come to be so, he bids us give these rules to Courts, so speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be Judged by the law of liberty. First then, here is no express precept given, no direct commandment to speak; the holy Ghost saw there would be speaking enough in Courts; for though there may be a great sin in silence, a great prevarication in not speaking in a good cause, or for an oppressed person, yet the lowest voice in a Court, wispering itself, speaks aloud, and reaches far; and therefore, here is only a rule to regulate our speech, Sic loquimini, so speak ye. And then, as here is no express precept for speaking, so here is no express precept for doing: The holy Ghost saw there would be doing enough, business enough in Court; for as silence, and half-silence; whispering may have a loud voice, so, even undoing may be a busy doing, and therefore, here is only a rule, to regulate our doing to, Sic facite, So do ye: And lastly, as there is speaking enough, even in silence, and doing enough, even in undoing, in Court, so the Court is always under Judgement enough. Every discontented person that hath missed his preferment, though he have not merited it; every drunkard, that is overheat, though not with his own wine; every conjecturing person, that is not within the distance to know the ends or the ways of great actions, will Judge the highest counsels, and execution of those counsels. The Court is under Judgement enough, and they take liberty enough; and therefore here is a rule to regulate our liberty, a law of liberty: so speak ye, and etc. But though for the more benefit of the present Congregation, we fix the first point of this Circle, that is, the principal purpose of the holy Ghost upon the Court, yet our text is an Amphitheatre; an Amphitheatre consists of two theatres: our text hath two parts, in which all men, all may sit and see themselves acted first in the obligation that is laid upon us, upon us all, Sic loquimini, Sic facite, and then in the reason of this holy diligence, and religious cautelousness, quia Judicandi; because you are all to be Judged, by etc. which two general parts, the obligation, and the reason, flowing into many subdivided branches, I shall, I think, do better service, both to your understanding and to your memory, and to your affections and consciences, to present them, as they shall arise anon in their order, then to pour them out all at once now.  
First then, in our first part, we look to our rule in the first duty, 
First part. Loquimini.  our speaking, Sic loquimini, so speak ye. The Comic Poet gives us a good caution, Si servus semper consuescat silentio, fiat nequam; that servant that says nothing, thinks ill. As our nullifidians, men that put all upon works, and no faith, and our solifidians, men that put all upon, faith & no works, are both in the wrong; so there is a danger in multiloquio, & another in nulliloquio; he that speaks overfreely to me, may be a man of dangerous conversation, and the silent and reserved man, that makes no play, but observes and says nothing, may be more dangerous than he: As the Roman Emperor professed to stand more in fear of one pale man, and lean man, then of twenty that studied, and pursued their pleasures, and loved there ease, because such would be glad to keep things in the state they then were, but the other sort affected changes, so for the most part, he that will speak, lies as open to me as I to him; speech is the balance of conversation. Therefore as gold is not merx, but pretium, Gold is not ware, but the price of all ware, so speaking is not doing; but yet fair speaking prepares an acceptation before, and puts a value after, upon the best actions. God hath made other creatutes Gregalia, sociable, besides man; sheep, and deer, and pigeons will flock, and heard, and troop and meet together; but when they are met, they are not able to tell one another why they met. Man only can speak; silence makes it but a hearding; that that makes conversation, is speech. Qui datum deserit, respuit datorem, says Tertullian; He that uses not a benefit, reproaches his benefactor. To declare God's goodness that hath enabled us to speak, we are bound to speak: speech is the glue, the cement, the soul of conversation, and of religion too.  
Now, your conversation is in heaven; and therefore loquimini Deo, 
Deo.  first speak to him that is in heaven, speak to God. Some of the Platonic Philosophers thought it a profanation of God, to speak to God; they thought that when our thoughts were made prayers, and that the heart slowed into the tongue, and that we had invested, and apparelled our meditations with words, this was a kind of painting and dressing, and a superfluous diligence, that rather tasted of humane affections, than such a sincere service, as was fit for the presence of God; only the first conception, the first ebullitions and emanations of the Soul, in the heart, they thought to be a fit sacrifice to God, and all verbal prayer to be too homely for him. But God himself who is all spirit, hath yet put on bodily lineaments, head, and hands, and feet, yea, and garments too, in many places of scripture to appear, that is, to manifest himself to us; and when we appear to God, though our devotion be all spiritual, as he is all spirit, yet let us put on lineaments and apparel upon our devotions, and digest the meditations of the heart into words of the mouth. God came to us, in verbo, in the word, for Christ is the word that was make flesh: let us that are Christians go to God so too, that the words of our mouth as well as the meditations of our heart, may be acceptable to him. Surely, God loves the service of prayer, or he would never have built a house for prayer; and therefore we justly call public prayer, the liturgy, service: love that place, and love that service in that place: prayer, They will needs make us believe that St. Francis preached to birds, and beasts, and stones; but they will not go about to make us believe that those birds, and beasts, and stones joined with St. Francis in prayer. God can speak to all things; that's the office of preaching to speak to others; but of all, only man can speak to God, and that's the office of prayer. It is a blessed conversation to spend time in discourse in communication with God. 
Gen. 18. ult.  God went his way assoon as he had left communing with Abraham: When we leave praying, God leaves us; but God left not Abraham, as long as he had any thing to say to God; and we have always something to say unto him; he loves to hear us tell him even those things which he knew before; His benefits in our thankfulness, and our sins in our confessions, and our necessities in our petitions: And therefore having so many occasions to speak to God, and to speak of God, David ingeminates that (and his ingemination implies a wonder) O that men would (and it is strange if men will not) O that men would, says he, more than once or twice, O that men would praise the Lord, and tell the wondrous works that he hath done for the sons of men; for David determines not his precept in that, 
Ps. 100 4.  Be thankful unto him; for a thankfulness may pass in private, but, Be thankful unto him and speak good of his name: Glorify him in speaking to him, in speaking of him, in speaking for him.  

Diis.  Loquimini Deo, speak to God and loquimini Diis, speak to them, whom God hath called Gods. As religious Kings are bound to speak to God by way of prayer; so those who have that sacred office, and those that have that honourable office to do so, are bound to speak to Kings by way of Council. God hath made all good men partakers of the divine nature; they are the sons of God, the seed of God; but God hath made kings partakers of his office and administration. And as between man and himself God hath put a Mediator, that consists of God and Man; so between Princes and People, God hath put Mediators too, who considered in themselves retain the nature of the people, (so Christ did of man) but considered in their places, have fair and venerable beams of his power and influences of him upon them. And as our Mediator, Christ Jesus, found always his Father's ears open to him; so do the Church and State enter blessedly and successfully by these Mediators into the ears of the King. Of our Mediator Christ himself it is said, that he offered up prayers, 
Heb. 5.7.  and strong cries, and tears; even Christ was put to some difficulties in his mediation for those that were his: but he was heard, says that Text, in that he feared: Even in those things wherein, in some emergent difficulties, they may be afraid they shall not, these mediators are graciously and opportunely heard too in their due discharge of their offices. That which was David's prayer, is our possession, our happiness; Let not the foot of pride come against us; 
Ps. 36.11.  we know there is no pride in the head; and because there is no fault in the hands neither, that is, in them into whose hands this blessed Mediatorship is committed, by the great places of power and counsel which they worthily hold, the foot of pride, foreign or home oppression does not, shall not tread us down. And for the continuation of this happiness, let me have leave to say with Mordechais humility and earnestness too, to all such mediators, that which he said to Esther, 
4.14.  Who knows, whether thou be'st not brought to this place for this purpose? to speak that which his sacred and gracious ears, to whom thou speakest, will always be well pleased to hear when it is delivered by them, to whom it belongs to speak it, and in such humble and reserved manner as such sovereign persons as owe no account but to God, should be spoke too? Sic loquimini Deo, so let Kings speak to God, (that was our first,) Sic loquimini Diis, so let them whom Kings trust speak to Kings, whom God hath called Gods, (that was our second) and then a third branch in this rule of our first duty, is, Sic loquimini imaginibus Dei, so speak you to God's Images, to men of condition inferior to yourselves, for they also are Images of God, as you are.  
And this is truly, most literally the purpose of the Apostle here, 
Imaginibus Dei  that you undervalue no man for his outward appearance; 
v. 2.  that you over-value no man for his goodly apparel or gold rings; that you say not to a poor man stand thou here, or if you admit him to sit, sit here under my footstool: 
v. 3.  but it is a precept of accessibleness and of affability; affability, that is, a civility of the City of God and a courtship of the Court of Heaven to receive other men, the images of God, with the same easiness that God received you. God stands at the door and knocks, and stays our leisure to see if we will open and let him in: even at the door of his beloved he stood and knocked, till his head was filled mith dew, and his locks with the drops of the night: 
Apoc. 3.20. Cant. 5.2.  But God puts none of us to that which he puts himself and his Christ; but, knock, says he, and it shall be opened unto you; 
Mat. 7.7.  no staying at the door, opened as soon as you knock. The nearest that our Expositors can come to find what it was that offended God, 
Num. 20.10.  in Moses striking of the Rock for water, is, that he struck it twice; that he did not believe that God would answer his expectation at one striking; God is no inaccessible God, that he may not be come to, nor inexorable, that he will not be moved if he be spoken to, nor dilatory, that he does not that he does seasonably. Daniel presents God Antiquum Dierum, as an old man; but that is as a reverend not as a froward person, 
Ambro.  men's in Sermonibus nostris habitat, et gubernat verba: The soul of a man is incorporate in his words; as he speaks, we think he thinks: Et bonus pater familias in illo primo vestibulo aestimatur, says the same Father; as we believe that to be a free house where there is an easy entrance, so we doubt the less of a good heart if we find charitable and courteous language. But yet there is an excess in this too, in this self-effusion, this pouring of a man's self out in fair and promising language: In accessibleness is the fault which the Apostle aims at here: and truly the most inaccessible man that is, is the over-liberal and profuse promiser: he is therefore the most inaccessible, because he is absent, when I am come to him, and when I do speak with him: to a retired, to a reserved man we do not easily get; but when we are there he is there too: to an open and liberal promiser we get easily, but when we are with him he is away, because his heart, his purpose is not there; but Sic loquimini Deo, so speak ye to God (that's a remembrance to Kings) Sic loquimini Diis, so speak ye to them whom God hath called Gods, (that's a remembrance to Mediators between Kings and Subjects,) Sic loquimini imaginibus Dei, so speak ye to God's images, to all men (that's a remembrance to all that possess any superiority over others) as that your loquimini may be accompanied with a facite, your saying with doing, your good words with good actions; for so our Apostle joins them here, so speak ye, and so do ye; and so we are come to our second rule; from the rule of our words to the rule of our actions.  

Facite.  John Baptist was all voice, yet John Baptist was a forerunner of Christ; the best words are but words; but they are the forerunners of deeds. But Christ himself, as he was God himself, is purus actus, all action, all doing: comfortable words are good cordials; they revive the spirits, and they have the nature of such occasional physic: but deeds are our food, our diet, and that that constantly nourishes us. 
1 Jo. 3.18.  Non verbo, says the Apostle, Let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth; Not that we may not love in words, but that our deeds are the true seals of that love, which was also love when it was in words: 
Ambro.  But, Ne quod luxuriat in flore, attenuetur & habetetur in fructu, Lest that tree, that blew early and plentifully, blast before it knit: Second your good words with actions too; It is the husbandry and the harvest of the righteous man, (as it is gathered in David) The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom: 
Ps. 37.30.  So we read it; there it is in the tongue, in words only; the vulgar hath it Meditatur, he meditates it; so the heart is got in; But the original Hagah, is noted to signify fructificavit, he brings forth fruits thereof, and so the hand is got in too; And, when that which is well spoken, was well meant, and hath been well expressed in action, that's the husbandry of the righteous man; then his harvest is all in; It is the way of God himself. Philo Judaeus notes, 
Exo 20.10.  That the people are said to have seen the noise and the voice of God, because, whatsoever God says, it determines in action; If we may hear God we may see God; what he says he does too: Therefore from that example of God himself, Saint Gregory directs us; we must, says he, show our love, Et vaneratione sermonis, et ministerio largitatis, with a fair respect in words, and with a real supply in deeds: Nay, when we look upon our pattern, that is, God, Tertullian notes well, That God prevented his own speaking by doing; Benedicebat, quae benefaciebat, first he made all things good, and then he blessed them that they might be better; first he wrought and then he spoke: And so Christ's way and proceeding is presented to us too; so far from not doing when he speaks, as that he does before he speaks. Christ began to do and to teach, 
Act. 1.1. Luk. ult. 19  says St. Luke, but first to do; And he was mighty in deeds and in words; but first in deeds. We cannot write so well as our copy, to begin always at deeds, as God and his Christ; but yet let us labour to write so fair after it, as first to afford comfortable words, and though our deeds come after, yet to have them from the beginning in our intention, and that we do them, not because we promised, but promise because we love to do good, and love to lay upon ourselves the obligation of a promise. The instrument and organ of nature was the eye; the natural man finds God in that he sees; in the creature. The organ of the Law which exalted and erectified nature was the hand; Fac hoc et vives, perform the law and thou shalt live: So also, the organ of the Gospel is the ear, for faith comes by hearing; but then the organ of faith itself is the hand too; a hand that lays hold upon the merits of Christ for myself, and a hand that delivers me over to the Church of God in a holy life, and exemplary actions, for the edification of others: So that all, all from nature to grace determines in action, in doing good; Sic facite Deo, so do good to God, in real assisting his cause, Sic facite Diis, so do good to them, whom God hath called Gods, in real seconding their religious purposes, Sic facite imaginibus Dei, So do good to the images of God, in real relieving his distressed members, as that you do all this upon that which is made the reason of all, in the second part of this Text, Because you are to be judged by the law of liberty.  
Timor futuri judicii hujus vitae paedagogus: 
2. Part. Basil. judicium.  Our Schoolmaster to teach us to stand upright in the last judgement, is the meditation and the fear of that judgement in this life. It is our schoolmaster, and schoolmaster enough, I said unto the fool, thus and thus, says David, 
Ps. 75.5.  And I said unto the wicked, thus and thus, says he: for, says he, God is the Judge; He thought it enough to enlighten the understanding of the fool, enough to rectify the perverseness of the wicked, if he could set God before them, in that notion, as a Judg. For this is one great benefit from the present contemplation of the future Judgement, that whosoever does truly and advisedly believe, that ever he will come to that Judgement, is at it now; he that believes that God will judge him, is God's Commissioner, Gods delegate, and in his name Judges himself now. Therefore it is a useful mistaking, which the Roman translator is fallen into in this text; in reading it thus, Sicut incepientes Judicari, so speak ye, and so do, as they upon whom the Judgement were already begun; for qui timet ante Christi tribunal praesentari, 
August.  he that is afraid to be brought to the last Judgement, hath but one refuge, but one Sanctuary; Ascendat tribunal mentis suae, et constituat se ante seipsum, let him cite himself before himself, give evidence himself, against himself; and so guilty as he is found here, so innocent he shall stand there. Let him proceed upon himself, 
9.28.  as Job did, and he is safe; I am afraid of all my sorrows, says he, afraid that I have not said enough against myself, nor repent enough; afraid that my sorrows have not been sincere, but mingled with circumstances of loss of health, or honour, or fortune, occasioned by my sins, and not only, not principally for the sin itself; I am afraid of all my sorrows says he, but how much more then, of my mirths and pleasures? to judge ourselves by the Judgement of flatterers, that depend upon us; to judge ourselves by the event and success of things, (I am enriched, I am preferred by this course, and therefore all's well) to judge ourselves by example of others, (others do thus, and why not I?) all these proceed are Coram non Judice, all these are literally praemunire cases, for they are appellations into faraign Jurisdictions, and foreign Judicatures. Only our own conscience rectified, is a competent Judge; and they that have passed the trial of that Judgement, do not so much rise to Judgement at last, as stand and continue in Judgement: their Judgement, that is, their trial is passed here; and there they shall only receive sentence, and that sentence shall be, Euge bone serve, well done good and faithful servant, since thou didst enter into Judgement in the other world, enter into thy Master's joy in this. But howsoever we be prepared for that Judgement, well or not well, and howsoever the Judge be disposed towards us, well or not well, there is this comfort given us here, that that Judgement shall be per legem, by a law, we shall be judged by a law of liberty; which is our second branch, in this second part.  

Per legem.  The Jews that prosecuted the Judgement against Christ, durst not do that, without pretending a law: habemus legem, say they, we have a law, and he hath transgressed that. The necessary precipitations into sudden executions, to which States are forced in rebellious time, we are fain to call by the name of law, martial law; the torrents and inundations, which invasive armies power upon nations, we are fain to call by the name of law, the law of arms. No Judgement, no execution without the name, the colour, the pretence of law, for still men call for a law for every execution. And shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? shall God Judge us, condemn us, execute us at the last day, and not by law? by something that we never saw, never knew, never notified, never published, and Judge me by that, and leave out the consideration of that law, which he bond me to keep? 
1 Cor. 1.20.  I ask St. Paul's question, Where is the disputer of the world? who will offer to dispute unnecessary things, especially where Authority hath made it necessary to us, to forbear such disputations? Blessed are the peacemakers that command, and blessed are the peace-keepers that obey, and accommodate themselves to peace, in forbearing unnecessary and uncharitable controversies; But without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness; the Apostle invites us to search into on farther mysteries, than such as may be without controversy; 
1 Tim. 3.16.  the mystery of godliness is without controversy: and godliness is to believe that God hath given us a law, and to live according to that law. This, this godliness, (that is, knowledge and obedience to the law) hath the promises of this life, and the next too, all referred to his law: for without this, this godliness, (which is holiness) no man shall see God: all referred to a law. This is Christ's Catechism in St. John, that we might know the only true God, 
17.3.  and Jesus Christ whom he sent, a God commanding, and a Christ reconciling us, if we have transgressed that commandment; and this is the holy Ghost's Catechism in St. Paul, Deus remunerator, 
Heb. 11.6.  that we believe God to be, and to be a just rewarder of man's actions; still all referred to an obedience, or disobedience of a law. The mystery of godliness is great, that is, great enough for our salvation, and yet without controversy. For though controversies have been moved about Gods first act, there can be none of his last act; though men have disputed of the object of election, yet of the subject of execution there is no controversy: no man can doubt, but that when God delivers over any soul actually, and by way of execution to eternal condemnation, that he delivers over that soul to that eternal condemnation, for breaking this law. In this we have no other adversary but the over-sad, the despairing soul; and it becomes us all, to lend our hand to his succour, and so pour in our wine and our oil, into his wounds, that lies weltering and surrounded in the blood of his own pale and exhausted soul; that soul, who though it can testify to itself, some endeavour to the ways of holiness; yet upon some collatteral doubts, is still suspicious and jealous of God. How often have we seen, that a needless jealousy and suspicion conceived without cause, hath made a good body bad? a needless jealousy and suspicion of his purposes, and intentions upon thee, may make thy merciful God angry too. Nothing can alienate God more from thee, then to think that any thing but sin can alienate him. How wouldst thou have God merciful to thee, if thou wilt be unmerciful to God himself? And qui quid tyrannicum in Deo, 
Basil.  He that conceives any tyrannical act in God is unjust to the God of Justice, and unmerciful to the God of mercy. Therefore in the 17th. of our injunctions we are commanded to arm sad souls against despair, by setting forth the mercy and the benefits, and the godliness of Almighty God: (as the word of the injunction is, the godliness of God;) for to leave God under a suspicion of dealing ill with any penitent soul, were to impute ungodliness to God. Therefore to that mistaking soul, that discomposed, that shivered, and shrivelled, and ravelled and ruined soul, to that jealous and suspicious soul only, I say with the Apostle, let no man Judge you, intruding into those things which he hath not seen. 
Colos. 2.18.  Let no man make you afraid of secret purposes in God, which they have not, nor you have not seen; for that by which you shall be Judged, is the law, that law which was notified and published to you. The law alone were much too heavy, if there were not a suprabundant ease and alleviation in that hand, that Christ Jesus reaches out to us. O consider the weight and the ease; and for pity to such distrustful souls, and for establishing of your own, stop your devotions a little, upon this consideration: first, there is Chirograpbum, A hand writing of Ordinances against me; 
v. 14.  a debt, an obligation contracted by our first Parents in their disobedience; and fallen upon me. And even that, (be it but original sin) is shrewd evidence; there's my first charge. But deletum est, says the Apostle there, that's blotted, that's defaced, that cannot be sued against me after baptism: nay sublatum cruci affixum, 
28.15.  It is cancelled, it is nailed to the Cross of Christ Jesus, it is no more sin, in itself it is; but to me to condemnation it is not; there's my charge, and my discharge for that. But yet there is a heavier evidence; Pactum cum inferno, as the Prophet Isai speaks; I have made a Covenant with death, & with hell I am at an agreement; that is, says St. Gregory, Audacter, indesinentur peccamus, et diligendo, amicitiam profitemur: We sin constantly, and we sin continually, and we sin confidently, and we find so much pleasure and profit in sin, as that we have made a league, and sworn a friendship with sin; & we keep that perverse, & irreligious promise, over-religiously; & the sins of our youth flow into other sins, when age disables us for them. But yet there is a delectum est, in this case too, our Covenant with death is disannulled, (says that Prophet) when we are made partakers of the death of Christ, in the blessed Sacrament; mine actual sins lose their act, and mine habitual sins fall from me, as a habit as a garment put of, when I come to that; there's my charge, and my discharge for that. But yet there is worse evidence against me, then either this Chirographum, the first hand writing of Adam's hand, or then this pactum, this contract of mine own hand, actual and habitual sin, (for of these, one is washed out in water, and the other in blood, 
Ro. 7.20.  in the two Sacraments.) But then there is Lex in membris, saith the Apostle, I find a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me; Sin assisted by me, is now become a Tyrant over me; and hath established a government upon me, and therefore is a law of sin, and a law in my flesh, which after the water of baptism taken, and the water of penitent tears given; after the blood of Christ Jesus taken, and mine one blood given, (that is, a holy readiness at that time, when I am made partaker of Christ's death, to die for Christ,) throws me back by relapses, into those repent sins. This put the Apostle to that passionate exclamation, O wretched man that I am; and yet he found a deliverance, even from the body of his death through Jesus Christ his Lord, that is, a free and open recourse, and access to him in all oppressions of heart, in all dejections of spirit. Now, when this Chirographum, this band of Adam's hand, Original sin, is cancelled upon the Cross of Christ, and this pactum, this band of mine own hand, actual sins, washed away in the blood of Christ, and this Lex in membris, this disposition to relapse into repent sins, (which as a tide that does certainly come every day, does come every day, in one form or other) is beaten back (as a tide by a bank) by a continual opposing the merits, and the example of Christ Jesus, and the practice of his fasting, & such other medicinal disciplines, as I find to prevail against such relapses, when by this blessed means the whole law, against which I am a trespasser, is evacuated, will God condemn me for all this, and not by a law? when I have pleaded Christ, & Christ, and Christ baptism, and blood and tears, will God condemn mean obliqne way, when he cannot by a direct way? by a secret purpose, when he hath no law to condemn me by? Sad and discomposed, distorted and distracted soul; if it be well said in the School, absurdum est disputare ex manuscriptis, it is an unjust thing, in controversies and disputations, to press arguments out of manuscripts, that cannot be seen by every man; it were ill said in thy conscience, that God will proceed against thee, ex manuscriptis, or condemn thee upon any thing, which thou never sawst, any unrevealed purpose of his. Suspicious soul, ill-presaging soul, is there something else besides the day of Judgement, that the Son of man does not know? disquiet soul, does he not know the proceeding of that Judgement, wherein himself is to be Judge? but that when he hath died for thy sins, and so fulfilled the law in thy behalf, thou mayst be condemned without respect of that law, and upon something, that shall have had no consideration, no relation to any such breach, of any such law in thee? Intricated entangled conscience, Christ tells thee of a Judgement, because thou didst not do the works of mercy, not feed, not clothe the poor: for these were enjoined thee by a law; but he never tells thee of any Judgement therefore, because thy name was written in a dark book of death, never unclapsed, never opened unto thee in thy life. He says to the lovingly & indulgently, fear not, for it is Gods good pleasure to give you the Kingdom; but he never says to the wickedest in the world, live in fear, die in anxiety, in suspicion and suspension, for his displeasure; a displeasure conceived against you before you were sinners, before you were men, hath thrown you out of that kingdom into utter darkness. There is no condemnation to them, that are in Christ Jesus, The reason is added, because the law of the Spirit of life hath made them free from the law of sin and of death: All, upon all sides, is still referred to a law. And where there is no law against thee, (as there is not to him that is in Christ; and he is in Christ, who hath endeavoured the keeping or repent the breaking of the law) God will never proceed to execution by any secret purpose ever notified, never manifested. Suspicious, jealous, scattered soul recollect thyself, and give thyself that redintegration, that acquiescence which the spirit of God, in the means of the Church offers thee, study the mystery of godliness which is without all controversy, that is, endeavour to keep, repent the not keeping of the law and thou art safe, for that you shall be judged by, is a law. But then this law, is called here a law of liberty; and whether that denotation, that it is called a law of liberty, import an ease to us or heavier weight upon us, is our last disquisition and conclusion of all; So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.  

Lex libertatis.  That the Apostle here by the law of liberty means the Gospel was never doubted; he had called the Gospel so before this place; whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, 
1.25.  and continueth therein, shall be blessed in his deed; that is, blessed in doing so, blessed in conforming himself to the Gospel; but why does he call it so, A law of liberty? not because men naturally affecting liberty, might be drawn to an affection of the Gospel by proposing it, in that specious name of liberty, though it were not so. The holy Ghost calls the Gospel a pearl, and a treasure, and a kingdom, and joy, and glory; Not to allure men with false names, but because men love these; and the Gospel is truly all these, a pearl, and a treasure, and a kingdom, and joy, and glory; And it is truly a law of liberty; but of what kind, and in what respect? not such a liberty as they have established in the Roman Church, where Ecclesiastical liberty must exempt Ecclesiastical persons from participating all burdens of the State, and from being traitors, though they commit treason, because they are Subjects to no secular Prince; nor the liberty of the Anabaptist that overthrows Magistracy, and consequently all subjection both Ecclesiastical & Laic for when upon those words, 
1 Cor. 7.23.  Be ye not servants of men, St. chrysostom says, This is Christian liberty, Nec aliis, nec sibi servire, neither to be subjects to others nor to ourselves, that's spoken with modification an allegiance with relation to our first allegiance, to God; not to be so subject to others, or to ourselves, as that either for their sakes or our own, we depart from any necessary declaration of our service to God.  

Deo.  First then, the Gospel is a Law of Liberty, in respect of the author of the Gospel of God himself, because it leaves God at his liberty: Not at liberty to judge against his Gospel, where he hath manifested it for a law; for he hath laid a holy necessity upon himself to judge according to that law, where he hath published that law: But at liberty so, as that it consists only in his good pleasure, to what nation he will publish the gospel, or in what nation he will continue the gospel, or upon what persons he will make this gospel effectual. So Oecumenius, (who is no single witness, nor speaks not alone, but compiles the former Fathers) places this liberty in God, That God is at liberty to give this gospel where he will, and at liberty so, as that he hath exempted no man, how well soever he love him, nor put any such fetters or manacles upon himself, but that he can and will punish those that transgress this law. So it is a law of liberty to God; nothing determined upon any man, nothing concluded in himself, lies so in God's way, as to hinder him from proceeding in his last judgement, according to the keeping or breaking of this law; still God is at liberty.  
And it is a law of liberty in respect of us: Of us, 
Nobis.  who are Christians; and considered so, either with a respect to the natural man, or with a respect to the Jew; for, if we compare the Christian with the natural man, the law of nature lays the same obligation upon the natural man, as the gospel does upon the Christian, for the moral part thereof. The christian is no more bound to love God, nor his neighbour, than the natural man is; therein the natural man hath no more liberty, than the christian; So far their law is equal: And then, all the law, which the christian hath and the natural man hath not, is a law of liberty to the christian, that is, a law that gives him an ease and a readier way to perform those duties; which way the natural man hath not, and yet is bound to the same duties. The natural man, if he transgress that law which he finds in his own heart, finds a condemnation in himself, as well as the christian; therein he is no freer than the christian: But he finds no Sanctuary, no Altar, no Sacrifice, no Church, no such liberty as the Christian does in the Gospel. So the Gospel is a law of liberty to us, in respect of the natural man, that it sets us at liberty, restores us to liberty after we are fallen into prison for debt, into God's displeasure for sin, by affording us means of reconciliation to God again.  
It is so also in respect of the law given by God to the Jews: 
Judaei.  The Jews had liberties; that is, refuge and help of sacrifices for sin, which the natural man had not: For, if the natural man were driven and followed from his own heart, that he saw no comfort of an innocency there, he had no other liberties to fly to, no comfort in any other thing, no law, no promise annexed to any other action; not to Sacrifice as the Jew, or to Sacrament as the Christian, but must irremediably sink under the condemnation of his own heart. The Jew had this liberty, a law; and a law, that involved the Gospel; But then the gospel was to the Jew but as a letter sealed, and the Jew was but as a servant who was trusted to carry the letter as it was sealed to another, to carry it to the Christian. Now the Christian hath received this letter at the Jews hand, and he opens it; he sees the Jews prophesy made history to him; The Jews hope, and reversion made possession and inheritance to him; he sees the Jews faith made matter of fact; he sees all that was promised and represented in the law, performed and recorded in the Gospel, and applied in the Church: there Christ says, 
Jo. 15.15.  Hence forth call I not you servants, but friends; wherein consists this enfranchisement? In this; The servant knoweth not what his master doth; (The Jews knew not that) But I have called you friends, says Christ; For all things that I heard of my father, I have made known unto you. 
Heb. 7.17.  The law made nothing perfect, says the Apostle, 
Gal. 4.24.  Where was the defect? He tells us that, The old covenant (that is the law) gendereth to bondage; what bondage? he tells us that too, 
3.23.  when he says, The law was a schoolmaster. The Jews were as schoolboys, always spelling and putting together types and figures, with things typified and figured: How this Lamb should signify Christ, how this fire should signify a holy Ghost. The Christian is come from school to the University; from grammar to logic; to him that is Logos, itself, the word; to apprehend and apply Christ himself; and so is at more liberty, than when he had only a dark law, without any comment with the natural man, or only a dark comment, that is, the law with a dim light, and ill eyes, as the Jews had; for though the Jew had the liberty of alaw, yet they had not the law of liberty. So the gospel is a law of liberty to God, who is still at his liberty, to give and take, and to condemn according to that law; and a law of liberty to us, as we are compared to the natural man, or to the Jew. But when we confine ourselves in ourselves, positively without comparison, it is not such a law of liberty to us, as some men have come to a near, saying, That the sins of God's children do them no harm; That God sees not the sins of his children; that God was no farther out with David in his adultery, than in his repentance; but as to be born within the covenant, that is, of christian parents, does not make us christians, 
Aug.  (for, Non nascitur, sed renascitur, Christianus,) The covenant gives us a title to the Sacrament of Baptism, and that sacrament makes us christians; so this law of liberty gives us not a liberty to sin, but a liberty from sin, Noli libertate abuti, ad libere peccandum, says the same Father, It is not a liberty, but an impotency, a slavery to sin: Voluntas libera, quae pia, says, he, only a holy soul, 
2 Cor. 3.17.  is a free soul, Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, says the Apostle: 
Leo.  And, Splendidissimum in se quisque habet speculum, Every man hath, a glass, a crystal, into which, though he cannot call up this spirit, (for the spirit of God breathes where it pleases him) yet he can see this spirit if he be there in that glass: Every man hath a glass in himself, where he may see himself, and the Image of God, says that Father, and see how like he is to that: To dare to reflect upon myself, and to search all the corners of mine own conscience, whether I have rightly used this law of liberty, and neither been bold before a sin, upon presumption of an easy, nor diffident after, upon suspicion of an impossible reconciliation to my God, this is Evangelical liberty.  
So then, (to end all) Though it be a law of liberty, because it gives me better means of prevention before, and of restitution after, than the natural man or Jew had, yet we consider, that it is the law of liberty, this law, that hath afforded us these good helps, by which we shall be judged; And so though our case be better than theirs, because we have this law of liberty which they wanted, yet our case grows heavier than theirs if we use it not aright. The Jews shall be under a heavier condemnation than the natural man, because they had more liberty, that is, more means of avoiding sin than the natural man had, and upon the same reason, the christian under a heavier condemnation than either, because he shall be judged by the law of liberty.  
What Judgement then gives this law? This; 
Mar. 16.16.  Qui non crediderit, damnabitur; So says this law, in the lawmakers mouth, He that believes not shall be damned. And as no less light than faith itself, can show you what faith is, what it is to believe; so no less time than damnation shall last, can show you what damnation is: For the very form of damnation is the everlastingness of it: And, qui non crediderit, he that believeth not shall be damned; there is no commutation of penance, nor beheading after a sentence of a more ignominious death in that Court. Dost thou believe that thou dost believe? yet this law takes not that answer; This law of liberty takes the liberty to look farther; through faith into works; for so says the law, in the mouth of the lawmaker, To whom much is given, 
Luc. 12.48.  of him much shall be required. Hast thou considered every new title of honour, and every new addition of office, every new step into higher places, to have laid new duties, and new obligations upon thee? hast thou doubled the hours of thy prayers when thy preferments are doubled, and increased thine alms according as thy revenues are increased? hast thou done something, done much in this kind? this law will not be answered so; this law of liberty takes the liberty to call upon thee for all. Here also the law says, in the mouth of the lawmaker, If thou have agreed with many adversaries, says Christ, 
Mat. 5.25.  (let that be if thou have satisfied many duties; (for duties are adversaries, that is, tentations upon us) yet as long as thou hast one adversary, agree with that adversary quickly in the way; leave no duty undischarged nor unrepented in this life. Beloved, we have well delivered ourselves of the fear of Purgatory; None of us fear that; but another mistaking hath overtaken us, and we flatter ourselves with another danger, that is, compensation; That by doing well in one place, our ill doing in another is recompensed. An ill officer looks to be saved because he is a good husband to his wife; a good father to his children; a good master to his servants; and he thinks he hath three to one for his salvatien. But as nature requires the qualities of every element, which thou art composed of; so this law of liberty calls upon thee, for the exercises of all those virtues, that appertain to every particular place thou hold'st. This liberty, this law of liberty takes, It binds thee to believe Christ, all Christ, God's Christ, as he was the eternal Son of the Father, God of God; our Christ, as he was made man for our salvation; and thy Christ, as his blessed spirit, in this his ordinance applies him to thee, and offers him into thine arms this minute. And then to know that he looks for a retribution from thee, in that measure in which he dealt with thee, much for much; and for several kinds of good, according to those several good things which he hath done for thee: And if thou be first defective in these, and then defective in laying hold upon him, who is the propitiation and satisfaction for thy defects in these: This law of liberty returns to her liberty, to pronounce, and the Judge to his liberty to execute that sentence, Damnaberis, thou wilt be cast into prison, where thou must pay the last farthing; thou must; for Christ dies not there; and therefore there thou must lie till there come such another ransom as Christ; nay a greater ransom than Christ was, for Christ paid no debts in that prison: This than is the christians case, and this is the abridgement of his Religion, Sic loquimini, Sic facite; To speak aright, and to do aright; to profess the truth and not be afraid nor ashamed of that, and to live according to that profession: For no man can make God the author of sin; but that man comes as near it as he can, that makes God's religion a cloak for his sin. To this God proceeds not merely, and only by commandment, but by persuasion too; and though he be not bound to do so, yethe does give a reason: The reason is, because we must give account of both; both of actions and of words; of both we shall be judged; But judged by a law, a law which excludes on God's part, any secret ill purpose upon us, if we keep his law; A law which excludes on our part, all pretence of ignorance; for no man can plead ignorance of a law. And then, a law of liberty; of liberty to God; for God was not bound to save a man because he made him, but of his own goodness, he vouchsafed him a law, by which he may be saved: A law of liberty to us; so that there is no Epicurism, to do what we list; no such liberty as makes us libertins; for then there were no law, nor Stoicism, nor fatality, that constrains us to do that we would not do, for then there were no liberty. But the Gospel is such a law of liberty as delivers us, upon whom it works, from the necessity of falling into the bondage of sin, before, and from the impossibility of recovering after, if we be fallen into that bondage. And this is liberty enough: And of this liberty our blessed God give us the right use, for his son Christ Jesus sake by the operation of that holy Ghost that proceeds from both.  
Amen.   

A SERMON Preached to Queen Anne, at Denmark-house. 
Serm. 18.  December. 14. 1617. SERMON XVIII.  Proverbs 8.17. 
I love them that love me, and they that seek me early shall find me.  
AS the Prophets, and the other Secretaries of the holy Ghost in penning the books of Scriptures, do for the most part retain, and express in their writings some impressions, and some air of their former professions; those that had been bred in Courts and Cities, those that had been Shepherds and Herdsmen, those that had been Fishers, and so of the rest; ever inserting into their writings some phrases, some metaphors, some allusions, taken from that profession which they had exercised before; so that soul, that hath been transported upon any particular worldly pleasure, when it is entirely turned upon God, and the contemplation of his all-sufficiency and abundance, doth find in God fit subject, and just occasion to exercise the same affection piously, and religiously, which had before so sinfully transported, and possessed it.  
A covetous person, who is now truly converted to God, he will exercise a spiritual covetousness still, he will desire to have him all, he will have good security, the seal and assurance of the holy Ghost; and he will have his security often renewed by new testimonies, and increases of those graces in him; he will have witnesses enough; he will have the testimony of all the world, by his good life and conversation; he will gain every way at God's hand, he will have wages of God, for he will be his servant; he will have a portion from God, for he will be his Son; he will have a reversion, he will be sure that his name is in the book of life; he will have pawns, the seals of the Sacraments, nay, he will have a present possession; all that God hath promised, all that Christ hath purchased, all that the holy Ghost hath the stewardship and dispensation of, he will have all in present, by the appropriation and investiture of an actual and applying faith; a covetous person converted will be spiritually covetous still.  
So will a voluptuous man, who is turned to God, find plenty and deliciousness enough in him, to feed his soul, as with marrow, and with fatness, as David expresses it; and so an angry and passionate man, will find zeal enough in the house of God to eat him up.  
All affections which are common to all men, and those to which in particular, particular men have been addicted to, shall not only be justly employed upon God, but also securely employed, because we cannot exceed, nor go too far in employing them upon him. According to this Rule, 
Col. 1.  St. Paul, who had been so vehement a persecutor, had ever his thoughts exercised upon that; and thereupon after his conversion, he fulfils the rest of the sufferings of Christ in his flesh, he suffers most, he makes most mention of his suffering of any of the Apostles.  
And according to this Rule too, Solomon, whose disposition was amorous, and excessive in the love of women, when he turned to God, he departed not utterly from his old phrase and language, but having put a new, and a spiritual tincture, and form and habit in all his thoughts, and words, he conveys all his loving approaches and applications to God, and all Gods gracious answers to his amorous soul, into songs, and Epithalamians, and meditations upon contracts, and marriages between God and his Church, and between God and his soul; as we see so evidently in all his other writings, and particularly in this text, I love them, etc.  

August.  In which words is expressed all that belongs to love, all which, is to desire, and to enjoy; for to desire without fruition, is a rage, and to enjoy without desire is a stupidity: In the first alone we think of nothing, but that which we then would have; and in the second alone, we are not for that, when we have it; in the first, we are without it; in the second, we were as good we were, for we have no pleasure in it; nothing then can give us satisfaction, but where those two concur, amare and frui, to love and to enjoy.  
In sensual love it is so; Quid erat quod me delectabat nisi amare et amari? I take no joy in this world, but in loving, and in being beloved; in sensual love it is so, but in sensual love, when we are come so far; there is no satisfaction in that; the same Father confesseth more of himself, than any Commission, any oath would have put him to, Amatus sum, et perveni occulte ad fruendum, I had all I desired, and I had it with that advantage of having it secretly; but what got I by all that, Ut caederer virgis ardentibus ferreiss, zeli suspicionis et rixarum; nothing but to be scourged with burning iron rods, rods of jealousy, of suspicion, and of quarrels; but in the love and enjoying of this text, there is no room for Jealousy, nor suspicion, nor quarrelsome complaining.  

Devisio.  In this text than you may be pleased to consider these two things, Quid amare, quid frui, what the affection of this love is, what is the blessedness of this enjoying; but in the first of these, we must first consider the persons, who are the lovers in this text; for there are persons that are incredible, though they say they love, because they are accustomed to falsehood; and there are persons which are unrequitable, though they be believed to love, because they love not where, & as they should. When we have found the persons, in a second consideration we shall look upon the affection itself, what is the love in this text; and then after that, upon the bond, and union and condition of this love, that it is mutual, I love them that love me; and having passed those three branches of the first part, we shall in the second, which is enjoying, consider first, that this enjoying, is expressed in the word finding; and than that this finding requires two conditions, a seeking, and an early seeking, And they that seek me early shall find me.  
The Person that professes love in this place is wisdom herself, 
First part. The Person.  as appears at the beginning of the Chapter; so that sapere et amare, to be wise & to love, which perchance never met before nor since, are met in this text: but whether this wisdom, so frequently mentioned in this book of Proverbs, be sapientia creata or increat, whether it be the wisdom, or the root of wisdom, Christ Jesus, hath been diversely debated: the occasion grew in that great Council of Nice, where the Catholic Fathers understood this wisdom, to be intended of Christ himself, and then the Arrian heretics pressed some places of this book, where such things seemed to them to be spoken of wisdom, as could not be appliable to any but to a Creature; and that therefore if Christ were this wisdom, Christ must necessarily be a Creature, and not God.  
We will not dispute those things over again now, they are clearly enough, & largely enough set down in that Council; but since there is nothing said of wisdom in all this book, which hath not been by good expositors applied to Christ, much more may we presume the lover in this text, (though presented in the name of wisdom) to be Christ himself, and so we do.  
To show the constancy and durableness of this love, the lover is a he, that is Christ; to show the vehemency and earnestness of it, the lover is a she, that is wisdom, as it is often expressed in this Chapter, she crieth, she uttereth her voice; yea in one place of the Bible (and only in that one place I think) where Moses would express an extraordinary, and vehement and passionate indignation in God against his people, when as it is in that text, his wrath was kindled, and grievously kindled, 
Num. 11.15.  there and only their doth Moses attribute even to God himself the feminine sex, and speaks to God in the original language, as if he should have called him Deam Iratam, an angry she God; all that is good then, either in the love of man or woman is in this love; for he is expressed in both sexes, man and woman; and all that can be ill in the love of either sex, is purged away, for the man is no other man than Christ Jesus, and the woman no other woman, than wisdom herself, even the uncreated wisdom of God himself.  
Now all this is but one person, the person that professes love; who is the other, who is the beloved of Christ, is not so easily discerned: in the love between persons in this world, and of this world, we are often deceived with outward signs; we often miscall and misjudg civil respects, and mutual courtesies; and a delight in one another's conversation, and such other indifferent things, as only malignity, and curiosity, and self-guiltiness, makes to be misinterpretable, we often call these love; but neither amongst ourselves, much less between Christ and ourselves, are these outward appearances always signs of love.  
This person then, this beloved soul, is not every one, to whom Christ sends a loving message, or writs too; for his letters his Scriptures are directed to all; not every one he wishes well to and swears that he does so, for so he doth to all; As I live (saith the Lord) I would not the death of a Sinner; not every one that he sends jewels, and presents to; for they are often snares to corrupt, as well as arguments of love; not though he admit them to his table and supper, for even there the Devil entered into Judas with a sop; not though he receive them to a kiss, for even with that familiarity Judas betrayed him; not though he betrothe himself as he did to the Jews, 
Osc. 2.14.  sponsabo te mihi in aeternum; not though he make jointures, in pacto salis, in a covenant of salt, an everlasting covenant; not though he have communicated his name to them, which is an act of marriage; for to how many hath he said: ego dixit Dii estis, I have said you are Gods; and yet they have been reprobates; not all these outward things amount so far, as to make us discern who is this beloved person; for himself says of the Israelites, to whom he had made all these demonstrations of love, yet after, for their abominations, divorced himself from them, I have forsaken mine house, 
Jer. 12.7.  I have left mine own heritage, I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies. To conclude this person beloved of Christ, is only that soul, that loves Christ; but that belongs to the third branch of this first part, which is the mutual love: 
The Affection.  but first having found the person, we are to consider the affection itself, the love of this text; it is an observation of origen's, that though these three words, Amor, Dilectio, and Charitas, love, and affection, and good will, be all of one signification in the sctiptures, yet says he, wheresoever there is danger of representing to the fancy a lascivious and carnal love, the scripture forbears the word love, and uses either affection, or good will; and where there is no such danger, the scripture comes directly to this word love, of which origen's examples are, that when Isaac bent his affections upon Rebecca, and Jacob upon Rachel, in both places it is dilexit, and not amavit; 
Cant 5.8.  and when it is said in the Cant. I charge you Daughters of Jerusalem to tell my wellbeloved, it is not to tell him that she was in love, but to tell him, quod vulneratae charitatis sum; that I am wounded with an affection & good will towards him; but in this book of Pro. in all the passages between Christ and the beloved soul, there is evermore a free use of this word, Amor, love; because it is even in the first apprehension, a pure, a chaste, and an undefiled love, Eloquia Dominis casta, says David, All the words of the Lord, and all their words that love the Lord, all discourses, all that is spoken to or from the soul, is all full of chaste love, and of the love of chastity.  
Now though this love of Christ to our souls be too large to shut up or comprehend in any definition, yet if we content ourselves with the definition of the Schools, Amare est velle alicui quod bonum est, love is nothing but a desire, that they whom we love should be happy: we may easily discern the advantage and profit which we have by this love in the Text, when he that wishes us this good, by loving us, is author of all good himself, and may give us as much as pleases him, without impairing his own infinite treasure; He loves us as his ancient inheritance, as the first amongst his creatures in the creation of the world, which he created for us: He loves us more as his purchase, whom he hath bought with his blood; for even man takes most pleasure in things of his own getting; But he loves us most for our improvement, when by his ploughing up of our hearts, and the dew of his grace, and the seed of his word, we come to give grea●●r cent, in the fruit of sanctification than before. And since he loves ●s thus, and that in him, this love is velle bonum, a desire that his beloved should be happy, what soul amongst us shall doubt, that when God hath such an abundant, and infinite treasure, as the merit and passion of Christ Jesus, sufficient to save millions of worlds, and yet, many millions in this world (all the heathen excluded from any interest therein) when God hath a kingdom so large, as that nothing limits it, and yet he hath banished many natural subjects thereof, even those legions of Angels which were created in it, and are fallen from it; what soul amongst us shall doubt, but that he that hath thus much, and loves thus much, will not deny her a portion in the blood of Christ or a room in the kingdom of heaven? No soul can doubt it except it have been a witness to itself, and be so still, that it love not Christ Jesus, for that's a condition necessary: And that is the third branch to which we are come now in our order; that this love be mutual, I love them, etc.  
If any man loves not our Lord Jesus, let him be accursed, 
Mutual.  says the Apostle; Now the first part of this curse is upon the indisposition to love; he that loves not at all is first accursed. That stupid inconsideration, which passes on drowsilie, and negligently upon God's creatures, that sullen indifferency in ones disposition, to love one thing no more than another, not to value, not to choose, not to prefer, that stoniness, that in humanity, not to be affected, not to be entendered, to wear those things which God hath made objects and subjects of affections; that which St. Paul places in the bottom, and lees, 
Rom. 1.30.  and dregs of all the sins of the Jews, to be without natural affections, this distemper, this ill complexion, this ill nature of the soul, is under the first part of this curse, if any man love not; for he that loves not, knows not God, for God is love.  
But this curse determins not upon that, neither is it principally directed upon that, not loving; for as we say in the schools, Amor est primus actus voluntatis, the first thing that the will of man does, is to affect, to choose, to love something; and it is scarce possible to find any man's will so idle, so barren, as that it hath produced no act at all; and therefore the first act being love, scarce any man can be found, that doth not love something: But the curses extends, yea is principally intended upon him that loves not Christ Jesus; though he love the creature, and orderly enough yea; though he love God, as a great and incomprehensible power, yet if he love not Christ Jesus, if he acknowledge not, that all that passes between God and him, is in, and for Christ Jesus, let him be accursed, for all his love.  
Now there are but two that can be loved, God and the Creature: and of the creatures, that must necessarily be best loved, which is nearest us, which we understand best and reflect most upon, and that's ourselves; for, for the love of other creatures, it is but a secondary love; if we l●●e God, we love them for his sake; if we love ourselves, we love them for our sakes: Now to love ourselves is only allowable, only proper to God himself; for this love is a desire, that all honour, and praise, and glory should be attributed to one's self, and it can be only proper to God to desire that: To love ourselves then, is the greatest treason we can commit against God; and all love of the creatures, determines in the love of ourselves: for though sometimes we may say, that we love them better than ourselves; and though we give so good (that is indeed, so ill testimony) that we do so, that we neglect ourselves, both our religion and our discretion for their sakes, whom we pretend to love, yet all this is but a secondary love, and with relation still to ourselves and our own contentments: for is this love which we bear to other creatures, within that definition of love, Velle bonum amato, to wish that which we love happy; doth any ambitious man love honour or office therefore, because he thinks that title, or that place should receive a dignity by his having it, or an excellency by his executing it? doth any covetous man love a house or horse therefore, because he thinks that house or horse should be happy in such a Master or such Rider? doth any licentious man covet or solicit a woman therefore, because he thinks it a happiness to her, to have such a servant? No, it is only himself that is within the definition, vult bonum sibi, he wishes well (as he mistakes it) to himself, and he is content, that the slavery, and dishonour, and ruin of others should contribute to make up his imaginary happiness.  

August.  O dementiam nescientem amare homines humaniter! what a perverse madness is it, to love a creature and not as a creature, that is, with all the adjuncts, and circumstances, and qualities of a creature, of which the principal is that, that love raise us to the contemplation of the Creator; for if it be so, we may love ourselves, as we are the Images of God; and so we may love other men, as they are the Images of us, and our nature; yea, as they are members of the same body; for omnes homines una humanitas, all men make up but one mankind, and so we love other creatures, as we all meet in our Creator, in whom Princes and Subjects, Angels and men, and worms are fellow servants.  
Si malè amaveris tunc odisti? If thou hast loved thyself, 
August.  or any body else principally? or so, that when thou dost any act of love, thou canst not say to thine own conscience, I do this for God's sake, and for his glory; if thou hast loved so, thou hast hated thyself, and him whom thou hast loved, and God whom thou shouldest love.  
Si bonè oderis, says the same Father, If thou hast hated as thou shouldst hate, if thou hast hated thine own internal tentations, and the outward solicitations of others, Amasti, than thou hast expressed a manifold act of love, of love to thy God, and love to his Image, thyself, and love to thine Image, that man whom thy virtue and thy example hath declined, and kept from offending his, and thy God.  
And as this affection, love, doth belong to God principally, that is, rather than to any thing else, so doth it also principally, another way, that is, rather than any affection else; for, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, but the love of God is the consummation, that is, the marriage, and union of thy soul, and thy Saviour.  
But can we love God when we will? do we not find, that in the love of some other things, or some courses of life, of some ways in our actions, and of some particular persons, that we would fain love them, & cannot? when we can object nothing against it, when we can multiply arguments, why we should love them, yet we cannot: but it is not so towards God; every man may love him, that will; but can every man have this will, this desire? certainly we cannot begin this love; except God love us first, we cannot love him; but God doth love us all so well, from the beginning, as that every man may see the fault was in the perverseness of his own will, that he did not love God better. If we look for the root of this love, it is in the Father; for, though the death of Christ be towards us, as a root, as a cause of our love, and of the acceptableness of it, yet, 
Augst.  Meritum Christi est affectum amoris Dei erga nos, the death of Christ was but an effect of the love of God towards us, So God loved the world that he gave his Son: if he had not loved us first, we had never had his Son; here is the root then, the love of the Father, and the tree, the merit of the Son; except there be fruit too, love in us, to them again, both root and tree will whither in us, howsoever they grew in God. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, 
Jer. 31.3.  (says God) therefore with mercy I have drawn thee, if therefore we do not perceive, that we are drawn to lov again by this lov, 'tis not an everlasting lov, that shines upon us  
All the sunshine, all the glory of this life, though all these be testimonies of God's love to us, yet all these bring but a winter's day, a short day, and a cold day, and a dark day, for except we love too, God doth not love with an everlasting love: God will not suffer his love to be idle, and since it profits him nothing, if it profits us nothing neither, 
Ambrose.  he will withdraw it; Amor Dei ut lumen ignis, ut splendor solis, ut odor lucis, non praebenti proficit, sed utenti, The sun hath no benefit by his own light, nor the fire by his own heat, nor a perfume by the sweetness thereof, but only they who make their use, and enjoy this heat and fragrancy; And this brings us to our other part, to pass from loving to enjoying.  

2 Part.  Tulerunt Dominum meum, They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him; this was one strain of Mary magdalen's lamentation, when she found not her Saviour in the monument: It is a lamentable case to be fain to cry so, Tulerunt, They have taken, other men have taken away Christ, by a dark and corrupt education, which was the state of our Fathers to the Roman captivity. But when the abjecerunt Dominum, which is so often complained of by God in the Prophets, is pronounced against thee, when thou hast had Christ offered to thee, by the motions of his grace, and sealed to thee by his Sacraments, and yet wilt cast him so far from thee, that thou knowest not where to find him, when thou hast poured him out at thine eyes in profane and counterfeit tears, which should be thy souls rebaptisation for thy sins, when thou hast blown him away in corrupt and ill intended sighs, which should be gemitus columbae, the voice of the Turtle, to sound thy peace and reconciliation with thy God; yea when thou hast spit him out of thy mouth in execrable and blaphemous oaths; when thou hast not only cast him so far, as that thou knowest not where to find him, but hast made so ordinary and so indifferent a thing of sin, as thou knowest not when thou didst lose him, no nor dost not remember that ever thou hadst him; no, nor dost not know that there is any such man, as Dominus tuus, a Jesus, that is, thy Lord. The Tulerunt is dangerous, when others hid Christ from thee; but the abjecerunt is desperate, when thou thyself dost cast him away.  
To lose Christ may befall the most righteous man that is; but then he knows where he left him; he knows at what sin he lost his way, and where to seek it again; even Christ's imagined Father and his true mother, Joseph and Mary, lost him, and lost him in the holy City, at Jerusalem; they lost him and knew it not, they lost him and went a day's journey without him, and thought him to be in the company; but as soon as they deprehended their error, they sought and they found him, when as his mother told him, his father and she had sought with a heavy heart: Alas we may lose him at Jerusalem, even in his own house, even at this present, whilst we pretend to do him service; we may lose him, by suffering our though ●s to look back with pleasure upon the sins which we have committed, or to look forward with greediness upon some sin that is now in our purpose & prosecution; we may lose him at Jerusalem, how much more, if our dwelling be a Rome of Superstition and Idolatry, or if it be a Babylon in confusion, and mingling God and the world together, or if it be a Sodom, a wanton and intemperate misuse of God's benefits to us, we may think him in the company when he is not, we may mistake his house, we may take a Conventicle for a Church; we may mistake his apparel, that is, the outward form of his worship; we may mistake the person, that is, associate ourselves to such as are no members of his body: But if we do not return to our diligence to seek him, and seek him, and seek him with a heavy heart, though we begun with a Tulerunt, other men, other tentations took him away, yet we end in an abjecerunt, we ourselves cast him away, since we have been told where to find him, and have not sought him: And let no man be afraid to seek or find him for fear of the loss of good company; Religion is no sullen thing, it is not a melancholy, there is not so sociable a thing as the love of Christ Jesus.  
It was the first word which he who first found Christ of all the Apostles, Saint Andrew, is noted to have said, Invenimus Messiam, we have found the Messiah, and it is the first act that he is noted to have done, after he had found him, to seek his brother Peter, 
Jo. 1.34.  & duxit ad Jesum, so communicable a thing is the love of Jesus, when we have found him.  
But when are we likeliest to find him? It is said by Moses, 
Deut. 30.11.  of the words and precepts of God. They are not hid from thee, neither are far off, Not in heaven that thou shouldst say; Who shall go up to heaven for us to bring them down? nor beyond the Seas, that thou shouldst go over the Sea for them; but the word is very near thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; and so near thee is Christ Jesus, or thou shalt never find him; Thou must not so think him in heaven, as that thou canst not have immediate access to him without intercession of others, nor so beyond Sea, as to seek him in a foreign Church, either where the Church is but an Antiquaries Cabinet, full of rags and fragments of antiquity, but nothing fit for that use for which it was first made, or where it is so new a built house with bare walls, that it is yet unfurnished of such Ceremonies as should make it comely and reverend; Christ is at home with thee, he is at home within thee, and there is the nearest way to find him.  
It is true, that Christ in the beginning of this chapter, shadowed under the name of wisdom, when he discovers where he may be found, speaks in the person of humane wisdom as well as divine, Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding utter her voice? where- those two words, Wisdom and Understanding, signify Sapientiam, and Prudentiam; That wisdom whose object is God, and that which concerns our conversation in this world; for Christ hath not taken so narrow a dwelling, as that he may be found but one way, or in one profession; for in all professions, in all Nations, in all vocations, when all our actions in our several courses are directed principally upon his glory, Christ is eminent, and may easily be found. To that purpose in that place, Christ, in the person of wisdom, offers himself to be found in the tops of high places, and in the gates of Cities; to show that this Christ, and this wisdom which must save our Souls, is not confined to Cloisters and Monasteries, and speculative men only, but is all so evidently and eminently to be found in the Courts of religious Princes, in the tops of high places, and in the Courts of Justice (in the gates of the City) Both these kinds of Courts may have more directions from him then other places; but yet in these places he is also gloriously and conspicuously to be found; for wheresoever he is, he cries aloud, as the Text says there, and he utters his voice. Now Temptations to sin, are all but whisper, & we are afraid that a husband, that a father, that a competitor, that a rival, a pretender, at least the Magistrate may hear of it: Tentations to sin are all but whisper; private Conventicles and clandestine worshipping of God in a forbidden manner, in corners, are all but whisper; It is not the voice of Christ, except thou hear him cry aloud, and utter his voice, so as thou mayst confidently do whatsoever he commands thee, in the eye of all the world; he is every where to be found, he calls upon thee every where, but yet there belongs a diligence on thy part, thou must seek him.  

Quaerere.  Esaias is hold (saith St. Paul) and says, I was found of them that sought me not, when that Prophet derives the love of God to ●he Gentiles, who could seek God no where but in the book of Creatures, and were destitute of all other lights to seek him by, and yet God was found by them; Esaias is bold (cries the Apostle) that is, It was a great degree of confidence in Esaias, to say; That God was found of them that sought him not: 
Rom. 10.20.  It was a boldness and confidence, which no particular man may have; that Christ will be found, except he be sought; he gives us light to seek him by, but he is not found till we have sought him; It is true that in that Commandment of his, Primum quaerite Regnum Dei; First seek the Kingdom of God; the primum is not to prevent God, that we should seek it before he shows it, that's impossible; without the light of Grace we dwell in darkness, and in the shadow of death; but the primum is; That we should seek it before we seek any thing else, that when the Sun of Grace is risen to us, the first thing that we do be to seek Christ Jesus: 
Amos 5.4.  Querite me & vivetis, Seek me and ye shall live, why? we were alive before, else we could not seek him, but it is a promise of another life, of an eternal life, if we seek him, and seek him early, which is our last consideration.  
The word there used for early, signifies properly Auroram, 
Early.  the Morning, and is usually transferred in Scriptures to any beginning of any action; so in particular, Evil shall come upon thee, 
Esay 47.11.  and thou shalt not know, Shakrah, the morning, the beginning of it; And therefore this Text is elegantly translated by one, Aurorantes add me, They that have their break of day towards me, they that send forth their first morning beams towards me, their first thoughts they shall be sure to find me. St. Hierom expresses this early diligence, required in us, well in his translation, qui mane vigilaverint; They that wake betimes in the morning shall find me; but the Chaldee Paraphrase better, qui mane consurgunt, they that rise betimes in the morning shall find me; for which of us doth not know that we waked long ago, that we saw day and had heretofore some motions to find Christ Jesus: But though we were awake, we have kept our bed still, we have continued still in our former sins; so that there is more to be done then waking: we see the Spouse herself says, In my bed, by night, 
Cant. 3.1.  I sought him whom my Soul loved, but I found him not; Christ may be sought in the bed, and miss; other thoughts may exclude him; and he may be sought there and found, we may have good meditations there; and Christ may be nearer us when we are asleep in our beds, than when when we are awake; But howsoever the bed is not his ordinary station; he may be, and he says he will be, at the making of the bed of the sick, but not at the marriage of the bed of the wanton, and licentious.  
To make haste, the circumstance only required here, is that he be sought early; and to invite thee to it, consider how early he sought thee; It is a great mercy that he stays so long for thee; It was more to seek thee so early: Dost thou not feel that he seeks thee now, in offering his love and desiring thine? Canst not thou remember that he sought thee yesterday, that is, that some tentations besieged thee then, and he sought thee out by his Grace, and preserved thee? and hath he not sought thee so, so early, as from the beginning of thy life? nay, dost thou not remember that after thou hadst committed that sin, he sought thee by imprinting some remorse, some apprehension of his judgements, and so miro & divino modo, & quando te oderat diligebat, 
Grego.  by a miraculous and powerful working of his Spirit, he threatened thee, when he comforted thee, he loved thee when he chid thee, he sought thee when he drove thee from him; He hath sought thee amongst the infinite numbers of false and fashionall Christians, that he might bring thee out from the hypocrite, to serve him in earnest, and in holiness, and in righteousness; he sought thee before that amongst the Herd of the nations & Gentiles, who had no Church to bring thee into his enclosures and pastures, his visible Church, and to feed thee with his word and sacraments; he sought thee before that, in the catalogue of all his Creatures, where he might have left thee a stone, or a plant, or a beast; and then he gave thee an immortal Soul, capable of all his future blessings; yea, before this he sought thee, when thou wast not where, nothing, he brought thee then, the greatest step of all, from being nothing, to be a Creature; how early did he seek thee, when he sought thee in Adam's confused loins, & out of that leavened and sour loaf in which we were all kneaded up, out of that massa damnata, that refuse & condemnable lump of dough, he sought and severed out that grain which thou shouldst be; yea millions of millions of generations before all this he sought thee in his own eternal Decree; And in that first Scripture of his, which is as old as himself, in the book of life he wrote thy name in the blood of that Lamb which was slain for thee, not only from the beginning of this world, but from the writing of that eternal Decree of thy Salvation. Thus early had he sought thee in the Church amongst hypocrites; out of the Church amongst the Heathen; In his Creatures amongst creatures of an ignoble nature, and in the first vacuity, when thou wast nothing he sought thee so early as in Adam, so early as in the book of life, and when wilt thou think it a fit time to seek him.  

Prov. 1.28.  There is an earliness which will not serve thy turn, when afflictions, and anguish, shall come upon thee; they shall seek me early and shall not find me, early in respect of the punishment, at the beginning of that; but this is late in respect of thy fault, or of thine age, when thou art grown old, in the custom of sin; for thus we may misuse this early, and make it serve all ill uses, if we will say we will leave Covetousness early, that is, as soon as we are rich enough; Incontinence early, that is, as soon as we are old or sick; Ambition early, that is, as soon as we have overthrown and crushed our enemies irrecoverably; for thus, we shall by this habit carry on this early to our late and last hour, and say we will repent early, that is, as soon as the bell gins to toll for us.  
It is good for a man that he bear his yoke in his youth, that he seek Christ early, for even God himself, when he had given over his People to be afflicted by the Chaldeans, yet complains of the Chaldeans, 
Esay 46.6.  that they laid heavy loads upon old men; though this yoke of this amorous seeking of Christ be a light yoke, yet it is too heavy for an old man, that hath never used himself in all his life to bear it; even this spiritual love will not suit well with an old man, if he never began before, if he never loved Christ in his youth, even this love will be an unwieldy thing in his age.  
Yet if we have omitted our first early, our youth, there is one early left for us; this minute; seek Christ early, now, now, as soon as his Spirit gins to shine upon your hearts. Now as soon as you begin your day of Regeneration, seek him the first minute of this day, for you know not whether this day shall have two minutes or no, that is, whether his Spirit, that descends upon you now, will tarry and rest upon you or not, as it did upon Christ at his baptism.  
Therefore shall every one that is godly make his Prayer unto thee O God, in a time when thou may'st be found: 
Psal. 32.6.  we acknowledge this to be that time, and we come to thee now early, with the confession of thy servant Augustine, sero te amavi pulchritudo tam antiqua, tam nova; O glorious beauty, infinitely reverend, infinitely fresh and young, we come late to thy love, if we consider the past days of our lives, but early if thou be'st pleased to reckon with us from this hour of the shining of thy grace upon us; and therefore O God, as thou hast brought us safely to the beginning of this day, as thou hast not given us over to a final perishing in the works of night and darkness, as thou ●ast brought us to the beginning of this day of grace, so defend us in the same with thy mighty power, and grant that this day, this day of thy visitation, we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger, no such sin, no such danger as may separate us from thee, or frustrate us of our hopes in that eternal kingdom which thy Son our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. To whom with the Father, etc.   

A SERMON of Valediction at my going into Germany, at Loncolns-Inne, April. 18. 1619. SERMON XIX.  Ecclesiast. 12.1. 
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.  
WE may consider two great virtues, one for the society of this life, Thankfulness, and the other for attaining the next life, Repentance; as the two precious Mettles, Silver and Gold: Of Silver (of the virtue of thankfulness) there are whole Mines, books written by Philosophers, and a man may grow rich in that mettle, 
Serm. 19  in that virtue, by digging in that Mine, in the Precepts of moral men; of this Gold (this virtue of Repentance) there is no Mine in the Earth; in the books of Philosophers, no doctrine of Repentance; this Gold is for the most part in the washes; this Repentance in matters of tribulation; but God directs thee to it in this Text, before thou come to those waters of Tribulation, remember now thy Creator before those evil days come, and then thou wilt repent the not remembering him till now. 
Divisio.  Here then the holy-Ghost takes the nearest way to bring a man to God, by awaking his memory; for, for the understanding, that requires long and clear instruction; and the will requires an instructed understanding before, and is in itself the blindest and boldest faculty; but if the memory do but fasten upon any of those things which God hath done for us, it is the nearest way to him. Remember therefore, and remember now, though the Memory be placed in the hindermast part of the brain, defer not thou thy remembering to the hindermost part of thy life, but do that now in die, in the day, whilst thou hast light, now in diebus, in the days, whilst God presents thee many lights, many means; and in diebus juventatis, in the days of thy youth, of strength, whilst thou art able to do that which thou purposest to thyself; And as the word imports, Bechucocheica, in diebus Electionum tuarum, in the days of thy choice, whilst thou art able to make thy choice, whilst the Grace of God shines so brightly upon thee, as that thou mayst choose the way, and so powerfully upon thee, as that thou mayst walk in that way. Now, in this day, and in these days Remember first the Creator, That all these things which thou labourest for, and delightest in, were created, made of nothing; and therefore thy memory looks not far enough back, if it stick only upon the Creature, and reach not to the Creator, Remember thy Creator, and remember thy Creator; and in that, first that he made thee, and then what he made thee; He made thee of nothing, but of that nothing he hath made thee such a thing as cannot return to nothing, but must remain for ever; whether happy or miserable, that depends upon thy Remembering thy Creator now in the days of thy youth.  

Momento. Gen. 8.1.  First remember; which word is often used in the Scripture for considering and taking care: for, God remembered Noah and every beast with him in the Ark; as the word which is contrary to that, forgetting is also for the affection contrary to it, 
Esay. 48.15.  it is neglecting, Can a woman forget her child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? But here we take not remembering so largely, but restrain it to the exercise of that one faculty, the memory; for it is Stomachus animae. The memory, says St. Bernard, is the stomach of the soul, it receives and digests, and turns into good blood, all the benefits formerly exhibited to us in particular, and exhibited to the whole Church of God: present that which belongs to the understanding, to that faculty, and the understanding is not presently settled in it; present any of the prophecies made in the captivity, and a Jews understanding takes them for deliverances from Babylon, and a Christians understanding takes them for deliverances from sin and death, by the Messiah Christ Jesus; present any of the prophecies of the Revelation concerning Antichrist, and a Papist will understand it of a single, and momentane, and transitory man, that must last but three year and a half; and a Protestant may understand it of a succession of men, that have lasted so 1000 years already: present but the name of Bishop or of elder, out of the Acts of the Apostle, or their Epistles, and other men will take it for a name of equality, and parity, and we for a name and office of distinction in the Hierarchy of God's Church. Thus it is in the understanding that's often perplexed; consider the other faculty, the will of man, by those bitternesses which have passed between the Jesuits and the Dominicans, (amongst other things belonging to the will) whether the same proportion of grace, offered to men alike disposed, must necessarily work alike upon both their wills? And amongst persons nearer to us, whether that proportion of grace, which doth convert a man, might not have been resisted by perverseness of his will? By all these difficulties we way see, how untractable, and untameable a faculty the will of man is. But come not with matter of law, but matter of fact, Let God make his wonderful works to be had in remembrance: 
Psal. 111.4.  present the history of God's protection of his children, from the beginning, in the ark, in both captivities, in infinite dangers; present this to the memory, and howsoever the understanding be beclouded, or the will perverted, yet both Jew and Christian, Papist and Protestant, Puritan and Protestant, are affected with a thankful acknowledgement of his former mercies and benefits, this issue of that faculty of their memory is alike in them all: And therefore God in giving the law, works upon no other faculty but this, 
Exod. 20.  I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt; He only presents to their memory what he had done for them. And so in delivering the Gospel in one principal seal thereof, the sacrament of his body, he recommended it only to their memory, Do this in remembrance of me. This is the faculty that God desires to work upon; And therefore if thine understanding cannot reconcile differences in all Churches, if thy will cannot submit itself to the ordinances of thine own Church, go to thine own memory; for as St. Bernard calls that the stomach of the soul, we may be bold to call it the Gallery of the soul, hanged with so many, and so lively pictures of the goodness and mercies of thy God to thee, as that every one of them shall be a catachism to thee, to instruct thee in all thy duties to him for those mercies: And as a well made, and well placed picture, looks always upon him that looks upon it; so shall thy God look upon thee, whose memory is thus contemplating him, and shine upon thine understanding, and rectify thy will too. If thy memory cannot comprehend his mercy at large showed to his whole Church, (as it is almost an incomprehensible thing, that in so few years he made us of the Reformation, equal even in number to our adversaries of the Roman Church,) If thy memory have not held that picture of our general deliverance from the Navy; (if that mercy be written in the water and in the sands, where it was performed, and not in thy heart) if thou remember not our deliverance from that artificial Hell, the Vault, (in which, though his instruments failed of their plot, they did not blow us up; yet the Devil goes forward with his plot, if ever he can blow out; if he can get that deliverance to be forgotten.) If these be too large pictures for thy gallery, for thy memory, yet every man hath a pocket picture about him, Emanuel, a bosom book, and if he will turn over but one leaf, and remember what God hath done for him even since yesterday, he shall find even by that little branch a navigable river, to sail into that great and endless Sea of God's mercies towards him, from the beginning of his being.  

Nunc.  Do but remember, but remember now: Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, 
Jam. 1.18.  that we should be as the first fruits of his creatures: That as we consecrate all his creatures to him, in a sober, and religious use of them, so as the first fruits of all, we should principally consecrate ourselves to his service betimes. Now there were three payments of first fruits appointed by God to the Jews: The first was, Primitiae Spicarum, of their Ears of Corn, and this was early about Easter; The second was Primitiae panum, of Loaves of Bread, after their corn was converted to that use; and this, though it were not so soon, yet it was early too, about Whitsuntide; The third was Primitiae frugum, of all their Fruits and Revenues; but this was very late in Autumn, at the fall of the leaf, in the end of the year. The two first of these, which were offered early, were offered partly to God, and partly to Man, to the Priest; but in the last, which came late, God had no part: He had his part in the corn, and in the loaves, but none in the latter fruits. Offer thyself to God; first, as Primitias spicarum, (whether thou glean in the world, or bind up whole sheaves, whether thy increase be by little and little, or apace;) And offer thyself, as primitias panum, when thou hast kneaded up riches, and honour, and favour in a settled and established fortune) offer at thy Easter, whensoever thou hast any resurrection, any sense of raising thy soul from the shadow of death; offer at thy Pentecost, when the holy Ghost visits thee, and descends upon thee in a fiery tongue, and melts thy bowels by the power of his word; for if thou defer thy offering till thy fall, till thy winter, till thy death, howsoever they may be thy first fruits, because they be the first that ever thou gavest yet they are such, as are not acceptable to God; God hath no portion in them, if they be not offered till then; offer thyself now; for that's an easy request; yea offer to thyself now, that's more easy; Viximus mundo; vivamus reliquum nobis ipsis; Thus long we have served the world; 
Basil.  let us serve ourselves the rest of our time, that is, the best part of ourselves, our souls, Expectas ut febris te vocet ad poenitentiam? Hadst thou rather a sickness should bring thee to God, than a sermon? 
Idem.  hadst thou rather be beholden to a Physician for thy salvation, than to a Preacher? thy business is to remember; stay not for thy last sickness, which may be a Lethargy in which thou mayest forget thine own name, and his that gave thee the name of a Christian, Christ Jesus himself: thy business is to remember, and thy time is now; stay not till that Angel come which shall say and swear, 
Apo. 10 6.  that time shall be no more.  
Remember then, and remember now; In Die, in the day; 
In Die. Ps. 20.10.  The Lord will hear us In die qua invocaverimus, in the day that we shall call upon him; and in quacunque dei, in what day soever we call, 
Ps. 137.4.  and in quacunque die velociter exaudiet, as soon as we call in any day. 
Psa. 101.1  But all this is Opus diei, a work for the day; for in the night, in our last night, those thoughts that fall upon us, they are rather dreams, then true remembrings; we do rather dream that we repent, then repent indeed, upon our deathbed. To him that travels by night a bush seems a tree, and a tree seems a man, and a man a spirit; nothing hath the true shape to him; to him that reputes by night, on his deathbed, neither his own sins, nor the mercies of God have their true proportion. Fool, says Christ, this night they will fetch away thy soul; but he neither tells him, who they be that shall fetch it, nor whether they shall carry it; he hath no light but lightnings; a sudden flash of horror first, and then he goes into fire without light. Numquid Deus nobis ignem pacavit? non, sed Diabolo, et Angelis: 
Chrysosto.  did God ordain hell fire for us? no, but for the Devil, and his Angels. And yet we that are vessels so broken, as that there is not a sheard left, to fetch water at the pit, that is, no means in ourselves, 
Esa. 30.  to derive one drop of Christ's blood upon us, nor to wring out one tear of true repentance from us, have plunged ourselves into this everlasting, and this dark fire, which was not prepared for us: A wretched covetousness, to be intruders upon the Devil; a wretched ambition, to be usurpers upon damnation. God did not make the fire for us; but much less did he make us for that fire; that is, make us to damn us. But now the Judgement is given, Ite maledicti, go ye accursed; but yet this is the way of God's justice, and his proceeding, that his Judgements are not always executed, though they be given. The Judgements and Sentences of Medes and Persians are irrevocable, but the Judgements and Sentences of God, if they be given, if they be published, they are not executed. The Ninevites had perished, if the sentence of their destruction had not been given; and the sentence preserved them; so even in this cloud of Ite maledicti, go ye accursed, we may see the day break, and discern beams of saving light, even in this Judgement of eternal darkness; if the contemplation of his Judgement brings us to remember him in that day, in the light and apprehension of his anger and correction.  

In Diebus.  For this circumstance is enlarged; it is not in die, but in diebus, not in one, but in many days; for God affords us many days, many lights to see and remember him by. This remembrance of God is our regeneration, by which we are new creatures; and therefore we may consider as many days in it, as in the first creation. The first day was the making of light; and our first day is the knowledge of him, who says of himself, ego sum lux mundi, I am the light of the world, 
Joh. 1.  and of whom St. John testifies, Erat lux vera, he was the true light, that lighteth every man into the world. This is then our first day the true passion of Christ Jesus. God made light first, that the other creatures might be seen; 
Ambro.  Frustra essent si non viderentur, It had been to no purpose to have made creatures, if there had been no light to manifest them. Our first day is the light and love of the Gospel; for the noblest creatures of Princes, (that is, the noblest actions of Princes, war, and peace, and treaties) frustra sunt, they are good for nothing, they are nothing, if they be not showed and tried by this light, by the love and preservation of the Gospel of Christ Jesus: God made light first, that his other works might appear, and he made light first, that himself (for our example) might do all his other works in the light: that we also, as we had that light shed upon us in our baptism, so we might make all our future actions justifiable by that light, and not Erubescere Evangelium, not be ashamed of being too jealous in this profession of his truth. Then God saw that the light was good: the seeing implies a consideration; that so a religion be not accepted blindly, nor implicitly; and the seeing it to be good implies an election of that religion, which is simply good in itself, and not good by reason of advantage, or conveniency, or other collateral and by-respects. And when God had seen the light, and seen that it was good, than he severed light from darkness; and he severed them, non tanquam duo positiva, not as as two essential, and positive, and equal things; not so, as that a brighter and a darker religion, (a good and a bad) should both have a being together, but tanquam positivum et primitivum, light and darkness are primitive, and positive, and figure this rather, that a true religion should be established, and continue, and darkness utterly removed; and then, and not till then, (till this was done, light severed from darkness) there was a day; And since God hath given us this day, the brightness of his Gospel, that this light is first presented, that is, all great actions begun with this consideration of the Gospel; since all other things are made by this light, that is, all have relation to the continuance of the Gospel, since God hath given us such a head, as is sharp-sighted in seeing the several lights, wise in discerning the true light, powerful in resisting foreign darkness; since God hath given us this day, qui non humiliabit animam suam in die hac, 
Serm. 20.  as Moses speaks of the days of God's institution, he that will not remember God now in this day, is impious to him; and unthankful to that great instrument of his, by whom this day spring from an high hath visited us.  
To make shorter days of the rest, 
Levit. 23.  (for we must pass through all the six days in a few minutes) God in the second day made the firmament to divide between the waters above, and the waters below; and this firmament in us, is terminus cognoscibilium, the limits of those things which God hath given man means and faculties to conceive, and understand: he hath limited our eyes with a firmament beset with stars, our eyes can see no farther: he hath limited our understanding in matters of religion with a starry firmament too; that is, with the knowledge of those things, quae ubique, quae semper, which those stars which he hath kindled in his Church, the Fathers and Doctors, have ever from the beginning proposed as things necessary to be explicitly believed, for the salvation of our souls; for the eternal decrees of God, and his unrevealed mysteries, and the inextricable perplexities of the School, they are waters above the firmament: here Paul plants, and here Apollo waters; here God raises up men to convey to us the dew of his grace, by waters under the firmament; by visible sacraments, and by the word so preached, and so interpreted, as it hath been constantly, and unanimously from the beginning of the Church. And therefore this second day is perfited in the third, in the congregentur aquae, let the waters be gathered together; God hath gathered all the waters, all the waters of life in one place; that is, all the doctrine necessary for the life to come, into his Church: And then producet terra, here in this world are produced to us all herbs and fruits, all that is necessary for the soul to feed upon. And in this third day's work God repeats here that testimony, videt quod bonum, he saw that it was good; good, that here should be a gathering of waters in one place, that is, no doctrine received that had not been taught in the Church; and videt quod bonum, he saw it was good, that all herbs and trees should be produced that bore seed; all doctrines that were to be proseminated and propagated, and to be continued to the end, should be taught in the Church: but for doctrines which were but to vent the passion of vehement men, or to serve the turns of great men for a time, which were not seminal doctrines, doctrines that bore seed, and were to last from the beginning to the end; for these interlineary doctrines, and marginal, which were no part of the first text, here's no testimony that God sees that they are good. And, In diebus istis, if in these two days, the day when God makes thee a firmament, shows thee what thou art, to limit thine understanding & thy faith upon, and the day where God makes thee a sea, a collection of the waters, (shows thee where these necessary things must be taught in the Church) if in those days thou wilt not remember thy Creator, it is an irrecoverable Lethargy.  
In the fourth day's work, let the making of the Sun to rule the day be the testimony of God's love to thee, in the sunshine of temporal prosperity, and the making of the Moon to shine by night, be the refreshing of his comfortable promises in the darkness of adversity; & then remember that he can make thy sun to set at noon, he can blow out thy taper of prosperity when it burns brightest, 
Amos.  and he can turn the Moon into blood, 
Act. 2.20.  he can make all the promises of the Gospel, which should comfort thee in adversity, turn into despair and obduration. Let the first day's work, which was the creation Omnium reptibilium, and omnium volatilium, of all creeping things, and of all flying things, produced out of water, signify and denote to thee, either thy humble devotion, in which thou sayest of thyself to God, vermis ege et non homo, I am a worm and no man; or let it be the raising of thy soul in that, pennas columbae dedisti, that God hath given thee the wings of a dove to fly to the wilderness, in a retiring from, or a resisting of tentations of this world; remember still that God can suffer even thy humility to stray, and degenerate into an uncomely dejection and stupidity, and senselesness of the true dignity and true liberty of a Christian: and he can suffer this retiring thyself from the world, to degenerate into a contempt and despising of others, and an overvaluing of thine own perfections. Let the last day in which both man and beasts were made out of the earth, but yet a living soul breathed into man; remember thee that this earth which treads upon thee, must return to that earth which thou treadest upon; thy body, that loads thee, and oppresses thee to the grave, and thy spirit to him that gave it. And when the Sabbath day hath also remembered thee, that God hath given thee a temporal Sabbath, placed thee in a land of peace, and an ecclesiastical Sabbath, placed in a Church of peace, perfect all in a spiritual Sabbath, a conscience of peace, by remembering now thy Creator, at least in one of these days of the week of thy regeneration, either as thou hast light created in thee, in the first day, that is, thy knowledge of Christ; or as thou hast a firmament created in thee the second day, that is, thy knowledge what to seek concerning Christ, things appertaining to faith and salvation; or as thou hast a sea created in thee the third day, that is, a Church where all the knowledge is reserved and presented to thee; or as thou hast a sun and moon in the fourth day, thankfulness in prosperity, comfort in adversity, or as thou hast reptilem humilitatem, or volatilem fiduciam, a humiliation in thyself, or an exaltation in Christ in thy fift day, or as thou hast a contemplation of thy mortality and immortality in the sixth day, or a desire of a spiritual Sabbath in the seaventh, In those days remember thou thy Creator.  

Juventutis.  Now all these days are contracted into less room in this text, In diebus Bechurotheica, is either, in the days of thy youth, or electionem tuarum, in the days of thy hearts desire, when thou enjoyest all that thou couldst wish. First, therefore if thou wouldst be heard in David's prayer; Delicta juventutis; O Lord remember not the sins of my youth; remember to come to this prayer, In diebus juventutis, 
Ps. 25.7. 29.4.  in the days of thy youth. Job remembers with much sorrow, how he was in the days of his youth, when God's providence was upon his Tabernacle: and it is a late, but a sad consideration, to remember with what tenderness of conscience, what scruples, what remorces we entered into sins in our youth, how much we were afraid of all degrees and circumstances of sin for a little while, and how indifferent things they are grown to us, and how obdurate we are grown in them now. This was Jobs sorrow, and this was Tobias comfort, 
1.4.  when I was but young, all my Tribes fell away; but I alone went after to Jerusalem. Though he lacked the counsel, and the example of his Elders, yet he served God; for it is good for a man, 
Thren. 3.27.  that he bear his yoke in his youth: For even when God had delivered over his people purposely to be afflicted, yet himself complains in their behalf, That the persecutor laid the very heaviest yoke upon the ancient: 
Esa. 47.6.  It is a lamentable thing to fall under a necessity of suffering in our age, 
Basil.  Labour fracta instrumenta, ad Deum ducis, quorum nullus usus? wouldst thou consecrate a Chalice to God that is broken? no man would present a lame horse, a disordered clock, a torn book to the King? Caro jumentum, thy body is thy beast; 
Aug.  and wilt thou present that to God, when it is lamed and tired with excess of wantonness? when thy clock, (the whole course of thy time) is disordered with passions, and perturbations; when thy book (the history of thy life,) is torn, 1000 sins of thine own torn out of thy memory, wilt thou then present thyself thus defaced and mangled to almighty God? 
Basil.  Temperantia non est temperantia in senectute, sed impotentia incontinentiae, chastity is not chastity in an old man, but a desability to be unchaste; and therefore thou dost not give God that which thou pretendest to give, for thou hast no chastity to give him. Senex bis puer; but it is not bis juvenis, an old man comes to the infirmities of childhood again; but he comes not to the strength of youth again,  
Do this then In diebus juventutis, in thy best strength, 
Electionum.  and when thy natural facuties are best able to concur with grace; but do it; In diebus electionum, in the days when thou hast thy hearts desire; for if thou have worn out this word, in one sense, that it be too late now, to remember him in the days of youth, that's spent forgetfully) yet as long as thou art able to make a new choice, to choose a new sin, that when thy heats of youth are not overcome, but burned out, than thy middle age chooses ambition, and thy old age chooses covetousness; as long as thou art able to make thy choice thou art able to make a better than this; God testifies that power, that he hath given thee; I call heaven and earth to record this day, 
Deut. 30.19.  that I have set before you life and death; choose life: If this choice like you not, 
Jos. 24.15.  If it seem evil unto you to serve the the Lord, saith Josuah then, choose ye this day whom ye will serve. Here's the election day; bring that which ye would have, 
Serm. 18.  into comparison with that which ye should have; that is, all that this world keeps from you, with that which God offers to you; and what will ye choose to prefer before him? for honour, and favour, and health, and riches, perchance you cannot have them though you choose them; but can you have more of them than they have had, to whom those very things have been occasions of ruin? The Market is open till the bell ring; till thy last bell ring the Church is open, grace is to be had there: but trust not upon that rule, that men buy cheapest at the end of the market, that heaven may be had for a breath at last, when they that hear it cannot tell whether it be a sigh or a gasp, a religious breathing and anhelation after the next life, or natural breathing out, and exhalation of this; but find a spiritual good husbandry in that other rule, that the prime of the market is to be had at first: for howsoever, in thine age, there may be by God's strong working, Dies juventutis, A day of youth, in making thee then a new creature; (for as God is antiquissimus dierum, so in his school no man is superannuated,) yet when age hath made a man impotent to sin, this is not Dies electionum, it is not a day of choice; but remember God now, when thou hast a choice, that is, a power to advance thyself, or to oppress others by evil means; now in die electionum, in those thy happy and sunshine days, remember him.  

Creatorem.  This is then the faculty that is excited, the memory; and this is the time, now, now whilst we have power of election: The object is, the Creator, Remember the Creator: First, because the memory can go no farther than the creation; and therefore we have no means to conceive, or apprehend any thing of God before that. When men therefore speak of decrees of reprobation, decrees of condemnation, before decrees of creation; this is beyond the counsel of the holy Ghost here, Memento creatoris, Remember the Creator, for this is to remember God a condemner before he was a creator: This is to put a preface to Moses his Genesis, not to be content with his in principio, to know that in the beginning God created heaven and earth, but we must remember what he did ante principium, before any such beginning was. Moses his in principio, that beginning, the creation we can remember; but St. John's in principio, that beginning, eternity, we cannot; we can remember God's fiat in Moses, but not Gods erat in St. John: what God hath done for us, is the object of our memory, not what he did before we were: and thou hast a good and perfect memory, if it remember all that the holy Ghost proposes in the Bible; and it determines in the memento Creatoris: There gins the Bible, and there gins the Creed, I believe in God the Father, maker of Heaven and Earth; 
J● 7.39.  for when it is said, The holy Ghost was not given, because Jesus was not glorified, it is not truly Non erat datus, but non erat; for, non erat nobis antequam operaretur; It is not said there, the holy Ghost was not given, but it is the holy Ghost was not: for he is not, that is, he hath no being to us ward, till he works in us which was first in the creation: Remember the Creator then, 
Serm. 19  because thou canst remember nothing backward beyond him, and remember him so too, that thou mayst stick upon nothing on this side of him, That so neither height, 
Ro. 8. ult.  nor depth, nor any other creature may separate thee from God; not only not separate thee finally, but not separate so, as to stop upon the creature, but to make the best of them, thy way to the Creator; We see ships in the river; but all their use is gone, if they go not to sea; we see men freighted with honour, and riches, but all their use is gone, if their respect be not upon the honour and glory of the Creator; and therefore says the Apostle, Let them that suffer, 
1 Pe●. 4. ult.  commit their souls to God, as to a faithful Creator; that is, He made them, and therefore will have care of them. This is the true contracting, and the true extending of the memory, to Remember the Creator, and stay there, because there is no prospect farther, and to Remember the Creator, and get thither, because there is no safe footing upon the creature, till we come so far.  
Remember then the Creator, and remember thy Creator, for, 
T●um.  Quis magis fidelis Deo? who is so faithful a Counsellor as God? 
Basil.  Quis prudentior Sapiente? who can be wiser than wisdom? Quis utilior bono? or better than goodness? Quis conjunctior Creatore? or nearer than our Maker? and therefore remember him. What purposes soever thy parents or thy Prince have to make thee great, how had all those purposes been frustrated, and evacuated if God had not made thee before? this very being is thy greatest degree; as in Arithmetic how great a number soever a man express in many figures, yet when we come to number all, the very first figure is the greatest and most of all; so what degrees or titles soever a man have in this world, the greatest and the foundation of all, is, that he had a being by creation: For the distance from nothing to a little, is ten thousand times more, than from it to the highest degree in this life: and therefore remember thy Creator, as by being so, he hath done more for thee than all the world besides; and remember him also, with this consideration, that whatsoever thou art now, yet once thou wast nothing.  
He created thee, ex nihilo, he gave thee a being, 
Ex nihilo.  there's matter of exaltation, & yet all this from nothing; thou wast worse than a worm, there's matter of humiliation; but he did not create thee ad nihilum, to return to nothing again, and there's matter for thy consideration, and study, how to make thine immortality profitable unto thee; for it is a deadly immortality, if thy immortality must serve thee for nothing but to hold thee in immortal torment. To end all, that being which we have from God shall not return to nothing, nor the being which we have from men neither. 
Bern.  As St. Bernard says of the Image of God in man's soul, uti potest in gehenna, non exuri, That soul that descends to hell, carries the Image God in the faculties of that soul thither, but there that Image can never be burnt out, so those Images & those impressions, which we have received from men, from nature, from the world, the image of a Lord, the image of a Counsellor, the image of a Bishop, shall all burn in Hell, and never burn out; not only these men, but these offices are not to return to nothing; but as their being from God, so their being from man, shall have an everlasting being, to the aggravating of their condemnation. And therefore remember thy Creator, who, as he is so, by making thee of nothing, so he will ever be so, by holding thee to his glory, though to thy confusion, from returning to nothing; for the Court of Heaven is not like other Courts, that after a surfeit of pleasure or greatness, a man may retire; after a surfeit of sin there's no such retiring, as a dissolving of the soul into nothing; but God is from the beginning the Creator, he gave all things their being, and he is still thy Creator, thou shalt evermore have that being, to be capable of his Judgements.  
Now to make up a circle, by returning to our first word, remember: As we remember God, so for his sake, let us remember one another. In my long absence, and far distance from hence, remember me, as I shall do you in the ears of that God, to whom the farthest East, and the farthest West are but as the right and left ear in one of us; we hear with both at once, and he hears in both at once; remember me, not my abilities; for when I consider my Apostleship that I was sent to you, I am in St. Paul's quorum, quorum ego sum minimus, 
1 Cor. 15.9.  the least of them that have been sent; and when I consider my infirmities, 
1 Tim. 1.15.  I am in his quorum, in another commission, another way, Quorum ego maximus; the greatest of them; but remember my labours, and endeavours, at least my desire, to make sure your salvation. And I shall remember your religious cheerfulness in hearing the word, and your christianly respect towards all them that bring that word unto you, and towards myself in particular far 'bove my merit. And so as your eyes that stay here, and mine that must be far of, for all that distance shall meet every morning, in looking upon that same Sun, and meet every night, in looking upon the same Moon; so our hearts may meet morning and evening in that God, which sees and hears every where; that you may come thither to him with your prayers, that I, (if I may be of use for his glory, and your edification in this place) may be restored to you again; and may come to him with my prayer, that what Paul soever plant amongst you, or what Apollos soever water, God himself will give the increase: That if I never meet you again till we have all passed the gate of death, yet in the gates of heaven, I may meet you all, and there say to my Saviour and your Saviour, that which he said to his Father and our Father, Of those whom thou hast given me, have I not lost one. Remember me thus, you that stay in this Kingdom of peace, where no sword is drawn, but the sword of Justice, as I shall remember you in those Kingdoms, where ambition on one side, and a necessary defence from unjust persecution on the other side hath drawn many swords; and Christ Jesus remember us all in his Kingdom, to which, 
Serm. 20.  though we must sail through a sea, it is the sea of his blood, where no soul suffers shiprwack; though we must be blown with strange winds, with sighs and groans for our sins, yet it is the Spirit of God that blows all this wind, and shall blow away all contrary winds of diffidence or distrust in God's mercy; where we shall be all Soldiers of one Army, the Lord of Hosts, and Children of one Choir, the God of Harmony and consent: where all Clients shall retain but one Counsellor, our Advocate Christ Jesus, nor present him any other fee but his own blood, and yet every Client have a Judgement on his side, not only in a not guilty, in the remission of his sins, but in a Venite benedicti, in being called to the participation of an immortal Crown of glory: where there shall be no difference in affection, nor in mind, but we shall agree as fully & perfectly in our Allelujah, and gloria in exelcis, as God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost agreed in the faciamus hominem at first; where we shall end, and yet begin but then; where we shall have continual rest, and yet never grow lazy; where we shall be stronger to resist, and yet have no enemy; where we shall live and never die, where we shall meet & never part.   

TWO SERMONS, to the Prince and Princess Palatine, the Lady Elizabeth at Heydelberg, when I was commanded by the King to wait upon my L. of Doncaster in his Embassage to Germany. First Sermon as we went out, June 16. 1619. SERMON XX.  Rom. 13.11. 
For now is our Salvation nearer than when we believed,  
THere is not a more comprehensive, a more embracing word in all Religion, than the first word of this Text, Now; for the word before that, For, is but a word of connexion, and rather appertains to that which was said before the Text, then to the Text itself: The Text gins with that important and considerable particle, Now, Now is salvation nearer, etc. This present word, Now, denotes an Advent, a new coming, or a new operation, otherwise than it was before: And therefore doth the Church appropriate this Scripture to the celebration of the Advent, before the Feast of the Birth of our Saviour. It is an extensive word, Now; for though we dispute whether this Now, that is, whether an instant be any part of time or no, yet in truth it is all time; for whatsoever is past, was, and whatsoever is future, shall be an instant; and did and shall fall within this Now. We consider in the Church four Advents or Comings of Christ, of every one of which we may say Now, now it is otherwise then before: For first there is verbum in carne, the word came in the flesh, in the Incarnation; and then there is caro in verbo, he that is made flesh comes in the word, that is, Christ comes in the preaching thereof; and he comes again in carne saluta, when at our dissolution and transmigration; at our death he comes by his spirit, and testifies to our spirit that we die the Children of God: And lastly he comes in carne reddita, when he shall come at the Resurrection, to redeliver our bodies to our souls, and to deliver everlasting glory to both. The Ancients for the most part understand the word of our Text, of Christ's first coming in the flesh to us in this world; the latter Exposition understand them rather of his coming in glory: But the Apostle could not properly use this present word Now, with relation to that which is not now, that is, to future glory, otherwise then as that future glory hath a preparation and an inchoation in present grace; for so even the future glory of heaven hath a Now, now the elect Children of God have by his powerful grace a present possession of glory. So than it will not be impertinent to suffer this flowing and extensive word Now to spread itself into all three: for the whole duty of Christianity consists in these three things; first in pietate erga Deum, in religion towards God; in which the Apostle had enlarged himself from the beginning to the twelfth chapter of his Epistle: And secondly, in charitate erga proximum, in our mutual duties of society towards our Equals and Inferiors, and of Subjection towards our Superiors, in which that twelfth chapter, and this to the eitghth verse is especially conversant: And then thirdly, in sanctimonia propria, in the works of sanctification and holiness in ourselves: And this Text the Apostle presents as a forcible reason to induce us to that, to those works of sanctification, because Now our salvation is nearer us than when we believed. Take then this now, the first way of the coming Christ in person, in the flesh into this world; and then the Apostle of directs himself principally to the Jews converted to the faith of Christ, and he tells them, That their salvation is nearer them now, now they had seen him come, then when they did only believe that he would come: Take the words the second way, of his coming in grace into our hearts; and so the Apostle directs himself to all Christians; now, now that you have been bred in the Christian Church, now that you are grown from Grace to grace, from faith to faith, now that God by his spirit strengthens and confirms you; now is your salvation nearer than when ye believed, that is, when you began to believe, either by the faith of your Parents, or the faith of the Church, or the faith of your Sureties at your Baptism; or when you began to have some notions, and impressions, and apprehensions of faith in yourself, when you came to some degrees of understanding and discretion: Take the word of Christ's coming to us at the hour of death, or of his coming to us at the day of Judgement (for those two are all one to our present purpose, because God never reverses any particular judgement given at a man's death at the day of the general Judgement:) take the word so, & this is the Apostles argument, you have believed, and you have lived accordingly, and that faith, and that good life hath brought salvation nearer you, that is, given you a fair and modest infallibility of salvation, in the nature of reversion; but now, now that you are come to the approaches of death, which shall make your reversion a possession; Now is salvation nearer you than when you believed. Summarily, the Text is a reason why we ought to proceed in good and holy ways; and it works in all the three acceptations of the word; for whether salvation be said to be near us, because we are Christians, and so have advantage of the Jews, or near us, because we have made some proficiency in holiness & sanctimony; or near us, because we are near our end, and thereby near a possession of our endless joy and glory: Still from all these acceptations of the word arise religious provocations to perseverance in holiness of life; and therefore we shall pursue the words in all three acceptations.  
In all three acceptations we must consider three terms in the Text; First, Quid salus, what this Salvation is that is intended here; 
Part. 1.  and then, Quid prope, what this Distance, this nearness is; and lastly, Quid credere, what Belief this is. So then, taking the words first the first way, as spoken by the Apostles, to the Jews newly converted to the Christian Faith, salvation is the outward means of salvation, which are more and more manifest to the Christians, than they were to the Jews. And then the second Term, Nearness (salvation is nearer) is in this, That salvation to the Christian is in things present or past, in things already done, and of which we are experimentally sure; but to the Jews it was of future things, of which, howsoever they might assure themselves that they would be, yet they had no assurance when: And therefore (in the third place) their Believing was but a confident expectation, and faithful assenting to their Prophets; quando credidistis, when you believed, that is, when you did only believe, and saw nothing.  
First then, the first Term in the first acceptation, Salvation, 
Salus.  is the outward means of salvation. Outward and visible means of knowing, God God hath given to all Nations in the book of Creatures, from the first leaf of that book, the firmament above, to the last leaf, the Mines under our feet; there is enough of that. There they have a book which they read; and they have a sentence of condemnation if they do not, 
Rom. 2.1.  porro inexcusabilis, Therefore art thou inexcusable O man. The visible God was presented in visible things, and thou mightst, and wouldst not see him: but this is only such a knowledge of God as Philosophers, moral and natural men may have, and yet be very fare from making this knowledge any means of salvation. A man that hath often traveled by that way where there stands a fair house will say, and say truly, that he knows that house; but yet he knows not the ways that lead nearest and fairest to it, nor he knows not the lodgings and conveniencies of that house as he doth that hath been an often and welcome guest to it, or a continual dweller in it. Natural men by passing often through the contemplation of nature have such a knowledge of God; but the knowledge which is to salvation, is by being in God's house, in the Household of the Faithful, in the Communion of Saints, and by having such a conversation in heaven in this life. That which our Saviour Christ says, In domo Patris, In my Father's house there are many Mansions, as it is intended principally of our state of glory, and diversity of degrees of that in heaven; so is it true also of God's house at large, Multae mansiones. In God's house, which is All (all this world, and the next too, is God's house) there are outhouses, rooms without the house; so considered in this world on the Gentiles, and the Heathen, which are without the Church, and yet amongst them God hath some Servants: so in his house there are women below stairs, that is, in his visible Church here upon Earth; and women above stairs, that is, degrees of Glory in the triumphant Church. To them that are lodged in those outhouses, out of the Covenant out of the Church, salvation comes sometimes, God doth save some of them: but yet is not near them, that is, they have no ordinary nor established way of attaining to it, because Christ is not manifested to them in an ordinary preaching of the Word, and an ordinary administration of the Sacraments. And then to them who are above stairs, that is in possession of salvation in heaven, we cannot say salvation is nearer and nearer to them, because they are already in an actual possession thereof. But to them who are in God's House, and yet below stairs; to them who have salvation presented unto them by sensible and visible means; to them their salvation is properly said io be near. And such a people God had from the beginning, and shall have to the end; and that people the Jews were; and therefore their glory was just and true glory, 
Deut. 41.7.  when they glorified themselves in that, What Nation is so great? wherein consisted their greatness? that follows; Unto whom is the Lord so nigh as he is to us? and in what consisted this nearness? in this; What Nation hath ordinances and laws so righteous as we have? Here then was their salvation; first God withdrew them from the nations; he naturalised them, he denizend them into his own kingdom, sub sigillo circumcisionis, in the seal of their blood in circumcision, he gave them an interest in his blood to be shed in his passion: and then, this was their farther salvation, that when he had thus taken them into his service, & put them into his livery, a livery of his own colour, of blood in their circumcision, than he gave them a particular law for all their actions, how they should live in his favour; and he gave them a particular form of outward religious worship, which should be acceptable to him; the law, which was a sensible rule of their life, and their sacrifices, which were the sensible rule of their religion, was salvation: non taliter, says David, 
Psa. 147.9.  God hath not dealt so with other nations; for though God from other nations do here and there pick out a servant, yet he hath not given other nations salvation, that is, settled an ordinary means of salvation amongst them. That was true of the Jews, and will always be true of the whole Church of God, which Calvin says, quia nec oculis perspicitur, nec manibus palpatur spiritualis gratia, because the grace of God itself cannot be discerned by the eye, nor distinguished by the touch, non possumus nisi externis signis adjuti, statuere Deum nobis esse propitium, we could not assure ourselves of the mercies of God, if we had not outward and sensible signs and seals of those mercies; and therefore God never left his Church without such external and visible means and seals of grace. And though all those means were not properly seals, (for that is proper to sacraments, as a sacrament is strictly taken to be a seal of grace) yet the Fathers did often call many of these things by that name sacraments, because they had so much of the nature of a true sacrament, as that they advanced and furthered the working of grace. How a visible sign, water, or wine, (even in a true and proper sacrament) should confer grace, 
Edwin. h. 5.  fateor me non posse capere, says a learned Bishop in the Roman Church; as easy a matter as they make it, he professes that he cannot understand it: he argues it subtly, but he concludes it modestly; omnio brevi sententia dicenda sunt, consistere in pactis; this must says he be the end of all, that these things are not to be considered in the reason of man, but in the Covenant of God: God hath covenanted with his people, to be present with them in certain places, in the Church at certain times, when they make their congregation, in certain actions, when they meet to pray; and though he be not bound in the nature of the action, yet he is bound in his covenant to exhibit grace, and to strengthen grace, in certain sacrifices, and certain sacraments; and so other sacramental, and ritual and ceremonial things ordained by God in the voice of his Church, because they further salvation, are called salvation in this sense, and acceptation of the word, the first way.  
This was the first branch, in the first sense of these words; 
Prope.  salus adminicula salutis, salvation is means of salvation; and the next is the propè, wherein these means and helps were nearer to the Jews, after they were converted to the Christian religion, than before: and we consider them justly, to have been nearer, that is, more discernabl; first, quia plura, because the helps of the Christians are more; and then, quia potiora, because in their nature they are better; and lastly, quia manifestiora, because they have a better evidence towards us; for so as the more bodies are together, the greater the object is, and so made the more visible; so they are nearer, quia plura, because they are more; and so, as the more beautiful, and better proportioned a body is, the more it draws the eye to look upon it; so they are nearer, quia potiora, because they are better; and so as the more evidence, and light and lustre they have in themselves, the easier things are discerned, so they are nearer, 
Plura.  quia manifestiora, because they are more visible. First, how there should be more helps in the Christian religion, then in the Jewish, is not so evident at first: for first, if we consider the law to be salvation, they had a vast multiplicity of laws, scarce less than 600 several laws; whereas the honour of the Christian religion is, that it is verbum abbreviatum, an abridgement of all into ten words, as Moses calls the Commandments; and then a re-abridgment of that abridgement into two, love God, and love thy Neighbour, that is, faith and works. If we consider their laws to be their salvation, they had more; and if we consider their sacrifices to be their salvation, they had more too; for their Rabbins observe at least 50 several kinds of contracting uncleaness, to which there were appropriated several expiations and sacrifices; whereas we have only the sacrifices of prayer, and of praise, and of Christ in the sacrament; for so it is, the ordinary phrase & manner of speech in the Fathers to call that a sacrifice; not only as it is a commemorative sacrifice, (for that is amongst ourselves, and so every person in the congregation may sacrifice, that is, do that in remembrance of Christ,) but as it is a real sacrifice, in which the Priest doth that, which none but he does; that is, really to offer up Christ Jesus crucified to Almighty God for the sins of the people, so, as that that very body of Christ, which offered himself for a propitiatory sacrifice upon the cross, once for all, that body, and all that that body suffered, is offered again, and presented to the Father, & the Father is entreated, that for the merits of that person, so presented and offered unto him; and in contemplation thereof, he will be merciful to that congregation, and apply those merits of his, to their particular souls. These are our sacrifices, prayer and praise, and Christ thus offered; and how are these more than the Jews had? they had more laws, and more sacrifices, and as many sacraments as we; and if nearness of salvation consist in the plurality of these, how is salvation nearer to us then to them, quatenus plura, in that first respects as the means are more, as it is truly and properly said, that there are more ingredients, more simples, more means of restoring in our dram of treacle or mithridate, then in an ounce of any particular syrup, in which there may be 3 or 4 in the other, perchance so many hundred; so in that receipt of our Saviour Christ, quicquid ligaveris; in the absolution, of the Minister, that whatsoever he shall bind or lose upon earth, shall be bound or lose in heaven; there is more physic, then in all the expiations and sacrifices of the old law. There an expiation would serve to day, which would not serve to morrow; if it were omitted till the sun were set upon it, it required a more severe expiation: and so also an expiation would serve for one transgression, which would not serve for another; but here, in the absosolution of the Minister, there is a concurrence, a confluence of medecines of all qualities; purgative in confession, and restorative in absolution; corasive in the preaching of Judgements, and cordial in the balm of the sacrament: here is no limitation of time, at what time soever a sinner repenteth, nor limitation of sins, whatsoever is forgiven in earth is forgiven in heaven: salvation is nearer us in this respect, that we have plura adminicula, more outward and visible means then the Jews had, because we may receive more in one action, than they could in all theirs.  
It is so also, not only quia plura, because we have more means, 
Potiora.  but quia potiora, because those means which we have are in their nature better, more attractive, and more winning. The means, (as we have said before) were their laws, and their sacrifices, and their sacraments, and for their law, it was lex interficiens, non perficiens; it was a law, 
August.  that punished unrighteousness, but it did not confer righteousness: and their sacrifices, being in blood, (if we remove from them their typical signification, and what they prefigured, which was the shedding of the blood of the lamb which takes away the sins of the world) must necessarily create and excite a natural horror in man, and an averseness from them. Take their sacraments into comparison, and then one of their sacraments, Circumcision, was limited to one sex, it reached not to women; and their other sacrament, the passover, was in the primary signification and institution thereof, only a gratulatory commemoration of a temporal benefit of their deliverance from Egypt. And therefore to constitute a judgement proportionably by the effects, we see the law, and the sacrifice, and the sacraments of thy Jews, did not much work upon foreign Nations; it was salvation, but salvation shut up amongst themselves; whereas we see that the law of the christians, which is, to conform ourselves to our great example and pattern, Christ Jesus, who, (if we would consider him merely as man) was the most exemplar man, for all Theological virtues, & moral too, that ever any history presented; & the sacrifices of Christians, which are all spiritual, & therein more proportional to God who is all spirit; and the sacraments of Christians, in which, though not ex opere operator, not because that action is performed, not because that sacrament is administered, yet ex pacto, and quando opus operamur: by God's covenant, when soever that action is performed, whensoever that sacrament is administered, the grace of God is exhibited and offered; nec fallaciter, as Calvin says well, it is offered with a purpose on God's part, that that grace should be accepted, we see, I say that these laws, and these sacrifices, and these sacraments have gained upon the whole world; for in their nature, and in their attractiveness, and in their applyableness, and so in their effect, they are potiora, better, and in that respect, salvation is nearer us than it was to the Jews.  

Manifestiora.  And so it is, lastly, quia manifestiora, because they have an evidence and manifestation of themselves, in themselves. Now, this is especially true in the sacraments, because the sacraments exhibit and convey grace; and grace is such a light, such a torch, such a beacon, as where it is, it is easily seen. As there is a lustre in a precious stone, which no man's eye or finger can limit to a certain place or point in that stone, so though we do not assign in the sacrament, where, that is, in what circumstance or part of that holy action grace is; or when, or how it enters, (for though the word of consecration alter the bread, not to another thing, but to another use; and though they leave it bread, yet they make it other bread, yet the enunciation of those words doth not infuse nor imprint this grace, which we speak of, into that bread) yet whosoever receives this sacrament worthily, sees evidently an entrance, and a growth of grace in himself. But this evidence which we speaks of this manifestation, is not only, (though especially) in the sacraments, but in other sacramental and ceremonial things, which God (as he speaks by his Church) hath ordained, as the cross in baptism, and adoration at the sacrament (I do not say, I am far from saying, adoration of the sacrament; there is a fair distance and a spacious latitude between those two, a adoring of God in a devout humiliation of the body in that holy action, and an adoring the bread, out of a false imagination that that bread is God: A rectified man may be very humble and devout in that action, and yet a great way on this side the superstition and Idolatry in the practice of the Roman Church) in these sacramental and ritual, and ceremonial things, which are the bellows of devotion, and the subsidies of religion, and which were always in all Churches, there is a more evident manifestation and clearness in these things in the Christian Church, than was amongst the Jews in the ceremonial parts of their religion, because almost all ours have reference to that which is already done and accomplished, and not to things of a future expectation, as those of the Jews were: So you know the passover of the Jews, had a relation to their coming out of Egypt; that was past, & thereby obvious to every man's apprehension; every man that eat the pasover; remembered their deliverance out of Egypt; but then the passover had also relation to that lamb which was to redeem that world; & this was a future thing; and this certainly very few amongst them understood, or considered upon that occasion, that as thy lamb is killed here, so there shall be a lamb killed for all the world hereafter. Now, our actions in the Church, do most respect things formerly done, and so they awaken, and work upon our memory, which is an easier faculty to work upon, than the understanding or the will. Salvation is nearer us, in these outward helps, because their signification is clearer to us, and more apprehensible by us, being of things past, 
Credidistis.  and accomplished already. So then the Apostle might well say that salvation, that is, outward means of salvation, was nearer, that is, more in number, better in use, clearer in evidence than it was before; quando crediderunt, when they believed, which is the third and last term, in this first acceptation of the word. Salvation was brought into the world, in the first promise of a Messiah in the semen contract, That the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head; and it was brought nearer, when this Missias was fixed in Abraham's race, in semine tuo In thy seed shall all nations be blessed; it was brought nearer than that, when it was brought from Abraham's race to David's family, in solio tuo, The sceptre shall not departed from thee, till he come; and still nearer, in Esaias virgo concipiet when so particular mark was set upon the Messiah as that he should be the son of a virgin; and yet nearer in Micheas, & tu Bethlem, that Bethlem was designed for the place of his birth; and nearer in daniel's 70 weeks, when the time was manifested. And though it were nearer than all this, when John Baptist came to say Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, 
Mat. 3.2.  yet it was truly very near, nearest of all, when Christ came to say, 
Luc. 17.21.  Behold the Kingdom of God is amongst you; for all the rest were in the crediderunt, he was nearer them because they believed he would come; but than it was brought to the viderunt, they saw he was come. 
Joh. 20.29.  Beati says Christ: Blessed are they that have believed, and have not seen: they had salvation brought nearer unto them by their believing; but yet Christ speaks of another manner of blessedness conferred upon his Disciples, Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; 
Mat. 13.16.  for, verily I say unto you, that many Prophets & Righteous men, have desired to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them. To end this, the belief of the Patriarches was blessedness; 
Joh. 8.56.  and it was a kind of seeing too; for so Christ says your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it; but this was a seeing with the eye of faith which discovers future things; but Christ prefers the blessedness of the Disciples, because they saw things present and already done. All our life is a passing bell, but then was Simeon content his bell should ring out, when his eyes had seen his salution. In that especially doth St. John exalt the force of his argument; quae vidimus: 
1 Joh. 1.1.  That which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life, that declare we unto you. Here is then the inestimable prerogative of the Christian religion, it is grounded so far upon things which were seen to be done; it is brought so far from matter of faith, to matter of fact; from prophecy to history; from what the Messiah should do, to what he hath done; and that was their case to whom this Apostle spoke these wonders, as we take them in the first acceptation; salvation, that is, outward means of salvation in the Church is nearer, that is, more and better and clearer to you now, that is, when you have seen Christin the flesh, then when you prefigured him in your law, or sacrifices, or sacraments, or believed him in your Prophets.  

Second part.  In a second sense we took these words, of Christ's second Advent, or coming, his coming to our heart, in the working of his grace; And so the Apostles words are directed to all Christians, and not only to the new convertits of that nation; and so these three terms, salvation, nearness, and believing, (which we proposed to be considered in all the three acceptations of the words) will have this signification. Salvation is the inward means of salvation, the working of the spirit, that sets a seal to the eternal means: the prope, the nearness lies in this, that this grace which is this salvation in this sense, grows out of that which is in you already; not out of any thing which is in you naturally, but Gods first graces that are in you, grows into more and more grace. Grace does not grow out of nature; for nature in the highest exaltation and rectifying thereof cannot produce grace. Corn does not grow out of the earth, it must be sowd; but corn grows only in the earth; nature, and natural reason do not produce grace, but yet grace can take root in no other thing but in the nature and reason of man; whether we consider Gods subsequent graces, which grow out of his first grace, formerly given to us, and well employed by us, or his first grace, which works upon our natural faculties, and grows there; still this salvation, that is, this grace is near us, for it is within us; & then the third term believing, is either, quando credidistis primum, when you began to believe, either in an imputative belief of others in your baptism, or a faint belief, upon your first Catechise and Instrustions; or quando credidistis tantum, when you only professed a belief, or faith, and did nothing in declaration of that faith, to the edification of others.  

Salus.  First then salvation in this second sense, is the internal operation of the holy Ghost, in infusing grace: for therefore doth St. Basil call the holy Ghost verbum Dei, the word of God, (which is the name properly peculiar to the Son) quia interpres filii, sicut filius patris; that as the Father had revealed his will in the Prophets, and then the Son comes and interprets all that actually; this prophecy is meant of my coming, this of my dying, and so makes a real comment, and an actual interpretation of all the prophecies; for he does come, and he does die accordingly; so the holy Ghost comes, and comments upon this comment, interprets this interpretation, and tells thy soul that all this that the Father had promised, and the Son had performed, was intended by them, and by the working of their spirit, is now appropriated to thy particular soul. In the constitution and making of a natural man, the body is not the man, nor the soul is not the man, but the union of these two makes up the man; the spirits in a man which are the thin and active part of the blood, and so are of a kind of middle nature, between soul and body, those spirits are able to do, and they do the office, to unite and apply the faculties of the soul to the organs of the body, and so there is a man: so in a regenerate man, a Christian man, his being born of Christian Parents, that gives him a body, that makes him of the body of the Covenant, it gives him a title, an interest in the Covenant, which is jus ad rem; thereby he may make his claim to the seal of the Covenant, to baptism, and it cannot be denied him: and then in his baptism, that Sacrament gives him a soul, a spiritual seal, jus in re, an actual possession of Grace; but yet, as there are spirits in us, which unite body and soul, so there must be subsequent acts, and works of the blessed spirit, that must unite and confirm all, and make up this spiritual man in the ways of sanctification; for without that his body, that is, his being born within the Covenant, and his soul, that is, his having received Grace in baptism, do not make him up. This Grace is this Salvation; and when this Grace works powerfully in thee, in the ways of sanctification, then is this Salvation near thee; which is our second term in this second acceptation, propè, near.  
This nearness, which is the effectual working of Grace, 
Prope. Heb. 4.12.  the Apostle expresses fully, That it pierceth to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit; for, though properly the soul and spirit of a man be all one, yet divers faculties and operations give them sometimes divers names in the Scriptures; Anima quia animat, says St. Ambrose, and spiritus quia spirat: The quickening of the body, is the soul; but the quickening of the soul, is the spirit. If this Salvation be brought to this nearness, that is, this grace to this powerfulness, thou shalt find it in anima, in thy soul; in those organs wherein thy soul uses thy body, in thy senses, and in the sensible things ordained by God in his Church, Sacraments and Ceremonies; and thou shalt find it nearer, in spiritu, as the spirit of God hath sealed it to thy spirit invisibly, inexpressibly: It shall be near to thee, so as that thy reason shall apprehend it; and nearer than that, thy faith shall establish it; and nearer than all this, it shall create in thee a modest and sober, but yet an infallible assurance, that thy salvation shall never departed from thee: Magnificabit anima tua Dominum, as the B. Virgin speaks, Thy soul shall magnify the Lord; all thy natural faculties shall be employed upon an assent to the Gospel, thou shalt be able to prove it to thyself, and to prove it to others, to be the Gospel of Salvation: And then Exultabit spiritus, Thy spirit shall rejoice in God thy Saviour, because by the farther seal of sanctification, thy spirit shall receive testimony from the spirit; that as Christ is Idem homo cum te, the same man that thou art, so thou art Idem spiritus cum Domino, the same spirit that he is; so far, as that as a spirit cannot be separated in itself, so neither canst thou be separated from God in Christ; And this, this exaltation of Grace, when it thus grows up to this height of sanctification, is that nearness, which brings Salvation farther than our believing does? and that's the last term in this part; Believing.  

Credidistis.  Now, nearer than Believing, nearer than Faith, a man might well think nothing can bring Salvation; for Faith is the hand that reaches it, and takes hold of it. But yet, as though our bodily hand reach to our temporal food, yet the mouth and the stomach must do their office too; and so that meat must be distributed into all parts of the body, and assimilated to them; so though our faith draw this salvation near us, yet when our mouth is employed, that we have a delight to glorify God in our discourses, and to declare his wonderful works to the sons of men, in our thankfulness: And when this faith of ours is distributed over all the body, that the body of Christ's Church is edified, and alienated by our good life and sanctification, then is this Salvation nearer us, that is, safelier sealed to us, then when we believed only.  
Either then, this quando credidistis, when you believed, may be referred to Infants, or to the first faith, and the first degrees thereof in men. In Infants, when that seminal faith, or potential faith, which is by some conceived to be in the Infants of Christian parents at their baptism; or that actual faith, which from their parents, or from the Church, is thought to be applied to them, accepted in their behalf, in that Sacrament, when this faith grows up after, by this new coming of Christ in the power of his Grace and his Spirit, to be a lively faith, expressed in charity; than Salus proprior, then is Salvation nearer than when they believed; whether this belief were their own, or their parents, or the Churches, we have no ground to deny, that Salvation is near, and present to all children rightly baptised; but, for those who have made sure their Salvation by a good use of God's graces after, we have another fair piece of evidence, that Salvation is nearer them. It is so to, if this believing be referred to our first elements and beginnings of faith: A man believes the history of Christ, because it is matter of fact, and a story probable, and well testified: A man may believe the Christian Religion, or the Reformed Religion for his ease, either because he cannot or will not debate controversies, and reconcile differences, or because he sees it best for order and quiet, and ciull ends, which he hath in that state where he lives. These be kinds of faith and moral assents: and sometimes when a man is come thus far, to a historical and a moral faith, God super-infuses true faith; for howsoever he wrought by reason, and natural faculties, and moral, and civil ways, yet it was God that wrought from the beginning, and produced this faith, though but historical or moral. And then, if God do exalt this moral or historical faith farther than so, to believe not only the History, but the Gospel; not only that such a Christ lived, and did those miracles, and died, but that he was the Son of God, and died for the redemption of the world; this brings Salvation nearer him, than when he believed; but then, when this grace comes to appropriate Christ to him, and more than that, to annunciate Christ by him, when it makes him (as John Baptist was) a burning and a shining lamp; That Christ is showed to him, and by him to others in a holy life, Then is Salvation nearer him than when he believed, either as it is credidit primum, when he began to believe, but had some scruples, or credidit tantum, that he laid all upon faith, but had no care of works. To end this, this nearness of Salvation, is that union with God, which may be had in this life: It is the peace of conscience, the undoubting trust and assurance of Salvation. This assurance (so far as they will confess it may be had) the Roman Church places in faith, and so far, well, but then, In fide formata; and so far well enough too; In those works which declare and testify that faith; for, though this good work do nothing toward my Salvation, it does much towards this nearness, that is, towards my assurance of this Salvation; but herein they lead us out of the way, that they call these works the soul, the form of faith: for, though a good tree cannot be without good fruits, yet it were a strange manner of speech to call that good fruit, the life or the soul, or the form of that tree; so is it, to call works which are the fruits of faith, the life or soul, or form of faith; for that is proper to grace only which infuses faith. They would acknowledge this nearness of salvation, this assurance in good works; but say they, man cannot be sure, that their works is good, and therefore they can have no such assurance. They who undertook the reformation of Religion in our Father's days, observing that there was no peace without this assurance, expressed this assurance thus, That when a man is sure that he believes aright, that he hath no scruples of God, no diffidence in God, and uses all endeavours to continue it, and to express it in his life, as long as he continues so, he is sure of Salvation; and farther they went not: And then there arose men, which would reform the Reformers, and refine Salvation and bring it into a less room; They would take away the condition, if you hold fast, if you express it; and so came up roundly and presently to that; If ever you did believe, if ever you had faith, you are safe for ever, and upon that assurance you may rest. Now I make no doubt, but that both these sought the truth, that truth which concerns us, peace and assurance; and I dispute not their resolutions now; only I say, for these words which we have in hand now there is a conditional assurance employed in them; for when it is said now, now that you are in this state, Salvation is near you: thus much is pugnantly intimated, that if you were not in this state, Salvation were farther removed from you howsoever you pretend to believe.  
Now this hath brought us to our third and last sense and acceptation of these words, as they are spoken of Christ's last coming, 
3 Part.  his coming in glory; which is to us at our deaths, and that judgement which we receive then. And in this acceptation of the word, these three terms, Salvation, Nearness and Believing, are thus to be understood: Salvation is Salvation perfected, consummated; Salvation which was brought near baptism, & nearer in outward holiness, must be brought nearer than that: And this prope, this nearness is, that now being near death, you are near the last seal of your perseverance; and so the credidistis, the believing amounts to this: though you have believed and lived accordingly, believed with the belief of a Jew, believed all the Prophets, and with the belief of a Christian, believed all the Gospel, believed with a seminal belief of your own, or an actual belief of others at your baptism, with a historical belief, and with an Evangelical belief too, with a belief in your root, in the heart, and a belief in the fruits, expressed in a good life too, yet there is a continuance and a perseverance that must crown all this; and because that cannot be discerned till thine end, then only is it safely pronounced, Now is Salvation nearer you than when you believed.  

Salus.  Here then Salvation is eternal Salvation; not the outward seals of the Church upon the person, not visible Sacraments, nor the outward seal of the person, to the Church, visible works, nor the inward seal of the Spirit, assurance here, but fruition, possession of glory, in the Kingdom of Heaven; where we shall be infinitely rich, and that without labour in getting, or care in keeping, or fear in losing; and fully wise, and that without ignorance of necessary, or study of unnecessary knowledge, where we shall not measure our portion by acres, for all heaven shall be all ours; nor our term by years, for it is life and everlasting life; nor our assurance by precedent, for we shall be safer than the Angels themselves were in the creation; where our exaltation shall be to have a crown of righteousness, and our possession of that crown shall be, even the throwing it down at the feet of the Lamb; where we shall leave off all those petitions of Adveniat regnum, thy Kingdom come for it shall be come in abundant power; and the da nobis hodiè, give us this day our daily bread, for we shall have all that which we can desire now, and shall have a power to desire more, & then have that desire so enlarged, satisfied; And the Libera nos, we shall not pray to be delivered from evil, for no evil, culpae or poenae, either of sin to deserve punishment, or of punishment for our former sins shall offer at us; where we shall see God face to face, for we shall have such notions and apprehensions, as shall enable us to see him, and he shall afford such an imparting, such a manifestation of himself, as he shall be seen by us; and where we shall be as inseparably united to our Saviour, as his humanity and divinity are united together: This unspeakable, this unimaginable happiness is this Salvation, and therefore let us be glad when this is brought near us.  

Prope.  And this is brought nearer & nearer unto us, as we come nearer & nearer to our end. As he that travels weary, and late towards a great City, is glad when he comes to a place of execution, because he knows be that is near the town; so when thou comest to the gate of death, glad of that, for it is but one step from that to thy Jerusalem. Christ hath brought us in some nearness to Salvation, as he is vere Salvator mundi, in that we know, that this is indeed the Christ, 
Jo. 4.42.  the Saviour of the world: and he hath brought it nearer than that, 
Eph. 5.23.  as he is Salvator corporis sui, in that we know, That Christ is the head of the Church, and the Saviour of that body: And nearer than that, 
Esay. 43.3.  as he is Salvator tuus sanctus, In that we know, He is the Lord our God, the holy One of Israel, our Saviour: But nearest of all, in the Ecce Salvator tuus venit, 
Esa. 62.11.  Behold thy Salvation cometh. It is not only promised in the Prophets, nor only writ in the Gospel, nor only sealed in the Sacraments, nor only prepared in the visitations of the holy Ghost, but Ecce, behold it, now, when thou canst behold nothing else: The sun is setting to thee, and that for ever; thy houses and furnitures, thy gardens and orchards, thy titles and offices, thy wife and children are departing from thee, and that for ever; a cloud of faintness is come over thine eyes, and a cloud of sorrow over all theirs; when his hand that loves thee best hangs tremblingly over thee to close thine eyes, Ecce Salvator tuus venit, behold then a new light, thy Saviour's hand shall open thine eyes, and in his light thou shalt see light; and thus shalt see, that though in the eyes of men thou lie upon that bed, as a Statue on a Tomb, yet in the eyes of God, thou standest as a Colossus, one foot in one, another in another land; one foot in the grave, but the other in heaven; one hand in the womb of the earth, and the other in Abraham's bosom: And then vere prope, Salvation is truly near thee, and nearer than when thou believedst, which is our last word.  
Take this Belief in the largest extent; 
Credidistis.  a patiented assent to all foretold of Christ and of Salvation by the Prophets; a historical assent to all that is written of Christ in the Gospel; an humble and supple, and appliable assent to the Ordinances of the Church; a faithful application of all this to thine own soul, a fruitful declaration of all that to the whole world in thy life, yet all this (though this be inestimable riches) is but the earnest of the holy Ghost; it is not the full payment, it is but the first fruits; it is not the harvest, it is but a truce; it is not an inviolable peace; There remaineth a rest to the people of God, 
Heb. 4.9.  says the Apostle; they were the people of God before, and yet there remained a rest, which they had not yet; not that there is not a blessed degree of rest, in the Credidi, a happy assurance in the strength of faith here, but yet there remaineth a rest better than that; And therefore says that Apostle there, Let us labour to enter into that rest; as though we have rest in our consciences all the six days of the week, if we do the works of our callings sincerely, yet all that while we labour; and there remains a Sabbath, which we have not all the week; so though we have peace and rest in the testimony of our faith and obedience in this life, yet there remains a rest, a Sabbath, for which we must labour; for the Apostle in that place adds the danger; Labour to enter into that rest, says he, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief: 
v. 11.  He speaks of the people of God, and yet they might fall; He speaks of such as bade believed, and yet they might fall, after the example of unbelief, as far as they that never believed, if they laboured not to the last and set the seal of final perseverance to their former faith. To conclude all with the force of the Apostles argument, in urging the words of this text, since God hath brought salvation nearer to you, then to them that believed; nearer to you in the Gospel, when you have seen Christ come there to the Jews in the Prophets, where they only read that he should come, and nearer to you, than where you believed, either seminally & potentially, and imputatively at our baptism, or actually, and declaratorily in some parts of your life, by having persisted therein thus far; and since he is now bringing it nearer to you, than when you believed at best, because your end grows nearer, 
Eccles. 12.  now, whilst the evil days come not, nor the year approach, wherein thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; before the grinders cease, because they are few, and they wax dark, that look out at the windows, before thou go to the house of thine age, and the mourners go about in the streets, prepare thyself by casting off thy sins, and all that is gotten by thy sins: for, as the plague is got as soon in linings, as in the outside of a garment, salvation is lost, as far, by retaining ill gotten goods, as by ill getting, forget not thy past sins so far, as not to repent them; but remember not thy repent sins so far, as to delight in remembering them, or to doubt that God hath not fully forgiven them; and whether God have brought this salvation near thee, by sickness, or by age, or by general dangers, put off the consideration of the incomodies of that age, or that sickness, and that danger, and fill thyself with the consideration of the nearness of thy salvation, which that age, and sickness, and danger, minister to thee: that so, when the best Instrument, and the best song shall meet together, thy bell shall towl, and thy soul shall hear that voice, Ecce salvator, behold thy Saviour cometh, thou mayst bear a part, and cheerfully make up that music, with a veni Domine Jesus, Come Lord Jesus, come quickly, come now.   

A Sermon Preached at St. Dunstan's January 15. 1625. The First SERMON after Our Dispersion, by the Sickness. SERMON XXI.  Exod. 12.30. 
For there was not a house where there was not one dead.  
GOd intended life and immortality for man; and man by sin induced death upon himself at first: When man had done so, and that now man was condemned, man must die; yet yet God gave him, though not an absolute pardon, yet a long reprieve; though not a new immortality, yet a life of seven and eight hundred years upon earth: And then, misery, by sin growing upon man, and this long life which was enlarged in his favour being become a burden unto him, God abridged and contracted his seven hundred to seventy, and his eight hundred to eighty years, the years of his life came to be threescore and ten; and if misery do suffer him to exceed those, even the exceeding itself is misery. Death then is from ourselves, it is our own; but the executioner is from God, it is his, he gives life; no man can quicken his own soul, but any man can forfeit his own soul: And yet when he hath done so, he may not be his own executioner; for as God giveth life, so he killeth, says Moses there: not as the cause of death, for death is not his creature; but because he employs what person he will, and executes by what instrument it pleases him to choose, age or sickness, or justice, or malice, or (in our apprehension) fortune. In that History from whence we deduce this Text, which was that great execution, the sudden death of all the firstborn of Egypt; it is very large, and yet we may usefully, and to good purpose enlarge it, if we take into our consideration spiritual death, as well as bodily: for so in our houses from whence we came hither, if we left but a servant, but a child in the cradle at home, there is one dead in that house. If we have no other house but this which we carry about us, this house of clay, this tabernacle of flesh, this body, yet if we consider the inmate, the sojourner within this house, 
Serm. 21.  the state of our corrupt and putrified soul, there is one dead in this house too. And though we be met now in the House of God, and our God be the God of Life, yet even in this house of the God of Life, and the ground enwrapped in the same consecration; not only of every such house, but let every man's length in the house be a house; of every such space this Text will be verified, There is not a house where there is not one dead.  
God is abundant in his mercies to man, and as though he did but learn to give by his giving, as though he did but practise to make himself perfect in his own Art, which Art is bountiful Mercy; as though all his former blessings were but in the way of earnest, and not of payment; as though every benefit that he gave, were a new obligation upon him, and not an acquittance to him; he delights to give where he hath given, as though his former gifts were but his places of memory, and marks set upon certain men, to whom he was to give more. It is not so good a plea in our prayers to God, for temporal or for spiritual blessings, to say, Have mercy upon me now, for I have loved thee heretofore, as to say, Have mercy upon me, for thou hast loved me heretofore. We answer a Beggar, I gave you but yesterday; but God therefore gives us to day, because he gave us yesterday: and therefore are all his blessings wrapped up in that word, Panis quotidianus, Give us this day our daily bread: Every day he gives; and early every day; his Manna falls before the Sun rises, and his mercies are new every morning. In this consideration of his abounding in all ways of mercy to us, we consider justly how abundant he is in instructing us. He writes his Law once in our hearts, and then he repeats that Law, and declares that Law again in his written Word, in his Scriptures. He writes his Law in stone-Tables once; and then those Tables being broken, he repeats that Law, writes that Law again in other Tables. He gives us his Law in Exodus and Leviticus, and then he gives us a Deuteronomy, a repetition of that Law, another time in another Book. And as he abounds so in instructing us, in going the same way twice over towards us, as he gives us the Law a second time, so he gives us a second way of instructing us; he accompanies, he seconds his Law with examples. In his Legal Books we have Rules; in the Historical, Examples to practise by. And as he is every way abundant, as he hath added Law to Nature, and added Example to Law, so he hath added Example to Example; and by that Text which we have read to you here, and by that Text which we have left at home, our house and family, and by that Text which we have brought hither, ourselves, and by that Text which we find here, where we stand, and sit, and kneel upon the bodies of some of our dead friends or neighbours, he gives to us, he repeats to us, a full, a various, a multiform, a manifold Catechism, and Institution, to teach us that it is so absolutely true, that there is not a house in which there is not one dead, as that (taking spiritual death into our consideration) there is not a house in which there is one alive.  
That therefore we may take in light at all these windows that God opens for us, 
Divisio.  that we may lay hold upon God by all these handles which he puts out to us, we shall make a brief survey of these four Houses; of that in Egypt, where the Text places it; of that at home, in which we dwell; of this, which is ourselves, where we always are, or always should be within; and of this in which we are met, where God is in so many several Temples of his, as are above and under ground: So that this Sermon may be a general Funeral Sermon, both for them that are dead in the flesh, and for ourselves, that are dead in our sins; for of all these four houses it is true, and by useful accommodation, appliable to all, There is not a house where there is not one dead.  
First then to survey the first House, the House in Egypt, 
Part 1.  Pharaoh, by drawing upon himself and his Land this last and heaviest plague of the ten, the universal, the sudden, the midnight destruction of all, all the first born of Egypt, hath made himself a Monument, and a History, and a Pillar everlasting to the end of the world, to the end of all place in the world, and to the end of all time in the world, by which all men may know, that man, how perverse soever, cannot weary God; that man cannot add to his Rebellions so many heavy circumstances, but that God can add as many, as heavy degrees to his Judgements. First, God turns their Rivers into blood; Pharaoh sits that process, and more, many more; and then in this bloody massacre of all their firstborn, God brings blood out of the channels of their Rivers, into their chambers, into all their Chambers; not only to cut off their children from without, 
Jer. 9.21.  and the young men from the streets (as the Prophet speaks) but (as he says also there) Death came in at their windows, and entered into their Palaces. 
Matt. 26.13.  As Christ says of Mary magdalen's devotion, That wheresoever his Gospel should be preached in the world, there should also this which this woman had done, be told for a memorial of her: So we may say of man's obduration, Wheresoever the Book of God shall be read, Pharaoh shall be an example, that God will have his ends, let man be possessed with the spirit of contradiction as furiously, with the spirit of rebellion as ragefully as he will. Fremuerunt Gentes, says David in the beginning of the second Psalm, The Heathen rage, and they break their sleep to contrive mischief. And within three verses more we find, The Lord sits still in heaven, and laughs, and hath them in derision. The building of the Tower of Babel did not put God to build another Tower to confront it; God did nothing, and brought all their labours and their counsels to nothing. 
Dan. 2.34.  God took no hammer in hand to demolish and cast down Nebuchadnezars Image, but a stone that was cut out without hands, smote the image, and broke it in pieces. Si inceperit, if God once set his work on foot, 
1 Sam. 3.12.  If I begin, I will also make an end, says God to Samuel; if he have not begun, si juraverit, if the Lord have sworn it, it shall be, (those whom the Lord swore should not enter into his Rest, never entered into his Rest.) If he have not sworn, si locutus fuerit, that's security enough, the security that the Prophet Esay gives through all his Prophecy, os Domini, thus and thus it must be, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it: if he have not gone so far, si cogitaverit, if he have purposed it, 
Isai. 19.12. 2 Chro. 25.16. Lam. 2.17.  as that word is used in Esay; if he have determined it, as the word is used in the Chronicles; if he have devised such a course, as the word is in Jeremy; God will accomplish his work, if he have begun it; his oath and word, if he have said or sworn it; his purpose and determination, if he have intended it; nothing shall frustrate or evacuate his purpose, he will achieve his ends, though there be never a soul that doth not sigh, never a heart that doth not ache, never a vein that doth not bleed, never a house in which there is not one dead.  
In the building of the material Temple, there was no hammer, nor tool of noise used: In the fitting and laying of us, the living stones of the mystical Temple, God would use no hammer, no iron, no occasion of noise, or lamentation; but there are dispositions which will not be rectified without the hammer, and are not malleable neither, not fit to be rectified by the hammer, till a hot fire of vehement affliction have mollified them. Thespesius they say was a man desperately vicious, irrecoverably wicked; his friends asked the Oracle whether ever he would mend? The Oracle answered, he would when he was dead; he died of a sudden fall, at least to the eyes, and in the understanding of the world he died; but he recovered, and came to life again, and then reported such fearful visions which he had seen in the other world, upon the souls of some of his companions, and of his own father, as that out of the apprehension of those terrors in his ecstasy, in his second life, he justified the Oracle; and after he had been dead, lived well. Many such stories are in the Legends; but I take this at the fountain where they take most of theirs, that is, out of Plutarch; for Plutarch and Virgil are two principal Evangelists of the Legendaries. The Moral of them all is, That God will imprint a knowledge of his Majesty, and a terror of his Judgements, though the heart be Iron: 
Exod. 12. Vers. 33.  He would bring the Egyptians to say with trembling, We are dead men, though they would not be brought to say it, till there was not a house in which there was not one dead.  
But as in a River that is swelled, though the water do bring down sand and stones, and logs, yet the water is there still; and the purpose of Nature is to vent that water, not to pour down that sand, or those stones: so though God be put to mingle his Judgements with his mercies, yet his mercy is there still, and his purpose is, ever in those judgements, to manifest his mercy. Where the Channel is stopped by those Sands, and Stones, and Logs, the Water will find another Channel; where the heart is hardened by God's corrections, and thereby made incapable of his mercy, (as in some dispositions, even God's corrections do work such obstructions and obdurations, as in Pharaohs case it was) yet the water will find a Channel, the mercy of God will flow out, and show itself to others, though not to him; his mercy will take effect somewhere, as (in Pharaohs case) it did upon the Children of Israel. And yet God would not show mercy to them, but so, as that at the same time they also might see his judgements, and thereby be brought to say, God hath a Treasury of both, Mercy and Justice; and God might have changed the persons, and made the Egyptians the objects of his Mercies, and us of his Justice.  
The first act of God's mercy towards me, when I see him execute a judgement upon another, is to confess, that that judgement belonged to me, and thereby to come to a holy fear, being under the same condemnation; as the one Thief said to the other, upon their several crosses; Fearest not thou, being under the same condemnation? At this time God delivered his Children out of Egypt; then was fullness of mercy: but God let them see his power and his powerful indignation upon others, for their instruction. God brought them out; there was fullness of mercy towards them: but he brought them out in the night. God would mingle some shadow, some signification of his judgements in his mercies, of adversity in prosperity, of night in day, of death in life. The persecuting Angel entered into none of their houses, God let them live; but God, though he let them live, would not let them be ignorant, that he could have thrown death in at their windows too: For they came not into a house where there was not one dead.  
We stay no longer upon this first survey of the first house, 
Part. 1. Domus Nostra.  That in Egypt: The next is, our own house, our habitation, our family. We have in the use of our Church, a short, and a larger Catechism; both instruct the same things, the same Religion, but some capacities require the one, and some the other. God would catechise us in the knowledge of our mortality; since we have devested our immortality, he would have us understand our mortality; since we have induced death upon ourselves, God would raise such a benefit to us, out of death, as that by the continual meditation thereof, death might the less terrify us, and the less damnify us. First, His Law alone does that office, even his Common Law, Morte morieris, and stipendium peccati Mors est: All have sinned, and all must die. And so his Statute Law too, 
Heb. 9.27.  Statutum est, It is enacted, it is appointed to man once to die: And then as a Comment upon that Law, he presents to us, either his great Catechisms, 
Isai. 37.36.  Sennacheribs Catechism, in which we see almost Two hundred thousand Soldiers, (more by many than both sides arm and pay, in these noiseful Wars of our Neighbours) slain in one night; 
2 Chro. 13.  or Jeroboams Catechism, where Twelve hundred thousand being presented in the field, (more by many, than all the Kings of Christendom arm and pay) Five hundred thousand men, chosen men, and men of mighty valour, (as the Text qualifies them) were slain upon one side in one day; or David's Catechism, 
2 Sam. 24.  where Threescore and ten thousand were devoured of the Pestilence, we know not in how few hours; or this Egyptian Catechism, of which we can make no conjecture, because we know no number of their houses; and there was not a house, in which there was not one dead; or God presents us his Catechism in the Primitive Church, where every day may be written in Red Ink, every day the Church celebrated Five hundred, in some Copies Five thousand Martyrs every day, that had writ down their names in their own blood, for the Gospel of Christ Jesus; or God presents us his Catechism in the later Roman Church; where, upon our attempt of the Reformation, they boast to have slain in one day Seventy Millions, in another Two hundred Millions of them that attempted and assisted the Reformation; or else Gods presents his lesser Catechisms, the several Funerals of our particular Friends in the Congregation; or he abridges this Catechism of the Congregation to a less volume than that, to the consideration of every particular piece of our own Family at home: For so, there is not a house, in which there is not one dead.  

Prov. 19.18.  Have you not left a dead son at home, whom you should have chastened, whilst there was hope, and have not? Whom you should have beaten with the rod, 
& 23.13.  to deliver his soul from Hell, and have not? Whom you should have made an Abel, a Keeper of Sheep; 
Gen. 4.2.  or a Cain, a tiler of the Ground; that is, bestowed him, bound him, to some Occupation, or Profession, or Calling, and have not? You may believe God without an oath; 
1 Sam 3.13.  but God hath sworn, That because Eli restrained not the insolences of his sons, no sacrifice should purge his house for ever. And scarce shall you find in the whole Book of God, any so vehement an intermination, any judgement so vehemently imprinted, as that upon Eli, for not restraining the insolences of his sons: For in that case God says, I will do a thing in Israel, at which, both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle: That is, he would inflict a sudden death upon the Father, for his indulgence to his sons. Have ye not left such a dead son, dead in contumacy, and in disobedience, at home? Have you not left a dead daughter at home? A daughter whom you should have kept at home, and have not; but suffered, with Dinah, to go out to see the daughters of the land, and so expose herself to dangerous tentations, as Dinah did? Have ye not left a dead servant at home, 
Gen. 34.1.  whom ye have made so perfect in deceiving of others, as that now he is able to take out a new lesson of himself, and deceive you? Have you left no dead Inmates, dead Sojourners, dead Lodgers at home? Of whom, so they advance your profit, you take no care how vicious in themselves they be, or how dangerous to the State. 
Deut. 31.12.  Gather men, and women, and children, and strangers within thy gate, says God, that they may all learn the Law of the Lord. If thy care spread not over all thy family, whosoever is dead in thy family by thy negligence, thou shalt answer the King that Subject, that is, the King of Heaven that Soul.  
We have (as we proposed to do) surveyed this House in Egypt, 
Part. 3.  where the Text lays it, and the House at home where we dwell; there is a third House, which we are, this House of Clay, and of Mud-walls, ourselves, these bodies. And is there none dead there? not within us? The House itself is ready to fall as soon as it is set up: The next thing that we are to practise after we are born, is to die. The Timber of this House is but our Bones; and, My bones are waxen old, says David; and perchance not with age, but as Job says, His bones are full of the sins of his youth. 
Ps. 32.3. Job 20.11. Job. 6.12.  The loam-walls of this House are but this flesh; and Our strength is not the strength of stones, neither is our flesh brass; and therefore, Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm. 
Jer. 17.5.  The windows of this House are but our eyes; and, the light of mine eyes is gone from me, says David; and we know not how, nor how soon. 
Esai. 59.10.  The foundation is but our feet; and, besides that Our feet stumble at noon, (as the Prophet complains) David found them so cold, as that no art nor diligence could warm them. And the roof and covering of this House, is but this thatch of hair; and it is denounced by more than one of the Prophets, 
Esai. 15.23. Jer. 48.37.  That upon all heads shall fall baldness: The House itself is always ready to fall; but is there not also always some dead in this House, in ourselves? Is not our firstborn dead? Our firstborn (says St. Augustin) are the offspring of our beloved sin; for we have some Concubine-sins, and some one sin that we are married to: Whatsoever we have begot upon that wife, whatsoever we have got by that sin, that's our firstborn, and that's dead: How much the better soever we make account to live by it, it is dead. For, as it was the mischievous invention of a Persecutor in the Primitive Church, to tie living men to dead bodies, and let them die so; so men that tie the rest of their Estate to goods ill gotten, do but invent a way to ruin and destroy all. But that which is truly every man's first-born-childe, is his zeal to the Religion and Service of God: As soon as we know that there is a Soul, that Soul knows that there is a God, and a Worship belonging to that God; and this Worship is Religion. And is not this firstborn child dead in many of us? In him that is not stirred, not moved, not affected for his Religion, his pulse is gone, and that's an ill sign. In him that dares not speak for it, not counsel, not preach for it, his Religion lies speechless; and that's an ill sign. In him that feeds not Religion, that gives nothing to the maintenance thereof, his Religion is in a consumption. In a word, if his zeal be quenched, his firstborn is dead. And so for these three Houses, That in Egypt, that at home, that in ourselves, There is not a house in which there is not one dead.  

Part 4.  The fourth House falling under this survey, is this House in which we are met now, the house of God; the Church and the ground wrapped up in the same consecration: and in this house you have seen, and seen in a lamentable abundance, and seen with sad eyes, that for many months there hath scarce been one day in which there hath not been one dead. How should there be but multiplicity of deaths? why should it be, or be looked to be, or thought to be otherwise? The Master of the house, Christ Jesus, is dead before; and now it is not so much a part of our punishment, for the first Adam, as an imitation of the second Adam, to die; death is not so much a part of our debt to Nature, or Sin, or Satan, as a part of our conformity to him who died for us. If death were in the nature of it merely evil to us, Christ would have redeemed us, even from this death, by his death. But as the death of Christ Jesus is the Physic of mankind, so this natural death of the body is the application of that Physic to every particular man, who only by death can be made capable of that glory which his death hath purchased for us. This Physic, all they whom God hath taken to him, have taken, and (by his grace) received life by it. Their firstborn is dead; the body was made before the soul, and that body is dead. Rachel wept for her children, and would not be comforted, because they were not. If these children, and parents, and friends, and neighbours of ours were not, if they were resolved into an absolute annihilation, we could not be comforted in their behalf; but Christ, who says, he is the Life, lest we should think that to belong only to this life, says also that he is the Resurrection. We were contracted to Christ in our Election, married to him in our Baptism, in the Grave we are bedded with him, and in the Resurrection estated and put into possession of his Kingdom: And therefore, because these words do not only affect us with that sad consideration, That there is none of these houses in whieh there is not one dead; but minister withal that consolation, That there is none so dad, but may have a Resurrection, We shall pass another short survey over all these Houses.  
Thus far we have surveyed these four Houses, Egypt, our families, ourselves, and the Church, as so many places of Infection, so many temporal or spiritual Pesthouses, into which our sins had heaped powder, and God's indignation had cast a match to kindle it. But now the very phrase of the Text, which is, That in every house there was one dead, There was, invites us to a more particular consideration of God's mercy, in that, howsoever it were, it is not so now; in which we shall look how far this beam of mercy shines out in every of these houses, that it is not so now, There is not one dead in every house now; but the Infection, (Temporal and Spiritual Infection) is so far ceased, as that not only those that are alive, do not die, as before; but those whom we called dead, are not dead; they are alive in their spirits, in Abraham's bosom; and they are alive in their very bodies, in their contract and inherence in Christ Jesus in an infallible assurance of a joyful Resurrection.  
Now in the survey of the first sort of houses, of Egypt, 
Egyptus.  herein we are interrupted. Here they were dead, and are dead still: We see clearly enough God's indignation upon them; but we see neither of those beams of mercy, either that there die no more, or that we have the comfort of a joyful Resurrection in them who are dead: For this fearful calamity of the death of their firstborn wrought no more upon them, but to bring them to that exclamation, that vociferation, that voice of despairful murmuring, Omnes Moriemur, We are all dead men: 
v. 33.  And they were mischievous Prophets upon themselves; for, proceeding in that sin which induced that calamity and the rest upon them, they pursued the children of Israel through the Red-sea, and perished in it; and then they came not to die one in a house, but as it is expressed in the Story, and repeated in the Psalms, 
Exod. 14.28. Psal. 106.10.  There remained not so much as one of them alive; so that in their case there is no comfort in the first beam of mercy, that this phrase, They were dead, or They did die, should intimate, That now they did not die, now God's correction had so wrought upon them, as that God withdrew that correction from them, for it pursued them, and accompanied them to their final and total destruction. And then for the other beam of mercy, of transferring them which seemed dead in the eyes of the world, to a better life, by that hand of death, to present happiness in their souls, and to an assured resurrection to joy and glory in their bodies, in the communion of God's Saints, Moses hath given us little hope in their behalf; for thus he encourageth his Countrymen in that place, The Egyptians whom you have seen this day, 
Exod. 14.13.  you shall see no more for ever: No more in this world, no more in the world to come. Beloved, as God empayled a Goshen in Egypt, a place for the righteous amongst the wicked; so there is an Egypt in every Goshen, nests of Snakes in the fairest Gardens, and even in this City (which in the sense of the Gospel, we may call, The Holy City; as Christ called Jerusalem, though she had multiplied transgressions, The Holy City, because she had not cast away his Law, though she had disobeyed it: So howsoever your sins have provoked God, yet as you retain a zealous profession of the truth of his Religion, I may in his name, and do in the bowels of his mercy, call you, The Holy City) even in this City, no doubt but the hand of God fell upon thousands in this deadly infection, who were no more affected with it, than those Egyptians, to cry out, Omnes Moriemur, We can but die, and we must die: And, Edamus, & bibamus, cras moriemur, Let us eat and drink, and take our pleasure, and make our profits, for to morrow we shall die, and so were cut off by the hand of God, some even in their robberies, in half-empty houses; and in their drunkenness in voluptuous and riotous houses; and in their lusts and wantonness in licentious houses; and so took in infection and death, like Judas' sop, death dipped and soaked in sin. Men whose lust carried them into the jaws of infection in lewd houses, and seeking one sore perished with another; men whose rapine and covetousness broke into houses, and seeking the Wardrobes of others, found their own winding-sheet, in the infection of that house where they stole their own death; men who sought no other way to divert sadness, but strong drink in riotous houses, and there drank up David's cup of Malediction, the cup of Condemned men, of death, in the infection of that place. For these men that died in their sins, that sinned in their dying, that sought and hunted after death so sinfully, we have little comfort of such men, in the phrase of this Text, They were dead; for they are dead still: As Moses said of the Egyptians, I am afraid we may say of these men, We shall see them no more for ever.  
But God will give us the comfort of this phrase in the next House; 
Domus nostra.  This next House is Domus nostra, our Dwellinghouse, our Habitation, our Family; and there, They were dead; they were, but by God's goodness they are not. If this savour of death have been the savour of life unto us; if this heavy weight of God's hand upon us have awakened us to a narrower survey, and a better discharge of our duties towards all the parts of our Families, we may say, to our comforts and his glory, There was a son dead in disobedience and murmuring; there was a daughter dead in a dangerous easiness of conversation; there was a servant dead in the practice of deceit and falsifying; there was, but the Lord hath breathed a new life into us, the Lord hath made even his tempest a refreshing, and putrefaction a perfume unto us. The same measure of wind that blows out a candle, kindles a fire; this correction that hath hardened some, hath entendered and mollified us; and howsoever there were dead sons, and dead daughters, and dead servants, this holy sense of God's Judgements shall not only preserve for the future, that we shall admit no more such dead limbs into our Family, but even give to them who were (in these kinds) formerly dead, a new life, a blessed resurrection from all their sinful habits, by the power of his grace, though reached to them with a bloody hand, and in a bitter cup, in this heavy calamity; and as Christ said of himself, they shall say in him, I was dead, but am alive; and by that grace of God, I am that I am.  
The same comfort also shall we have in this phrase of the Text, in our third House; the third House is not Domus nostra, 
Domus nos.  but Domus nos, not the House we inhabit, but the House we carry; not that House which is our House, but that House which is ourselves: There also, They were dead; they were, but are not. For beloved, we told you before in our former survey of these several Houses, That our firstborn, (for still ye remember, they were the firstborn of Egypt, that induce all this application;) Our firstborn in this House, in ourselves, is our Zeal; not merely and generally our Religion, but our zeal to our Religion. For Religion in general, is natural to us; the natural man hath naturally some sense of God, and some inclination to worship that Power, whom he conceives to be God, and this Worship is Religion. But then the first thing that this general pious affection produces in us, is Zeal, which is an exaltation of Religion. Primus actus voluntatis est Amor; Philosophers and Divines agree in that, That the will of man cannot be idle, and the first act that the will of man produces, is Love; for till it love something, prefer and choose something, till it would have something, it is not a Will; neither can it turn upon any object, before God. So that this first, and general, and natural love of God, is not begotten in my soul, nor produced by my soul, but created and infused with my soul, and as my soul; there is no soul that knows she is a soul, without such a general sense of the love of God. But to love God above all, to love him with all my faculties, this exaltation of this religious love of God, is the firstborn of Religion, and this is Zeal. Religion, which is the Worship of that Power which I call God, does but make me a man; the natural man hath that Religion; but that which makes me a Father, and gives me an offspring, a firstborn, that's Zeal: By Religion I am an Adam, but by Zeal I am an Abel produced out of that Adam. Now if we consider times not long since past, there was scarce one house, scarce one of us, in whom this firstborn, this Zeal was not dead. Discretion is the ballast of our Ship, that carries us steady; but Zeal is the very Fraight, the Cargason, the Merchandise itself, which enriches us in the land of the living; and this was our case, we were all come to esteem our Ballast more than our Fraight, our Discretion more than our Zeal; we had more care to please great men than God; more consideration of an imaginary change of times, then of unchangeable eternity itself. And as in storms it falls out often that men cast their Wares and their Fraights overboard, but never their Ballast, so as soon as we thought we saw a storm, in point of Religion, we cast off our Zeal, our Fraight, and stuck to our Ballast, our Discretion, and thought it sufficient to sail on smoothly, and steadily, and calmly, and discreetly in the world, and with the time, though not so directly to the right Haven. So our firstborn in this House, in ourselves, our Zeal, was dead. It was; there's the comfortable word of our Text. But now, now that God hath taken his fan into his hand, and sifted his Church, now that God hath put us into a strait and crooked Limbeck, passed us through narrow and difficult trials, and set us upon a hot fire, and drawn us to a more precious substance and nature then before; now that God hath given our Zeal a new concoction, a new refining, a new inanimation by this fire of tribulation, let us embrace and nurse up this new resurrection of this Zeal, which his own Spirit hath begot and produced in us, and return to God with a whole and entire soul, without dividing or scattering our affections upon other objects; and in the sincerity of the true Religion, without inclinations in ourselves, to induce; and without inclinableness, from others, upon whom we may depend, to admit, any dramms of the dregs of a superstitious Religion; for it is a miserable extremity, when we must take a little poison for physic. And so having made the right use of God's corrections, we shall enjoy the comfort of this phrase, in this House, ourselves, our firstborn, our Zeal was dead; it was, but it is not.  
Lastly, in this fourth House, the House where we stand now, the House of God, and of his Saints, God affords us a fair beam of this consolation, in the phrase of this Text also, They were dead. How appliable to you, in this place, is that which God said to Moses, Put off thy shoes, for thou treadest on holy ground; put off all confidence, all standing, all relying upon worldly assurances, and consider upon what ground you tread; upon ground so holy, as that all the ground is made of the bodies of Christians, and therein hath received a second consecration. Every puff of wind within these walls, may blow the father into the son's eyes, or the wife into her husbands, or his into hers, or both into their children's, or their children's into both. Every grain of dust that flies here, is a piece of a Christian; you need not distinguish your Pews by figures; you need not say, I sit within so many of such a neighbour, but I sit within so many inches of my husbands, or wives, or child's, or friends grave. Ambitious men never made more shift for places in Court, then dead men for graves in Churches; and as in our later times, we have seen two and two almost in every Place and Office, so almost every Grave is oppressed with twins; and as at Christ's resurrection some of the dead arose out of their graves, that were buried again; so in this lamentable calamity, the dead were buried, and thrown up again before they were resolved to dust, to make room for more. But are all these dead? They were, says the Text; they were in your eyes, and therefore we forbidden not that office of the eye, that holy tenderness, to weep for them that are so dead. But there was a part in every one of them, that could not die; which the God of life, who breathed it into them, from his own mouth, hath sucked into his own bosom. And in that part which could die, They were dead, but they are not. The soul of man is not safer wrapped up in the bosom of God, than the body of man is wrapped up in the Contract, and in the eternal Decree of the Resurrection. As soon shall God tear a leaf out of the Book of Life, and cast so many of the Elect into Hell fire, as leave the body of any of his Saints in corruption for ever. To what body shall Christ Jesus be loath to put to his hand, to raise it from the grave, then, that put to his very Godhead, the Divinity itself, to assume all our bodies, when in one person, he put on all mankind in his Incarnation? As when my true repentance hath re-ingraffed me in my God, and reincorporated me in my Saviour, no man may reproach me, and say, Thou wast a sinner: So, since all these dead bodies shall be restored by the power, and are kept alive in the purpose of Almighty God, we cannot say, They are, scarce that they were dead. When time shall be no more, when death shall be no more, they shall renew, or rather continue their being. But yet, beloved, for this state of their grave, (for it becomes us to call it a state; it is not an annihilation, no part of God's Saints can come to nothing) as this state of theirs is not to be lamented, as though they had lost any thing which might have conduced to their good, by departing out of this world; so neither is it a state to be joyed in so, as that we should expose ourselves to dangers unnecessarily, in thinking that we want any thing conducing to our good, which the dead enjoy. As between two men of equal age, if one sleep, and the other wake all night, yet they rise both of an equal age in the morning; so they who shall have slept out a long night of many ages in the grave, and they who shall be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord Jesus in the air, at the last day, shall enter all at once in their bodies into Heaven. No antiquity, no seniority for their bodies; neither can their souls who went before, be said to have been there a minute before ours, because we shall all be in a place that reckons not by minutes. Clocks and Sun-dials were but a late invention upon earth; but the Sun itself, and the earth itself, was but a late invention in heaven. God had been an infinite, a super-infinite, an unimaginable space, millions of millions of unimaginable spaces in heaven, before the Creation. And our afternoon shall be as long as God's forenoon; for, as God never saw beginning, so we shall never see end; but they whom we tread upon now, and we whom others shall tread upon hereafter, shall meet at once, where, though we were dead, dead in our several houses, dead in a sinful Egypt, dead in our family, dead in ourselves, dead in the Grave, yet we shall be received, with that consolation, and glorious consolation, you were dead, but are alive. Enter ye blessed into the Kingdom, prepared for you, from the beginning.  
Amen.   

A SERMON Preached at the Temple. SERMON XXII.  Esther 4.16. 
Go and assemble all the Jews that are found in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and eat not, nor drink in three days, day nor night: I also, and my Maids will fast likewise; and so I will go in to the King, which is not according to the Law: And if I perish, I perish.  
NExt to the eternal and coessential Word of God, Christ Jesus, the written Word of God, the Scriptures concern us most; and therefore next to the person of Christ, and his Offices, the Devil hath troubled the Church, with most questions about the certainty of Scriptures, and the Canon thereof. It was late, before the Spirit of God settled and established an unanime, and general consent in his Church, for the accepting of this Book of Esther: For, not only the holy Bishop Melito (who defended the Christians by an Apology to the Emperor) removed this Book from the Canon of the Scripture, One hundred and fifty years after Christ; but Athanasius also, Three hundred and forty years after Christ, refused it too: Yea, Gregory Nazianzen (though he deserved, and had the stile and title of Theologus, The Divine; and though he came to clearer times, living almost Four hundred years after Christ) did not yet submit himself to an acceptation of this Book. But a long time there hath been no doubt of it; and it is certainly part of that Scripture which is profitable to teach, 
2 Tim. 3.16.  to reprove, to correct, and to instruct in righteousness. To which purpose, we shall see what is afforded us in this History of this Heroical Woman, Esther; what she did in a perplexed and scrupulous case, when an evident danger appeared, and an evident Law was against her action; and from thence consider, 
Serm. 22.  what every Christian Soul ought to do, when it is surprised and overtaken with any such scruples or difficulties to the Conscience.  
For Esther in particular, this was her case. She being Wife to the King, Haman, who had great power with the King, had got from him an Edict, for the destruction of all her people the Jews. When this was intimated to her by Mordecai, who presented to her Conscience, not only an irreligious forsaking of God, if she forbore to mediate and use her interest in the King for the saving of hers, and God's people; but an unnatural and unprovident forsaking of herself, because her danger was involved in theirs; and that she herself being of that Nation, could not be safe in her person, though in the King's house, if that Edict were executed, though she had not then so ordinary access to the King, as formerly she had had: yea, though there were a Law in her way, that she might not come till she was called, yet she takes the resolution to go, she puts off all Passion, and all particular respects, she consecrates the whole action to God; and having in a rectified and well informed Conscience found it acceptable to him, she neglects both that particular Law, That none might have access to the King uncalled, and that general Law, That every Man is bound to preserve himself; and she exposes herself to an imminent, and (for any thing she knew) an unescapable danger of death: If I perish, I perish.  
For the ease of all our memories, we shall provide best, 
Divisio.  by contracting all, which we are to handle, to these two parts; esther's preparation, and esther's resolution: How she disposed herself, how she resolved: What her consultation was, what her execution was to be. Her preparation is an humiliation; and there, first she prepares, that that glory which God should receive, by that humiliation, should be general; All the people should be taught, and provoked to glorify God; vade, congrega, Go, and assemble all. Secondly, The act which they were to do, was to fast, Jejunate: And thirdly, It was a limited fast, Tribus diebus, Eat not, nor drink in three days, and three nights: And then, this fast of theirs, was with relation, and respect to her, Jejunate super me, Fast ye for me. But yet so, as she would not receive an ease by their affliction; put them to do it for her, and she do nothing for herself; Ego cum Ancillis, I and my Maids will fast too; and similiter, likewise, that is, As exactly as they shall. And so far extends her preparation: Her resolution derives itself into two branches. First, That she will break an Humane and Positive Law, Ingrediar contra legem, I will go in, though it be not according to the Law; and secondly, She neglects even the Law of Nature, the Law of Self-preservation, Si peream, peream.  
To enter into the first part, The assembling of the people; though the occasion and purpose here were religious, yet the assembling of them was a civil act, 
1. Part. Assemblies.  an act of Jurisdiction and Authority. Almost all States have multiplied Laws against Assemblies of People, by private Authority, though upon pretences of Religious occasions. All Conventicles, all Assemblies, must have this character, this impression upon them, That they be Legitima, lawful: And, Legitima sola sunt, quae habent authoritatem principis, only those are lawful which are made by the Authority of the State. Aspergebatur infamia Alcibia des, quòd in domo sua facere Mysteria dicebatur. There went an ill report of him, because he had sacrifices, and other worships of the gods at home in his own house: And this was not imputed to him, as a Schismatical thing, or an act of a different Religion from the State, but an act of disaffection to the State, and of Sedition. In times of persecution, when no exercise of true Religion is admitted, these private Meetings may not be denied to be lawful: As for bodily sustenance, if a man could not otherwise avoid starving, the Schoolmen, and the Casuists, resolve truly, That it were no sin to steal so much meat as would preserve life; so, those souls, which without that, must necessarily starve, may steal their Spiritual food in corners, and private meetings: But if we will steal either of these foods, Temporal or Spiritual, because that meat which we may have, is not so dressed, so dished, so sauced, so served in, as we would have it; but accompanied with some other ceremonies than are agreeable to our taste; This is an inexcusable Theft, and these are pernicious Conventicles.  

Dan. 6.  When that Law was made by Darius, That no man for thirty days should ask any thing of God or man, but only of the King; though it were a Law that had all circumstances to make it no Law, yet Daniel took no occasion by this, to induce any new manner of worshipping of God; he took no more company with him to affront the Law, or exasperate the Magistrate; only he did as he had used to do before; and he did not disguise, nor conceal that which he did, but he set open his windows, and prayed in his Chamber. But in these private Conventicles, where they will not live voto aperto, that is, pray so, as that they would be content to be heard what they pray for; As the Jews in those Christian Countries, where they are allowed their Synagogues, pray against Edom, and Edomites by name, but they mean (as appears in their private Catechisms) by Edom, and Edomites, the Christian Church, and Christian Magistracy; so when these men pray in their Conventicles, for the confusion, and rooting out of Idolatry and Antichrist, they intent by their Idolatry, a Cross in Baptism; and by their Antichrist, a man in a Surpless; and not only the persons, but the Authority that admits this Idolatry, and this Antichristianism. As vapours and winds shut up in Vaults, engender Earthquakes; so these particular spirits in their Vault-Prayers, and Cellar-Service, shake the Pillars of State and Church. Domus mea, Domus orationis; and Domus orationis, Domus mea: My house is the house of Prayer, says God; and so the house of Prayer must be his house. The Centurion, of whom Christ testified, That he had not found so great Faith even in Israel; 
Matth. 8.10.  thought not himself worthy, that Christ should come under his Roof; and these men think no Roof, but theirs, fit for Christ; no, not the Roof of his own House, the Church: For, I speak not of those Meetings, where the blessed Children of God join in the House, to worship God in the same manner, as is ordained in the Church, or in a manner agreeable to that: Such Religious Meetings as these, God will give a blessing to; but when such Meetings are in opposition, and detestation of Church Service, though their purpose, which come thither, do not always intent sedition, yet they may easily think, that none of those Disciples is so ill a Natural Logician, but that he comes quickly to this conclusion, That if those exercises be necessary to their Salvation, that State that denies them those exercises deals injustly with them: And when people are brought to that disaffection, it is not always in their power that brought them together so far, to settle them or hold them from going farther. In this case which we have in hand, of Esther and Mordecai's assembling all the Jews in Shusan, which was the principal City of Persia, where the Residence of the Princes was, (Persepolis was a Metropolitan City too; but only for the treasure, and for the Sepulchers of their Kings, but the Court was at Shusan.) If when they had been assembled, and their desperate case presented to them, That an Edict of a general Massacre was going out against them, was it not more likely (judging humanely, and by comparison of like cases) that they would have turned to take arms, rather than to fast and pray for their deliverance? How good soever their pretence (and perchance purpose) be, that assemble people, and discontent them, the bridle, the stern, is no longer in their hands; but there arise unexpected storms, of which, if they were not authors in their purpose, yet they are the occasioners. In esther's case, the proceeding was safe enough; for they were called to see, that the Queen herself had undertaken their deliverance, their deliverance was very likely to be effected; and therefore it became them to assist her purpose with their devotion, expressed first in Fasting.  
Fasting is not a mere humane Imposition, 
Jejunate.  as some have calumniated it to be: The Commandments of it are frequent from God to his people, and the practice of it even amongst the Ninevites, upon Jona's Preaching, is expressed to be rigid and severe, Let neither man nor beast taste any thing, nor feed, nor drink water, but let man and beast put on sackcloth, 
Jon. 3.7.  and cry mightily unto God. It is true, that they found often that their Fasts did no good; but when they expostulate it with God, Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest it not, 
Esai. 58.2.  we have punished ourselves, and thou regardest it not; They received a direct answer from God, Behold, in the days of your fast you seek your own will, 
Ezech. 7.5.  and require all your debts; when ye fasted and mourned, did ye fast unto me? To place therefore any part of our righteousness, or to dignify the act of Fasting, with the name of Merit or Satisfaction, did then, and will always corrupt and alter the nature of a true and acceptable fast: And therefore we detest the definition of a fast in the Roman Church, & Abstinentia secundum formam ecclesiae, intuitu Satisfaciendi, pro peccatis, & acquirendi vitam aeternam; That fasting is a satisfaction for sins, and an acquisition of life everlasting. But since the reason of fasting remains, the practice must remain still: For when Christ excused his Apostles for not fasting, as the Disciples of John Baptist, and as the Pharisees did, he did not say that fasting is taken away; but he said, 
Luc. 5.33.  The Bridegroom was not taken away; but he should be taken away, and they should fast. When occasions press us, fasting is required at our hands: Caro mea jumentum, My flesh is my beast; via Christus, and Christ is the way I am to go; Nun cibaria ferocienti detraham? 
Aug.  If it be too wanton, shall not I withdraw some of the provender? Et fame Domem, quem ferre non possum, If I cannot govern him, shall I not endeavour to tame him? And therefore, though by reason of former abuses, it be a slippery Doctrine, the practice of Fasting, (for scarce any man puts himself to much fasting, but he is ready to tell God of it, with the Pharisee, I fast twice a week: And from Hieroms praise of it, Jejunium non est virtus, 
S. Hier.  sed gradus ad virtutem, That though fasting be not a virtue, yet it is the way to virtue; we come a step farther with Chrysostom, 
Chrys.  In choro virtutum, extremum sortitur Jejunium, That though fasting be the last of virtues (except Chrysostom mean by extremum, 
Joel 1.34. Eccles. 11.  the first) yet it is one; yet Sanctificate vobis Jejunium, Fast with a holy purpose; and it is a holy action. As you are bid to cast your bread upon the waters, for many days after you shall find it again; so also cast your fasting upon the waters, look for no particular reward of it, and God shall give you a benefit by it in the whole course of your lives.  

Tribus Diebus.  But the Jejunate, Fasting itself, hath not so much opposition as the Tribus diebus, that it must be Three days; the certain days, and the limiting of the time, that is it that offends. All men will say that fasting is necessary to all men; but not this proportion, and this measure to all men alike. They are content with that of Augustine, Ego in Evangelicis & Apostolicis literis totoque instrumento novo revolvens, video praeceptum esse jejunium, As often as I consider the Gospel, every where I find Commandments for fasting; but they will have the rest too: Quibus diebus oportet, aut non oportet jejunare, praeceptum Domini & Apostolorum non video definitum, Upon what days we should fast, says he, I see no Commandment of Christ or the Apostles: And it is true, there is no express Commandment for it; but there is an express Commandment to hear the Church. In the Old Testament God gave express Commandment, De Jejuniis stativis; certain fixed and Anniversary Fasts: The tenth of the same month shall be a holy Convocation unto you, & affligetis animas vestras, Ye shall humble your souls; and every person that doth not that, that same day, 
Levit. 23.27.  shall even be cut off from his people. The disease which they had is hereditary to us; Concupiscencies in the flesh, and coldness in the service of God: And though it may be true, that the Church cannot know my particular infirmities, nor the time when they press me; yet as no Physician for the body can prescribe me a Receipt against a Fever, and bid me take it such a day, because perchance at that day I shall have no Fever; yet he can prescribe me certain Rules and Receipts, which if I take at his times, I shall be the safer all the year: So our Spiritual Physician, the Church, though she cannot know when my body needs this particular Physic of fasting, yet she knows, that by observing the time which she prescribes, I shall always be in the better spiritual health. As soon as the Church was settled, Fasts were settled too: When in the Primitive Church they fixed certain times for giving Orders, and making Ministers, they appointed Fasts at those times; when they fixed certain times for solemn Baptism, (as they did Easter and Whitsuntide) they appointed Fasts then too; and so they did in their solemn and public Penances. So also when Christians increased in number, and that therefore, besides the Sabbath-day, they used to call them to Church, and to give the Sacrament upon other days too; as soon as Wednesday and Friday were appointed for that purpose, for the Sacrament, they were appointed to be fasted too. And therefore when St. Cyril says, 
Cyril.  Vis tibi ostendam, quale jejunare debes jejunium? Jejuna ab omni peccato. Shall I tell you what Fast God looks for at your hands, Fast from sin; yet this is not all the Fasting that he exacts, (though it be indeed the effect and accomplishment of all) but he adds, Non ideo hoc dicimus, We say not this, says he, because we would give liberty, Habemus enim quadragesimum, & quartum, & sextum Hebdomadae diem quibus solemniter jejunamus, We have a fixed Lent to fast in, and we have Wednesdays and Fridays fixed to fast in. In all times, God's people had fixed and limited Fasts, besides these Fasts which were enjoined upon emergent dangers, as this of Ester. In which there is a harder circumstance than this, That it was a Fast limited to certain days; for it is, Jejunate pro me, Fast you for me. And these words may seem to give some colour, some countenance to the Doctrine of the Roman Church, That the merits of one man may be applied to another; which Doctrine is the foundation of Indulgences, and the fuel of Purgatory: In which they go so far, as to say, That one may fee an Attorney to satisfy God for him; he may procure another man to Fast, 
Grether.  or do other works of mortification for him: And he that does so for his Client, Sanguinem pro sanguine Christo reddit, He pays Christ his blood again, and gives him as much as he received from him; and more, Deum sibi debitorem efficit, he brings God into his debt, and may turn that dept upon whom he will; and God must wipe off so much of the other man's score, to whom he intends it. They go beyond this too; That satisfaction may be made to God, even by ourselves after our death: As they say, when they had brought Maximilian the Emperor to that mortification, that he commanded upon his deathbed, that his body should be whipped after he was dead; that purpose of his, though it were not executed, was a satisfaction of the Justice of God. And (as error can find no place to stop at) they go yet farther, when they extend this power of satisfaction even to Hell itself, by authorising those fables, That a dead man which appeared, and said he was damned, was by this flagellation, by his friends whipping of himself in his behalf, brought to repentance in hell, and so to faith in hell, and so to salvation in hell.  
But in the words of Esther here is no intimation of this Heresy; when Queen Esther appoints others to fast for her, she knew she could no more be the better for their fasting, than she could be the leaner, or in the better health for it; but because she was to have benefit by the subsequent act, by their prayers, she provokes them to that, by which their prayers might be the more acceptable and effectual, that is, to fasting. And so because the whole action was for her, and her good success in that enterprise, they are in that sense properly said to have fasted for her: So that this Jejunate super me, as the word is, Gnalai, super me, in my behalf, is no more but Orate pro me, 
Hier.  Pray for me; and so Saint Hierom translates these words, Orate pro me, Pray for me. And therefore, since Prayers is the way which God hath given us to batter Heaven, whether facta manu Deum oramus, 
Tertul.  & vim gratum ei facimus, whether we besiege God with our prayers, in these public Congregations, or whether we wrestle with him hand to hand in our Chambers, in the battle of a troubled Conscience, let us live soberly and moderately; and in Bello, and in Duello, here in the Congregation, and at home in our private Colluctations, we shall be the likelier to prevail with God; for though we receive assistance from the prayer of others, that must not make us lazy in our own behalves; which is esther's last preparation, she bids all the people fast for her, that is, for the good success of her good purposes; but not the people alone, she and her own maids will fast likewise.  
Qui fecit te sine te, non salvabit te sine te, 
Ego & Ancill.  is a saying of Saint Augustine, never too often repeated; and God and his Church are of one mind; for the Church that did Baptise thee without thy ask, will not fast for thee, nor pray for thee, without thou fast and pray for thyself. As in spiritual things, charity gins with ourselves, and I am bound to wish my own salvation, rather than any other man's; so I am bound to trust to my making sure of my salvation, by that which I do myself, rather than by that which I procure others to do for me. Domus Dei, Domus orationis; we have inestimable profit by the public Prayers of the Church, the House of God; but as there is Deus, & Domus ejus, so there must be Ego, & Domus mea, I and my House will serve the Lord. 
Jos. ult. 15.  I also and my Maids will fast likewise, says Esther, in her great enterprise; for, that which the Original expresses here, by Gnalai, for me, the Chalde Paraphrase expresses by Gnimmi, with me: She was as well to fast as they. It was a great confidence in that Priest that comforted Saint Augustine's Mother, Fieri non potest, ut filius istarum lachrymarum pereat, It is impossible that the son, for whom so good a mother hath poured out so devout tears, should perish at last; it was a confidence which no man may take to himself, to go to Heaven by that water, the tears of other men; but tu & domus tua, Do thou and thy house serve the Lord; teach thine own eyes to weep, thine own body to fulfil the sufferings of Christ; thine own appetite to fast, thine own heart, and thine own tongue to pray. Come and participate of the devotions of the Church; but yet also in thy Chapel of ease, in thine own Bedchamber, provide that thyself and thy servants, all thy senses, and all thy faculties, may also fast and pray; and so go with a religious confidence as Esther did, about all thy other worldly businesses and undertake.  
This was her Preparation. Her Devotion hath two branches; 
2. Part.  she was to transgress a positive Law, a Law of the State; and she neglected the Law of Nature itself, in exposing herself to that danger. How far Humane Laws do bind the conscience, how far they lay such an obligation upon us, as that, if we transgress them, we do not only incur the penalty, but sin towards God, hath been a perplexed question in all times, and in all places. But how divers soever their opinions be, in that, they all agree in this, That no Law, which hath all the essential parts of a Law, (for Laws against God, Laws beyond the power of him that pretends to make them, are no Laws) no Law can be so merely a Humane Law, but that there is in it a Divine part. There is in every Humane Law, part of the Law of God, which is obedience to the Superior. That Man cannot bind the conscience, because he cannot judge the conscience, nor he cannot absolve the conscience, may be a good argument; but in Laws made by that power which is ordained by God, man binds not, but God himself: And then you must be subject, not because of wrath, but because of conscience. Though then the matter and subject of the Law, that which the Law commands, or prohibits, may be an indifferent action, yet in all these, God hath his part; and there is a certain Divine soul, and spark of God's power, which goes through all Laws, and inanimates them. In all the Canons of the Church, God hath his voice, Ut omnia ordine fiant; that all things be done decently, and in order; so the Canon that ordains that, is from God; in all the other Laws he hath his voice too, Ut piè & tranquillè vivatur, That we may live peaceably, and religiously, and so those Laws are from God: And in all, of all sorts, this voice of his sounds evidently, qui resistit ordinationi, he that resists his Commission, his Lieutenancy, his Authority, in Lawmakers appointed by him, resists himself. There is no Law that is merely humane, but only Lex in membris, The Law in our flesh, which rebels against the Law in our mind; and this is a Rebellion, a Tyranny, no lawful Government. In all true Laws God hath his interest; and the observing of them in that respect, as made by his authority, is an act of worship and obedience to him; and the transgressing of them, with that relation, that is, a resisting or undervaluing of that authority, is certainly sin. How then was esther's act exempt from this? for she went directly against a direct Law, That none should come to the King uncalled.  
Whensoever divers Laws concur and meet together, that Law which comes from the superior Magistrate, and is in the nature of the thing commanded, highest too, that Law must prevail. If two Laws lie upon me, and it be impossible to obey both, I must obey that which comes immediately from the greatest power, and imposes the greatest duty. Here met in her, the fixed and permanent Law, of promoting Gods glory, and a new Law of the King, to augment his greatness and Majesty, by this retiredness, and denying of ordinary access to his person. God's Law, for his glory, which is infinite and unsearchable, and the King's Law, for his ease, (of which she knows the reason, and the scope) were in the balance together; if this Law of the King had been of any thing naturally and essentially evil in itself, no circumstance could have delivered her from sin, if she had done against it. Though the Law were but concerning an indifferent action, and of no great importance, yet because God's Authority is in every just Law, if she could not have been satisfied in her conscience, that that Law might admit an exception, and a dispensation in her case, she had sinned in breaking it. But when she proceeded not upon any precipitation, upon any singular or seditious spirit, when she debated the matter temperately with a dispassioned man, Mordecai; when she found a reservation even in the body of the Law, That if the King held up his Sceptre, the Law became no Law to that party, when she might justly think herself out of the Law, which was (as Josephus delivers it) Ut nemo ex domesticis accederet, That none of his servants should come into his presence uncalled; she was then come to that, which only can excuse and justify the breaking of any Law, that is, a probable, if not a certain assurance, contracted Bona fide, in a rectified conscience, That if this present case, which makes us break this Law, had been known and considered when the Law was made, he that made the Law would have made provision for this case. No presuming of a pardon, when the Law is broken; no dispensation given before hand to break it, can settle the Conscience; nor any other way, than a Declaration well grounded, that that particular case was never intended to have been composed in that Law, nor the reason and purpose thereof.  
So, when the Conscience of Esther was, and so when the Conscience of any particular Christian, is, after due consideration of the matter, come to a religious and temperate assurance, That he may break any Law; his assurance must be grounded upon this, That if that Law were now to be made, that case which he hath presently in hand, would not be included by him that made that Law, in that Law; otherwise to violate a Law, either because, being but a Humane Law, I think I am discharged, paying the penalty; or, because I have good means to the King, I may presume of a pardon in all cases, where my privilege works any other way, then, as we have said, (that is, that our case is not intended in that Law) it had been in Esther, it should be in us a sin to transgress any Law, though of a Law-nature, and of an indifferent action. But upon those circumstances which we mentioned before, Esther might see, that that Law admitted some exceptions, and that no exception was likelier than this, That the King for all his majestical reservedness, would be content to receive information of such a dishonour done to his Queen, and to her god; she might justly think that that Law, intended only for the King's ease, or his state, reached not to her person, who was his wife, nor to her case, which was the destruction of all that professed her Religion.  
It was then no sin in her to go in to the King, 
Si Peream.  though not according to the Law; but she may seem to have sinned, in exposing herself to so certain a danger as that Law inflicted; with such a resolution, Si peream, peream, If I perish, I perish. How far a man may lawfully, and with a good conscience, forsake himself, and expose himself to danger, is a point of too much largeness, and intricacy, and perplexity to handle now: The general stream of Casuists runs thus, That a private man may lawfully expose himself to certain danger, for the preserving of the Magistrate, or of a superior person; and that reason might have justified esther's enterprise, if her ruin might have saved her Country; but in her case, if she had perished, they were likely to perish too. But she is safer than in that; for first, she had hope out of the words of the Law, out of the dignity of her place, out of the Justice of the King, out of the preparation which she had made by Prayer; which Prayer, Josephus (either out of tradition, or out of conjecture and likelihood) Records to have been, That God would make both her Language and her Beauty acceptable to the King that day: Out of all these, she had hope of good success; and howsoever if she failed of her purpose, she was under two Laws, of which it was necessary to obey that which concerned the glory of God. And therefore daniel's confidence, and daniel's words became her well, Behold, our God is able to deliver me, and he will deliver me; but if he will not, I must not forsake his honour, nor abandon his service: And therefore, Si peream, peream, If I perish, I perish.  
It is not always a Christian resolution, Si peream, peream, to say, If I perish, I perish: I care not whether I perish, or no: To admit, to invite, to tempt tentations, and occasions of sin, and so to put ourselves to the hazard of a spiritual perishing; to give fire to concupiscencies with licentious Meditations, either of sinful pleasures passed, or of that which we have then in our purpose and pursuit; to fuel this fire with meats of curiosity and provocation; to blow this fire with lascivious discourses and Letters, and Protestations, this admits no such condition, Si pereas, If thou perish; but periisti, thou art perished already; thou didst then perish, when thou didst so desperately cast thyself into the danger of perishing. And as he that casts himself from a steeple, doth not break his neck till he touch the ground; but yet he is truly said to have killed himself, when he threw himself towards the ground: So in those preparations, and invitations to sin, we perish, before we perish, before we commit the act, the sin itself: We perished then, when we opened ourselves to the danger of the sin; so also, if a man will wring out, not the Club out of Hercules hands, but the sword out of God's hands; if a man will usurp upon God's jurisdiction, and become a Magistrate to himself, and revenge his own quarrels, and in an inordinate defence of imaginary honour, expose himself to danger in duel, with a si peream, peream, If I perish, I perish, that is not only true, if he perish, he perishes; if he perish temporally, he perishes spiritually too, and goes out of the world loaded with that, and with all his other sins; but it is also true, that if he perish not, he perishes; he comes back loaded both with the temporal, and with the spiritual death, both with the blood, and with the damnation of that man, who perished suddenly, and without repentance by his sword.  
To contract this, and conclude all, If a man have nothing in his contemplation, but dignity, and high place; if he have not Virtue, and Religion, and a Conscience of having deserved well of his Country, and the love of God and godly men, for his sustentation and assurance, but only to tower up after dignity, as a Hawk after a prey, and think that he may boldly say, as an impossible supposition, Si peream, peream, If I perish, I perish; as though it were impossible he should perish; he shall be subject to that derision of the King of Babylon, Quomodo Cecidisti, 
Esa. 14.12.  How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, thou son of the morning! How art thou cast down to the ground, that didst cast lots upon the Nations!  
But that provident and religious Soul, which proceeds in all her enterprises as Esther did in her preparations, which first calls an assembly of all her Countrymen, that is, them of the household of the Faithful, the Congregation of Christ's Church, and the Communion of Saints, and comes to participate the benefit of public Prayers in his house, inconvenient times; and then doth the same in her own house, within doors, she, and her maids, that is, she and all her senses and faculties, This soul may also come to esther's resolution, to go in to the King, though it be not according to the Law; though that Law be, That neither fornicator, nor adulterer, nor wanton, nor thief, nor drunkard, nor covetous, nor extortioner, nor railer, shall have access into the Kingdom of Heaven; yet this soul thus prepared shall feel a comfortable assurance, that this Law was made for servants, and not for sons, nor for the Spouse of Christ, his Church, and the living Members thereof; and she may boldly say, Si peream, peream; It is all one though I perish; or as it is in the Original, Vecasher, quomodocunque peream; whether I perish in my estimation and opinion with men, whether I perish in my fortunes, honour, or health, quomodocunque, it is all one; Heaven and earth shall pass away, but God's word shall not pass; and we have both that word of God which shall never have end, and that word of God which never had beginning. His Word, as it is his Promise, his Scriptures and his Word, as it is himself: Christ Jesus for our assurance and security, that that Law of denying sinners access, and turning his face from them, is not a perpetual, not an irrevocable Law; but that that himself says, belongs to us: For a little while have I forsaken thee, but with great compassion will I gather thee; for a moment in mine anger I hid my face from thee for a little season, but with everlasting mercy have I had compassion on thee, saith the Lord Christ thy Redeemer▪ How riotously and voluptuously soever I have surfeited upon sin heretofore, yet if I fast that fast now; how disobedient soever I have been to my Superiors heretofore, yet if I apply myself to a conscionable humility to them now; howsoever, if I have neglected necessary duties in myself, or neglected them in my Family, that either I have not been careful to give good example, or not careful that they should do according to my example, (and by the way, it is not only the Master of a house that hath the charge of a Family, but every person, every servant in the house, that hath a body and a soul, hath a house, and a Family to look to, and to answer for) yet if I become careful now, that both I, I myself will, and my whole house, all my family shall serve the Lord; If I be thus prepared, thus disposed, thus matured, thus mellowed, thus suppled, thus entendered, to the admitting of any impressions from the hand of my God; though there seem to be a general Law spread over all, an universal War, an universal Famine, an universal Pestilence over the whole Nation, yet I shall come either to an assurance, that though there fall so many thousands on this and on that hand, it shall not reach me; Et si pereant, Though others perish, I shall not perish; or to this assurance, Si peream, peream, If I perish by the good pleasure of God, I shall be well content to perish so; and to this also, Et si peream, non pereo, Though I perish, I do not perish; though I die, I do not die; but as that piece of money which was but the money of a poor man, being given in Subsidy, becomes a part of the Royal Exchequer: So this body, which is but the body of a sinful man, being given in Subsidy, as a Contribution to the Glory of my God, in the grave, becomes a part of God's Exchequer; and when he opens it, he shall issue out this money, that is, manifest it again clothed in his Glory: that body which in me was but a piece of Copper money, he shall make a Talon of Gold; and which in me was but a grain of Wheat buried in the earth, he shall multiply into many ears, not of the same Wheat, but of Angel's food; The Angels shall feed and rejoice at my resurrection, when they shall see me in my soul, to have all that they have, and in my body, to have that that they have not.   

A SERMON Preached at Lincolns-Inn, Ascension-day, 1622. SERMON XXIII.  Deut. 12.30. 
Take heed to thyself, that thou be not snared by following them after they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did those nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.  
WHen I consider our ascension in this life, (that which David speaks of, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?) I see the Prophet adds there, 
Psal. 24.30.  as another manner of expressing the same thing, And who shall stand in that holy place? Quis ascendet, & quis stabit? A man does not ascend, except he stand. And such an ascension (an ascension without a redescent) Moses provides for here. First they should ascend to an abolishing of all Idolatry; And then they should stand in that state, persevere in that station, and perpetuate that ascension to themselves, by shutting themselves up against any new reentries of that Idolatry which had been once happily banished from amongst them. The inchoation of this ascension, that step which is happily made in the abolishing of idolatry, is in the beginning of this Chapter; Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, (which is a vehement gradation and heightening of the commandment:) It is a destruction, not a faint discontinuing of idolatry, but destruction; It is utter destruction, not a defacing, not a deferring of idolatry; and it is the utter destruction of the very place, not a seizing the riches of the place, nor a slight correction of the abuses of the place, but the place itself, and (as is there expressed) all the place, not to leave the Devil one Chapel wherein the Nations had served their gods. And the Holy Ghost proceeds in the next verse with this particular vehemency, You shall overthrow their altars, break their pillars, burn their groves, hue down their images, and destroy their names. But all this is but the inchoation of this ascension, the first step in abolishing idolatry: The consummation of it is, in standing there; and that's in this Text, Take heed to thyself, etc.  

Serm. 23.  The words are an Inhibition, and the persons are all they to whom God hath extended his favours, so far as to deliver them from Idolatry formerly practised amongst them, 
Divisio.  and to bring them to the sincere worship of his Name. And for such persons we need not go far, for we ourselves are they. God hath given us such a deliverance heretofore in the reformation of Religion; so far we are ascended, and so the Inhibition lies upon us, that we slide not back again. It hath two parts; 1. The main matter of the Inhibition, That we be not snared by Idolaters, after they have been destroyed from before us. And secondly, two particular dangers whereby we may be snared; First, by following them: Take heed you be not snared by them; and then by an overcurious enquiring into their Religion, Inquire not after their Gods, etc. And through the first, the matter of the Inhibition, we shall pass by these steps, 1. That there is no security; there is still danger, though the Idolater be destroyed. And secondly, That there is therefore a diligence to be required, Take heed to thyself. And then thirdly, That the danger from which this diligence must deliver us, is a snare; Take heed lest thou be snared. And for the branches of the second part, the snare of following them; the snare of enquiring into their opinions; it shall least encumber you to have them opened then, when we come to handle them; first we pass through the first part.  

1. Part.  In that, the first branch is, That there is no security, though the enemy be destroyed. And there we are to consider first, what amounts to a destruction, what is called a destruction in this case; God had promised the children of Israel, that he would give all the inhabitants of the Land of Promise into their hands; that he would abolish them, destroy them, and (as his own phrase is) cut them off. 
Exod. 23.23.  God performs all his promises; was this performed to them? did God destroy them all? Truly it was very much that God did in this behalf. He got great victories for them, and by strange means. One angel was able to destroy for them almost 200 thousand Assyrians in one night in Senacheribs Army. 
2 Kin. 19.35.  This was a real execution by the hands of one, who having Commission, had truly Power to do it, an Angel. But he prevailed for them so too in another case, only by an apparition of Angels, when there was no blow strucken, 
2 Kin. 6.16.  when Elisha's servant saw mountains full of Horses and Chariots of fire. He prevailed for them by creatures of a much lower rank, and weak in their nature, 
Exod. 23.28.  by Hornets. He promises Moses, that he would send Hornets before them, and they should drive out the Inhabitants of the Land. He prevails for them by creatures of a lower rank than they, 
Jos. 10.10.  by creatures without life, by stones. The Lord discomfeited them by great stones from heaven. He prevailed by that which is no creature, no subsistence, a sound only, The Lord thundered with a great Thunder upon the Philistines, and discomfeited them. He took a lower way than this, he employed nothing, and yet did the work, by imprinting a terror in their hearts, 
1 Sam. 7.10.  Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight. And a way lower than that; 
2 Kin. 6.17.  he wrought not upon their minds, but upon their senses. He smote a whole Army with blindness. And he went further yet; he did nothing at all upon them, and yet wrought his purpose, only by diversion; when Saul pursued David with the most vehemence of all, 
1 Sam. 23.27.  a messenger came and told him that the Philistines had invaded his Land, and then he gave over the pursuit of David. Really great, admirably strange things did God in the behalf of his children, for the destruction of his and their Idolatrous enemies. But yet were they ever destroyed? totally destroyed they were not; The Lord left some Nations (says the Text there) without hastily driving them out; neither did he deliver them into the hands of Joshuah. 
Judg. 2.23.  The Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day, (says that holy story) and so did other Nations with the other Tribes in other places. 
1.21.28.  They were able (as we are told there) to put the Canaanites to Tribute, but not to drive them out; to make Penal Laws against them, but not to deliver the Land of them. Now why did God do this? We would not ask this question, if God had not told us, ut erudiret in iis Jerusalem, 
3.2.  that the Enemy might be their Schoolmaster, and War their Chatechism, that they might never think that they stood in no more need of God. The Lord was with Judah, (saith the Text) so far with him, 
1.19.  as that he drove out the Inhabitants of the Mountain, but yet would not drive out the Inhabitants of the Valley. Sometimes God does the greater work, and yet leaves some lesser things undone. God chooses his Matter and his Manner, and his Measure, and his Means, and his Minutes: But yet God is truly and justly said to have destroyed those Idolatrous Enemies, in that he brought them so low, as that they could not give Laws to the children of Israel, nor force them to the Idolatrous Worship of their gods, though some scattered Idolaters did still live amongst them. God could destroy Nequitias in coelestibus, he could evacuate all Powers and Principalities, he could annihilate the Devil, or he could put him out of Commission, take from him the power of tempting or soliciting his servants. Though God hath not done it, yet he is properly said to have destroyed him, because he hath destroyed his Kingdom. Death is swallowed up in victory, saith Saint Paul out of Ose. O death, where is thy sting, says he! Where is it! Why, 
1 Cor. 15.5.4. Ose. 13.14.  it is in thy bosom. It is at the heart of the greatest Princes of the earth; Though they be gods, they die like men. O grave, where is thy victory, says he there! Why, above the Victories, and Trophies and Triumphs of all the Conquerors in the world. And yet the Apostle speaks, (and justly) as if there were no death in man, no sting in death, no grave after death, because to him who dies in the Lord, all this is nothing; not he by death, but death in him is destroyed. And as it is of the cause of Sin, the Devil; and of the effect of Sin, Death; so is it of Sin itself; it is destroyed, and yet we sin. He that is born of God, doth not commit sin so, as that sin shall be imputed to him. Sin and Satan, and Death are destroyed in us, because they can do no harm to us. So the Idolatrous Nations were destroyed amongst the Israelites, because they could not bring in an Inquisition amongst them, and force them to their Religion. And so Idolatry hath been destroyed amongst us, destroyed so, as that it hath been declared to be Idolatry towards God, and declared to be complicated and wrapped up inseparably in Treason towards the King and the State. Our Schools and Pulpits have destroyed it, and our Parliaments have destroyed it. Our Pulpits establish them that stay at home; and our Laws are able to lay hold upon them that run from home, and return ill affected to their home. Let no man therefore murmur at God's proceed, and say, If God had a mind to destroy Idolatry, he would have left no seed, or he would not have admitted such arepullulation, and such a growth of that seed as he hath done. God hath his own ends and his own ways: He destroyed the Nations from before the Israelites; Christ hath destroyed Sin, and Satan, and Death, and Hell; and Idolaters amongst us, for God's greater glory, do remain. For such a destruction as should be absolute, God never intended, God never promised; for that were to occasion, and to induce a security, and remove all diligence: Which is our second Branch in this first part [Cave tibi] see, take heed, etc.  
In the beginning of the world we presume all things to have been produced in their best state; all was perfect, and yet how soon a decay! all was summer, and yet how soon a fall of the leaf! a fall in Paradise, not of the leaf, but of the Tree itself, Adam fell; A fall before that, in heaven itself, Angels fell: Better security than Adam, than Angels had there, we cannot have, we cannot look for here. And therefore there is danger still, still occasion of diligence, 
Leu. 11.3.  of consideration. The chewing of the Cudd was a distinctive mark of cleanness in the Creature: The holy rumination the daily consideration of his Christianity, is a good character of a Christian. 
1 Cor. 12.31.  Covet earnestly the best gifts, says the Apostle; those to whom he writ had good gifts already, yet he exhorts them to a desire of better And what doth he promise them? not the Gift itself, but the way to it, I will show a more excellent way. There is still something more excellent than we have yet attained to. Non dicit charisma, 
Chrysost.  sed viam. The best step, the best height in this world, is but the way to a better; and still we have way before us to walk further in▪ Anathema pro fratribus, 
Rom. 9.3.  was but once said; St. Paul once, and in a vehement, and inordinate zeal, and religious distemper said so, That he could be content to be separated from Christ. Exi à me Domine, was but once said, once St. Peter said, 
Luc. 5.8.  Depart from me, O Lord. The Anathema, the exi but once; but the Adveniat Regnum, Let thy Kingdom come, I hope is said more than once by every one of us, every day; every day we receive, and yet every day we pray for that Kingdom, more and more assurance of Glory, by more and more increase of Grace. For as there are bodily diseases, and spiritual diseases too, proper to certain ages, (a young man and an old man are not ordinarily subject to the same distempers, nor to the same vices) so particular forms of Religion have their indispositions, their ill inclinations too. Thou art bred in a Reformed Church, where the truth of Christ is sincerely Preached, bless God for it; but even there thou mayest contract a pride, an opinion of purity, and uncharitably despise those who labour yet under their ignorances' or superstitions; or thou mayest grow weary of thy Manna, and smell after Egyptian Onions again. It is not enough that the State and the Church hath destroyed Idolatry so far as we said before; still there are weeds, still there are seeds: And therefore Cave, Take heed. But yet it is but, Take heed. It is not take thought. Afflict not thyself, deject not thyself with ominous presages, and prophetical melancholy, thy God will overthrow this Religion, and destroy this work which his right hand hath been a hundred years in repairing, and scatter his corn which his right hand hath been a hundred years in purifying. Come not to say, It was but the passion and animosity of Luther, It was but the ambition and singularity of Calvin that induced this Religion, and now that that is spent, the Religion melts like snow. Take no such thought, be not afraid that the truth of God shall or can perish: It is not, Take thought; but it is much less, Take arms. Men may have false conceptions of preparations, and ways laid towards a reentry of Idolatry; and men may have just and true reasons of, or religious indignation to see so bad and so insolent uses made of those favours which are offered to persons of that profession; but yet our inhibition is no further here, but to take heed, not to take arms, not to come by violence, not to slackness of Allegiance and Obedience. It is but Take heed, and but Take heed to thyself. Pretend not thou who art but a private man, to be an Overseer of the Public, or a Controller of him who (by way of coaction) is accountable to God only, and neither to any great Officer at home, nor to the whole body of the people there, nor to any neighbour-Prince or State abroad. Idolatry is destroyed; but yet there is danger, not to make thee take thought, to suspect God's Power, or his Will to sustain his Cause; not to take arms, as if the Lord of Hosts needed Rebels; but to take heed, to watch plots of circumvention, and to heed to thyself, that is, to all under thy charge, for thy danger is not evident. It is a snare, Laqueus, which is our last stop and step in this first part.  
There is danger though the Idolaters be thus destroyed. There is use of diligence, if there be danger, and the more, if this danger be a snare. Take heed that the Idolater do not kindle a Rebellion; take heed that the Idolater do not solicit an Invasion; take heed of public and general dangers. These be Caveats for Princes; but take heed of a snake, take heed of a snare, this appertains to every private man. 
Psal. 11.6.  God studied plagues for Egypt, 
69.21.  and they were strange plagues; but that's as great as any at least, which David speaks of, Pluet laqueos, Upon the wicked God shall rain snares. And after, Mensa laqueus, Their table shall become a snare before them. And if God punish our negligence of his former favours so far, as to rain snares even at our tables, that almost at every table that we can come to, we shall meet some that would ensnare us, Is not this Caveat necessary in these times? Take heed that thou be not snared. David thought he had carried his complaint to the highest, 
64.65.  when he said of his Enemies, They commune of laying snares privily. But now they do not plot privily, but avow their mischiefs, and speak so, as we dare scarce confess that we heard them: And that's a shrewd snare, when they dare speak more than we dare hear. Will a man have taken up a snare from the earth, 
Amos 3.5.  and have taken nothing, saith the Prophet? Since they have laid their snares, they will take some, and thou mayest be one: And therefore take heed of their snares. There is a snare laid for thy son, a persuasion to send him to foreign Universities; they will say, Not to change his Religion: For Religion, let him do as he shall see cause; but there he shall be better taught, and better bred then at home. There is a share laid for thy servants, what need they come to Church, they have nothing to lose, who will indite them, who will persecute them? And yet in due time such servants may do the Cause as much good as the Masters. There is a snare laid for thy wife; Her Religion, say they, doth not hinder her husband's preferment, why should she refuse to apply herself to them? We have used to speak proverbially of a Curtain Sermon, as of a shrewd thing; but a Curtain Mass, a Curtain Requiem, a snare in thy bed; a snake in thy bosom is somewhat worse. I know not what name we may give to such a woman's husband; but I am sure such a wife hath committed adultery, Spiritual Adultery, and that with her husband's knowledge; call him what you will. There is a snare for thy servant, for thy son, for thy wife, and for thy fame too; and how far soever thou wert from it, they will have the world believe thou diedst a Papist. If thy declination be towards profit, if thy bias turn that way, there is a snare in the likeness of a Chain, of a Jewel, a Pension. If it be society and conversation, there may be a snare in meeting more good company at Masses, then at thy Parish Church. If it be levity, and affectation of new things, there may be a snare of things so new in that Religion, as that this Kingdom never saw them yet, not then when this Kingdom was of that Religion. For we had received the Reformation before the Council of Trent, and before the growth of the Jesuits: And if we should turn to them now, we should be worse than we were before we received the Reformation; and the Council of Trent and the Jesuits have made that Religion worse than it was; 
Rom. 8.38.  as St. Bernard says upon St. Paul's words, Neither height, nor depth, nor life, nor death, shall separate us: Minime tamen dicit, nec nos ipsi. The Apostle doth not say, that we ourselves, and our own concupiscences shall not separate us from God. So though Excommunications have not, Invasions have not, Powder-Plots have not; yet God knows what those snares may work upon us. In laqueo suo comprehendantur, 
Psal. 9.16.  says David. Now laqueus is a snare, as their malice intends it for us; and laqueus is a halter, as our Laws intent it for them; and in laqueo suo, as it's theirs, let them be taken. Our good and great God in his power and mercy hath destroyed Idolatry; but in his wisdom he hath left exercise for our diligence in some danger, and that danger is a snare, and therefore, Take heed thou be not snared. And so we have done with the first part.  
Our second part consists of two branches, 
2. Part.  of two ways of falling into this danger. First, by following them; and then, by enquiring into their Religion. For the first, the Original word which we translate, following, is Achareihem, and it is only post eos, Come not after them; which (if we were to reflect at all, which we always avoid, upon public things) would afford a good note for the public, for the Magistrate, Come not after these Idolaters, but be still beforehand with them. That which is proverbially said of particular Bodies, will hold in a Body Politic, in any State. Qui medicè miserè. That man hath no health, who is put to sustain it, or repair it with continual Physic. That State hath no safety, that refers all to a defensive War, 
Luke 4.24.  and to a reparation of Breaches, then when they are made. That State will be subject to the other Proverb, which Chrysostom foresaw: Medice cura teipsum. That State which hath been a Physician to all her neighbour States, let blood, and staunched blood in them, so as conduced best to their own health, may be put to employ all her means upon herself, to repair and cure herself, if she follow, that is (in this acceptation of the word) come after her Idolatrous enemies, and be not still beforehand with them. But that is not our sphere, the Public, the State; but yet States consist of Families, and Families of private persons, and they are in our sphere, in our charge. And therefore we lay this Inhibition upon all that are Masters of Families, Take heed of being snared by following, by coming after them, in this sense. That because thou thinkest thou hast a power in thy wife, in thy children, in thy servants, and canst do what thou wilt with them at any time, therefore thou needest not be so scrupulous at first, but mayst admit any supplanters, any underminers into thy house, because they are good company, or because they have relation to great persons. Come not to this, Post eos, play not that aftergame, to put thyself to a necessity of taking sour and unkind courses with wire and children after; but be beforehand with such Idolaters, prevent their snare. We lay this Inhibition too upon every particular conscience. Covetousness is Idolatry, saith the Apostle, and Quot vitia, tot Idola, saith St. Hierom. As many habitual sins as we have, so many Idols have we set up. True repentance destroys this Idolatry, 'tis true; but then, Take heed of being snared, post ea, by coming after them, by exposing thyself to dangers of relapses again, by consideration how easily thou madest thy peace last time with God. It was but a sigh, but a tear, but a bending of the knee, but a receiving of the Sacrament, that went to it then. And post ea, when all is done which was done before in the way of sin, all that is easily done over again, which was done in the way of remedy. Say not so: for a merry heart, and a cheerful countenance, upon the testimony of a good conscience, is a better way to God than all the dejections of Spirit, all the sour contritions, and sad remorses in the world. Thou art not sure that thou shalt get so far, as to such a sadness as God requires for sin, thou mayst continue in thy presumption. Thou art not sure that thou shalt go no further than God requires, in that sadness, it may flow out to desperation. Be beforehand with thy sins, watch the approaches of those enemies; for if thou build upon that way of coming after them upon presumption of mercy, upon repentance, thou mayst be snared, and therefore take heed. And this is the sense of the phrase, as the Original will afford it, with Idolaters in the State, with Underminers in thy House, with sins in thy Soul, be still beforehand, watch their dangerous accesses. But St. Hierom, and the great stream of Expositors that go with him, give another sense of the word, Ne imiteris, Be not snared by following them. And in that sense we are to take the word now.  
Fellow them not then▪ that is, imitate them not, neither in their Severity and Cruelty, nor in their Levity and Facility, neither not in their Severity, when they will apply all the capital and bloody penalties of the Imperial Laws (made against Arrians, Manicheans, Pelagians, and Nestorians, Heretics in the fundamental points of Religion, and with which Christ could not consist) to every man that denys any collateral and subdivided Tradition of theirs; that if a man conceive any doubt of the dream of Purgatory, of the validity of indulgence, of the Latitude of a work of Supererogation, he is as deep in the faggot here, and shall be as deep in Hell hereafter, as if he denied the Trinity, or the Incarnation and Passion of Christ Jesus; when in a days warning, and by the roaring of one Bull, it grows to be damnation to day, to believe so as a man might have believed yesterday, and have been saved, when they will afford no Salvation, but in that Church which is discernible by certain and inseparable marks, which our Countryman Saunders makes to be six, and Mich. Medina extends to eleven, and Bellarmine declares to be fifteen, and Bodius stretches to a hundred, when they make every thing Heresy; and rather than lack a Text for putting Heretics to death, will accept that false reading, haereticum hominem devita, which being spoken of avoiding, 
Titus 3.10.  they will needs interpret of killing (for Erasmus citys a Witness, who heard an ancient and grave Divine cite that place so, and to that purpose) follow them not, do not imitate them; be content to judge more charitably of them. For those amongst them who are under an invincible ignorance (because their Superiors keep the Scriptures from them) God may be pleased to save by that revelation of his Son Christ Jesus, which he hath afforded them in that Church: Howsoever, they who have had light offered to them, and wilfully resist it, must necessarily perish. Fellow them not, imitate them not in that severity, necessarily to damn all who think not in all things as they do: Nor follow them not in that facility, to make their Divinity, and the Tenets of their Church, to wait upon temporal affairs, and emergent occasions. The Anabaptist will delude the Magistrate in an examination, or in any practice, because he thinks no man ought to be a Magistrate over him in things that have any relation to spiritual Cognizance, and Treason in alienating the Subject from his Allegiance must be of spiritual cognizance, Where others are too strong for them, they may dignify their Religion (so their Jesuit Ribadineyra says) and where they are too strong for others, they must profess it, though with Arms (so their Jesuit Bellarmine argues it.) In this planetary, in this transitory, in this occasional Religion, follow them not: We say in Logic, Substantia non suscipit magis & minus, Substantial and fundamental points of Religion (and obedience to Superiors is amongst those) do not ebb and flow; they bind all men, and at all times, and in all cases. Induite Dominum Jesus, says the Apostle, Put ye on the Lord Jesus, 
Rom. 13 14.  and keep him on, put him not off again. Christ is not only the Stuff, but the Garment ready made; he will not be translated and turned, and put into new fashions, nor laid up in a Wardrobe, but put on all day, all the days of our life▪ though it rain, and rain blood; how foul soever any persecution make the day, we must keep on that Garment, the true profession of Christ Jesus; follow not these men in their severity, to exclude men from salvation in things that are not fundamental, nor in their facility to disguise and prevaricate in things that are.  
The second danger, and our last Branch of this last Part is, Inquire not after their gods, etc. Ignorance excuses no man. What is curiosity? 
Augustine.  Qui scire vult ut sciat, He that desires knowledge only that he may know, or be known by others to know; he who makes not the end of his knowledge the glory of God, he offends in curiosity, says that Father; But that is only in the end. But in the way to knowledge there is curiosity too; In seeking such things as man hath no faculty to compass, unrevealed mysteries; In seeking things, which if they may be compassed, yet it is done by indirect means, by Invocation of Spirits, by Sorcery; In seeking things which may be found, and by good means, but appertain not to our profession; all these ways men offend in curiosity. It is so in us, in Churchmen, si jambos servemus, & metrorum silvam congerimus, 
Hieron.  If we be over-vehemently affected or transported with Poetry, or other secular Learning. And therefore St. Hierom is reported himself to have been whipped by an Angel, who found him overstudious in some of Cicero's Books. This is curiosity in us, and it is so in you, if when you have sufficient means of salvation Preached to you in that Religion wherein you were Baptised, you inquire too much, too much trouble yourself with the Religion of those, from whose superstitions you are already by God's goodness rescued; remember that he who desired to fill himself with the husks, was the Prodigal. It was Prodigality, and a dangerous expense of your constancy, to open yourself to temptation, by an unnecessary enquiring into impertinent controversies. We in our profession may embrace secular Learning, so far as it may conduce to the better discharge of our duties, in making the easier entrance, and deeper impression of Divine things in you: You may inform yourselves occasionally, when any scruple takes hold of you, of any point of their Religion. But let your study be rather to live according to that Religion which you have, then to inquire into that from which God hath delivered you; for that's the looking back of Lot's wife, and the distemper and distaste of the children of Israel, who remembered too much the Egyptian diet. If you will inquire whether any of the Fathers of the Primitive Church did at any time pray for any of the dead, you shall be told (and truly) that Augustine did, that Ambrose did; but you shall not so presently be told how they deprehended themselves in an infirmity, and collected and corrected themselves ever when they were so praying▪ If you inquire whether any of them speak of Purgatory, you shall easily find they do; but not so easily, in what sense; when they call the calamities of this life, or when they call the general Conflagration of the world, Purgatory. If you inquire after Indulgences, you may find the name frequent amongst them; but not so easily find when and how the Relaxations of Penances publicly enjoined, were called Indulgences; nor how, nor when Indulgences came to be applied to souls departed. If thou inquire without a Melius Inquirendum, without a through Inquisition (which is not easy for any man who makes it not his whole study and profession) thou mayst come to think holy men have prayed for the dead, why may not I? Holy men speak of Purgatory and Indulgences, why should I abhor the names or the things? And so thou mayst fall into the first snare, it hath been done, therefore it may be done; and into another after, It may be done, therefore it must be done: When thou art come to think that some men are saved that have done it, thou wilt think that no man can be saved except he do it: From making infirmities excusable necessary (which is the bondage the Council of Trent hath laid upon the world) to make Problematical things, Dogmatical; and matter of Disputation, matter of Faith; to bring the University into Smithfield, and heaps of Arguments into Piles of Faggots. If thou inquire further than thy capacity enables thee, further than thy calling provokes thee; How do those Nations serve their gods? thou mayst come to say, as the Text says, in the end, Even so will I do also.  
To end all, embrace Fundamental, Dogmatical, evident Divinity: That is expressed in Credendis, in the things which we are to believe in the Creed. And it gins with Credo in Deum, Belief in God, and not in man, nor traditions of men. And it is expressed in petendis, in the things which we are to pray for in the Lord's Prayer; and that gins with Sanctificetur nomen tuum, Hallowed be thy Name, not the name of any. And it is expressed in Agendis, in the things which we are to do in the Commandments; whereof the first Table gins with that, Thou shalt have no other gods but me. God is a Monarch alone, not a Consul with a Colleague. And the second Table gins with Honour to Parents, that is, to Magistrates, to lawful Authority. Be therefore always fat from disobeying lawful Authority, resist it not, calumniate it not, suspect it not; for there is a libelling in the ear, and a libelling in the heart, though it come not to the tongue or hands, to words, nor actions. If it be possible, saith the Apostle, as much as in you lies, have peace with all men, with all kind of men. Obedience is the first Commandment of the second Table, and that never destroys the first Table, of which the first Commandment is, Keep thyself, that is, those that belong to thee and thy house, entire and upright in the worship of the true God, not only not to admit Idols for gods, but not to admit Idolatry in the worship of the true God.   

A SERMON Preached at Paul's Cross to the Lords of the Council, and other Honourable Persons, 24. Mart. 1616. It being the Anniversary of the Kings coming to the Crown, and his Majesty being then gone into Scotland. SERMON XXIIII.  Prov. 22.11. 
He that loveth Pureness of Heart, for the grace of his Lips, the King shall be his friend.  
THat Man that said it was possible to carve the faces of all good Kings that ever were, in a Cherry-stone, had a seditious, and a traitorous meaning in his words. And he that thought it a good description, a good Character of good subjects, that they were Populus natus ad servitutem, A people disposed to bear any slavish yoke, had a tyrannical meaning in his words. But in this Text, as in one of those Tables, in which, by changing the station, and the line, you use to see two pictures, you have a good picture of a good King, and of a good subject; for in one line, you see such a subject, as Love's pureness of heart, and hath grace in his lips. In the other line, you see the King gracious, yea friendly to such a subject, He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the King shall be his friend. The sum of the words, is, that God will make an honest man acceptable to the King, for some ability, which he shall employ to the public. Him that proceeds sincerely in a lawful calling, God will bless and prosper, and he will seal this blessing to him, even with that which is his own seal, his own image, the favour of the King, He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the King shall be his friend.  
We will not be curious in placing these two pictures, nor considering which to consider first. As he that would vow a fast, till he had found in nature, whether the Egg, or the Hen were first in the world, might perchance starve himself; so that King, or that subject, which would forbear to do their several duties, 
Serm. 24.  till they had found which of them were most necessary to one another, might starve one another; for, King and subjects are Relatives, and cannot be considered in execution of their duties, but together. The greatest Mystery in Earth, or Heaven, which is the Trinity, is conveyed to our understanding, no other way, than so, as they have reference to one another by Relation, as we say in the Schools; for, God could not be a father without a Son, nor the Holy Ghost Spiratus sine spirante. As in Divinity, so in Humanity too, Relations constitute one another, King and subject come at once and together into consideration. Neither is it so pertinent a consideration, which of them was made for others sake, as that they were both made for God's sake, and equally bound to advance his glory.  
Here in our Text, we find the subjects picture first; 
Divisio.  And his Marks are two; first, Pureness of Heart, That he be an honest Man; And then Grace of lips, that he be good for something; for, by this phrase, Grace of lips, is expressed every ability, to do any office of society for the Public good. The first of these, Pureness of heart, he must love; The other, that is, Grace of lips (that is, other Abilities) he must have, but he must not be in love with them, nor over-value them. In the King's picture, the principal mark is, That he shall be friendly and gracious; but gracious to him that hath this Grace of lips, to him that hath endeavoured, in some way, to be of use to the Public; And, not to him neither, for all the grace of his lips, for all his good parts, except he also love pureness of heart; but, He that loveth pureness of heart (There's the foundation) for the grace of his lips (There's the upper-building) the King shall be his friend.  
In the first then, which is this Pureness of heart, we are to consider Rem, sedem, & Modum; what this Pureness is, 
Part. 1. Puritas.  Then where it is to be lodged and fixed, In the heart; and, after that, the way, and means by which this Pureness of heart is acquired and preserved, which is employed and notified in that Affection, wherewith this pureness of heart is to be embraced and entertained, which is love; For, Love is so noble, so sovereign an Affection, as that it is due to very few things, and very few things worthy of it. Love is a Possessory Affection, it delivers over him that loves into the possession of that that he loves; it is a transmutatory Affection, it changes him that loves, into the very nature of that that he loves, and he is nothing else.  
For the first, Pureness itself; It is carried to a great height, 
Res.  for our imitation (God knows, too great for our imitation) when Christ bids us be perfect, 
Mat. 5.48.  even as our father which is in heaven is perfect. As though it had not been perfectness enough, to be perfect, as the Son upon earth was perfect; he carries us higher, Be perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. The Son, upon Earth, Christ Jesus, had all our infirmities, and imperfections upon him, hunger, and weariness, and hearty sorrow to death, and that, which alone is All, Mortality, Death itself. And, though he were Innocence itself, and knew no sin, yet there was no sin that he knew not, for, all our sins were his. He was not only made Man, and by taking (by Admitting, though not by Committing) our sins, as well as our nature, sinful Man; but he was made sin for our sakes. And therefore, though he say of himself, sicut ego, 
John 15.10.  Keep my Commandments, even as I have kept my father's Commandments, yet still he refers all originally to the Father; and because he was under our infirmities and our iniquities, he never says (though he might well have said so) sicut ego, Be pure, be perfect as I am perfect and pure, but sicut Pater, be pure as your Father in heaven is pure. Hand to hand with the Father, Christ disclaims himself, 
Mat. 26.39.  disavows himself, Non sicut ego, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt, O Father. We are not referred for the pattern of our purity (though we might be safely) to him that came from heaven, The Son, but to him which is in heaven, The Father. Nor to the Sun which is in heaven (the Sun, that is the pure fountain of all natural light) nor to the Angels which are in heaven, though they be pure in their Nature, and refined by a continual emanation of the beams of glory upon them, from the face of God, but, the Father which is in heaven is made the pattern of our purity; That so, when we see the exact purity, which we should aim at, and labour for, we might the more seriously lament, and the more studiously endeavour the amendment of that extreme and enormous fouleness and impurity, in which we who should be pure, as our Father which is in heaven is pure, exceed the dog that turns to his own vomit again; 
2 Pet. 2.22.  and the Sow, that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.  
Yet there is no foulness so foul, so inexcusable in the eyes of God, nor that shall so much aggravate our condemnation, as a false affectation, and an hypocritical counterfeiting of this Purity. There is a Pureness, a cleanness imagined (rather dreamt of) in the Roman Church, by which (as their words are) the soul is abstracted, not only à Passionibus, but â Phantasmatibus, not only from passions, and perturbations, but from the ordinary way of coming to know any thing; The soul (say they) of men so purified, understands no longer, per phantasmata rerum corporalium; not by having any thing presented by the fantasy to the senses, and so to the understanding, but altogether by a familiar conversation with God, and an immediate revelation from God; whereas Christ himself contented himself with the ordinary way; He was hungry, 
Mat. 21.20.  and a figtree presented itself to him upon the way, and he went to it to eat. This is that Pureness in the Roman Church, by which the founder of the last Order amongst them, Philip Nerius, had not only utterly emptied his heart of the world, but had filled it too full of God; for, 
Congrega. Orator.  so (say they) he was fain to cry sometimes, Recede ame Domine, O Lord go farther from me, and let me have a less portion of thee. But who would be loath to sink, by being over-fraited with God, or loath to over-set, by having so much of that wind, the breath of the Spirit of God? Privation of the presence of God, is Hell; a diminution of it, is a step toward it. Fruition of his presence is Heaven; and shall any Man be afraid of having too much Heaven, too much God? There are many among them, that are over laden, oppressed with Bishropricks and Abbeys, and yet they can bear it and never cry, Retrahe domine, domine Resume, O Lord withdraw from me, Resume to thyself some of these superabundancies; and shall we think any of them to be so over-fraited and surcharged with the presence, and with the grace of God, as to be put to his Recede domine, O Lord withdraw thyself, and lessen thy grace towards me? This Pureness is not in their heart, but in their fantasy.  
We read in the Ecclesiastic story of such a kind of affectation of singularity, very early in the primitive Church. 
Catharsitae.  We find two sorts of false Puritans then; The Catharists, and The Cathari. The Catharists thought no creatures of God pure, and therefore they brought in strange ceremonial purifications of those Creatures. In which error, they of the Roman Church succeed them, in a great part, in their Exorcisms, and Consecrations; Particularly in the greatest matter of all, in the Sacraments. For, the Catharists in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour, thought not the bread pure, except it were purified by the aspersion of something issuing from the body of man, not fit to be named here; And so, in the Roman Church, they induced a use of another Excrement in the other Sacrament, They must have spittle in the Sacrament of Baptism. For, in those words of Tertullian, 
Tertul.  In Baptismo Daemones respuimus, In Baptism we Renounce the Devil, they will admit no other interpretation of the Respuimus, but that Respuere, is sputo detestari, 
Durantius de citib l. 1.19 n. 30.  That we can drive the Devil away, no way, but by spitting at him; Their predecessors in this, the Catharists, thought no Creatures pure, and therefore purified them, by abominable, and detestable ways.  
The second sort of primitive Puritans, the Cathari, 
Cathari.  They thought no men pure but themselves, and themselves they thought so pure, as to have no sin; and that therefore they might and so did, leave out, as an impertinent clause in the Lord's prayer, that petition, Dimitte nobis debita nostra, for, they thought they ought God nothing. In natural things, Monsters have no propagation; A Monster does not beget a Monster. In spiritual excesses it is otherwise; for, for this second kind of Puritans, that attribute all purity to themselves, and spend all their thoughts upon considering others, that weed hath grown so far, that whereas those Puritans of the Primitive Church did but refuse to say, Dimitte nobis, Forgive us our trespasses, because they had no sin, the Puritan Papist is come to say, Recede a nobis, O Lord stand farther off, for I have too much of thee. And whereas the Puritan of the primitive Church did but refuse one Petition of the Lords prayer, the later puritan amongst ourselves hath refused the whole Prayer. Towards both these sorts of false puritans, Catharists, and Cathari, derived down to our time, we acknowledge those words of the Apostle to belong, 
2 Tim. 4.2.  Reprove, Rebuke, Exhort; that is, leave no such means untried, as may work upon their Understandings, and remove their just scruples; Preach, writ, confer; But when that labour hath been bestowed, and they fear up their Understanding against it, so that the fault lies not then in the darkness of their Understanding, but merely in the perverseness of the will, over which faculty other men have no power, towards both these sorts, we acknowledge those other words of the Apostle to belong too, 
Gal. 5.12.  Utinam abscindantur, Would to God, they were even cut off that disquiet you; Cut off, that is, removed from means by which, and from places, in which, they might disquiet you. These two kinds of false Puritans we find in the Primitive Church; And Satan, who lasts still, makes them last still too. But if we shall imagine a third sort of Puritans, and make men afraid of the zeal of the glory of God, make men hard, and insensible of those wounds that are inflicted upon Christ Jesus, in blasphemous oaths, and execrations, make men ashamed to put a difference between the Sabbath and an ordinary day, and so, at last make sin an indifferent matter, If any man list to be contentious we have no such custom, 
1 Cor. 11.16.  neither the Church of God. The Church of God encourages them, and assists them in that sanctity, that purity, with all those means wherewith Christ Jesus hath trusted her, for the advancement of that purity; and professes that she prefers in her recommendations to God, in her prayers, one Christian truly fervent and zealous, before millions of Lukewarm. Only she says, in the voice of Christ Jesus her head, Woe be unto you, 
Mat. 23 25.  if you make clean the outside of cups and platters, but leave them full of extortion, and excess within. Christ calls them to whom he says that, blind Pharisees, if they have done so; If they think to blind others, Christ calls them blind. But if their purity consist in studying & practising the most available means to sanctification, and in obedience to lawful authority established according to God's Ordinance, and in acquiescence in fundamental doctrines, believed in the ancient Church to be necessary to salvation, If they love the peace of conscience, and the peace of Zion, as Balaam said, Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end he like his; So I say, let me live the life of a Puritan, 
Num. 23.10.  let the zeal of the house of God consume me, let a holy life, and an humble obedience to the Law, testify my reverence to God in his Church, and in his Magistrate: For, this is Saint Paul's Puritan, To have a pure heart (The end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart) And then to have pure hands (That we may lift up pure hands, 
1 Tim. 1.5. 2 8. 3 8.  without wrath or doubting) And to have pure consciences (Having the mystery of faith in pure consciences.) The heart is the fountain from which my good and holy purposes flow; My hand is the execution and Declaration of those good purposes, produced into the eyes of men; and my conscience is the testification of the Spirit of God with my spirit, that I have actually made those declarations, that I have lived according to that profession. This is Saint Paul's Puritan, Pure in Heart, pure in Hand, pure in Conscience; That I do believe I ought to do this; That really I do it; Thar my conscience tell me after, it was rightly done; for, a man may do good, ill, and go by ill ways, to good ends. And then, if our purity be but comparative and not positive, that we only look how ill other men be, not how good we should be, we shall become either Catharists, purifying Puritans, quarrelling with men, with States, with Churches, and attempting a purifying of Sacraments, and Ceremonies, Doctrine and Discipline, according to our own fancy; Or Cathari, purified puritans, that think they may leave out the Dimitte debita, they need ask no forgiveness. And then, cain's major iniquitas (my sin is too great for God to forgive) is not worse than this minor iniquitas, 
Gen. 4.13.  My sin is too little for God to consider; I cannot have a pardon, and I do not need a pardon, It is impossible for me to get it, and it is unnecessary for me to ask it, are equal contempts against the Majesty and Mercy of God. But this first consideration (The nature of his pureness) enlarges itself by flowing into the second branch of this first part, that is, The place where this pureness is established, The Heart: He that loves pureness of Heart, the King shall be his friend.  
Absolute pureness cannot be attained to In via, 
Locus. Cor.  It is reserved for us In Patria; At home in heaven, not in our journey here, is that pureness to be expected. But yet here in the way, there is a degree of it, acceptable to God; of which himself speaks, and there it may be had; Blessed are the pure in heart (so the pureness be placed there, all's well) for they shall see God. 
Mat. 5.9.  Whether that fight of God be spoken De cognition Dei, of that sight of God, 
1 Cor. 13.12.  which we have here▪ In speculo, in a glass, in that true glass of his own making, his word explicated in the Church; or the visione Beatifica, of that beatifical vision of God, which is salvation, howsoever the reward (the sight of God) in the perfect fruition thereof may be reserved for the future (They shall see God) yet they are pure, and they are blessed already, Blessed are the pure in heart. This pureness than must be rightly placed; for, in many things, the place qualifies and denominates the things; it is not Balsamum if it grew not in Palestine. It is not pureness, if it grew not in the Heart. The Hypocrite is the miserablest of all other; he does God service, and yet is damned. The shedding of our blood for God is not a greater service than the winning of souls to God; and the Hypocrite many times does that; his outward purity works upon them who cannot know it to be counterfeit, and draws them truly and sincerely to serve God. He does God service, and yet perishes, 
1 Reg. 14.10.  because he does it not from the heart. God shall take him away, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone. God does not say there, that he will take away the dung, but the man; not that he will take away the Dissimulation of the Hypocrite, but he will take away the Hypocrite himself, as dung is taken away, till it be all gone, till this Hypocrite be swept, not clean, but clean away. If he have a complacency, a joy that he can deceive, 
Job 20.5.  and can seem that which he is not (The joy of the Hypocrite is but for a moment) He hath no true joy at all; his joy is but dung, and in a moment comes a Cart, and fetches away that dung, sweeps away even that false joy. Can he hope for more? 
8.13.  (The Hope of the Hypocrite shall perish) If he can conceive such a hope, it shall perish in abortion, and never have life (Their Hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost) As soon as it is a Hope, 
11.20.  it shall be as the giving up of the Ghost, and a Cart shall carry away that dung, that Hope. What Cart? first, God shall disappoint his Hope of deluding the world; God shall discover him, and lay him open (That the Hypocrites reign not, 
34.30.  lest the people be ensnared) And then, when God hath discovered him (The innocent shall stir up himself against the Hypocrite) that is, 
17.8.  consider him, observe him, and arm himself against his imaginations. And God shall not only discover him to men, but God shall discover himself to him, and make him see his future condemnation (Fearfulness shall surprise the Hypocrite. 
Esa. 33.14. Job 27.8. ) And then (What is the hope of the Hypocrite, when God taketh away his soul) when the Cart comes for the last load of dung, his corrupt, his putrified soul, what hope hath the Hypocrite for the next life?  
It is not pureness then, except it be in the right place, the heart; But where is the heart? The heart is vafrum & inscrutabile, Deceitful above all things, 
Jer. 17.9.  and desperately wieked, who can know it? It is uncertain and unsearchable; And it is so, because it pursues those things which are in fluxu, ever in motion. Cast but a paper into the river, and fix thine eye upon that paper, and bind thine eye to follow that paper whithersoever the river, or the wind shall carry it, and thou canst not imagine where thine eye will be to morrow: For, this paper is not addressed, as a ship, to a certain port, or upon any certain purpose, but exposed to the disposition of the tide to the rage of the wind, to the wantonness of the Eddy, and to innumerable contingencies, till it wear out to nothing. So, if a man set his heart (we cannot call it a setting) if a man suffer his heart to issue upon any of these fluid and transitory things of this world, he shall have cor vafrum, & inscrutabile, He shall not know where to find his own heart. If Riches be this floating paper that his eye is fixed upon, he shall not know upon what course; If Beauty be this paper, he shall not know upon what face; If Honour and preferment be it, he shall not know upon what faction his heart will be transported a month hence. But, if the heart can fix itself upon that which is fixed, the Almighty and  God, if it can be content to inquire after itself, and take knowledge where it is, and in what way, it will find the means of cleansing; And so, this second consideration, The placing of this pureness in the heart, enlarges itself also into the third branch of this part, which is De Modo, by what means this pureness is fixed in the heart, in which is involved the Affection with which it must be embraced, Love, He that loveth pureness of heart.  
Both these then are settled; Our heart is naturally foul; 
Modus.  And our heart may be cleansed. But how, is our present disquisition, Who can bring a clean thing out of filthiness? There is not one: 
Job 14.4.  Adam fouled my heart and all yours; nor can we make it clean ourselves, Who can say I have made clean my heart? There is but one way; 
Prov. 20.9.  a poor beggarly way, but easy and sure, to ask it of God. And, even to God himself it seems a hard work to cleanse this heart; and therefore our prayer must be with David, Cor mundum crea, Create, 
Psal. 51.12.  O Lord, a pure heart in me. And then comes God's part, not that Gods part begun but then; for it was his doing, that thou madest this prayer; but because it is a work that God does especially delight in, to build upon his own foundations; when he hath disposed thee to pray, and upon that prayer created a new heart in thee, than God works upon that new heart, and By faith purifyes it, 
Act. 15.9.  enables it to preserve the pureness, as Saint Peter speaks. He had kindled some sparks of this faith in thee, before thou askedst that new heart; else the prayer had not been of faith; but now finding thee obsequious to his beginnings, he fuels this fire, and purifies thee, as Gold and Silver, in all his furnaces; through Believing and Doing, and suffering, through faith, and works, and tribulation, we come to this pureness of heart. And truly, he that lacks but the last, but Tribulation (as fain as we would be without it) lacks one concoction, one refining of this heart.  
But, in this great work, the first act is a Renovation, a new heart; 
Co● Nov●m  and the other, That we keep clean that heart by a continual diligence, and vigilancy over all our particular actions. In these two consists the whole work of purifying the heart; first, an Annihilating of the former heart, which was all sin; And then a holy superintendency over that new heart, which God vouchsafes to create in us, to keep it as he gives it, clean, pure. It is, in a word, a Detestation of former sins, and a prevention of future. And for the first, 
Chromakus' Anno 390.  Mundi corde sunt, qui deposuere cor peccati; That's the new heart that hath disseised, expelled the heart of sin. There is in us a heart of sin, which must be cast up; for whilst the heart is under the habits of sin, we are not only sinful, but we are all sin▪ as it is truly said, that land overflowed with sea, is all sea. And when sin hath got a heart in us, it will quickly come to be that whole Body of Death, 
Rom. 7.24.  which Saint Paul complains of, who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death? when it is a heart, it will get a Brain; a Brain that shall minister all Sense, and Delight in sin; That's the office of the Brain; A Brain which shall send for the sinews and ligaments, to tie sins together; and pith and marrow to give a succulencie, and nourishment, even to the bones, to the strength and obduration of sin; and so it shall do all those services, and offices for sin, that the brain does to the natural body. So also if sin get to be a heart, it will get a liver to carry blood and life through all the body of our sinful actions; That's the office of the liver; And whilst we dispute whether the throne and seat of the soul be in the Heart, or Brain, or Liver, this tyrant sin will praeoccupate all, and become all; so, as that we shall find nothing in us without sin, nothing in us but sin, if our heart be possessed, inhabited by it. And if it be true in our natural bodies, that the heart is that part that lives first and dies last, it is much truer of this Cor peccati, this heart of sin; for, this hearty sinner that hath given his heart to his sin, doth no more foresee a Death of that sin in himself, than he remembers the Birth of it; and, because he remembers not, or understands not how his soul contracted sin, by coming into his body, he leaves her to the same ignorance, how she shall discharge herself of sin, when she goes out of that body. But, as his sin is elder than himself (for Adam's sin is his sin) so is it longer lived then his body, for it shall cleave everlastingly to his soul too. God asks no more of thee, but, fili da mihi cor, 
Prov. 23.26.  My son give me thy heart; Because when God gave it thee, it was but one heart. But since thou hast made it Cor & cor (as the Prophet speaks) a Heart, and a Heart, a double Heart, give both thy Hearts to God; thy natural weakness and disposition to sin (The inclinations of thy heart)▪ And thy habitual practice of sin, (The obduration of thy heart) cor peccans, and Cor peccati, and he shall create a new heart in thee; which is the first way of attaining this pureness of heart, to become once in a good state, to have (as it were) paid all thy former debts, and so to be the better able to look about thee for the future, for prevention of subsequent sins, which is the other way that we proposed for attaining this pureness, detestation of former habits, watchfulness upon particular actions.  
Till this be done, till this Cor peccati, 
Peccata Minutiora.  this hearty habitualness in sin be devested, there is no room, no footing to stand and sweep it; a heart so filled with foulness will admit no counsel, no reproof. The great Engineer would have undertaken to have removed the World with his Engine, if there had been any place to fix his Engine upon, out of the World; I would undertake, (by God's blessing upon his Ordinance) to cleanse the foulest heart that is, if that Engine which God hath put into my hands might enter into his heart; if there were room for the renouncing Gods Judgements, and for the application of God's mercies in the merits of Christ Jesus in his heart, they would infallibly work upon him. But he hath petrified his heart in sin, and then he hath immured it, walled it with a delight in sin, and fortified it with a justifying of his sin, and adds daily more and more outworks, by more and more daily sins; so that the denouncing of Judgement, the application of Mercies, Prayers, Sermons, Sacraments, (which are the Engines and Ammunition which God hath put into our hands) though they have a blessed and a powerful operation, and produce heavenly effects, where they may have entrance; in this, habitual sinners can have none. Some things therefore, some great things every man must departed with, before he can come to the God of pure eyes. 
Abac. 1.13.   
When the heart is emptied of infidelity, and of those habits of sin that filled it, when it is come to a discontinuance, and a detestation of those sins, than we can better look into every corner, and endeavour to keep it clean; clean in that measure, that the God of pure eyes will vouchsafe to look upon it, and the light of his countenance will perfect the work. The diligence required on our part, is a serious watchfulness and consideration of our particular actions, how small soever. In the Law, whatsoever was unclean to eat, made a man unclean, to touch it, when it was dead. Though the body of sin have so far received a deadly wound in thee, as that thou hast discontinued some habitual sin, some long time; yet if thou touch upon the memory of that dead sin, with delight, thou begettest a new child of sin. 
65.20.  And as Esai speaks of a child, and of a sinner of an hundred years old, so every sin into which we relapse, is born an hundred years old; it hath all the age of that sin, which we had repent and discontinued before, upon it; it is born an Adam, in full strength the first minute; born a Giant, born a Devil, and possesses us in an instant. Every man may observe, that a sin of relapse is sooner upon him, than the same sin was at the first attempting him; at first, he had more bashfulness, more tenderness, more colluctation against the sin, then upon a relapse. And therefore in this survey of sin, thy first care must be, to take heed of returning top diligently to a remembrance of those delightful sins which are past; for that will endanger new. And in many cases it is safer to do (as God himself is said to do) to tie up our sins in a bundle, and cast them into the sea; so for us to present our sins in general to God, and to cast them into the bottomless sea of the infinite mercies of God, in the infinite merits of Christ Jesus; then by an over-diligent enumeration of sins of some kinds, or by too busy a contemplation of those circumstances which increased our sinful delignt then when we committed those sins, to commit them over again, by a fresh delight in their memory. When thou hast truly repent them, and God hath forgotten them, do thou forget them too.  
The pureness and cleanness of heart which we must love, was evidently represented in the old Law, and in the practice of the Jews, who took knowledge of so many uncleannesses; they reckon almost fifty sorts of uncleannesses, to which there belonged particular expiations; of which, some were hardly to be avoided in ordinary conversation: As to enter into the Courts of Justice; for the Jews that led Christ into the common Hall, would not enter, lest they should be defiled. 
Jo. 18.28.  Yea, some things defiled them, which it had been unnatural to have left undone; as for the son to assist at his father's Funeral; and yet even these required an expiation: For these, though they had not the nature of sin, but might be expiated, (without any inward sorrow or repentance) by outward ablutions, by ceremonial washings, within a certain time prescribed by the Law, yet if that time were negligently and inconsiderately overslipt, than they became sins, and then they could not be expiated, but by a more solemn, and a more costly way, by sacrifice. And even before they came to that, whilst they were but uncleannesses, and not sins, yet even then they made them incapable of eating the Paschal Lamb. So careful was God in the Law, and the Jews in their practice (for these outward things) to preserve this pureness, this cleanness, even in things which were not fully sins. So also must he that affects this pureness of heart, and studies the preserving of it, sweep down every cobweb that hangs about it. Scurrile and obscene language; yea, mis-interpretable words, such as may bear an ill sense; pleasurable conversation, and all such little entanglings, which though he think too weak to hold him, yet they foul him. And let him that is subject to these smaller sins, remember, that as a spider builds always where he knows there is most access and haunt of flies, so the Devil that hath cast these light cobwebs into thy heart, knows that that heart is made of vanities and levitieses; and he that gathers into his treasure whatsoever thou wast'st out of thine, how negligent soever thou be, he keeps thy reckoning exactly, and will produce against thee at last as many lascivious glances as shall make up an Adultery, as many covetous wishes as shall make up a Robery, as many angry words as shall make up a Murder; and thou shalt have dropped and crumbled away thy soul, with as much irrecoverableness, as if thou hadst poured it out all at once; and thy merry sins, thy laughing sins, shall grow to be crying sins, even in the ears of God; and though thou drown thy soul here, drop after drop, it shall not burn spark after spark, but have all the fire, and all at once, and all eternally, in one entire and intense torment. For, as God, for our capacity, is content to be described as one of us, and to take our passions upon him, and be called angry, and sorry, and the like; so is he in this also like us, that he takes it worse to be slighted, to be neglected, to be left out, then to be actually injured. Our inconsideration, our not thinking of God in our actions, offends him more than our sins. We know, that in Nature, and in Art, the strongest bodies are compact of the least particles, because they shut best, and lie closest together; so be the strongest habits of sin compact of sins which in themselves are least; because they are least perceived, they grow upon us insensibly, and they cleave unto us inseparably. And I should make no doubt of recovering him sooner that had sinned long against his conscience, though in a great sin, then him that had sinned less sins, without any sense or conscience of those sins; for I should sooner bring the other to a detestation of his sin, then bring this man to a knowledge, that that that he did was sin. But if thou couldst consider that every sin is a Crucifying of Christ, and every sin is a precipitation of thyself from a Pinnacle; were it a convenient phrase to say, in every little sin, that thou wouldst Crucify Christ a little, or break thy neck a little.  
Beloved, there is a power in grace, upon thy repentance, to wash away thy greatest sins; that's the true, the proper Physic of the soul, it is the only means to recover thee. But yet, wert thou not better to make this grace thy diet, than thy physic? Wert thou not better to nourish thy soul with this grace all the way, then to hope to purge thy soul with it at last? This, as a Diet, the Apostle prescribes thee, Whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. He intends it farther there, Whatsoever you do; and farther than that, in another place, Whatsoever ye do, in deed, 
1 Cor. 10.31. Col. 3.17.  or in word, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Since there is no action so little, but God may be glorified in it, there is no action so little, but the Devil may have his end in it too, and may overthrow thee by a tentation, which thou thinkest thyself strong enough to leap over. And therefore, if you have not given over all love of true weights, and true measures, weigh and measure your particular and indifferent actions, before you do them, and you shall see, at least, grains of iniquity in them; and then, this advantage will you have, by this preconsideration, and weighing your actions before hand; that when you know there is sin in that action, and know that nothing can counterpoise, nor weigh down sin, but only the Blood of Christ Jesus▪ you may know too, that the Blood of Christ Jesus cannot be had before hand. God gives no such non-obstantes, no such privileges, no leave to sin, no pardon for sin, before it be committed: And therefore, if this premeditation of this action bring thee to see that there is sin in it▪ it must necessarily put a tenderness, a horror, an aversion in thee, from doing that, to which, (being thus done with this preconsideration, and presumption) the Blood of thy Saviour doth not appertain. To all your other Wares, the base and courser they are, the greater weight and measure you are content to give; to the basest of all, to sin, you give the lightest weight, and scantest measure, and you supply all with the excuses of the custom of the time, that the necessity of your trade forces you to it, else you should be poor, and poorly thought of.  
Beloved, God never puts his children to a perplexity; to a necessity of doing any sin, how little soever, though for the avoiding of a sin, as manifold as Adam's. It is not a little request to you, to beware of little sins: It is not a little request, and therefore I make it, in the words of the greatest to the greatest, (for they are all one Head and Body) of Christ to his Church, 
Cant. 2.15.  Capite vulpeculas, Take us the little Foxes, for they devour the Vines. It is not a cropping, not a pilling, nor a retarding of the growth of the Vines, but Demoliuntur, as little as those Foxes are, they devour the Vines, they root them out. Thy Soul is not so easily devoured by that Lion, 
1 Pet. 5.8. Apoc. 5.5.  that seeks whom he may devour▪ for, still he is put to seek, and does not always find: And thou shalt hear his roaring, that is, thou shalt discern a great sin; and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will come in to thy succour, as soon as thou callest: But take heed that thy Soul be not eaten up with vermin, by those little sins, which thou thinkest thou canst forbear, and give over when thou wilt. God punished the Egyptians most, by little things▪ Hailstones, and Frogs, and Grasshoppers; and Pharaohs Sorcerers, 
Exod. 8.16.  which did greater, failed in the least, in Lice. It is true, there is Physic for this, Christ Jesus that receives thy greatest sins into his Blood, can receive these Vermin too into his Bowels, even at last; but yet, still make his Grace rather thy Diet, by a daily consideration before hand, than thy Physic at last. It is ill to take two Physics at once; bodily, and ghostly Physic too, upon thy Deathbed. The Apothecary and the Physician do well together; the Apothecary and the Priest not so well. Consult with him before, at least, consult with thine own Conscience in those little actions, which either their own nature, or the custom of the time, or thy course of life, thy calling, and the example of others in thy calling made thee think indifferent: For though it may seem a degree of flattery, to preach against little sins in such a City as this, where greater sins do abound; yet because these be the materials and elements of greater sins, (and it is impossible to say where a Bowl will lie, that is let fall down a Hill, though it be let never so gently out of the hand,) and there is no pureness of heart, till even these Cobwebs and Crumbs be swept away; He that affects that pureness, will consider well that of St. Augustine, 
Psal. 24.4.  Interest inter rectum cord, & mundum cord; a right heart and a clean heart, is not all one: He may have a right heart, that keeps in the right way, in the profession of the right Religion; but he only keeps his heart pure, that watches all his steps, even in that right way. St. Augustine considers that question of David, 
Psal. 24.3.  Quis ascendet, and quis stabit, Who shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place? And he applies the answer, Innocens manibus, & mundo cord; He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart: Thus, That he that hath clean hands, clean from blood, clean from bribery and oppression, clean from fornication, and such notorious sins, Ascendet in montem, He shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord, he shall be admitted to all the benefits that the Christian Church can give him; but only he that hath a pure heart, a care to glorify God, in a holy watchfulness upon all his particular actions, to the exclusion of lesser sins, stabit, shall stand safe, confident, unshaken, in his holy place, even in the judgement of God; clean hands justify him to men, a pure heart to God: And therefore this pureness of heart, is here wrapped up in the richest mantle, in the noblest affection, that the nature of man hath, that is, love▪ For this is not only a contentment, an acquiescence, a satisfaction, a delight in this pureness of heart, but love is a holy impatience in being without it, or being in a jealousy that we are without it; and it is a holy fervour and vehemency in the pursuit of it, and a preferring it before any other thing that can be compared to it: That's love; and therefore it deserves to be insisted upon, now when in our order proposed at first, from the thing itself that is required (pureness) and the seat, and centre of that pureness (the heart) and the way of this fixation of this pureness in the heart, (detestation of former habits of sins, and prevention of future sins, in a watchful consideration of all our actions, before we do them,) We are come to that affection wherewith this inestimable pureness is to be embraced, love: He that loveth pureness of heart.  
Love, in Divinity, is such an attribute, or such a notion, as designs to us one person in the Trinity; and that person who communicates, and applies to us, 
Amor.  the other two persons, that is, The Holy Ghost: So that, as there is no power, but with relation to the Father, nor wisdom but with relation to the Son, so there should be no love but in the Holy Ghost, from whom comes this pureness of heart, and consequently the love of it necessarily: For, the love of this pureness is part of this pureness itself, and no man hath it, except he love it. All love which is placed upon lower things, admits satiety; but this love of this pureness, always grows, always proceeds: It does not only file off the rust of our hearts, in purging us of old habits, but proceeds to a daily polishing of the heart, in an exact watchfulness, and brings us to that brightness, 
Augustine.  Ut ipse videas faciem in cord, & alii videant cor in fancy. That thou mayst see thy face in thy heart, and the world may see thy heart in thy face; indeed, that to both, both heart and face may be all one: Thou shalt be a Looking-glass to thyself, and to others too.  

Mulieres.  The highest degree of other love, is the love of woman: Which love, when it is rightly placed upon one woman, it is dignified by the Apostle with the highest comparison, 
Ephes. 5.25.  Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved his Church: And God himself forbade not that this love should be great enough to change natural affection, 
Gen. 2.24.  Relinquet patrem, (for this, a man shall leave his Father) yea, to change nature itself, caro una, two shall be one. Accordingly David expresses himself so, in commemoration of Jonathan, 
2 Sam. 1.26.  Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women: A love above that love, is wonderful. Now, this love between man and woman, doth so much confess a satiety, as that if a woman think to hold a man long, she provides herself some other capacity, some other title, then merely as she is a woman: Her wit, and her conversation, must continue this love; and she must be a wife, a helper; else, merely as a woman, this love must necessarily have intermissions. And therefore St. Jerome notes a custom of his time, 
Jerome.  (perchance prophetically enough of our times too) that to uphold an unlawful love, and make it continue, they used to call one another Friend, and Sister, and Cousin, Ut etiam peccatis induant nomina caritatis, that they might apparel ill affections in good names; and those names of natural and civil love might carry on, and continue a work, which otherwise would sooner have withered. In Parables, and in Mythology, and in the application of Fables, this affection of love, for the often change of subjects, is described to have wings; whereas the true nature of a good love (such as the love of this Text) is a constant union. But our love of earthly things is not so good as to be volatilis, apt to fly; for it is always grovelling upon the earth, and earthly objects: As in spiritual fornications, the Idols are said to have ears and hear not, and eyes and see not; so in this idolatrous love of the Creature, love hath wings, and flies not; it flies not upward, it never ascends to the contemplation of the Creator, in the Creature. The Poets afford us but one Man, that in his love flew so high as the Moon; Endymion loved the Moon. The sphere of our loves is sublunary, upon things naturally inferior to ourselves.  
Let none of this be so mistaken, as though women were thought improper for divine, or for civil conversation: For, they have the same soul; and of their good using the faculties of that soul, the Ecclesiastic story, and the Martyrologies, give us abundant examples of great things done, and suffered by women for the advancement of God's glory: But yet, as when the woman was taken out of man, God caused a heavy sleep to fall upon man, 
Gen. 2.22.  and he slept; so doth the Devil cast a heavy sleep upon him too. When the woman is so received into man again, as that she possesses him, fills him, transports him. I know the Fathers are frequent in comparing and paralleling Eve, the Mother of Man, and Mary the Mother of God. But, God forbidden any should say, That the Virgin Mary concurred to our good, so, as Eve did to our ruin. It is said truly, That as by one man sin entered, and death, 
Rom. 5.12.  so by one man entered life. It may be said, That by one woman sin entered, and death, (and that rather than by the man; for, 
1 Tim. 2.14.  Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, was in the transgression.) But it cannot be said, in that sense, or that manner, that by one woman innocence entered▪ and life: The Virgin Mary had not the same interest in our salvation, as Eve had in our destruction; nothing that she did entered into that treasure, that ransom that redeemed us. She, more than any other woman, and many other blessed women since, have done many things for the advancing of the glory of God, and imitation of others; so that they are not unfit for spiritual conversation; nor for the civil offices of friendship neither, where both tentation at home, and scandal abroad, may truly be avoided. I know St. Jerome in that case despised all scandal, and all malicious misinterpretations of his purpose therein, rather than give over persuading the Lady Paula, to come from Rome, to him, and live at Jerusalem: But, I know not so well, that he did well in so doing. A familiar and assiduous conversation with women will hardly be without tentation and scandal. St. Jerome himself apprehended that scandal tenderly, and expresses it passionately; Sceleratum me putant, & omnibus peccatis obrutum. The world takes me for a vicious man, more (sceleratum) for a wicked, a facinorous man, for this, and obrutum, surrounded, overflowed with all sins: Versipellem, lubricum, mendacem, satanae arte decipientem: They take me to be a slippery fellow, a turncoat from my professed austerity, a Liar, an Impostor, a Deceiver; yet, though he discerned this scandal, and this inconvenience in it, he makes shift to ease himself in this, Nihil aliud mihi objicitur, nisi sexus meus: They charge me with nothing but my sex, that I am a man; Et hoc nunquam objicitur, nisi cum Hierosolymam Paula proficiscitur, nor that neither, but because this Lady follows me to Jerusalem.  
He proceeds farther, That till he came acquainted in Paulas house at Rome, Omnium penè judicio, summo sacerdotio dignus decernebar, every man thought me fit to be Pope; every man thought reverently of him, till he used her house. St. Jerome would fain have corrected their misinterpretations, and slackened the scandal, as we see in that vehement expostulation, and unlikelihood of an ill love between him and Paula; Nulla alia me Romae edomare potuit? Was Rome so barren, so weak, so ill furnished with instruments of tentation, that nothing in Rome itself could shake my constancy, or retard my austerity, Nisi lugens, jejuna, squallida, fletibus caecata, but a sad, fasting, ill dressed woman, blind with weeping? Et quam manducantem nunquam vidi: A woman, whom (as familiar and domestic as I was in her house) I could never see eat bit of meat. But all this would not quench the fire, the scandal grew; he found it even amongst his brethren, Homines Christiani dicunt, he could not say, that only the enemies of the faith, or his enemies, but they that loved Religion well, and him well, talked dangerously and suspiciously of it; and yet St. Jerome could not dispose himself to forbear that conversation. He overcame the sense of it, with a par pari refertur: I, says he, am even with them: Invicem insanire videmur, they think me mad, and I think them mad: But this is not always a safe, nor a charitable way, when he might so easily have cured both madnesses. But he perseveres in it with that resolution, Saluta Paulam, velit nolit mundus, in Christo meam; Remember me to my Paula, let the world say what it will, in Christ, my Paula: Thus he proceeds; if excusably in his own behalf, that is the best; certainly not exemplarily, not to be followed by others, in cases of so great scandal: For there goes not only a great deal of innocency (which we acknowledge, doubtlessly, to have been between that blessed couple) but there must go a great deal of necessity too, (that is, That Paula could not have been reduced by any other means to the service of God, or continued in it, but by following St. Jerome to Jerusalem) to justify such a conversation as became so scandalous. And howsoever, in some cases excuses might be found, what good Mariner would anchor under a Rock, and lie in danger of beating upon that? What Fish would choose his food upon a Hook? What Mouse at a Trap? What man would mingle Sugar and Ratsbane together, and then trust his cunning to sever them again? Why should any man choose such company, such conversation, as may minister tentation to him, or scandal to others? 
Augustine,  St. Augustine apprehended this danger tenderly, when he gave his reason, why he would not have his Mother in the house with him, Because, says he, though there be no danger of scandal in the person of my Mother▪ all those women that serve my Mother, and that accompany my Mother, and that visit my Mother, all they are not Mothers to me; and a lawful conversation may come to an unlawful love quickly. We see how this love wrought, when it was scattered upon many women, (and therefore could not be so dangerously vehement upon any one) in Solomon, whose wife turned away his heart; 
1 King 11.4. Augustine.  so that his heart was not perfect with God. Nec errore putavit Idolis serviendum, Solomon never came to think deliberately, that Idolatry was lawful▪ sed blanditiis foemineis ad illa sacrificia compulsus, his appliableness to women brought him to that sacrilege. Thus it wrought, even when it was scattered upon many, in Solomon; and we see how it wrought, when it was collected and contracted upon one object, in Samson; 
Judg. 16.6.  Because she was importunate upon him (says the Text) and vexed him with her words continually, his soul was pained unto the death. Yea, if we go as high as is possible, to Adam himself, we see both St. Augustine and St. Jerome express his case thus, Adam non tanquam verum loquenti credidit, Adam did not believe Eve, nor was not overcome by her reasons, when she provoked him to eat the Apple, Sed sociali necessitudini paruit, he was affected with that near interest which was between them. And ne contristaretur delicias suas, lest by refusing he should put her, whom he delighted in, to a desperate sadness, and sense of her sin, he eat for company. And as the first, and the middle times did, so without doubt, our own times too, if we search but ourselves at home, do minister examples of this (in a proportion) which neither St. Jerome, nor Solomon, nor Samson, nor Adam avoided, that an overtender indulgence towards such women, that for other respects they were bound to love, inclined them to do such things, as otherwise they would not have done; Natural and civil obligations induced conversation, and conversation tentation, or if not that really, yet scandal.  
That that we drive to in all this, is this, that if we may not exceed in this love, which is natural, and commanded, much less in any other. So that there is nothing in this world left, for this noble and operative affection, Love, to work upon, but this pureness of heart. Love it therefore, that thou mayst seek it, love it that thou mayest have it; love it that thou mayest love it; for (as we said before) it is a part of this pureness to love it. Some of the ancient Fathers, out of their love to it, have put so high a price and estimation upon it, that they hardly afforded any grace, any pardon to those that sinned after they had once received this pureness in Baptism. So that with them, the heart could never be clean again, after it was once fouled a second time. Our new Roman Chemists, 
Mald●n.  on the other side, they that can transubstantiate bread into God, they can change any foulness into cleanness easily. They require no more after sin, but quendam tenuem dolorem internum, A little slight inward sorrow, and that's enough. For, they have provided an easier way, than Contrition; for, that which they have induced, and call Attrition, is not an affection, qui habet pro sine Deum, That hath proposed God, for the mark, that it is directed too; Nec qui indiget divina gratia; but it is such an affection as may be had without any concurrence or assistance of grace, and is only Dolour naturalis, 
Zambran.  & ex timore servili,, a natural sorrow, proceeding only out of a servile fear of torment. And yet, a Confession made with this Attrition and no more, is enough for salvation, say they; and he that hath made a confession with such a disposition as this, This that hath no reference to God, This that hath no strength from his grace, This that hath no motive from the fear of God, shall never need to repent any farther for his sins. Displiceri de peccato, 
Caj●tan.  sed non super omni displicibili; This is Attrition, to be displeased with our sins, but not more with our sins, then with any thing else; Intendere vitare peccatum, sed non super omne vitabile, To have a purpose to leave a sin, but not the sin rather than any thing else, this is their Attrition, and this is their enough for salvation. A sigh of the penitent, a word of the Priest, makes all clean, and induces an absolute pureness.  
Thus some of the Ancients went too far, They would pardon no sin after Baptism; These new Men go not far enough▪ They pardon all too easily. Old Physicians thought all hurts in the heart presently mortal; These new Physicians can pair off some of the heart, and give it to Idolatry; for, so they say, that the worship due to God may be given to a creature, so it be not Tanquam Deo, as that the Creature is thereby professed to be God; and yet, they confess that that worship which they give to the creature is idolatry, but, not that Idolatry, say they, which is forbidden in the commandment, which is, that that Creature, so worshipped with the worship due to God, be also believed to be God; and so, truly I believe it will be hard to find any Idolatry in the world; That they that worship any thing, in representation of God, do believe advisedly that representation to be very God. But the true reason why no hurt received in the heart can be healed, is, quia palpitat, because it is in perpetual motion. If the heart lay still, as other parts do, so that medicinal helps might be applied to it, and admitted by it, there were more hope. Therefore when we lay such a weight upon the heart, as may settle it, fix it, give it a reposedness and acquiescence, though it do receive some wounds, though it be touched with some tentations, it may be cured. But is there any such weight as should so settle the heart, the soul of Man? This love of Pureness is that weight. 
August.  Amor est pondus animae; sicut gravitas, Corporis; As the weight of my body makes that steady, so this love of Pureness is the weight and the ballast of my soul; and this weight stays the palpitation, the variation, the deviation of the heart upon other objects; which variation frustrates all endeavours to cure it.  
The love of this pureness is both the ballast and the frait, to carry thee steadily and richly too, through all storms and tempests, spiritual and temporal in this life, to the everlasting Jerusalem. If you be come to this love, this love of pureness of heart, never to lock up your door till you have carried out your dust; never to shut your eyes at night, till you have swept your conscience, and cast your foulness into that infinite sea of the blood of Christ Jesus, which can contract no foulness by it; never to open your eyes in the morning, but that you look out to glorify God in the rising of the Sun, and in his other creatures, and in the peace and safety of your house and family, and the health of your children and servants; But, especially to look inward, and consider, whether you have not that night mingled poison with God's Physic, whether you have not mingled sloth and laziness in that which God gave you for rest and refreshing; whether you have not mingled licentiousness in that which God gave you for a remedy against fornication. And then, when you shall have found that sin hath been awake in you, even when your bodies were asleep, be sure you cast not the Spirit of God into a sleep in you, when your bodies are awake, but that you proceed vigilantly in your several ways, with a foreknowledge, that there is every where coluber in via, A Snake in the way; in every way that you can take, in every course of life, in every calling, there is some of the seed of the old Serpent presents itself. And then, if by God's infallible word, explicated in his Church, 
Psal. 119.104.  which is Lucerna pedibus vestris (The word is the light, but the Church is the Lantern, 
2 Sam. 22.29.  it presents and preserves that light unto you; and though it be said Lucerna Dominus, 
Apoc. 21.23.  Thou O Lord art my light, God himself; And Lucerna Agnus, The Lamb, Christ himself is your light; And lucerna mandatum, 
Prov. 6.23. John 5.35.  The commandments of God are your light; yet it is also said of john Baptist, Lucerna arden's, he was a burning and a shining light; The Ministry of the Gospel in the Church, is your light) If by the benefit of this light, you consider every step you make, weigh every action you undertake, this is that love of Pureness, that Pondus animae, the settling of the heart, that keeps it from evaporating upon transitory things, and settles it so, as that it becomes capable of that cure, which God, in his Church, in the Absolution of sins, and seals of Reconciliation, exhibits to it. To recollect and contract that which hath been said, This pureness is not a purifying pureness, to correct and reform those things that appertain not to us; nor it is not such a purified pureness as makes us Canonize ourselves, and think others Reprobates (for, all this is no pureness at all:) neither is it the true pureness, if it be not in the heart (for outward good works, not done to good ends, are impure:) nor is this pureness of heart acquired by any other means, then by discharging the heart in a detestation of former habits, and a sedulous watchfulness in preventing future attempts; nor can this pureness of heart, though by these means attained to, be preserved, but by this noble and incorruptible affection of Love, that puts a true value upon it, and therefore prefers it above all other things. And this was the first of the two marks which we found to be upon that person that should be capable of the King's friendship, He that loveth pureness of heart. And the other is, that he have by honest industry fitted himself, in some way, to be of use to the public, delivered in that phrase, Grace of lips; He that loveth pureness of heart (There's his honesty;) for the Grace of his lips (There's his sufficiency;) The King shall be his friend, There's his reward his preferment.  

Gratia labiorum.  Ordinarily in Scriptures, where this word lips is not taken naturally, literally, narrowly, for that part of the body, but transferred to a figurative and larger sense, either it signifies speaking only (as in Solomon, As, righteous lips are the delight of Kings, and the King loveth him that speaketh right things (That is, Him, in whose Counsels, 
Prov. 16.13.  and in whose relations he may confide and rely;) or else it is enlarged to all manner of expressing a man's ability, to do service to that State in which God hath made his station; and by lips, and fruits of lips, is well understood the fruit of all his good labours and endeavours. And so may those words be well interpreted, With the fruit of a man's mouth shall his belly be satisfied, and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled; 
18.20.  That is, his honest labours in a lawful calling shall enrich him. As therefore those words, 
Vers. 16.  A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men, are not always understood of Gifts given in nature of Bribes or gratifications for access to great persons, but also of Gifts given by God to men, that those Gifts and good parts make them acceptable to great persons; so is not Grace of lips to be restrained, either to a plausible and harmonious speaking, appliable to the humour of the hearer (for that's excluded in the first part, the root and fountain of all, Pureness of heart, for, flattery cannot consist with that) nor to be restrained to the good Offices and Abilities of the tongue only (though they be many;) but this Grace of lips is to be enlarged to all declarations, and expressings, and utterings of an ability to serve the Public; All that is Grace of lips. And in those words of Osea, We render the Calves of our lips, is neither meant as the Jews say, 
14.13.  Those Calves which we have promised with our lips, and will pay in sacrifice, then, when we are restored to our Land of promise again. Nor are those Calves of our lips only restrained to the Lip-service of Praise, 
Heb. 14.15.  and Prayer, though of them also St. Paul understand them; but they include all the sacrifices of the New Testament, and all ways by which man can do service to God; so here the Grace of lips reaches to all the ways by which a man in civil functions may serve the Public. And this Grace of lips, in some proportion, in some measure, every man is bound in conscience to procure to himself; he is bound to enable himself to be useful and profitable to the Public, in some course, in some vocation.  
Since even the Angels, which are all Spirit, be yet administering Spirits, and execute the Commissions and Ambassages of God, and communicate with men; should man, who is not made all soul, but a composed creature of body and soul, exempt himself from doing the offices of mutual society, and upholding that frame in which God is pleased to be glorified? Since God himself, who so many millions of ages contented himself with himself in Heaven, yet at last made this world for his glory; shall any man live so in it as to contribute nothing towards it? Hath God made this World his Theatre, ut exhibeatur ludus deorum, 
Plato.  that man may represent God in his conversation; and wilt thou play no part? But think that thou only wast made to pass thy time merrily, and to be the only spectator upon this Theatre? Is the world a great and harmonious Organ, where all parts are played, and all play parts; and must thou only sit idle and hear it? Is every body else made to be a Member, and to do some real office for the sustentation of this great Body, this World; and wilt thou only be no member of this Body? Thinkest thou that thou wast made to be Cos Amoris, a Mole in the Face for Ornament, a Man of delight in the World? Because thy wit, thy fashion, and some such nothing as that, hath made thee a delightful and acceptable companion, wilt thou therefore pass in jest, and be nothing? If thou wilt be no link of God's Chain, thou must have no part in the influence and providence, derived by that, successively to us. Since it is for thy fault that God hath cursed the Earth, and that therefore it must bring forth Thorns and Thistles, wilt not thou stoop down, nor endanger the pricking of thy hand, to weed them up? Thinkest thou to eat bread, and not sweat? Hast thou a prerogative above the common Law of Nature? Or must God insert a particular clause of exemption for thy sake?  
Oh get thee then this grace of lips; be fit to be inserted, and be inserted into some society, and some way of doing good to the Public. I speak not this to yourselves, you Senators of London; but as God hath blessed you in your ways, and in your Callings, so put your children into ways and courses too, in which God may bless them. The dew of Heaven falls upon them that are abroad; Gods blessings fall upon them that travel in the world. The Father's former labours shall not excuse their Sons future idleness; as the Father hath, so the Son must glorify God, and contribute to the world, in some settled course. And then, as God hath blessed thee in the grace of thy lips, in thy endeavours, in thyself, so thy sons shall grow up, as the Son of God himself did, in grace and favour of God and man. As God hath blessed thee in the fruit of thy , so he shall bless thee in the fruit of thy Body; and as he hath blessed thee in the City, so he shall bless thee in the Field, in that Inheritance which thou shalt leave to thy Son. Whereas, when children are brought up in such a tenderness, and wantonness at home, as is too frequent amongst you in this City, they never come to be of use to the State, nor their own Estates of any longer use to them. That Son that comes to say. My Father hath laboured, and therefore I may take mine ease, will come to say at last, My Saviour hath suffered, and therefore I may take my pleasure; My Saviour hath fasted, and therefore I may riot, My Saviour hath wept enough, and therefore I may be merry. But as our Saviour requires Cooperarios, that we be fellow-workers with him to make sure our salvation; so if your Sons be not Cooperarii, Labourers in some course of life, to make sure their Inheritance, though you have been called wise in your generation, that is; rich in your own times, yet you will be called fools in your generation too; that is, ignominious and wretched in your posterity. In a word, he that will be nothing in this world, shall be nothing in the next; nor shall he have the Communion of Saints there, that will not have the Communion of good men here. As much as he can, he frustrates God's Creation; God produced things of nothing, and he endeavours to bring all to nothing again; and he despises his own immortality and glorification; for since he lives the life of a beast, he shows that he could be content to die so too, & accepit animam in vano, he hath received a soul to no purpose.  
This grace of lips then, this ability to do good to the Public, we are bound to have; but we are not commanded to love it, as we are the pureness of heart; we must love to have it, but we must not be in love with it when we have it. But since the holy Ghost hath chosen to express these abilities, in this word, Grace of lips, that intimates a duty of utterance, and declaration of those abilities which he hath. Habere te agnoscere, & ex te nihil habere; To let it appear in the use of them, that thou hast good parts, and to confess that thou hast nothing of thine own; Hoc est nec ingratum esse, nec superbum; therein thou art neither unthankful to God, nor proud of thyself. As he that hath no other good parts, but money; and locks up that, or employs it so, as that his money feeds upon the Commonwealth, and does not feed it, (that it lies gnawing and sucking blood, by Usury, and does not make blood, by stirring and walking in Merchandise,) is an unprofitable member in State; so he that hath good parts, and smothers them, in a retired and useless life, is inexcusable in the same measure. When therefore men retire themselves into Cloisters and Monasteries, when they will not be content with St. Paul's diminution, to be changed from Saul, to Paulus, (which is little) but will go lower than that little, by being called minorites, less than little, and lower than that, minims, lest of all; and yet find an order less than that, as they have done, nullani, nothing at all, Exore suo, out of their own mouths they shall be judged; and that which they have made themselves here, God shall make them in the world to come, nullanos, nothing at all. Paulum sepultae distatinertiae celata virtus, It is all one as if he had no grace of lips, if he never have the grace to open his lips; to bury himself alive, is as much wrong to the State, as if he kill himself. Every man hath a Politic life, as well as a natural life; and he may no more take himself away from the world, than he may make himself away out of the world. For he that dies so, by withdrawing himself from his calling, from the labours of mutual society in this life, that man kills himself, and God calls him not. Morte morietur, He shall die a double death; an Allegorical death here, in his retiring, from his own hand; and a real death from the hand of God hereafter. In this case, that Vae soli, Woe be unto him that is alone, hath the heaviest weight with it; when a man lives so alone, as that he respects no body but himself, his own ease, and his own ends. For, to sum up all concerning this part, the Subject, as our principal duty is, Pureness of heart towards God, and to love that entirely, earnestly; so the next is the Grace of lips, Ability to serve the Public; which though we be bound not to love it with a pride, we are bound not to smother with a retiring. And then for these endowments (for being Religious, and serviceable to the State). The King shall be our friend. Which is our second general part, to which, in our order proposed, we are now come.  
As it is frequent and ordinary in the Scriptures, when the Holy Ghost would express a superlative, 
Rev, nota superlativi.  the highest degree of any thing, to express it, by adding the name of God to it (as when Saul and his company were in such a dead sleep, as that David could take his Spear, and pot of water from under his head; It is called Tardemath Jehovah, sopor Domini, The sleep of the Lord, The greatest sleep that could possess a man; and so in many other places, fortitudo Domini, and timor Domini, signify the greatest strength, and the greatest fear that could fall upon a man) so also doth the Holy Ghost often descend from God, to God's Lieutenant; and as to express superlatives, he does sometimes use the name of God; so doth he also sometimes use the name of King. For, Reges sunt summi Regis defluxus (says that Author, who is so ancient, that no man can tell when he was, Trismegistus) God is the Sun, and Kings are Beams, and emanations, and influences that flow from him. Such is the manner of the Holy Ghost expressing himself in Esai. Tyrus shall be forgotten seventy years, 
Esay. 23.15.  according to the years of one King; that is, during the time of any one man's life, how happy and fortunate soever. And so also the miserable and wretched estate of the wicked, is likewise expressed, 
Job. 18.14.  His hope shall be rooted out of his dwelling, and shall drive him to the King of fears; that is, to the greatest despair; ad Regem interituum (says the Vulgar) to the greatest destruction that can be conceived. So that in this first sense, Amicitia Regis, the King's friendship that is promised here, (The King shall be his friend) is a superlative friendship, a spreading, a delating, an universal friendship. He that is thus qualified, all the world shall love him.  

Rex qui fortunatus.  So also by the name of King, both in the Scriptures, and in Josephus, and in many more profane and secular Authors, are often designed such persons as were not truly of the rank and quality of Kings; but persons that lived in plentiful and abundant fortunes, and had all the temporal happinesses of this life, were called Kings. And in this sense, the King's friendship that is promised here, (The King shall be his friend) is utilis amicitia, all such friends as may do him good. God promises, that to men thus endowed and qualified belongs the love and assistance that men of plentiful fortunes can give; great Persons, great in Estate, great in Power and Authority, shall confer their favours upon such men, and not upon such as only serve to swell a train, always for ostentation, sometimes for sedition; much less shall they confer their favours upon sycophants and buffoons; least of all upon the servants of their vices and voluptuousness; but they whom God hath made Kings in that sense, (Masters of abundant fortunes) shall do good to them only who have this pureness of heart, and grace of lips.  

Rex Ipse.  But if these words be not only intended of the King literally, That he shall do good to men thus endowed and qualified, but extended to all men in their proportion, that all that are able should do good to such persons; yet this Text is principally intended of the King himself, and therefore is so expressed singularly and emphatically, The King shall be his friend. As God hath appointed it for a particular dignity to his Spouse, the Church, That Kings shall be their foster-fathers', 
Esa. 49.23.  and Queens their nurses; so God hath designed it for a particular happiness of religious and capable men, that they may stand before the King, and hear his wisdom, as the Queen of Sheba observed of the servants of Solomon, 
1 Reg, 10. 9  and pronounced them happy for that. This then is a happiness belonging to this pureness, and this grace, that the King shall not only nor absolutely rely upon the information of others, and take such a measure, and such a character of men, as the good or bad affections of others will present unto him; but he shall take an immediate knowledge of them himself; he shall observe their love to this pureness of heart, and their grace of lips, and so become their friend.  
Unto which of the Angels said God at any time, 
Amicus.  Thou art my son, says the Apostle? Indeed to none of them; 
Heb. 1.5.  it was a name peculiar to Christ. Unto what man did God ever say, Thou art my friend? only to one, to Abraham; (Israel, and Jacob, 
Esa. 41.8. 2 Chr. 20.7.  and the seed of Abraham my friend) Jehosaphat before this had taken knowledge of this friendship between God and Abraham, (Didst thou not give this Land to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?) And so doth St. James also record this friendship after, (Abraham believed, and he was called the friend of God.) 
James 2.23.  God never called any man friend, but him to whom he gave a change of name, and honourable additions. He called him Abraham, a name of dilatation, Patrem multitudinum, a Father of multitudes; he made him able to do good to others; for he did not only say, Blessed shalt thou be, for that might be, blessed of others, or blessed amongst others; but it is not Eris Benedictus, but Eris Benedictio, Thou shalt be a Blessing, 
Gen. 12.2.  a Blessing to others. I will make thee a blessed instrument of conveying my Blessings to other men. That's God's friendship, and the highest preferment that man is capable of in this life, to extend men beyond themselves, and make them his Instruments to others.  
Step we a step lower, from God to the King; for as Kings have no example but God, so according to that example they are reserved, and sparing in affording that name of friend to any. For, as moral men have noted, friendsship implies some degrees of equality, which cannot stand between King and Subject. But this is the encouragement to this loving of pureness, and this seeking the grace of lips; that this is the true and the only way to that friendship of the King, which is intended in the word of this Text. The word is Nagnah; and Nagnah hath such a latitude in the Scriptures, as may well give satisfaction to any Subject: For Nagnah signifies Amare, to love; and so the King shall love this man. But we have known cases in which Kings have been fain to disguise and dissemble their love, out of a tenderness and lothness to grieve them whom they have loved before; and so the King may love this man, and he never the better. Therefore this word Nagnah, signifies sociare, to draw him nearer, to associate him to him, in Counsels, and other ways, and always to afford him easy accesses unto him; but we have known cases too, in which Kings, though they have opened one Cabinet, their Affections, yet they have shut up another, their Judgements, and their last purposes, even from them whom they have drawn near them. For Kings naturally love to be at their liberty; and it is not only a greatness, but an ease, to be able to disavow an instruction, upon the misunderstanding of the Minister and Instrument. Therefore against such intricacies and entanglings, this Dagnah signifies Docere, The King shall teach him, inform him directly, candidly, ingenuously, apertly, without any perplexities or reservations. And who would not purify his heart, and add grace to his lips, that he might taste this friendship of the King, to be loved by him; and feel the influences of his affection, to be drawn near him; and made partaker of his consultations; to be taught by him, and carried all the way with clearness, and without danger of mistaking? And who would not employ the thoughts of a pure heart, and the praises of graceful lips, in thanksgivings to Almighty God, who hath blessed us with such times, as that such Subjects have found such a King!  
Neither is this encouragement to this Pureness, and this Grace in our Text, only in the benignity of the King, (which yet were a just provocation, that the King would consider such men before others; for all Kings do not always so) but it is in his duty, it is in his office; for, (as our Translators have expressed it) we see it is not said, The King will be; but, The King shall be his friend; it is not an arbitrary, but a necessary thing. God, in whose hands the King's heart is, 
Non Arbitrarium.  and who only can give Law, and Precept to the King, hath said, The King shall be his friend. Neither hath God left the King at that largeness, that he shall seem to be his friend, and do for him as though he were his friend, but yet not be so. Etiam simulare Philosophiam, Philosophia est; It is a degree of wisdom to seem wise. 
Veritas Amicitiae.  To be able to hold the world in opinion that one is great with the King, is a degree of greatness. And we have some Tales, and Apophthegms to that purpose; when men have been suitors to the King for that favour, that they might bid him but good morrow in his ear, thereby to put impressions in the beholders, that they had a familiar interest in him. But when the grounds of this Royal friendship are true and solid, Purenss of heart, and Grace of lips, the friendship must be so too. And then the ground being good, as it is not said, the King shall seem to be, but he shall be; so it is not said, the king shall have been, but he shall be; he shall be so still, he shall continue this friendship; but yet, but so long as this Pureness and this Grace continues, which produced this friendship in him.  

Duratio Amicitiae.  For all this great frame, the friendship of the King, turns upon this little hinge, this particle, this monosyllable, His; The King shall be His, His friend. And to whom hath that His relation? To him, and him only that hath both Pureness of heart, and Grace of lips. Neither truth in Religion, nor abilities to serve the Public, must be wanting in him to whom the King shall be a friend. For for the first, sincerity in Religion, St. Ambrose expressed that, 
Ambros. Offic. l. 2.22.  (and the other too) elegantly; An idoneum putabo qui mihi det consilium, qui non dat sibi? Can I think him fit to give me counsel, that mis-counsels himself in the highest business, Religion? Mihi eum vacare credam, qui sibi non vacat? Shall I think that he will study me, that neglects himself? His best self? the soul itself? And then for his doing good to the Public, 
L. 1. 8.  Officium ab Efficiendo, & Efficium dicendum, says he. He only is fit for an Office, that knows how to execute it; he must have pureness of heart for his end; for he that proposes not that end, will make an ill end. And he must have this Grace of lips, which implies that civil-wiswisdom, which, (as the Philosopher notes) versatur circa media perveniendi; He must know wherein he may be useful and beneficial to others, thankful to God, profitable to others; that's his circumference; and then his centre here, is the love of the King. For these destroy not one another, Religion and Prudence. As that love which Christ bore to St. John, who lay in his bosom, (towards whom Christ had certainly other humane and affectionate respects, than he had to the rest) made him not the less fit to be an Apostle, and an Evangelist; nor the great Office of Apostleship made him not unfit for that love that Christ bore him; so both these endowments, Pureness of heart, and Grace of lips, are not only compatible, but necessary to him to whom the King shall be a friend. And both these doth God require, (if we consider the force of the Original words) when he says, Bring ye men of wisdom, and known among the Tribes, and I will make them Rulers over you. For, 
Deut 1.13.  that addition, (known among the Tribes) excludes reserved men, proud and inaccessible men; though God do not intent there popular men, yet he does intent men acceptable to the people. And when David comes to a lustration, to a sifting of his Family, as he says, He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me; expressing in that, this Pureness; so intending to speak of this Grace of lips, 
Psal. 101.6.  which is an ability to be useful to others, for which nothing makes a man more unfit than Pride, and harshness, and hardness of access, he scarce knows how to express himself and his indignation against such a man; Him (says he) that hath a proud look, and a high heart, I cannot; and there he ends abruptly; He does not say, 
v. 5.  I cannot work upon him, I cannot mend him, I cannot pardon him, I cannot suffer him; but only, I cannot, and no more; I cannot tell what to do with him, I cannot tell what to say of him; and therefore I give him over: Him that hath a proud look, and a high heart, I cannot. Whatsoever his grace of lips be, how good soever his parts, he doth not only want the principal part, Pureness of heart, but he cannot be a fit instrument of that most blessed union between Prince and Subject, if his proud look, and harsh behaviour make him unacceptable to honest men. It was (says the Orator to the Emperor Theodosius) Execratio postrema, an Execration, and an expressing of their indignation, beyond which they could not go, when speaking of Tarquin, Libidine praecipitem, Avaritia caecum, furore vaecordem, crudelitate immanem, vocarunt superbum, They thought it enough to call a man that was licentious, and covetous, and furious, and bloody, proud; Et putaverunt sufficere convitium, they thought themselves sufficiently revenged upon him for all their grievances, and that they had said as much as any Orator in an Invective, any Poet in a satire, could say, when they had imprinted that name upon his memory, Tarquin the Proud.  
To those therefore that have insinuated themselves into the friendship of the King, without these two endowments: If the King hath always Christ for his example, 
Matth. 22.12.  if he say to them, Amice, quomodo intrasti, Friend, how came you in? If you had not this wedding garment on, or if this wedding garment were not your own, but borrowed by an Hypocritical dissimulation, Amice, quomodo intrasti; though you be never so much my friend, in never so near place to me, I must know how you got in; for, I have but two doors, (indeed, not two doors, but a gate, and a wicket; a greater, and an inferior way.) A religious heart, and useful parts; if you have not these, if you fear not God, and, if you study not, (as I do) the welfare of my people; you are not come in at my gate, (that is, Religion) nor at my wicket, (that is, the good of my people:) And therefore, how near so ever you be crept, I must have a review, an inquiry, to know, quomodo intrasti, how you came in.  
But for those which have these two endowments, (Religion, and care of the public) we have the word of the King of Kings, of God himself, in the mouth of the wisest King, King Solomon, The King shall be his friend: And the King hath Christ himself still for his example, Who loved them whom he loved to the end: For, as long as the reason, upon which he grounds his word, remains, 
Demesthenes.  Regis verbum Regi Rex est, the King's word, the King's love, the King's favour, Regi Rex est, is a King upon the King, and binds him to his word, as well as his subjects are bound to him.  
To recollect and fasten these pieces; these be the benefits of this pureness of heart, and grace of lips, first, That the King shall take an immediate and personal knowledge of him, and not be misled by false characters, or false images of him, by any breath that would blast him in the King's ear. And then, tnat he shall take it to be his Royal Office, and Christian duty to do so; that to those men, whom he finds so qualified, he shall be a friend in all those acceptations of the word in our Text: Amabit, he shall love them, impart his affections to them; Sociabit, he shall associate them to him, and impart his consultations unto them: And Sociabit again, He shall go along with them, and accompany their labours, and their services, by the seal of his countenance, and ratification: And Docebit, He shall instruct them clearly in his just pleasure, without entangling, or snaring them in perplexities, by ambiguous directions. This is the capacity required (to be religious and useful;) this is the preferment assured, The King shall be his friend; and this is the compass of our Text.  
Now, Beloved, as we are able to interpret some places of the Revelation, better than the Fathers could do, 
Accommodatio ad Diem.  because we have seen the fulfilling of some of the Prophecies of that Book, which they did but conjecture upon; so we can interpret and apply this Text by way of accommodation the more usefully, because we have seen these things performed by those Princes whom God hath set over us. We need not that Edict of the Senate of Rome, Ut sub titulo gratiarum agendarum; That upon pretence of thanking our Princes, for that which, we say, they had done, Boni principes, quae facerent recognoscerent, Good Princes should take knowledge what they were bound to do, though they had not done so yet.  
We need not this Circuit, nor this disguise; for, God's hand hath been abundant towards us, in raising Ministers of State, so qualified, and so endowed; and such Princes as have fastened their friendships, and conferred their favours upon such persons. We celebrate, seasonably, opportunely, the thankful acknowledgement of these mercies, this day: This day, which God made for us, according to the pattern of his first days in the Creation; where, Vesper & mane dies unus, the evening first, and then the morning made up the day; for, here the saddest night, and the joyfullest morning, that ever the daughters of this Island saw, made up this day. Consider the tears of Richmond this night, and the joys of London, at this place, at this time, in the morning; and we shall find Prophecy even in that saying of the Poet, Nocte pluit tota, showers of rain all night, of weeping for our Sovereign; and we would not be comforted, because she was not: 
Matth. 2.18.  And yet, redeunt spectacula manè, the same hearts, the same eyes, the same hands were all directed upon recognitions, and acclamations of her successor, in the morning: And when every one of you in the City were running up and down like Aunts with their eggs bigger than themselves, every man with his bags, to seek where to hid them safely, Almighty God shed down his Spirit of Unity, and recollecting, and reposedness, and acquiescence, upon you all. In the death of that Queen, unmatchable, imitable in her sex; that Queen, worthy, I will not say of Nestor's years, I will not say of Methusalems', but worthy of Adam's years, if Adam had never fallen; in her death we were all under one common flood, and depth of tears. But the Spirit of God moved upon the face of that depth; and God said, Let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that that light was good. God took pleasure, and found a savour of rest, in our peaceful cheerfulness, and in our joyful and confident apprehension of blessed days in his Government, whom he had prepared at first, and preserved so often for us.  

Plinius ad Trajan.  As the Rule is true, Cum de Malo principe posteri tacent, manifestum est vilem facere praesentem, when men dare not speak of the vices of a Prince that is dead, it is certain that the Prince that is alive proceeds in the same vices; so the inversion of the Rule is true too, Cum de bono principe loquuntur, when men may speak freely of the virtues of a dead Prince, it is an evident argument, that the present Prince practices the same virtues; for, if he did not, he would not love to hear of them. Of her, we may say (that which was well said, and therefore it were pity it should not be once truly said, for, so it was not, when it was first said to the Emperor julian) nihil humile, aut abjectum cogitavit, quia novit de se semper loquendum; she knew the world would talk of her after her death, and therefore she did such things all her life were worthy to be talked of. Of her glorious successor, and our gracious Sovereign, 
Plinus ad Trajan.  we may say; Onerosum est succedere bono Principi, It would have troubled any king but him, to have come in succession, and in comparison with such a Queen. And in them both we may observe the unsearchableness of the ways of God; of them both, we may say, Dominus fecit, It is the Lord that hath done it, 
Psal. 118.23.  and it is wonderful in our eyes: First, That a woman and a maid should have all the wars of Christendom in her contemplation, and govern and balance them all; And then, That a King, born and bred in a warlike Nation, and so accustomed to the sword, as that it had been directed upon his own person, in the strength of his age, and in his Infancy, in his Cradle, in his mother's belly, should yet have the blessed spirit of peace so abundantly in him, as that by his Councils, and his authority, he should sheathe all the swords of Christendom again. De forti egressa dulcedo, sweetness is come out of the strong, 
Judg. 14.24.  in a stranger manner, then when Samson said so in his riddle; And howsoever another wise King found it true, Anima saturata calcab it favum, The person that is full despiseth honey, 
Prov. 27.7.  they that are glutted with the benefits of peace, would fallen change for a war; yet the wisest King of all hath pronounced for our King, 
Mat. 5.9.  Beati pacifici, Blessed are the peacemakers. If subjects will not apprehend it with joy here, the King himself shall joy hereafter, for, Therefore (says that Gospel) Therefore, because he was a peacemaker, he shall be called The child of God. 
2 Tim. 2.12.  Though then these two great Princes (of whom the one con-regnat Christo, reigns now with Christ, the other reigns here over us vice Christi, for Christ, were near in blood, yet thus were they nearest of kin, quod uterque optimus, That they were both better than any other, and equal to one another. Dignus alter eligi, 
Plin. de Nerva, & Traja.  alter eligere, That she was fittest in that fullness of years, to be chosen and assumed into heaven; and he fittest (as Saint Paul did because it was more behooveful for his brethren) to choose to stay upon earth, for our protection, and for our direction; because (as in all Princes it is) vita principis perpetua censura, There cannot be a more powerful increpation upon the subject's excesses, then when they see the King deny himself those pleasures which they take.  
As then this place, where we all stand now, 
Non Anticipavit.  was the Sanctuary whither we all resorted this day, to receive the assurance of our safety, in the proclamation of his undoubted title to this Kingdom, so let it be our Altar now, where we may sacrifice our humble thanks to God, first, that he always gave the King a just, and a religious patience of not attempting a coming into this Kingdom, till God emptied the throne here, by translating that Queen to a throne more glorious. Perchance he was not without tentations from other men to have done otherwise. But, 
Pacatus ad Theodos.  Ad Principatum per obsequ ium venit, he came to be King by his obedience, his obedience to the law of Nature, and the laws of this Kingdom, to which some other King would have disputed, whether he should have obeyed or no. Cum omnia faceret imperare ut deberet, nihil fecit, ut imperaret; All his Actions, all that he did, showed him fit for this Crown, and yet he would do nothing to anticipate that Crown.  
Next let us pour out our thanks to God, 
Nen adulatus.  that in his entrance he was beholden to no by-religion. The Papists could not make him place any hopes upon them, nor the Puritans make him entertain any fears from them; but his God and our God, as he brought him via lactea, by the sweet way of Peace, that flows with milk and honey, so he brought him via Regia, by the direct and plain way, without any deviation or descent into ignoble flatteries, or servile humouring of any persons or factions. 
Non occulte.  Which noble, and Christian courage he expressed more manifestly, when, after that infamous powder treason, the intended dissolution, and conflagration of this state (that plot that even amazed and astonished the Devil, and seemed a miracle even in hell, that treason, which, whosoever wishes might be covered how, is sorry that it was discovered then, whosoever wishes that it might be forgotten, wishes that it had proceeded; And therefore let our tongue cleave unto the roof our mouths, if we do not confers his loving kindness before the Lord, and his wonderful works before the Sons of men) Then I say, did his Majesty show this Christian courage of his more manifestly, when he sent the profession of his Religion, The Apology of the Oath of Allegiance, and his opinion of the Roman Antichrist, in all languages, to all Princes of Christendom. By occasion of which Book, though there have risen twenty Rabshakes, who have railed against our God in railing against our Religion, and twenty Shemeiss, who have raised against the person of his sacred Majesty (for, I may pronounce that the number of them who have barked, and snarled at that book in writing, is scarceless than forty) yet scarce one of them all hath undertaken the arguments of that book, but either repeated, and perchance enlarged those things which their own Authors had shoveled together of that subject (that is, The Pope's Temporal power) or else they have bend themselves maliciously, insolently, sacrilegiously, against the person to his Majesty; and the Pope may be Antichrist still, for any thing they have said to the contrary. It belonged only to him, whom no earthly King may enter into comparison with, 
John 17.12.  the King of Heaven, Christ Jesus, to say, Those that thou gavest me have I kept, and none of them is lost; And even in him, in Christ Jesus himself, that admitted one exception; Judas the child of perdition was lost. Our King cannot say that none of his Subjects are fled to Rome; but his vigilancy at home hath wrought so, as that fewer are gone from our Universities thither, in his, then in former times; and his Books abroad have wrought so, that much greater, and considerable persons are come to us, then are gone from us. I add that particular, (from our Universities) because we see, that since those men whom our Universities had bred, and graduated before they went thither, (of which the number was great, for many years of the Queen's time) are worn out amongst them, and dead; those whom they make up there, whom they have had from their first youth there, who have received all their Learning from their beggarly and fragmentary way of Dictates there, and were never grounded in our Schools nor Universities, have proved but weak maintainers or that cause, compared with those men of the first times.  
As Plato says of a particular natural body, he that will cure an ill Eye, must cure the Head; he that will cure the Head, must cure the Body; and he that will cure the Body, must cure the Soul; that is, must bring the Mind to a temperature, a moderation, an equanimity; so in Civil Bodies, in States, Head, and Eye, and Body; Prince, and Council, and People, do all receive their health and welfare from the pureness of Religion: And therefore, as the chiefest of all, I chose to insist upon that Blessing, That God hath given us a Religious King, and Religious out of his Understanding. His other Virtues work upon several conditions of men; by this Blessing, the whole Body is blest. And therefore not only they which have been salted with the salt of the Court, as it is said of the King's Servants; but all that are salted with the salt of the Earth, 
Ezra 4.24. Matth. 5.13. Mark 9.50.  (as Christ calls his Church, his Apostles) all that love to have salt in themselves, and peace with one another, all that are sensible of the Spiritual life, and growth, and good taste that they have by the Gospel, are bound to praise him, to magnify him for ever, that hath vouchsafed us a Religious King, and Religious out of Understanding.  
Many other happinesses are rooted in the love of the Subject; and of his confidence in their love, his very absence from us is an argument to us. His continual abode with us hath been an argument of his love to us; and this long Progress of his is an argument of his assurance of our loyalty to him. It is an argument also of the good habitude and constitution to which he hath brought this State, and how little harm they that wish ill to it, are able to do, 
Mamertinus. Maximiano.  upon any advantage; Hanc in vobis fiduciam pertimescunt; This confidence of his makes his home-enemies more afraid, than his Laws, or his trained-bands; Et contemnise sentiunt, cum relinquuntur; When they are left to their own malignity, and to do their worst, they discern in that, how despicable and contemptible a party they are. Cum in interiora Imperii seceditis, when the King may go so far from the heart of his Kingdom, and the enemy be able to make no use of his absence, this makes them see the desperateness of their vain imaginations. He is not gone from us; for a Noble part of this Body, (our Nation) is gone with him, and a Royal part of his Body stays with us. Neither is the farthest place that he goes to, any other than ours, now, when, as the Roman Orator said; Nunc demum juvat orbem terrarum spectare depictum, 
Eumenius.  cum in illo nihil videmus alienum; Now it is a comfort to look upon a Map of the World, when we can see nothing in it that is not our own; so we may say, Now it is a pleasant sight to look upon a Map of this Island, when it is all one. As we had him at first, and shall have him again, from that Kingdom, where the natural days are longer than ours are, so may he have longer days with us, than ever any of our Princes had; and as he hath Immortalitatem propriam sibi, filium sibi similem, (as it was said of Constantine,) a peculiar immortality, not to die, because he shall live in his Son; so in the fullness of time, and in the accomplishment of God's purposes upon him, may he have the happiness of the other Immortality, and peacefully surrender all his Crowns in exchange of one, a Crown of immortal glory, which the Lord the righteous Judge lay up for him against that day.  
To conclude all, and to go the right way from things which we see, to things which we see not, by consideration of the King, to the contemplation of God; since God hath made us his Tenants of this World, we are bound, not only to pay our Rents, (spiritual duties and services towards him,) but we are bound to reparations too, to contribute our help to society, and such external duties as belong to the maintenance of this world, in which Almighty God hath chosen to be glorified. If we have these two, Pureness of heart, and Grace of lips, than we do these two; we pay our Rent, and we keep the world in reparation; and we shall pass through all those steps and gradations, 
Ambros.  which St. Ambrose harmoniously, melodiously expresses, to be servi per timorem, to be the servants of God, and live in his fear; to be mercinarij per laborem, to be the workmen of God, and labour in his Vineyard; to be filij per lavacrum, to be the sons of God, and preserve that Inheritance which was sealed to us at first, in Baptism; and last of all, Amici per virtutem, by the good use of his gifts, the King of Kings shall be our friend. That which he said to his Apostles, his Spirit shall say to our spirit here, and seal it to us for a Covenant of Salt, an everlasting, 
John 15.14.  an irrevocable Covenant, Henceforth call I you not servants, but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father, have I made known unto you. And the fruition of this friendship, which neither slackens in all our life, nor ends at our death, the Lord of Life, for the death of his most innocent Son, afford to us all.  
Amen.   

A 
Serm. 25.  SERMON Preached at the SPITTLE Upon Easter-Munday, 1662. SERMON XXV.  2 Cor. 4.6. 
For, God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.  
THe first Book of the Bible, gins with the beginning; In principio, says Moses, in Genesis; In the beginning God created heaven and earth: and can there be any thing prius principio, before the beginning? Before this beginning, there is. The last Book of the Bible, (in the order as they were written) the Gospel of St. John, gins with the same word too; In principio, says St. John; In the beginning was the Word: and here, Novissimum primum, the last beginning is the first; St. John's beginning, before Moses; Moses speaking but of the Creature, and St. John of the Creator; and of the Creator, before he took that name, before he came to the act of Creation; as, the Word was with God, and was God from all Eternity. Our present Text is an Epitome of both those beginnings: of the first beginning, the Creation, when God commanded light to shine out of darkness; and of the other beginning, which is indeed the first, of Him, in whose face we shall have the knowledge of the glory of God, Christ Jesus.  
The first Book of the Bible, is a Revelation, and so is the last, in the order as they stand, a Revelation too. To declare a production of all things out of nothing, (which is Moses his work;) that when I do not know, and care not whether I know or no, what so contemptible a Creature as an Ant is made of, but yet would fain know what so vast, and so considerable a thing as an Elephant is made of; I care not for a mustard seed, but I would fain know what a Cedar is made of; I can leave out the consideration of the whole Earth, but would be glad to know what the Heavens, and the glorious bodies in the Heavens, Sun, Moon and Stars are made of; I shall have but one answer from Moses for all, that all my Elephants, and Cedars, and the Heavens that I consider, were made of nothing; that a Cloud is as nobly born, as the Sun in the Heavens; and a beggar, as nobly, as the King upon Earth; if we consider the great Grandfather of them all, to be nothing: to produce light of darkness thus, is a Revelation, a Manifestation of that, which, till then, was not: this Moses does. St. John's is a Revelation too: a Manifestation of that state, which shall be, and be for ever, after all those which were produced of nothing, shall be returned and ressolved to nothing again; the glorious state of the everlasting Jerusalem, the Kingdom of Heaven. Now this Text is a Revelation of both these Revelations: the first state, that which Moses reveals, was too dark for man to see; for it was nothing: The other, that which St. John reveals, is too bright, too dazzling for man to look upon; for it is no one limited, determined Object, but all at once, glory, and the seat and fountain of all glory, the face of Christ Jesus.  
The Holy Ghost hath showed us both these, severally in Moses, and in St. John, and both together in St. Paul, in this Text: where, as the Sun stands in the midst of the Heavens, and shows us both the Creatures that are below it, upon Earth, and the Creatures that are above it, the Stars in Heaven; so St. Paul, as he is made an Apostle of the Gentiles, stands in the midst of this Text, (God hath shined in our hearts:) Ours, as we are Apostolical Ministers of the Gospel; and he shows us the greatness of God, in the Creation which was before, when God commanded light out of darkness; and the goodness of God which shall be hereafter, when he shall give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus.  
So that this Text, giving light, by which we see, light commanded by God out of darkness; and the Object which we are to see, the knowledge of the glory of God; and this Object being brought within a convenient distance to be seen in the face of Jesus Christ. And a fit and well-disposed Medium being illumined, through which we may see it, God having shined in our hearts, established a Ministry of the Gospel: for that purpose, if you bring but eyes, to that which this Text brings, Light, and Object, and Distance, and Means, then, as St. Basil said of the Book of Psalms, upon an impossible supposition, If all the other Books of Scripture could perish, there were enough in that one, for the catechising of all that did believe, and for the convincing of all that did not: so if all the other Writings of St. Paul could perish, this Text were enough to carry us through the body of Divinity, from the Cradle of the world, in the Creation, when God commanded light out of darkness, to the Grave; and beyond the Grave of the world, to the last Dissolution; and beyond it, when we shall have fully, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus. Now, whilst I am to speak of all this, this, which is Omne scibile, all, and more than can fall within the comprehension of a natural man; for it is the beginning of this world, and it is the way to the next, and it is the next world itself, I comfort myself at my first setting out, with that of St. Gregory, Purgatas aures, & hominum gratiam nancisci, nun Dei donum est? I take it for one of God's great blessings to me, if he have given me now an Auditory, Purgatae auris, of such spiritual and circumcised Ears, as come not to hear that Wisdom of Words, which may make the Cross of Christ of none effect; much less such itching Ears, as come to hear popular and seditious Calumnies and Scandals, and Reproaches, cast upon the present State and Government. For, a man may make a Sermon, a satire; he may make a Prayer, a Libel, if upon colour of preaching, or praying, against toleration of Religion, or persecution for Religion, he would insinuate, that any such tolerations are prepared for us, or such persecutions threatened against us. But if for speaking the mysteries of your salvation, plainly, sincerely, inelegantly, inartificially; for the Gold, and not for the Fashion; for the Matter, and not for the Form, Nanciscor populi gratiam, my service may be acceptable to God's people, and available to their Edification; Nun Dei donum, shall not I call this a great Blessing of God? Beloved, in him, I must; I do. And therefore, because I presume I speak to such, I take to myself, that which follows there, in the same Father, that he that speaks to such a people, does not his duty, if he consider not deliberately, Quibus, Quando, Quantum loquatur; both to whom, and at what time, and how much he is to speak. I consider the persons; and I consider that the greatest part, by much, are persons born since the Reformation of Religion, since the death of Idolatry in this Land; and therefore not naturalised by Conversion, by Transplantation from another Religion to this, but born the natural children of this Church; and therefore, to such persons, I need not lay hold upon any points of controverted Doctrine. I consider also Quando, the time; and I consider, that it is now, in these days of Easter, when the greatest part of this Auditory, have, or will renew their Hands to Christ Jesus in the Sacrament of his Body, and his Blood; that they will rather lose theirs, then lack his: and therefore towards persons, who have testified that disposition in that seal, I need not departed into any vehement, or passionate Exhortations to constancy and perseverance, as though there were occasion to doubt it. And I consider lastly, Quantum, how much is necessary to be spoken to such a people, so disposed; and therefore, farther than the custom, and solemnity of this day, and place, lays an Obligation upon me, I will not extend myself to an unnecessary length; especially, because that which shall be said by me, and by my Brethren which come after, and were worthy to come before me, in this place, is to be said to you again, by another, who alone, taketh as much pains, as all we, and all you too: Hears all, with as much patience as all you; and is to speak of all, with as much, and more labour, than all we. Much therefore for your ease, somewhat for his, a little for mine own, with such succinctness and brevity, as may consist with clearness, and perspicuity, in such manner, and method, as may best enlighten your understandings, and lest encumber your memories, I shall open unto you that light, which God commanded out of darkness, and that light by which he hath shined in our hearts; and this light, by which we shall have the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus.  

Divisio.  Our parts therefore in these words, must necessarily be three; three Lights. The first, shows us our Creation; the second, our Vocation; the third, our Glorification. In the first, We, who were but, (but what?) but nothing, were made Creatures: In the second, we, who were but Gentiles, were made Christians: In the third, we, who were but men, shall be made saints. In the first, God took us, when there was no world: In the second, God sustains us, in an ill world: In the third, God shall crown us, in a glorious and joyful world. In the first, God made us; in the second, God mends us; in the third, God shall perfect us. First, God commanded light out of darkness, that man might see the Creature; then he shined in our hearts, that man might see himself; at last, he shall shine so in the face of Christ Jesus, that man may see God, and live; and live as long, as that God of light and life shall live himself. Every one of these Parts, will have divers Branches; and it is time to enter into them. In the first, the Creation, because this Text does not purposely and primarily deliver the Doctrine of the Creation, not prove it, not press it, not enforce it; but rather suppose it, and then propose it by way of Example and Comparison; (for when the Apostles says, God, who commanded light out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, he intimates therein, these two Propositions: first, that the same God that does the one, does the other too; God perfects his works; and then this Proposition also, As God hath done the one, he hath done the other: God himself works by Patterns, by Examples.) These two Propositions shall therefore be our two first Branches in this first Part. First, Idem Deus, the same God goes through his works; and therefore let us never fear that God will be weary: and then Sicut Deus, as God hath done, he will do again; he works by pattern, and so must we: and then from these two, we shall descend to our third Proposition, Quid Deus, what God is said to have done here; and it is, that he commanded light out of darkness. In these three, we shall determine this Part; and for the Branches of the other two Parts, our Vocation, and our Glorification, it will be a less burden to your memories, to open them then, when we come to handle the Parts themselves, than altogether now. Now we shall proceed in the Branches of the first Part. 
Part 1. Memb. 1. Idem Deus.   
In this, our first Consideration is, Idem Deus, the same our God goes through all. Those divers Heretics who thought there were two Gods, (for Cordon thought so, and Martion thought so too; the Gnostics thought so, and the Manichees thought so too) though they differed in their mistake, (for error is always manifold, and multiform) yet all their errors were upon this ground, this root, They could nor comprehend that the same God should be the God of Justice, and the God of Mercy too; a God that had an earnestness to punish sin, and an easiness to pardon sin too. Cordon, who was first, though he made two Gods, yet he used them both reasonable well; for with him, Alter Bonus, Alter Justus; 
Iren. 1.28.29.  one of his Gods is perfectly good, merciful; and the other, though he be not so very good, yet he is just. Martion, who came after, says worse; because he could not discern the good purposes of God in inflicting Judgements, nor the good use which good men make of his Corrections; but thought all acts of his Justice to be calamitous and intolerable, and naturally evil: therefore with him, Alter Bonus, Alter Malus; he that is the merciful God, is his good God; and he that is so just, but just, is an ill God. Hence they came to call the God of the New Testament, a good God, because there was Copiosa Redemptio, plentiful Redemption in the Gospel: and the God of the Old Testament, Malum Deum, an ill God, because they thought all penalties of the Law, evil. They came lower; to call that God, which created the Upper Region of man, the Brain, and the Heart, (the presence and privy Chamber of Reason, and consequently of Religion too) a good God, because good things are enacted there; and that God that created the Lower Region of man, the seat and scene of Carnal Desires, and inordinate Affections, an ill God, because ill actions are perpetrated there. But Idem Deus, the same God that commanded light out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts: The God of the Law, and the God of the Gospel too; The God of the Brain, and the God of the Belly too; The God of Mercy, and the God of Justice too, is all one God.  
In all the Scriptures, you shall scarce find such a Demonstration of God's Indignation, such a severe Execution, as that upon the Syrians; when, after the slaughter of one hundred thousand foot in the field in one day, the walls of the City, into which they fled, fell, and slew twenty seven thousand more. The Armies of the Israelites were that day, but as little flocks of kids, says the Text there; and yet those few, slew one hundred thousand. The Walls of Aphak promised secure; and yet they fell, and slew twenty seven thousand. Now from whence proceeded God's vehement anger in this defeat? The Prophet tells the King the cause; Because the Syrians have said, The Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys. The Israelites had beaten them upon the Hills, and they could not attribute this to their Forces, for they were very small; they must necessarily ascribe it to their God; but they thought they might find a way to be too hard for their God: and therefore, since he was a God of the mountains, they would fight with him in the valleys. But the God of Israel is Idem Deus, one and the same God. He is Jugatinus and Vallonia both, as St. Aug. speaks out of the Roman Authors: he is God of the mountains, he can exalt; and he is God of the Valleys, he can throw down. Our Age hath produced such Syrians, too; Men, who, after God hath declared himself against them many ways, have yet thought they might get an advantage upon him some other way. They begun in Rebellions; animated persons of great blood, and great place, to rebels their Rebellions God frustrated. Then they came to say, (to say in actions) Their God is God of Rebellions, a God that resists Rebellions; but he is no God of Excommunications: then they excommunicated us. But our God cast those thunderbolts, those Bruta fulmina, into the Sea, no man took fire at them. Then they said, He is a God of Excommunications, he will not suffer an Excommunication stolen out in his Name, against his Children, to do any harm; but he is no God of Invasion, let's try him there: Then they procured Invasion; and there the God of Israel showed himself the Lord of Hosts, and scattered them there. Then they said, he is the God of Invasions, annihilates them; but he is not the God of Supplantations; surely their God will not pry into a Cellar, he will not peep into a vault; he is the God of water, but he is not the God of fire; let's try him in that Element; and in that Element, they saw one another justly eviscorated, and their bowels burnt. All this they have said, so as we have heard them; for they have said it in loud Actions, and still they say something in corners, which we do not hear. Either he is not a God of Equivocations, and therefore let us be lying spirits in the mouths of some of his Prophets, draw some men that are in great Opinion of Learning, to our side, or at least draw the people into an Opinion that we have drawn them; or else, he is not the God of jealousy and suspicion, and therefore let us supple and slumber him with security, and pretences and disguises. But he is Idem Deus; that God who hath begun, and proceeded, will persevere in mercy towards us. Our God is not out of breath, because he hath blown one tempest, and swallowed a Navy: Our God hath not burnt out his eyes, because he hath looked upon a Train of Powder: In the the light of Heaven, and in the darkness of hell, he sees alike; he sees not only all Machinations of hands, when things come to action; but all Imaginations of hearts, when they are in their first Consultations: past, and present, and future, distinguish not his Quando; all is one time to him: Mountains and Valleys, Sea and Land, distinguish not his Ubi; all is one place to him: When I begin, says God to Eli, I will make an end; not only that all God's purposes shall have their certain end, but that even then, when he gins, he makes an end: from the very beginning, imprints an infallible assurance, that whom he loves, he loves to the end: as a Circle is printed all at once, so his beginning and ending is all one.  
Make thou also the same interpretation of this Idem Deus, in all the Vicissitudes and Changes of this World. Hath God brought thee from an Exposititious Child laid out in the streets, of uncertain name, of unknown Parents, to become the first foundation-stone of a great family, and to ennoble a posterity? Hath God brought thee from a Carriers Pack, upon which thou camest up, to thy change of Foot-cloths, and Coaches? Hath God brought thee from one of these Blue-coats, to one of those Scarlet Gowns? Attribute not this to thine own Industry, nor to thine own Frugality; (for, Industry is but Fortune's right hand, and Frugality her left;) but come to David's Acclamation, Dominus Fecit, It is the Lords doing: That takes away the impossibility: 
Psal. 118.22.  If the Lord will do it, it may be, it must be done; but yet even that takes not away the wonder; for, as it follows there, Domiminus fecit, & est Mirabile, though the Lord have done it, it is wonderful in our eyes, to see whom, and from whence, and whither, and how God does raise, and exalt some men. And then if God be pleased to make thee a Roll written on both sides, a History of Adversity, as well as of Prosperity: if when he hath filled his Tables, with the story of Mardoche, a man strangely raised, he takes his Sponge, and wipes out all that, and writes down in thee, the story of Job, a man strangely ruined, all this is Idem Deus, still the same God, and the same purpose in that God, still to bring thee nearer to him, though by a lower way. If then thou abound, 
Luk. 12.19.  come not to say with the over-secure man, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up, for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry: and if thou want, come not to that impatience of that Prophet, Satis est, Lord, this is enough, now take away my life: Nay, though the Lord lead thee into tentation, and do not deliver thee from Egypt, but let thee fall into a sin, though he let thee fall so far, as to doubt of his mercy for that sin, yet Idem Deus, all this while, all this is the same God; and even that voice, though it have an account of despair in it, is the voice of God; and though it be spoken in the mouth of the Devil, it is God that speaks it; for even then, when the Devil possesses man, God possesses the Devil. God can make his profit, and thine, of thy sin: he can make the horror of a sin committed, the occasion of thy repentance, and his mercy: 
Amos 3.6.  for, Shall there be evil in a City, and the Lord hath not done it? God is no disposer to sin, but he is the disposer of sin: God is not Lord of sin, as Author of sin; but he is the Lord of sin, as Steward of it: and he dispenses not only for our sins, but the sins themselves. God imprints not that obliquity, infuses not that venom that is in our sinful Actions, but God can extract good out of bad, and Cordials out of Poison. Be not thou therefore too nimble a Sophister, nor too pressing an Advocate against thine own soul: conclude not too soon, that God hath forsaken thee, because he hath let thee fall, and let thee lie some time, in some sin: you know who did so, and yet was a man according to Gods own heart; for God hath set his heart upon that way, to glorify himself out of David's repentance, rather than out of his innocence. In the Hills, and in the Valleys too; in spiritual, as well as in temporal prosperity and adversity too; in the Old, and in the New Testament; in the ways of mercy, and of justice too, thou mayst find the same God, who is in every change Idem Deus; God, that is, the same God, who commanded light out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts: And so we have done with the first Proposition.  

Sicut Deus.  The next is, Sicut Deus; As God hath done the one, so he hath the other. God brings himself into comparison with himself: Our unworthiness changes not his nature: His mercy is new every morning; and, his mercy endureth for ever. One generation is a precedent to another, and God is his own Example; whatsoever he hath done for us, he is ready to do again. When he had once written the Law in stone-tables, for the direction of his people, and that Moses in an over-vehement zeal and distemper, had broke those Tables, God turned to his precedent, remembered what he had done, and does so again; he writes that Law again in new Tables. When God had given us the light of the Reformation for a few years of a young King, and that after him, in the time of a pious truly, but credulous Princess, a Cloud of blood over-shadowed us in a heavy persecution, yet God turned to his precedent, to the example of his former mercy, and in mercy reestablished that light, which shines yet amongst us; and (if the sins of the people extinguish it not) shall shine as long as the Sun and Moon shall shine above. The Lord's hand is not shortened, nor weakened in the ways of justice; and his justice hath a Sicut, a precedent, an Example too. There is Sicut Kore, If we sin as Kore and his Complices sinned, as Kore and his Complices, we shall perish. 
Num. 16.40.  There is an Anathema Sicut illud, 
Deut. 7.26.  Thou shalt not bring an abomination into thy house, (not an Idolater into thy house) lest thou be an accursed thing, Sicut illud, as guilty in the eye of God, 
Psal. 83.9.  as the Idolater himself. There is Sicut Midian; God can do unto the men of these times, as he did unto the Midianites, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, which perished, and became as the Dung of the earth. He can make their Nobleses Sicut Oreb, Sicut Zeeb, like unto Oreb, like unto Zeeb, and all their Princes Sicut Zebah, Sicut Salmana. There are precedents of his justice too. But yet in the greatest act of his justice that ever he did, which was the general drowning of the whole world, though that history remain as an everlasting Demonstration of his power, and of his justice, yet he would not have it remain as a precedent; but he records that, with that protestation, I will no more curse the earth, nor smite any more, every living thing, as I have done: though I have showed that I can do it, and have done it, I will do it no more. God forbears, and ways his own example in matter of justice; but God never showed any mercy, but he desires that that mercy may be recorded, and produced, and pleaded to our Conscience, to the whole Congregation, to God himself, as a leading and a binding case, as he commanded light out of darkness, so he hath shined in our hearts.  
God proceeds by example, by pattern: Even in this first great act presented in our Text, in the Creation he did so. God had no external pattern in the Creation, for there was nothing extant; but God had from all Eternity an internal pattern, an Idea, a pre-conception, a form in himself, according to which he produced every Creature. And when God himself proceeds upon preconceptions, premeditations, shall we adventure to do, or to say any thing in his service unpremeditately, extemporally? It is not God's way. Now, it is a penurious thing, to have but one Candle in a room: it is too dim a light to work by, to live by, to have but Rule and Precept alone; Rule and Example together, direct us fully. Who shall be our Example? 
Hierom.  Idaea novi hominis Christus Jesus. If thou wilt be a new Creature, (and, Circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision nothing, but only to be a new Creature) than Christ is thy Idea, thy Pattern, thine Original: for, Quid in eo non Novum? what was there in him that was not new? When was there such a Conception, of the Holy Ghost? such a birth, of a Virgin? such a pregnancy to dispute so, so young, with such men? When such a death as God to die? when such a life, as a dead man to raise himself again? Quid in eo non Novum? To be produced by this Idea, built up by this Model, copied by this Original, is truly, is only to be a new Creature. But that thou mayst put thyself into the way to this, it is usefully said, Enim vero, certum vitae genus sibi constituere; Certainly to undertake a certain Profession, 
Nazianz.  a Calling in this world, and to propose to ourselves the Example of some good, and godly man in that Calling, whose steps we will walk in, and whom we will make our precedent, Tanti Momenti esse duco, says that Father, is a matter of so great importance, as that upon that (says he) lies the building of our whole life. That little Philosopher Epictetus, could give us that Rule; Whensoever thou enter prisest, any action, says he, consider what Socrates, what Plato, (that is, what a wise and religious man) would have done in that case, and do thou so. This way our Saviour directs us; 
Ja. 13.15.  I have given you an example: It is not only Mandatum novum, but exemplum Novum, That ye should do, even as I have done unto you. And this is the way that the Apostle directs us to, 
Phil. 3.13.  Brethren, be followers of me: and because he could not be always with them, he adds, Look on them which walk so, as you have us for an example. Love the Legends, the Lives, the Actions, and love the say, the Apopththegms of good men. In all tentations like joseph's tentations, 
Gen. 39.9.  love joseph's words, How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? In all tentations like Jobs tentations, love the words of Job, 
Job 2.10.  Shall we receive good at the hands of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all tentations like to Shidraches and his fellow-Confessors, 
Dan 3.17.  love their words, Our God is able to deliver us, and he will deliver us: but if not, we will not serve thy god, nor worship thine image. Certainly, without the practice, it is scarce to be discerned, what ease and what profit there is, in proposing certain and good Examples to ourselves. And when you have made up your profit that way, rectified yourself by that course, then, as your Sons writ by Copies, and your Daughter's work by Samplars, be every Father a Copy to his Son, every Mother a Sampler to her Daughter, and every house will be an University. O in how blessed a nearness to their Direction, is that Child, and that Servant, and that Parishioner, who, when they shall say to Almighty God, by way of Prayer, What shall I do, to get eternal life? shall hear God answer to them by his Spirit, Do but as thou seest thy Father do, do as thou seest thy Master do, do as thou seest thy Pastor do! To become a precedent, govern thyself by precedent first; which is all the Doctrine that I intended to deduce out of this second Proposition, Sicut Deus, As God commanded light out of darkness, so he hath shined in our hearts: God did as he had done before: and so we pass from the Idem Deus, and the Sicut Deus, to the Quid Deus, What that is which God hath done here, He commanded light out of darkness.  

Quid Deus.  The drowning of the first world, and the repairing that again; the burning of this world, and establishing another in heaven, do not so much strain a man's Reason, as the Creation, a Creation of all out of nothing. For, for the repairing of the world after the Flood, compared to the Creation, it was eight to nothing; eight persons to begin a world upon, then; but in the Creation, none. And for the glory which we receive in the next world, it is (in some sort) as the stamping of a print upon a Coin; the metal is there already, a body and a soul to receive glory: but at the Creation, there was no soul to receive glory, no body to receive a soul, no stuff, no matter, to make a body of. The less any thing is, the less we know it: how invisible, how intelligible a thing then, is this Nothing! We say in the School, Deus cognoscibilior Angelis, We have better means to know the nature of God, then of Angels, because God hath appeared and manifested himself more in actions, than Angels have done: we know what they are, by knowing what they have done; and it is very little that is related to us what Angels have done: what then is there that can bring this Nothing to our understanding? what hath that done? A Leviathan, a Whale, from a grain of Spawn; an Oak from a buried Akehorn, is a great; but a great world from nothing, is a strange improvement. We wonder to see a man rise from nothing to a great Estate; but that Nothing is but nothing in comparison; but absolutely nothing, merely nothing, is more incomprehensible than any thing, than all things together. It is a state (if a man may call it a state) that the Devil himself in the midst of his torments, cannot wish. No man can, the Devil himself cannot, advisedly, deliberately, wish himself to be nothing. It is truly and safely said in the School, That whatsoever can be the subject of a wish, if I can desire it, wish it, it must necessarily be better (at least in my opinion) then that which I have; and whatsoever is better, is not nothing; without doubt it must necessarily produce more thankfulness in me, towards God, that I am a Christian; but certainly more wonder that I am a Creature: it is vehemently spoken, but yet needs no excuse, which Justin Martyr says, Ne ipsi quidem Domino fidem haberem, etc. I should scarce believe God himself, if he should tell me, that any but himself created this world of nothing; so infallible, and so inseparable a work, and so distinctive a Character is it of the Godhead, to produce any thing from nothing; and that God did when he commanded light out of darkness.  
Moses stands not long upon the Creation, in the description thereof; no more will we: When there went but a word to the making itself, why should we make many words in the description thereof? We will therefore only declare the three terms in this Proposition, and so proceed; first, God commanded, than he commanded light, and light out of darkness.  
For the first, that which we translate here commanded, is in St. Paul's mouth, the same that is Moses, Dixit, and no more; God said it. But then if he said it, Cui dixit? to whom did he say it? Procopius asks the Question; and he answers himself, Dixit Angelis, He said it to the Angels. For Procopius being of that opinion, which very many were of besides himself, that God had made the Angels some time before he came to the Creation of particular Creatures, he thinks that when he came to that, he called the Angels, that they, by seeing of what all other Creatures were made, might know also of what stuff; themselves were made, of the common and general nothing. Some others had said, that God said this to the Creature itself, which was now in fieri, (as we say in the School) in the production, ready to be brought forth. 
Athanasius.  But then, says Athanasius, God would have said Sis Lux, and not Sit Lux: He would have said, Be thou, O Light, or appear and come forth, O Light, and not Let there be Light. But what needs all this vexation in Procopius, or Athanasius? When as Dicere Dei est intelligere ejus practicum: 
Dionysius. Carthus.  when God would produce his Idea, his pre-conception into action, that action, that production was his Dixit, his saying. It is, as we say in School, Actus indicativus practici intellectus; Gods outward Declaration of an inward purpose by execution of that purpose, that his Dixit, his saying. 
R. Moses.  It is sufficiently expressed by Rab: Moses, In Creatione Dicta sunt voluntates; In the act of Creation, the Will of GOD, was the Word of God; his Will that it should be, was his saying, Let it be. Of which it is a convenient example which is in the Prophet Jonah, 
2.10.  The Lord spoke unto the Fish, and it vomited Jonah upon the dry Land; that is, God would have the Fish to do it, and it did it. God spoke then in the Creation, but he spoke Ineffabiliter, says St. Aug. 
August.  without uttering any sound. He spoke, but he spoke Intemporaliter, says that Father too, without spending any time in distinction of syllables. But yet when he spoke, Aliquis ad fuit, as Athanasius presses it; 
Athan.  surely there was some body with him; there was, says he. Who? Verbum ejus ad fuit, & ad fuit Spiritus ejus, says he, truly, the second Person in the Trinity, his Eternal Word; and the third Person, the Holy Ghost, were both there at the Creation, and to them he spoke. For, By the Word of the Lord were the heavens framed, and all the host of them; Spiritu oris ejus, 
Job 33.4.  by that Spirit that proceeded from him, says David. The Spirit of God hath made me; 
26. 13.  and, By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens. So that, in one word, thou, who wast nothing, hast employed and set on work, the heart and hand of all the three Per●ons, in the blessed and glorious Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to the making of thee; and then what oughtest thou to be, and to do in retribution? and not to make thee, that which thou art now, a Christian, but even to make thee that, wherein 〈◊〉 wast equal to a worm, to a grain of dust. Hast thou put the whole Trinity to busy themselves upon thee? and therefore what shouldst thou be towards them? But here, in this branch, we consider not so much; not his noblest Creature, Man, but his first Creature, Light: He commanded, and he commanded Light.  
And of Light, we say no more in this place, but this; that in all the Scriptures, in which the word Light is very often metaphorically applied, it is never applied in an ill sense. Christ is called a Lion; but there is an ill Lion too, that seeks whom he may devour. Christ is the serpent that was exalted; but there is an ill serpent, that did devour us all at once. But Christ is the light of the world, and no ill thing is called light. Light was God's signature, by which he set his hand to the Creation: and therefore, as Prince's sign above the Letter, and not below, God made light first; in that first Creature he declared his presence, his Majesty; the more, in that he commanded light out of darkness.  
There was Lumen de Lumine before; light of light, very God of very God; an eternal Son of an eternal Father, before: But light out of darkness, is Music out of silence. It was one distinct plague of Egypt, darkness above; and one distinct blessing, that the children of Israel had, light in their dwellings. But for some spiritual Applications of light and darkness, we shall have room again; when, after we shall have spoken of our second part, our Vocation; as God hath shined in our hearts, positively, we shall come to speak of that shining comparatively, That God hath so shined in our hearts, as he commanded light out of darkness. And to those two Branches of our second part, the positive and comparative Consideration of that shining, we are in order, come now. In the first part, we were made; in this second, we are mended: 
Part II.  in the first, we were brought into this world; in this second, we are led through it: in the first, we are Creatures; in this, we are Christians. God hath shined in our hearts. In this part, 
Divisio.  we shall have two Branches; a positive, and a comparative consideration of the words: First, the matter itself, what this shining is; and it is the conversion of Man to God, by the ministry of the Gospel; and secondly, how this manner of expressing it, answers the comparison, As God commanded light out of darkness, so he hath shined in our hearts. And in the first, the positive, we shall pass by these few and short steps: first, God's action, Illuxit, he shine; it is evidence, Manifestation: And then, the time, when this day breaks, when this Sun rises. Illuxit, he hath shined, he hath done enough already. Thirdly, the place, the sphere in which he shines, the Orb which he hath illumined, in Cordibus: if he shine, he shines in the heart. And lastly, the persons, upon whom he casts his beams, in Cordibus nostris, in our hearts. And having past these four in the positive part, we shall descend to the comparative; as God commanded light out of darkness, so he hath shined in our hearts.  

1. Lucet.  First then, for God's action, his working in the Christian Church, which is our Vocation, we consider man to be all, to be all Creatures; 
Mar. 16.15.  according to that expression of our Saviour's, Go, preach the Gospel to every Creature; and agreeable to that largeness in which he received it, 
Colos. 1.23.  the Apostle delivers it, The Gospel is preached to every Creature under heaven: The properties, the qualities of every Creature, are in man; the Essence, the Existence of every Creature is for man; so man is every Creature. And therefore the Philosopher draws man into too narrow a table, when he says he is Microcosmos, an Abridgement of the world in little: Nazianzen gives him but his due, when he calls him Mundum Magnum, a world to which all the rest of the world is but subordinate: For all the world besides, is but God's Footstool; Man sits down upon his right hand: and howsoever God be in all the world, yet how did God dwell in man, in the assumption of that nature? and what care did GOD take of that dwelling, that when that house was demolished, would yet dwell in the ruins thereof? for the Godhead did not departed from the dead body of Christ Jesus in the Grave. And then how much more gloriously than before, did he re-edify that house, in raising it again to Glory? Man therefore is Cura Divini ingenii, 
Tertul.  a creature upon whom, not only the greatness, and the goodness, but even the study and diligence of God is employed. And being thus a greater world than the other, he must be greater in all his parts, and so in his lights; and so he is: for, instead of this light, which the world had at first, Man hath a nobler light, an immortal, a discerning soul, the light of reason. Instead of the many stars, which this world hath, man hath had the light of the Law, and the succession of the Prophets: And instead of that Sun, which this world had, a Son from God; man hath had the Son of God; God hath spoken to us by his Son; God hath shined upon us in his Son. The whole work of Almighty God, in the Conversion of man, is many times expressed by this act of shining; 
Act. 2.2.  an effectual, a powerful shining. The infusion of the Holy Ghost into the Apostles at Pentecost, was with fire: The light which shined upon St. Paul, going to Damascus, struck him to the ground. 
Act, 9.4.  And in both those cases, there were tongues too. The Apostles fire, was fiery tongues, and St. Paul's light, was accompanied with a voice; for than does God truly shine to us, when he appears to our eyes and to our ears, when by visible and audible means, by Sacraments which we see, and by the Word which we he hear, he conveys himself unto us. In Paul's case, there were some that saw the light, but heard not the voice: God hath joined them, separate them not: Upon him that will come to hear, and will not come to see; will come to the Sermon, but not to the Sacrament; or that will come to see, but will not come to hear; will keep his solemn, and festival, and Anniversary times of receiving the Sacrament, but never care for being instructed in the duties appertaining to that high Mystery, God hath not shined. They are a powerful thunder, and lightning, that go together: Preaching is the thunder, that clears the air, disperses all clouds of ignorance; and then the Sacrament is the lightning, the glorious light, and presence of Christ Jesus himself. And in the having and loving of these, the Word and Sacraments, the outward means of salvation, ordained by God in his Church, consists this Irradiation, this Cotuscation, this shining. And we have done with that.  
The next is the time, Illuxit, he hath shined already; 
Illuxit.  and Illuxit Mundo, he hath shined; that is, manifested himself sufficiently to the whole world. Illuxit Nobis, he hath done it fully to this Nation; and Illuxit Vobis, he hath shined sufficiently upon every one of you. First, upon the whole world; for, though at first he shined only upon the Jews, and left all the world beside in darkness, and in the shadow of death; and even to the Jews themselves, he shined but as a light in a dark place; the Temple itself was but a dark room in respect of the Christian Church; yet, 
2 Pet. 1.19.  as soon as Christ had established that, illumined that, inanimated that, given it breath in his Word, the written Scriptures, and given it motion, and action in the preaching of that Word. and Administration of the Sacraments, when this was done, immediately there was Meridies, a full noon; the light was at the highest, the Sun was at the Tropic, it could go no further; no fundamental thing can be added by man to this light by which the Son of God hath shined in his Church. To set up Candles to Images, is a weakness in them that do it; but to set up Candles to God, is a presumption; that God cannot or hath not shined out sufficiently upon his Church, in his Institutions, but that they must supply him with the traditions and additions of men. Lex Lux, says David, The Law of God, the Scripture, is a light, it is the light, it is all light; and therefore they who would take away this light, not suffer men to read the Scriptures; or if they will not snuff this light, not mend the Barbarisms, the Errors, the Contradictions which are in their Translation, and let it shine according to the Original Truth, this is a shutting of their eyes against this Illuxit: For, God hath showed enough, and said enough, and done enough, and suffered enough, for the salvation of his Church; he hath shined out upon all, and needs no supply of lesser lights.  
So he hath shined upon all; and Illuxit Nobis, he hath shined abundantly upon this Nation. He shined upon us betimes; this day sprung, this Sun risen in the East; in the East, Christ lived and preached in person; but in his Beams, his Messengers, he shined quickly into the West too. And when he did so, he did not so shine upon the West, upon Rome, as that that light was cast upon us, as by reflection from a glass, from the walls of Rome: but we had it, as they had it, by persons ordained by God, to convey it over the world. I dispute not too earnestly, I determine not too vehemently any matter of fact in this point. I confess ingeniously, we had many Assistances from Rome; but truly, she hath been even with us since: and, Computatis Computandis, I think she may be content to give us an Acquittance. God shined upon this Island early; early in the plantation of the Gospel, (for we had not our seed-Corn from Rome, howsoever we may have had some waterings from thence) and early in the Reformation of the Church: for we had not the model of any other Foreign Church for our pattern; we stripped not the Church into a nakedness, nor into rags; we devested her not of her possessions, nor of her Ceremonies, but received such a Reformation at home, by their hands whom God enlightened, as left her neither in a Dropsy, nor in a Consumption; neither in a superfluous and cumbersome fatness, nor in an uncomely and faint leanness and attenuation: Early in the Plantation, early in the Reformation, Illuxit Nobis, and we have light enough, without either seeing other light from Rome, or more of this light from other places. God continue to us the light of this Reformation, without readmitting any old Clouds, any old Clouts, and we shall not need any such re-Reformation, or super-Reformation, as swimming Brains will needs cross the Seas for. The Word of God is not above thee, says Moses, nor beyond the Sea. We need not climb up seven hills, nor wash ourselves seven times in a Lake for it: God make the practice of our lives agreeable to the Doctrine of our Church; and all the world shall see that we have light enough.  
Illuxit Mundo, Illuxit Nobis, and Vobis too; God hath also shined sufficiently upon every of you, that hear this, already: upon the greatest part of you in both, upon all in one of his Sacraments. God hath been content to talk with you in your infancy, as Parents with their children, before they can speak plain, in his Language of Catechisms; and since you came to better strength, in his stronger Language of Preaching. He hath admitted you to him in your private prayers, and come to you in your private readings of his Word. He hath opened your Ears to him, and his to hear you in the public Congregation: and as he that waters his Garden, pours in water into that Vessel at one place, and pours it out again at an hundred; God, who as he hath walled this Island with a wall of water, the Sea; so he waters this Garden with the waters of Paradise: the Word of Life hath poured in this water, into that great, and Royal Vessel, the Understanding, and the love of his truth, into the large and religious heart of our Sovereign, and he pours it out in 100, in 1000 spouts, in a more plentiful preaching thereof, then ever your Fathers had it; in both the ways of plenty; plentiful in the frequency, plentiful in the learned manner of preaching. Illuxit, he hath shined upon you before you were born, in the Covenant, in making you the Children of the seed of Abraham, of Christian Parents. Illuxit, he hath shined upon you ever since you could hear and see, had any exercise of natural and supernatural faculties; and Illuxit, by his grace, who sends treasure in earthen vessels, he hath shined upon some of you, since you came hither now. Consider only now, after all this shining, that a Candle is as soon blown out, at an open door, or an open window, as in the open street. If you open a door to a Supplanter, an Underminer, a Whisperer against your Religion; if there be a broken window, a woman loaden with sin, as the Apostle speaks, and thereby dejected into an inordinate melancholy, (for such a melancholy as make Witches, makes Papists too) if she be thereby as apt to change Religions now, as Loves before, and as weary of this God, as of that man; if there be such a door, such a window, a wife, a child, a friend, a sojourner bending that way, this light that hath shined upon thee, may as absolutely go out, in thy house, and in thy heart, as if it were put out in the whole Kingdom. Leave the public to him whose care the public is; and who, no doubt, prepares a good account to him, to whom only he is accountable. Look then to thine own heart, and thine own house; for that's thy charge. And so we have done with the action, shining, evidence; and with the time, Illuxit, there is enough done already; and we come to the place, in Cord; if God shine, he shines in the heart.  
Fecit Deus Coelum & terram, Non lego quod requieverit, 
In Cordibus. St. Ambros.  says that Father; God made heaven and earth, but I do not read that he tested, when he had done that: Fecit  & Lunam, (as he pursues that Meditation;) He made the Sun and Moon, and all the host of heaven, but yet he rested not: Fecit hominem, & Requievit; When God had made man, than he rested: for, when God had made man, he had made his bed, the heart of man, to rest in. God asks nothing of man, but his heart; and nothing, but man, can give the heart to God. 
Gen. 8.21.  And therefore in that sacrifice of Noah after the flood, and often in the Scriptures elsewhere, sacrifice is called Odour quietis, God smelled a savour of rest: in that which proceeds from a religious heart, God rests himself, and is well pleased. Loqui ad Cor Jerusalem, to speak to the heart of Jerusalem, is ever the Scripture phrase, from God to man, to speak comfortably; and loqui●e Cord, to speak from the heart, is an Emphatical phrase, from man to God too. He that speaks from his own heart, speaks to God's heart. Did not our hearts burn within us, while he opened the Scriptures? say those two Disciples that went with Christ to Emaus. And if your hearts do not so all this while, you hear but me; 
Luc. 24.32.  (and, alas! who, or what am I?) you hear not God. But let this light, the love of the ordinary means of your salvation, enter into your hearts, and shine there; and then, as the fire in your Chimney grows pale, and faints, and out of countenance when the Sun shines upon it; so whatsoever fires of lust, of anger, of ambition, possessed that heart before, it will yield to this, and evaporate. But why do I speak all this to others? Is it so clear a case, that the hearts in this Text, are the hearts of others; of them that hear, and not of ourselves that speak? That we are to see now; for that's the next, and last Branch in this part, who be the persons: in Cordibus nostris, in our hearts.  

Nostris.  Certainly this word Nostris, primarily, most literally, most directly, concerns us; Us, the Ministers of God's Word and Sacraments. If we take God's Word into our mouths, and pretend a Commission, a Calling, for the calling of others, we must be sure that God hath shined in our hearts. There is vocatio intentionalis, an intentional Calling, when Parents, in their intention and purpose, dedicates their children to this service of God, the Ministry, even in their Cradle. And this is a good and holy intention, because though it bind not in the nature of a Vow, yet it makes them all the way more careful, to give them such an Education, as may fit them for that profession. And then there is Vocatio Virtualis, when having assented to that purpose of my Parents, I receive that public Seal, the Imposition of hands, in the Church of God: but it is Vocatio radicalis, the calling that is the root and foundation of all, that we have this light shining in our hearts, the testimony of God's Spirit to our spirit, that we have this calling from above. First then, it must be a light; not a calling taken out of the darkness of melancholy, or darkness of discontent, or darkness of want and poverty, or darkness of a retired life, to avoid the mutual duties and offices of society: it must be a light, and a light that shines; it is not enough to have knowledge and learning; it must shine out, and appear in preaching; and it must shine in our hearts, in the private testimony of the Spirit there: but when it hath so shined there, it must not go out there, but shine still as a Candle in a Candlestick, or the Sun in his sphere; shine so, as it give light to others: so that this light doth not shine in our hearts, except it appear in the tongue, and in the hand too: First, in the tongue, to preach opportune, and importune; in season and out of season; 
2 Tim. 4.2. August.  that is, opportune Volentibus, importune Nolentibus: preaching is in season to them who are willing to hear; but though they be not, though they had rather the Laws would permit them to be absent, or that preaching were given over; yet I must preach. And in that sense, I may use the words of the Apostle, As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to them also that are at Rome: at Rome in their hearts; at Rome, that is, of Rome, 
Rom. 1.15.  reconciled to Rome. I would preach to them, if they would have me, if they would hear me; and that were opportune, in season. But though we preach importune, out of season to their ends, and their purposes, yet we must preach, though they would not have it done: for we are debtors to all, because all are our Neighbours. Proximus tuus est antequam Christianus est: 
August.  A man is thy Neighbour, by his Humanity, not by his Divinity; by his Nature, not by his Religion: a Virginian is thy Neighbour, as well as a Londoner; and all men are in every good man's Diocese, and Parish. Irrides odorantem lapides, says that Father; Thou seest a man worship an Image, and thou laughest him to scorn; assist him, direct him if thou canst, but scorn him not: Ignoras quomodo illum praesciverit Deus; thou knowest not God's purpose, nor the way of God's purpose upon that man; his way may be to convert that man by thee, and to bring that man to serve him? Religio tuis fortasse, quam tu qui irridebas; perchance more sincerely than thou; not only when thou didst laugh at him, but even when thou didst preach to him. For brass, I will bring gold, says God in Esay; and for iron, silver. God can work in all metals, and transmute all metals: he can make a Moral Man, a Christian; and a Superstitious Christian, a sincere Christian; a Papist, a Protestant; and a dissolute Protestant, a holy man, by thy preaching. And therefore let this light shine in our hearts, in the testimony of a good Conscience, in having accepted this Calling, but also shine in our tongues, preach. Though the Disease of St. Chrysostom's times, should overtake ours, 
Nicepho.  Qui quantum placuit tantum principibus displicuit; The more good he did by preaching, the more some great persons were displeased with him; yet all this were but St. Paul's importune, a little out of season: but out of season we must preach. How much more now, now, when, as the Apostle says of God, we may say of God's Lieutenant, In whom there is no change, nor shadow of change, no approach towards a change, no occasion of jealousy of it? How much were we inexcusable, if either out of fullness of fortunes, or emptiness of learning; if either out of state, or business, or laziness, or pretence of fear, where no fear is, we should smother this light, which if it have truly shined in our hearts, will shine in our tongues too?  
It must shine there, and it must shine in our hands also, in our actions, in the example of our life. Christ says to his Apostles, Vos estis Lux, You are light: there they were illumined ': 
Mat. 15.14, 16.  but to what use? It follows, That men may see your good works: For, as St. Ambrose says of the Creation, Frustra fecisset Lucem, 
Ambro.  God had made light to no purpose, if he had not made Creatures to show by that light: so we have the light of Learning, and the light of other abilities to no purpose, if we have no good works to show, when we have drawn men's eyes upon us. Upon those words of solomon's, 
Gregor.  Tempus tacendi, tempus loquendi, St. Gregory makes this note, That Solomon does not say first, There is a time of speaking, and a time of silence, that when a man hath taken that calling, that binds him to speak, than he might prevaricate in a treacherous silence: but first there is a time of silence, of study, of preparation, how to speak, and then speak on in God's Name. But howsoever there may be tempus tacendi, some time wherein we may be silent; yet there is not tempus peccandi; no circumstance of time, no circumstance at all can excuse an ill life in an ill man, less in a leading and exemplar man, lest of all in a Churchman. To that which is vulgarly said, Loquere ut te vidiam; speak that I may see thee; I do not see thee, not see what is in thee, except I hear thee preach: Let me add more, Age ut te audiam, do something that I may hear thee: I do not hear thee, not hear thee to believe thee, except I hear of thee in a good testimony of thy conversation. I hope our times, and our callings is far enough from that suspicion of St. Ambrose, Ne sit nomen inane, crimen immane in Sacerdotibus: God forbidden the name of Priest should privilege any man otherwise obnoxious from just censure. He were a stranee Master of faculties to himself, that would give himself a Dispensation so; this were truly to incur a Praemunire in the highest Kingdom, to forfeit all everlastingly; to appeal from our conversation, to our profession; to make a holy profession the Cloak, nay, the reason of unholy actions. But I speak not now of enormous ill, but of omissions of good, and of too easy venturing upon things, in their own nature indifferent: For, as for our words, St. Bernard says well, Nugae in ore laici sunt Nugae, in ore Sacerdotis blasphemiae; Idle words, are but idle words in a secular man's mouth; but in a Churchman's mouth, they are blasphemies. So for our actions; it may become us, it may concern us to abstain from some indifferent things, which other men without any scandal may do.  

Hierom.  Vehementer destruit Ecclaesiam Dei, laicos esse meliores Clericis: Nothing shakes the Church more, than when Churchmen are no better than other men are. 
4. 10.  Where we read in Genesis, Vox sanguinis, The voice of Abel's blood calls; it is in the Original, Vox sanguinum, of bloods, in the plural; many bloods, much blood: the blood of a whole Parish, of a whole Province, cries out against the life of such a man: for his Sermons are but his Texts; his life is his Sermon that preaches; Aaron and Moses were joined in Commission; Aaron had the tongue, the power of speaking; Moses had the Rod, the power of doing great works. When the Lystrians called Paul, 
Act. 14.12.  Mercury, for his Eloquence, they called his Companion Barnabas, Jupiter; their eye was upon their great work, as well as their sweet words. Clearly and ingenuously, we, we the Ministers of the Gospel, acknowledge ourselves to be principally intended by the Apostle in this Text; this light, that is the knowledge, and the love of God's truth, must shine in our hearts, sincerely there; and in our tongues, assidiously there; and in our hands, evidently there; and so we are the persons; but yet not we alone, though the Apostle express it in that phrase, in Cordibus nostris.  
When this Apostle speaks of Hereditas nostra, our inheritance; and Pax nostra, our peace; and Spes nostra, our hope, as he does to the Ephesians, and often elsewhere, he does not so appropriate Christ, of whom he says all that, to himself, as that they to whom he writes, should not have an inheritance, and a peace, and a hope in Christ, as well as he, or any Apostle. So when he says here in Cordibus nostris, in our hearts, he intends that the Colossians, that people to whom he writes, (and he writes to all) should have that light in their hearts, and consequently in their tongues and hands too; in words and actions, as well as men of the Church. It is not only to Priests that St. Peter said, 
1 Pet. 2.9.  God had made them a Royal Priesthood; not only of Priests that St. John said, God hath made us Kings and Priests. There is not so Regal, so Sovereign, 
Ap. 5.10.  so Monarchical a Prerogative, as to have Animum Deosubditum, 
Leo.  Corporis sui Rectorem; That man who hath a soul in subjection to God, and in dominion over his own body, that man is a King. And then there is not so holy, so Priestly an Office, as Pietatis hostias de altari Cordis offer. That man who from the Altar of a pure heart, 
Idem.  offers sacrifices of prayer and praise to God, that man is a Priest: so all you are or may be Kings; and all Priests. Nay, 
Chrysost.  St. Chrysost. appropriates this rather to you, then to us; not to us at all; for he read this very Text, in Cordibus vestris, in your hearts. Since then to this intendment you are Priests, as we are; since altogether make up Clerum Domini, the Lords Clergy, and his portion, do not you make us to be all of the inferior Ministry, and all you selves to be Bishops over us, to visit us, judge us, syndicate us, and leave out yourselves: Plus Sacerdotum vitam quam suum discutientes, as St. G. complains; that bestow more time in examining the lives of their Pastors, than their own. 
Aquin.  Quid tibi Malus Minister, ubi bonus Dominus, says Aquinas upon this: As long as thou art sure, that the Master of the house will receive thee kindly, what carest thou though a surly Fellow let thee in at door? Sacramenta ab sunt indigne tractantibus, says that Father: 
August.  An hypocritical preaching of the Word, an unclean Administration of the Sacraments, shall aggravate the condemnation of that unclean Hypocrite; but yet Prosunt digne sumentibus; a worthy Receiver, receives the virtue and benefit of the Word and Sacraments, though from an unworthy Giver.  
I may be bold to say, that this City hath the ablest preaching Clergy of any City in Christendom; must I be fain to say, that the Clergy of this City hath the poorest entertainment of any City that can come into comparison with it? it is so. And that to which they have pretences and claims to be farther due to them, is detained, not because that which they have is enough, but because that which they claim is too much: The circumstance of the quantity and proportion, keeps off the consideration of the very right: So that this Clergy is therefore poor, because they should be rich; therefore kept without any part, because so great a part seems to belong unto them. Grieve not the Spirit of God; grieve not the spiritual man, the man of God neither: 
Aug.  Ex tristitia sermo procedens, minus gratus est. He that preaches from a sad heart, under the sense of a great charge, and small means, cannot preach cheerfully to you. Provide, says the Apostle, 
Heb. 13.17.  that they who watch over your souls, may do it with joy, and not with grief: for, says he, that's unprofitable for you. You receive not so much profit by them, as you might do, if they might attend your service entirely; when they are distracted with chargeable suits abroad, or macerated with penurious fortunes at home. Consider how much other Professions, of Arms, of Merchandise, of Agriculture, of Law itself, are decayed of late: and thence, (though not only thence) it is, that so many more in our times, then ever before, of Honourable and Worshipful Families, apply themselves to our Profession, to the Ministry. Let therefore this light shine in your hearts, bless God for this blessed increase, and shine in your tongues; glorify God in a good interpretation of the actions of his Ministers, and shine in your hands; cherish and comfort them so, that they be not put to bread and water, that give you bread and wine; nor mourn in smoky corners, who bring you the Sunshine of the glorious Gospel, the Gospel of consolation, into the congregation. And so we have done with all the four considerations, which made up this first branch, our Vocation by this Light, considered positively, The Thing, the Time, the Place, and the Persons. A little remains by debt of promise, 
Comparatio.  to be said of this Comparatively, As God commanded light, so he hath shined in our hearts. A little before the Text, the act of the Devil is to induce darkness; but God illumins. Deus hujus saeculi, says the Apostle, the God of this world, that is, 
1. 14.  the Devil, blinds the eyes of men. Which words by the way give just occasion of making this short note, that many times by altercation and vehemence of Disputation, the truth of the literal sense is endangered: and therefore we should rather content ourselves with positive and necessary Divinity, then entangle ourselves with impertinent controversies. The Manichees, and those other Heretics, who constituted Duo Principia, and consequently two Gods, one good, and one bad, made use of this Text for that opinion; That if the Devil were God of this world, and if any God did blind the eyes of man, there was an ill God. And to elevate and take away that Argument of those Heretics, very many of the ancient Fathers, Irenaeus, literally and expressly, and expressly and literally S. Chrys. too, and S. Aug. says, most of the Orthodox Fathers would needs read that place with another distinction another interpunction then indeed belongs to it, not Deus hujus saeculi, The God of this world hath blinded man; but Deus, hujus saeculi mentes, God, that is, the true God, hath blinded the eyes of the men of this world. And so, for fear of giving the name of God to the Devil, they attribute the action of the Devil to God. I do not mean that the Fathers do it, they were far from it; but this shift, and this inconvenient manner of expressing themselves, hath made some later men who think so, think, that the Father's thought God to be really, positively, primarily, the author of the excaecation of the Reprobates. In what sense that may be said, how, and how far God concurs to this excaecation, we dispute not now. We rest in that of St. Aug. Aliud venit de astutia suadentis, aliud de nequitia nolentis, aliud de justitia punientis. 
August.  God hath a part, a great part, in this; but not the first. First, says St. Aug. Satan suggests, than man consents; then enters God, by way of punishment, of Justice. And how far doth he punish? Deserendo, he forsakes that sinner, he withdraws his Grace: and then, as upon the departing of the Sun, darkness follows, but the Sun is not the cause of darkness; so upon departing of Grace, follows excaecation. God, our God, is the God of light, and lighteneth every man that cometh into the world. So he begun in the Creation, so he proceeds in our Vocation, As he commanded light of darkness, so he hath shined in our hearts.  
First, He made light: There was none before; so first, He shines in our hearts, by his preventing Grace; there was no light before; not of Nature, by which any man could see, any means of salvation; not of foreseen Merits, that God should light his light at our Candle, give us Grace therefore, because he saw that we would use that Grace well. He made light, he infused Grace.  
And then, He made light first of all Creatures: Ut innotescerent, says, St. Ambr. that by that light all his other Creatures might be seen: which is also the use of this other light, that shines in our hearts, that by that light, the love of the Truth, and the glory of Christ Jesus, all our actions may be manifested to the world, and abide that trial; that we look for no other approbation of them, then as they are justifiable by that light, as they conduce to the maintenance of his Religion, and the advancement of his glory: not to consider actions as they are wisely done, valiantly done, learnedly done, but only as they are religiously done: and ut abdicemus occulta dedecoris, 
v. 2.  as the Apostle speaks; That we may renounce the hidden things of dishonesty, and not walk in craftiness: that is, not sin therefore, because we see our sins may be hid from the world: For, says St. Ambrose, speaking of Gyges' Ring, a Ring by which he that wore it, became invisible; Da sapienti; says that Father, Give a wise man, (a man religiously wise) that Ring, and though he might sin invisibly before men, he would not, because God sees. Nay, 
Seneca.  even the moral man goes further than that, in that point; Though I knew, says he, hominem ignoraturum, & Deum ignosciturum, that man should never know it, and that God would forgive it, I would not sin, for the very soulness that is naturally in sin. As God commanded light for the Manifestation of his creatures, so he hath shined in our hearts, that our actions might appear by that light.  
How then made he that light? Dixit, he said it, by his Word. In which we note, first, the means: Verbo; he did it by his Word; and by his Word, the preaching of his Word, doth he shine in our hearts. And we consider also the dispatch, how soon he made light, 
Chrysost.  with a word. Dixit, id est, summa cum celeritate fecit, his work cost him but a word; 
Tertul.  and then Cogitasse jussisse est, his word cost him but a thought. So if we consider the dispatch of Christ Jesus in all his Miracles, there went but a Tolle, Take up thy bed and walk, to the lame man; but an Ephptata, Be opened, to the deaf man; but a Quid vides, What seest thou? to the blind man. If we consider his dispatch upon the thief on the cross, how soon he brought him from reviling, to glorifying; and if any in this Auditory feel that dispatch of the Holy Ghost, in his heart; that whereas he came hither but to see, he hath heard; or if he came to hear the man, he hath heard God in the man, and is better at this Glass, than he was at the first; better now, then when he came, and will go away better than he is yet, he that feels this, must confess, that as God commanded light out of darkness, so he hath shined in his heart: So, that is, by the same means, by his Word; and so, that is, with the same speed and dispatch.  
Again, Deus vidit lucem, God saw the light; he looked upon it; he considered it: This second light, even Religion itself, must be looked upon, considered; not taken implicitly, nor occasionally, not advantageously, but seriously and deliberately, and then assuredly, and constantly.  
And then vidit quod bona, God saw that this light was good; God did not see, nor say that darkness was good; that ignorance, how near of kin soever they make it to Devotion, was good; nor that the waters were good; that a fluied, a moving, a variable, an uncertain irresolution in matter of Religion, is good; nor that that Abyssus, that depth which was before light, was good; that it is good to surround and enwrap ourselves in deep and perplexing School-points, but he saw that light, evident and fundamental Articles of Religion, were good, good to clear thee in all scruples, good to sustain thee in all tentations. God knew that this light would be good, before he made it; but he did not say so, till he saw it. God knew every good work that thou shouldest do, every good thought that thou shouldest think to thy end, before thy beginning, for he of his own goodness, imprinted this degree of goodness in thee; but yet assure thyself, that he loves thee in another manner, and another measure, then, when thou comest really to do those good works, than before, or when thou didst only conceive a purpose of doing them: he calls them good when he sees them.  
And when he saw this light, this good light, he separated all darkness from it. When thou hast found this light to have shined in thy heart, God manifested in his way, his true Religion, separate all darkness, the dark inventions and traditions of men, and the works of darkness, sin; and since thou hast light, be night not thyself again, with relapsing to either.  
The comparison of these two lights, created and infused light, would run in infinitum; I shut it up with this, that as at the first production of light, till light was made, there was a general, an universal darkness, darkness over all, but after light was once made, there was never any universal darkness, because there is no body big enough to shadow the whole Sun from the Earth; so till this light shine in our hearts, we are wholly darkness; but when it hath truly and effectually shined in us, and manifested to us the evidence of our Election in Gods eternal Decree, howsoever there may be some Clouds, some Eclipses, yet there is no total darkness, no total, no final falling away of God's Saints. And in all these respects, the comparison holds. As God commanded light out of darkness, so he hath shined in our hearts; and so we have done with all the branches of our second part, which implies our Vocation here, and we pass to the last, Our Glorification hereafter.  
As in our first part we considered by occasion of the first Creature, light, the whole Creation, and so the Creation of man; 
Part III.  and in our second part, by occasion of this shining in our hearts, the whole work of our Vocation and proceeding in this world: so in this third part, by occasion of this glorious manifestation of God, in the face of Christ Jesus, which is intended principally, by this Apostle, of, the manifestation of God in the Christian Church; we shall also, as far, as that dazzling glory will give us leave, consider the perfect state of glory in the Kingdom of Heaven: So that first, our branches in this third part, will be three, these three terms, 1 Knowledge, 2 Glory, and then, the face of Jesus Christ. 
Divisio.  And then we must look upon all these three terms two ways, first, Inchoative, how we have an inchoation of this knowledge, of this glory, in this face of Christ Jesus here in the Church; and then Consummative, how we shall have a consummation of all this hereafter.  

Scientia.  To us then, who were created of nothing, in the first part, and called from the Gentiles in the second, in this third part, our preparation to glory, is knowledge. The Persons in this part of the Text, are, as in the former; Not only we, we the Ministers of God's Word, but you also the hearers thereof: for there is a knowledge, an art of hearing, as well as of speaking. Students make up the University, as well as Doctors: and Hearers make up the Congregation, as well as Preachers. A good hearer is as much a Doctor, as a Preacher: A Doctor to him that sits by him, in example, whilst he is here: a Doctor to all his Family, in his repetition, when he comes home: a Doctor, to that which is more than the whole world, to him, his own soul, all his life. Christ appeared to this Apostle, 
Act. 26.16.  and said, I have appeared unto thee, for this purpose, to make thee a Minister and a witness, to open the Gentiles eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. There he received his Degree, his learning, and the use of it; but when St. Paul came abroad into the world, when he comes to preach, 
1.12.  and to write, he says to the Colos. The Father hath made us meet to be partakes of the inheritance of the Saints in his light. Us, says St. Chrysost, and so says Theophylact too, and many more than they two; Us, that is, all Us, Us that preach, you that hear; you are bound to study this knowledge, as well as we. And truly, a Hearer hath in some respects advantage of the Preacher: for, a Preacher, though in some measure, well disposed, can hardly exuere hominem, put off the affections of man, by being a Preacher; they stick closer to him then his Hood and habit, even in the Pulpit. Some little Clouds, if not of ostentation, and vain glory, yet of complacency and self-pleasing, will affect him; the hearer hath not that tentation, but hath herein a more perfect exercise of the most Christian virtue, Humility, than the preacher hath. Though therefore, when you cast your eye upon this part of this Text, you see in your Book, a difference of Character, in this word, To give, to give light, etc. which seems to fix all upon the person of the Apostle, and consequently of the Minister; yet that word is not in the Text, but the Text is only, for the enlightening; God hath shined, for the enlightening, etc. which is alike upon all; and therefore let us, all us, cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light: light itself is faith; but, the armour of light is knowledge; an ignorant man is a disarmed man, a naked man.  
Ignorance then is not our Usher into this presence, to show us the face of Christ Jesus: almost in every one of the ancient Fathers, you shall find some passages, wherein they discover an inclination to that opinion, that before Christ came in the manifestation of his Gospel (for, since that coming, every man is bound to see him there) many Philosophers, men of knowledge, and learning, were saved without the knowledge of Christ. Christus Ratio, says one of them, well, (for Logos, is, Ratio, and not only Verbum, 
Justin Martyr.  as it is ordinarily translated) Christ is Reason, rectified Reason; and secundum Rationem vixerunt, Christiani semper, says he, Whosoever lives according to rectified Reason, which is the Law of nature, he is a Christian; and therefore, when that Father, Justin Martyr, who had been before a Philosopher amongst the Gentiles, came to be a Preacher amongst the Christians, he never left off his Philosopher's habit, because that gave an impression of his learning, and an estimation by it. That knowledge was a help to salvation, the Ancients thought: but that is a new Doctrine, that men should make a title to God, by being ignorant: that whereas all the life of man, is either an active life, or a contemplative, they should in the Roman Church make one Order, and call them Nullanos, men that did nothing, in contempt of the active life, and in contempt of the contemplative life; another Order, whom they call Ignorantes, men that know nothing. There is an annihilation in sin; Homines cum peccam, nihil sunt: 
August.  Then when by sin, I depart from the Lord my God, in whom only I live, and move, and have my being, I am nothing: and truly, in this sinful profession of thine, of doing nothing, of knowing nothing, they come too near being nothing. What other answer can this knowing nothing, here, produce at the last day, from Christ Jesus, but his Nescio vos, I know not you? As David says of God, 
Psal. 18.26.  Cum perverso perverteris, With the froward God will be froward; so, Ignorantes ignorabit, of the ignorant, God will be ignorant; not know them, that study not knowledge. The miracle that Christ wrought in the conversion of the World, was not, that he wrought upon men by Apostles, that were unlearned; for the Apostles were not so; they were never unprovided to give a pertinent and satisfactory answer to the learnedest of the Philosophers amongst the Gentiles, to any of the Gamaliels and Nicodemusses, who were true understanders of the Law amongst the Jews; to any of their Scribes, the perverters of the Law; to any of the Pharisees, their Separatists, and Schismatics; to any of the Sadduces, their formal Heretics; nor to any of their Herodians, their State-Divines, who made Divinity serve present turns, and occasions: The Apostles were no ignorant men, then, when they were employed: but in this consisted the Miracle, that in an instant Christ by his Spirit, infused all knowledge, necessary for that great function, into them. If they had not had it, they could not have done his work. All must have it; Intelligite Reges, says David; for all their business, Kings must study for it: Erudimini Judices; with their other learning, Judges must have this. The Prophet denounces it for a heavy curse, The Prophet shall be a fool; 
Psa. 2. Ose 9.7.  he that should teach, shall not be able to do it: and, as it follows, The spiritual man shall be mad; if he have knowledge, he shall not know how to use it. St. Hierome translates that word, Arreptitius, he shall be possessed; possessed with the spirit of fear, or of flattery; others shall speak in him, and he become the instrument of men, and not of God. It was the Devils first advantage, knowledge, The Serpent was wiser than any beast: It is so still; Satan is wiser than any man in natural, and in Civil knowledge. 'Tis true, he is a Lion too; but he was a Serpent first; and did us more harm as a Serpent, then as a Lyon. But now, as Christ Jesus hath nailed his hand-writing, which he had against us, to the Cross, and thereby canceled his evidence; so in his descent to hell, and subsequent acts of his glorification, he hath burnt his Library, annihilated his wisdom, in giving us a wisdom above his craft; he hath shined in our hearts by the knowledge of his Gospel.  
Measure not thou therefore the growth and forwardness of thy Child, by how soon he could speak, or go; how soon he could contract with a man, or discourse with a woman: but how soon he became sensible of that great contract which he had made with Almighty God, in his Baptism: how soon he was able to discharge those sureties, which undertook for him, then, by receiving his confirmation, in the Church: how soon he became to discern the Lords Spirit, in the preaching of his Word, and to discern the Lords body, in the Administration of the Sacrament. A Christian Child must grow, as Christ when be was a Child, in wisdom and in stature: 
Luc. 2.  first, in wisdom, then in stature. Many have been taller at sixteen, then ever Christ was; but not any so learned at sixty, as he when he disputed at twelve. He grew in favour, says that Text, with God and man; first, with God, then with man. Bring up your children in the knowledge and love of God; and good, and great men, will know, and love them too.  
It is a good definition of ill love, that St. Chrysost. giveth, that it is Animae vacantis passio, a passion of an empty soul, of an idle mind. For fill a man with business, and he hath no room for such love. It will fit the love of God too, so far, as that that love must be in anima vocante: at first, when the soul is empty, disencumbred from other studies, disengaged in other affections, then to take in the knowledge, and the love of God; for, Amari nisi nota possunt, says St. August. truly; however we may slumber ourselves with an opinion of loving God, certainly we do not, we cannot love him, till we know him; and therefore hear, and read, and meditate, and confer, and use all means whereby thou mayst increase in knowledge. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them, says Christ; you are not happy till you do them; that's true: but ye can never do them, till ye know them. Zeal furthers our salvation; but it must be Secundum scientiam, Zeal according to knowledge. Works further our salvation; but not works done in our sleep, stupidly, casually, nor erroneously, but upon such grounds as fall within our knowledge to be good. Faith most of all furthers and advances our salvation; but a man cannot believe that which he does not know. Conscience includes science; it is knowledge, and more; but it is that first. It is, as we express it in the School, Syllogismus practicus. I have a good Conscience in having done well; but I did that upon a former knowledge, that that ought to be done. God hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light of knowledge, that was the first; and then, of the knowledge of the glory of God, that is our second term, in this first acceptation of the Word. The light of the knowledge of the glory of this world, 
Gloria Dei.  is a good, and a great piece of learning. To know, that all the glory of man, is as the flower of grass: that even the glory, 
1 Pet. 1.24.  and all the glory, of man, of all mankind, is but a flower, and but as a flower, somewhat less than the Proto-type, than the Original, than the flower itself; and all this but as the flower of grass neither, no very beautiful flower to the eye, no very fragrant flower to the smell: To know, that for the glory of Moab, Auferetur, 
Esai 16.24.  it shall be contemned, consumed; and for the glory of Jacob itself, Attenuabitur, It shall be extenuated, 
17. ●4.  that the glory of God's enemies shall be brought to nothing, and the glory of his servants shall be brought low in this word: To know how near nothing, how mere nothing, all the glory of this world is, is a good, a great degree of learning.  
It is a Book of an old Edition, to put you upon the consideration what great and glorious men have lost their glory in this world: Give me leave to present to you a new Book, a new consideration; not how others have lost, but consider only how you have got that glory which you have in this world: consider advisedly, and confess ingeniously, whether you have not known many men, more industrious than ever you were, and yet never attained to the glory of your Wealth? Many wiser than ever you were, and yet never attained to your place in the Government of State; and valianter than ever you were, that never came to have your command in the Wars. Consider then how poor a thing the glory of this world is, not only as it may be so lost, as many have lost it, but as it may be so got, as you have got it. 
Seneca.  Nullum indifferens gloriosum, says that Moral man; In that which is so obvious, as that any man may compass it, truly this can be no glory.  
But this is not fully the knowledge of the glory of this Text: though this Moral knowledge of the glory of this world, conduce to the knowledge of this place, which is the glory of God; yet not of the Majestical, and inaccessible glory of the Essence, or Attributes of God, of inscrutable points of Divinity: for scrutator Majestatis opprimetur a gloria, 
Prov. 25.27.  as St. Hiero, and all those three Rabbins, whose Commentaries we have upon that Book, read that place: He that searches too far into the secrets of God, shall be dazzled, confounded by that glory. But here, Gloria Dei, is indeed Gloria Deo; the glory of God, is the glorifying of God: it is as St. Ambro. expresses it, Notitia cum laude; the glory of God, is the taking knowledge, that all that comes, comes from God, and then the glorifying of God for whatsoever comes. And this is a heavenly art, a divine knowledge; that if God send a pestilence amongst us, we Come not to say, it was a great fruit year, and therefore there must follow a plague in reason: That if God swallow up an invincible Navy, we come to say, There was a storm, and there must follow a scattering in reason: That if God discover a Mine, we come not to say, there was a false Brother that writ a Letter, and there must follow a discovery in reason; but remember still, that though in David's Psalms, there be Psalms of Prayer, and Psalms of Praise; Psalms of Deprecation, and of Imprecation too; how divers soever the nature of the Psalm be, yet the Church hath appointed to shut up every Psalm with that one Acclamation, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, etc. Whether I pray, or praise; depricate Gods Judgements from myself, or imprecate them upon pods enemies, nothing can fall from me, nothing can fall upon me, but that God may receive glory by it, if I will glorify him in it. So that then, in a useful sense, Gloria Dei, is Gloria Deo; but yet more literally, more directly, the glory of God in this place, is the glorious Gospel of Christ Jesus: which is that which is intended, and expressed in the next phrase, which is the last Branch; in this first acceptation of these words, in fancy, The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  

In fancy.  When our Saviour Christ charged the Sadduces with error, it was not merely because they were ignorant; the Sadduces were not so: 
Mat. 22.29.  but, Erratis nescientes Scripturas, says Christ; You err because you understand not the Scriptures: All knowledge is ignorance, except it conduce to the knowledge of the Scriptures, and all the Scriptures lead us to Christ. 
Heb. 1.3.  He is the brightness of his Father's glory, 
Sap. 2. 26.  and the express image of his person. The brightness of the everlasting light, and the image of his goodness. And, to insist upon a word of the fittest signification, 
Jo. 6. 27. Hillari.  Him hath God the Father sealed. Now, Sigillum imprimitur in Materia diversa: A Seal graven in gold or stone, does not print in stone or gold: in Wax it will, and it will in Clay; for this Seal in which God hath manifested himself, we consider it not, as it is printed in the same metal, in the eternal Son of God; but as God hath sealed himself in Clay, in the humane Nature; but yet in Wax too, in a person ductile, pliant, obedient to his will. And there, Signatum super nos Lumen vultus, tui, says David, The light of thy countenance, that is, the image of thyself, is sealed; that is, derived, imprinted, upon us, that is, 
Ps. 4.  upon our nature, our flesh. Signatum est, id est, significatum est: 
Tertul.  God hath signified this pretence, manifested, revealed himself in the face of Jesus Christ. For that is the Office, and service, that Christ avows himself to have done; O Father, I have manifested thy Name: that is, thy Name of Father, as thou art a Father: for, Qui Solum Deum novit Creatorem, 
Cipri.  Judaicae mensuram prudentiae non excedit. Knowest thou that there is a God, and that that God created the world? What great knowledge is this? The Jews know it too. Non est Idem, nosce Deum opificem esse, & habere filium. It is another Religion, another point of Faith, 
Chrysost.  to know that God had a Son of eternal begetting, and to have a world of late making. God therefore hath shined in no man's heart, till he know the glory of GOD in the face of Jesus Christ, till he come to the manifestation of God, in the Gospel. So that, that man comes short of this light, that believes in God, in a general, in an incomprehensible power, but not in Christ; and that man goes beyond this light, who will know more of God, then is manifested in the Gospel, which is the face of Christ Jesus: the one comes not to the light, the other goes beyond, and both are in blindness. Christ is the Image of God, and the Gospel is the face of Christ: and now, I rest nor in God's picture, as I find it in every Creature; though there be in every Creatare an Image of God; I have a livelier Image of God, Christ. And then I seek not for Christ's face, as it was traditionally sent to Agabarus in his life; nor for his face, as it was imprinted in the Veronica, in the woman's Apron, as he went to his death; nor for his face, as it was described in Lentulus his Letter, to the Senate of Rome; but I have the glory of God in Christ, I, and I have the face of Christ in the Gospel, Except God had taken this very person upon him, this individual person, me, (which was impossible, because I am a sinful person) he could not have come nearer, then in taking this nature upon him. Now I cannot say, as the man at the Pool, Hominem non habeo, I have no man to help me; the Heathen cannot say, I have no God; but I cannot say, I have no man; for I have a Man, the Man Jesus; him, who by being Man, knows my misery; and by being God, can and will show mercy unto me. 
Rom. 13.12.  The night is far spent, says the Apostle, the day is at hand; 
Gregor.  Nox ante Christum, Aurora in Evangelio, Dies in Resurrectione. Till Christ all was night, there was a beginning of day, in the beginning of the Gospel, and there was a full noon in the light and glory thereof; but such a day, as shall be always day, and overtaken with no night, no cloud, is only the day of Judgement, the Resurrection: And this hath brought us to our last step, to the consideration of these three terms; 1. knowledge; 2. glory; 3. the face of Christ Jesus in that everlasting Kingdom.  
For this purpose did God command light out of darkness, that men might glorify God in the contemplation of the Creatures; and for this purpose hath God shined in our hearts, by the Scriptures in the Church, that man might be directed towards him, here; but both these hath God done therefore, to this purpose, this is the end of all, that man might come to this light, in that everlasting state, in the consummation of happiness in Soul, and body too, when we shall be called out of the solitariness of the grave, to the blessed and glorious society of God, and his Angels, and his Saints there. 
Nazianzen.  Hoc verbo reconcinnor, & componor, & in alium virum migro: with that word, Surgite mortui, Arise ye that sleep in the dust, all my pieces shall be put together again, Reconcinnor; with that word, Intra in gaudium, Enter into thy Master's joy, I am settled, I am established, Componor; and with that word, Sede ad dextram, sit down army right hand, I become another manner of man, In alium virum migro; another manner of Miracle, than the same Father makes of man in this world; Quodnam Mysterium, says he, What a Mystery is man here? Parvus sum & Magnus: I am less in body then many Creature in the World, and yet greater in the compass and extent of my Soul then all the World: Humillimus sum, & Excelsus; I am under a necessity of spending some thoughts upon this low World, and yet in an ability to study, to contemplate, to lay hold upon the next: Mortalis sum, & immortalis; in a Body that may, that must, that does, that did die ever since it was made; I carry a Soul, nay, a Soul carries me, to such a perpetuity, as no Saint, no Angel, God himself shall not survive me, over-live me. And lastly, says he, Terrenus sum, & Coelestis; I have a Body, but of Earth; but yet of such Earth, as God was the Potter to mould it, God was the statuary to fashion it; and then I have a Soul, of which God was the Father, he breathed it into me, and of which no matter can say, I was the Mother, for it proceeded of nothing. Such a Mystery is man here; but he is a Miracle hereafter; I shall be still the same man, and yet have another being: And in this is that Miracle exalted, that death who destroys me, re-edifies me: Mors veluti medium excogitata, 
Cyril.  ut de integro restauraretur homo: man was fallen, and God took that way to raise him, to throw him lower, into the grave; man was sick, and God invented, God studied Physic for him, and strange Physic, to recover him by death. The first faciamus hominem, the Creation of man, was a thing incomprehensible in Nature; but the Denuo nasci, to be born again, was stranger, even to Nicodemus, who knew the former, the Creation, 
Joh. 4.3.  well enough. But yet the Immutabimur, is the greatest of all, 
1 Cor. 15.57.  which St. Paul calls all to wonder at, Behold, I show you a Mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed: A Mystery, which it Nicodemus had discerned it, would have put him to more wonder, than the Denuo nasci; to enter into his mother's womb, (as he speaks) to enter into the Bowels of the Earth, and lie there, and lie dead there, not nine months, but many years, and then to be born again, and the first minute of that new Birth to be so perfect, as that nothing can be better, and so perfect as that he can never become worse, that is that which makes all strange accidents to natural Bodies, and Bodies Politic too, 
Scientia.  all changes in man, all revolutions of States, easy, and familiar to us; I shall have another being, and yet be the same man. And in that state, I shall have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus. Of which three things being now come to speak, I am the less sorry, and so may you be too, if my voice be so sunk, as that I be not heard; for, if I had all my time, and all my strength, and all your patience reserved till now, what could I say that could become, what, that could have any proportion, to this knowledge, and this glory, and this face of Christ Jesus, there in the Kingdom of Heaven? But yet be pleased to hear a word, of each of these three words; and first, of Knowledge. In the Attributes of God, we consider his knowledge to be Principium agendi dirigens, The first proposer, and Director; This should be done: and then his Will to be Principium imperans, the first Commander, This shall be done; and then his Power to be Principium exequens, the first Performer, This is done: This should be done, this shall be done, this is done, expresses to us, the Knowledge, the Will, and the Power of God. Now we shall be made partakers of the Divine Nature, and the Knowledge, and the Will, and the Power of God, shall be so far communicated to us there, as that we shall know all that belongs to our happiness, and we shall have a will to do, and a power to execute, whatsoever conduces to that. And for the knowledge of Angels, that is not in them per essentiam, for whosoever knows so, as the Essence of the thing flows from him, knows all things, and that's a knowledge proper to God only: Neither do the Angels know per species, by those resultances and species, which rise from the Object, and pass through the Sense to the Understanding, for that's a deceivable way, both by the indisposition of the Organ, sometimes, and sometimes by the depravation of the Judgement; and therefore, as the first is too high, this is too low a way for the Angels. Some things the Angels do know by the dignity of their Nature, by their Creation, which we know not; as we know many things which inserior Creatures do not; and such things all the Angels, good and bad know. Some things they know by the Grace of their confirmation, by which they have more given them, than they had by Nature in their Creation; and those things only the Angels that stood, but all they, do know. Some things they know by Revelation, when God is pleased to manifest them unto them; and so some of the Angels know that, which the rest, though confirmed, do not know. By Creation, they know as his Subjects; by Confirmation, they know as his servants; by Revelation, they know as his Council. Now, Erimus sicut Angeli, says Christ, There we shall be as the Angels: The knowledge which I have by Nature, shall have no Clouds; here it hath: that which I have by Grace, shall have no reluctation, no resistance; here it hath: That which I have by Revelation, shall have no suspicion, no jealousy; here it hath: sometimes it is hard to distinguish between a respiration from God, and a suggestion from the Devil. There our curiosity shall have this noble satisfaction, we shall know how the Angels know, by knowing as they know. We shall not pass from Author, to Author, as in a Grammar School, nor from Art to Art, as in an University; but, as that General which Knighted his whole Army, God shall Create us all Doctors in a minute. That great Library, those infinite Volumes of the Books of Creatures, shall be taken away, quite away, no more Nature; those reverend Manuscripts, written with Gods own hand, the Scriptures themselves, shall be taken away, quite away; no more preaching, no more reading of Scriptures, and that great School-Mistress, Experience, and Observation shall be removed, no new thing to be done, and in an instant, I shall know more, than they all could reveal unto me. I shall know, not only as I know already, that a Beehive, that an Anthill is the same Book in Decimo sexto, as a Kingdom is in Folio, That a Flower that lives but a day, is an abridgement of that King, that lives out his threescore and ten years; but I shall know too, that all these Aunts, and Bees, and Flowers, and Kings, and Kingdoms, howsoever they may be Examples, and Comparisons to one another, yet they are all as nothing, altogether nothing, less than nothing, infinitely less than nothing, to that which shall then be the subject of my knowledge, for, it is the knowledge of the glory of God.  

Gloria Dei.  Before, in the former acceptation, the glory of God, was our glorifying of God; here, the glory of God, is his glorifying of us: there it was his receiving, here it is his giving of glory. That prayer which our Saviour Christ makes, Glorify me, O Father, with thine own self, 
Joh. 17.5.  with the Glory which I had, before the world was, is not a prayer for the Essential Glory of God; for, Christ in his Divine Nature was never devested, never unaccompanied of that glory; and for his humane Nature, that was never capable of it: the attributes, and so the Essence of the Glory, of the Divinity, are not communicable to his Humane Nature, neither perpetually, as the Ubiquitaries say, nor temporarily in the Sacrament, as the Papists imply. But the glory which Christ asks there, is, the glory of sitting down at the right hand of his Father in our flesh, in his humane Nature, which glory he had before the world, for he had it in his predestination, in the Eternal Decree. And that's the glory of God, which we shall know; know, by having it. We shall have a knowledge of the very glory, the Essential glory of God, because we shall see Sicuti est, as God is, in himself; and Cognoscam at cognitus; I shall know, as I am known: 
1 Cor. 13.12.  that glory shall dilate us, enlarge us, give us an inexpressible capacity, and then fill it; but we shall never comprehend that glory, the Essential glory; but that glory which Christ hath received in his humane Natute, (in all other degrees, excepting those which flow from his hypostatical union) we shall comprehend, we shall know, by having: we shall receive a Crown of glory, that fadeth not: 
1 Pet. 5.4.  It is a Crown that compasses round, no entrance of danger any way; and a crown that fadeth not, fears no winter: we shall have interest in all we see, and we shall see the treasure of all knowledge, the face of Christ Jesus. Then and there, 
In facio.  we shall have an abundant satisfaction and accomplishment, of all St. Augustine's three Wishes: He wished to have seen Rome in her glory, to have heard St. Paul preach, and to have seen Christ in the flesh. We shall have all; we shall see such a Jerusalem, as that Rome, if that were literally true, which is hyperbolically said of Rome, In Urbe, in Orb, that City is the whole world, yet Rome, that Rome, were but a Village to this Jerusalem. We shall hear St. Paul, with the whole choir of Heaven, pour our himself in that acclamation, Salvation to our God, that sitteth upon the Throne, 
Apoc. 7.10.  and to the Lamb: and we shall see, and see for ever, Christ in that flesh, which hath done enough for his Friends, and is safe enough from his Enemies. We shall see him in a transfiguration, all clouds of sadness removed; and a transubstantiation, all his tears changed to Pearls, all his Blood-drops into Rubies, all the Thorns of his Crown into Diamonds: for, where we shall see the Walls of his Palace to be Saphyr, and Emerald, and Amethyst, 
Apoc. 21.19.  and all Stones that are precious, what shall we not see in the face of Christ Jesus? and whatsoever we do see, by that very sight becomes our. Be therefore no strangers to this face: see him here, that you may know him, and he you, there: see him, as St. John did, who turned to see a voice: see him in the preaching of his Word; see him in that seal, which is a Copy of him, as he is of his Father; 
Apoc. 1.  see him in the Sacrament. Look him in the face as he lay in the Manger, poor, and then murmur not at temporal wants; suddenly enriched by the Tributes of Kings, and doubt not but that God hath large and strange ways to supply thee. Look him in the face, in the Temple, disputing there at twelve years; and then apply thyself to God, to the contemplation of him, to the meditation upon him, to a conversation with him betimes. Look him in the face in his Father's house; a Carpenter, and but a Carpenter. Take a Calling, and contain thyself in that Calling. But bring him nearer, and look him in the face, as he looked upon Friday last; when he whose face the Angels desire to look on, he who was fairer than the children of men, 
Psa. 45.3. Esai 52.14.53.3.  as the Prophet speaks, was so marred more than any man, as another Prophet says, That they hide their faces from him, & despised him; when he who bore up the heavens bowed down his head, & he who gives breath to all, gave up the ghost: and then look him in the face again, as he looked yesterday, not lamed upon the Cross, not putrified in the Grave, not singed in Hell, raised, and raised by his own power, Victoriously, triumphantly, to the destruction of the last Enemy, death; look him in the face in all these respects, of Humiliation, and of Exaltation too; and then, as a Picture look upon him, that look upon it, God upon whom thou keepest thine Eye, will keep his Eye upon thee, and, as in the Creation, when he commanded light out of darkness, he gave thee a capacity of this light; and as in thy Vocation, when he shined in thy heart, he gave thee an inchoation of this light, so in associating thee to himself at the last day, he will perfect, consummate, accomplish all, and give thee the light of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus there.  
This is the last word of our Text: but we make up our Circle by returning to the first word; the first word is, For; for the Text is reason of that which is in the Verse immediately before the Text; that is, We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus sake. We stop not on this side Christ Jesus; we dare not say, that any man is saved without Christ; we dare say, that none can be saved, that hath received that light, and hath not believed in him. We carry you not beyond Christ neither, not beyond that face of his, in which he is manifested, the Scriptures. Till you come to Christ you are without God, as the Apostle says to the Ephesians: and when you go beyond Christ, to Traditions of men, you are without God too. There is a fine Deo, a left handed Atheism, in the mere natural man, that will not know Christ; and there is a sine Deo, a right handed Atheism in the stubborn Papist, who is not content with Christ. They preach Christ Jesus and themselves, and make themselves Lords over you in Jesus, place, and farther than ever he went. We preach not ourselves, but him, and ourselves your servants for his sake; and this is our service, to tell you the whole compass, the beginning, the way, and the end of all, that all is done in, and by, and for Christ Jesus, that from thence flow, and thither lead, and there determine all, to bring you, from the memory of your Creation, by the sense of your Vocation, to the assurance of your glorification, by the manifestation of God in Christ, and Christ in the Scriptures, For, God who commanded light out of darkness, hath shined, etc.   

The 26 Sermon. 
Serm. 26.   Psa. 68.20. 
And unto God, the Lord, belong the issues of Death. (from Death)  
BUildings stand by the benefit of their foundations that sustain them, support them; and of their buttresses that comprehend them, embrace them; and of their contignations that knit and unite them. The foundation suffers them not to sink; the buttresses suffer them not to swerve; the contignation and knitting, suffer them not to cleave. The body of our building is in the former part of this verse; it is this; He that is our God, is the God of salvation; ad salutes, of salvations in the plural, so it is in the original; the God that gives us spiritual and temporal salvation too. But of this building, the foundation, the buttresses, the contignation are in this part of the verse, which constitutes our text, and in the three divers acceptations of the words amongst our expositors, Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death. For, first the foundation of this building, (that our God is the God of all salvations) is laid in this, That unto this God the Lord belongs the issues of death; that is, it is his power to give us an issue and deliverance, even then when we are brought to the jaws and teeth of death, and to the lips of that whirl-pool, the grave; and so in this acceptation, this exitus mortis, this issue of death is liberatio a morie, a deliverance from death; & this is the most obvious, and most ordinary acceptation of these words, and that upon which, our translation lays hold, The issues from death. And then, Secondly, the buttresses, that comprehend and settle this building; that He that is our God is the God of salvation are thus raised; Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death, that is, the disposition and manner of our death, what kind of issue, and transmigration we shall have out of this world, whether prepared or sudden, whether violent or natural, whether in our perfect senses, or shaked and disordered by sickness; there is no condemnation to be argued out of that, no judgement to be made upon that, for howsoever they die; precious in his sight, is the death of his Saints, and with him are the issues of death, the way of our departing out of this life, are in his hands; and so, in this sense of the words, this Exitus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio in morte, a deliverance in death; not that God will deliver us from dying, but that he will have a care of us in the hour of death, of what kind soever our passage be; and this sense, and acceptation of the words, the natural frame & contexture doth well and pregnantly administer unto us. And then lastly, the contignation and knitting of this building, that he that is our God, is the God of all salvation, consists in this, Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death, that is, that this God the Lord having united and knit both natures in one, and being God, having also come into this world, in our flesh, he could have no other means to save us, he could have no other issue out of this world, nor return to his former glory, but by death. And so in this sense, this exitus mortis, the issue of death, is liberatio per mortem, a deliverance by death, by the death of this God our Lord, Christ Jesus; and this is St. Augustine's acceptation of the words, and those many and great persons, that have adhered to him. In all these three lines then, we shall look upon these words; first, as the God of power, the Almighty Father, rescues his servants from the jaws of death; and then, as the God of mercy, the glorious Son, rescued us, by taking upon himself the issue of death; and then, (between these two,) as the God of comfort, the holy Ghost rescues us from all discomfort by his blessed impressions before hand, that what manner of death soever be ordained for us, yet this exitus mortis, shall be introitus in vitam, our issue in death, shall be an entrance into everlasting life. And these three considerations, our deliverance a morte, in morte, per mortem, from death, in death, and by death, will abundantly do all the offices of the foundation, of the buttresses, of the contignation of this our building, that He that is our God, is the God of all salvation, because Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death.  

First Part. A m●●e.  First then, we consider this exitus mortis, to be liberatio a morte; that with God the Lord are the issues of death, & therefore in all our deaths, and deadly calamities of this life, we may justly hope of a good issue from him; and all our periods and transitions in this life, are so many passages from death to death. 
Exitus a morte uteri.  Our very birth, and entrance into this life, is exitus a morte, an issue from death; for in our mother's womb, we are dead so, as that we do not know we live; not so much as we do in our sleep; neither is there any grave so close, or so putrid a prison, as the womb would be to us, if we stayed in it beyond our time, or died there, before our time. In the grave the worms do not kill us: We breed and feed, and then kill those worms, which we ourselves produced. In the womb the dead child kills the mother that conceived it, and is a murderer, nay a Parricide, even after it is dead. And if we be not dead so in the womb, so, as that being dead, we kill her that gave us our first life, our life of vegetation, yet we are dead so as David's Idols are dead; 
Psa. 115.6.  in the womb, we have eyes and see not, ears and hear not. There in the womb we are fitted for works of darkness, all the while deprived of light; and there, in the womb, we are taught cruelty, by being fed with blood; and may be damned though we be never born. Of our very making in the womb, David says, 
139. 14.  I am wonderfully and fearfully made, and, Such knowledge is too excellent for me; for, Even that is the Lords doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes. 
118. 23.  Ipse fecit nos, It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves, no, 
200. 3.  nor our Parents neither. Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me round about, says Job; and, 
10. 8.  (as the original word is) Thou hast taken pains about me; and yet says he, Thou dost destroy me: though I be the masterpiece of the greatest Master, (man is so) yet if thou do no more for me, if thou leave me where thou mad'st me, destruction will follow. The womb which should be the house of life, becomes death itself, if God leave us there. That which God threatens so often, the shutting of the womb, is not so heavy nor so uncomfortable a curse, in the first as in the latter shutting; not in the shutting of barrenness, as in the shutting of weakness, 
Esa. 37 3.  when Children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. It is the exaltation of misery, to fall from a near hope of happiness. And in that vehement imprecation the Prophet expresses the height of God's anger Give them O Lord; what wilt thou give them? 
Osc. 9 14.  give them a miscarrying womb. Therefore as soon as we are men, (that is, inanimated; quickened in the womb) though we cannot ourselves, our Parents have reason to say in our behalves, Wretched man that he is, who shall deliver him from this body of death? for, 
Ro. 7.24.  even the womb is the body of death, if there be no deliverer. It must be he that said to Jeremy, 
1. 5.  Before I form thee I knew thee, and before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified thee. We are not sure that there was no kind of ship nor boat to fish in, nor to pass by, till God prescribed Noah that absolute form of the Ark; that word which the holy Ghost by Moses, uses for the Ark, is common to all kinds of boats, Thebah; and is the same word that Moses uses for the boat that he was exposed in, that his mother laid him in an Ark of bulrushes. 
Exo 2.3.  But we are sure that Eve had no Midwife when she was delivered of Cain; therefore she might well say, Possedi virum a Domino, 
Gen. 4.1.  I have gotten a man from the Lord; wholly, entirely from the Lord: it is the Lord that hath enabled me to conceive, the Lord hath infused a quickening soul into that conception, the Lord hath brought into the world that which himself had quickened; without all this might Eve say, my body had been but the house of death, and Domini Domini sunt exitus mortis, To God the Lord belong the issues of death.  
But then this Exitus a morte, is but Introitus in mortem, this issue, 
Exitus a moribus mundi.  this deliverance from that death, the death of the womb, is an entrance, a delivering over to another death, the manifold deaths of this world. We have a winding sheet in our Mother's womb, that grows with us from our conception, and we come into the world wound up in that winding sheet; for we come to seek a grave. And, as prisoners, discharged of actions, may lie for fees, so when the womb hath discharged us, yet we are bound to it by cords of flesh, by such a string, as that we cannot go thence, nor stay there. We celebrate our own funeral with cries, even at our birth, as though our threescore, and ten years of life were spent in our Mother's labour, and our Circle made up in the first point thereof. We beg one Baptism with another, a sacrament of tears; and we come into a world that lasts many ages, but we last not. In domo patris, (says our blessed Saviour, speaking of heaven) multae mansiones, 
Jo. 14.2.  there are many, and mansions, divers and durable; so that if a man cannot possess a martyrs house, (he hath shed no blood for Christ) yet he may have a confessors, he hath been ready to glorify God, in the shedding of his blood. And if a woman cannot possess a virgin's house (she hath embraced the holy state of marriage) yet she may have a matron's house, she hath brought forth, and brought up children in the fear of God. In domo patris, In my Father's house, in heaven, there are many mansions, but here upon earth, 
Mat. 8 20.  The Son of man hath not where to lay his head, says he himself, No? terram dedit filiis hominum. How then hath God given this earth to the Sons of men? He hath given them earth for their materials, to be made of earth; and he hath given them earth for their grave and sepulture, to return and resolve to earth; but not for their possession. 
Heb. 13.14.  Here we hauh no continuing City; nay no Cottage that continues; nay, no we, no persons, no bodies that continue. Whatsoever moved St. Hierome to call the journeys of the Israelites in the wilderness, 
Exo. 17.1.  Mansions, the word, (the word is nasang) signifies but a journey, but a peregrination: even the Israel of God hath no mansions, 
Gen. 47 9  but journeys, pilgrimages in this life. By that measure did Jacob measure his life to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage. And though the Apostle would not say, morimer, that whilst we are in the body, we are dead, yet he says, peregrinamur, 
2 Cor. 5 6.  whilst we are in the body, we are but in a pilgrimage, and we are absent from the Lord. He might have said dead; for this whole world is but an universal Churchyard, but one common grave; and the life and motion, that the greatest persons have in it, is but as the shaking of buried bodies in their graves by an earthquake. That which we call life, is but Hebdomada mortium, a week of deaths, seven days, seven periods of our life spent in dying; a dying seven times over, and there's an end. Our birth dies in Infancy, and our infancy dies in youth, and youth, and the rest die in age; and age also dies, and determines all. Nor do all these, youth out of infancy, or age out of youth, arise so, as a Phoenix out of the ashes of another Phoenix formerly dead, but as a wasp, or a serpent out of carrion, or as a snake out of dung; our youth is worse than our infancy, and our age worse than our youth; our youth is hungry and thirsty after those sins which our infancy knew not, and our age is sorry and angry that it cannot pursue those sins which our youth did. And besides, all the way so many deaths, that is, so many deadly calamities accompany every condition, and every period of this life, as that death itself would be an ease to them that suffer them. Upon this sense does Job wish, 
10. 18.  that God had not given him an issue from the first death, from the womb; Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? O that I had given up the Ghost, and no eye had seen me; I should have been, as though I had not been.  
And not only the impatient Israelites in their murmuring, (would to God we had died by the hands of the Lord, 
Ex. 16.3.  in the land of Egypt) but Eliah himself, when he fled from Jezabel, and went for his life, as that Text says, under the juniper tree requested that he might die, and said, It is enough, now O Lord take away my life. 
1 Reg. 19.4.  So Jonah justifies his impatience, nay his anger towards God himself; Now O Lord take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die, then to live. And when God asked him, dost thou well to be angry for this, 
4. 3.  and after, (about the Gourd) dost thou well to be angry for that, he replies, I do well to be angry even unto death. How much worse a death, than death is this life, which so good men would so often change for death? But if my case be St. Paul's case, Quotidie morior, 
1 Cor. 15.31.  that I die daily, that something heavier than death fall upon me every day; If my case be David's case, Tota die mortificamur, 
psa. 44.22.  all the day long we are killed, that not only every day, but every hour of the day, something heavier than death falls upon me: though that be true of me, conceptus in peccatis, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me, 
51. 5.  (There I died one death) though that be true of me, natus filius irae, I was born, not only the child of sin, but the child of the wrath of God for sin, which is a heavier death, yet Domini Domini sunt exitus mortis, with God the Lord are the issues of death; and after a Job, and a Joseph, and a Jeremy, and a Daniel, I cannot doubt of a deliverance; and if no other deliverance conduce more to his glory, and my good, yet, He hath the keys of death; 
Apo. 1.18.  and he can let me out at that door, that is, deliver me from the manifold deaths of this world, the omni die, and the tota die, the every day's death, and every hours death, by that one death, the final dissolution of body and soul, the end of all.  
But then, is that the end of all? 
Exitus a morte Incinerationis.  is that dissolution of body and soul, the last death that the body shall suffer? (for of spiritual deaths we speak not now;) it is not. Though this be exitus a morte, it is introitus in mortem, though it be an issue from the manifold deaths of this world, yet it is an entrance into the death of corruption, and putrefaction, and vermiculation, and incineration, and dispersion, in, and from the grave, in which every dead man dies over again. It was a prerogative peculiar to Christ, not to die this death, not to see corruption. What gave him this privilege? not joseph's great proportions of gums and spices, that might have preserved his body from corruption and incineration, longer than he needed it, longer than three days; but yet would not have done it for ever. What preserved him then? did his exemption, and freedom from original sin, preserve him from this corruption and incineration. 'Tis true, that original sin hath induced this corruption and incineration upon us. 
1 C●●. 15.33.  If we had not sinned in Adam, mortality had not put on immortality, (as the Apostle speaks) nor corruption had not put on incorruption, but we had had our transmigration from this to the other world, without any mortality, any corruption at all. But yet since Christ took sin upon him, so far as made him mortal, he had it so far too, as might have made him see this corruption and incineration, though he had no original sin in himself. What preserved him then? did the hypostatical union of both natures, God and man, preserve his flesh from this corruption, this incineration? 'tis true that this was a most powerful embalming: To be embalmed with the divine nature itself, to be embalmed with eternity, was able to preserve him from corruption and incineration for ever: And he was embalmed so, embalmed with the divine nature, even in his body, as well as in his soul; for the Godhead, the divine nature, did not departed, but remain still united to his dead body in the grave. But yet for all this powerful embalming, this hypostatical union of both natures, we see, Christ did die; and for all this union which made him God and man, he became no man,) for, the union of body and soul makes the man, and he, whose soul and body are separated by death, (as long as that state lasts) is, (properly) no man.) And therefore as in him, the dissolution of body and soul was no dissolution of the hypostatical union, so is there nothing that constrains us to say, that though the flesh of Christ had seen corruption and incineration in the grave, this had been any dissolving of the hypostatical union; for the divine nature, the Godhead might have remained with all the elements and principles of Christ's body, as well as it did with the two constitutive parts of his person, his body and soul. This incorruption than was not in joseph's gums and spices; nor was it in Christ's innocency and exemption from original sin; nor was it, (that is, it is not necessary to say it was) in the Hypostatical union. But this incorruptibleness of his flesh, 
Psa. 16 10.  is most conveniently plac, d in that, non dabis, Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption. We look no farther for causes or reasons in the mysteries of our religion, but to the will and pleasure of God. 
Mat. 11.26.  Christ himself limited his inquisition in that; Ita est, even so, father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Christ's body did not see corruption, therefore, because God had decreed that it should not. The humble soul, (and only the humble soul is the religions soul) rests himself upon God's purposes, and his decrees; but then, it is upon those purposes, and decrees of God, which he hath declared and manifested; not such as are conceived and imagined in ourselves, though upon some probability, some verisimilitude. So, in our present case, 
Act. 2.31.13.35.  Peter proceeded in his sermon at Jerusalem, and so Paul in his at Antioch; they preached Christ to be risen without having seen corruption, not only because God had decreed it, but because he had manifested that decree in his Prophet. Therefore does St. Paul cite by special number the second Psalm for that decree, and therefore both St. Peter and St. Paul cite for that place in the 16. Psal. for, 
v. 10.  when God declares his decree and purpose in the express word of his Prophet, or when he declares it in the real execution of the decree, than he makes it ours, than he manifests it to us. And therefore as the mysteries of our religion are not the objects of our reason, but by faith we rest in God's decree and purpose, (it is so, O God, because it is thy will it should be so) so Gods decrees are ever to be considered in the manifestation thereof. All manifestation is either in the word of God, or in the execution of the decree; and when these two concur and meet, it is the strongest demonstration that can be: when therefore I find those marks of Adoption, and spiritual filiation, which are delivered in the word of God, to be upon me; when I find that real execution of his good purpose upon me, as that actually I do live under the obedience, and under the conditions which are evidences of adoption and spiritual filiation, then, and so long as I see these marks, and live so, I may safely comfort myself in a holy certitude, & a modest infallibility of my adoption. Christ determins himself in that, the purpose of God; because the purpose of God was manifest to him: S. Pet. & S. Paul, determine themselves in those two ways of knowing the purpose of God, the word of God before, the execution of the Decree in the fullness of time. It was prophesied before, said they, & it is performed now; Christ is risen without seeing corruption.  
Now this which is so singularly peculiar to him, that his flesh should not see corruption, at his second coming, his coming to Judgement, shall be extended to all that are then alive, their flesh shall not see corruption; because (as the Apostle says, and says as a secret, as a mystery, behold I show you a mystery) we shall not all sleep, 
1 Cor. 15.51.  (that is, not continue in the state of the dead in the grave) but we shall all be changed. In an instant we shall have a dissolution, and in the same instant a redintegration, a recompacting of body and soul; and that shall be truly a death, and truly a resurrection, but not sleeping no corruption. But for us, who die now, and sleep in the state of the dead, we must all pass this posthume death, this death after death, nay this death after burial, this dissolution after dissolution, this death of corruption and putrefaction, of virmiculation and incineration of dissolution and dispersion, in, and from the grave. When those bodies which have been the children of royal Parents, and the Parents of royal Children, must say with Job, 
17.14.  to corruption thou art my Father, & to the worm thou art my Mother & my Sister. Miserable riddle, when the same worm must be my mother, & my sister, & myself. Miserable incest, when I must be married to mine own mother and sister, and be both Father and Mother, to mine one mother and sister beget and bear that worm, which is all that miserable penury, when my mouth shall be filled with dust, and the worm shall feed, and feed sweetly upon me. 
24.20.  When the ambitious man shall have no satisfaction if the poorest a live tread upon him, nor the poorest receive any contentment, in being made equal to Princes, for they shall be equal but in dust. 
23.24.  One dyeth at his full strength, being wholly at ease, and in quiet, and another dies in the bitterness of his soul, and never eats with pleasure; but they lie down alike in the dust, and the worm cover them. 
24.11.  The worm covers them in Job, and in Esai, it covers them, & is spread under them, (the worm is spread under thee, and the worm covers thee. There is the mats and the carpet that lie under; and there is the state and the canopy that hangs over the greatest of the Sons of men. Even those bodies that were the Temples of the holy Ghost, come to this dilapidation, to ruin, to rubbish, to dust: Even the Israel of the Lord, and Jacob himself had no other specification, 
Esa. 41.14.  no other denomination but that, vermis Jacob, thou worm of Jacob. Truly, the consideration of this posthume death, this death after burial, that after God, with whom are the issues of death, hath delivered me from the death of the womb, by bringing me into the world, and from the manifold deaths of the world, by laying me in the grave. I must die again, in an incineration of this flesh, and in a dispersion of that dust, that all that monarch that spread over many nations alive, must in his dust lie in a corner of that sheet of lead, and there but so long as the lead will last: and that private and retired man, that thought himself his own for ever, and never came forth, must in his dust of the grave be published, and, (such are the revolutions of graves) be mingled in his dust, with the dust of every high way, and of every dunghill, and swallowed in every puddle and pond; this is the most inglorious and contemptible vilification, the most deadly and peromptory nullification of man, that we can consider. God seems to have carried the declaration of his power to a great height, when he sets the Prophet Ezechiel, in the valley of dry bones, 
37. 1.  and says, Son of man can these dry bones live? as though it had been impossible; and yet they did; the Lord laid sinews upon them, and flesh, and breathed into them, and they did live. But in that case there were bones to be seen; something visible, of which it might be said, can this, this live? but in this death of incineration and dispersion of dust, we see nothing that we can call that man's. If we say can this dust live? perchance it cannot. It may be the mere dust of the earth which never did live, nor never shall; it may be the dust of that man's worms which did live, but shall no more; it may be the dust of another man that concerns not him of whom it is asked. This death of incineration and dispersion is to natural reason the most irrecoverable death of all; and yet Domini Domini sunt exitus mortis, unto God the Lord belong the issues of death, and by recompacting this dust into the same body, and re-inanimating the same body with the same soul, be shall in a blessed and glorious Resurrection, give me such an issue from this Death, as shall never pass into any other death, but establish me in a Life, that shall last as long as the Lord of Life himself. And so have you that that belongs to the first acceptation of these words (unto God the Lord belong the issues of Death) That though from the womb to the grave, and in the grave itself, we pass from Death to Death, yet, as Daniel speaks, The Lord our God is able to deliver us, and he will deliver us. And so we pass to our second accommodation of these words (Unto God the Lord belong the issues of Death) That it belongs to God, and not to Man, to pass a Judgement upon us at our Death, or to conclude a dereliction on God's part, upon the manner thereof.  
Those Indications which Physicians receive, 
Part. 2. Liberatio in morte.  and those praesagitions which they give for death or recovery in the Patient, they receive, and they give out of the grounds and rules of their Art: But we have no such rule or art to ground a presagition of spiritual death, and damnation upon any such Indication as we see in any dying man: we see often enough to be sorry, but not to despair; for the mercies of God work momentanely, in minutes; and many times insensibly to bystanders, or any other than the party departing, and we may be deceived both ways: we use to comfort ourselves in the death of a friend, if it be testified that he went away like a Lamb, that is, but with any reluctation; But God knows, that may have been accompanied with a dangerous damp and stupefaction, and insensibility of his present state. Our blessed Saviour admitted colluctations with Death, and a sadness even in his Soul to death, and an agony even to a bloody sweat in his body, and expostulations with God, and exclamations upon the Cross. He was a devout man, who upon his deathbed, or death-turse (for he was an Hermit) said Septuaginta annis domino servivisti, & mori times? Hast thou served a good Master threescore and ten years, 
Hilarion.  and now art thou loath to go into his presence? yet Hilarion was loath. He was a devour man (an Hermit) that said that day that he died, Cogitate hodie coepisse servire Domino, 
Barlaam.  & hodie finiturum. Consider this to be the first days service that ever thou didst thy Master to glorify him in a christianly and constant death; and, if thy first day be thy last day too, how soon dost thou come to receive thy wages; yet Barlaam could have been content to have stayed longer for it; Make no ill conclusion upon any man's loathness to die. And then, upon violent deaths inflicted, as upon malefactors, Christ himself hath forbidden us by his own death to make any ill conclusion; for, his own death had those impressions in it; he was reputed, he was executed as a Malefactor, and no doubt many of them who concurred to his death, did believe him to be so. Of sudden deaths, there are scarce examples; to be found in the Scriptures, upon good men; for, death in battle cannot be called sudden death: But God governs not by examples, but by rules; and therefore make no ill conclusions upon sodain-Death; nor upon distempers neither, though perchance accompanied with some words of diffidence and distrust in the mercies of God. The Tree lies as it falls; 'Tis true; but yet it is not the last stroke that fells the Tree; nor the last word, nor last gasp that qualifies the Soul. Still pray we for a peaceable life, against violent deaths, and for time of Repentance against sudden Deaths, and for sober and modest assurance against distempered and diffident Deaths, but never make ill conclus●ion upon persons overtaken with such Deaths. Domini, Domini sunt exitus Mortis, To God the Lord belong the issues of Death, and he received Samson, who went out of this world in such a manner (consider it actively, consider it passively; in his own death, and in those whom he slew with himself) as was subject to interpretation hard enough; yet the holy-Ghost hath moved Sa●nt Paul to celebrate Samson, in his great Catalogue, and so doth all the Church. 
Heb. 11.  Our Critical day is not the very day of our death, but the whole course of our life: I thank him, that prays for me when my bell tolls; but I thank him much more, that Carechises me, or preaches to me, or instructs me how to live, fac hoc & vives, There's my security; The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, Do this and thou shalt live. But though I do it yet I shall die too, die a bodily, a natural death; but God never mentions, never seems to consider that death, the bodily, the natural death. God doth not say Live well, and thou shalt die well; well, that is, an easy, a quiet death; but live well here, and thou shalt live well for ever. As the first part of a Sentence pieces well with the last, and never respects, never hearkens after the parenthesis that comes between, so doth a good life here, flow into an eternal life, without any consideration what manner of death we die. But whether the gate of my prison be opened with an oiled key (by a gentle and preparing sickness) or the gate be hewed down, by a violent death, or the gate be burnt down by a raging and frantic fever; a gate into Heaven I shall have; for, from the Lord is the course of my life, and with God the Lord are the issues of death; And farther we carry not this second acceptation of the words, as this issue of death is liberatio in morte, God's care that the Soul be safe, what agony soever the body suffer in the hour of death; but pass to our third and last Part; as this issue of death is liberatio per mortem, a deliverance by the death of another, by the death of Christ.  

Part. 3. Liberatio per mortem.  Sufferentian Job audi●stis & judistis finē Domini, says S. Ja. 5.11. You have heard of the patience of Job, says he; All this while you have done that; for in every man, calamitous, miserable man a Job speaks; Now see the end of the Lord, saith that Apostle, which is not that end which the Lord proposed to himself (Salvation to us) nor the end which he proposes to us (conformity to him) but, See the end of the Lord says he, the end that the Lord himself came to, Death, and a painful, and a shameful death. But why did he die? and why die so? Quia Domini Domini sunt exitus Mortis (as Saint Augustine interpreting this Text, 
De Civit. Dei l. 17. c. 18.  answers that question) because to this God our Lord belonged these issues of Death; Quid apertius diceretur? says he there; what can be more obvious, more manifest, than this sense of these words? In the former part of the verse it is said, He that is our God is the God of Salvation; Deus salvos faciendi, so he reads it, The God that must save us; Who can that be, saith he, but Jesus? For therefore that name was given him, because he was to save us: And to this Jesus, saith he, 
Mat. 1.21.  this Saviour, belongs the issues of Death, Nec oportuit cum de hac vita alios exitus habere, quam mortis, Being come into this life in our mortal nature, he could not go out of it any other way then by Death. Ideo dictum (saith he) therefore is it said, To God the Lord belong the issues of Death; Ut ostenderetur moriendo nos salvos facturum, to show that his way to save us, was to die. And from this Text doth Saint Isiodore prove, that Christ was truly man (which, as many Sects of Heretics denied, as that he was truly God) because to him, though he were Dominus Dominus (as the Text doubles it) God the Lord, yet to him, to God the Lord belonged the issues of Death. Oportuit cum pati, more cannot be said, than Christ himself saith of himself, These, 
Luk. 24.26.  things Christ ought to suffer; He had no other way but by Death. So then, this part of our Sermon must necessarily be a Passion Sermon, since all his life was a continual Passion, all our Lent may well be a continual good-Friday; Christ's painful Life took off none of the pains of his Death; he felt not the less then, for having felt so much before; nor will any thing that shall be said before, lessen, but rather enlarge your devotion to that which shall be said of his Passion, at the time of the due solemnisation thereof. Christ bled not a drop the less at last, for having bled at his Circumcision before, nor will you shed a tear the less then, if you shed some now. And therefore be now content to consider with me, how to this God the Lord belonged the issues of Death.  
That God the Lord, The Lord of Life could die, is a strange contemplation; That the red-Sea could be dry; 
Potuisse Mori. Exod. 14.21.  That the Sun could stand still; 
Jos. 10.12.  That an Oven could be seven times heat and not burn; That Lions could be hungry and not by't, is strange, miraculously strange; But super-miraculous, That God could die: But that God would die, is an exaltation of that; But, even of that also, it is a super-exaltation, that God should die, must die; and non exitus (saith Saint Augustin) God the Lord had no issue but by death, and oportuit pati (saith Christ himself) all this Christ ought to suffer, was bound to suffer. 
Psal. 94.1. Voluisse Mori.  Deus ultionum Deus, saith David, God is the God of Revenges; He would not pass over the sin of man unrevenged, unpunished. But then, Deus ultionum libere egit (says that place) The God of Revenges works freely; he punishes, he spares whom he will; and would he not spare himself? He would not. Dilectio fortis ut Mors, 
Can. 8.6.  Love is as strong as Death; stronger; it drew in Death, that naturally was not welcome. Si possibile (saith Christ) If it be possible let this Cup pass, when his Love, expressed in a former Decree with his Father, had made it impossible. Many waters quench not Love; Christ tried many; He was baptised out of his Love, 
v. 7.  and his love determined not there; He wept over Jerusalem out of his love, and his love determined not there; He mingled blood with water in his Agony and that determined not his love; He wept pure blood, all his blood, at all his eyes, at all his pores; in his flagellations, and thorns; (to the Lord our God) belonged the issues of blood.) and these expressed, but these did not quench his love.  

Oportuisse Mori  He would not spare, nay, he would not spare himself; There was nothing more free, more voluntary, more spontaneous than the death of Christ; 'Tis true, libere egit, he died voluntarily; But yet, when we consider the contract that had passed between his Father and him, there was an Oportuit, a kind of necessity upon him, All this Christ ought to suffer; And when shall we date this obligation, this Oportuit, this necessity, when shall we say it begun? Certainly this Decree by which Christ was to suffer all this, was an eternal Decree; and was there any thing before that that was eternal? Infinite love, eternal love; be pleased to follow this home, and to consider it seriously, that what liberty soever we can conceive in Christ, to die, or not to die, this necessity of dying, this Decree is as eternal as that Liberty, and yet how small a matter made he of this Necessity, and this dying? 
Gen. 3.15.  His Father calls it but a Bruise, and but a bruising of his heel (The Serpent shall bruise his heel) and yet that was, that the Serpent should practise and compass his death. Himself calls it but a Baptism, as though he were to be the better for it; I have a Baptism to be baptised with; 
Luk. 12.50.  and he was in pain till it was accomplished; and yet this Baptism was his death. The holy-Ghost calls it Joy (For the joy which was set before him, he endured the Cross) which was not a joy of his reward after his passion, 
Heb. 12.2.  but a joy that filled him even in the midst of those torments, and arose from them. When Christ calls his passion Calicem, a cup, and no worse, (Can ye drink of my cup;) He speaks not odiously, not with detestation of it; indeed it was a cup; salus mundo, 
Mat. 20.22.  A health to all the world; and quid retribuem, says David, 
Psal. 116.12.  What shall I render unto the Lord? Answer you with David, Accipiam Calicom, I will take the cup of salvation. Take that, that cup of salvation his passion, if not into your present imitation, yet into your present contemplation, and behold how that Lord who was God yet could die, would die, must die for your salvation.  
That Moses and Elias talked with Christ in the transfiguration both St. Matthew, and St. Mark tell us; but what they talked of, 
Mat 17.3. Mat. 9.4. Luc. 9.31.  only St. Luke; Dicebant excessum ejus, says he; they talked of his decease, of his death, which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem. The word is of his Exodus, the very word of our Text, Exitus, his issue by death. Moses, who in his Exodus had prefigured this issue of our Lord, and in passing Israel out of Egypt through the red sea, had foretold in that actual prophecy Christ's passing of mankind through the sea of his blood, and Elias, whose Exodus, and issue out of this world, was a figure of Christ's ascension, had no doubt a great satisfaction, in talking with our blessed Lord, De excessu ejus, of the full consummation of all this in his death, which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem. Our meditation of his death should be more viseral, and affect us more, because it is of a thing already done. The ancient Romans had a certain tenderness, and detestation of the name of death; they would not name death, no not in their wills; there they would not say, Si mori contingat, but Si quid humanitas contingat, not if or when I die, but when the course of nature is accomplished upon me. To us, that speak daily of the death of Christ, (He was crucified, dead and buried) can the memory or the mention of our death be irksome or bitter? There are in these latter times amongst us, that name death freely enough, and the death of God, but in blasphemous oaths and execrations. Miserable men, who shall therefore be said never to have named Jesus, because they have named him too often; and therefore hear Jesus say, Nescive vos I never knew you; because they made themselves too familiar with him. Moses and Elias talked with Christ of his death only in a holy and joyful sense of the benefit which they and all the world were to receive by it. Discourses of religion should not be out of curiosity, but edification. And then they talked with Christ of his death, at that time when he was at the greatest height of glory, that ever he admitted in this world; that is, his transfiguration. And we are afraid to speak to the great men of this world of their death, but nourish in them a vain imagination of immortality and immutability. But bonum est nobis esse hic, (as St. Peter said there) It is good to dwell here, in this consideration of his death, and therefore transfer we our Tabernacle, (our devotion) through some of these steps, which God the Lord made to his issue of death, that day.  
Take in his whole day, from the hour that Christ eat the passover upon Thursday, to the hour in which he died the next day. Make this present day, 
Conformitas  that day in thy devotion, and consider what he did, and remember what you have done. Before he instituted and celebrated the sacrament, (which was after the eating of the passover) he proceeded to the act of humility, to wash his Disciples feet; even Peter, who for a while resisted him. In thy preparation to the holy and blessed sacrament, hast thou with a sincere humilty sought a reconciliation with all the world, even with those who have been averse from it, and refused that reconciliation from thee? If so, (and not else) thou hast spent that first part, of this his last day, in a conformity with him. After the sacrament, he spent the time till night in prayer, in preaching, in Psalms. Hast thou considered that a worthy receiving of the sacrament consists in a continuation of holiness after, as well as in a preparation before? If so, thou hast therein also conformed thyself to him: so Christ spent his time till night. At night he went into the garden to pray, and he prayed prolixius; He spent much time in prayer. 
Luc. 22.24.  How much? because it is literally expressed that he prayed there three several times, and that returning to his Disciples after his first prayer, and finding them asleep, said, could ye not watch with me one hour; 
Mat. 26.40.  it is collected that he spent three hours in prayer. I dare scarce ask thee whither thou went'st, or how thou disposedst of thyself, when it grew dark and after last night. If that time were spent in a holy recommendation of thyself to God, and a submission of thy will to his; that it was spent in a conformity to him. In that time, and in those prayers was his agony and bloody sweat. I will hope that thou didst pray; but not every ordinary and customary prayer, but prayer actually accompanied with shedding of tears, and dispositively, in a readiness to shed blood for his glory in necessary cases, puts thee into a corformity with him. About midnight he was taken and bound with a kiss. Art thou not too conformable to him in that? Is not that too literally, too exactly thy case? At midnight to have been taken, and bound with a kiss? from thence he was carried back to Jerusalem; first to Annas, then to Caiphas, and, (as late as it was) there he was examined, and buffeted, and delivered over to the custody of those officers, from whom he received all those irr●sions, and violences, the covering of his face, the spitting upon his face, the blasphemies of words, and the smartness of blows which that Gospel mentions. In which compass fell that Gallicinium, that crowing of the Cock, which called up Peter to his repentance. How thou passedst all that time last night, thou knowest. If thou didst any thing then that needed Peter's tears, and hast not shed them, let me be thy Cock, do it now; now thy Master, (in the unworthyest of his servants) looks back upon thee, Do it now. Betimes in the morning, as soon as it was day, the Jews held a Council in the high Priests house, and agreed upon their evidence against him, & then carried him to Pilate, who was to be his Judg. Didst thou accuse thyself when thou wak'dst this morning, & wast thou content to admit even falls accusations, that is, rather to suspect actions to have been sin which were not, then to smother & justify such as were truly sins? then thou spendst that hour in conformity to him. Pilat found no evidence against him; & therefore to ease himself, & to pass a compliment upon Herod, Tetrarch of Galilee, who was at that time at Jerusalem, (because Christ being a Galilean was of Herod's jurisdiction) Pilate sent him to Herod; & rather as a mad man, than a malefactor, Herod remanded him with scorns to Pilate to proceed against him; & this was about 8 of the Clock. Hast thou been content to come to this inquisition, this examination, this agitation, this cribration, this pursuit of thy conscience, to sift it, to follow it from the sins of thy youth to thy present sins, from the sins of thy bed to the sins of thy board, and from the substance to the circumstance of thy sins; that's time spent like thy Saviour's, Pilate would have saved Christ by using the privilege of the day in his behalf, because that day one prisoner was to be delivered; but they chose Barrabas. He would have saved him from death, by satisfying their fury, with inflicting other torments upon him, scourging, and crowning with thorns, & loading him with many scornful & ignominious contumelies; but this redeemed him not; they pressed a crucifying. Hast thou gone about to redeem thy sin, by fasting, by alms, by disciplines, & mortifications, in the way of satisfaction to the justice of God; that will not serve, that's not the right way. We press an utter crucifying of that sin that governs thee, and that conforms thee to Christ. Towards noon Pilate gave Judgement; and they made such haste to execution, as that by noon he was upon the Cross. There now hangs that sacred body upon the cross, rebaptised in his own tears & sweat, and embalmed in his own blood alive. There are those bowels of compassion, which are so conspicuous, so manifested, as that you may see them through his wounds. There those glorious eyes grew faint in their light, so, as the Sun ashamed to survive them, departed with his light too. And there that Son of God, who was never from us, & yet had now come a new way unto us, in assuming our nature, delivers that soul which was never out of his Father's hands, into his Father's hands, by a new way, a voluntary emission thereof; for though to this God our Lord belong these issues of death, so that, considered in his own contract, he must necessarily die, yet at no breach, nor battery which they had made upon his sacred body issues his soul, but emisit, he gave up the Ghost: & as God breathed a soul into the first Adam, so this second Adam breathed his soul into God, into the hands of God. There we leave you, in that blessed dependency, to hang upon him, that hangs upon the cross. There bath in his tears, there suck at his wounds, & lie down in peace in his grave, till he vouchsafe you a Resurrection, & an ascension into that Kingdom which he hath purchased for you, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood.  
Amen.   
FINIS