JOSEPHI HALL. NORVIC EPISCOPI VERA EFFIGIES REVERENDI DO. NI    

The Shaking of the Olive-Tree.  
THE Remaining Works Of that Incomparable PRELATE JOSEPH HALL., D. D. Late LORD BISHOP of NORWICH.  
WITH SOME SPECIALTIES OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN HIS LIFE. Noted by His own Hand. Together with His HARD MEASURE: Written also by Himself.  Heb. 11.38. 
— Of whom the World was not worthy.  John 6.12. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
LONDON, Printed by J. Cadwel for J. Crook, at the Ship in S. Paul's Churchyard. 1660   

CHRISTIAN READER.  
WE present thee here with some scattered Relics of a departed Saint, void of the superstition of those of Rome, as those of Rome are void of their divine operation: These few drops of Ink from the Author's pen, will work saving miracles, when the pretended blood of the Baptist so shrined and adored at Naples, shall blush at its weakness: That account which thou hast here, of the Life of the Reverend Author, from his own hand, is exceedingly too short, and modest, yet durst we not presume to make any additions to it, for many reasons: Our Relation to him would but impair the credit of our most sincere relations of him, as too partial and flattering; and indeed the attempt is too hard, and high for us, where his own accurate pencil hath begun a draught of himself, to continue it with the same Elegancy and Decorum. And besides, where this meek Moses hath drawn a vail over his own shining face, in his portrait of himself, It seems to us undecent, to take it away, though to discover more of his splendour, especially to the weak, and prejudiced eyes of this Age and Generation, who cannot endure innocency itself, when habited in a Rochet. We remember what Seneca saith (and it is in his De Ira too) they are affecti oculi, quos candida vestis obturbat, happy is it for him, that the blackest Stigma that can be fastened upon him, is that his robes were whiter than his brethren's, that only the coat of our Joseph hath drawn their envy upon him, the Man Dr. Hall was not the object of their distaste, but the Bishop. To satisfy these tender eyes, they have here this great Aaron stripped of all his Priestly Ornaments, and laid open to them, only in these few winding sheets, spun, and woven, with his own hand. In the narrative of his life, his pen breaks off with his outward pressures, wherein all the Losses and indignities he suffered did so little trouble him, as to some eminent Commissioners (who desired to know his suffering condition, and made fair overtures of some little reparation) he replied that of Seneca, Qui se habet, nihil perdidit. God had no sooner withdrawn his hand from visiting him with those outward trials, than he began to exercise him, by sore afflictions of the body, in his continually increasing pains of the stone and strangury, which for many years held him, and pursued him to the death, yet could not these great impediments take him off from being active, both in Press and Pulpit: His intellectuals and senses continued strong, and fresh to the last, his head continued Gold, and his heart of refined Silver, when all the rest of his body was half clay.  
His sense of the sad, and divided condition of the Church, was to his end passionately tender, professing all willingness to live, though in the midst of his exceeding pains and torments, so he might be any way instrumental to the making up of the breaches of it, and putting it in due frame and order; But since all his endeavours with men so little prevailed, he never ceased wrestling with God to this purpose, setting apart one day in every weak through the Year, for fasting and humiliation with his Family, not that he sought his own Interests, to be restored to that Episcopal height, and greatness of which he had been divested: All those who truly knew him, can witness with us, his abundant contentment in his retreat to a private life, as not a misery, but a blessing to him, We know, when in the height of all his honours he was ready enough to such a secession, could he fairly, and handsomely have retired. And now that impetuous storm, which beat him off from the course of his public employments, though it battered his vessel, and tore his sails; yet it did but drive him to the quiet haven where he would be; justly could he take up the words of holy Nazianzen (in this and many other things his parallel) who when hotly opposed, and thrust from his See of Constantinople, could say, A retired life, everwas, and now is dearly affected by me, though they drive me from my chair, they cannot drive me from my God.  
Among many worthy men, who received Ordinaon to the Ministry from his hands, we cannot but mention one, in whom he take great comfort, as being a notable precedent for the rest of our learned, & religious Gentry to follow; It was Mr. Gipson Lucas, an Esq of good estate, a great Commissioner, and Justice of Peace in the County of Suffolk, who found his Spirit and Conscience so wrought upon, as after good deliberation, and consultation with others, he came to this Reverend Father for Ordination, as refusing to take it from any hands, where his did not precede, which he received, (good proof being given of his abilities) according to his desire, and he who entered Nayoth before this aged Samuel, like Saul in his scarlet (for that was his habit) returned from him a Sackcloth Prophet, continuing a diligent and zealous preacher of the Gospel. To return to the Reverend Author; his retreat from the World though he were hotly, and constantly charged with furious onsets of his sharp diseases, yet was it answerable to his life, solemn, and stayed, with a composed, and heavenly temper of spirit. The stream was deep, which could run clear & calmly, through so craggy & crooked a Channel, without a murmur. After his prevailing infirmities had wasted all the strengths of nature, and the Arts of his learned and excellent Physician D. Brown of Norwich (to whom under God, we and the whole Church are engaged for many Years preserving his life as a blessing to us) after his Fatherly reception of many persons of Honour, Learning and Piety, who came to crave his dying prayers and benediction: One of which (A Noble person) he saluted with the words of an ancient Votary, Vides hominem mox pulverem futurum, after many holy prayers, exhortations, and discourses, he roused up his dying Spirits, to a heavenly Confession of his Faith, which ere he could finish, his speech was taken from him, so that, we cannot here insert it. After some struggle of nature, with the agonies of death, he quietly, gradually, and even insensibly gave up his last breath.  
And now, how can we forbear to cry sadly after him, O our Father, our Father, the Chariots of Israel, and the Horsemen thereof. Theodoret's Lamentation over chrysostom may be taken up over Him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Though ye have ten thousand Instructers in Christ (saith the Apostle) yet have ye not many Fathers, and if we had many Fathers, yet not many such as Herald  
We find great Eulogies deservedly given to many, eminent in their several Ages, both Philosophers and Divines. For the first fort  
Thucydides gives this Character of Pericles, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Of Socrates, Eunapius, that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Of Pythagoras, Lipsius, Ejus singula sententiarum frusta gemmas habent.  
Of Homer, Halycarnasseus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Of Demosthenes, that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Of Seneca, Plus aliquid semper dicit, quam dicit.  
For the second sort, those who justly obtained to be honoured with the name of Fathers of the Church  
Ignatius for his piety was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ·  
Athanasius for his strenuousness in disputation was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Of chrysostom it was said, that he was Theatrum quoddam divinae eloquentiae, in quo Deus abunde videri voluit, quid posset vitae sanctitas, cum vi dicendi conjuncta.  
Of Clemens Alex. that he was Inter eloquentes summe doctus, inter doctos summe eloquens.  
Upon S. Basil the Great, Nazianzen bestowed this Epitaph 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Sermo tuus tonitru, vitaque sulgur erat.   
Of S. Jerom, Caussinus, Blandum facundiae nomen, & summus in omnibus artifex.  
Of Hilary S. Jerom, Lucifer Ecclesiarum, pretiosus lapis, pulchro sermone universa loquitur, & si semina aliqua secus viam cecidisse potuissent, tamen ab eo messis exorta est magna.  
Of S. Cyprian (who had the name of Cicero Christianus) Discernere nequeas utrumne oratio in eloquendo, an facilior in explicando, an potentior in persuadendo suerit.  
Of S. Bernard, Heinsius, Cujus ego meditationes rivum Paradisi, ambrosiam animatum, pabulum Angelicum, medullam pietatis vocare solco.  
We need not rob these great names of their due Honour, to add unto his, Let his discerning Readers be Judges, of what magnitude and lustre this Light in God's Church was. And though we protest against the Insolency of extolling him, and so making ourselves Judges of what he was Master of, yet this we must add, to do him right, never were excellencies better set in a mind more abhorrent from Haughtiness. How meek his temper was, his many Irenical Tracts do show. Truly Thuanus his judgement of Melancthon fits so well with him, as if it had been presaged of him, Maximum in eo tranquilitatis erat ac quietatis studium, ut nisi de necessariis contendendum non putaret, and what follows also he had experience of, Humanitatem exterorum & diversa sentientum, suorum vero & eandem doctrinam profitentium acerbitatem expertus & reprehensionem, ob rixarum & contentionum fugam.  
A specimen of his sound moderation we give thee in his Letters to those three eminent Divines of Bremen, Crocius, Heerbrandus, and Willius, who each sent their papers to him, and made him the Umpire of some dissatisfactions betveen them, which was so done to their mutual acquiescence, that they jointly and severally sent him their Letters of Thanks. And towards the desired Reconciliation of the Lutherans and Calvinists, what a good expedient was offered by the concurrent Judgement of this Reverend Father with his Brethren of blessed Memory, 
BP. Morton. B. Davenant.  the World doth witness, in the [Sentent. 4. Theologorum] seconded by his active solicitations of that work. But while he was so devoted to the Peace and Unity of the Church, and did so eagerly pursue the things that made for it, He was no less stout and zealous to defend the due power of it in its decent Rites: Witness his faithful discharge of the negotiation wherewith he was entrusted by K. James into Scotland, pointed at by himself, and that proof of it in his Letter to Mr. Struthers, one of the Preachers of Edinburgh after his return from thence, which we would not be so injurious to suppress, though our discretion may be questioned for publishing what is now so out of date. We pretend not to have gathered up all the Fragments of his choice Provisions that nothing might be lost, we know and bewail the loss, and miscarriage of many precious and most important Papers, and can only labour to forget them, as the Owners of the rich Treasures buried in the bottom of the Sea must do. These which we have preserved, do exhibit, if thou hast been conversant with his other Works (as who hath not) thou wilt attest them genuine.  
That Tract of his, The Via media mentioned by himself (written after his return from the Synod of Dort) he made account was buried in perpetual silence; his tenderness of the Misconstruction of some who would cry it down for the very design of it, and his Obedience to the Royal Edict (which inhibited the meddling in those Controversies) easily prevailing with him to suppress it. But what? Should we let it lie by the walls, till some other false, obtruded Copy do enforce us to bring it forth, for the Vindication of itself? Or should we be so accessary to the unhappiness of the Church of God, as to withhold it from her, in this Age especially, which hath revived and blown up again those almost dead Coals of Controversy, the dangerous heat whereof did occasion that Synod. If the eager Defendants of each side shall proceed (as yet they do) will it not be bitterness in the latter end? Is it not needful that some judicious Moderator should interpose, and make them see, that the Reciprocation of this Saw, doth but divide what might be one entire piece, and make dust in doing it? Is it not good sober Counsel, to persuade each part (after so many passes made already) to draw breath, and consider what they do? Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos. That their true Gallantry is not in reinforcing what makes them Opposites, But how without any loss of necessary Truth, both may sit down satisfied; as happy is in these differences we may say, Is not the whole land before us? There is room enough for both to walk safely, and there is no necessity of parting or going asunder. This Reverend Author shows a middle way, wherein both may walk as Friends, the path being broad enough, and the way good, (the bushes and briers of needless subtleties being wisely avoided.) For this discovery all good and sober men will bless the Memory of this Author. And if he shall suffer in the Opinion of hotter heads, as too lukewarm and temperate, yea as a close Abetter of Arminianism, because he hears it speak, and doth not spit Fire and Brimstone upon it, we enter this protestation; He was no Remonstrant, but against the Monster Smectymnuus. And let any observing Reader judge, what doth he more than propose the Theses of the Remonstrant Opponents, and the Orthodox Defendants, showing by collation of what is written by both, how they meet, and differ, how also those differences are stated, and arbitrated by Reverend and Learned Bishop Overall on one side, and our Divines on the other. As for this Author himself, to prevent thy hard censure of his leaning to Arminius, we refer thee to the passages which thou wilt meet with, wherein he claims the liberty of reserving his own Judgement, and more especially to pag. 387. where in the close of the Tract his unbiasedness is clearly professed. Now Reader, after thy quarrel with us taken off, for our thus long withholding the good in these Remains from thee, when it was in the power of our hands to give them forth, (for which we plead our long mocked Expectation of a promised, and delayed Reimpression of all the Authors scattered Tracts, to be reduced into a Volume, in which these were meant to be included) we dismiss thee with this blessing, and we think it blessing enough, May the Spirit of this Reverend Father rest upon thee, and mayst thou be but as Sound in thy Judgement, and Religious in thy Affections, as he was, and as Blessed in the End, as he now is.   

The Heads of what is here Collected.  

A Sermon Preached before K. James at Hampton-Court in September 1624. on Philip. 3.18, 19 Fol. 1  
Christian Liberty laid forth, in a Sermon at White-Hall, 1628. on Call, 5.1. Fol. 19  
Divine Light and Reflections, in a Sermon at White-Hall on Whitsunday 1640. on 1 John 1.5. Fol. 33  
A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral of Exeter upon the Pacification betwixt the two Kingdoms, Septemb. 7. 1641. on Psalm. 46.8. Fol. 48  
The Mischief of Faction and the Remedy of it, a Sermon at White-Hall on the second Sunday in Lent, 1641. on Psal. 60.1. Fol. 65  
A Sermon Preached at the Tower, March 20. 1641. on James 4.1. Fol. 84  
A Sermon Preached on Whitsunday, June 9 1644. in Norwich, on Ephes. 4.30. Fol. 101  
A Second Sermon, in prosecution of the same Text in Norwich, July 21. 1644. Fol. 127  
A Sermon on Easter-day at Higham, 1648. Fol. 185  
A Sermon Preached on Whitsunday, at Higham, 1652. on Rom. 8.14. Fol. 140  
The Mourner in Zion, on Ecclesiastes 3.4. Fol. 154  
A Sermon Preached at Higham, July 1, 1655. on 1 Pet. 1.17. Fol. 192  
The women's Veil, or a Discourse concerning the necessity or expedience of the Close-covering of the Heads of Women. Fol. 265  
Holy Decency in the Worship of God. Fol. 253  
Good Security, a discourse, of the Christians Assurance. Fol. 261  
A plain and familiar explication of Christ's presence in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Fol. 287  
A Letter for the Observation of the Feast of Christ's Nativity. Fol. 296  
A Letter to Mr. William Struthers one of the Preachers of Edenbourgh. Fol. 306  
Epistola D. Baltasari Willio, S. T. D. Fol. 317  
Epistola D. Lud. Crocio, S. T. D. Fol. 321  
Epistola D. Herman. Hildebrando, S. T. D. Fol. 331  
Reverendissimo Marco Antonio de Dom. Archiep. Spalatensi Epistola discessus sui ad Romam dissuasiva. Fol. 394  
A Modest Offer. Fol. 336  
Certain irrefragable Propositions, worthy of serious Consideration. Fol. 348  
The way of peace in the five busy Articles commonly known by the name of Arminia. Fol. 353  
A Letter concerning the falling away from Grace. Fol. 389  
A Letter concerning Religion. Fol. 401  
Resolutions for Religion. Fol. 405  
A Letter concerning the frequent injection of Temptations. Fol. 411  
A consolatory Letter to one under Censure. Fol. 414  
A short answer to the Nine Arguments, which are brought against the Bishops sitting in Parliament. Fol. 417  
For Episcopacy and Liturgy. Fol. 421  
A speech in Parliament. Fol. 425  
A speech in Parliament in defence of the Canons made in Convocation. Fol. 428  
A speech in Parliament concerning the power of Bishops in Secular things. Fol. 432  
Anthems for the Cathedral of Exeter. Fol. 435    

OBSERVATIONS Of some Specialties of DIVINE PROVIDENCE In the Life of JOS. HALL., BISHOP of NORWICH.  Written with his own Hand. 
NOt out of a vain affectation of my own Glory, which I know how little it can avail me, when I am gone hence; but out of a sincere desire to give glory to my God, (whose wonderful Providence I have noted in all my ways) have I recorded some remarkable passages of my forepast life: what I have done is worthy of nothing, but silence and forgetfulness; but what God hath done for me, is worthy of everlasting and thankful Memory.  
I was born Julii 1. 1574. at five of the clock in the Morning, in Bristow-Park, within the Parish of Ashby de la Zouch, a Town in Leicester-shire, of honest and well allowed Parentage: my Father was an Officer under that truly Honourable and Religious, Henry Earl of Huntingdon, Precedent of the North, and under him had the Government of that Market-Town, wherein the chief Seat of that Earldom is placed; My Mother Winifrid, of the House of the Bambridges, was a woman of that rare Sanctity, that (were it not for my Interest in Nature,) I durst say, that neither Aleth, the mother of that just Honour of Clareval; nor Monica, nor any other of those pious Matrons, anciently famous for Devotion, need to disdain her admittance to comparison; She was continually exercised with the affliction of a weak Body, and oft of a wounded Spirit, the Agonies whereof, as she would oft recount with much passion; professing that the greatest bodily sicknesses were but Fleabites to those Scorpions, so from them all, at last she found an happy and comfortable deliverance, and that not without a more than ordinary hand of God; For on a time being in great distress of Conscience, she thought in her Dream, there stood by her a grave Personage, in the Gown, and other Habits of a Physician, who enquiring of her estate, and receiving a sad and querulous answer from her, took her by the hand, and bade her be of good Comfort, for this should be the last Fit that ever she should feel of this kind, whereto she seemed to answer, that upon that condition, she could well be content for the time, with that, or any other torment: reply was made to her, as she thought, with a redoubled assurance of that happy issue of this her last trial; whereat she began to conceive an unspeakable joy; which yet upon her awaking left her more disconsolate, as then conceiting her happiness imaginary, her misery real; when the very same day, she was visited by the reverend, and (in his time) famous Divine, Mr. Anthony Gilby, under whose Ministry she lived; who, upon the Relation of this her pleasing Vision, and the contrary effects it had in her, began to persuade her, that Dream was no other than Divine, and that she had good reason to think that gracious premonition was sent her from God himself, who, though ordinarily he keeps the common road of his proceed, yet sometimes in the Distresses of his Servants, he goes unusual ways to their relief; hereupon she began to take heart, and by good Counsel and her fervent prayers, found that happy prediction verified to her, and upon all occasions in the remainder of her life, was ready to magnify the mercy of her God in so sensible a deliverance: what with the trial of both these Hands of God, so had she profited in the School of Christ, that it was hard for any friend to come from her Discourse no whit holier; how often have I blessed the memory of those divine passages of experimental Divinity, which I have heard from her mouth! what day did she pass without a large task of private devotion, whence she would still come forth with a Countenance of undissembled mortification: Never any lips have read to me such feeling Lectures of piety; neither have I known any Soul, that more accurately practised them, than her own; Temptations, Desertions, and Spiritual Comforts were her usual Theme. Shortly, for I can hardly take off my Pen from so exemplary a subject, her Life and Death were Saintlike.  
My Parents had from mine Infancy devoted me to this sacred Calling, whereto, by the blessing of God, I have seasonably attained; for this cause I was trained up in the public School of the place; After I had spent some years (not altogether indiligently) under the Ferule of such Masters as the place afforded, and had near attained to some competent ripeness for the University; my Schoolmaster, being a great Admirer of one Mr. Pelset, who was then lately come from Cambridge, to be the public preacher of Leicester; (a man very eminent in those times, for the same of his Learning, but especially for his sacred Oratory) persuaded my Father, that if I might have my Education under so excellent and complete a Divine, it might be both a nearer, and easier way to his purposed end, then by an Academical Institution; The motion sounded well in my father's ears, and carried fair probabilities, neither was it other than fore-compacted betwixt my Schoolmaster and Mr. Pelset, so as on both sides it was entertained with great forwardness.  
The Gentleman, upon essay taken of my fitness for the use of his studies, undertakes within one seven years, to send me forth, no less furnished with Arts, Languages, and grounds of Theorical Divinity, than the carefullest Tutor in the strictest College of either University; Which that he might assuredly perform, to prevent the danger of any mutable thoughts in my Parents, or myself, he desired mutual bonds to be drawn betwixt us: The great charge of my Father, (whom it pleased God to bless with twelve children) made him the more apt to yield to so likely a project for a younger son; There, and now were all the hopes of my future life upon blasting; the Indentures were preparing, the time was set, my suits were addressed for the journey; What was the issue? O God, thy Providence made and found it, Thou knowest how sincerely, 
Anno Aetatis. 15ᵒ.  and hearty, in those my young years, I did cast myself upon thy hands; with what faithful resolution, I did in this particular occasion resign myself over to thy Disposition, earnestly begging of thee in my fervent Prayers, to order all things to the best, and confidently waiting upon thy Will for the event; Certainly, never did I in all my life more clearly roll myself upon the Divine Providence, than I did in this business; and it succeeded accordingly; It fell out at this time, that my elder brother having some occasions to journey unto Cambridge, was kindly entertained there, by Mr. Nath. Gilby, Fellow of Emanuel College, who, for that he was born in the same Town with me, and had conceived some good opinion of my aptness to Learning, inquired diligently concerning me; and hearing of the Diversion of my Father's purposes from the University, importunately dissuaded from that new course, professing to pity the loss of so good hopes. My Brother, partly moved with his words, and partly won by his own eyes, to a great love, and reverence of an Academical life, returning home, fell upon his knees to my Father, and after the report of Mr. Gilbies' words, and his own admiration of the place, earnestly besought him, that he would be pleased to alter that so prejudicial a resolution, that he would not suffer my hopes to be drowned in a shallow Country-channel; but that he would revive his first purposes for Cambridge; adding in the zeal of his love, that if the chargeableness of that course were the hindrance, he did there humbly beseech him, rather to sell some part of that land, which himself should in course of Nature inherit, then to abridge me of that happy means to perfect my education.  
No sooner had he spoken those words than my Father no less passionately condescended, not without a vehement Protestation, that whatsoever it might cost him, I should (God willing) be sent to the University; neither were those words sooner out of his lips, than there was a messenger from Mr. Pelset knocking at the door, to call me to that fairer bondage, signifying, that the next day he expected me, with a full dispatch of all that business; To whom my Father replied, that he came some minutes too late, that he had now otherwise determined of me, and with a respective message of thanks to the Master, sent the man home empty, leaving me full of the tears of joy for so happy a change; indeed I had been but lost, if that project had succeeded, as it well appeared in the experience of him who succeeded in that room, which was by me thus unexpectedly forsaken? O God, how was I then taken up with a thankful acknowledgement, and joyful admiration of thy Gracious Providence over me; And now I lived in the expectation of Cambridge; whither ere long I happily came, under Mr. Gilbies' tuition, together with my worthy friend Mr. Hugh Cholmley, who, as we had been partners of one lesson from our Cradles, so were we now for many years' partners of one Bed; My two first years were necessarily chargeable, above the proportion of my Father's power, whose not very large Cistern, was to feed many pipes besides mine; His weariness of expense was wrought upon by the Counsel of some unwise friends, who persuaded him to fasten me upon that School as Master, whereof I was lately a Scholar; Now was I fetched home with an heavy heart, and now this second time had mine hopes been nipped in the blossom, had not God raised me up an unhoped Benefactor, Mr. Edmund Sleigh of Derby (whose pious memory I have cause ever to love and reverence) out of no other relation to me, save that he married my Aunt, pitying my too apparent dejectedness, he voluntarily urged, and solicited my Father for my return to the University, and offered freely to contribute the one half of my maintenance there, till I should attain to the degree of Master of Arts, which he no less really and lovingly performed; The condition was gladly accepted, thither was I sent back with joy enough, and ere long, chosen Scholar of that strict and well ordered College: By that time I had spent six years there, now the third year of my Bachelarship, should at once both make an end of my maintenance, and in respect of standing, give me a capacity of further preferment in that house, were it not that my Country excluded me, for our Statute allowed but one of a shire to be fellow there, and my Tutor being of the same Town with me, must therefore necessarily hold me out; But O my God, how strangely did thy gracious Providence fetch this business about! I was now entertaining motions of remove; A place was offered me in the Island of Garnsey, which I had in Speech and Chase; It fell out that the Father of my loving Chamberfellow, Mr. Cholmley, a Gentleman that had likewise dependence upon the most Noble Henry Earl of Huntingdon, having occasion to go to York, unto that his Honourable Lord, fell into some mention of me; That good Earl (who well esteemed my Father's Service) having belike heard some better words of me then I could deserve, made earnest enquiry after me, what were my Courses; what my Hopes; and hearing of the likelihood of my removal professed muoh dislike of it; not without some vehemence, demanding why I was not chosen Fellow of that College, wherein by report I received such approbation; answer was returned, that my Country debarred me; which being filled with my Tutor, whom his Lordship well knew, could not by the Statute admit a second, the Earl presently replied, that if that were the hindrance he would soon take order to remove it; whereupon his Lordship presently sends for my Tutor Mr. Gilby unto York, and with proffer of large conditions of the Chaplainship in his house, and assured promises of better provisions, drew him to relinquish his place in the College to a free Election: No sooner was his assent signified, than the days were set for the public (and indeed exquisite) examination of the Competitors; By that time two days of the three allotted to this Trial were passed, certain News came to us of the inexpected Death of that incomparably Religious and Noble Earl of Huntingdon, by whose loss my then disappointed Tutor must necessarily be left to the wide world unprovided for, upon notice thereof I presently repaired to the Master of the College, Mr. Dr. Chaderton, and besought him to tender that hard condition to which my good Tutor must needs be driven if the Election proceeded; to stay any farther progress in that business, and to leave me to my own good hopes wheresoever, whose Youth exposed me both to less needs, and more opportunities of Provision; Answer was made me, that the place was pronounced void however, and therefore that my Tutor was devested of all possibility of remedy; and must wait upon the Providence of God for his disposing elsewhere, and the Election must necessarily proceed the day following; then was I with a cheerful unanimity chosen into that Society, which if it had any equals, I dare say had none beyond it, for good order, studious carriage, strict government, austere Piety, in which I spent six or seven years more with such contentment, as the rest of my life hath in vain striven to yield; Now was I called to public Disputations often, with no ill Success; for never durst I appear in any of those Exercises of Scholarship, till I had from my Knees looked up to Heaven for a blessing, and renewed my actual dependence upon that Divine Hand; In this while two years together was I chosen to the Rhetoric Lecture in the public Schools, where I was encouraged with a sufficient frequency of Auditors; but finding that well applauded work somewhat out of my way, not without a secret blame of myself for so much excursion, I fairly gave up that task in the midst of those poor Acclamations to a worthy Successor Mr. Dr. Dod, and betook myself to those serious studies, which might fit me for that High Calling whereunto I was destined; wherein after I had carefully bestowed myself for a time, I took the boldness to enter into Sacred Orders; the Honour whereof having once attained, I was no Niggard of that Talon which my God had entrusted to me, preaching often as occasion was offered, both in Country Villages abroad, and at home in the most awful Auditory of the University. And now I did but wait where and how it would please my God to employ me: There was at that time a famous School erected at Tiverton in Devon, and endowed with a very large Pension, whose goodly Fabric was answerable to the reported Maintenance; the care whereof, was by the rich and bountiful Founder Mr. Blundel, cast principally upon the then Lord chief Justice Popham: That faithful Observer having great interest in the Master of our House, Dr. Chaderton, moved him earnestly to commend some Able, Learned and discreet Governor to that weighty charge, whose Action should not need to be so much as his Oversight: It pleased our Master out of his good Opinion to tender this condition unto me, assuring me of no small advantages, and no great toil, since it was intended the main load of the work should lie upon other shoulders; I apprehended the motion worth the entertaining: In that severe Society our times were stinted, neither was it wise or safe to refuse good Offers: Mr. Dr. Chaderton carried me to London, and there presented me to the Lord chief Justice with much testimony of Approbation; the Judge seemed well apayed with the choice, I promised Acceptance, He the Strength of his Favour: No sooner had I parted from the Judge, then in the Street a Messinger presented me with a Letter, from the right Virtuous and Worthy Lady (of dear and happy Memory) the Lady Drury of Suffolk, tendering the Rectory of her Halsted then newly void, and very earnestly desiring me to accept of it; Dr. Chaderton observing in me some change of Countenance, asked me what the matter might be; I told him the Errand, and delivered him the Letter beseeching his advice; which when he had read, Sir (quoth I) me thinks God pulls me by the Sleeve, and tells me it is his will I should rather go to the East then to the West; Nay (he answered) I should rather think that God would have you go Westward, for that he hath contrived your engagement before the tender of this Letter, which therefore coming too late may receive a fair and easy Answer: to this I besought him to pardon my dissent, adding, that I well knew that Divinity was the end whereto I was destined by my Parents, which I had so constantly proposed to myself, that I never meant other, then to pass through this Western School to it; but I saw that God who found me ready to go the farther way about, now called me the nearest and directest way to that sacred end; The Good man could no further oppose, but only pleaded the distaste which would hereupon be justly taken by the Lord chief Justice, whom I undertook fully to satisfy; which I did with no great difficulty, commending to his Lordship in my room, my old Friend and Chamber-fellow Mr. Cholmley, who finding an answerable acceptance disposed himself to the place; So as we two, who came together to the University, now must leave it at once. Having then fixed my foot at Halsted, I found there a dangerous Opposite to the Success of my Ministry, a witty and bold Atheist, one Mr. Lily, who by reason of his Travails, and Abilities of Discourse and Behaviour, had so deeply insinuated himself into my Patron, Sir Robert Drury, that there was small hopes (during his entireness) for me to work any good upon that Noble Patron of mine; who by the suggestion of this wicked Detractor was set off from me before he knew me; Hereupon (I confess) finding the obduredness and hopeless condition of that man, I bent my prayers against him, beseeching God daily, that he would be pleased to remove by some means or other, that apparent hindrance of my faithful Labours, who gave me an answer accordingly: For this malicious man going hastily up to London, to exasperate my Patron against me, was then and there swept away by the Pestilence, and never returned to do any farther Mischief; Now the coast was clear before me, and I gained every day of the good Opinion and favourable respects of that Honourable Gentleman, and my worthy Neighbours: Being now therefore settled in that sweet and civil Country of Suffolk, near to S. Edmunds-Bury, my first work was to build up my house which was then extremely ruinous, which done, the uncouth Solitariness of my life, and the extreme incommodity of that single House-keeping, drew my thoughts after two years to condescend to the necessity of a Married estate, which God no less strangely provided for me; For walking from the Church on Monday in the Whitsunweek, with a Grave and Reverend Minister, Mr. Grandidg, I saw a comely and modest Gentlewoman standing at the Door of that house where we were invited to a wedding-dinner, and enquiring of that worthy Friend whether he knew her, Yes (quoth he) I know her well, and have bespoken her for your wife; when I further demanded an account of that Answer, he told me, she was the Daughter of a Gentleman whom he much respected, Mr. George Winniff of Bretenham, that out of an opinion had of the fitness of that Match for me, he had already treated with her Father about it, whom he found very apt to entertain it, advising me not to neglect the opportunity; and not concealing the just praises of the Modesty, Piety, good Disposition, and other Virtues that were lodged in that seemly Presence; I listened to the motion as sent from God, and at last upon due prosecution happily prevailed, enjoying the comfortable Society of that meet Help for the space of forty nine years: I had not passed two years in this estate, when my Noble Friend Sir Edmund Bacon, with whom I had much entireness came to me, and earnestly solicited me for my Company in a Journey by him projected to the Spa in Ardenna, laying before me the Safety, the Easiness, the Pleasure, and the Benefit of that small Extravagance, if opportunity were taken of that time, when the Earl of Hertford passed in Embassy to the Archduke Albert of Brussels; I soon yielded, as for the reasons by him urged, so especially for the great desire I had to inform myself ocularly of the State and practice of the Romish Church; the knowledge whereof might be of no small use to me in my Holy Station; Having therefore taken careful order for the Supply of my Charge, with the Assent and good allowance of my nearest Friends, I entered into this secret Voyage; we waited some days at Harwich for a wind, which we hoped might waft us over to Dunkirk, where our Ambassador had lately landed, but at last having spent a Day, and half a night at Sea, we were forced for want of favour from the wind, to put in at Quinborow, from whence coasting over the Rich and pleasant Country of Kent, we renewed our shipping at Dover, and soon landing at Calais, we passed after two days by Wagon to the strong Towns of Gravelling, and Dunkirk, where I could not but find much hor●or in myself to pass under those dark, and dreadful prisons, were so many brave Englishmen, had breathed out their Souls in a miserable Captivity. From thence we passed through Winnoxberg, Ipre, Gaunt, Courtray, to Brussels, where the Ambassador had newly sat down before us, That Noble Gentleman in whose Company I traveled, was welcomed with many kind Visitations, amongst the rest there came to him an English Gentleman, who having run himself out of breath in the Inns of Court, had forsaken his Country, and therewith his Religion, and was turned both Bigot and Physician, residing now in Brussels; This man after few interchanges of Compliment with Sir Edmund Bacon fell into a Hyperbolical predication of the wondered miracles done newly by our Lady at Zichem, or Sherpen heavell, that is Sharp hill; by Lipsius Apricollis; the credit whereof when that worthy Knight wittily questioned, he avowed a particular miracle of cure wrought by her upon himself; I coming into the room in the midst of this Discourse (habited not like a Divine, but in such colour and fashion as might best secure my travel, and hearing my Countryman's zealous and confident Relations, at last asked him this question, Sir (Quoth I) put case this report of yours be granted for true, I beseech you teach me what difference there is betwixt these miracles which you say are wrought by this Lady, and those which were wrought by Vespasian by some Vestals by Charms and Spells; the rather for that I have noted, in the late published report of these miracles, some Patients prescribed to come upon a Friday, & some to wash in such a well before their approach; and divers other such Charm-like observations; The Gentleman not expecting such a question from me, answered, Sir I do not profess this kind of Scholarship, but we have in the City many famous Divines, with whom if it would please you to confer, you might sooner receive satisfaction; I asked him whom he took for the most eminent Divine of that place, he named to me Father Costerus, undertaking that he would be very glad to give me conference, if I would be pleased to come up to the Jesuits College: I willingly yielded; In the afternoon the forward Gentleman prevented his time to attend me to the Father, (as he styled him,) who (as he said) was ready to entertain me with a meeting; I went alone up with him; the Porter shutting the Door after me, welcomed me with a Deo gratias; I had not stayed long in the Jesuits Hall, before Costerus came in to me, who after a friendly Salutation, fell into a formal speech of the unity of that Church, out of which is no Salvation, and had proceeded to lose his Breath, and labour; had not I (as civilly as I might) interrupted him with this short Answer; Sir, I beseech you mistake me not; My Nation tells you of what Religion I am; I come not hither out of any doubt of my professed belief, or any purpose to change it, but moving a question to this Gentleman, concerning the pretended miracles of the time, he pleased to refer me to yourself for my Answer, which motion of his I was the more willing to embrace, for the fame that I have heard of your learning and worth, and if you can give me satisfaction herein, I am ready to receive it: Hereupon we settled to our places, at a Table in the end of the Hall, and buckled to a further discourse; he fell into a poor and unperfect account of the difference of Divine miracles and Diabolical; which I modestly refuted; from thence he slipped into a Choleric invective against our Church, which (as he said) could not yield one miracle; and when I answered, that in our Church, we had manifest proofs of the ejection of Devils by fasting and prayer, he answered, that if it could be proved, that ever any Devil was dispossessed in our Church, he would quit his Religion. Many questions were incidently traversed by us; wherein I found no satisfaction given me; The conference was long and vehement; in the heat whereof, who should come in but Father Baldwin, an English Jesuit, known to me, as by face (after I came to brussels) so much more by Fame; he sat down upon a bench, at the further end of the table, and heard no small part of our Dissertation, seeming not too well paid, that a Gentleman of his Nation, (for still I was spoken to in that habit, by the stile of Dominatio vestra) should departed from the Jesuits College no better satisfied: On the next morning therefore he sends the same English Physician to my Lodging, with a courteous compellation, professing to take it unkindly, that his Countryman should make choice of any other, to confer with, than himself, who desired both mine acquaintance and full satisfaction. Sr. Edmund Bacon, in whose hearing the message was delivered, gave me secret signs of his utter unwillingness to give way to my further conferences, the issue whereof (since we were to pass further, and beyond the bounds of that Protection) might prove dangerous, I returned a mannerly answer of thanks to F. Baldwin; but for any further conference, that it were bootless, I could not hope to convert him, and was resolved, he should not alter me, and therefore both of us should rest where we were. Departing from brussels we were for Namur's, and Liege: in the way we found the good hand of God, in delivering us from the danger of freebooters, and of a nightly entrance (amidst a suspicious convoy) into that bloody City. Thence we came to the Spadane waters, where I had good leisure to add a second century of Meditations to those I had published before my journey; After we had spent a just time at those medicinal wells, we returned to Liege, and in our passage up the River Mosa, I had a dangerous conflict with a Sorbonist, a Prior of the Carmelites, who took occasion by our kneeling at the receipt of the Eucharist, to persuade all the company of our acknowledgement of a Transubstantiation; I satisfied the cavil, showing upon what ground this meet posture obtained with us: the man grew furious upon his conviction, and his vehement associates began to join with him, in a right down railing upon our Church, and Religion; I told them they knew where they were, for me, I had taken notice of the security of their Laws, inhibiting any argument held against their Religion established, and therefore stood only upon my defence, not casting any aspersion upon theirs, but ready to maintain our own, which though I performed in as fair terms as I might, yet the choler of those zealots was so moved, that the paleness of their changed countenances, began to threaten some perilous issue, had not Sir Edmund Bacon, both by his eye, and by his Tongue, wisely taken me off; I subduced myself speedily from their presence, to avoid further provocation; the Prior began to bewray some suspicions of my borrowed habit, and told them, that himself had a green Satin suit once prepared for his travels into England, so as I found it needful for me, to lie close at Namurs; from whence travelling the next day towards Brussels in the company of two Italian Captains, Signior Ascamo Negro and another, whose name I have forgotten; who enquiring into our Nation and Religion, wondered to hear that we had any Baptism or Churches in England; the congruity of my Latin, (in respect of their perfect Barbarism) drew me and the rest into their suspicion, so as I might overhear them muttering to each other, that we were not the men we appeared, strait the one of them, boldly expressed his conceit, and together with this charge, began to inquire of our condition; I told him that the Gentleman he saw before us, was the Grandchild of that renowned Bacon, the great Chancellor of England, a man of great birth and Quality, and that myself, and my other companion, travailed in his attendance to the Spa; from the train, and under the Privilege of our late Ambassador, with which just answer I stopped their Mouths.  
Returning through Brussels we came down to Antwerp, the paragon of Cities; where my curiosity to see a solemn procession on St. John Baptists Day might have drawn me into danger (through my willing unreverence) had not the bulk of a tall Brabanter, behind whom I stood in a corner of the Street, shadowed me from notice; Thence down the fair river of Scheld, we came to Vlushing, where (upon the resolution of our company to stay some hours, I hasted to Middleburgh to see an ancient Colleague; That visit lost me my passage; ere I could return, I might see our ship under sail for England, the Master had with the wind altered his Purpose, and called aboard with such eagerness, that my Company must either away, or undergo the hazard of too much loss: I looked long after them in vain, and sadly returning to Middleburgh waited long, for an inconvenient and tempestuous passage.  
After some year and half, it pleased God in expectedly to contrive the change of my station; My means were but short at Halsted; yet such as I oft professed, if my then Patron would have added, but one ten pounds by year (which I held to be the value of my detained due) I should never have removed; One morning as I lay in my bed, a strong motion was suddenly glanced into my thoughts of going to London; I arose and betook me to the way, the ground that appeared of that purpose, was to speak with my Patron Sir Robert Drury, if by occasion of the public Preachership of St. Edmund's Bury, than offered me upon good conditions, I might draw him to a willing yieldance of that parcel of my due maintenance, which was kept back from my not over-deserving predecessor; who hearing my errand dissuaded me from so ungainful a change, which had it been to my sensible advantage, he should have readily given way unto; but not offering me the expected encouragement of my continuance; with him I stayed, and preached on the Sunday following; That day Sir Robert Drury, meeting with the Lord Denny, fell belike into the commendation of my Sermon; That religious and Noble Lord had long harboured good thoughts concerning me upon the reading of those poor pamphlets which I had formerly published; and long wished the opportunity to know me: to please him in this desire, Sir Rob. willed me to go, and tender my service to his Lordship, which I modestly and seriously deprecated; yet upon his earnest charge went to his Lordship's gate, where I was not sorry to hear of his Absence. Being now full of Cold and Distemper in Drury-lane, I was found out by a friend, in whom I had formerly no great interest, one Mr. Gurrey Tutor to the Earl of Essex; 
P. Henry.  he told me how well my Meditations were accepted at the Prince's Court; and earnestly advised me to step over to Richmond, and preach to his Highness: I strongly pleaded my indisposition of body, and my inpreparation for any such work, together with my bashful fears, and utter unfitness for such a presence; my averseness doubled his importunity; in fine, he left me not till he had my engagement to preach the Sunday following at Richmond: he made way for me to that awful Pulpit, and encouraged me by the favour of his Noble Lord the Earl of Essex: I preached; through the favour of my God, that Sermon was not so well given as taken; In so much as that Sweet Prince, signified his Desire to hear me again the Tuesday following, which done, that labour gave more contentment than the former, So as that gracious Prince, both gave me his hand and commanded me to his Service, My Patron seeing me (upon my return to London) looked after by some great Persons, began to wish me at home, and told me that some or other would be snatching me up, I answered that it was in his power to prevent, would he be pleased to make my maintenance, but so competent as in right it should be, I would never stir from him: instead of condescending, it pleased him to fall into an expostulation of the rate of competencies, affirming the variableness thereof, according to our own estimation, and our either raising or moderating the causes of our expenses; I showed him the insufficiency of my means, that I was forced to write books to buy books: Shortly, some harsh and unpleasing answer, so disheartened me that I resolved to embrace the first opportunity of my remove; Now whiles I was taken up with these anxious thoughts, a messenger (it was Sir Robert Wingfield of Northhamptons' son) came to me from the Lord Denny, (now Earl of Norwich) my after-most-honourable Patron, entreating me from his Lordship to speak with him; No sooner came I thither, then after a glad, and Noble welcome, I was entertained, with the earnest offer of Waltham. The conditions were like the mover of them, free and bountiful; I received them, as from the munificent hand of my God; and returned full of the cheerful acknowledgements of a gracious providence over me; Too late now did my former Noble Patron relent, and offer me those terms which had before fastened me for ever; I returned home happy in a new Master, and in a new Patron; betwixt whom, I Divided myself and my labours, with much comfort and no less acceptation; In the second year, of mine attendance on his Highness, when I came for my Dismission, from that monthly service, it pleased the Prince to command me a longer stay, and at last upon mine allowed departure, by the mouth of Sir Thomas chaloner, his Governor, to tender unto me a motion of more honour and favour than I was worthy of; which was, that it was his Highness' pleasure, and purpose, to have me continually resident at the Court as a constant attendant, whiles the rest held on their wont vicissitudes; for which purpose his Highness would obtain for me such preferments as should yield me full contentment: I returned my humblest thanks, and my readiness to sacrifice myself to the service of so gracious a Master, but being conscious to myself of my unanswerableness to so great expectation, and loath to forsake so Dear and Noble a Patron, who had placed much of his Heart upon me, I did modestly put it off, and held close to my Waltham; where in a constant course, I preached a long time, (as I had done also at Halsted before) thrice in the week, yet never durst I climb into the Pulpit, to preach any Sermon, whereof I had not before in my poor, and plain fashion, penned every word in the same Order, wherein I hoped to deliver it, although in the expression I listed not to be a slave to Syllables.  
In this while my worthy kinsman, Mr. Samuel Barton Archdeacon of Gloucester, knowing in how good terms I stood at Court, and pitying the miserable condition of his Native Church of Wolverhampton, was very desirous to engage me in so difficult, and Noble a service, as the redemption of that captivated Church; For which cause he importuned me to move some of my friends, to solicit the Dean of Windsor, (who by an ancient annexation is Patron thereof, for the grant of a particular Prebend, when it should fall vacant in that Church, answer was returned me, that it was forepromised to one of my fellow Chaplains; I sat down without further expectation; some year or two after, hearing that it was become void, and meeting with that fellow Chaplain of mine; I wished him much joy of the Prebend; He asked me if it were void; I assured him so; and telling him of the former answer delivered to me in my Ignorance, of his engagement, wished him to hasten his Possession of it. He delayed not; when he came to the Dean of Windsor, for his promised dispatch, the Dean brought him forth a Letter from the Prince, wherein he was desired, and charged to reverse his former engagement (since that other Chaplain was otherwise provided for) and to cast that favour upon me; I was sent for, (who lest thought of it) and received the free Collation of that poor dignity, It was not the value of the place, (which was but nineteen Nobleses per annum) that we aimed at, but the freedom of a goodly Church, (consisting of a Dean and eight Prebendaries competently endowed) and many thousand souls, lamentably swallowed up by wilful Recusants, in a pretended Fee-farm for ever; O God, what an hand hadst thou in the carriage of this work! when we set foot in this suit (for another of the Prebendaries joined with me) we knew not wherein to insist, nor where to ground a complaint, only we knew that a Goodly Patrimony was by sacrilegious conveyance detained from the Church. But in the pursuit of it such marvellous light opened itself inexpectedly to us, in revealing of a counterfeit seal, found in the ashes of that burned house of a false Register; in the manifestation of masures, and interpolations, and misdates of unjustifiable evidences, that after many years' suit, the wise and honourable Lord Chancellor Ellesmere upon a full hearing, adjudged these two sued for prebend's, clearly to be returned to the Church, until by common law, they could (if possibly) be revicted; Our great adversary Sr. Walter Leveson, finding it but loss and trouble to struggle for litigious sheaves, came off to a peaceable composition with me of 40l. per annum for my part, whereof ten should be to the discharge of my stall in that Church, till the suit should by course of Common law be determined; we agreed upon fair Wars. The cause was heard at the King's Bench Barr; where a special verdict was given for us; Upon the death of my partner in the suit, (in whose name it had now been brought) it was renewed; a Jury empanelled in the County; the Foreman (who had vowed he would carry it for Sr. Walter Leveson howsoever) was before the day, stricken mad, and so continued; we proceeded with the same success we formerly had; whiles we were thus striving, a word fell from my adversary, that gave me intimation, that a third dog would perhaps come in, and take the bone from us both; which I finding to drive at a supposed concealment, happily prevented, for I presently addressed myself to his Majesty, with a Petition for the renewing the charter of that Church; and the full establishment of the Lands, Rights, Liberties, thereto belonging; which I easily obtained from those Gracious hands; Now Sr. Walter Leveson, seeing the patrimony of the Church so fast and safely settled: and misdoubting what issue those his crazy evidences would find at the Common law, began to incline to offers of peace, and at last drew him so far, as that he yielded to those two many conditions, not particularly for myself, but for the whole body of all those prebend's which pertained to the Church; First that he would be content to cast up that Fee-farm, which he had of all the Patrimony of that Church, and disclaiming it, receive that which he held of the said Church by lease, from us the several Prebendaries, for term, whether of years, or (which he rather desired) of Lives. Secondly that he would raise the maintenance, of every Prebend, (whereof some were but forty shillings, others three, pounds, others four, etc.) to the yearly value of thirty pounds to each man, during the said term of his Lease, only for a monument of my labour and success herein, I required that my Prebend might have the addition of ten pounds per annum, above the fellows; We were busily treating of this happy match for that poor Church; Sr. Walter Leveson was not only willing but forward; The than Dean Mr. Antonius de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalata, gave both way and furtherance to the dispatch, all had been most happily ended, had not the scrupulousness, of one or two of the Number, differed so advantageous a conclusion; In the mean while Sr. Walter Leveson dies, leaves his young Orphan Ward to the King, all our hopes were now blown up; An office was found of all those Lands, the very wont payments were denied, and I called into the Court of Wards, in fair likelihood, to forgo my former hold, and yielded possession: but there, it was justly awarded by the Lord Treasurer, than Master of the Wards, that the Orphan could have no more, no other right then the Father: I was therefore left in my former state, only upon public complaint, of the hard condition wherein the Orphan was left, I suffered myself to be over-entreated, to abate somewhat of that evicted composition: which work having once firmly settled, in a just pity of the mean provision, if not the Destitution of so many thousand souls, and a desire, and care, to have them comfortably provided for in the future, I resigned up the said Prebend to a worthy Preacher, Mr. Lee, who should constantly reside there, and painfully Instruct, that great and long neglected people; which he hath hitherto performed, with great mutual contentment and happy success: Now during this 22 years which I spent at Waltham; thrice was I commanded and employed abroad by his Majesty in public service.  
First in the attendance of the Right Honourable Earl of Carlisle, (than Lord Viscount Doncaster) who was sent upon a Noble Embassy, with a gallant retinue into France; whose innterment there, the Annals of that Nation will tell to posterity, In the midst of that service was I surprised with a miserable Distemper of body; which ended in a Diarrhaea Biliosa, not without some beginnings and further threats of a Dysentery; wherewith I was brought so low, that there seemed small hope of my recovery, Mr. Peter Moulin (to whom I was beholden for his frequent visitations) being sent by my Lord Ambassador, to inform him of my estate, brought him so sad News thereof, as that he was much afflicted therewith, well supposing his welcome to Waltham, could not but wont much of the heart without me: Now the time of his return drew on, Dr. Moulin, kindly offered to remove me, upon his Lordship's departure, to his own house, promising me all careful tendance; I thanked him, but resolved, if I could but creep homewards to put myself upon the Journey. A Litter was provided, but of so little ease; that Simeons penitential lodging; or a malefactor's stocks, had been less penal: I crawled down from my close Chamber into that carriage, In qua videbaris mihi efferri, tanquam in sandapila, as Mr. Moulin wrote to me afterward; that Misery had I endured in all the long passage, from Paris to Deep, being left alone to the surly Muleteers, had not the providence of my good God brought me to St. Germane, upon the very minute of the setting out of those Coaches, which had stayed there upon that morning's entertainment of my Lord Ambassador, How glad was I that I might change my seat, and my company; in the way, beyond all expectation, I began to gather some strength, whether the fresh Air, or the desires of my home revived me, so much, and so sudden reparation ensued, as was sensible to myself; and seemed strange to others; Being shipped at Deep the Sea used us hardly, and after a Night, and a great part of the Day following, sent us back well wind-beaten, to that bleak haven whence we set forth, forcing us to a more pleasing land-passage, through the Coasts of Normandy and Picardy; towards the end whereof, my former complaint returned upon me, and Landing with me, accompanied me to, and at my long Desired home; In this my absence, it pleased his Majesty, graciously, to confer upon me the Deanery of Worcester, which being promised to me before my Departure, was deeply hazarded whiles I was out of sight, by the Importunity and underhand working of some great ones; Dr. Field, the learned and worthy Dean of Gloucester, was by his potent Friends put into such assurances of it, that I heard where he took care for the furnishing that ample house; But God fetched it about for me, in that absence and Nescience of mine; and that Reverend, and better Deserving Divine, was well satisfied with greater hopes; and soon after exchanged this Mortal estate, for an Immortal and Glorious; Before I could go down through my continuing weakness, to take possession of that Dignity, his Majesty pleased to design me to his Attendance into Scotland; where the great love, and respect that I found, both from the Ministers, and People, wrought me no small envy, from some of our own, upon a commonly received supposition, that his Majesty would have no further use of his Chaplains, after his remove from Edinburgh, (for as much as the Divines of the Country, whereof there is great store and worthy choice, were allotted to every station) I easily obtained, through the Solicitation of my ever Honoured Lord of Carlisle, to return with him before my fellows. No sooner was I gone, than suggestions were made to his Majesty of my over plausible Demeanour and doctrine to that already prejudicated people, for which his Majesty, after a gracious acknowledgement of my good service there done, called me upon his return to a favourable and mild account; not more freely professing what Informations had been given against me, than his own full Satisfaction, with my sincere and just answer; as whose excellent wisdom well saw, that such winning carriage of mine could be no hindrance to those his great Designs; At the same time his Majesty having secret notice, that a Letter was coming to me from Mr. VV. Struther, a Reverend and Learned Divine of Edinburgh, concerning the five points, then proposed, and urged to the Church of Scotland; was pleased to impose upon me an earnest charge, to give him a full answer in satisfaction to those his modest Doubts; and at large to declare my Judgement concerning those required Observations, which I speedily performed with so great approbation of his Majesty, that it pleased him to command a transcript thereof, as I was informed, publicly read in their most famous University; The effect whereof his Majesty vouchsafed, to signify afterwards, unto some of my best friends, with allowance beyond my hopes.  
It was not long after, that his Majesty finding the exigence of the affairs, of the Nether-Landish Churches to require it; both advised them to a Synodical decision, and by his incomparable wisdom, promoted the work; My unworthiness was named for one of the Assistants of that honourable grave and reverend meeting, where I failed not of my best service to that woefully distracted Church; By that time I had stayed some two Months there, the unquietness of the Night●, in those Garrison Towns, working upon the tender disposition of my Body, brought me to such weakness through want of Rest, that it began to disable me from attending the Synod, which yet as I might, I forced myself unto as wishing that my Zeal could have discountenanced my infirmity; where in the mean time, it is well worthy of my thankful remembrance, that being in an afflicted and languishing condition, for a fortnight together with that sleepless distemper, yet it pleased God, the very Night before I was to preach the Latin Sermon to the Synod, to bestow upon me such a comfortable refreshing of sufficient sleep, as, whereby my spirits were revived, and I was enabled with much vigour and vivacity to perform that service; which was no sooner done then my former complaint renewed upon me, and prevailed against all the remedies that the counsel of Physicians could advise me unto; so as after long strife, I was compelled to yield unto a retirement (for the time) to the Hague, to see if change of place and more careful attendance, which I had in the house of our Right Honourable Ambassador, the Lord Carleton (now Viscount Dorchester) might recover me; But when notwithstanding all means, my weakness increased so far, as that there was small likelihood left of so much strength remaining, as might bring me back into England, it pleased his gracious Majesty, by our Noble Ambassadors solicitation, to call me off, and to substitute a worthy Divine Mr. Dr. Goad in my unwillingly forsaken room. Returning by Dort, I sent in my sad farewell to that grave Assembly, who by common vote sent to me the Precedent of the Synod, and the Assistants, with a respective and gracious valediction; neither did the Deputies of my Lords the State's neglect (after a very respectful compliment sent from them to me by Daniel Heinsius) to visit me; and after a Noble acknowledgement of more good service from me, than I durst own, dismissed me with an Honourable retribution, and sent after me a rich Medal of Gold, the portraiture of the Synod, for a precious Monument of their respects to my poor endeavours, who failed not whiles I was at the Hague, to impart unto them my poor advice, concerning the proceeding of that Synodical meeting; The difficulties of my return in such weakness were many and great; wherein, if ever, God manifested his special Providence to me, in overruling the cross accidents of that passage, and after many dangers and despairs, contriving my save arrival.  
After not many years settling at home, it grieved my soul, to see our own Church begin to sicken of the same disease which we had endeavoured to cure in our Neighbours; Mr. Montague's tart and vehement assertions, of some positions, near of kin to the Remonstrants of netherlands, gave occasion of raising no small broil in the Church; Sides were taken, Pulpits every where rang of these opinions; but Parliaments took notice of the division, and questioned the Occasioner; Now as one that desired to do all good offices to our dear and common Mother, I set my thoughts on work, how so dangerous a quarrel might be happily composed; and finding that mistaking was more guilty of this dissension, than misbelieving; (since it plainly appeared to me, that Mr. Montague meant to express, not Arminius, but B. Overall, a more moderate and safe Author, however he sped in delivery of him;) I wrote a little project of Pacification, wherein I desired to rectify the judgement of m●n, concerning this misapprehended controversy; showing them the true parties in this unseasonable Plea; and because B. Overall went a midway, betwixt the two opinions which he held extreme, and must needs therefore somewhat differ from the commonly-received tenet in these points, I gathered out of B. Overall on the one side, and out of our English Divines at Dort on the other, such common propositions concerning these five busy Articles, as wherein both of them are fully agreed; All which being put together, seemed unto me to make up so sufficient a body of accorded Truth, that all other questions moved hereabouts, appeared merely superfluous, and every moderate Christian, might find where to rest himself, without hazard of Contradiction: These I made bold by the hands of Dr. Young the worthy Dean of Winchester, to present to his Excellent Majesty, together with a humble motion of a peaceable silence to be enjoined to both parts, in those other collateral, and needless disquisitions: which if they might befit the Schools of Academical disputants, could not certainly sound well from the Pulpits of popular Auditories: Those reconciliatory papers fell under the eyes of some Grave Divines on both parts, Mr. Montague professed that he had seen them, and would subscribe to them very willingly; others that were contrarily minded, both English, Scotish, and French Divines, proffered their hands to a no less ready subscription; So as much peace promised to result, out of that weak and poor enterprise, had not the confused noise of the misconstructions of those, who never saw the work, (crying it down for the very Names sake) meeting with the royal edict of a general Inhibition, buried it in a secure Silence. I was scorched a little with this flame, which I desired to Quench; yet this could not stay my hand from thrusting itself, into an hotter fire.  
Some insolent Romanists (Jesuits especially) in their bold disputations (which in the time of the treaty of the Spanish Match, and the calm of that Relaxation were very frequent,) pressed nothing so much, as a Catalogue of the Professors of our Religion to be deduced from the primitive times, and with the peremptory challenge of the impossibility of this Pedigree dazzled the eyes of the simple; whiles some of our learned men, undertaking to satisfy so needless and unjust a demand, gave, as I conceived, great advantage to the Adversary; In a just Indignation to see us thus wronged by mis●stateing the Question betwixt us, as if we, yielding ourselves of an other Church, Originally and fundamentally different, should make good our own erection upon the Ruins, yea, the Nullity of theirs, and well considering the Infinite and great inconveniences, that must needs follow upon this defence, I adventured to set my pen on work; desiring to rectify the Opinions of those men, whom an ignorant zeal had transported, to the prejudice of our holy Cause, laying forth the Damnable corruptions of the Roman Church, yet making our game of the outward visibility thereof, and by this means putting them to the probation, of those newly obtruded corruptions which are truly guilty of the breach betwixt us; The drift whereof, being not well conceived, by some spirits, that were not so wise as fervent, I was suddenly exposed to the rash censures of many well affected and zealous Protestants, as if I had in a Remission to my wont zeal to the Truth attributed too much to the Roman Church, and strengthened the adversaries hands and weakened our own; This envy I was fain to take off by my speedy Apologetical advertisement, and after that by my Reconciler, 
B. Morton. B. Davenant. Dr. Prideaux. D. Primrose.  seconded with the unaminous Letters of such Reverend, Learned, sound Divines, both Bishops and Doctors, as whose undoubtable authority, was able to bear down calumny itself; which done I did by a seasonable moderation provide for the Peace of the Church, in silencing both my defendants and challengers, in this unkind and ill-raised quarrel; Immediately before the Publishing of this Tractate, (which did not a little aggravate, the envy and suspicion) I was by his Majesty raised to the Bishopric of Exeter, having formerly (with much humble Deprecation) refused the See of Gloucester earnestly proffered unto me; How beyond all expectation it pleased God to place me in that Western charge; which (if the Duke of Buckingham's Letters, he being then in France, had arrived but some hours sooner) I had been defeated of; and by what strange means it pleased God to make up the Competency of that provision, by the unthought of addition of the Rectory of St. Breok within that Diocese, if I should fully relate, the Circumstances, would force the Confession of an extraordinary hand of God in the disposing of those events, I entered upon that place, not without much prejudice and suspicion on some hands; for some that sat at the stern of the Church, had me in great Jealousy for too much favour of Puritanisme; I soon had intelligence who were set over me for espials; my ways were Curiously observed, and scanned; However I took the resolution to follow those courses which might most conduce to the Peace and happiness of my New and weighty charge; finding therefore some factious spirits very busy in that Diocese, I used all fair and gentle means to win them to good order; and therein so happily prevailed, that (saving two of that numerous Clergy, who continuing in their refractoriness fled away from censure,) they were all perfectly reclaimed; so as I had not one Minister professedly opposite to the anciently received orders (for I was never guilty of urging any new Impositions) of the Church in that large Diocese; Thus we went on comfortably together, till some persons of note in the Clergy, being guilty of their own negligence and disorderly courses, began to envy our success; and finding me ever ready to encourage those whom I found conscionably forward, and painful in their places, and willingly giving way to Orthodox and peaceable Lectures in several parts of my Diocese, opened their mouths against me, both obliquely in the Pulpit, and directly at the Court; complaining of my too much Indulgence to persons disaffected, and my too much liberty of frequent Lecturing within my charge. The billows went so high, that I was three several times upon my knee to his Majesty, to answer these great Criminations, and what Contestation I had with some great Lords concerning these particulars, it would be too long to report; only this; under how dark a Cloud I was hereupon, I was so sensible, that I plainly told the Lord Archbishop of Canter. that rather than I would be obnoxious to those slanderous tongues of his misinformers, I would cast up my Rochet; I knew I went right ways and would not endure to live under undeser●●pi●●ons; what messages of caution I had from 〈◊〉 of my ●●ry Brethren, and what expostulatory Letters, I had from above, I need not relate; Sure I am I had Peace, and comfort at home, in the happy sense of that general unanimity, and loving correspondence of my Clergy, till in the last year of my presiding there, after the Synodical oath was set on foot, (which yet I did never tender to any one Minister of my Diocese) by the incitation of some busy interlope●s of the neighbour County, some of them began to enter into an unkind contestation with me, about the election of Clerks of the convocation; whom they secretly, without ever acquainting me with their desire or purpose (as driving to that end which we see now accomplished) would needs nominate and set up in Competition to those, whom I had (after the usual form) recommended to them; That they had a right to free voices in that choice, I denied not; only I had reason to take it unkindly, that they would work underhand without me, and against me; professing that if they had before hand made their desires known to me, I should willingly have gone along with them in their election; It came to the Poll; Those of my Nomination carried it, The Parliament begun; After some hard tugging there, returning home upon a recess; I was met on the way, and cheerfully welcomed with some hundreds: In no worse terms, I left that my once dear Diocese: when returning to Westminister, I was soon called by his Majesty (who was then in the North) to a remove to Norwich: but how I took the Tower in my way: and how I have been dealt with since my repair hither, I could be Lavish in the sad report, ever desiring my Good God, to enlarge my heart in Thankfulness to him, for the sensible experience I have had of his fatherly hand over me, in the deepest of all my Afflictions, and to strengthen me, for whatsoever other trials, he shall be pleased to call me unto: That being found faithful unto the Death, I may obtain that Crown of life, which he hath Ordained for all those that Overcome.   

Bishop HALL'S HARD MEASURE.  
NOthing could be more plain, then that upon the Call of this Parliament, and before, there was a general Plot and Resolution of the Faction to alter the Government of the Church especially, the height and insolency of some Church-governors', as was conceived, and the ungrounded imposition of some Innovations upon the Churches both of Scotland and England gave a fit Hint to the Project: In the vacancy therefore before the Summons, and immediately after it, there was great working secretly for the Designation and Election as of Knights and Burgesses, so especially (beyond all former use) of the Clerks of Convocation; when now the Clergy were stirred up to contest with, and oppose their Diocesans, for the choice of such men as were most inclined to the favour of an Alteration. The Parliament was no sooner sat, than many vehement Speeches were made against established Church-government, and enforcement of extirpation both root and branch. And because it was not fit to set upon all at once, the resolution was to begin with those Bishops which had subscribed to the Canons then lately published, upon the shutting up of the former Parliament, whom they would first have had accused of Treason; but that not appearing feisible, they thought best to indite them of very high crimes and offences against the King, the Parliament, and Kingdom, which was prosecuted with great earnestness by some prime Lawyers in the House of Commons, and entertained with like fervency by some zealous Lords in the House of Peers; every of those particular Canons being pressed to the most envious and dangerous height that was possible. The Archbishop of York (was designed for the report) aggravating Mr. Maynards' criminations to the utmost, not without some Interspersions of his own. The Counsel of the accused Bishops gave in such a demurring Answer as stopped the mouth of that heinous Indictment: when this prevailed not, it was contrived to draw Petitions accusatory from many parts of the Kingdom against Episcopal Government, and the Promoters of the petitions were entertained with great respects; whereas the many petitions of the opposite part, though subscribed with many thousand hands, were slighted and disregarded. Withal, the Rabble of London, after their petitions cunningly and upon other pretences procured, were stirred up to come to the Houses personally to crave justice both against the Earl of Strafford first, and then against the Archbishop of Canterbury, and lastly against the whole Order of Bishops; which coming at first unarmed were checked by some well-willers, and easily persuaded to gird on their rusty Swords, and so accoutred came by thousands to the Houses, filling all the outer rooms, offering soul abuses to the Bishops as they passed, crying out No Bishops, No Bishops; and at last, after divers days assembling, grown to that height of fury, that many of them, whereof Sir Richard Wiseman professed (though to his cost) to be Captain, came with resolution of some violent courses, in so much that many Swords were drawn hereupon at Westminster, and the Rout did not stick openly to profess that they would pull the Bishops in pieces. Messages were sent down to them from the Lords, they still held firm both to the place and their bloody resolutions. It now grew to be Torchlight, one of the Lords, the marquis of Hartford came up to the Bishop's Form, told us that we were in great danger, advised us to take some course for our own safety, & being desired to tell us what he thought was the best way, counselled us to continue in the Parliament House all that night; for (saith he) these people Vow they will watch you at your going out, and will search every Coach for you with Torches, so as you cannot escape. Hereupon the House of Lords was moved for some Order for the preventing their mutinous and riotous meetings; Messages were sent down to the House of Commons to this purpose more than once, nothing was effected; but for the present (for so much as all the danger was at the ●i●ising of the House) it was earnestly desired of the Lords that some care might be taken of our safety: The motion was received by some Lords with a smile, some other Lords, as the Earl of Manchester, undertook the protection of the Archbishop of York and his company (whose shelter I went under) to their lodgings; the rest, some of them by their long stay, others by secret and farfetched passages escaped home. It was not for us to venture any more to the House without some better assurance; upon our resolved forbearance therefore, the Archbishop of York sent for us to his lodging at Westminster, lays before us the perilous condition we were in, advises for remedy (except we meant utterly to abandon our Right, and to desert our Station in Parliament) to petition both his Majesty and the Parliament, that since we were legally called by his Majesty's writ to give our Attendance in Parliament, we might be secured in the performance of our Duty and Service against those Dangers that threatened us; and withal to protest against any such Acts as should be made during the time of our forced Absence, for which he assured us there were many Precedents in former Parliaments, and which if we did not, we should betray the Trust committed to us by his Majesty, and shamefully betray and abdicate the due right both of ourselves and Successors. To this purpose in our presence he drew up the said petition and protestation, avowing it to be legal, just and Agreeable to all former Proceed, and being fair written sent it to our several Lodgings for our Hands, which we accordingly subscribed, intending yet to have had some further Consultation concerning the delivering and whole carriage of it. But ere we could suppose it to be in any hand but his own, the first News we heard was, that there were Messengers addressed to fetch us in to the Parliament upon an Accusation of high Treason. For whereas this Paper was to have been delivered, first to his Majesty's Secretary; and after perusal by him to his Majesty, and after from his Majesty to the Parliament, and for that purpose to the Lord Keeper, the Lord Littleton, who was the Speaker of the house of Peers; all these professed not to have perused it at all, but the said Lord Keeper willing enough to take this Advantage of Ingratiating himself with the House of Commons and the faction, to which he knew himself sufficiently obnoxious, finding what use might be made of it by prejudicated minds, reads the same openly in the house of the Lords: and when he found some of the faction apprehensive enough of misconstruction, Aggravates the matter as highly offensive, and of dangerous consequence; and thereupon not without much heat and vehemence, and with an ill Preface▪ it is sent down to the House of Commons; where it was entertained heinously, Glynne with a full mouth crying it up for no less than an high Treason; and some comparing, yea preferring it to the Powder-plot. We poor souls (who little thought that we had done any thing that might deserve a chiding) are now called to our Knees at the bar, and charged severally with high Treason, being not a little astonished at the suddainness of this Crimination, compared with the perfect Innocence of our own Intentions, which were only to bring us to our due places in Parliament with safety and speed, without the least purpose of any man's offence; But now Traitors we are in all the haste, and must be dealt with accordingly; For on January 30 in all the extremity of Frost, at Eight a Clock in the dark Evening, are we voted to the Tower; Only two of our Number had the favour of the black Rod by reason of their Age, which though desired by a Noble Lord on my behalf, would not be yielded, wherein I acknowledge, and bless the Gracious providence of my God, for had I been gratified, I had been undone both in body and Purse; the rooms being straight, and the expense beyond the reach of my estate: The news of this our crime and imprisonment soon flew over the City, and was entertained by our well-willers with ringing of Bells and Bonfires; who now gave us up (not without great Triumph) for lost men railing, on our perfidiousness, and adjudging us to what foul Deaths they pleased; and what scurrile and malicious pamphlets were scattered abroad, throughout the Kingdom, and in foreign parts, blazoning our Infamy, and exaggerating our treasonable practices? what insultations of our adversaries was here? being caged sure enough in the Tower, the faction had now fair opportunities to work their own designs, they therefore taking the advantage of our restraint, renew that bill of theirs, (which had been twice before rejected since the beginning of this Session) for taking away the votes of Bishops in Parliament, and in a very thin house easily passed it: Which once condescended unto, I know not by what strong importunity, his Majesty's assent was drawn from him thereunto; we now instead of looking after our wont Honour must bend our thoughts upon the guarding of our lives, which were with no small eagerness, pursued by the violent Agents of the Faction. Their sharpest wits and greatest Lawyers were employed to advance our Impeachment to the height; but the more they looked into the business, the less crime could they find to fasten upon us: In so much as one of their Oracles, being demanded his judgement concerning the fact, professed to them, they might with as good reason accuse us of Adultery: Yet still there are we fast; only upon petition to the Lords obtaining this favour, that we might have counsel assigned us; which after much Reluctation; and many menaces from the Commons, against any man of all the Commoners of England that should dare to be seen to plead in this case against the representative body of the Commons, was granted us; the Lords Assigned us five very worthy Lawyers, which were nominated to them by us; what trouble and charge it was to procure those eminent and much employed Counsellors to come to the Tower to us, and to observe the strict laws of the place, for the time of their ingress, regress, and stay, it is not hard to judge. After we had lain some weeks there, however the house of Commons, upon the first tender of our Impeachment had desired we might be brought to a speedy trial, yet now finding belike how little ground they had for so high an Accusation, they began to slack their pace, and suffered us rather to languish under the fear of so dreadful Arraignment. In so much as now we are fain to Petition the Lords that we might be brought to our trial: the day was set, several summons were sent unto us; the Lieutenant had his warrant to bring us to the Bar; Our impeachment was severally read; we pleaded not guilty Modo & forma, and desired speedy proceed, which were accordingly promised, but not to hastily performed. After long expectation another day was appointed for the prosecution of this high charge. The Lieutenant brought us again to the Bar, but with what shoutings and exclamations and furious expressions of the enraged Multitudes, it is not easy to apprehend; being thither brought and severally charged upon our Knees, and having given our Negative Answers to every particular, Two Bishops, London and Winchester, were called in as witnesses against us, as in that point, whether they apprehended any such cause of fears in the tumults assembled, as that we were in any danger of our Lives in coming to the Parliament; who seemed to incline to a favourable report of the Perils threatened, though one of them was convinced out of his own Mouth, from the Relations himself had made at the Archbishop of Yorks Lodging. After this Wild and Glyn made fearful declamations at the Bar against us, aggravating all the Circumstances of our pretended Treason to the highest pitch. Our Counsel were all ready at the Bar to plead for us in Answer of their clamorous and envious suggestions; but it was answered, that it was now too late, we should have another day, which Day to this Day never came; the Circumstances of that day's hearing were more Grievous to us then the substance; for we were all thronged so miserably in that straight room before the Bar, by reason that the whole house of Commons would be thereto see the prizes of their Champions played; that we stood the whole afternoon in no small torture; sweeting and struggling with a Merciless Multitude, till b●ing dismissed we were exposed to a new and greater danger. For now in the dark we must to the Tower, by Barge as we came, and must shoot the Bridge with no small Peril. That God, under whose Merciful Protection we are, returned us to our safe Custody: There now we lay some weeks longer, expecting the summons for our Counsels answer; but instead thereof our Merciful Adversaries, well finding how sure they would be foiled in that unjust charge of Treason, now under pretences of remitting the height of rigour, wave their former Impeachment of Treason against us, and fall upon an Accusation of high Misdemeanours in that our Protestation, and will have us prosecuted as guilty of a Praemunire: although as we conceive the law hath ever been in the Parliamentary proceed, that if a man were impeached, as of Treason, being the highest crime, the Accusant must hold him to the proof of the charge, and may not fall to any meaner Impeachment upon failing of the higher. But in this case of ours it fe●l out otherwise, for although the Lords had openly promised us, that nothing should be done against us, till we and our Counsel were heard in our defence, yet the next News we heard was, the house of Commons had drawn up a bill against us, wherein they declared us to be Delinquents of a very high Nature, and had thereupon desired to have it enacted that all our spiritual Means should be taken away: Only there should be a Yearly allowance to every Bishop for his maintenance, according to a proportion by them set down; wherein they were pleased that my share should come to 400p. per annum: this bill was sent up to the Lords and by them also passed, and there hath ever since lain: this being done, after some weeks more, finding the Tower besides the Restraint, chargeable; we petitioned the Lords that we might be admitted to bail; and have liberty to return to our Homes the Earl of Essex moved, the Lords assented, took our bail, sent to the Lieutenant of the Tower for our discharge: How glad were we to fly out of our Cage? No sooner was I got to my Lodging, than I thought to take a little fresh Air, in St. James his Park; and in my return to my Lodging in the Deans yard, passing through Westminister Hall, was saluted by divers of my Parliament acquaintance, and welcomed to my liberty, whereupon some that looked upon me with an evil eye run into the House, and complained that the Bishops were let lose, which it seems was not well taken by the house of Commons, who presently sent a kind of expostulation to the Lords, that they had dismissed so heinous offenders without their knowledge and consent; Scarce had I rested me in my lodging, when there comes a Messinger to me with the sad news of sending me and the rest of my brethren the Bishop's back to the Tower again; from whence we came, thither we must go; and thither I went with an heavy (but I thank God not impatient) heart. After we had continued there some six weeks longer, and earnestly Petitioned to return to our several charges, we were upon 5000l. Bond dismissed, with a clause of Revocation at a short warning, if occasion should require. Thus having spent the time betwixt New years Even and Whitsuntide in those safe walls, where we by turns preached every Lord's Day to a large Auditory of Citizens, we disposed of ourselves to the places of our several abode.  
For myself, addressing myself to Norwich, whether it was his Majesty's pleasure to remove me, I was at the first received with more respect, then in such times I could have expected; there I preached the day after my arrival to a numerous and attentive people; nether was sparing of my pains in this kind ever since, till the times growing every day more impatient of a Bishop, threatened my silencing. There though with some secret Murmurs of disaffected persons, I enjoyed peace till the ordinance of sequestration came forth, which was in the latter end of March following, then when I was in hope of receiving the profits of the foregoing half year; for the maintenance of my family, were all my Rents stopped and diverted, and in the April following came the sequestrators viz. Mr. Sothertou Mr. Tooly Mr. Rawly Mr. Greenewood, etc. To the Palace and told me that by virtue of an ordinance of Parliament they must seize upon the Palace, and all the estate I had, both real and personal, and accordingly sent certain men appointed by them (whereof one had been burnt in the hand for the mark of his Truth,) to apprise all the goods that were in the house, which they accordingly executed with all diligent severity, not leaving so much as a dozen of Trenchers, or my children's pictures out of their curious Inventory. Yea they would have apprized our very wearing clothes, had not Alderman Tooly and Sheriff Rawley (to whom I sent to require their Judgement concerning the Ordinance in this point) declared their opinion to the contrary. These goods, both Library and household stuff of all kinds, were appointed to be exposed to public sale. Much inquiry there was when the goods should be brought to the Market; but in the mean time Mrs. Goodwin, a religious good Gentlewoman, whom yet we had never known or seen, being moved with compassion, very kindly offered to lay down to the Sequestrators that whole sum which the goods were valued at; and was pleased to leave them in our hands for our use, till we might be able to repurchase them, which she did accordingly and had the goods formally delivered to her by Mr. Smith and Mr. Greenwood, two Sequestrators. As for the books, several Stationers looked on them, but were not forward to buy them; at last Mr. Cook, a worthy Divine of this Diocese, gave bond to the Sequestrators, to pay to them the whole sum whereat they were set, which was afterwards satisfied out of that poor pittance, that was allowed me for my Maintenance; as for my evidences they required them from me, I denied them, as not holding myself bound to deliver them: They nailed, and sealed up the door, and took such as they found with me.  
But before this, the first noise that I heard of my trouble was, that one Morning, before my servants were up, there came to my Gates one Wright, a London Trooper, attended with others, requiring entrance, threatening if they were not admitted to break open the Gates; whom I found at my first sight struggling with one of my Servants for a Pistol, which he had in his hand; I demanded his business at that unseasonable time; he told me, he came to search for Arms and Ammunition, of which I must be disarmed; I told him I had only two Muskets, in the house, and no other Military Provision; he not resting upon my word searched round about the house, looked into the Chests, and Trunks, examined the Vessels in the Cellar; finding no other Warliek furniture, he asked me what Horses I had, for his Commission was to take them also; I told him how poorly I was stored, and that my age would not allow me to travel on foot; In conclusion he took one Horse for the present, and such account of another, that he did highly expostulate with me afterwards, that I had otherwise disposed of him.  
Now not only my Rents present, but the Arrearages of the former Years which I had in favour forborn to some Tenants, being treacherously confessed to the Sequestrators, were by them called for, and taken from me; neither was there any course at all taken for my maintenance; I therefore addressed myself to the Committee sitting here at Norwich, and desired them to give order for some means, out of that large Patrimony of the Church, to be allowed me. They all thought it very just, and there being present Sr. Tho. Woodhouse, and Sr. John Potts, Parliament men; it was moved, and held fit by them and the rest, that the Proportion which the Votes of the Parliament had pitched upon, viz. 400l. per annum; should be allowed to me. My Lord of Manchester, who was then conceived to have great power in matter of these Sequestrations, was moved herewith; He apprehended it very just and reasonable, and wrote to the Committee here to set out so many of the Manors belonging to this Bishopric as should amount to the said sum of 400l. annually; which was answerably done under the hands of the whole Table. And now I well hoped, I should yet have a good Competency of maintenance out of that plentiful Estate which I might have had: But those hopes were no sooner conceived then dashed; for before I could gather up one Quarters Rend, there comes down an Order from the Committee for Sequestrations above, under the hand of Sergeant Wild the Chairman, procured by Mr. Miles Corbet, to inhibit any such allowance; and telling our Committee here, that neither They, nor any other had Power to allow me any thing at all: But if my Wife found herself to need a Maintenance; upon her Suit to the Committee of Lords and Commons, it might be granted that She should have a fifth part, according to the Ordinance, allowed for the sustentation of herself, and her Family. Hereupon she sends a Petition up to that Committee, which after a long delay was admitted to be read, and an Order granted for the fifth part: But still the Rents and Revinues both of my Spiritual and Temporal Lands were taken up by the Sequestrators both in Norfolk, and Suffolk, and Essex, and we kept off from either allowance or account. At last upon much pressing, Beadle the Solicitor, and Rust the Collector, brought in an Account to the Committee, such as it was; but so Confused and Perplexed and so utterly unperfect, that we could never come to know what a fifth part meant: But they were content that I should eat my books by setting off the Sum, engaged for them out of the fifth part. Mean time the Synodals both in Norfolk and Suffolk, and all the Spiritual profits of the Diocese, were also kept back, only Ordinations and Institutions continued a while. But after the Covenant was appointed to be taken, and was generally swallowed of both Clergy and Laity, my power of ordination was with some strange violence restrained; For when I was going on in my wont course (which no Law or Ordinance had inhibited) certain forward Volunteers in the City, banding together, stir up the Mayor and Aldermen and Sheriffs to call me to an account for an open violation of their Covenant. To this purpose divers of them came to my Gates at a very unseasonable time, and knocking very vehemently, required to speak with the Bishop; Messages were sent to them to know their business, nothing would satisfy them but the Bishop's presence, at last I came down to them, and demanded what the matter was; they would have the gate opened, & then they would tell me; I answered that I would know them better first: If they had any thing to say to me I was ready to hear them; they told me they had a writing to me from Mr. Mayor, & some other of their Magistrates; the paper contained both a challenge of me for breaking the Covenant, in ordaining Ministers; and withal required me to give in the Names of those which were ordained by me both then and formerly since the Covenant: My answer was that Mr. Mayor was much abused by those who had misinformed him, & drawn that paper from him; that I would the next day give a full answer to the writing, they moved that my answer might be by my personal appearance at the Guild-hall; I asked them when they ever heard of a Bishop of Norwich appearing before a Mayor, I knew mine own place, & would take that way of answer which I thought sit, and so dismissed them, who had given out that day, that had they known before of mine ordaining, they would have pulled me & those whom I ordained out of the Chapel by the Ears. While I received nothing, yet something was required of me; they were not ashamed after they had taken away, and sold all my Goods and personal estate, to come to me for assessments, and monthly payments for that estate which they had taken, and took Distresses from me upon my most just denial, and vehemently required me to find the wont Arms of my Predecessors, when they had left me nothing: Many insolences and affronts were in all this time put upon us. One while a whole rabble of Volunteers come to my Gates late, when they were locked up, and called for the porter to give them entrance, which being not yielded, they threatened to make by force, and had not the said gates been very strong they had done it: Others of them clambered over the walls, and would come into mine house, their errand (they said) was to search for Delinquents, what they would have done I know not, had not we by a secret way sent to raise the Officers for our Rescue: Another while the Sheriff Toftes, and Alderman Linsey, attended with many Zealous followers, came into my Chapel to look for Superstitious Pictures, and Relics of Idolatry, and send for me, to let me know they found those Windows full of Images, which were very offensive, and must be demolished: I told them they were the Pictures of some ancient and worthy Bishops, as St. Ambrose, Austin, etc. It was answered me, that they were so many Popes; and one younger man amongst the rest (Townsend as I perceived afterwards) would take upon him to defend that every Diocesan Bishop was Pope, I answered him with some scorn, and obtained leave that I might with the least loss, and defacing of the windows give order for taking off that offence, which I did by causing the heads of those Pictures to be taken off, since I knew the Bodies could not offend. There was not that care and moderation used in reforming the Cathedral Church bordering upon my Palace. It is no other than Tragical to relate the carriage of that furious Sacrilege, whereof our eyes and ears were the sad witnesses, under the Authority and presence of Linsey, Tofts the Sheriff, and Greenwood; Lord, what work was here, what clattering of Glasses, what beating down of Walls, what tearing up of Monuments, what pulling down of Seats, what wresting out of Irons and Brass from the Windows and Graves! what defacing of Arms, what demolishing of curious Stonework, that had not any representation in the World, but only of the cost of the Founder, and skill of the Mason, what toting and piping upon the destroyed Organ pipes, and what a hideous triumph on the Market day before all the Country, when in a kind of Sacrilegious and profane procession, all the Organ pipes, Vestments, both Copes and Surplices, together with the Leaden Cross, which had been newly sawn down from over the Green-Yard Pulpit, and the Service books and singing books that could be had, were carried to the fire in the public Market place; A lewd wretch walking before the Train, in his Cope trailing in the dirt, with a Service book in his hand imitating in an inpious scorn the tune, and usurping the words of the Litany used formerly in the Church: Near the public Cross, all these monuments of Idolatry must be sacrificed to the fire, not without much Ostentation of a zealous joy in discharging ordinance to the cost of some who professed how much they had longed to see that Day. Neither was it any news upon this Guild-day to have the Cathedral now open on all sides to be filled with Musketeers, waiting for the Major's return, drinking and tobacconing as freely as if it had turned Alehouse. Still yet I remained in my Palace though with but a poor retinue and means; but the house was held too good for Me: Many messages were sent by Mr. Corbet to remove me thence; The first pretence was, that the Committee, who now was at charge for an House to sit in, might make their daily Session there, being a place both more public, roomy, and chargelesse. The Committee after many consultations resolved it convenient to remove thither, though many overtures, and offers were made to the contrary: Mr. Corbet was impatient of my stay there, and procures and sends peremptory messages for my present dislodging, we desired to have some time allowed for providing some other Mansion, if we must needs be cast out of this, which my wife was so willing to hold, that she offered, (if the charge of the present Committee house were the things stood upon) she would be content to defray the sum of the rent of that house of her fifth part; but that might not be yielded; out we must and that in three week's warning by Midsummerday then approaching, so as we might have lain in the street for aught I know, had not the Providence of God so ordered it, that a Neighbour in the Close, one Mr. Gostlin, a Widower was content to void his House for us.  
This hath been my measure, wherefore I know not, Lord thou knowest, who only canst remedy, and end, and forgive or avenge this horrible Oppression.  
Scripsi May 29. 1647. JOS. NORVIC.   

A SERMON Preached at HAMPTON-COURT TO KING JAMES In Ordinary attendance in September 1624.  By JOS. HALL. Dean of Worcester. Philip. 3.18. 
18. For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even Weeping that they are the cross of Christ.  
19 Whose end is destruction, etc.  
MY Text you see is but a Parenthesis: yet necessary and essential, though not to the sentence foregoing; yet to Christian warning and instruction. It is enclosed like some good Garden, for singular use, a Garden, wherein there are both Flowers, and Weeds; Flowers of Apostolical virtue; and Weeds of Philippian wickedness. For I know not whether these words bewray more worth in the true Apostle, than unworthiness in the false: this censure of his doth no less grace himself, than it branded them; so we have met with some pictures, which if you look one way, show us a comely face, if another way, an Owl, or an Ape, or some deformed visage. Look first at the Apostles gracious carriage in the managing of this sharp reproof, and ye whom it concerns, imitate it; and then turn your eyes to the view of the damnable courses of these Philippian Seducers, and learn to abhor their ways, and fear their hell:  
The fidelity of the Apostle is commended by his warning; by the frequency; by the passion of it; His warning, I have told you: The frequency, I have told you often, The passion; I now tell you weeping.  
To begin with the first. As wisdom hath eyes to note evils, so faithfulness hath a tongue to notify them: We are by our profession the Seers of God in respect of our Eyes, and we are the Prophets of God in respect of our tongues, it must be our care, to make use of both titles, we are blind guides, if we see not: we are dumb Dogs, if we give not warning of what we see; as good no eyes, as no tongue. There was in the North part of Jerusalem the Tower of the Furnaces, Nehem. 3.11. wherein it seems there was continual fire kept for the Waymark of Travellers; that flame was both vocal and real; admonishing the passenger of his errors, and guiding him in his course; such we either are or should be: like to John Baptist, who was a Burning, and a Shining light, Burning for his own zeal, Shining for the Direction of others; direction, as in example of life, so in precepts of Doctrine: we should not be like Dial's on a wall, or Watches in our pockets, to teach the eye, but like clocks and alarms, to ring in the ear: Aaron must wear Bells, as well as Pomegranates; Yea louder than so, the Prophet's voice must be a Trumpet, whose sound may be heard far off, Hos. 8.1.  
God will never thank us for keeping his counsel, he will thank us for divulging it: and that St. Paul knew well enough, when in his farewell to the Elders of Ephesus, he appealed to their Consciences, that he had kept back nothing that was profitable unto them, but had declared unto them all the counsels of God, Act. 20.20, and 27. Our Saviour therefore bids us not to run into corners and whisper his messages, but to get us unto the house top, and to make the highest roof and battlements our Pulpit. Woe therefore to those Sigalion-like statues, who taking up a room in God's Church, sit there with their fingers upon their mouths, making a trade of either wilful or lazy silence; smothering in their breasts the sins and dangers of God's people. It is a witty and good observation of Gregory, that the Prophet prays, set a door before my lips; a door not a wall, he would not have his tongue mured up for all occasions, but so locked, that it may be seasonably let lose and free, when the convenience or necessity of his own Soul, or others require it; The neglect or restraint of which liberty shall lie heavy upon many a Soul; Surely the blood of all those souls that have miscarried through their unfaithful silence, cries loud to Heaven against them, and shall one day be required at their hands.  
If I shall see a blind man walking towards some deep pit, or deadly precipice, if I do not warn him of it, and prevent his fall, I am not much less guilty of his death, then if I had thrust him down: It is a clear and familiar case that of Ezekiel 33.7, etc. Son of man, I have set thee for a watchman to the House of Israel, therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them of it; When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die. If thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. A sleeping Centinel is the loss of a whole City, the forfeiture of his own life is the least piece of the mischief he is guilty of; Oh therefore ye, that are the watchmen of the Lord rouse up yourselves; and as you desire to avoid so many vengeances as there are souls lost by your drowsiness, and taciturnity, bestir your tongues, in giving warning to God's people of their spiritual dangers, as our Apostle, doth here; I have told you, and now tell you again. Thus much for the warning; now the Frequency follows, I have told you often.  
Not once, not seldom had the Apostle told his Philippians of these inordinate walkers, but often: St. Paul feared not the slander of a Tautology; Rather like a constant workman he beats still upon the same anvil; There can never be too much warning of that, whereof there can never be enough heed. Nice ears are all for variety of Doctrines, as palates of meats; Quousque eadem; what still the same over and over? Is the note of both: How scornfully do these Gluttons look at the often entrance of the same standing dishes: St. Paul hates to feed this wanton humour, and tells them this single diet is safe for them, and to himself not grievous, and therefore not fearing their surfeit of so wholesome a service, he still sets before them the same mess: I have told you often, and now tell you again. We tell over the same numbers in the counting of our coin, and are not weary of it: In our recreations, we spend the night after the day at the same game, and complain not of satiety; why should we who profess ourselves spiritual so soon nauseate at the iteration of good counsels. Perhaps if we would seek Athens in our City, we should not lose our labour; There is an itch of the ear, which St. Paul foresaw would prove the disease of the latter times, that now is groan epidemical; an itch after news, even in God's chair, new Doctrines, new dresses: and surely it must needs be confessed, that of latter years there was much fault in this kind; too many Pulpits were full of curious affectation of new quirks of wit, new crotchets of conceit, strange mixtures of opinions: In so much as the old and plain forms were grown stolen, and despicable; let me tell you I still feared this itch would end in a smart. Certainly there cannot be a more certain argument of a decayed and sickly stomach, than the loathing of wholesome and solid food, and longing after fine quelque choices of new and artificial composition; For us; away with this vain affectation in the matters of God; surely if aught under Heaven go down better with us then the savoury viands of Christ, and him crucified, of faith and repentance, and those plainly dressed, without all the lards and sauces of humane devices, (to say no worse) our souls are sick, and we feel it not. Oh ye foolish Israelites with whom too much frequency made the food of Angels contemptible. If Onions and Garlic had grown as rifely in the Wilderness, and Manna had reigned down no where but in Egypt, how would ye have hated those rude and strong Salads, and have run mad for those celestial delicates; The taste of Manna was as of Wafers made with Hony, Exod. 16.31. now what can be sweeter than honey? Yet says the Wise man, the Full despiseth an honey comb; I doubt there are too many thus full; full of the World, full of wicked nature, of sinful corruptions; and then no marvel if they despise this food of Angels; but for us my brethren, Oh let us not be weary of our happiness, let not these dainties of Heaven lose their worth for their store; every Day let us go forth of our tents and gather; and while we are nourished, let us not be cloyed with good; else, God knows a remedy, he knows how to make the Word precious to us, precious in the want, because it was not precious to us in the Valuation. He that hath told us, how precious Peace is by the sense of a woeful War, can soon show us, how precious his word was by a spiritual famine; which God for his mercy's sake avert from us.  
I might here have done with the frequency, but let me add this one consideration more, that often inculcation of warning, necessarily implies a danger: There is much danger in a contagious conversation; evil is of a spreading nature: sin as leaven, yea old leaven, fowres the whole lump where it lies; yea it is a very plague that infects the Air round about it; If (as the entrances of sin are bashful) it begin with one Angel, it infects legions, let it begin with one Woman, it infects all the mass of Mankind; One person infects a Family; one Family a whole Street, one Street a whole City, one City a whole Country, one Country a whole World; yea it runs like powder in a train, and flies out suddenly on all sides: Look about you, and see, whether you need any other witnesses then your own eyes; Do ye not see daily, how drunkenness doth in this participate of the nature of that liquor which causeth it, that it is not easily contained within its own bounds; The vice as well as the humour is diffusive of itself; how rarely have you ever seen a solitary drunkard; no the very title which is mis-given to this sin, is good Fellowship; Mark if oaths where lewd men are met, do not fly about like squibs on a wheel, whereof one gives fire to another, and all do as it were counter-thunder to Heaven: on bold swearer makes many, and the land mourns with the number. Look at the very Israelitish Stews; They assemble by troops into the harlot's houses, Jer. 5.7. And for heresies and erroneous opinions in religion the Apostle tell us it is a Gangrene 2 Tim. 2.17. whose taint is both sudden and deadly; Let it be but in the finger, if the joint be not cut off, or there be not an instant prevention, the whole arm is taken, and strait the heart; It is a pregnant comparison of the Father, that the infection of heresy is like the biting of a mad dog; you know the dog, when he is taken with this furious distemper, affects to by't every living thing in his way; and what ever he bites, he infects, and whomsoever he infects (without a present remedy) he kills, not without a spice of his own distemper; I would we had not too lamentable experience of this mischief every day; wherein we see one tainted ●ith Popery, another with Socinianism, another with Antinomianism, another with Familism, and all these run a madding after their own fancies, and affect nothing so much, as to draw others into the society of their errors and damnation.  
Take heed to yourselves for God's sake, ye that stand surest in the confidence of your settled judgement, grounded knowledge, honest morality; the pestilent influences of wicked society are not more mortal, then insensible; In vain shall ye plead the goodness of your heart, if ye be careless of the wickedness of your heels, and elbows; St. Paul thought it a sentence worthy to borrow from an Heathen Poet, and to feoff it in the Canon; evil conversation corrupts good manners: As therefore Moses said in the case of Korah, and his company, so let me say in the case of others wickedness, whether it be in matter of judgement, or practise, Depart I pray you from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins. Num. 16.26. It is worth your observing, that in that great rebellion, and dreadful judgement the sons of Corah died not, 2 Chron. 26.11. They had surely a dear interest in their Father, yet their natural interest in a Father, could not feoff them in their Father's sin; though they loved him in nature, yet they would not cleave to him in his rebellion; they forsook both his sin, and his tents, and therefore are exempted from his judgement; If we love ourselves let us follow them in shunning any participation with the dearest of sinners, that we may also escape the partnership of their vengeance. This for the frequency, the passion follows, I tell you weeping.  
And why weepest thou, O blessed Apostle? What is it that could wring tears from those eyes? Even the same that fetched them from thy Saviour more than once: The same that fetched them from his Type David, from the powerful prophet Elisha, 2 Kings 8.11. In a word from all eyes that ever so much as pretended to holiness, Grief for sin, and compassion of sinners. Let others celebrate St. Peter's tears; I am for St. Paul's; both were precious, but these yet more; Those were the tears of penitence, these of charity; those of a sinner, these of an Apostle; those for his own sins, these for other men's: How well doth it become him who could be content to be Anathema for his brethren of the circumcision, to melt into tears for their spiritual uncircumcision; Oh blessed tears, the juice of a charitable sorrow, of an holy zeal, a gracious compassion: Let 〈◊〉 man say, that tears argue weakness; even the firmest marble weeps in a resolution of Air; He that shrinks not at the Bear, Lion, Goliath, Saul, ten thousand of the people that should beset him round about, yet can say, Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law, Ps. 119.136. what speak I of this, when the omnipotent son of God weeps over Jerusalem, and makes his tears the preface of his blood; Nay rather these tears argue strength of piety, and Heavenly affections; To weep for fear is childish, that is unbeseeming a man; and to weep for anger is womanish and weak; to weep for mere grief is humane; for sin, Christian; but for true zeal and compassion is Saintlike and divine; every one of these drops is a pearl. Behold the precious liquor which is reserved as the dearest relic of Heaven in the bottles of the Almighty; every dram whereof is valued at an eternal weight of glory; even a cup of cold water shall once be rewarded; and behold every drop of this warm water is more worth, than many cups of cold; weep thus awhile, and laugh for ever; sow thus in tears, and be sure to reap in joy: But woe is me, what shall I say to those men that make themselves merry with nothing so much as sin; their own, or others, whether their act, or their memory. I remember of old the fool that made the all sport in the play was called the Vice; and surely it is no otherwise still; vice is it, that makes the mirth in this common theatre of the world; were it not for quaffing, ribaldry, dalliance, scurrile profaneness, these men would be dull, and (as we say) dead on the nest: These things are the joy of their life, yea these are all the life of their joy. Oh God that Christians and Devils should meet in the same consort; that we should laugh at that, for which our Saviour wept, and bled; that we should smile at that upon earth, whereat God frowns in Heaven, and make that our delight, wherewith the holy spirit of God is grieved. Woe be to them that thus laugh, for they shall weep, and wail, and gnash.  
St. Paul weeps to tell of men's sins; tears do well in the pulpit: as it is in the buckets of some pumps, that water must first be poured down into them, ere they can fetch up water in abundance, so must our tears be let down to fetch up more from our hearers; the chair of God can never be better fitted then with a weeping Auditory; I remember holy Augustine speaking of his own Sermons, saith, that when he saw the people did show contentment and delight in their countenances, and seemed to give applauses to his preaching, he was not satisfied with his own pains, but when he saw them break forth into tears, than he rejoiced, as thinking his labours had sorted to their due effect. I have heard some preachers that have affected a pleasantness of discourse in their Sermons, and never think they have done well, but when they see their hearers smile at their expressions; But here, I have said of laughter, thou art mad, and of mirth what dost thou? Surely jigs at a Funeral, and laughter at a Sermon, are things prodigiously unseasonable: It will be long (my beloved) ere a merry preacher shall bring you to Heaven; True repentance (which is our only way thither) is a sad and serious matter; It is through the valley of Bachah, that we must pass to the mount of God; the man with the writer's inkhorn in Ezekiel, marks none in the forehead but mourners; Oh then mourn for the abominations of Jerusalem, ye that love the peace of it, and would be loath to see the ruin and desolation of it, and your own in it, weep with them that weep, yea weep with them that should weep, as our Apostle doth here. That which is said of the Israelites, that they drew water in Mizpeh, and poured it out before the Lord, 1 Sam. 7.6. is by some interpreters taken of the plentiful water of their tears; which is so much the more likely, because it is joined with fasting and public humiliation: Oh that we could put our eyes to this use in these sad times into which we are fallen, how soon would the heavens clear up, and bless us with the comfort of our long wished for peace: worldly and carnal men, as they have hard hearts, so they have dry eyes: dry, as a Pumice-stone, uncapable of tears: but the tender hearts of God's children are ever lightly attended with weeping-eyes; neither can they want tears, whilst even other men abound with sins; though themselves were free. And if good men spend their tears upon wicked wretches, how much more ought those wicked ones to bestow tears upon themselves; it is their danger and Misery that God's children are affected withal, whilst themselves are insensible of both; Woe is me, could their eyes be but opened that they might see their own woeful condition, they could not love themselves so ill, as not to bewail it; could they see the frowns of an angry God bend upon them, could they see the flames of Hell ready to receive them, they could not but dissolve into tears of blood; Oh pity your own souls, at last, ye obdured sinners; be ye feelingly apprehensive of your fearful danger, the eminent danger of an eternal damnation; and weep day and night before that God whom ye have provoked; wash away your sins with the streams of penitence; The fire of hell can have no power where it finds these sovereign waters; Blessed are they that weep now, for they shall laugh, Luc. 6.21. We have not yet done with St. Paul's tears; See I beseech you, who were the objects of this sorrow of his: the false teachers of the Philippians, the rivals and adversaries of the Apostles Ministry; whether the Simonians, (that is, the Disciples of Simon Magus, as some have thought) or rather the Judaizing Christians, whom before he calls Dogs, and the Concision; men that were not more for Christ, then for Moses: men not more false in opinion then foul in conversation, rebrobate persons, spiteful enemies to him, and the gospel; yet even these are the men whom St. Paul bedews with his many tears. So far should Gods charitable Children be from desiring, or rejoicing in the destruction of those who profess hostility against them (though even lewd, and ungodly persons) as that they should make this the matter of their just sorrow and mourning: St. Paul had a deeper insight into the state of these men, than we can have into any of those goodliest men who fall into our notice, and enmity; for he saw them (as it were) in Hell already, he looked upon them as vessels of wrath, for he adds, whose end is perdition: yet he entertains the thoughts of their sinful miscarriages with tears; Every man can mourn for the danger, or loss, or fall of a good man, of a friend: but to be thus deeply affected with either the sins, or judgements of wicked persons is incident to none but a tender and charitable heart. God's children are of the diet of their heavenly Father, who would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth, 1 Tim. 2.4. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked shall die, saith the Lord God, and not that that he should return from his ways and live? Ezec. 18.23. And to be sure, he binds it with an oath; As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his ways and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel. Ezec. 33.11. Those that sport in the sins, and rejoice in the perdition of their brethren, let them see of what spirit they are. But I have dwelled longer than I meant in the Apostles fidelity, in his warning, and the frequency, and passion of it.  
Turn your eyes now, I beseech you, to a loathsome object, the wickedness of these false teachers of the Philippians; described by their number, motion, quality, issue: Their number many, their motion walk, their quality, enemies to the cross of Christ, their issue destruction.  
We begin with their Number, Mark I beseech you the inference: The charge of the Apostle in the words immediately preceding, is, that the Philippians should mark those who walked holily, as they had the Apostles for examples: and now he adds, For many walk inordinately; see then from hence, that the rarity of conscionable men should make them more observed, more valued; If there be but one Lot in Sodom, he is more worth than all the souls of that populous and fruitful Pentapolis: If there be but some sprinkling of Wheat in a chaff heap, we winnow it out, and think it worth our labour to do so: some grains, or if but scruples of precious metals are sifted out of the rubbish of the oar and dust. It is excellent that our Apostle hath in this Epistle the 2. Chapter v. 15. That ye may be blameless in the midst of a froward and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world: Mark, if there be but light held forth in a dark night, how do the birds come flying about it, how do the eyes of men though afar off fix upon it; when as all the space betwixt us and it (which is all wrapped up in darkness) is unregarded; such are, and such should be good men amongst a world of wicked ones; so much more eminent, and esteemed, by how much the fewer they are. Paucity is wont to carry contempt with it; See, say the Philistims, when they saw Jonathan, and his Armour-bearer come towards them, how the Israelites creep out of their holes; and proud Benhadad when he heard of some few of Israel coming forth against him, can say, Take them alive, whether they come for peace, or whether for war take them alive, 1 King. 20.18. What is an handful of gainsayers upon any occasion? We are apt to think, that the stream should bear down all before it; Do any of the Rulers believe in him; that's argument enough: But it must not be so with Christians; here one is worthy to be more than a thousand; if he be a man that order his conversation aright, that goes upon the sure grounds of infallible truth, though there be none other in the world besides him that follows after righteousness, that man is worthy of our mark, of our imitation; if there be but one Noah in an age (all flesh having corrupted their ways) it is better to follow him into the Ark, then to perish withal the world of unbelievers: Here are these Many opposed to Us, Paul and Timothy; It is not for us to stand upon the fear of an imputation of singularity; we may not do as the most, but as the best; It was a desperate resolution of Rabbodus the barbarous and ignorant Duke of Prisons, that he would go to Hell because he heard the most went that way; Our Saviour's argument is quite contrary, Enter in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; Matth. 7.13. And St. Paul's argument here to the same purpose, Many walk inordinately, therefore be ye followers of us.  
We have an old saying, that Cases that rarely happen are neglected of Lawgivers: The news of a few Enemies is entertained with scorn; Many are dreadful, and call upon our best thoughts, for their preventation, or resistance. The World is apt to make an ill use of multitude: On the one side arguing the better part by the greater: on the other side arguing mischief tolerable because it is abetted by many. The former of these is the Paralogism of fond Romanists; The other of time-serving Politicians. There cannot be a worse, nor more dangerous Sophistry then in both these.  
If the first should hold, Paganism would carry it from Christianity, for it is at least by just computation five to one: Folly from Wisdom, for surely, for every wise man the World hath many fools; Outward calling should carry it from election, for many are called, few are chosen: Hell from Heaven, For straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, saith God; But if any have a mind to do so, and shall please himself with company in sinning, let him consider what abatement of torment it will once be to him, to be condemned with many; woe is me, that shall rather aggravate his misery; the rich glutton in hell would have his brethren sent to, that his torment might not be increased with the accession of theirs.  
If the latter should take place, that which heightens evils should plead for their immunity; so none but weak mischiefs should receive opposition: Strong thiefs should live, only some poor pettylarçons and pilferers should come to execution; Nothing should make room for justice but inbecellity of offence; Away with this base pusillanimity: Rather contrarily, by how much more head wickedness hath gotten, so much more need it had to be topped. A true Herculean Justice in Governors and States is for Giants, and Monsters; A right Samson is for a whole host of Philistims; The Mountains must be touched till they smoke, yea till they be levelled. Set your faces ye that are men in authority against a whole faction of vice; and if ye find many opposites, the greater is the exercise of your fortitude, and the greater shall be the glory of your victory. It was St. Paul's encouragement (that which would have disheartened some other) a large door and effectual is opened to me, and there are many adversaries, 1 Cor, 16.9. And if these Devils can say, My Name is Legion for we are many; let your powerful commands cast them out, and send them with the swine into the deep, and thence into their chains.  
These many sit not still, but walk, they are still in motion: Motion whether natural or voluntary; Natural, so walking is living (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) Thus we walk even while we sit, or lie still: Every minute is a new pace; neither can any thing stop our passage; whether we do something or nothing, we move on by insensible steps toward our long home; we can no more stand still then the Heavens, than time. Oh that we could be ever looking to the house of our age: and so walk on, in this vale of tears, that we may once rest for ever. Voluntary, so the wicked ones walk like their setter the Devil, who came from compassing the Earth, Job. 1. Wickedness is seldom other then active. It is with evil as with the contagion of Pestilence, those that are tainted long to infect others; False Teachers make no spare of their Travails by Sea or Land to make a Proselyte: Can Sin or Heresy be conjured into a circle, there were the less danger; now they are so much more mischievous, as they are more Erratical: How happy should it be since they will needs be walking, that by the holy Vigilancy of power and authority, they may be sent to walk their own rounds in the regions of darkness.  
Yet further; walking implies an ordinary trade of life; It is not a step, or one pace that can make a walk; but a proceeding on, with many shift of our feet: It is no judging of a man by some one action; Alas, the best man that is may perhaps step aside, by the importunity of a temptation, and be miscarried into some odious act; Can you have more pregnant instances than David, the man after Gods own heart, and Peter, the prime Disciple of our Saviour; But this was not the walk of either; It was but a side-step: their walk was in the ways of God's commandment, holy and gracious; No, look what the course of men's lives are, what their usual practice; and according to that judge of them; If they be ordinary Swearers, profane Scoffers, Drunkards, Debauched persons, their Walk is in an ill way to a most fearful end. Pity them, labour to reclaim them, and to stop them that they fall not into the precipice of Hell: but if their course of life be generally holy, and conscionable, it is not a particular miscarriage that can be a just ground of the censure of an inordinate walking, which our Apostle passes here upon these misliving Philippians; Many walk.  
This for their Motion; their Quality follows, Enemies to the cross of Christ; What an unusual expression is this? Who can but hate every thing that concurs to the death of a Friend, whether Agents, or Instruments. And what was the Cross, but the Engine of the Death of him, whom if we love not best, we love not at all? surely, We love thee not, O Saviour, if we can look with any other then angry eyes, at Judas, Pilate, the Cross, Nails, Spear. or what ever else was any way necessary to thy murder: They were thine enemies that raised thee to the Cross, how can they be other than thy Friends, that are enemies to that thy most cruel, and indigne crucifixion. When we consider these things in themselves, as Wood and Metal, we know they are harmless: but if from what they are in themselves, we look at them with respect to men, to thee, we soon find why to hate, why to love them. We hate them as they were employed by men against thee, we love them as they were improved by thee for man: as the instruments of men's malice and cruelty against thee, we hate them: we love them as they were made by thee, the instruments of our redemption: Thy Cross was thy death: It is thy death that gives us life; so as therefore we cannot be at once enemies of the Cross, and friends of thee crucified:  
As Christ himself, so the Cross of Christ hath many false friends, and even those are no other than enemies; unjust favours are no less injurious than derogations; he that should deify a Saint should wrong him as much, as he that should Divellize him; Our Romanists exceed this way, in their devotions to the Cross; both in overmultiplying, and in over-magnifying of it. Had the wood of the Cross grown from the day that it was first set in the Earth, till now, and borne crosses; that which Simon of Cyrene once bore, could not have filled so many carts, so many ships, as that which is now in several parts of Christendom given out and adored for the true cross of Christ; yet the bulk is nothing to the virtue ascribed to it: The very wood (which is a shame to speak) is by them Sainted and deified, who knows not that stolen hymn, and unreasonable rhyme of 
Ara crucis, lampas lucis, sola salus hominum.  
Nobis pronum fac patronum quem tulisti dominum,   
Wherein the very tree is made a mediator to him, whom it bore, as very a Saviour as he that died upon it. And who knows not that by these Bigots, an active virtue is attributed not only to the very wood of the cross, but to the Airy and transient form and representation of it; A virtue of sanctifying the creature, of expelling Devils, of healing diseases; conceits crossly superstitious, which the Church of England ever abhorred, never either practised, or countenanced; whose cross was only commemorative, and commonitive, never pretended to be any way efficacious; and therefore as far different from the Romish cross, as the fatal tree of Christ from that of Judas; Away then with this gross and sinful foppery of our Romanists; which proves them not the friends but the flatterers of the Cross; flatterers up to the very pitch of Idolatry; and can there be a worse enemy than a flatterer? Fie on this fawning, and crouching hostility to the cross of Christ; such friendship to the altar is a defiance to the sacrifice.  
For these Philippian pseudo-apostles; Two ways were they enemies to the Cross of Christ; in their doctrines, in their practice. In Doctrine; whiles they joined circumcision, and other legalities with the cross of Christ; so by a pretended partnership detracting from the virtue and power of Christ's death: Thus they were enemies to Christ's death as this; In practice, following a lose and voluptuous course, pampering themselves, and shifting off persecution for the Gospel; Thus they were enemies to the cross of Christ, as theirs: Truth hath ever one face: There are still two sorts of enemies to the cross; The erroneous, the licentious; The erroneous in judgement, that will be intercommuning with Christ in the virtue and efficacy of his passion; The licentious in life; that despise and annihilate it. In the first, how palpable enemies are they to the cross of Christ, that hold Christ's satisfaction upon the cross imperfect without ours: Thus the Romish Doctors profess to do; Their Cardinal passes a flat non expiate upon it, boldly: Temporalem poenam totam nisi propria satisfactione cooperante non expiate. lib. 4. de paenit. c. 14. §. Neque vero. Our penal works (saith Suarez) are properly a payment for the punishment of our sin; And which of the Tridentine faction says otherwise? What foul Hypocrisy is this, to creep and crouch to the very image of the cross, and in the mean time to frustrate the virtue of it; Away with these hollow and hostile compliments; how happy were it for them if the cross of Christ might have less of the●r knees, and more of their hearts; without which all their adorations are but mockery; certainly, the partnership of legal observations was never more enemy to Christ's cross, then that of humane satisfactions; For us; God forbidden that we should rejoice in any thing, but in the cross of Christ, with St. Paul: Our profession roundly is; The cross is our full redemption; let them that show more say so much: else for all their ducking, and cringeing, they shall never quit themselves of this just charge, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.  
The licentious, secondly, are enemies to the cross of Christ; and those of two sorts; whether carnal revolters, or loose-livers; The first, in shifting off persecution, by conforming themselves to the present world; they will do any thing rather than suffer; caring more for a whole skin, than a sound soul; Mere slaves of the season, whose poesy is that of Optatus; Omnia pro tempore, nihil pro veritate; All for the time, nothing for the Truth. Either ditty will serve, Hosanna, or Crucifige. Such was that infamous Ecebotius; such was Spira, such those in the primitive times, that with Marcellinus would cast grains of incense into the Idols fire, to shun the fire of a Tyrant's fury; such as will bow their knees to a breaden God, for fear of an inquisitors fly; and kiss the toe of a living Idol, rather than hazard a suspicion; the world is full of such shufflers: Do ye ask how we know? I do not send you to the Spanish trade, or Italian travails, or Spa-waters, The tentative Edict of Constantius descried many false hearts; And the late relaxation of penal laws for religion discovered many a turncoat; God keep our great men upright, if they should swerve it is to be feared, the truth would find but a few friends: Blessed be God; the times profess to patronise true religion; If the wind should turn, how many with that noted timeserver would be ready to say, Cantemus domino, etc. let us sing unto the Lord a new song. There is no Church lightly without his weathercock: For us, my beloved, we know not what we are reserved for; let us sit down, and count what it may cost us; and as those who would carry some great weight upon a wager, will be every day heaving at it to inure themselves to the burden, before they come to their utmost trial, so let us do to the cross of Christ: let us be every day lifting at it in our thoughts, that when the time comes we may comfortably go away with it; It was a good purpose of Peter, though I should die with thee I will not deny thee; but it was a better grounded resolution of St. Paul, I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus, Act. 21.13. Let us in an humble confidence of God's mercy in upholding us fix upon the same holy determination; not counting our life dear unto us, so as we may finish our course with joy. Thus we shall not be more friends to the cross of Christ, than the cross will be to us, for if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.  
Besides carnal revolters, lose livers pour shame upon the cross. Christ's cross is our redemption, Redemption is from sin, and death; whiles therefore we do wilfully sin, we do (what in us lies) frustrate the cross, and make a mock of our redemption; every true Christian is with St. Paul crucified together with Christ 2. Galat. 20. his sins are fastened upon that tree of shame and curse with his Saviour, the misliving Christian therefore crucifies Christ again; each of his willing sins is a plain despite to his Redeemer; The false tongue of a professor gives in evidence against the Son of God: the hypocrite condemns Christ, and washes his hands; the proud man strips him, and robes him with purple: the distrustful plaits thorns for the head of his Saviour; the drunkard gives him vinegar and gall to drink, the oppressor drives nails into his hands and feet; the blasphemer wounds him to the heart; woe is me, what an heavy case are these men in? we cannot but think those that offered this bodily violence to the Son of God were highly impious, Oh, thou sayest, I would not have been one of them that should have done such a fact for all the world: but, O man, know thou, that if thou be a wilful sinner against God in these kinds, thou art worse than they: He that prayed for his first crucifiers, curseth his second; they crucified him in his weakness; these in his glory: they fetched him from the garden to his cross; these pull him out of heaven; surely, they cannot be more enemies to the cross of Christ, than Christ is to them; who by him shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, 2 Thessal. 1.9. as it also follows in my Text, whose end is destruction.  
A woeful condition beyond all thoughts; like unto that Hell wherein it is accomplished, whereof there is no bottom; had the Apostle said only, whose end is death: the doom had been heavy; but that is the common point whereat all creatures touch, in their last passage, either way; and is indeed the easiest piece of this vengeance; it were well for wilful sinners, if they might die; or if they might but die: Even earthly distresses send men to sue for death; how much more the infernal; there are those that have smiled in death, never any but gnashed in torments; that distinction is very remarkable which our Saviour makes betwixt killing and destroying; Matth. 10.28. Killing the body, destroying body and soul; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Men may kill; God only can destroy; there are gradations even in the last act of execution; expressed in the Greek, which our language doth not so fully distinguish; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to kill, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies violence in killing; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, cruelty in that violence, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an absoluteness and eternity of torment. Killing is nothing to destroying; the body is but mere rubbish to the soul; and therefore (to put these together) killing the body is nothing to destruction of the soul; Alas, here is every circumstance that may add horror and misery to a condition; suddenness of seizure, degree of extremity, impossibility of release; suddainness; They shall soon be cut down as the grass, saith David, Ps. 37.2. yea, yet sooner than so; as the fire licks up the straw, Esa. 5.24. and more suddenly yet; as the Whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more, Prov. 10.25. Shortly, they are brought to desolation in a moment, Psal. 73.19.  
As for the degree of extremity, it is far beyond all expressions, all conceptions of the creature; the wrath of God is as himself infinite; as the glory of his Saints is such (as St. Paul that saw it tells us) that it transcends all conceit, and cannot come out of the mouth, cannot enter into the heart, so the vengeance prepared for his enemies is equally incomprehensible; the Rack, the Wheel, the Gibbet, the Fire are fearful things; but these fall within our thoughts; woe unto that soul that must suffer what it is not capable to conceive. Even what we men can devise, and do apprehend is terrible; those very torments that men prepare for men, are such as we shrink at the mention of, tearing, flaying, broaching, broiling, etc. what shall those be which an angry God hath prepared for his enemies?  
But though the torment were extreme for the time, yet if at last it might have an end, there were some possibility of comfort; alas, we shrug at the thought of burning, though in a quick fire; but to think of man's being a whole hour in the flame, we abhor to imagine; but to be a whole day in that state how horrible doth it seem. Oh then, what shall we say to those everlasting burn? To be, not days, or months, or years, but thousands of millions of years, and millions of millions after that, and after that for all eternity, still in the height of these unconceivable tortures, without intermission, without relaxation? Oh the gross Atheism of carnal men, that do not believe these dreadful vengeances! Oh the desperate security of those men who profess to believe them, and yet dare run into those sins which may and will plunge them into this damnation! Is sin sweet? Yea, but is it so sweet, as Hell fire is grievous? Is it profitable? But can it countervail the loss of the beatifical vision of God? Oh mad sinners, that for a little momentany contentment cast themselves into everlasting perdition; let the drink be never so delicate and well-spiced, yet if we hear there is poison in it, we hold off; let Gold be offered us, yet if we hear it is red hot, we draw back our hands, and touch it not; Oh then, why will we be so desperately foolish, as when a little poor unsatisfying pleasure is offered us, though sauced with a woeful damnation for ever and ever, we should dare to entertain it at so dear a rate. Have mercy upon your own souls, my dear brethren, and when the motions of evil are made to you; check them with the danger of this fearful damnation; from which the God of all mercies graciously deliver us all; for the sake of the dear Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous; to whom, etc.   

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY Laid forth, in a SERMON Preached to his late MAJESTY at WHITEHALL, In the time of the Parliament holden anno 1628.  By JOS. B. of EXON. Gal. 5.1. 
Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free.  
AS if my tongue and your ears could not easily be diswonted from our late Parliamentary language; you have here in this text Liberty, Prerogative, the maintenance of both; Liberty of Subjects that are freed; Prerogative of the King of glory that hath freed them; maintenance of that liberty, which the power of that great prerogative hath achieved; Christian liberty, Christ's liberation, our persistence; Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free.  
Liberty is a sweet word; the thing itself is much sweeter; and men's apprehensions make it yet sweeter than it is! Certainly if liberty and life were competitors, it is a great question whether would carry it, sure I am, if there be a life without it, yet it is not vital; Man restrained is like a wild bird shut up in a cage; that offers at every of the grates to get out, and grows sullen when it can find no evasion; and till stark famine urge it will not so much as feed for anger to be confined. Neither is the word more sweet than large; There are as many liberties as restraints; and as many restraints as there are limitations of superior commands; and there are so many limits of commands as there are either duties to be done, or sentences to be undergone: There is a liberty of the parts, and a liberty of the man:  
There is a drunken liberty of the Tongue, which being once glibbed with intoxicating liquor runs wild through Heaven and earth, and spares neither him that is God above; nor those which are called Gods on Earth; the Slanderer answered Pyrrhus well; I confess I said thus, O King; and had said more if more Wine had been given me; treason is but a Tavern-dialect; Any thing passes well under the Rose; it is not the man but the liquor, not the liquor but the excess that is guilty of this liberty.  
There is an audacious and factious liberty of this lose film; which not only ill-tutored Scholars take to themselves under the name of libertas prophetandi, pestering both Presses and Pulpits with their bold and brainsick fancies; but unlettered Tradesmen, and tattling Gossips too; which whom deep questions of Divinity, and censures of their Teachers are grown into common table-talk; and peremptory decisions of Theological problems is as ordinary almost, as backbiting their neighbours.  
There is a profane liberty of Atheous swaggerers which say, disrumpamus Vincula; let us break their bonds: Not religion only, but even reason and humanity seem fetters to these spirits; who like the Demoniac in the Gospel, having broken all their chains find no freedom but among the noisome graves of hateful corruptions.  
There is a disloyal liberty of those rebellious spirits, which despise government; and hold it a servitude to live within the range of wholesome laws, there is no freedom with these unquiet dispositions, but in the bold censures of authority, in the seditious calumniations of superiors, and in their own utopical prescriptions. Every thing is good to these men save the present, and nothing save their own▪ though all these are not so much liberties, as licentiousness.  
Besides these, there are civil liberties of Persons, Towns, Incorporations, Countries, Kings, Kingdoms; good reason these should be mutually stood upon; Religion was never an enemy to the due orders, and rights of policy; God's book is the true Magna charta that enacts both King and People their own: He that hath set bounds to the wide Ocean, hath stinted the freest liberty; but these liberties are not for the pulpit; It is the Christian liberty wherewith we have to do; that alone hath scope enough both for our present speech and perpetual maintenance.  
This Christian liberty stands either in immunity from evil, or enlargement to good; The immunity is from that which is evil in itself, or that which is evil to us: In itself, Sin, Satan: Sin, whether in the fault, or in the punishment; the punishment, whether inward, or outward: Inward, the slavery of an accusing conscience; Outward, the wrath of God, Death, Damnation. Evil to us, whether burdensome traditions, or the law; the Law, whether Moral, or Ceremonial; Moral, whether the obligations, or the curse: Enlargement to good; whether in respect of the creature, which is our free use of it, or whether in respect to God; in our voluntary service of him; in our free access to him: Access whether to his throne of grace, or our throne of glory. I have laid before you a compendious tablet of our Christian liberty; less than which is bondage; more than which is looseness. Such abundant scope there is in this allowed freedom, that what heart soever would yet rove further, makes itself unworthy of pity in losing itself. Do we think the Angels are penned up in their Heavens, or can wish to walk beyond those glorious bounds? Can they hold it a restraint, that they can but will good; like to our liquorous first parents that longed to know evil? Oh the sweet and happy liberty of the sons of God? All the world besides them are very slaves, and lie obnoxious to the bolts, fetters, scourges of a spiritual cruelty; It is hard to beat this into a carnal heart; no small part of our servitude lies in the captivation of our understanding; such, as that we cannot see ourselves captive. This is a strange difference of misprision; the Christian is free, and cannot think himself so; the the worldling thinks himself free, and is not so. What talk we to these Jovialists? It is liberty (with them) for a man to speak what he thinks, to take what he likes, to do what he lists; without restriction, without controlment: Call ye this freedom, that a man must speak and live by rule; to have a guard upon his lips and his eyes; no passage for a vain word or look, much less for a lewd; to have his best pleasures stinted, his worse abandoned; to be tasked with an unpleasing good, and chid when he fails. Tush, tell not me; To let the heart lose to an unlimited jollity, to revel hearty, to feast without fear, to drink without measure, to swear without check, to admit of no bound of luxury, but our own strength; to shut out all thoughts of scrupulous austerity, to entertain no guest of inward motion, but what may soothe up our lawlessness. This is liberty; who goes less is a sla●e to his own severe thoughts. Get thee behind me Satan, for thou savourest not the things of God: If this be freedom, to have our full scope of wickedness, Oh happy Devils, Oh miserable Saints of God. Those though fettered up in chains of everlasting darkness can do no other but sin; these in all the elbow-room of the Empyreal heaven cannot do one evil act; yea the God of Saints and Angels, the Author of all liberty should be least free, who out of the blessed necessity of his most pure nature is not capable of the least possibility of evil. Learn, O vain men, that there is nothing but impotence, nothing but gyves and manacles in the freest sins; some captive may have a longer chain than his fellows; yea some offender may have the liberty of the Tower, yet he is a prisoner still. Some Goal may be wider than some Palace: what of that? If Hell were more spacious than the seat of the blessed, this doth not make it no place of torment. Go whether thou wilt, thou resolved sinner, thou carriest thy chain with thee; it shall stick as close to thee as thy soul; neither can it ever be shaken off, till thou have put off thyself by a spiritual regeneration, then only thou art free.  
It is a divine word, that in our Liturgy, Whose service is perfect freedom; St. Paul saith as much, Rom. 6.18.20. Being freed from sin ye are made servi justitiae, the servants of righteousness: What is liberty but freedom from bondage, and behold our freedom from the bondage of sin ties us to a sure liberty, that is our free obedience to God: Both the Orator and the Philosopher define liberty by Potestas vivendi ut velis, but withal, you know he adds, quis vivit ut vult, nisi qui recta sequitur. See how free the good man is; he doth what he will, for he wills what God wills, and what God would have him will; in what ever he doth therefore he is a free man; neither hath any man freewill to good but he: Be ambitious of this happy condition, O all ye noble and generous spirits, and do not think ye live till ye have attained to this true liberty. The liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free; So from the liberty, we descend to the prerogative. Christ's liberation.  
Here is the glorious prerogative of the Son of God, to be the deliverer or redeemer of his people; They could not free themselves; the Angels of heaven might pity, could not redeem them; yea alas, who could, or who did redeem those of their rank, which of lightsome celestial spirits, are become foul Devils? Only Christ could free us, whose ransom was infinite; only Christ did free us, whose love is infinite; and how hath he wrought our liberty? By force, by purchase, By force in that he hath conquered him, whose captives we were; by purchase, in that he hath paid the full price of our ransom, to that supreme hand whereto we were forfeited: I have heard lawyers say, there are in civil Corporations three ways of freedom; by Birth, by Service, by Redemption; By Birth, as St. Paul was free of Rome; by Service, as Apprentices upon expiration of their years; by Redemption, as the the Centurion, with a great sum purchased I this freedom. Two of these are barred from all utter possibility in our spiritual freedom; for by Birth we are the sons of wrath; by service we are naturally the vassals of Satan; It is only the precious redemption of the Son of God that hath freed us.  
Whereas freedom than hath respect to bondage, there are seven Egyptian Masters from whose slavery Christ hath freed us. Sin, an accusing Conscience, danger of God's wrath, tyranny of Satan, the curse of the Law, Mosaical Ceremenies, humane Ordinances; see our servitude to, and our freedom from all these by the powerful liberation of Christ.  
1. It was a true word of that Pythagorean, Quot vitia, tot domini, sin is an hard master: A master? Yea a tyrant; let not sin reign in your mortal bodies, Rom. 6 14. and so the sinner is not only servus corruptitiae, a drudge of corruptions 2 Pet. 2.19. but a very slave sold under sin, Rom. 7.14.  
So necessitated to evil by his own inward corruption that he cannot but grind in this Mill, he cannot but row in this Galley: For, as posse peccare is the condition of the greatest Saint upon earth, and Non posse peccare is the condition of the least Saint above, so non posse non peccare is the condition of the least sinful unregenerate; as the prisoner may shift his feet but not his fetters; or as the snail cannot but leave a slime tract behind, it which way soever it goes: Here is our bondage; where is our liberty; Ubi spriritus domini, ibi libertas; where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, 2 Cor. 3.7. Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death; I thank my God through Jesus Christ. So then Christ hath freed us from the bondage of sin.  
An accusing conscience is a true taskmaster of Egypt; it will be sure to whip us for what we have done, for what we have not done: Horror of sin, like a sleeping Mastive, lies at our door. Gen. 4.7. when it awakes it will fly on our throat. No closer doth the shadow follow the body, than the revenge of self-accusation follows sin; walk Eastward in the morning the shadow starts behind thee, soon after it is upon thy left side; at noon it is under thy feet; lie down it coucheth under thee, towards even it leaps before thee; thou canst not be rid of it, whiles thou hast a body, and the Sun light; no more can thy soul quit the conscience of evil; This is to thee instead of an Hell of Fiends that shall ever be shaking fire brands at thee, ever torturing thee with affrights of more pains then thy nature can comprehend, Soeva conturbata conscientia, Wisd. 17.11. If thou look to the punishment of loss, it shall say as Lysimachus did, how much felicity have I lost, for how little pleasure: If to the punishment of sense it shall say to thee as the Tyrant dreamed his heart said to him out of the boiling caldron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; I am the cause of all this misery: Here is our bondage, where is the liberty? Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience, Heb. 10.22. Sprinkled, with what? Even with the blood of Jesus, verse. 19 This, this only is it that can free us: It is with the unquiet heart as with the troubled Sea of Tiberias; the Winds rise, the Waters swell, the billows roar, the ship is tossed, Heaven and Earth threat to meet; Christ doth but speak the word, all is calm; so Christ hath freed us Secondly from the bondage of an accusing conscience.  
The conscience is but God's Bailiff; It is the displeasure of the Lord of Heaven and Earth that is the utmost of all terribles; the fear of God's wrath is that strong wind that stirs these billows from the bottom; set aside the danger of divine displeasure and the clamours of conscience were harmless; this alone makes an Hell in the bosom: The aversion of God's face is confusion, the least bending of his brow is perdition Ps. 2. ult. but his totus aestus, his whole fury, as Ps. 78.38. is the utter absorption of the creature; excandescentia ejus funditur sicut ignis; His wrath is poured out like fire, the rocks are rend before it, Nahum 1.6. whence there is nothing but (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) a fearful expectation of judgement, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries, Heb. 10.27. Here is the bondage, where is the liberty? Being justifyed by faith we have peace with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then Christ hath freed us thirdly from the bondage of the wrath of God.  
As every wicked man is a Tyrant, according to the Philosopher's position; and every Tyrant is a Devil among men: so the Devil is the Arch-tyrant of the creatures; he makes all his Subjects errand vassals, yea chained slaves, 2 Tim. 2. ult. That they may recover themselves from the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will: lo here is will, snares, captivity, perfect tyranny. Nahash the Ammonite was a notable Tyrant, he would have the right eyes of the Israelites put out, as an eminent mark of servitude; so doth this infernal Nahash blind the right eye of our understanding; yea, with the spiteful Philistim, he puts out both the eyes of our apprehension and judgement, that he may gyre us about in the Mill of unprofitable wickedness; and cruelly insult upon our remediless misery. And when he hath done, the fairest end is death, yea death without end; Oh the impotency of earthly tyranny to this; the greatest bloodsuckers could but kill; and livor post fata, as the old word is; but here is an homicida ab initio; and a fine too; ever killing with an everliving death, for a perpetual fruition of our torment. Here is the bondage; where is the liberty? Christ hath spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them, openly triumphing over them in the same cross, Colos. 2.15. By his death he destroyed him that hath the power of death, tke Devil, Heb. 2.14. So then Christ hath freed us fourthly, from the bondage of Satan's tyranny.  
At the best, the law is but a hard Master, impossible to please, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Paul: but at the worst, a cruel one; The very courtesy of the law was jugum, an unsupportable yoke, but the spite of the law is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a curse. Cursed is every one that continues not in all that is written in the book of the law to do it, Gal. 3.10. Do you not remember an unmerciful steward in the Gospel that catcheth his bankrupt fellow by the throat, and says, Pay me that thou owest me; so doth the law to us; we should pay and cannot; and because we cannot pay, we forfeit ourselves; so as every mother's son is the child of death. Here is our bondage; where is our liberty? Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; Oh blessed redemption, that frees us from the curse. Oh blessed redeemer, that would become a curse for us that the curse of the law might not light upon us; so Christ hath freed us fifthly, from the bondage of the law.  
Moses was a meek man, but a severe Master; His face did not more shine in God's aspect upon him, than it lowered in his aspect to men; His ceremonies were hard impositions; Many for number, costly for charge, painful for execution. He that led Israel out of one bondage, carried them into another: From the bondage of Egypt, to the bondage of Sinai; this held till the vail of the Temple rend; yea till the vail of that better Temple, his sacred body, his very heartstrings did crack a sunder, with a consummatum est; And now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Christ is the end of the law, Rom. 10.4. Now the law of the spirit of life hath freed us, Rom. 8.2. You hear now no more news of the ceremonies of prefiguration, they are dead with Christ; ceremonies of decency may and must live; let no man now have his ear bored thorough to Moses his post; Christ hath freed us sixthly from the law of ceremonies.  
Our last Master is humane Ordinances; the case of our exemption where from is not so clear; concerning which I find a double extreme of opinion; The one that ascribes too much to them, as equalling them with the law of God; the other that ascribes too little to them, as if they were no tie to our obedience: The one holding them to bind the conscience no less than the positive laws of God; the other either slighting their obligation, or extending it only to the outward man, not the inward: we must learn to walk a midway betwixt both; and know that the good laws of our superiors, whether civil or ecclesiastical, do in a sort reach to the very conscience; though not primarily and immediately as theirs, yet mediately and secondarily as they stand in reference to the law of God with our obedience to his instituted authority; and therefore they tie us in some sort besides the case whether of scandal, or contempt. Where no man can witness, there is no scandal; where is no intention of an affront to the commanding power, there is no contempt, and yet willingly to break good jaws without all witness, without all purpose of affront is therefore sin because disobedience; For example, I dine fully alone out of wantonness, upon a day sequestered by authority to a public fast; I dine alone, therefore without scandal; out of wantonness, therefore not out of contempt; yet I offend against him that seethe in secret, notwithstanding my solitariness, and my wantonness is by him construed as a contempt to the ordainer of authority. But when both scandal and contempt are met to aggravate the violation, now the breach of humane laws binds the conscience to a fearful guilt. Not to flatter the times, (as I hope I shall never be blurred with this crimination) I must needs say this is too shamefully unregarded; Never age was more lawless; Our forefathers were taught to be superstitiously scrupulous in observing the laws of the Church, above Gods; like those Christians of whom Socrates the historian speaks of, which held fornication as a thing indifferent, de diebus festis tanquam de vita decertant, but strive for an holy day as for their life; we are leapt into a licentious neglect of civil or sacred laws, as if it were piety to be disobedient. Doth the law command a Friday fast; no day is so selected for feasting; let a schismatical or popish book be prohibited, this very prohibition endears it; let wholesome laws be enacted against drunkenness, idleness, exactions, unlawful transportations, excess of diet, of apparel, or what ever noted abuse: commands do not so much whet our desires, as forbiddances: what is this but to baffle and affront that sacred power which is entrusted to government: and to profess ourselves not Libertines, but licentiate of disorder. Farr, far is it from the intentions of the God of order, under the stile of liberty to give scope to these unruly humours of men; the issue whereof can be no other than utter confusion. But if any power (besides divine) in Heaven or Earth shall challenge to itself this privilege, to put a primary, or immediate tie upon the conscience, so as it should be a sin to disobey that ordinance, because 'tis without relation to the command of the highest, let it be anathema; our hearts have reason to be free in spite of any such Antichristian usurpation, whiles the owner of them hath charged us, not to be (thus) the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23. so Christ hath lastly freed us from the bondage of humane ordinances.  
Lo now ye have seen our liberation from a whole heptarchy of spiritual tyranny; Stand still now awhile, Honourable and beloved, and look back with wondering and thankful eyes upon the infinite mercy of our deliverer; sin beguiles us, conscience accuseth us, God's wrath is bend against us, Satan tyrannises over us, the law condemns us, insolent superstition enthralls us, and now from all these Christ hath made us free. How should we now erect altars to our dear Redeemer, and inscribe them Christo liberatori; how should we from the altars of our devoted hearts, send up the holy sacrifices of our best obediences, the sweet incense of our perpetual prayers. Oh blessed Saviour, how should we, how can we enough magnify thee; no not, though those celestial Choristers of thine should return to bear a part with us in renewing their gloria in excelsis, glory to God on high; Our bodies, our souls are too little for thee; Oh take thine own from us, and give it to thyself, who hast both made and freed it. To sum up all then; we are freed from the bondage of sin by the spirit of Christ; from an accusing conscience by the blood of Christ, from the wrath of God by faith in Christ, from the tyranny of Satan by the victory of Christ; from the curse of the law by the satisfaction of Christ; from the law of ceremonies by the consummation of Christ; from humane ordinances by the manumission and instruction of Christ; and now stand fast in all these liberties wherewith Christ hath made you free; And so from the liberty, and prerogative, we descend to the maintenance of this liberty, Stand fast.  
Is it any boot to bid a man hold fast our once recovered liberty; did ye ever hear of a wild bird that once let out of the cage wherein she hath been long enclosed would come fluttering about the wires to get in again. Did ye ever see a slave, that after his ransom paid, and his discharge obtained would run back and sue for a place in his Galley. Casuists dispute whether a prisoner (though condemned) may upon breach of prison escape; and the best resolve it affirmatively; so Caietan, Soto, Navarre, Lessius, others: Their reason is; For that he is not sentenced to remain voluntarily in bonds, but to be kept so; neither is it the duty of the offender to stay, but of the keeper to hold him there: hence chains and fetters are ordained, where otherwise twists of tow were sufficient: but never any Casuist doubted, whether a prisoner would be glad to be free; or once well escaped would or aught to return to his gaol; that self love which is engrafted in every breast will be sure to forbid so prejudicial an act. God himself hath forbidden to deliver back the slave that is run from his Master Deut. 23.15. Hagar thought it an hard word, Return to thy Mistress and be beaten, Gen. 16.9. If Noah's Dove had not found more refuge than restraint in the Ark, I doubt whether it had returned with an Olive-branch. O then what what strange madness possesseth us that being ransomed by the precious blood of the Son of God, paid down for us upon the cross, we should again put our neck under the servile yoke of sin, Satan, Men: The two first shall go together; indeed they cannot be severed; where ever sin is, there is a Devil at the end of it; why will we be the servants of corruptions, 2 Pet. 2.19. Servants both by nature and by will: The Philosopher's dispute whether there be servus natura, divinity defines it clearly, servi eratis peccati, ye were the servants of sin; Rom. 6.19. though not more by nature then by will; contrary to the civil condition, there is no servitude here but willing. St. Paul's thesis, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, is reduced, by our Saviour, to this hypothesis; He that doth sin is the servant of sin, Joh. 8.33.  
Do we then obey the filthy lusts of our brutish sensuality, how high soever we look, we are but vassals: and our servitude is so much more vile, as our master is more despicable: A Prince's vassal may think himself as good as a poor freeman, but a slaves slave goes in rank with a beast; such is every one that endrudgeth himself to any known sin. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; saith the Psalmist: A vile person, who is that? Be not deceived, it is not the habits that makes a man vile, but the conditions. No rags can make the good man other then glorious; no robe can make the lewd man other then base; when we see and hear of high titles, rich coats, ancient houses, long pedigrees, glittering suits, large retinues, we honour these (and so we must do) as the just monuments, signs, appendances of civil greatness; but let me tell you withal; the eyes of God, his Saints, and Angels look upon any of you as a vile person, if his sin be his Master: as they say of Lewis the eleventh, that he was the slave of his Physician Corterius, but a tyrant to others; so nothing hinders but that ye may be the commanders of others, and yet (the while) vassals to your own corruptions. It is the heathen, man's question: Blush, O ye Christians, blush for shame to hear it, An ille mihi liber cui mulier imperat? Shall he go for a freeman that is a slave to his Courtesan; that is at the command of her eyes, and hangs upon the doom of her variable lips? Shall he go for a freeman that is at the mercy of his cups, whether for mirth or rage? Shall he go for a freeman that is loaden with fetters of Gold, more servile to this metal, than the Indian that gets it? Shall he go for a freeman that is ever fastened upon the rack of envy or ambition? Hate this condition, O all ye Noble and Generous Courtiers; and as ye glory to affect freedom, and scorn nothing so much as the reputation of baseness, abhor those sins that have held you in a miserable and cursed servitude; Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free.  
Lastly what should we, or why do we enthral our consciences to the sinful yoke of the corrupt ordinances of men? That which the legal ceremonies were to the Jews, Popish traditions are to us; yea more and worse; Those ceremonies were prefigurations of Christ to come; these traditions are defigurations, and deformations of Christ exhibited; Those were of Gods prescribing, these of that homo delinquentiae, as Tertullian construes it. That man of sin; see what a stile here is, as if he were made all of impiety, and corruption. That which Rehoboam said of himself, we may justly borrow here; The Pope's little finger is heavier than Moses his loins; From these superstitions and Antichristian impositions Christ hath freed us by the clear light of the glorious Gospel of his Son Christ Jesus; Oh stand fast now in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free. Give leave, I beseech you, Most gracious Sovereign, and ye honourable and beloved Christians to my just importunity; if in these cold, slippery, back-sliding times, I press this needful exhortation with more than common vehemence.  
Hath the Gospel of Christ freed us from the Idolatrous adoration of daniel's Maazim, a breaden God; and shall any of us so fare abdicate, not our religion only, but our reason; as to creep, crouch, and to worship that which the baker makes a cake, and the Priest makes a God? Crustum pro Christo, as he said? And if Israel play the harlot, yet Oh why will Judah sin? If the poor seduced souls of foreign subjects, that have been invincibly nursled up in ignorance and superstition (whose woeful case we do truly commiserate with weeping and bleeding hearts) be carried hoodwinked to those hideous impieties (which if they had our eyes, our means they would certainly detest) shall the native subjects of the Defender of Faith, who have been trained up in so clear a light of the Gospel begin to cast wanton eyes upon their glorious superstitions; and contrary to the laws of God, and our Sovereign, throng to their exotic devotions? What shall we say Increpa Domine; Master rebuke them: And ye to whom God hath given grace to see and bewail the lamentable exorbitances of their superstitions, settle your souls in the noble resolution of faithful Joshua, I and my house will serve the Lord. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free.  
Hath the Gospel of God freed us from the worship of stocks, and stones; from the mis-religious invocation of those who we know cannot hear us; from the sacrilegious mutilation of the blessed sacrament; From the tyrannical usurpations of a sinful vicegod; From the dangerous reliance upon the inerrable sentence of him that cannot say true; from the idle fears of imaginary Purgatories; from buying of pardons, and selling of sins; shortly, from the whole body of damnable Antichristianisme: and shall our unstable mouths now begin to water at the Onions and Garlic of our forsaken Egypt; Oh Dear Christians, if ye love your solus, if ye fear hell, stand fast in this liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free: What mercy soever may abide well-meaning ignorance, let the wilful revolter make account of damnation. I cannot without yearning of bowels think of the dear price that our holy forefathers staked down for this liberty of the Gospel; no less than their best, and last blood; And shall we their unthrifty progeny lavish it out carelessly in a willing neglect; and either not care to exchange it for a plausible bondage, or squander it out in unnecessary differences? Do but cast your eyes back upon the fresh memory of those late flourishing times of this goodly kingdom, when pure religion was not more cheerfully professed, then inviolably maintained: how did we then thrive at home, and triumph abroad? How were we then the terror, the envy of Nations? Our name was enough to affright, to amate an enemy: But now, since we have let fall our first love, and suffered the weak languishments and qualms of the truth under our hands, I fear and grieve to tell the issue. Oh then suffer yourselves, O ye noble and beloved Christians, to be roused up from that dull and lethargic indifferency, wherein ye have thus long slept, and awake up your holy courages for God, and his sacred truth: And since we have so many comfortable and assured engagements from our pious Sovereign, Oh let not us be wanting to God, to his Majesty, to ourselves in our utmost endeavours of advancing the good success of the blessed Gospel of Christ. Honour God with your faithful, and zealous prosecutions of his holy truth, and he shall honour you: and besides the restauration of that ancient glory to our late-clouded Nation, shall repay our good Offices done to his name with an eternal weight of glory in the highest heavens; to the possession whereof, he that hath ordained us, in his good time mercifully bring us, for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the just; To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite God be given all praise honour and glory now and for ever. Amen.   

DIVINE LIGHT, AND REFLECTIONS. IN A SERMON Preached to his MAJESTY at WHITEHALL On Whitsunday. 1640.  By JOS. EXON. 1 John 1.5. 
God is Light.  
IF ye mark it, your very Calendar, so as the wisdom of the Church hath contrived it, is a notable Catechism. And surely, if the plain man would but ply his Almanac well, that alone would teach him Gospel enough to show him the history of his Saviour; If one day teach another, all days would teach him; There should he see his blessed Saviour's conception Annunciate by the Angel. March 25. Forty weeks after that he should see him born of the Virgin accordingly, at the feast of the Nativity; eight days after that circumcised, on New years day; then visited and adored by the Sages, in the Epiphanie; then presented into the Temple, on the day of Purification; then tempted and fasting forty days, in Lent; He should see him ushered in by his forerunner, the holy Baptist, six Months before his Nativity; attended by his twelve Apostles in their several ranks, and Thomas the last, for his unbelief: And, at last, after infinite and beneficial miracles, he should see him making his Maundy with his disciples on the Thursday, and crucified on Good- Friday; he should see that on Easter Morning, God the Father raises up his Son Jesus from the dead (Act, 5.30.) On Ascention day God the Son mounts up to Heaven in glory, Act. 1.9. On Whitsunday God the holy Ghost descends upon the Apostles. Act. 2.3.4. And his belief in all these summed up in the celebration of the blessed Trinity, the Sunday following.  
I shall not over-labour to reduce the Text to the day? Fire and light have so near affinity that they are scarce ever separated; The same Spirit of God who appeared as this day in the shape of fiery tongues to the disciples may be now pleased by my tongue to manifest himself to your souls in light: And as that fire was very lightsome, else it could not have been seen in the daytime; so may this exhibition of light be accompanied with a fire of holy zeal both in my tongue, and your hearts. In my last Sermon at the Court I gave you the Character of man, I shall now endeavour to give you some touches of the Character of God;  
There is nothing in this world so much concerns a man as to settle his heart in a right apprehension of his God; which must be the ground of all his piety and devotion; without which all his pretences of Religion are so nothing worth, as that in them, God is made our Idol, and we the mis-worshippers of him; without which shortly, our whole life is misspent in error and ignorance, and ends in a miserable discomfort: Whence it is that this dear disciple makes it the sum of all the Apostolical mission, which he had from his Lord and Saviour, to inform the World what to think of God; This than is the message which we have heard of him, and declare to you, that God is light. Would ye know the message which the Apostles received from Christ; would ye know the message which they delivered from Christ to the World, it is in these three syllables of my Text. God is light.  
It is not possible that our finite conceit should comprehend God essentially, as he is in himself; No motion of our weak humanity can thus reach his infiniteness; our ambition must be only to conceive of him, according to those expressions which he hath made of himself; wherein it hath pleased his wisdom to condescend to our shallow capacity, by borrowing from those creatures which come nearest to his most pure, simple, spiritual nature; Amongst which none is more proper, or more frequent than this of Light; Not only therefore hath it pleased God to express those Heavenly spirits of his by the title of Angeli lucis, Angels of Light; not only hath the Son of God, God and man justified himself Lux mundi, the Light of the World, but God absolutely, and indistinctly in respect of persons vouchsafeth to make himself known to us by this name, That God is Light: Hereupon it is, that even in this sense the children of God are called the Sons of Light; because he is Light, whose Sons they are; But that of the Athanasian Creed is most pregnant, that the eternal Son of God, God the Son, is God of God; Light of Light: Neither doth our Apostle here say, God is resembled by Light; But, as our Saviour said of God, God is a Spirit, so here, our Apostle, God is Light: How then is God Light? Far be it from us that according to the stupidity of the Manichees, we should take this literally of a sensible and material Light; that is but a creature, though indeed the first, and exceeding glorious, but yet a creature, and therefore infinitely below the purity and perfection of the Creator; but sure God would have us by this to be led to the conceit of the transcendent glory of his incomprehensible Deity; and would have us when we think of him to be put in mind of admiring an increated, immaterial, super-intelligible uprightness of a glory, so much above all spiritual natures, as the Light is above the bodily and visible; whereupon it is that when the spirit of God by his Apostle describes the habitation of God, he doth it in these terms that he dwells in a Light that none can approach unto; and when he describes the Heaven of the elect, 
1 Tim. 6.16.  he calls it, the inheritance of the Saints in Light; so as when that place of bliss, and the God whose presence makes it such, come into our thoughts, 
Coloss. 1.12.  we must elevate our thoughts above this dark sphere of mortality; and represent unto ourselves a glorious lightsomness, as much above this material Light, as Light is above Darkness; abandoning that gloomy and base opacity of conceit, wherewith our earthly minds are commonly wont to be overclouded; for surely it is easy and familiar to observe, that the higher we go, the more Light we shall find; In the centre of the Earth there is nothing but perfect darkness; nearer the upper region of that great body where any overture is made; there is a kind of imperfect twilight; In this lower air there is a better Light, but mixed with fogs and Vapours, In the higher regions, there are less mists, and more clearness, yet not without some dimness of exhalations; In the starry Heavens, a purer Light, yet not without some eclipses; In the empyreal, nothing but pure and perfect Light; justly therefore are our hearts lift up with our eyes to a contemplation of a Light above those Heavens more pure and excellent than theirs. Away then with all dull and darksome imaginations when we address ourselves to the throne of Grace; and let us adore an infinite Spirit dwelling in an unaccessible Light, attended with millions of Angels of Light, and glorified spirits of his Saints in a Light unspeakable and glorious; this shall be the first glimpse of our enlightened understanding when we would comfortably appear before God; In which regard I fear many of us Christians are much defective in our holy devotions, speaking unto God, and thinking of him, sullenly and sadly, as shut up in some remote and unknown darkness on the other side of the World, or at least without the lively apprehension of that wonderful radiance of glory wherewith he is invested; misconceiving herein of that Deity whom we implore; who hath revealed himself unto us by the name of Light.  
And surely, as none but an Eagle can look upon the Light of the Sun; so none but the confirmed eyes of an illuminated Christian can behold God in this notion of his celestial splendour; which we must so labour to attain unto, and settle in our minds, as that we should no more think of the blessed Deity without the conceit of an infinite resplendence, than we can open our eyes at noonday without an incurrence and admission of an outward Light.  
But this, how ever requisite to be conceived, and done, is not the main drift of our Apostle; who goes not about here so much to make any description of God, or prescription of the ways of our understanding, or representation of his glorious presence, as to lay the grounds of our holy disposition, and pure and Heavenly carriage before him: For so is the Light here affirmed of God, as the darkness is disavowed of him; and both of them are mentioned with an intention of drawing in an exhortation to that purity which we should affect and the avoidance of all the state and works of spiritual darkness which we should abhor. God then is Light, as in himself, so in relation to us; and this predication of Light serves to infer our conformity to God in this behalf: It is not for us therefore to inquire so much into those absolute terms wherein God stands with himself, as what he is in pattern unto us: Thus is he Light, either qualitatively, or causatively;  
The Light hath a quality (for it matters not to search into the essence of it, and indeed, it is more than we can do to find it out) of clearness, of purity: Of clearness for the use of manifestation; Of purity, and untaintedness in respect of any mixture of corruption; In both these is God Light. Causatively in that he is the Author of all Light; communicating it to his Creatures in what kind soever; not without reference to the diffusive quality of Light in the illuminating of this vast body, and dilating itself to all the World in an instant: In these three regards therefore is God Light here; 1. Of absolute clearness in his infinite knowledge and wisdom. 2. Of exact purity in the perfect rectitude of his will. 3. Of gracious diffusion, in the communicating of himself to his Creatures, and to us in special; so, as to enlighten us with competent knowledge in our understanding, and sincere disposition of our will and affections; And because God is thus Light, all that will claim to partake of him, must be in their measure, clear in understanding, pure in will and affections, diffusive of their knowledge and graces to others.  
These three qualities of clearness, purity, diffusion, together with three answerable reflections upon us shall be the matter of our following discourse, and challenge your best attention,  
Those things which (whether in nature or art) are wont to pass for the carriages of Light have in them sometimes, at least in respect of our sight, some kind of dimness and opacity. The candle hath his snuff, the fire his smoke, and blackness of indigestion, the Moon her spots, the very Sun itself, his Eclipses; Neither is it said that God is lightsome, but light itself in the abstract, than which nothing can be convinced more clear, and piercing; and therefore it is purposely added for the further Emphasis, In him is no darkness; Oh the infinite clearness of the Divine knowledge, to which all things lie open, both past, present, and to come; which doth not only reach in one intuition to all the actions, motions, events of all Creatures that have been, are, shall be; but which is infinitely more than all these, extends to the full comprehension of himself, his whole Divine nature and essence; to which the World (though full of innumerable varieties) is less than nothing: The Sun is a goodly globe of Light; The visible World hath nothing so glorious, so searching; and yet there are many things lie hid within the bosom of the Earth and Sea which his eye never saw, never shall see; Neither can it ever see more than half the World at once; darkness the while enwraps the other; nor indeed of any much lesser (if round) body; And though it give light unto other Creatures, yet it gives not light to itself; like as our eye sees all other objects, but itself it cannot see. And though it enlighten this material Heaven both above and below itself, as also this lower Air and Earth, yet the Empyreal Heaven transcends the beams of it, and is filled with a more glorious illumination: But, God, the Light of whom we speak, who is the Maker of that Sun, sees the most hidden secrets of Earth and Hell; sees all that is done in Earth and Heaven at one view; sees his most glorious self; and by his presence makes Heaven. Most justly therefore is God Light, by an eminence.  
Now the reflection of the first quality of Light upon us, must be our clear apprehension of God, the World, and ourselves; and by how much more exact knowledge we shall attain unto of all these, by so much more do we conform ourselves to that God who is Light: and by how much less we know them, so much more darkness there is in us, and so much less fellowship have we with God; If the eye have not an inward Light in itself, let the Sun shine never so bright upon it, it is nevertheless blind, What are we the better for that which is in God, if there be not an inward Light in our Souls to answer and receive it? How should we love and adore God if we know him not? How shall we hate and combat the World, if we know it not? How shall we value and demean ourselves, if we know not ourselves? Surely the want of this Light of knowledge is the ground of all that miserable disorder which we see daily break forth in the affections, in the carriages of men. I know the common word is, that we are fallen into a knowing age; such as wherein our speculative skill is wont to be upbraided to us, in a disgraceful comparison of our unanswerable practice; our forward young men outrun their years, & brag that there is more weight in the down of their chins then in the grey beards of their aged Grandsires; Our artificers take upon them to hold argument with, and perhaps control their Teachers; neither is it any news for the shopboard to contest with the schools, every not Knight, or Rook only, but Pawn too, can give check to a Bishop; The Romish Church had lately her She-preachers, till Pope Urban gagged them; and our Gossips now at home, in stead of dresses, can tattle of mysteries, and censure the Pulpit in stead of neighbours: Light call you this? No these are fiery flashes of conceit, that glance through vain minds to no purpose, but idle ostentation, and satisfaction of wild humours, without stability, or any available efficacy to the soul: Alas we are wise in impertinencies; ignorant in main truths; neither doth the knowledge of too many go any deeper than the verge of their brains, or the tip of their tongue: I fear true solid knowledge is not much less rare, then when our unlettered Grandfathers were wont to court God Almighty with false Latin in their devotions; For did the true Light shine into the hearts of men in the knowledge of God, the World, themselves, how could they, how dared they live thus. Durst the lewd tongues of men rend the holy name of God in pieces with oaths and blasphemies, if they knew him to be so dreadful, so just, as he hath revealed himself? Durst the cruel oppressors of the World grind faces, and cut throats, and shed blood like water, if they were persuaded that God is a sure revenger of their outrages? Durst the goatish adulterer, the swinish drunkard wallow in their beastly uncleanness, if they knew their is a God to judge them, an Hell to fry in? Durst the rebellious seditionary lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed; and that under a colour of religion, if the fool had not said in his heart, There is no God? Can the covetous fool so admire and adore his red and white Earth? could the ambitious so dote upon a little vanishing honour, as to sacrifice his soul to it, if he knew the World? could the proud man be so besotted with self-love, as that he sees his God in his glass, if he knew himself? Surely then the true Light is as rare as it is precious; and it is as precious as life itself; yea as life eternal; This is eternal life to know thee, and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ; What were the World without Light, and what the soul without the Light of knowledge? We condemn Malefactors to darkness, that is one great part of the horror of their durance; 
Jo. 17. ●.  and by how much more heinous their crime is, so much darker is their dungeon; Darkness of understanding than is punishment enough alone; as it is also the entry into hell, which is described by blackness of darkness. None but savage Creatures delight in darkness; Man naturally abhors it in all things; If our eyes be dim, we call for glasses, if our houses be dark, we make windows, if the evening grow dark we call for lights, and if those lights burn dim, we call for snuffers, and shall we avoid darkness in every thing, except our souls, which is our better, and more Divine part? Honourable, and beloved, as we love and tender those dear souls of ours, let us labour to furnish them with the Light of true and saving knowledge; What is this Gospel which shines thus daily and clearly in your faces, but the Vehiculum lucis the carriage of that heavenly Light to the World; Send forth thy Light and thy Truth, saith the Psalmist. Thy Word is Truth, saith our Saviour; that word of truth than is the body of that Light which God shows to men: Oh let it not shine upon us in vain; let us not trample upon the beams of it in our floor, as that foolish woman that St. Austin speaks of, did to those of the Sun, with a Calco Manichorum Deum. But now, while God gives these happy opportunities, let us enlarge our hearts to receive it with all joy and thankfulness: And if Moses by conferring with God but 40 Days and Nights in the delivery of the law, had a glorious brightness in his face; Oh let us that more than forty years have had conversation with God in his Gospel shine with the resplendent beams of heavenly knowledge; And if the joys of heaven are described by Light, surely the more lightsome our souls are here, the nearer they come to their blessedness. Light is sown from the righteous, saith the Psalmist; Lo here is the seedtime of Light, above, is the harvest: If the Light of saving knowledge be sown in our hearts here, we shall be sure to reap the crop of heavenly glory hereafter. And this is the first quality of Light with the reflection of it upon us. The next follows which is purity.  
Of all the visible Creatures that God hath made, none is so pure and simple as the light; it discovers all the foulness of the most earthly recrements, it mixeth with none of them, neither is possibly capable of the least corruption; some of the best Interpreters therefore have taken this metaphor of Light to imply the purity and perfect goodness of God; In whom as there is an infinite clearness of understanding, so also an infinite rectitude of will; in so much as his will is the rule of all right; neither doth he will aught because it is good, but therefore it is good because he wills it. Goodness hath no less brightness in it then truth, and wickedness as it is never without error, so it is no less dark than it; Justly therefore is God all light, in that he is all pure and good; and the reflection of this quality upon us must be our holiness; For this is the will of God even our sanctification; The more holy than we are, the more we conform to him that is Light; The way of the just is as the shining Light, that shineth more and more; as contrarily; sins are the works of darkness, the mover of them is the Prince of darkness the agents of them are the Sons of darkness, and their trade is walking in darkness, (as it follows in my text) and the end of them is utter darkness. Whiles he says then, Be Holy as I am Holy, he doth as good as say, Be ye Light as I am Light; Ye were darkness, but now (it is Gods own phrase) Lux estis, ye are Light in the Lord, saith St. Paul to his Ephesians; justly therefore doth it follow walk as children of the Light; In right ways, with strait steps: And surely if God be Light, and we darkness, what interest can we claim in him? For what communion is there betwixt Light and darkness. Oh the comfortable and happy condition then of those that are in God, they are still in Light; Truly the light is sweet, saith wise Solomon, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sun; As on the contrary it is a woeful and disconsolate estate to live in any sin; this is no other than to be dungeoned up in a perpetual darkness; The Egyptians were even weary of themselves for a three day's darkness; how irksome had it been to have lived always so? I have read a book of one Haitonus a monk of the order of the Praemonstratenses, a Cousin, as he says, of the then King of Armenia, written some 340 Years ago, set forth by one Nic. Salcon and dedicated to Pope Clement the 5th. where with much confidence he affirms that in the Country of Georgia there was a certain province called Ham●en, of three day's journey about, so palpably dark continually, as that no man could see his hand in it; that the inhabitants of the borders of it might hear many times in the woods, the noise of men crying, of horses neighing, of cocks crowing, but no man durst venture to go unto it, because he could not find the way out again; which he says with much earnestness that he saw; Neque Credidissem, saith he, nisi propriis oculis perspexissem; reporting it to have been a miraculous judgement upon some Persian persecutors of the Christians in that place: I list not to inquire into the likelihood of the story; it might be some temporary judgement (as that was upon Egypt for the time) and now long since vanished; but imagine ye the truth of that which he dares with so deep protestations avow; and conceive the condition of all wilful sinners; who live shut up in a region of thick darkness; whence they can no more get out, than they can be capable of any comfort within; and when they have wearied themselves in those wretched mazes of vanity, they are shut up in the utter darkness of the dreadful pit of eternal Death. Oh than that willing sinners, be they never so gay and glorious, could but apprehend the misery and horror of their own estate in this behalf, certainly it were enough to make them either mazed, or penitent. For what is darkness but a privation of Light? Now God is Light; And sin deprives us of God's presence and shuts us out from the face of God; and if in his presence be the fullness of joy, then in his absence is the fullness of sorrow, and torment; neither have the Schools determined amiss, that the pain of loss is more horrible than the pain of sense; so as that darkness which our sin causeth in the alienation, and absence of the Light of God's countenance is without his great mercy, the beginning of an utter exclusion from the beatifical face of God, and of that utter darkness of hell. For us, as we profess ourselves the Children of the Light so let us walk in the Light: And what Light is that? Thy law is a Light to my feet, saith holy David; Lo this is the Light wherein we must walk; that so walking in the Light of his law, we may happily enjoy the light of his countenance, 
Ps. 36.10.  and may come at the last to the light of his glory; so, in his Light we shall see Light.  
This, of the second quality of the Light, and the reflection of it; The third and last follows. It is this which Learned Estius thinks to be mainly driven at in this place, That God is therefore Light, because he is the Fountain and cause of Light to all Creatures that do enjoy it; and indeed what Light is there which is not from him; Natural, Moral, Divine? For the natural; It was he that said, Fiat Lux; Let there be Light; in the first day; It was he that recollected that diffused Light into the body of the Sun in the fourth day; that goodly Globe of Light receives from him those beams of Light which it communicates to the Moon, Stars, Sky, and this other inferior World. What Light of intellectual or moral virtue ever shined in the heart of any man, but from him?  
The Spirit of man is the Candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly. 
Prov. 20.27.  What Light of Divine knowledge or holiness ever broke forth upon any Saint or Angel, but from his blessed irradation, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Justly therefore is he Pater luminum the Father of Lights; and as the child ofttimes resembles the Father, this quality the Light hath from God, that it is wondrously diffusive of itself; reaching forth itself largely in very quick and instantany motions to all those things which are capable of it; Other Creatures, though beneficial, yet impart themselves more sparingly unto us: The Earth yields us fruit, but it is only perhaps once a year, and that not without much cost and angariation, requiring both our labour, and patience; The Clouds do sometimes drop fatness, but at great uncertainties; other whiles they pour down famine upon our heads; the Sea yields us commodities both of passage and sustenance, but not without inconstancy and delays and ofttimes takes more in an hour than it gives in an age; his favours are local, his threats universal; But the Light is bountiful in bestowing itself freely with a clear, safe, unlimited largesse upon all Creatures at once, indifferently, incessantly, beneficially.  
The reflection of this quality upon us should be our diffusiveness; That we should so be lights, as that we should give light; so have light in ourselves, that we should give it unto others. The Prophet Daniel, who was a great Philosopher & Astronomer in his time, tells us of a double shining, or light, The one as of the Firmament, the other as of the Stars; The one a general Light dispersed through the whole or body of the Sky, the other a particular one, compacted into the bodies of those starry globes which are wont to be called the more solid piece of their Orb; Thus it is in the Analogy of the spiritual light There is a general Light common to God's Children; whereof our Saviour; Let your Light shine so before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in Heaven: Thus the great Doctor of the Gentiles exhorts his Philipians, 
Philip. 2.15.  that they be blameless and harmless, the Sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation, among whom (saith he) ye shine as lights in the world.  
There is a particular light proper to several vocations especially those that are public and encharged with the care of others, whether spiritual, or civil.  
Of the one you know what our Saviour said in the Mount, Vos estis lux mundi; of the other you know what God said in David's case, I have ordained a Lamp for mine Anointed: 
Ps. 132.17.  that is a glorious successor.  
To begin with the latter; Princes and Governors are and must be Lights by an eminence; for God is Light, and he hath called them Elohim: 
Exod. 22.28.  Gods: So as they must imitate God in shining to the World; sending forth the rays both of good example; and of Justice and Judgement into the eyes of their People: An ordinary Starlight is not enough for them, they are the Vice-gerents of him who is Sol j●stitiae, 
Malac. 4.2.  the Sun of Righteousness; they must fill the world therefore with their glorious beams, and give so much more light, as their Orb is higher, and their Globe more capacious: And blessed be God, what beams of light our Sun sends forth of Temperance, Chastity, Piety, Mercy and Justice, let Malice itself say, let even Rebellion itself witness.  
Now if he be the Sun, you great ones are our Stars, as you receive your Light from him, the light of your honour, and good example, so whilst you keep the one of them to yourselves; so you must communicate the other to your inferiors. And if in presence his light dim, or extinguish yours, yet the World affords you darkness enough abroad to shine in: Oh shine you clearly in the dark night of this evil World, that the beholders may see and magnify your brightness, and may say of one; there is a Mars of truly heroical courage, there is the Mercury of sound wisdom and learning, there the Jupiter of exemplary honour and magnificence, there the Phosphorus of Piety, and ante-lucan devotion; and may be accordingly sensible of beneficial influences to your Country: Far be it from any of you to be a fatal Sirius or Dog-star, which when he rises yields perhaps a little needless light, but withal burns up the Earth, and inflames the air, puts the World in a miserable combustion; Far be it from you to be dismal and direful comets, that portend nothing but horror and death to the earth; or, if your light be of a lower accension; far, far be it from you to be any of those (ignes fatui) that do at once affright and seduce the poor traveller, and carry him by lewd guidance into a ditch; Such, such, alas there are: give me leave to complain (where can I do it better than at a Court, the professed Academy of honour?) That a strange kind of lose debauchedness hath possessed too many of the young Gallants of our time (I fear I may take in both sexes) with whom modesty, civility, temperance, sobriety are quite out of fashion, as if they had been suits of their Grandsire's wardrobe.  
As for Piety and Godliness, they are so laid by, as if they were the cast rags of a despised frippery. He is no brave Spirit with too many that bids not defiance to good orders, that revels not without care, spends not without measure, talks not without grace, lives not without God. Woe is me, is this the fruit of so long and clear a Light of the Gospel? Is this to have fellowship with the Divine Light? Now the God of Heaven be merciful to that Wild and Atheous licentiousness, wherewith the World is so miserably overrun: and strike our hearts with a true sense of our grievous provocations of his name; that our serious humiliations, may forelay his too-well-deserved judgements: In the mean time, if there should be any one such amongst you that hear me this Day (as commonly they will be sure to be farthest off from good counsel) let Wise Solomon School him for me, Rejoice O Young man in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee up in the days of thy Youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes, but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement: And let me add this, if he be not for the light, he shall be for the fire; for the same Spirit of God, which tells him here that God is Light, tells him elsewhere (which he shall once feel, though he will not believe) that our God is a consuming fire.  
Now in the second place for us of the holy Tribe, we are stars too: And if not Stars, Revel. 1.16, Yet Candles, Matth. 5.13. However; Lights we must be, and that both in Life, and Doctrine: If the first, there are stars of several magnitudes, some goodly and great ones that move in Orbs of their own; others small, and scarce visible in the Galaxy of the Church, but all are Stars, and no Star is without some light: If but the Second; there are large Tapers, and Rush-candles, one gives a greater light than the other, but all give some: Never let them go for either Stars, or Candles that neither have nor give light: And woe is me, if the Light that is in us be darkness, how great, how dangerous is that darkness. Blessed be God, we have a learned, able, and flourishing Clergy, as ever this Church had, or (I think I may boldly say) any other since the Gospel looked forth into the World; there have not been clearer Lamps in God's Sanctuary since their first lighting then our days have seen; yet why should we stick to confess that which can neither be concealed, nor denied, that there are some amongst so many whose, wick is too much for their Oil, yea rather whose snuff is more than their Light; I mean, whose offensive lives shame their holy Doctrines, and reproach the Glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; these as we lament, so we desire to have top't by just censures; but hear you, my worthy brethren, do not you, where you see a thief in the Candle call presently for an extinguisher: for personal faults do not you condemn an holy calling: Oh be you wisely charitable, and let us be exemplarily holy.  
Lastly, for you Christian hearers; think not that this Light may be put off to public and eminent persons only: Each of you must shine too, at the least tanquam faces, Philip. 2. If they be as City's upan Hill the meanest of you must be as Cottages in a Valley though not high-built, yet wind-tight, and water tied. If they be Beacons, you must be Lanterns; every one must both have a light of his own, and impart it to others. It is not a charge appropriated to public Teachers that the Apostle gives to his Hebrews, Exhort one another daily while it is called to day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 
Heb. 3.13.  Even the privatest person may shine forth in good counsel: he that is most obscure, may, and must do good works in his place, and improve his graces to others good: These, these, my beloved, are the light which we must both have and give; not to have, were to have no fellowship with God; to have and not to give it were to engross, and monopolise grace which God cannot abide: Hath any of you Knowledge? Let him communicate it, and light others Candle at his. Hath any man worldly riches, let him not be Condus but Promus, to do good, and distribute forget not; Hath any man Zeal? Zeal, I say, not fury, not frenzy; let him not glow only but shine; let him say with Jehu, Come see my Zeal for the Lord: Hath any man true piety and devotion; let him, like a flaming brand enkindle the next; thus, thus shall we approve ourselves the Sons of that infinite and communicative Light; thus shall we so have fellowship with the God, who is Light; that shining like him, and from him here in Grace, we may shine with him hereafter, above, in everlasting glory; which the same God grant to us for the sake of the Son of his love, Jesus Christ the righteous to whom with thee, O God the Father, and thy blessed Spirit, one infinite and incomprehensible Lord, be given all praise, honour and glory now and for ever. Amen.   

A SERMON Preached in the Cathedral at EXETER, UPON The solemn Day appointed for the CELEBRATION OR THE PACIFICATION Betwixt the Two KINGDOMS. Viz. Septemb. 7. 1641.  By JOS. EXON. PSAL. 46.8. 
Come, behold the Works of the Lord, what Desolations He hath made in the Earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the Earth, etc.  
IT was doubtless upon the happy end of some war, and the renovation of an established peace, that this gratulatory Psalm was penned, and therefore fits well with our occasion. My text then is an earnest invitation to a serious and thankful consideration of the great works of God in his contrary proceed with men; Desolations of war and restaurations of Peace: we are called first to a general survey of God's wonderful works: and then to a special view of the works of his justice first, (what desolation he hath made upon Earth) then of his mercy; in composing all the busy broils of the World; He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the Earth. These must be the subject both of our eyes, and of my tongue, and your ears at this time.  
We must then behold the works of the Lord, but that we may behold them we must come; and that we may both come and behold them, we are invited to both: Come and behold. We are naturally full of distractions; ready to mind any thing but what we should; unless we be called we shall not come, and unless we come and behold, we shall behold to no purpose: that which our Saviour saith of Martha is the common case of us all, we are troubled about many things: One is carking about his household affairs, another is busying his thoughts with his law-suits, another is racking his mind with ambitious projects; another is studying which way to be revenged of his enemy; and some other, perhaps, rather than want work will be troubling themselves with matters of State or other men's affairs that concern them not, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 busy Bishops in other men's diocese we had need to be called off from these vain unmeet avocations, ere we offer to behold the works of God; else it will fall out with us as it doth ordinarily with our bodily sight, that whiles we have many objects in our eye we see nothing distinctly at all. Away therefore with all the distractive, yea divulsive thoughts of the World; and let us Come and behold the works of the Lord: as the Vulgar hath it in the next verse, vacate & videte. Come then from thy counting house thou from thy shopboard, thou from thy study, thou from thy bar, thou from the field, and behold the works of the Lord. Indeed, how can we look beside them? What is there that he hath not done? What thing is it that he hath not created; or what event can befall any of his Creatures which he hath not contrived? Or what act can fall from any Creature of his wherein he is not interested? So as unless we will wilfully shut our eyes, we cannot but behold the works of the Lord: But there is more in this charge then so; as these works are not meant of the ordinary occurrents, so it is not a mere sight that is here called for; but a serious and fixed contemplation: It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as I remember Beza distinguishes upon an other occasion; a bending of our eyes upon this holy object: Solomon the Son interprets his Father David, Eccles. 7.13. Consider the work of God: This beholding therefore is with mental eyes, and not with every sudden glance, but with deep considerations, so to see them as both the Hebrew and the English phrase elsewhere to lay them to heart.  
Wherefore hath God set us here on this greatstage of the world, but that we should be spectators of the marvelous acts that are here done.  
1. Surely, they are worth beholding; for they are all like his; well becoming his infinite power, wisdom, justice: So hath God done his wondrous works that they ought to be had in perpetual remembrance: Beauty and excellence is abstractive where ever it is: There is not one act of either his creation or administration wherein there is not the footsteps of an omnipotence, and an infinity of providence? Every thing works according to his ability: As the man is, so is his strength: and as his strength, so his actions: Alas, we weak creatures produce weak and feeble, and imperfect acts, neither can we possibly do other; for such as the cause is, such must the effects needs be: God therefore, who is all power, justice, wisdom, goodness, must needs produce acts answerable to such an agent: therefore behold the works of the Lord.  
2. Wherefore were our eyes given us, but for this very purpose they were not given us for the beholding of vanity; not for the ensnaring or wounding of the soul; but for the use and honour of the Creator; and wherein is that attained, but in the beholding of the works of the Lord: hence it is that they can behold all things but themselves; and discern those things worst, which are closest to them; and see, not by sending forth any virtue from themselves, but by intromitting of those species which are sent in to them; shortly, that God who hath made all things for himself, hath in the making of this most excellent and useful piece had an eye to his own glory in our beholding of his works; which if we neglect to do, we do, what in us lies, frustrate God's purpose and intention in creating them.  
3. Add to this, that the Lord delights to have his works beheld; for he knows the excellency and perfection of them, and knows that the more they are seen and noted, the more honour will accrue to the Maker of them: like as some skilful Artisan (some exquisite Limner or Carver) when he hath made a Masterpiece of his Art, he doth not hid it up in some dark corner where it may not be seen; but sets it forth in the best light, and rejoices to have it seen and admired: Thus doth the Almighty; when the Creature was first made because there was no other eyes to see it, he looked upon it with great complacency, and rejoiced in his own handiwork; It being the Epiphonema to every days work when he comes to the relation of the particularities of his workmanship, And God saw that it was good; and in a recapitulation or winding up all; God saw every thing that he had made; and behold, it was very good, Gen. 1.31. But when the Angels were created, and saw the glorious handy work of God, they did presently applaud the marvelous works of their Maker; when the morning Starrs sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, Job 38.7. And when after that, man was created, he joined with those glorious spirits in viewing and magnifying the works of his Creator. And so he should do. God was well pleased that he should do so. Alas we men who are conscious to our own infirmity, let pass many things from us which we care not how little they are viewed and scanned; for we know there may be flaws found in our best performances, which at the first blush appear not; we hear sometimes a discourse, which as it passes through the ear sounds well, and seems to carry a good show of exquisiteness, which if it be set down and come to an accurate examination, may be found defective in this point, in that redundant, here misplaced, there inconsequent; even course tapestry may afar off show well; which when it comes to be close viewed discovers an homeliness in texture and faults enough both in shapes and colours: But as for the works of God, In wisdom hast thou made them all; saith the Prophet: The more they are scanned, and tried the more pure and precious they will appear; and as Solomon expresses it, Man shall find nothing after him, Eccl. 7.14. And the God that knows this, loves that we should in all humble and modest-diligence search into, and behold his works.  
4. There is great reason that we should carefully behold the works of the Lord, because none but we can do it; of such infinite variety of Creatures, there is none but the rational and intelligent, viz. Angels and men, that can so much as take notice of what God hath done, no not of themselves; that sense whereby they are led cannot reach so high as a thought; what is before them, they see so far as their downward eyes will reach, and make towards that which serves their appetite, and avoid what they apprehend may hurt them, but as for their Maker, or for their own condition, or their fellow Creatures, they are not capable of any glimpse of knowledge thereof: And even of reasonable Creatures, what a World is there that are as insensible of the works of God as if they were utterly insensate; Pagans, Infidels, Worldlings that are carried by no other guide then mere bruit Creatures are; and affect no other light than that of sense; Alas, what is it to them what God doth, or what he doth not? How much then doth it concern us whom God hath illuminated with any measure of knowledge, and furnished with any measure of grace to be inquisitive into the works of God, and to give glory to him in all his actions.  
5. This shall not be so much advantage to God (alas what can we add to the infinite?) as benefit to ourselves: it is here as with those that dig in some precious mine, the deeper they go, the richer they are: hence it is that the most contemplative have been noted for most eminent in grace, and surely it is their fault if they be not so; for they should be the best acquainted with God, and with their own duty: shortly then, seeing the works of God are so excellent, and well-worth beholding; since our eyes were given us for this use, since God delights to have his works viewed; since there are so few that are capable of giving this glory to God; since in beholding the works of God we do most advantage ourselves both in knowledge and holiness; let us as we are here invited, Come and behold the works of the Lord.  
His works; in all the variety of them; not some one work, but all; as the works of his creation, so of his administration too; the divers, yea contrary proceed of God therein; in the changes of his favours and judgements; I confess there is and may be some one work of God so marvellous that it is able and worthy to take up all our thoughts; but we may not suffer our hearts to dwell in any one work of his, but enlarge them to more; we may not rest in the contemplation of his mercy only, but we must look to his judgements; else we shall grow secure we may not rest in the view of his judgements only without meet glances at his mercy, else we shall grow to an heartless distrust and despair; As we say in our philosophy; Composita nutriunt, only compounds nourish; those things which are merely simple can give no nutriment at all; so it is in spiritual matters, there must be a composition in those objects of contemplation, whereby we would feed and benefit our souls; our resolution for our thoughts, must be the same that the Psalmists were for his song Of mercy and judgement will I sing.  
Now, that we may descend to the particularities; the Psalmist gins at judgement. What desolations, etc. This is the right method; as in the very being of both, judgement leads the way to mercy; so in the meditation and view of both: As it was in the Creation; The Evening and the Morning were the first day; The darkness of the night led in the brightness of the morning; and as the Prophet's word was post tenebras lucem; when we are humbled, and astonished with the consideration of God's vengeance upon sinners, then, and not till then are we meet for the apprehensions of his wonderful mercies: In this regard it is truly verified that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and his judgements are they that make him feared; It is the thunder and rain that prepares the hearts of Israel for samuel's good counsel, 1 Sam. 12. It is with the hearts of men as with the Earth and the seasons of the fruits thereof; If there be too much ease in the winter, and the Sun send forth gleams of heat towards the entrance of the spring it brings forth the blossoms hastily, which after by later frosts are nipped in the head and miscarry; but if there be kindly frosts and colds at the first that hold in the juice of the plants, they are in due time drawn forth by seasonable heats, and prosper; First therefore let us be wrought upon by the meditation of judgements; and then we shall be fit for the beneficial applications of mercy.  
We are then here first invited to a Tragical sight, we are carried into the Camera dimorte, to see the ghastly visage of deaths, and desolations all the World over, than which nothing can be more horrible and dreadful, you are called out to see piles of dead carcases, to see whole basket fulls of heads as was presented to Jehu; a woeful spectacle, but a necessary one; See therefore what desolations the Lord hath wrought in all the Earth: Desolations by wars; how many fields have been drenched with blood, 

One would wonder that so many should have had a b●ing upon Earth.  
Our Florignes tells us that in the year 665. there was so great a mortality in this Island, that men run up by troops to the tops of the rocks, and cast themselves into the Sea.   and composted with carcases; how many Millions of men have been cut off in all ages by the edge of the sword? Desolations by famine wherein men have been forced to make their bodies one another's Sepulchers, and mothers to devour their children of a span long: Desolations by plague and pestilence, which hath swept away as our story tells us 800000. in one City: Desolations by inundations of Waters, which have covered the faces of many Regions, and rinsed the Earth of her unclean inhabitants: Desolations by Earth quakes which have swallowed up whole Cities, and those great and populous. Desolations wrought by the hand of his Angels; as in Egypt, in the tents of the Assyrians, 185000. in one night in the camp of Israel in David's pestilence; Desolations wrought by the hands of men in Battles and massacres; Desolations by Wild-beasts, as in the Colonies of Ashur planted in Samaria: Desolations by the swarms of obnoxious and noisome creatures, as in Egypt, and since in afric, He spoke the word, and the Grasshoppers came and Caterpillars innumerable. Ps. 105.34. Insomuch as in the consulship of M. Fulvius Flaccus, after the bloody wars of afric, followed infinite numbers of Locusts, which after devouring of all herbs and fruit were by a sudden wind hoist into the African sea; infection followed upon their putrefaction, and thereupon a general mortality, in number fourscore thousand died, upon the Sea coast see twixt Carthage and Utica above 200000. Desolations every way; and by what variety of means soever, yet all wrought by the divine hand: What desolations he hath wrought; whoever be the instrument, he is the Author. This is that which God challengeth to himself, neither will he lose the glory of these great executions. We men have a rule in the course of public administrations, and we think a politic one, that all matters of favour Princes should derive from themselves, but all acts of harshness and severity they should put off from their persons to subordinate agents; God will not stand upon such points, he rather professes to lay claim to all the memorable acts of vengeance upon sinful Nations and People: Israel's revolt under Jeroboam is owned by him in his message to Rehoboams Captains: Ashur is the rod of his wrath: He slew great Kings, and overthrew mighty Kings; He hisseth for the Fly of Egypt, and for the Bee of Assyria, I say 7.13. Thou hast scattered thine enemies abroad with thy mighty arm, Ps. 89.11. Good reason that God should claim the propriety of these Acts; For they are the noble effects and proofs of his vindicative justice; Justice renders to all their own: Public Desolations are due to public wickednesses. And if this should not be done, how would it appear that God took notice of the notorious sins of a people, or were sensible of their provocations? As in outward Government if there were no Assizes or Sessions to judge and punish malefactors how could we think other but that all were turned lawless, and that no respect is given to law or justice; the Wiseman could observe that because judgement is not speedily executed upon wicked men, the hearts of men are set in them to do evil. But surely, if it were not executed at all, men would turn Devils: But now that God calls sinful Nations to account for their iniquity by exemplary judgements men are ready to say with the Psalmist, Doubtless there is a God that judgeth the Earth, Ps. 58.18. God will be glorified even for hell itself Topheth is ordained of old. Isa. 30.33.  
2. Even these desolatory judgements are a notable improvement of his mercy: There cannot easily be a greater proof of his respects to his own, then in sweeping away their enemies. Which smote Egypt with their first born, for his mercy endureth for ever; which overthrew Pharaoh and his Host in the sea, for his mercy endureth for ever: which smote great Kings, and slew mighty Kings for his mercy endureth for ever; Sihon King of the Amorites, and Og the King of Basan, for his mercy endureth for ever. Ps. 139.  
Neither is there a greater demonstration of his mercy in his strokes then in his warnings; for surely God intends by these examples of his just vengeance, to deter all others from following the footsteps of those wicked men, whom he thus plagues: as good Princes and Magistrates do so order their executions that paena ad paucos, terror ad multos: some may smart, all may fear. It is excellent and pregnant which the Apostle hath, 1 Cor. 10.11. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. See I beseech you, God hath further drifts in his executions of judgements than we can imagine; he intends them not only for acts, but patterns; he means not so much to punish, as to teach, every judgement 'tis a new lesson, and to teach not the next successions, but all generations of men to the end of the World; and if we do not make this use of his terrible proceed, we shall be much wanting both to him and ourselves: and no marvel if we be whipped for dull non-proficients in God's School if we be not taught fear and obedience by his so many judgements.  
We need not cast our eyes much back to the view of former ages (though there we may meet with worlds of examples) let us but look at the present estate of our miserable neighbourhood; of the woeful ruins of Germany; once and in our time, one of the most rich, and flourishing countries of the Christian world, famous for goodly Cities, for a plentiful soil, for frequency of traffic, for the seat of the Empire, now wasted with the miseries of a long and cruel war, wallowing in blood, buried in rubbish and dust: Oh see the desolations that God hath wrought in this part of the earth, and pick out of them (as we well may) pity, fear, thankfulness. Pity and just commiseration of the grievous sufferings of that desolate Nation; fear of that just hand of God which hath thus humbled them, and might no less deservedly have fallen as heavily upon us: thankfulness for those gracious immunities which he hath given us hitherto, from their evils; and merciful respites of repentance for those sins which have called down these judgements upon them.  
And this is the former particular object which the Psalmist calls our eyes unto; worthy of our view; but yet not the main and intended subject of this day's discourse; rather the other that now follows, the cessation of arms, and the blessing of peace, He makes Wars to cease in all the World, etc. however the sight and due meditation of the miseries of war and the vastations that follow upon it may be a good preparative to us for setting a true value upon the benefit of peace.  
For us, Alas, we had rather a threatening then a sense of war, our neighbours entered into our borders not with a public denunciation of an offensive war, but with a profession of defence. And if some blood were mutually shed, in the passage it was not out of a professedly hostile intention on either part (which had it been, might easily have proceeded to a far greater slaughter) but out of the sudden apprehensions of the intervening crosses of each others purposes: And if the long abode in those our quarters have been not a little chargeable to us, yet it hath been without any violent and bloody prosecution on either part; and now thanks be to God, they are passed away in peace: But even this little glimpse of a dry war is enough to show us the woeful misery of a war denounced, prosecuted, executed to the height of cruelty; where there are nothing but intentions of killing, spoiling, desolation: The anguish of this very touch is sufficient to make us sensible of the torment of the full shock of a destructive war: Out of the sense whereof let us look at this great work of contrary mercy which is here set forth unto us: He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth.  
Wherein we have an intimation no l●sse of the wonder than the benefit of peace: It is a work of power mixed with mercy that he so restrains the spirits of men that they are composed to peace. Desolation is not a work of so much power as peacemaking is; naturally every man hath the seeds of war and qu●rrell sown in his heart, and they are apt to come up on every occasion. Through pride men make contention, saith Wise Solomon: From whence are wars among you, come they not from hence, even of your Lusts, that war in your Members, saith St. James 4.1. Lo, the outward wars come from the inward; The unquiet thoughts of the heart arising from ambition, from malice, and envy, and desire of revenge, are those which are guilty of these general affrays and bloodsheds of the World; and what heart is free from these? Every man naturally hath a tyrant in his bosom: We are all by nature thorns or nettles, and cannot be touched without some stinging or pricking: when there were but two Brothers in the World, one of them rises up against the other, and dashes his brains out: Surely as we do all partake of Adam our Grandfather, so we have too much of our great Uncle, his Eldest Son Cain, naturally affected to violence & slaughter: Hence in the next age after the deluge Nimrod was a mighty hunter, Gen. 10. pursuing men, doubtless, no less in his tyranny, than beasts in his game: And ever since, Lord; how hath the World been overrun with battles and murder! Here one Prince finds his Territories too strait, and hath a mind to enlarge himself with the Elbow-room of the neighbouring Region; There, another scorns to be encroached upon by an injurious usurpation, and repels a less violence with a greater: Here one pretends to the title of a Crown, wherein he hath no more interest than he can hue out with the sword; There another under colour of aid, thrusts himself into that throne which he pretended to secure: here one picks quarrels with the defect of justice done to his subjects, and makes sudden embargoes, and unwarned inroads into the adjoining Country: There another takes advantage of the violation of leagues, and colours his ambition with the fair name of a just Vindication: Here one, if he can have no other ground will make religion a stalking horse to his covetous and ambitious intrusion; it is bellum Domini, a sacred war that he manages; for the reducing of Heretics to the unity of the Church; or punishing their perfidiousness: There, another will plant the Gospel with the swordpoint amongst Infidels, and massacres millions of Indians to make room for Christianity; It is a rare thing, if where great Spirits, and great power are met in any Prince, he can be content to fit still, and not break forth into some notable breaches of public peace. And where once the fire of war is kindled, it is not easily quenched, yea it runs as in a train, and feeds itself with all the combustible matter it meets withal on every side; and therefore 'tis a marvellous work of the power and mercy of God, that he makes war to cease. And this he doth, either by an overpowering victory, as in the case of Hezekiah & Sennacherib; which should seem to be the drift of this Psalm, whereof every passage imports such a victory and triumph as the conquered adversary should never be able to recover. Or by tempering, and composing the hearts of men, restraining them in their most furious career, and taming their wild heats of revenge; and inclining them to terms of peace. This is a thing which none but he can do; the heart of man is an unruly and head strong thing: it is not more close than violent; as none can know it, so none can overrule it, but he that made it; It is a rough sea; he only can say, here shalt thou stay thy proud waves: Shortly then, public peace is the proper work of an Almighty and merciful God: His very title is Deus pacis, the God of peace, Rom. 15.33. and 16.20. Heb. 13.20. so as this is his peculium: yea it is not only his, for he owes it; but his, for he makes it, I make peace and create evil, I the Lord do all these things, Esa. 45.7.  
That malignant Spirit is in this his professed opposite; that he is the great makebate of the World; Labouring to set all together by the ears; sowing discord betwixt Heaven and Earth, betwixt one piece of Earth against another, Man against Man, Nation against Nation; hence he hath the name of Satan, of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of Diabolus; of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; as whose whole endeavour is enmity and destruction? Contrarily, the good God of Heaven, whose work it is to destroy the works of the Devil, is all for peace: he loves peace he commands it, he effects it, He maketh wars to cease.  
This is his work in the kind; and so much more his work in the extent; To the ends of the Earth; by how much more good any work is, by so much more it is his, and by how much more common any good is, by so much better it is: Even the pax pectoris, the private and bosom peace of every man with himself is his great and good work; for the heart of every man is naturally as an unquiet sea, ever tossing and restless: troubled with variety of boisterous passions; he only can calm it; the peace of the family is his; he maketh men to be of one mind in an house, without whose work there is nothing but jars and discord betwixt husband and wife; parents and children, masters and servants; servants and children with each other; so as the house is made if not an hell for the time, yet a purgatory at the least: the peace of the neighbourhood is his, without whom there is nothing but scolding, brawling, bloodsheds, lawing: that a City is at unity in itself, not divided into sides and factions, it is the Lords doing: for many men, many minds; and every man is naturally addicted to his own opinion; hence grow daily distractions in populous bodies.  
That a Country, that a Nation is so, is so much more his work as there are more heads and hearts to govern: But that one Nation should be at unity with another, yea that all Nations should agree upon an universal cessation of arms, and embrace peace, A domino factum est hoc & est mirabile, it must needs be the Lords doing so much more eminently, and it is marvellous in our eyes: Faciam eos in gentem unam, was a word fit only for the mouth of God: who only can restrain hands, and conjoin hearts, as here, He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the Earth.  
Now wherefore serves all this, but for the direction of our recourse, for the excitation of our duty and imitation; for the challenge of our thankfulness?  
In the first place, are we troubled with the fears or rumours of wars? are we grieved with the quarrels and dissensions that we find within the bosom of our own Nation or Church? would we earnestly desire to find all differences composed, and a constant peace settled amongst us? we see whether to make our address, even to that omnipotent God who maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth, who breaketh the bow, and snappeth the spear in sunder. And surely if ever any Nation had cause to complain, in the midst of a public peace, of the danger of private distractions, and factious divisions, ours is it; wherein I know not how many uncouch Sects are lately risen out of Hell to the disturbance of our wont peace; all of them eagerly pursuing their own various fancies, and opposing our formerly received truth: what should we do then but be take ourselves in our earnest supplications to the God of peace, with an Help Lord; never ceasing to solicit him with our prayers, that he would be pleased so to order the hearts of men, that they might incline to an happy agreement; at least to a meek cessation of those unkind quarrels wherewith the Church is thus miserably afflicted.  
But secondly, in vain shall we pray, if we do nothing: Our prayers serve only to testify the truth of our desires; and to what purpose shall we pretend a desire of that which we endeavour not to effect: That God who makes wars and quarrels to cease, useth means to accomplish that peace which he decrees; And what are those means but the inclinations, projects, labours of all the well-willers to peace? It must be our care therefore to imitate, yea to second God in this great work of peacemaking; The phrase is a strange but an emphatical one that Deborah uses in her song; Curse ye Meroz, said the Angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty: Judg. 5.23. Lo, what a word here is, To help the Lord: what help needs the Almighty, or what help can our weakness afford to his omnipotence? Yet, when we put our hands to his, and do that, as instruments, which he, as the author requires of us, and works by us; we help that Lord which gives us all the motions both of our wills and actions: so must we do in the promoting of peace, and the allaying of quarrels: when an house is on fire we must every one cast in his pail-full to the quenching of the flames. It is not enough that we look on harmlessly with our hands in our bosoms; No, we add to that burning, which we endeavour not to quench:  
We must contribute our utmost to the cessation of these spiritual and intellectual wars: which shall be done  
1. By withdrawing the fuel of contention; mitigating what we may the grounds of dissension; those grounds are the matters controverted; these, our Christian charity, and love of peace will teach us either to decline, or to abate & lessen by all fair interpretations; according to that of the blessed Apostle, Charity thinks not evil; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, 1 Cor. 18.5.7. So when Isaac's Servants found the Philistims to st●ive with them for their two wells of Esek, and Sitnah, th●y did no● stand upon points with them, but removed and digged another which was out of the reach of the strife, and called it Rehoboth; elbow-room: Gen. 26.22. And thus the Servants of Isaac made the Philistim quarrels to cease, though by Abimelecs' own confession, Isaac was much mightier than himself. 
Gen. 26.16.  Thus when the main difference grew betwixt Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and the rest of Israel concerning the altar beyond Jordan, a fair construction stinted that strife, which might have embroiled both parts in a bloody war. Thus it was in the Synod of Ephesus, betwixt our good Bishop's cyril and Theodoret, whose differences had like to have rend the Church in pieces, but upon better understanding were allayed: Thus it was in the more general and dangerous quarrel betwixt the East and West Churches concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subsistences, and essence in the Trinity, had not holy Athanasius interposed, showing them their own, unknown, and unacknowledged accordance: would God I could give this phrase to these times: we should not be in the condition we are. How many are rather apt to cast oil then water upon this flame; to enlarge rather than heal this wound of the Church?  
2. By giving seasonable counsels of peace; so the Father of the faithful to his nephew, Let there be no contention between me and thee, and thy herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are brethren, Gen. 13.8. So Moses to the contending Israelites; wherefore smitest thou thy fellow, Exod. 2.12. So the wise woman of Abel to Joab: Thou seekest to destroy a city and a Mother in Israel: why wilt thou s● allow up the inheritance of the Lord? 2 Sam. 20.19. So Abner the Son of Ne'er, after he had set the two armies together by the ears by the pool of Gibeon, yet at last moves for a retreat, calling to Joab whose men he had challenged; Shall the sword devour for ever, knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end, how long shall it be then, 2 Sam. 2.26. Oh for these counsels of peace in these distracted times; how beautiful would their feet be that should bring these glad tidings of peace: Alas m●n are more ready to clap their hands (as boy●s are wont to do in dog-fights) and to say Eia Socrates, Eia Xanthippe: How much more justly may we take up that word of the Psalmist; Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar; my soul hath long dwelled with him that hateth peace, I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. Ps. 120.5, 6, 7.  
3. By opposing & restraining the known make-bates of the Church and State. If Corah and his Company rise up against Moses and Aaron, God takes the quarrel in hand, and they are swallowed up of the earth; If Sheba the Son of Bicri blow a trumpet of sedition he must be speedily pursued to the gates of Abel, 1 Sam. 20. Would God those were cut off that trouble you, saith the charitable Apostle: Neither know I whether this be a greater act of Justice or of Mercy: of Justice, in respect of the delinquents; or of mercy to the Church and Commonwealth. Woe is me, with what words should I bewail the deplorable estate of these late times in this behalf; Let me appeal to your own eyes and ears; I know I speak to judicious Christians: Tell me whether ever you lived to see such an inundation of libellous scandalous malicious pamphlets as have lately broke in upon us: not only against some particular persons which may have been faulty enough, but against the lawful and established government itself, against the ancient, allowed, legal forms of divine worship. Certainly if we love the peace of this Church and kingdom, we cannot but lament, and to our power oppose these insolences: If Reformation be the thing desired, and aimed at; let not that man prosper which doth not affect it, pray for it, bend his utmost endeavours to accomplish it, but is this the way to a Christian reformation, to raise slanders, to broach lying accusations against the innocent, to callumniate lawful & established authority? God forbidden; these are the acts of him that is the manslayer from the beginning; the holy God hates to raise his kingdom by the aid of the Devil. Be as zealous as you will, but be withal just, be charitable and endeavour to advance good causes by only lawful means. And then let him come within the compass of this Curse of Meroz, that is not ready to assist and second you.  
4. By cherishing the moderately affected; and encouraging those that intercede for peace; as those who do the noblest offices both to the Church and Commonwealth; if we meet with a man that can truly say with the woman of Abel, ego sum ex colentibus pacem (as Tremelius turns it) 2. Sam. 20.20. I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel; make much of such; To the Counsellors of peace shall be joy, Pro. 12.20. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem (saith the Psalmist) they shall prosper that love thee, certainly, thus it should be; but alas we are fallen upon times wherein it is cause enough for a quarrel to plead for peace; too well fulfilling that of the Psalmist; They speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the Land, Ps. 35.20. A man in this case is like the shepherd that would part the fray betwixt his two rams: they both met together upon his bones, and send him halting out of the field. The God of peace in his good time remedy these distempers; but in the mean time let us comfort ourselves in the conscience of our happy endeavours with that of St. James, The fruits of righteousness are sown in peace, of them that make peace. James 3. ult  
And thus much for our duty in seconding and imitating this act of God, in making this cessation of wars; by withdrawing the fuel of contention; by giving seasonable counsels of peace, by opposing known make-bates, by cherishing the peaceable minded.  
We descend to our third use proper for this day, which is the challenge of our thankfulness. And surely, wheresoever God vouchsafes to bestow this mercy (that he causes wars to cease unto any nation) he looks for no less, and we shall be foully ungrateful if we disappoint him: whereto we shall the better be excited, if we shall consider first the miseries of war; and then the benefits and comforts of peace. The former of these may be talked of, but can never be thoroughly conceived by any but those that have felt them. I could tell you of sieging and famishing, sacking, and spoiling, and killing, and ravishing, and burning, of weltering in blood, and a thousand such tragical calamities of war; but I had rather the spirit of God should describe them in his own expressions; These Sword without, & terror within shall destroy both the Youngman and the Virgin, the suckling also with the Man of grey hairs, Deut. 32.25. And Jeremy, Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, but this shall be with burning, and with fennel of fire. Jer. 9.5. Not to press those passionate descriptions of Esay, and Nahum; that one of the Prophet Azariah the Son of Obed shall shut up all. Chro. 15.6. In those times there was no peace to them that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the Inhabitants of the Countries; and Nation was destroyed of Nation, and City of City, for God did vex them with all adversity; Mark but the foot of this report; upon the mention of war strait it follows, God did vex them with all adversity; surely there is no adversity incident unto a Creature, which doth not inevitably attend a war: and as all wars are thus woeful and hideous, so much more the intestine, and domestical, those that are raised out of our own bowels, these are beyond all conceit, dreadful and horrible. As therefore we do in our ordinary prayers put all these together (which are the effects, and concomitants of war) From plague, pestilence and famine, from battle and murder, and from sudden death, good Lord deliver us; so good reason have we to put them into the tenor of our hearty thanksgiving, that God hath graciously delivered us from the fury of all these, in that he caused wars to cease to the ends of our Earth.  
As for the benefits of peace, if we were not cloyed with them by their long continuance, we could not but be hearty sensible of them; and know that all the comforts we enjoy either for Earth, or for Heaven, we own to this unspeakable blessing of Peace; whereto if we add the late accession of further strength by the union of our Warlike neighbours, and the force of a strong and inviolable league for the perpetuation of our peace and unity, there will need no further incitements to a celebration of this day, and to our hearty thankfulness unto the God of peace; who whiles he hath made woeful desolations in all the Earth besides, yet hath caused wars to cease unto our ultima the ends of our Earth, and hath broken the bow and cut the spear in sunder: Oh then praise the Lord, O Jerusalem, praise thy God of Zion; for he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates, and blessed thy children within thee; 
Ps. 147.12.13.  He maketh peace within thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat; To that good God of all glory peace and comfort; Father, Son, Holy Ghost, one infinite God in three most glorious persons, be given all praise honour and glory, as is due from Heaven and Earth, from Angels and Men, from this time forth and for evermore. Amen.   

THE MISCHIEF OF FACTION, And the REMEDY of it. Laid forth in a SESMON Before his MAJESTY In the COURT-YARD AT WHITEHALL On the Second Sunday in Lent. 1641.  By JOS. EXON. PSALM. 60.2. 
Thou hast made the Earth to tremble, thou hast broken it; heal the breaches thereof, for it shaketh.  
MY text is a complaint, and a suit; a complaint of an evil, and a suit for a remedy: An evil deplored, and an implored redress. The evil complained of is double; the concussion or unsettlement of the state of Israel, and the division of it; For it hath been the manner of the prophets, when they would speak high, to express, spiritual things by the height of natural allusions, fetched from those great bodies of Heaven, Sea, Earth; the most conspicuous and noted pieces of God's Almighty workmanship. It were to no purpose to exemplify, where the instances are numberless? Open your Bibles where you will in all the Sapiential or Prophetical books, your eyes cannot look beside them: And thus it is here; I suppose no man can be so weak, as to think David intends here a philosophical history of Earthquakes; although these dreadful events, in their due times, and places are worthy of no less than a prophets, either notice, or admiration. But here it is not in his way; It is an Analogical, moral, or political Earthquake that David hear speaks of, and so our usual, and ancient Psalter Translation takes it well; whiles for (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) the Earth, it reads the Land, by a just Synecdoche; and for making the Earth to tremble, reads, moving the Land; and for broken, reads divided, and for breaches, sores; so as by comparing of both translations, The Earth is the Land; the tremble are the violent motions of it, whether by way of action, or passion, the divisions thereof are breaches, and those breaches sores, which the hand of God both makes and heals. Shortly then, here is first an Earthquake, such as it is; 2ly. The effects of that Earthquake, breaches or sores, 3ly. The author of both, Thou hast made the Earth to tremble, thou hast broken it. 4ly. The remedy of both, with the author of it; Heal thou the Sores or breaches, and Lastly, the motive of the remedy, for it shaketh.  
The Text falls into these parts so naturally, that there is none of you who hear me this day, but were able to divide it for me; which I shall desire to follow with all perspicuous brevity, and profitable enforcement.  
And first; hear and consider that the motions of the distempers, or public calamities of States are Earthquakes; either or both, For this Earthquake is either out of a fear or sense of judgement or out of the strife of contrary affectations; the one we may call a passive, the other an active Earthquake; Earthquakes we know, are strange and unnatural things; There is no part of all Gods great Creation save the Earth, that is ordained for rest, and stability; The waters are in perpetual agitation of flux and refluxes; even when no wind stirs they have their neap, and spring tides.  
The air cannot stand still, whiles the Heavens whirl about. The Heavens or any part of them never stood still, but once, since they were made; but the Earth was made for fixedness, and stability: Hence ye find so oft mention of the foundations of the Earth; and the stile of it is, nescia moveri, the Earth that cannot be moved; and that stands fast for ever; And therefore for the Earth to move, it is no less prodigy then for the Heavens to stand still. Neither is it more rare than formidable; If we should see the Heavens stand still but one hour, we should (as we well might) expect a dissolution of all things: neither hath it less horror in it to feel the Earth stagger under us. Whose hair doth not start up at this trepidation; and the more a man knows, the more is his astonishment, He hangeth the Earth upon nothing, saith, Job. 
Job 26.7.  For a man to feel the Earth that hangs upon nothing (but as some vast ball in the midst of a thin yielding air) totter under him, how can his soul choose but be possessed with a secret fright and confusion? Me thinks, I tremble but to think of such a trembling.  
Such are the distempers and public calamities of States, though even of particular Kingdoms; but so much more as they are more universal; they are both unnatural and dreadful. They are politicly unnatural; For as the end of all motion is rest, so the end of all civil and spiritual agitations is peace and settledness. The very name of a State implies so much; which is we know a stando, from standing, and not from moving; The man riding upon the red Horse which stood upon the myrtle trees, Zachar. 1.11. describes the condition of a peaceful government; Behold all the Earth sitteth still, and is at rest; and Micah, They shall sit still every man under his vine and figtree, 
Micah 4.4.  and none shall make them afraid. Particular men's affairs are like the Clouds, public government is as the Earth; The Clouds are always in motion, it were strange for any of them to stand still in one point of the air; so it were to see private men's occasions void of some movings of quarrels or change; the public State is, or should be as the Earth a great and solid body, whose chief praise is settledness and consistence: Now therefore when public stirs and tumults arise in a well ordered Church or Commonwealth, the State is out of the socket, or when common calamities of war, famine, pestilence seize upon it, than the hearts of men quake and shiver within them; then is our prophet's Earthquake which is here spoken of: Thou hast made the Earth to tremble.  
To begin with the passive motions of public calamities; they are the shake of our Earth. So God intends them, so must we account them, and make use of them accordingly: what are we, I mean all the visible part of us, but a piece of Earth? besides therefore that magnetical virtue which is operative upon all the parts of it, why should, or can a piece stand still, when the whole moveth?  
Denominations are wont to be not from the greater but the better part; and the best part of this Earthen World is man; and therefore when men are moved, we say the Earth is so, and when the Earth in a generality is thus moved, good reason we should be so also: we must tremble therefore, when God makes the Earth to do so. What shall we say then to those obdured hearts, which are nowhit affected with public evils. Surely he were a bold man that could sleep whiles the Earth rocks him, and so were he that could give himself to a stupid security when he feels any vehement concussations of government, or public hand of God's afflictive judgement. But it falls out too usually, that as the Philosopher said in matter of affairs, so it is in matter of calamities, Communia negliguntur. Men are like Ionas in the storm, sleep it out, though it mainly concern them: surely, besides that we are men, bound up each in his own skin, we are limbs of a community; and that body is no less entire, and consistent of all his members then this natural; and no less sensible should we be of any evil that afflicts it; If but the least toe do ache, the head feels it; but if the whole body be in pain much more do both head and feet feel it. Tell me, can it be that in a common Earthquake any house can be free, or is the danger less because the neighbour's roofs rattle also? Yet too many men, because they suffer not alone, neither are singled out for Vengeance, are insensible of God's hand: Surely such men as cannot be shaken with God's judgement are fit for the centre, the lowest parts of the Earth, where there is a constant and eternal unrest, not for the surface of it which looks towards an Heaven, where are interchanges of good and evil.  
It is notable and pregnant which the prophet Esay hath, hear it all ye secure hearts, and tremble. In that day did the Lord of Hosts call to weeping, and mourning, and baldness, and girding with sackcloth, and behold joy and gladness, slaying of Oxen, and killing of Sheep, eating Flesh, and drinking Wine; And what of that? Surely this iniquity shall not be purged till you die, saith the Lord God of Hosts. What shall we say to this, honourable and beloved; wherefore hath God given us his good creatures, but that we should enjoy them? Doth not Solomon tell us there is nothing better than that a man should Eat, and Drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labour. Eccles. 2.24. And why is God so incensed against Israel for doing what he allows them? Know then that it is not the act but the time that God stands upon. Very unseasonableness is criminal, here and now comforts are sins; to be jovial when God calls to mourning, to glut our maw when he calls to fasting, to glitter when he would have us sackclothed and squalid, he hates it to the death; here we may say with Solomon, Of laughter thou art mad, and of mirth what is this thou dost? He grudges not our moderate, and seasonable jollities, there is an Ope-tide by his allowance, as well as a Lent. Go thy ways; Eat thy Bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for now God accepteth thy work. Lo God's acceptation is warrant enough for our mirth: Now may his saints rejoice, and sing, but there is a time to mourn, and a time to dance. It was a strange word that God had to the Prophet Ezekiel, that he would take away from him his wife, the comfort of his life, and yet he must not mourn, but surely when he but threats to take away from us the public comforts of our peace, and common welfare; he would have us weep out our eyes: and doth no less hate that our hearts should be quiet within us, than he hates that we should give him so just cause of our disquiet. Here the Prophet can cry out, Quis dabit capiti meo aquas? And how doth the mournful prophet now pour out himself into Lamentations, How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel. Lament. 2.1. Oh that our hearts could rive in sunder at but the dangers of those public Judgements which we have too well deserved; and be less sensible of our private concernments; then should we make a right use of that dreadful hand of God, of whom our prophet here, thou hast made the Earth to tremble.  
This for the passive Earthquake of public calamities; now for the active of public stirs and tumults; with these the land is moved too; and this quaking is so much more unnatural for that men are here the immediate troublers of themselves, whereas in the other they are moved by the immediate hand of God: And here alas, what shall we say to those men that take pleasure in the embroiling of States? that with Nero can sing to see the City on fire, that love to dance upon a quaking earth: Yea that affect to be actors in these unkindly motitations. That great Mathematician braggart could vainly say, give me a place where to set my foot, and I will move the earth; that which that proud Engineer would do by Art, these men will do by wickedness, that and more, for they will be moving that earth which they cannot but tread upon. I remember Georgias Agricola (who when I was a young man was noted for the most accurate observer of these under ground secrets of nature) tells us most probably, that the secondary and immediate cause of an Earthquake is a certain subterraneous fire kindled of some sulphureous matter within the bowels of that vast body, and increased by the resistance of the ambient coldness, the passages whereof being precluded and blocked up by the solid and cold matter of the earth, it rages, and roars, within those dark hollows, and by the violence of it, as murmuring to be thus forceably imprisoned, shakes the parts about it, and at last makes way by some dreadful Vesuvian-like eruption: Such is the mis-kindled heat of some vehement spirits: this, when it lights upon some earthy, proud, sullen, headstrong disposition, and finds itself crossed by an authoritative resistance, grows desperately unruly; and in a mad indignation to be suppressed is ready to shake the very foundations of government; and at last breaks forth into some dangerous rapture, whether in Church or State: Let no man think I intent to strike at a wise, holy, well-governed zeal; no, I hug this in my bosom, as the lively temper of grace, as the very vital spirits of religion; I wish there were more of that in the World; I speak of the unruly distempers of male-contented persons, and of the furies of Anabaptism and Separation. Let such men think what they will of themselves, Solomon has passed his doom upon them, Prov. 6.14. Homo nequam miscet contentiones, as Tremelius turns it: He is no better than a wicked man that hatcheth divisions; how ever they may slight this contentious humour, I dare confidently say, a private murderer shall make an easier answer than a public disturber, even Apostolical charity can wish, would to God they were cut off that trouble you, And more than so, whereas they would not be more stirring then their neighbours, if they did not think themselves wiser, he that is wiser than they gives them their own. It is an honour for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling, Prov. 20.3. So then a quarrelsome man in a parish, especially if he have gotten a little smattering of law, is like a colic in the guts, that tears, and wrings, and torments a whole township; but a Seditionary in a State, or a Schismatic in the Church is like a sulphureous fiery Vapour in the bowels of the Earth, able to make that stable element reel again; worse than that Monster of Tyrants, who could say, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; when I am dead. Let Earth and fire jumble together; but this man says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Let me live to see the earth totter, and with that shaking torn and divided; which is the usual effect of the Earthquake, and the second head of our intended discourse; Thou hast broken or divided it:  
I come not hither to astonish you with the relation of the fearful effects which Earthquakes have produced in all ages, as it were easy to do out of histories and Philosophical discourses; where you may see Rocks torn in pieces, Mountains not cast down only but removed, Hills raised not out of Valleys only, but out of Seas, Fires breaking out of Waters, Stones and Cinders belched up, Rivers changed, Seas dislodged, Earth opening, Towns swallowed up, and many other such hideous events: Of which kind our own memory can furnish us with too many at home; although these colder climates are more rarely infested with such affrightful accidents. It is more properly in my way to show you the parallel effects of the distempers and calamities in States, and Churches. To begin therefore with the active breaches; whom should I rather instance in, than that woeful heartburning of Corah the Son of Levi, and of Dathan, and Abiram, the Sons of Reuben? No sooner were they inflamed with an envious rage against Moses and Aaron, than 250. Princes of the Assembly, famous in the Congregation, men of renown, rise up in the mutiny against their Governors; and these draw with them all the Congregation of Israel to the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation; What is the Issue; After Moses his proclamation the people withdraws from their tents, the earth opens her mouth, swallows up Corah and his Company, withal that pertained to them, and they go down quick into the pit. What a shriek do you think there was, when they found themselves sinking into that dreadful gulf; as for the 250. Reubenites, fire came out from the Lord and consumed them: Lo, the two terrible effects even of material Earthquakes, opening and burning, which we shall find spiritually happening in all commotions of this nature. Look at the rebellion of Jeroboam; the male-contented multitude when their petition speeds not, cries out, What portion have we in David, neither have we inheritance in the Son of Jesse, to your tents O Israel, took to thine own house, David; What was the effect? Israel departed to their tents; only Juda stuck to Rehoboam, there is the division: The stones fly about the ears of Adoram, and become his sudden Tomb, and drive their Liege Sovereign to his chariot; there is the fire of violence.  
So upon the harsh proceeding of Innocent the 4th. against Frederick the Emperor; Maxima partialitas populorum subsetu●a est, as Tritemius tells us; There was such a division of the people as lasted in the computation of that Author no less than 260. years: not without the effusion of much blood; those which took the Pope's part were called Guelfes, those which took the Emperors, Gibellines; here was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed with this Roman Earthquake. What should I overly you with instances. Will ye see the like effects in the Church? I could tell you of those Eastern Earthquakes caused by the Arrians, Donatists, Circumcellians; of those of Province, and the bordering parts, wherein so many thousand honest and inoffensive Albigenses were overwhelmed. I could tell you of the Parisian massacres, and many other such tragical acts; take that one whereof Binius himself can tell you; Pope Urban the 6th, coming to his Episcopal chair would be correcting the lose manners of the Cardinals, they impatient of his reformation flew out to Anagina, chose and set up another for an Antipope Clement 7th. and thereupon perniciosissimum schisma, a most pernicious schism ar●se, which could not be stinted of 36. years, or as Fasciculus temporum says, of 40. years; in all which time saith he, even the most learned, and conscientious men knew not who was the true Bishop of Rome, cum gravi scandalo totius Cleri, & grandi jactura animarum. In the mean time what woeful work do you think there was, what discontented murmurs, what roaring of Bulls, what flashes of reciprocal anathemas, what furious side-taking, what plots, what bloodsheds?  
Here at home what deadly divisions have our intestine Earthquakes brought forth, how have whole fields, whole Countries been swallowed up with the unhappily raised Barons wars, with the fatal quarrels of the two Roses. Blessed be God, our land hath had rest for many years, ever since that happy and auspicious union, and blessings, and peace be ever upon that gracious head, and royal line in whom they are united. I say we have had a long and happy peace, although perhaps it is no thank to some body: for had that sulphureous mine taken fire (as it was very near it) this State in all likelihood had not been shaken only, but quite blown up; those goodly piles and therein the Monuments of ancient Kings had been, together with the yet stirring limbs of dying Princes, buried in their own ruin, and rubbish; Deus omen.  
It is a dangerous thing (honourable and beloved) for a man to give way to a secret discontentment, or to the first offers of sedition: Curse not the King no not in thy thought, Curse not the Rich in thy Bedchamber, Eccles. 10. ult. That great Lawyer said well, if Treason could be discovered but in the heart, it were worthy to be punished with death: For how ever sleight and forceless these beginnings may seem, they bring forth at last no less than public distraction, and utter subversion; what a poor despicable beginning had the Scirifii, two Brothers in Barbary, who desired nothing of their Father but a Drum and an Ensign, but with them they made shift to overrun the two Kingdoms of Fez and Morocco: what a small snowball was that which cursed Mahomet began to roll, which since hath covered all the valleys, yea and Mountains of the East; what a poor matter is a spark lighting on the tinder, and yielding a dim blue light upon the match; yet if once it hath light the candle, it soon kindles a fire able to burn a World; yea, what can be less considerable than a little warm Vapour fuming up in some obscure cell of the Earth; had it had but the least breathing out, it had vanished alone without noise or notice; but now the enclosure heightens the heat, and the resisting cold doubles it, and now it having gathered head, grows so unruly, that it makes the Earth to tremble at the fury of it, and tears up Rocks, and Mountains before it in making vent for itself: Of this nature is a mutinous spirit; he needs no other incentive than his own disposition; and by that alone, enraged with opposition, is able to inflame a world: so wise Solomon, As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife. Prov. 26.21. It hath been always therefore the wisdom of Churches and States by an early suppression to prevent the gathering of these hot and headstrong Vapours, by the power of good laws, by careful executions, and so they must do still; if they desire to have peace. If we would have our Earth stand still we must not stand still, but must seasonably with all speedy Vigilancy, disperse those unquiet, and turbulent fumes which rise up in it; But forasmuch as these mischiefs are first hatched within, and notice cannot be taken of them till they have got a dangerous head, since no man keeps the Key of a man's own heart but himself, the true way of a perfect prevention is for men to work upon their own souls in secret, to suppress the first rising of male-contented, and mutinous thoughts in their own breasts, to settle in themselves a true valuation of peace, and a just sense of the mischiefs of contentions. How have we seen Churches, and States like a dry unliquored Coach set themselves on fire with their own motion? How have we seen good timber rotten with but the droppings of a small chink? Yea how have we seen goodly ships sinking with but a leak; It was a wise observation of Erasmus; sunt quae neglecta non laedunt; exagitata graves suscitant tragedias; There are things which do no hurt to be let alone, but when they are urged breed no small stirs. It was an absurd and ridiculous mistake of the vulgar Translation of that Luc. 15. as Salmeron himself observes in his prolegomena; Mulier perdidit drachmum, accendit lucernam & evertit domum, instead of everrit, The Woman lost her groat, lighted a candle, and overthrew the house, instead of sweeping: See how one letter may mar a sense: but truly so it is; Many a one in but the seeking of a sorry groat, lights the candle, and sets the house on fire; would to God we had not too much experience of this mischief; No less mistaken, but to better purpose, is that Psal. 107.4. where they read Effusa est contentio super principes, whereas the true word is effusa est contemptio; He poureth contempt upon Princes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Apollinaris, or as the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The moral may be too good. Where there are quarrels and contentions, there will soon be contempt, shame, Annihilation: It was our Saviour's word, An house divided cannot stand: If this than be a fearful judgement which is here specified, that there is a division of the Land, Let our hearts abhor to be guilty of bringing it upon ourselves; woe be to those by whom the offence cometh; England had wont to be Anglia, quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Capgrave derives it, intus gloriosa; So we found it in the blessed times of our long peace, and so let us leave it to the succeeding generations. Far be from us that which Bernard speaks of his time, Omnes suum stomachum sequntur; that every man should follow his own stomach, and his own brain. Away with all peevish humours of contention if we love ourselves, our Land, our Church, Let us as the Apostles charges, study to be quiet. Thus much for the active breaches; The passive breaches which follow upon those Earthquakes of judgement are those grievous Vastations which have followed upon the public calamities of any Nation; for these are called Breaches too, as Perez Vzzah; and the hand upon the wall wrote Baltazars' Upharsin. If the Earth could quiver only for a time, and cease again without any sensible breach, it were no great matter; but as there is no thunder in the cloud without an eruption of lightning, so there is no Earthquake lightly without some fearful rapture. The judgements of God never return empty handed; they still bring what they were sent for. Those three great executioners of God, sword, famine, pestilence, what woeful havoc have they made in the World? I could show you very wide breaches that these have made wheresoever they have come; I could tell you out of Josephus of so many Jews slaughtered at Jerusalem & the bordering parts, as you would wonder the World should yield so many men, I could tell you of Eighteen hundred thousand in one Year swept away (as it is said) in one City, Cairo, with the pestilence; what need I travel so far off when we have so many and miserable instances nearer home; Here in England, as our Florilegus or Matthew of Westminster tells us, in the Year 665▪ there was so great a mortality that men run up by troops to the rocks, and cast themselves into the Sea. Do but look back, and recollect those bills of death which in our two last heavy visitations astonished the press; Do but look about at both Germanies and their bordering neighbourhood, and see what gaps the sword hath made in those yet bleeding territories: Oh the woeful breaches that have followed these late Earthquakes of Christendom; the very examples whereof one would think should be enough to teach us both fear and thankfulness; when the Israelites round about saw Corah and his company devoured of the Earth, they run away at the cry of them, and said lest the Earth swallow us up also.  
I cannot blame them, they had reason; the same jaws of the Earth might have yawned wider, and taken them in too. So let us do (Honourable and beloved) yea why should not the care of our own safety prevail so far with us, as to force us, since we see the lamentable breaches that are made in our neighbour Nations, to run away trembling from this gulf of Gods deserved judgements; and shall I tell you how we may run away to purpose? Run away beforehand from those sins which have drawn down these judgements on them, and will otherwise do the like upon us; so shall we be sure to escape the avenging hand of God, who alone it is that moves the earth, and makes these breaches; which is the third head of our discourse; Thou hast made the earth to tremble, thou hast divided or broken it.  
Who or what ever be the means, he is the author of these movings, of these breaches; as in nature, the immediate causes of an Earthquake are those Subterraneous heats which we mentioned, yet it is God the prime cause that sets them on work, in causing both them and their agency; so it is in these analogical motions; Men may be the immediate actors in them, but he that actuates the orders, overrules these means, is God, to him must be ascribed these stir, these break: whether by a just but efficacious permission, as sins, or by a just immission as punishments. This is God's claim, the prerogative of the King of Heaven, Is there any evil in the City and I have not done it? Surely none, except we will detract from his omnipotence, none against him, none without him, none but by him, his infinite power, justice, wisdom, mercy, knows when and how to scourge one, to chastise a second, to warn a third, to humble a fourth, to obdure a fifth, to destroy a sixth; shortly, to break some, and move all; Oh the infinite varieties, and inevitable certainties of God's vengeance upon sinful Nations. Doth Israel walk with God, they are the miraculous precedent of favours to all ages and people: Do they fly off in Mutinies and Idolatries, God hath plagues, fiery serpents, mighty enemies to execute his wrath upon them. Doth Solomon hold right with his God? Never Kingdom so flourished, in plenty and peace; Is his heart turned from the Lord God of Israel? straightways the Lord stirred up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; and after him, 
1 K▪ 11.9. v. 14.  the wicked Son of Nebat the Ephrathite, vers. 26. and which is worthy of singular observation, when that rebel Jeroboam had drawn away the ten Tribes of Israel from their allegiance to the Son of Solomon, and Rehoboam had gathered together an hundred and fourscore thousand men of Judah and Benjamin to fight against the revolted Israelites; the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, Speak to Rehoboam and say; Ye shall not go up nor fight against your brethren; for this thing is from me. Lo who it is that moves the Earth and divides it; we may look (as humane wisdom teacheth us to do) at the secondary cause's; and find them guilty of the public evils; this man's illimitable ambition, that man's insatiable covetousness; the cruel oppressions of these great ones, the mutinous dispositions of tho●e inferiors; violence in one, in another Faction, but if we look not at the first mover of all these lower wheels, we are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not seeing things afar off; we do but as the Dog snarl at the stones, neglect the hand, we are like some fond spectators, that when they see the puppets acting upon the ledge, think they move alone not knowing that there is an hand behind the curtain that stirs all their wires. Upon the sight we do well and wisely by all politic provisions to meet with or prevent all those peccant humours, which may occasion a public distemper; to curb the lawless insolence of some, the seditious machinations of others, the extortions cruelties of some, the corrupt wresting of justice in others: the giddiness of some, others quarrelsomeness; but when all is done if we do not make our peace with God, we do nothing; it is but a reckoning without our host, a remedy without ease: Oh then, in all either our sense or fear of evils, let us have our recourse to that Almighty hand which ordereth all the events of Heaven and Earth, and work him by our true repentance to a gracious cessation of vengeance; else what do we with all our endeavours, but as that fond man who wearies himself lading out the channel with a shallow dish, whiles the Spring runs full, and unchecked. Vain man, can he possibly hope to scoppet it out so fast as it fills: let him take order with the well head from whence it issues, if that be filled up, the channel dries alone: When the Paralytic was with much labour let down through the roof to our Saviour's cure, what said he: Son thy sins be forgiven thee; Alas, the poor man came not for pardon, he came for cure; but that great unfailing Physician knew that he must begin here; If the sins were gone, he knew the palsy could not stay behind them: If ever we think to be rid of judgements we must begin whence they begin; He it is that can both strike and case, wound and heal again; which is the next and must be for fear of your overtiring the last subject of our discourse; heal thou the sores or breaches thereof.  
That great and ineffable name of God consisting of four letters, which we now call Jehovah, no man knows what it was or how pronounced; but being abridged to Jah, the Grecians have been wont to express it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to heal, the sense whereof is answered by that name which the Heathens gave him, Jupiter, as juvans pater. This healing then is a proper, kindly, and natural act of God, whereas the other, as dividing, striking, wounding, commoving, are a● it were forced upon him by men: Surely else, he that is essential unity would not divide; he that is stability itself, would not move, he that is salus ipsa, would not wound, he that is all mercy would not strike: we do as it were put this upon him, and therefore he cries out; Why will ye die O house of Israel? but when we shall return to ourselves and him, and be once capable of mercy and cure, how doth he hasten to our redress. The Son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings, Mal. 4.2. Lo, here is healing for his act, and wings for his haste. Those breaches which are made in the earth by the shaking of it are as so many wounds, gashes or sores in a vast body, and both of these resemble those either divisions or calamities, which fall out in the bodies of Churches or States; the hand that made them must, can, will only heal them. Heal thou the breaches; And how doth he heal them in matter of calamity? First, by removing the grounds of it; Surely, the great and true sores of the Land, are the sins of the Land, which till it please him to heal by working us to a serious repentance, in vain shall we complain of our breaches which follow them. These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a noisome sore and grievous, Rev. 16.2. Not only in the Knees & Legs, 
Deut. 28.  but in the very bowels & vitallest parts, as Jeroboams was, 2 Chro. 21. Woe is me how full we are of these sores (Longae pacis mala) we are; what an Ulcerous body are we grown, like to that great pattern of misery that was totus ulcus, all but one botch, I would not be querulous, but I must say so; What shall I say of our blasphemies, prophanesses, uncleanesses, drunkennesses, oppressions, sacrileges, lawless disobediences, contempt of God's messengers, and all that rabble of hellish enormities, enough to shame Heaven, and confound Earth. These are sores with a witness; Alas, these like to david's, run, and cease not; they are besides their noisomeness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sure and old sores. But yet stay my brethren; we are not come to that pass that Jehoram, was that the Wound is incurable; or to the State of the Sareptans' Son, that there was no breath left in him; but like Eutichus rather, bruised but yet breathing, And still, still there is balm in Gilead; let our Wounds be never so deep, repentance may, can, will recure them, let not us think onwards to heal God's people with good words; this is the way to fester them within; No let us who are Gods Surgeons make use of the probe of Wise Austere judgement; let us gauge the sore to the bottom, and tent it home with the applications of the Law; let us take off the proud flesh with the corrosiving denunciations of vengeance to the impenitent sinners; and then when it is thoroughly drawn let us lay on the sovereign emplasters of the most precious and meritorious mercy of our blessed Redeemer. Thus, thus must all our spiritual sores be healed; and oh, that we could obtain of our own hearts to address ourselves to a saving use of these sure remedies: how happy were both for our souls and for our Land, whose sores yet lie dangerously open; how soon would our justly provoked God take off his heavy judgements? Is it an Enemy that would afflict us? He can put a hook into the Nostrils, and a bridle into the Lips of the proudest Assyrian at pleasure: Is it a Pestilence? He can call in the destroying Angel, and bid him Smite no more: Is it Famine? He can restore to us the years that the Locust hath eaten, the Cankerworm, and the Caterpillar; The Floores shall be full of Wheat, and the Fats overflow with Wine and Oil. In matter of division, secondly; the way to his cure must be by composing all unkind differences, and uniting the hearts of men one to another; the hearts even of Kings, much more of Subjects are in his hand, as the Rivers of Waters, and he turns them which way soever he pleases; sometimes dreadfully forward to a right down opposition, sometimes side-ways to a fair accommodation, sometimes circularly bringing them about to a full condescent and accordance.  
But as we commonly say the Chirurgeon heals the wound, and yet that the Plaster heals it too, the Chirurgeon by the plaster; so may we justly here, it is God that heals, and the means heal: God by the means, and the means by and under God, and surely when we pray or expect that God should heal either of these breaches, we do not mean to sue to him to work miracles, this were (as St. Austin said truly in the like case) to tempt God, but we beseech God to give and bless those means whereby those breaches may be made up. As for the calamitous breaches, those we wish may be healed, so far as the arm of flesh can reach by the vigilance and ower of Sovereignty, by the prudence of wise Statesmen by the sage Council of the State and Kingdom, by wholesome provisions of good Laws, by careful and just executions. As for quarrelous and discontented breaches, there are other Remedies to heal them; the Remedies must be as the causes of them from within. Let the first be a resolution of confining our desires within the due bounds, not affecting mutual encroachments, or unnecessary innovations: Not Encroachments first, Good Lord, what a stir these two great wranglers Meum, and Tuum make in the World; were it not for them, all would be quiet: Justice must do her part betwixt them both; holding the balance even with a suum cuique, and says with the Master of the vineyard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Take that which is thine own, and go thy way, Mat. 20.14. remembering in all states that heavy word of the Apostle: But he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done; and there is no respect of persons, Colos. 3. ult. It is but right that wrong should receive a payment in whose hands soever it be found; and if this retribution fail sometimes with you men of might, whom earthly greatness may perhaps for a time bear out in hard measures to your impotent inferiors, yet there is no respect of persons above, except this be it, potentes potenter punienter.  
Not innovations secondly: It is that which Job finds out as one of the heinousest sins of his time, Some remove the Landmarks; a thing which God hath given strict charge against Deut. 19.4. and we from Moses fetched it into our Lenten Curses, Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's Landmarks, Deut. 27.17. even in this case, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a sure rule; The old way saith the Prophet is the good way: every novelty carries suspicion in the face of it; It was a good question of the Church in the Canticles, why should I be as one that turneth aside to the Flocks of the companions? The wisdom of great Statesmen have still taken it for a just principle, that of Plato, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye have heard of Landmarks, but ye see how it is with Sea-marks if they should be changed, it is the wrack of every vessel, either Rocks would dash them, or shelves swallow them; And as innovations do not well in way of change, so not in way of addition; that which Tertullian said of faces, I may say of main truths, A diabolo sunt additamenta; and if Terpander do but add but one string more to his harp the instrument is broke, and he censured; In regard of both; if it be the great and glorious stile of God, that in him is no shadow by changing; surely those well settled Churches and States come nearest to his perfection that altar least; And if with Lipsius we shall say; Quid si in melius, I must answer, that in every change there is a kind of hazard; it is a wise word therefore of our Hooker, that a tolerable sore is better than a dangerous Remedy.  
The second Remedy must be a discreet moderation in the pursuance of our apprehended right: How many good matters have been marred with ill handling; The debtor did owe to the rigorous steward an hundred pence; no doubt the dept was due, he might justly claim it; but to lay hands on the man, and to offer to pluck it out of his debtors throat, this is justly taxed for a foul cruelty; Many an honest Corinthian was injured by his wrangling neighbour, and had justissimam causam litigandi; yet for Christians to go to law before infidels, this the Apostle taxes for a sinful piece of Justice; why rather suffer ye not wrong saith the Apostle; This is durus serms, says some brangling parishioner that fetches up his poor Minister every Term for trifles, yet in St. Paul's judgement a sleight injury is better them a scandalous quarrel.  
The third is a meek complying with each other, relenting (so far as we may with all possible safety) on either part, if the difference be between unequals, charitable and merciful on the superiors part, humble and submiss on the inferiors. Abraham and Lot fall upon a difference; Abraham is the better man, he is the Uncle, Let but the Nephew; yet Abraham seeks the peace and follows it with him, whom one would think he might have commanded.  
Good David had done his Master and Father in Law no wrong, unless it were tu pugnas ego vapulo; and yet after good demonstration of his loyalty, how humbly doth he beg a reconcilement at the hands of Saul; Wherefore doth my Lord the King pursue after his servant; Now therefore, let my Lord the King hear the words of his Servant, If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, Let him accept an offering. Harsh contestations never did good; The ball rebounds from the floor to the face of him that throws it, whereas a look of wool falls without noise, and lies still: Those that would take birds imitate their language, do not scare them with shouting: Bitter oppositions may set off, but cannot win either an hollow friend, or a known Enemy.  
The fourth and last must be a charitable construction of each others acts and intentions; There is nothing in the World which may not be taken with either hand; whether the right hand of favour, or the left of malice. We see the Son of God himself, in whom the Prince of this World could find nothing, yet was exposed to misconstruction. Doth he dispossess Devils, it is by Magic; by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils? Doth he frame himself (other than his forerunner) to a sweetly-sociable conversation with men for their conversion? Behold a glutton, a wine bibber, a friend of Publicans and sinners: 
Mat. 11.19.  Doth his chosen vessel, St. Paul desire to comply with the Jews in purifying himself with the Votaries in the Temple? 
Act. 21.28.  he is cried out on for an enemy to the law, for a profaner of the holy place; away with him he is not worthy to live.  
Good Lord what uncharitable censure are men apt to pass upon each other; let a man be strict and austere in moral and divine duties though never so peaceable, he is a Puritan, and every Puritan is an Hypocrite: Let him be more free, and give more scope to his conversation though never so conscionable he is a Libertine; let him make scruple but of any innovated form, he is a Schismatic; let him stand for the anciently received rites and government, he is a time-serving Formalist; This is a Diotrephes, that an Aerius, this a scorner, that a flatterrer: In the mean time who can escape free? Surely, I that tax both shall be sure to be censured of both: shall be? yes am, to purpose; and therein I joy, yea and will joy: What? a neuter, says one, what on both sides, says another; This is that I looked for; yes truly brethren, ye have hit it right; I am and profess to be as the terms stand, on neither, and yet of both parts; I am for the peace of both, for the humour of neither; how should the mortar or cement join the stones together if it did not lie between both? And I would to God not you only that hear me this day but all our brethren of this Land were alike-minded; we should not have such libellous presses, such unquiet pulpits, such distracted bosoms; for the truth is, there is no reason we should be thus disjoined, or thus mutually branded; This man is right, ye say, that man is not right; this sound, that rotten; And how so, dear Christians? What? for ceremonies and circumstances, for rochets, or rounds, or squares; let me tell you; he is right, that hath a right heart to his God, what forms soever he is for: The Kingdom of God doth not stand in Meats, and Drinks, in Stuffs, or Colours, or fashions; in Noises, or Gestures; it stands in Holiness and Righteousness, in Godliness and Charity, in Peace and Obedience; and if we have happily attained unto these, God doth not stand upon nifles, and niceties of indifferencies, and why should we? Away then with all false jealousies, and uncharitable glosses of each others actions and estates; Let us all in the fear of God be entreated in the bowels of our dear Redeemer, as we ourselves, our Land, our Church, the Gospel, to combine our counsels and endeavours to the holding of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and labour, and study not how to widen or gall, and rankle, but how to salve and heal these unhappy sores of the Church and State by confining our desires within the due bounds, free from encroachments, from innovations; by a discreet moderation in all our prosecutions, by a meek relenting even in due challenges, by a fair and charitable construction of each others acts, and intentions; and lastly by our fervent persuasions and prayers; and so many as are thus minded, peace be upon them, and upon the whole Israel of God, this day and for ever Amen.   

A SERMON Preached at the TOWER: March. 20. 1641.  By JOS. NORVIC. JAMES 4.8. 
Draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh to you; Cleanse your hands ye sinners, and purge your hearts ye double minded.  
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep, etc.  
I Have pitched upon this Text, as fit for both the time and the season; both of them sad and penitential; and such, as call us to devotion, and humiliation; both which are the subjects of this Scripture:  
There is no estate so happy (if it could be obtained) as that of perfect obedience; but since that cannot be had, partly through the weakness, and partly through the wickedness of our nature, for there is a (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) an impossibility upon it, Rom. 3. the next to it is that of true repentance; which is no other than an hearty turning from our evil ways, and an endeavour of better obedience; and this estate is here recommended to us, under a double Allegory, the one, of our drawing nigh to God; the other, of our cleansing and purging; In the former whereof, the sinner is represented to us in a remote distance from God; in the other, as foul and nasty, both in his heart, and his hands; and the remedy is prescribed for both: of his remoteness; drawing nigh to God; of his foulness, Cleansing and purging; the former is enough to take up our thoughts at this time: Wherein ye have a duty enjoined, and an inducement urged, the Duty, draw nigh to God, the Inducement; God will draw nigh to you.  
To begin with the former, the duty of drawing nigh implies something, and requires something; it implies a distance, and requires an act of approach:  
It implies a distance, for we cannot be said to draw near, if we were not afar off; The sinner therefore is in a remote distance from God, and that in respect of both terms; both as of God, and as of the sinner.  
Of God, first, the sinner than is aloof off from God, not from the presence of his essence, and power; so he would be afar off, and cannot; Whether shall I go from thy presence, or whether shall I flee from thy Spirit? If I go up to Heaven thou art there, and if (as our new Translation hath it) I make my bed in hell; (an uneasy bed God knows that is made there) yet there thou art also: Ye the Devils themselves could not have their being but from God; for their being is good though themselves be wicked; that they are spirits they have from God, that they are evil Spirits (and so Devils) is from themselves: And their companions the woeful reprobate souls would fain be further off from God, if they could: They shall in vain call to the Rocks and Mountains to cover them from his presence; he cannot be excluded from any place, that fills and comprehends all things: How then is the sinner aloof off from God? From the holiness of God; from the grace and mercy of God, from the glory of God: From the holiness of God, he is no less distant than evil is from good, which is no less then infinitely: There is no local distance but is capable of a measure (for an actual infinite magnitude is but an atheous paradox in philosophy:) If it be to the Antipodes themselves, on the other side of the earth, we can have a scale of miles that can reach them: yea of furlongs, of paces, of feet, of barley corns; but betwixt good and evil there is no possible, no imaginable proportion; and as from the holiness of God, so from the grace and mercy of God, he is no less distant than guilt is from remission, which is also no less than infinitely; for the sinner, as he is and continues such, is utterly uncapable of remission; It is true that God's mercy is over all his works, but the sinner is none of them; By him were made all things that were made, John 1. but God never made the sinner, God made the man; but it is the Devil and man's freewill that made the sinner, indeed sin is nothing else but the marring of that which God hath made; sin therefore without repentance may never hope for remission; when repentance comes in place it ceaseth in God's imputation to be itself, but without it there is no place for mercy: Many sorrows, saith the Psalmist, shall be to the wicked, 
Psal. 32.10.  but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about: Lo sorrows and torment are for the wicked, mercy only for the penitent and faithful; The sinner may flatter himself (as our nature is apt to do, (Mens sibi saepe mentitur) with a vain hope of better, but he that is truth itself hath said it; There is no peace saith my God to the wicked, tribulation and anguish on every soul that doth evil, he that hardens his heart shall fall into evil.  
And as he is a aloof off from Grace as the way, so from Glory as the end; here is indeed (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) a great gulf and unmeasurable, betwixt the Sinner and Heaven; One is not so much as within the ken of the other; without holiness there is no seeing of God, saith St· Paul, Hebr. 12.14. no not so much as afar off; unless it be for an aggravation of torment; Much less may any unclean thing enter there; Look as impossible as it is for a man that hath this clog of flesh about him, to leap into the Sky; so impossible it is, for the soul that is clogged with sin, ever to come within the verge, within the view of the third Heaven, which is the presence of the Lord of Glory.  
This for the distance in respect of God; will ye see it in respect of the sinner himself; He is aloof off from God in his thoughts, in his affections, in his carriage and actions. In his thoughts first, which are only evil, continually; He never thinks of God, but when he feels him punishing; and, then; not without a murmuring kind of regret, 
Psal. 10.4.  and indignation; no not even whiles he swears by him, doth he think of him; God is not in all his thoughts, saith the Psalmist, that is by an usual Hebraisme, God is not at all in his thoughts; for otherwise (unless it be virtually, and reductively) there is no man whose thoughts are altogether taken up with the Almighty; the sinners, never) nay, he strives to forget God; and when the notion of a God is forced upon him, he struggles against it; and says to the Almighty Depart from me. And even this alone shows how he stands in respect of his affections: He loves not God, no not whiles he promerits him with his favours. It is the Title that St. Paul gives to wicked men Rom. 1. ●0. that they are, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; God-haters; One would think this should not be incident into a man; for nothing but evil is the object of hatred; and God is absolute goodness itself; yet such is the cankered and corrupt nature of the sinner, that apprehending God, sub ratione mali, he hates him, who is in himself infinitely amiable; and as he says in his heart there is no God, so he wishes in his heart there were no God; He is never well therefore whiles he hath any thing to do with God; whiles he is in his company; or in the company of those that he thinks belong to him, his conscionable servants, and whiles he is employed in any of his services, he stands upon thorns: Thus the sinner is in his affectations aloof off from God; and for his carriage and actions, they are answerable to both the other; All his life is nothing else but a departing from the living God, and therefore he must needs at last be far off; Look to all his ways, you shall find how diametrally contrary they are to Gods; Gods ways are direct ones: the sinners are obliqne, and crooked: God hath chalked out his ways in the Ten words of his royal law, the sinner turns his back upon every one of them, and walks point-blank opposite: God commands an holy and religious disposition towards his Majesty: the sinner gives himself over to a wild and lose profaneness; to a lawless course of godlessness, and walks as without God in the world; God commands all reverend, and awful usage of his name: the sinner tears it in pieces with his oaths, and blasphemies: God commands all dutiful obedience to authority, not for fear only, but for conscience sake: the sinner is ready to say, disrumpamus vincula; let us break their bonds, and cast their cords from us: God commands all sobriety, chastity, temperance, the sinner runs into all excess of riot: Finally, God commands all charity, and justice, to our neighbour, the wicked heart is merciless, and cares not upon whose ruins he raiseth his own advantages; so every way, both in his thoughts, affections, and actions, the sinner is afar off from God▪ Now the moral and civil man hears this and turns it off, as nothing concerning him, he is as near to God as the best: and indeed in some sense he is so, St. Paul could say to his Athenians, He is not far from every one of us: Every creature hath equally his living, moving, being from God; but as for any relation to God, in respect of holiness, of grace and mercy, of glory; this man is as far off as Earth is from Heaven, yea as Heaven is from Hell. For, even by nature, we are the best of us, the Sons of wrath. And if we had no more than even our birth sin, this alone would estrange us sufficiently from God; but besides this, our actual sins set us off yet further; and if we had no sins of commission (as we have numberless, for in many things we sin all, yea in all things we sin all) yet those of omission cannot but put us into an utter distance; for if the moral man could be supposed to do nothing actually against God's will, yet his thoughts are not upon him, being wholly taken up with the World; his affections are not towards him, being wholly set upon the World, and these earthly things; his best actions are not regulated by the royal law of righteousness, but by the rules of civility and common humanity; and the end which he proposeth to himself in them is, not the glory of God, but his own honour or advantage. And therefore both the wicked man, and the mere moral man are aloof off from God; and therefore out of the benefit of God's favour and protection; even as we know that those which live under the two poles, are out of the comfortable reach of the Sunbeams; or those Antichthones which are on the other side of the globe of the Earth, are now whiles it is day with us. Please yourselves therefore ye sinful and natural men, with the spiritual condition wherein ye stand; God is no otherwise near to you, but to plague and punish you, Ye can never receive any glimpse of true comfort in your souls, whiles you so continue, and therefore as ye tender your own present and eternal welfare, stir up yourselves, to take this divine Counsel of the Apostle, Draw nigh unto God; And so from the distance employed, we descend to the approach enjoined; which we shall consider as it hath respect to the presence of God; and to the motion of man: To the presence of God, in relation to his Ordinances, and to his Spirit;  
First then, we draw nigh unto God, when we attend upon him in his worship and service; for God is where he is worshipped, and where he reveals himself; In this regard, when Cain was banished from the presence of God, it was not so much an exile, as an excommunication; Hence is all the legal service called appearing before the Lord; So David, when shall I appear in thy sight, Psal. 42.2. and can find in his heart for this cause, to envy the sparrows and swallows as herein happier than himself; Thus Jacob of his Bethel, God was here and I knew it not! Then therefore do we draw nigh unto God, when we come into his house; when we present ourselves to him in our prayers, whether private or public, when we attend upon him in his word, whether read, or preached; in his holy Sacraments, in all religious exercises; And those that do willingly neglect these holy services, they are no other than aloof off from God; and certainly, (whatsoever they may think of it) this estate of theirs is very dangerous; for if the worst piece of hellish torment be that of loss: and utter departing from the presence of God, then surely our voluntary Elongation of ourselves from his presence must needs be a fearful introduction to an everlasting distance from him: Let our Recusants (whether out of heresy or faction) make what sleight account they please of these holy assemblies, Surely the keeping away from the Church is the way to keep out of Heaven: Auditus aspectum restituit, as Bernard well, It is our hearing that must restore us to the sight of God.  
This in relation to his Ordinances, that to his spirit follows; we do then, Secondly, draw nigh to God, when upon our conversion to him, we become the receptacles and entertainers of his good Spirit: For God is undoubtedly where he breathes into the soul holy desires, where he works Heavenly grace in the heart; This presence follows upon the other, or accompanies it: For, when we do carefully and conscionably, wait upon God's ordinance, than his Spirit offers, and conveys itself into the heart; these are Vehiculum gratiae, the carriage of grace into the soul; Never any scorner, or profane person hath any sense of this presence; This is that David speaks so passionately of; Oh cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thine holy spirit from me; It troubled him, as before, to be kept from God's ordinances; but it troubled him an hundred times more to be cast out from this (more entire) presence; 
Cant. 5.6.7.  the Church in the Canticles, when she misses her well-beloved, how impatient she is? How she runs about the City? How she hazards herself to the blows of the watchmen; and will take no rest till she have recovered him? These spiritual desertions are the saddest things that can befall to a man: For, there is a spiritual familiarity of sweet conversation betwixt God and his, which it is a death to forgo: they enjoy each other, live in each others sight, impart their counsels each to other: So then, we draw near to God, when repenting us of our former aberrations from him we renew our covenants with him, put ourselves into an awful acknowledgement of him; still seeing him that is invisible; when we grow into dear (though trembling) acquaintance with him; taking pleasure in his company, interchanging our dulce susurrium cum Deo, as Bernard speaks, and endeavouring to be in all things approved of him; This must needs be a very comfortable and blessed condition; Oh happy, thrice happy are they that ever they were born, who have truly attained to it; It is a true rule in philosophy, that every natural agent works by a contaction, whether bodily, or virtual; which the weaker, or further off it is, the efficacy of the operation is so much the less; As when we are cold, the fire heats us, but not except we come within the reach of it; If we stand aloof off it warms us so feebly, that we are little the better for it; but if we draw close to the hearth, now it sensibly refresheth us; even thus also doth God himself please to impart himself to us; How ever there is infinite virtue in the Almighty, not confinable to any limits; 
Luc. 8.45.  yet he will not put it forth to our benefit, unless we thus draw near to him; who touched me, saith our Saviour, when the bloody-fluxed woman fingered but the hem of his garment; Lo, many thronged him, but there was but one that touched him; and upon that touch, Virtue went out from him to her cure. He might have diffused his virtue, as the Sun doth his beams at a distance, to the furthest man; but as good old Isaac, that could have blessed his Esau in the field, or in the forest, yet would have him to come close to him for his benediction: So will God have us to draw nigh to him, if ever we look for any blessing at his hands, according to the charge here given, Draw nigh unto God.  
Now then, that from the respect to the presence of God, we may descend to consider the motion of man: There are many ways of our appropinquation to God: this People (saith God) draws nigh me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me: This is an approach that God cannot abide: this lip-walk may advance us to hell for our hypocrisy, but it can never promove us one step towards Heaven: God cannot abide mere talkers of religion: let them say Lord, Lord: he shall answer them, I know you not; Depart from me ye workers of iniquity: There are three ways of our drawing nigh to God, which he accepts of from us, On our feet, on our hands, and on our knees: On our feet first: Keep thy foot, 
Eccles. 5.1.  saith Solomon, when thou goest into the house of God: what are the feet of the soul, but the affections? Then do we therefore draw nigh to God, when we are so affected to him as we ought; when we come to him with the foot of fear, Fear the Lord all his Saints, saith the Psalmist: Serve the Lord in fear, Ps. 2. Fear God and departed from evil, saith his Son Solomon Prov. 3.7. when we come to him with the foot of love; I sought him whom my soul loveth, saith the Spouse, Cant. 3.1. when with the foot of desire, As the embossed heart panteth for the rivers of waters, so doth my soul for thee, O God: Ps. 42.1. with the foot of joy, I rejoiced when they said, Come let us go up to the house of the Lord: with the foot of confidence; In the Lord put I my trust, how then do ye say to my soul, Flee hence as a bird to the hills?  
And as we must draw nigh to God on the feet of our affections, so also, upon the hands of our actions; even as Jonathan and his armour-bearer climbed up the rock with feet and hands: this is done, when we perform to God all holy obedience; when we serve him as we ought, both in our devotions, and our carriage; and this is the best and truest approximation to God; Walk before me, saith God to Abraham, and be upright; Master, saith Peter, if it be thou, 
Joh. 21.17.  bid me come unto thee; and after that, when he heard it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat to him, & casts himself into the Sea, to come to Christ; without this reality of action, all our profession is but idle pretence: I remember our Countryman Bromiard tells us of one, who meeting his neighbour coming out of the Church, asked him; what is the Sermon done? Done? said the other, No; It is said, it is ended, but it is not so soon done, And surely, so it is with us; we have good store of Sermons said, but we have but a few done; and one sermon done, is worth a thousand said, and heard; For, not the hearers of the law, but the doers of it are justified; and if ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them: Glory, honour, and peace to every one that worketh good, Rom. 2.10.  
Now, that we may supply both those other approaches on our feet & hands, we must in the third place, draw nigh to God on our knees, in our earnest supplications to him, for his enabling us to them both: doth any man want wisdom (and this is the best improvement of wisdom that may be, 
Ja. 1.4.  to shelter ourselves under the wings of the Almighty) let him ask of God, who giveth liberally, and upbraideth no man; let us sue to him with all holy importunity; Oh that my ways were made so direct that I might keep thy statutes: Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes, 
Ps. 119.  and I shall keep it to the end: O establish thy word in thy servant that I may fear thee: Thus let us seek the Lord early, and fervently; and pour out our hearts before him; It is not for us to fear that we can offend in an overbold access to the throne of Grace, in bouncing to hard at his mercy-gate; for, Lo, his goodness hath invited us, and animated, our bashfulness.  
When Moses approached to the burning bush, he heareth Come not near; for he came out of curiosity and wonder, not out of devotion; but, God calls us to this approach, Ho, every one that thirsteth come, Come to me all ye that travel and be heavy laden and I will refresh you; and therefore we cannot come with too much confidence, nor fail of success in coming; It is an holy and well grounded expostulation, which the Psalmist hath; How long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth? implying that whiles we can pray, we may make just account of favour, and protection; So then, upon the feet of our affections, upon the hands of our actions, upon the knees of our devotions we must draw nigh unto God; But that we may do so; Our care must be, that the hindrances of our approach may be removed; And, first of all: we must draw off from the World; that is like a rock of Loadstone, that draws our Iron hearts to it, and holds them close to itself; so as it is not easily quit; It is like the Father of the Levites Concubine, that holds us on with a pleasing entertainment, till there be a danger of miscarriage in the return; But ye remember what the Psalmist says, Harken O Daughter, and consider, Thou must leave thy Father's house; we must in our affections leave the World, if we would betake ourselves to God: Tush, (ye are ready to say) we shall hold in with both, and do well enough. Be not deceived, Brethren, The love of the world is enmity with God: Ye cannot serve to Masters, God and Mammon: one of them you must forsake: Abraham must leave his Ur of the Chaldees, his native Country, and his Father's house, if he will have the clear vision of God; The Israelites must go out of Egypt, ere they can offer an acceptable sacrifice to God; we must with Elisha, forsake our team if we will be fit attendants for a Master that is rap't up to Heaven; we must forsake our nets and follow Christ if we will be meet Disciples of his.  
In the second place, we must give strong denials to our own corrupt desires: These are like some leaden weights, that hang upon our heels, and keep us from mounting up into our Heaven; these, like to Potiphars wanton wife hang upon joseph's sleeve to draw him unto folly, and they must be shaken off if ever we would draw nigh unto God: If Father, or Mother, or Wife, or Child lie in thy way, per calcatum Vade patrem, trample upon thy Father's breast in thy passage to thy Father in Heaven: Our self-love, and self-respect lies like an huge mountain betwixt God and us; we must either by the power of our faith, say to this Mountain, be thou removed and cast into the midst of the Sea; or else we must climb over it by the painful practices of a constant and effectual mortification. Shortly, as men, peregrinamur a domino, we are here absent from the Lord, 2. Cor. 5.6. but, as sinners, we are with the prodigal, gone into a far Country, quite out of the Ken of our Father's house, and there having spent our patrimony, and debauched ourselves, we are feeding upon the husks of vanity. Oh let us take up at the last, serious resolutions to return home, though by weeping cross, and put ourselves into our way; we shall be sure that our indulgent Father will espy us afar off, and meet us in our passage, and welcome us with a kiss: according to this word in my Text, Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you: And so from the duty enjoined, we descend to the Inducement proposed.  
But indeed, what needs any inducement at all; There are actions that carry their reward in their mouth; such is this we have in hand: It is a great honour to us wretched Creatures, that we may be allowed to draw nigh to the Lord of glory: If there do but an earthly Prince come ever, though we have no relation to him at all, yet what pressing there is to see him, so as there is need of Ushers, or whifflers to stave off the multitude; but if our own would allow all his subjects to repair to his Court with expectation of favour and countenance from him, what thronging would there be to his gates, what ambition to enter? And, Lo, the God of Heaven gives us this gracious liberty of a free access, and yet withal backs it with a strong motive of advantage; He will draw nigh unto you: And indeed what inducement can there be equally powerful to this, that God will draw nigh to us. There is nothing in us but want, misery, infirmity, deformity; there is nothing in God, but perfection, and glory; and therefore, for us vile wretches to draw nigh to him, what can it be other than an honour too high for us; but for him to draw nigh to us, what can it be but a kind of disparagement to him? Ye know what a construction was set upon our Saviour for this very point, that he did eat and drink with Publicans and Sinners; and how the proud Pharisee censured him, when that humble penitent made an ewer of her eyes, and a towel of her hair for the feet of Christ; 
Luc· 7.39.  Oh, saith he if this man were a Prophet, he would have known what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner: as if the suffering himself to be touched by a sinner were disgrace enough; and yet the God of Heaven will descend to us so low, as notwithstanding our extreme sinfulness and unworthiness to draw nigh unto us.  
God will be so to us, as we are to him; As face answers to face, so doth God to us: when ye look upon your glass, if you smile upon it, it will smile upon you again, if you frown, it will so do also: even so doth God with us; with the pure thou wilt be pure, with the merciful, thou wilt be merciful; with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward; If thou run away from God, he will run away as fast from thee, if thou draw nigh unto God, he will draw nigh to thee.  
And how will God draw nigh unto us: In his Ordinances, In his Audience, in his Graces, In his Aid and Salvation.  
In his Ordinances; For God hath graciously as it were tied his presence to them, as under the law, so no less under the Gospel; when Jethro, Moses his Father in Law took a burnt offering, and sacrifice for God; Aaron came, and all Israel with him to eat bread with Moses his Father in Law, before the Lord, Exod. 18.12. where was that but before the Testimony of his presence, the Cloudy Pillar? And that is very pregnant which God hath Exod. 29.40. This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your Generations, at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, before the Lord, where I will meet you, to speak there with thee. Lo; God meets us in the holy Assemblies; Meets us? yea stays with us there: Zach. 2.10. The prophet speaking of the days of the Gospel; Sing and rejoice (saith he) O Daughter of Zion; for, Lo, I come and will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord: Contrarily, when he withdraws from any people the ordinary means of salvation he is truly said to departed from them: but this, perhaps, not at once, but by degrees; as in Ezekiel's vision he removes first to the threshold, and from thence to the door of the East-gate; and this I would have you know to be done, not only in a mere silence, but in a corruption of doctrine: not only when faithful mouths are stopped, but when men's mouths are lawlessly opened, to the venting whether of popish fancies, or satirical invectives against authority, for you may not think that all discourses are preaching, or all preaching Gospel: when men preach themselves and not Christ, when they utter their own impetuous fury, and not the glad tidings of peace, how shall we call this the message of God? No, God was not in the wind, he was not in the fire: he was in the soft voice; And he that walks betwixt the golden Candlesticks doth not go away only when the light is quite out, but when the snuff burns unsavourily in the socket; Shortly, where the sincere milk of the Gospel is given to God's babes; and the solid meat of true Orthodox and saving doctrine is set before the stronger men, there God visits his people in mercy, and is drawn nigh to them in his holy Ordinance.  
Secondly in his audience, we use to say, out of sight out of mind; and those that are out of distance what noise so ever they make, are not heard; The ravished Virgin in the field, saith God, cried out, and there was none to save her. Deut. 22.27. but when we come near, the least groan and sigh is heard; Thus God, who is never but with us, is said to come near us, when he gives proof to us that he comes not only within the ken of our necessities, but within the hearing of the softest whisper of our prayers.  
So David every where; The Lord hath heard my supplication, the Lord will hear my prayer, Ps. 6. The Lord will hear me when I call upon him: The tender mother is never away from the bedside of her sick child, but if she perceive the disease to grow dangerous, now she is more attentive, and lays her ear to the mouth of it, and listens to every breathing that it fetcheth; so doth our heavenly father to us; The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him, saith the Psalmist: Nigh them indeed, for he puts into them those holy desires, which he graciously hears, and answers. Contrarily, when that sweet singer of Israel finds some stop made of his audience, he is then in another tune: Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction, and our oppression, Psal, 44.24. still measuring God's nearness to us by his regard, and (as it were) re-ecchoing to our prayers.  
A third, and yet nearer, and happier approach of God to us, is, in his Grace and favour; in the other two (as in his word and in our prayers) he may come near us, little to our avail. He speaks to many in his word that hear him not, or that hear him to their further judgement: Our gospel is howsoever a sweet savour to God, yet a savour of death unto death to many a soul, woe be to thee Chorazin, woe be to thee Bethsaida:  
He hears many speak to him in their prayers, but for their own punishment; and sometimes will not hear, in mercy to the petitioner; the Devil sues to enter into the Swine, and is heard; Paul sues to be freed from the buffets of the messenger of Satan, and is (mercifully) not heard; the Israelites have Quailes according to their desires, but sauced to them with a vengeance; But this third appropinquation of God, is never other then cordial, and beneficial. It is a sweet word, I will dwell amongst the Children of Israel, and will be their God, Exod. 29.45. Yea this is true happiness indeed that God will so dwell with us as to be ours. St. Paul told the Athenians most truly (none long ab unoquoque) he is not far from every one of us; how should he, when in him we live, and move, and are? but little are we the better for these general favours, (which are common to all his creatures) if we do not find in ourselves a special interest in the presence of his Spirit: If he only call on us as a passenger, or lodge with us as a stranger, or sojourn with us as a guest, this can be small comfort to us, nor any thing less than his so dwelling with us, as that he dwell in us, and that, not as an inmate, but as an owner: Know ye not that Christ dwells in you, saith St. Paul, unless ye be Reprobates: Know ye not that ye are the Temples of the living God; his Temples, for a perpetual inhabitation of which he hath said, Here shall be my rest for ever:  
Whereupon there will be sure to follow the fourth degree of his appropinquation, which is our aid, and sweet experience of his merciful deliverance. It was out of a full sense of God's goodness, that holy David breaks out into that heavenly Epiphonema, The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite Spirit; many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all, Psal. 34.18, 19 His salvation is nigh to them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our Land, Psal. 85.9.  
So then, the sum of all is this, that if we draw nigh unto God, he will be sure to draw nigh to us, in his Ordinances, in his Audience, in his Graces, in his Aid.  
But, what shall we say to the order of these two approaches? One would have thought he should have said; God draws near to you, therefore draw you near to God: For surely, his approach to us is the cause that we come near to him, and not our approach to him causeth him to come near to us: Do not think that God and man strain courtesy, who shall begin, or that man hath any power to draw to God, but from God: The true order of our regeneration is that Cantic. 1.4. Draw me and I shall run after thee. There have been contrary heresies in the Church concerning this point. The Manichees held man in all things dragged by a necessity of destiny: The Pelagians held man led altogether by his will, so as that can alone enable him to do good, and to feoff him in blessedness: And our Semipelagian Papists go not much less, save that they suppose some help given to the will, which it can thus improve.  
The Orthodox Church still hath gone, and doth go a midway betwixt these; so ascribing all to grace, that it destroys not nature, teaching us (as Bernard well) that we will is from nature, that we will good and well, is from grace.  
But if it stick with you that we are bidden to draw nigh to God, and therefore we can do it; else the exhortation were vain and reasonless; know that these charges show us what we should do, not what we can do; and that he who bids us, can and doth together with the word of his invitation, enable us to do what he requires; his Spirit working with his word effects what he commands; As a mother, or nurse bids the child come to her, but reaches forth a finger to uphold it in the walk: If therefore Wisdom say in the Proverbs 1.17. I love them that love me: yet St. John must comment upon Solomon, prior dilexit; he loved us first, else we could never have loved him, 1 John 4.19. It is true, that in order of time, there is no difference betwixt Gods working, and our willing our conversion, so soon as it is fire it burns, and if it burns, it is fire: but in order of nature God's work is before ours, as the cause before the effect. As we therefore say sensibly, blow the fire and it will burn; implying that our blowing doth not make it to be fire but helps to intent the heat where fire is; so doth the Spirit of God say here; draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you; Our first motion of drawing to God is the work of God; he that thus draws our will to him, upon our pliant obedience to his will, thus graciously seconds, and rewards his own work in us; so if we draw nigh to him, by his coworking grace, he will draw nearer still to us by his perfecting grace.  
And oh, how happy a condition is this, whosoever hath by God's mercy attained unto it. What can that man want who enjoys him that possesses all things? In thy presence is the fullness of joy, saith the Psalmist: as contrarily, in his estranging of himself from us, there is nothing but grief and horror. It is with God and the Soul, as betwixt the Sun and the Earth: In the declining of the Year, when the Sun draws afar off from us, how doth the Earth mourn, and droop: how do the Trees cast off the ornaments of their leaves and fruit, how doth the Sap of all Plants run down to the root, and leave the bare boughs seemingly fear and dead; But at the approach of it, in the rising of the Spring, all things seem revived; the earth decks herself in her fresh abiliments of blossoms, leaves, flowers, to entertain those comfortable heats and influences: so and more is it in the declining or approach of this all-glorious Sun of righteousness; In his presence there is life and blessedness, in his absence nothing but dolour, disconsolateness, despair; if an earthly King do but withdraw himself from us for a time, we are troubled; how much more if the King of glory shall absent himself from us in displeasure. Surely, nothing but our sins can estrange him from us; our miseries do rather attract him to us; our sins are only they that separate between God and us: That we may therefore shut up in some application; there is the same reason of a particular soul, and of a whole Church; one of these is but an abridgement of the other, there is therefore the same consideration of God's absence from, or presence with both: And certainly, if sins can alienate a people from God, and God from a people, we have cast ourselves miserably aloof from him; For which of his commandments have we not shamefully violated; woe is me, how is our patiented God affronted by us every day? By our atheous profaneness, by our frequent oaths, and blasphemies, by our wilful disobediences, by our pride, excess, drunkenness, uncleanness, usury, cozenages, oppressions, lying, slanderous detractions (as if we would utterly cashier the ninth commandment out of the Decalogue)? Yea, what evil is there under Heaven that we can wash our hands of? But withal, we are so much the further off from God, by how much we either were, or or should have been nearer; of a people that knew not God, that could not know him, no other could be expected: Had we had the Gospel of the Kingdom locked up from us, and been kept hoodwinked from the knowledge of his royal Law; the times of such ignorance God had not regarded; But now that we have had so clear a light of God's truth shining in our faces; and such importunate solicitations from God, to reclaim us from our wicked ways, by his Messengers, rising early and suing to us; and yet have (as it were) in spite of Heaven continued, and aggravated our wickednesses: Alas, what excuse is there for us? how can we do other than hang down our heads in a guilty confusion, and expect a fearful retribution from the just hand of God?  
Thus have we done to God, and whilst we have gone away from him, hath he done other to us? Hath he not given too just testimonies of withdrawing his countenance from us? Hath he not for these many years crossed us in our public designs both of war and peace? Hath he not threatened to stir up evil against us out of our own bowels? Nay, which is worse than all this hath he not given us up to a general security, obduredness, and insensibleness of heart; so as we do not feel either our own sins, or our dangers, or relent at all at his judgements? Alas, Lord, thou art too far off from us, and we have deserved it; yea, we have too well deserved that thou shouldst turn thy face away from us for ever, that thou shouldest draw near to us in thy vengeance who have so shamefully abused thy mercy. But, what shall we say? Whatsoever we be, we know thou wilt be ever thyself; a God of mercy and compassion, long suffering, and great in kindness and truth; so bad as we are could we have the Grace to draw nigh to thee in an unfeigned repentance, thou wouldst draw nigh to us in mercy and forgiveness: Can we turn away from our sins to thee, thou wouldst turn away from thy judgements to us: Lord what can we do to thee without thee? Oh, do thou draw us unto thee, that we may come. Do thou enable us to draw nigh unto thee, upon the feet of our affections, upon the hands of our actions, upon the knees of our prayers, that so thou mayest draw nigh to us in thine Ordinances, in thine Audience, in thy grace and mercy, in thine Aid and Salvation. All this for thy mercy sake, and for thy Christ's sake; to whom with thee, O Father, and thy good Spirit, one infinite God, be given all praise, honour, and glory now and for ever. Amen.   

A SERMON Preached on WHITSUNDAY June 9 1644. in the GREEN-YARD OF NORWICH  By JOS. B. of N. EPHES. 4.30. 
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, by which ye are sealed to the day of Redemption.  
IT was a rule of some wise Heathen of old, That he was a great Master of Morality, that had learned to govern his Tongue, his Gut, his Concupiscence; these three; And well might it be so, when Christianity hath so far seconded it, as that the Spirit of God hath singled out one of these for a Trial of the rest: He that offends not with his Tongue is a perfect Man, James: 2.2. So as that triplicity is reduced to an Unity; and indeed if a man have attained to an exact government of this lose, and busy film, which we carry in our mouths, it is a great argument of his absolute Mastership over himself in the other particulars, whereupon it is that the Apostle hath hedged in my Text, with this Charge; Before my Text, inhibiting all corrupt Communication; after it, all bitterness, and Clamour and evil speaking, and betwixt both, enforcing this vehement, and Heavenly dehortation: And grieve not the holy Spirit: Intimating in the very contexture of the words, that that man can never hold good terms with the Spirit of God, (what profession soever he makes) that lets his tongue lose to obscene and filthy Communication, or to bitter or spiteful words against his Brethren, and in these words dissuading us, both from this, and all other before mentioned particularities of wickedness, by an argument drawn from unkindness, look to it, for if you shall give way to any of these vicious courses, ye shall grieve the holy Spirit of God, and that will be a shameful, and sinful ingratitude in you, forasmuch as that holy Spirit hath been so gracious unto you, as to Seal you to the day of Redemption, a motive, (which how sleight soever it may seem to a carnal heart, and by such a one may be passed over, and pisht at, in imitation of the careless note of Pharaoh, Who is the Spirit of God, that I should let my Corruptions go?) yet to a regenerate man (to such our Apostle writes) it is that irresistible force whereof Nahum speaks, that rends the very Rocks before it, Nahum. 1.6. And indeed an ingenuous Spirit is more moved with this, then with all outward violence. The Law of Christ both constrains, and restrains him, constrains him to all good Actions, and restrains him from all evil: The good Patriarch Joseph, when his wanton Mistress solicited him to her wicked lust, Behold (saith he) My Master hath committed all that he hath to my hand, there is none greater in his house then I, neither hath he kept back any thing from me, but thee, because thou art his wife, how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God, Gen. ●●. 8.9. wherein ye see, he hath a double Antidote for her poisonous suggestion, the one, his Master's favour and trust, which he may not violate, the other, the offence of his God: Joseph knew he could not do this wickedness, but he must bring plagues enough upon his head, but that is not the thing, he stands upon so much, as the sin against God. A Pilate will do any thing rather than offend a Cesar; that word, thou art not Caesar's friend if thou let him go (John. 19.12.) strikes the matter dead: Thou art not God's friend if thou entertain these sins, cannot; but be prevalent with a good heart, and bear him out against all Temptations: and this is the force of our Apostles inference here, who after the enumeration of that black Catalogue of sins, both of the whole man, and especially those of the Tongue, infers, And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are Sealed to the Day of Redemption: The Text you see is a dehortatory charge to avoid the offence of God, wherein we have the Act, and the subject, the Act, Grieve not, the subject; set forth by his Title, by his Merit; his Title, The holy Spirit of God; his Merit, and our obligation thence arising, By whom ye are sealed to the day of Redemption: the subject is first considerable, both in Nature and Act: as that, the knowledge and respect whereof doth both most dissuade us from the offence, and aggravate it, when it is committed, The holy Spirit of God: which when we have shortly meditated on apart, we shall join together by the Act inhibited in this holy dehortation.  
That this is particularly to be taken of the third person of the blessed Trinity, to whom this day is peculiarly devoted, there can be no doubt; for both the Title is his, The holy Spirit of God, not absolutely, God, who is an holy Spirit, but the holy Spirit of God; and the effect attributed to him is no less proper to him; for as the contriving of our Redemption is ascribed to the Father, the achieving of it to the Son: So the Sealing, confirming and applying of it to the Holy Ghost. There are many Spirits, and those holy, and those of God, as their Creator, and Owner, as the enumerable Company of Angels, and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Hebr. 12. but this is set forth, as Zanchius notes well, with a double Article, (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) that holy Spirit, by a transcendent eminence, by a singularity, as that which is alone, The holy Spirit of God.  
Now, why the third Person should specially be denominated a Spirit, a title no less belonging to the Father, and the Son, to the whole absolute Deity, as being rather Essential, then Personal, or why an holy Spirit, since Holiness is as truly Essential to the other Persons also, as their very being: Or, why being coequal and coessential, with God the Father, and the Son, he should be called the Spirit of God, though they might seem points incident into the Day; yet, because they are Catechetical heads, I hold it not so fit to dwell in them, at this time. Only by the way, give me leave to say, that it had been happy both for the Church of England in general, and this Diocese in particular, that these Catechetical Sermons had been more frequent than they have been; as those which are most useful, and necessary for the grounding of God's People in the principles of saving Doctrine; and I should earnestly exhort those of my Brethren of the Ministry, that hear me this day, that they would in these perilous and distractive times, bend their labours this way, as that which may be most effectual for the settling of the Souls of their hearers in the grounds of true Religion, that they may not be carried about with every wind of Doctrine (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) in the Cockboat of men's fancies, as the Apostle speak;; but this by the way; I shall now only urge so much of the Person, as may add weight to the dehortation from the Act, Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, and every notion of it adds a several weight, as a Spirit, as the Spirit of God: as the holy Spirit of God.  
It is a rule not capable of contradiction; that by how much more excellent the Person, so much more heinous is the offence done to him: As to offend an Officer is (in the eye of the Law) more than to offend a private Subject, a Magistrate, more than an inferior Officer, a Peer more than a Magistrate (for that is Scandalum Magnatum) a Prince more than a Peer, a Monarch more than a Prince: Now in very nature, a Spirit is more excellent than a Body, I could send you higher, but if we do but look into our own breasts, we shall find the difference: There is a Spirit in Man, saith Elihu, Job 32.8. The Spirit of Man is as the Candle of the Lord, saith Wise Solomon, Prov. 20.27. without which the whole House is all dark, and confused: Now, what comparison is there betwixt the Soul, which is a Spirit, and the Body which is Flesh, even this, which Wise Solomon instanceth in, may serve for all, The Spirit of a Man sustains his infirmities, but a wounded Spirit who can hear? Lo, the Body helps to breed infirmities, and the Spirit bears them out; to which add; the Body without the Spirit is dead, the Spirit without the Body lives more: It is a sad word of David, when he complains: My bones are vexed: Ps. 6.2. and cleaves to my skin, Psal. 102.5. yet all this is tolerable, in respect of that; My Spirit faileth me, My Spirit is overwhelmed within me, my heart within me is desolate, Psal. 143.4. they were sore strokes that fetched blood of our blessed Saviour, but they were nothing to these inward torments that wrung from him the bloody sweat in his Agony, when he said my soul is (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) heavy unto the Death; could we conceive that the Body could be capable of pain, without the Spirit, (as indeed it is not, since the Body feels only by the Spirit) that pain were painless; but this we are sure of, that the Spirit feels more exquisite pain without the Body in the state of separation from it, than it could feel in the former conjunction with it, and the wrong that is done to the Soul, is more heinous, then that which can be inflicted on the Body: By how much then more pure, simple, perfect, excellent the Spirit is whom we offend, by so much more grievous is the offence; to offend the Spirit of any good Man (one of Christ's little ones) is so heinous, that it were better for a man to have a millstone hanged about his neck, and to be cast into the bottom of the Sea, Mat. 18.6.  
To offend an Angel (which is an higher degree of spirituality) is more than to vex the Spirit of the best man; Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy Flesh to sin, neither say before the Angel that it was an error: Eccles. 5.6. Hence St. Paul heightens his adjuration to Timothy, I charge thee before the Elect Angels, 1 Tim. 5.21. And giving order for the decent demeanour of the Corinthian Women in the Congregation, requires, That they should have power on their head, because of the Angels, 1 Cor. 11.10.  
To offend therefore the God of Spirits, the Father of these spiritual Lights, must needs be an infinite aggravation of the sin, even so much more as He is above those his best Creatures; and there cannot be so much distance betwixt the poorest worm that crawls on the Earth, and the most glorious Archangel of Heaven, as there is betwixt him, and his Creator: One would think now, there could be no step higher than this; yet there is; our Saviour hath so taught us to distinguish of sins, that he tells us, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven, Matth. 12.31. and Marc. 3.29. Not that we can sin against one Person, and not offend another; for their essence is but one; but this sin is singled out, for a special obstruction of forgiveness, for that it is done against the illumination, and Influence of that Grace, whereof the Holy Ghost is the immediate giver, and worker in the Soul, who is therefore called the Spirit of Grace: hereupon is Stevens challenge to the stiffnecked Jews, Act. 7.51. Ye do always resist the holy Ghost: And his charge to Ananias, Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, Act. 5.3. Ye see then how this charge riseth, and what force is put into it, by the condition of the Person. A Spirit, the holy Spirit, the holy Spirit of God, enough to make way for the consideration of the Act inhibited: Grieve not the holy Spirit of God:  
Grieve not, etc. How incompatible are the terms of this charge? That which makes the sin (as it is set forth) more sinful, may seem to make it impossible; If a Spirit, how is it capable of passion? and if it be impassable; how can it be grieved? Alas, we weak mortals are subject to be hurried about with every blast of passion: The Almighty is above all the reach of these unquiet perturbations, Lo, that God, which mercifully condescended (because his infinite glory transcends our weakness) to speak unto us men, by man, and by Angels in the form of Men, speaks to us men in the style, and language of Men: Two ways then may the Spirit of God be said to be grieved, in Himself, in his Saints; in himself by an Anthropopathy (as we call it;) In his Saints by a Sympathy; the former is by way of Allusion to humane passion, and carriage; so doth the Spirit of God upon occasion of men's sins, as we do, when we are grieved with some great wrong or unkindness. And what do we then? First we conceive an high dislike of, and displeasure at the Act; Secondly, we withdraw our countenance and favour from the offender; Thirdly, we inflict some punishment upon the offence; and these are (all of them) dreadful expressions of the grieving of God's Spirit; even these three, displeasure, aversion, punishment: For the first, Esay expresseth it by vexation, Esay 63.10. A place so much more worthy of observation, for that some judicious interpreters, as Reverend Calvin, Zanchius, Pagnine, and Cornelius a Lapide think very probably, that this text is borrowed from thence 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉   
And they rebelled and vexed the Spirit of his holiness: Where such an Act is intimated, as compriseth both grief and Anger, surely, we do not think it safe to irritate the great; and if it be but a man a little bigger than ourselves we are ready to deprecate his displeasure; but if it be a man, that is both great and dear to us, with whom we are fallen out, how unquiet are we (if we have any good nature in us) till we have recovered his lost favour; do ye not see with what importunity good David seeks to appease the wrath of his incensed Father in Law; none of the best men and causelessly provoked? Let my Lord the King hear the words of his Servant: If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering; but if they be the Children of men, cursed be they before the Lord: And even joseph's Brethren, (though so ill-natured, that they could eat and drink, whilst their Brother was crying in their pit) yet at last (as doubtless they had done ere then) they come with humble prostrations, and passionate Supplications to their Brother, 
Gen. ult.  we pray thee forgive the trespass of the Servants of thy Father's God: what speak I of these? Even Absolom himself, (though he soon after carried a Traitor in his bosom) how earnestly he sued for his restoring to his fathers long denied presence, and out of his impatience, caused Joab to pay dear for the delay? Oh then, how should we be affected with the sense of the displeasure of the holy Spirit of our good God, who as he is our best friend, so he is a most powerful avenger of wickedness: Surely, we do so vex, and sadden him with our grievous provocations, that he cries out, and makes moan of his insufferable wrong this way, Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, and wearied me with thine iniquities, Esa. 43.24. and Amos 1.13. Behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed, that is full of Sheaves; even so full that the Axletree creaks, and bends and cracks again. It must needs be a great weight that the Almighty complaines of; and surely so it is: could our offences be terminated in men, and not strike God through them, we might well say, that all the outrages, and affronts that we could put upon a world of men, were nothing to the least violation of the infinite Majesty of God; and so doth the God against whom they are committed take them; by how much more tender the part is, so much more painful is the blow; the least wipe of the eye troubles us more than a hard stroke upon the back; it is easy to observe, that the more holy the person is, the more he is afflicted with his own, and with others sin: Let vexed his righteous Soul with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites; David's eyes gushed out rivers of waters, because men kept not the Law, how much more than shall the holy God (from whom these good men receive these touches of Godly indignation) be vexed to see and hear our profanations of his name and days, our contempt of his Servants and ordinances, our debauched lives, our malicious and oppressive practices, our wilful disobediences, our shameful excesses, and uncleanesses, our uncharitable censures of each other, and all that World of wickedness, that we are overborne withal; grief is never but an unpleasive passion, the rest have some life and contentment in them. Not only love, and joy (which useth to dilate and cheer the heart) but even hatred itself, to a rancorous stomach, hath a kind of wicked pleasure in it; but grief is ever harsh, and tedious; one of St. Augustins' two tormentors of Mankind. 
Dolour et Timor.  And shall our hearts tell us, That we have grieved the good Spirit of God by our sins, and shall not we be grieved at ourselves that we have grieved him? How can there be any true sense of heavenly love, and gratitude in us, if we be not thoroughly humbled, and vexed within ourselves to think that we have angered so good a God? How can we choose but roar out in the unquietness of our souls, with the holy Psalmist, There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine Anger, neither is there any rest in my Bones because of my sin; for mine iniquities are gone over my head, as an heavy burden they are to heavy for me to bear, Ps. 38.3, 4. Certainly, it is a sign of a graceless Soul to be secure, and cheerful under a known sin: that Man that can sleep sound after a murder, that can give merry checks to his Conscience after an act of adultery, or theft, or any such grievous crimes, hath an heart insensible of goodness, and may prove a fit brand for hell. This is that whereof Esay speaks, In that Day, did the Lord of Hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth; and behold joy and gladness, slaying of Oxen, and killing of Sheep, eating Flesh, and drinking Wine. Esa. 22.12, 13. But it follows next; Surely this iniquity shall not be purged till ye die, verse. 14. these are they that say, we have made a covenant with death, and with hell we are at an agreement, but it follows soon after; Their covenant with death shall soon be disannulled, and their agreement with hell shall not stand, Esa. 28.15.18.  
Far, far be this disposition from us, that profess to love the Lord, let it be with us, as with some good natured Children, whom I have seen, even after their whip unquiet, till with their continued tears and importunities they have made their peace with their offended parent; And thus much for the displeasure which is in this, grieving of the Spirit of God, which never goes alone, but is attended by those two other consequent effects; Aversion and Punishment.  
As those therefore which scent an unsavoury breath, turn their heads aside, and those great and good guests, who find themselves ill used, change their Inn; so doth the holy Spirit of God, upon occasion of our wilful sins, turn away his face, and withdraw his presence: In a little wrath I hide my face from thee, saith God, Esa. 54.8. This good David found, and complained of; Thou turnedst away thy face and I was troubled, Psal. 30.7. And again (as if he feared, lest God would be quite gone, upon those his horrible sins of Adultery, and Murder) he cries out passionately; O cast me not away from from thy Presence, and take not thine holy Spirit from me, Psal, 51.11.  
This is that which Divines call, spiritual desertion, A course which God takes, not seldom, when he finds a kind of restiveness and neglect in his Servants, or passage given to some heinous sin against the checks of conscience, where he intends correction, quickening, and reclamation; the Spouse in the Canticles, because she opened not instantly to her Beloved, finds herself disappointed, I opened to my Beloved, but my Beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone, and my Soul failed me: Cant. 5.6. This is no other, than we must make account of, and which (if we have any acquaintance with God, and ourselves) in our daily experience, we have found, and shall find, if we have given way to any willing sin: in that very Act the Spirit is grieved, and in that Act of grief subduced: neither can we ever expect comfort in the sense of his return, or hope to have his face shine upon us again, till we have won him to us, and recovered his favour, by an unfeigned Repentance.  
Is there any of us therefore that hath grieved and estranged the holy Spirit from us, by any known offence, it must cost us warm water ere we can recover him, and the light of his countenance upon us, neither let us be sparing of our Tears to this purpose; let no Antinomian stop the floodgates of our eyes, let no Popish Doctor prevail to the abatement of this holy sorrow; those men, out of a profession of much outward rigour and austerity, do under hand by their doctrine slacken the reins of true penitence to their clients: Contritio una vel remissa, etc. One easy contrition is able to blot out any sin, if never so heinous, saith their learned Cardinal Toleth: and their Jesuit Maldonate, to the same effect, Ad perfectionem Poenitentiae, etc. To the perfection of penitence is required only a sleight kind of inward sorrow, wherein I cannot better resemble them, then to timorous, or indulgent Chirurgeons, that think to pleasure the patiented, in not searching the wound to the bottom▪ for which kindness, they shall receive little thank at the last; for the wound hereupon festers within, and must cost double time, and pain in the cure; whereas those solid Divines, that experimentally know what belongs to the healing of a sinning Soul, go through stitch to work; Insomuch as Cardinal Bellarmine, taxeth it, as too much Rigour in Luther, Calvin, and Chemnitius, that they require Magnam animi concussionem, a great concussion of soul, and a sharp and vehement contrition of the penitent. For us, let us not be niggardly of our sorrow, but in these cases, go mourning all the day long; See how the Spirit of God expresses, Zachar. 12.10. They shall Mourn as one that Mourneth for his only Son, and shall be in bitterness, as one that is in bitterness for his first Born. This is a Repentance never to be repent of, Blessed are they that thus mourn, for they shall be comforted.  
This aversion is punishment enough alone, and if it should be total, and final, (as it is not to Gods own Children) it were the worst piece of Hell, for the punishment of loss is justly defined worse than that of sense; but withal, it is attended (as there is good cause) with sensible demonstrations of God's anger, and the smart of the offender, My wounds stink and are corrupted because of my foolishness, saith the Psalmist, Psal. 38.5. I am weary of my groaning, Psal. 6.6. And if the most righteous cannot avoid this sore hand of the Almighty where shall wilful sinners appear? These effects of God's displeasure then are such, as are worth trembling at; It is true, as that wise Pagan said (a speech worthy to be written in Letters of Gold, and that which I doubt not shall be in the day of Judgement laid in the dish of many Millions of professed Christians) si Omnes Deos, hominesque celare possimus, nihil avare, nihil injust, nihil libidinose, nihil incontinenter faciendum: That if we could hid our actions from God and men, yet we may do nothing covetously, nothing unjustly, nothing lustfully, nothing incontinently. Who would not be ashamed to hear this fall from an Heathen, when he sees how many Christians live? but it is most true; A good man dare not sin, though there were no Hell; but, that holy and wise God, that knows how sturdy and headstrong natures he hath to do withal, finds it necessary to let men feel that he hath store of Thunderbolts for sinners, that he hath Magazines of Judgements, and after all, an Hell of torments for the rebellious; and indeed we cannot but yield it most just, that it should be so. If but an equal do grieve and vex us, we are ready to give him his own, with advantage, and if an inferior, we fall upon him with hand, and tongue, and are apt to crush him to nothing, and even that worm, when he is trodden on, will be turning again; how can we, or why should we think, that the great and holy God will be vexed by us, and pocket up all, our indignities? If a Gnat or Flea do but sting thee, thou wilt kill it, and thinkest it good justice, yet there is some proportion betwixt these Creatures and thee, but what art thou (silly nothing) to the Infinite? We men have devised varieties of punishments for those that offend our laws: Artaxerxes his decree mentions four sorts: Death, Banishmentt, Confiscation, Imprisonment, Ezra: 7.26. And (which perhaps you will wonder at) commits the managing of justice in the execution of them all, to Ezra the Priest: the Romans (as Tully tells us) had eight several kinds of punishments for their delinquents: Forfeiture, Bonds, Stripes, Retaliation, Shame, Exile, Servitude, and Death. God hath all these double over; and a thousand others: for the First which is Forfeiture, here is the Forfeiture of no less than all, Take from him the pound, saith the Master concerning the unfaithful servant, Luc. 19.24. for the Second, Bonds, here are the most dreadful Bonds that can be, even everlasting chains of darkness, Judas: 6. for Stripes, here are many Stripes for the knowing and not doing servant, Luc. 12.47. for Retaliation, it is here just and home, it is just with God to render tribulation to those that trouble you, 2 Thess. 1.6. for Shame, here is confusion of face, Da●. 9.8. for Exile, here is an everlasting Banishment from the presence of God, Matth. 25.41. for Servitude, here is the most odious Bondage, sold under sin: Rom. 7.14. for Death; here is a double death, a temporal and eternal: these, and more than can be expressed are the consequents of God's displeasure: If thou lovest thyself therefore, take heed, above all things, of grieving thy God with thy sins, and if thou hast done so, hasten thy reconciliation, agree with thine adversary in the way, else tribulation and anguish upon every soul that doth evil; thy grieving of him, shall end in weeping, and wailing, and gnashing, for our God is a consuming fire.  
And here now (that I may turn your thoughts a little aside from a personal to a national grieving of God's Spirit) I am fallen upon the grounds of those heavy judgements, under which we have lain thus long, groaning, and gasping, to the pity, and astonishment of our late envying neighbourhood; even the destroying, and devouring sword; alas, my Beloved, we have grieved our good God by our haunous sins of all sorts, and now we do justly feel the heavy effects of his displeasure; we have warred against Heaven with our iniquities, and now it is just with God to raise up war against us, in our own Bowels. It was the Motto that was wont to be written upon the Scotish coin, as the emblem of their Thistle, Nemo me impune Lacesset, None shall scape free, that provokes me; Surely it is a word that well fits the Omnipotent, and eternal justice, and power of Heavens; we have provoked that to wrath, and therefore could not hope to avoid a fearful judgement; woe is me, we have made ourselves enemies to God, by our rebellious sins, therefore thus saith the Lord, the Lord of Hosts the Mighty one of Israel: Ah I will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of mine Enemies: Esa. 1.24.  
Three things there are that aggravate the deep unkindness, that God hath taken at our thus Grieving of him: his Endearments, our Engagements, his Expectation: were we a people that God had no whit promerited by his favours, that he had done nothing for us, more than for the savage Nations of the World, surely the God of Heaven had not taken it so deeply to heart; but now, that he hath been more kind to us, then to any Nation under Heaven, how doth he call Heaven, and Earth to record of the justness of his high regret, Hear O Heaven, and hearken O Earth, for the Lord himself hath spoken. I have nourished, and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me: Esa. 1.2. and excellently Jerem. 2.31. O generation, see the word of the Lord: have I been a wilderness to Israel? a land of darkness; therefore it follows, Behold I will plead with thee, ver. 35. Neither are his endearments of us, more than our engagements to him; for what Nation in all the World hath made a more glorious profession of the name of God, than this of ours? What Church under the cope of Heaven hath been more famous, and flourishing? Had we not pretended to holiness, and purity of religion even beyond others, the unkindness had been the less: now, our unanswerableness calls God to the highest protestation of his offence, Be astonished O Heavens, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord, for my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the Fountain of living waters, and have hewn them out Cisterns, broken Cisterns that can hold no water, Jer. 2.11. And who is so blind as my servant: Esa. 42.19. Now according to his Endearments, and our Engagements hath been his just expectation of an answerable carriage of us towards him: the Husbandman looks not for a crop in the wild desert; but where he hath Gooded, and ploughed, and Eared, and Swoon, why should not he look for an harvest? And this disappointment is a just heightener of his grief, what could I have done more for my Vineyard that I have not done? I looked for grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now I will tell you what I will do to my Vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and I will lay it waste: Esa. 5.4, 5. Woe is me, we do not hear, but feel God making his fearful word good upon us; I need not tell you what we suffer; the word of Esay is fulfilled here, It shall be a vexation only to understand the report: Esa. 28.19. Alas we know it too well, what rivers of blood, what piles of Carcases are to be seen on all sides, would God I could as easily tell you of the Remedy; and why can I not do so? Doubtless, there is a remedy no less certain, than our suffering, if we had but the grace to use it; too long, alas, too long have we driven off the applying of our redress; yet even still there is Balm in Gilead, still there is hope, yea assurance of help; if we will not be wanting to ourselves: we have grieved our God to the height, Oh that we could resolve to make our peace with our provoked God at the last. Excellent is that of Esay. 27.5. Let him take hold of my strength, and make Peace with me, and he shall make peace with with me. Oh that we could take hold of our strong Helper, who is mighty to save; that we would lay hold on the strength of his marvellous mercies: Oh that we could take Benhadad's course here; as they said of the King of Israel much more may I say of the God of Israel, He is a merciful God, let us put sackcloth upon our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go to the God of Israel, and say, Thy servants say, I pray thee let us live, 1 K. 20.31. Oh that it could grieve us thoroughly, that we have grieved so good a God: that we could by a sound and serious humiliation, and hearty Repentance reconcile ourselves to that offended Majesty; we should yet live to praise him for his merciful deliverance, and for the happy restauration of our peace, which God for his mercy's sake vouchsafe to grant us.  
Thus much for the grieving of the holy Spirit in himself, by way of allusion to humane affection; Now follows that grievance which by way of Sympathy he feels in his Saints.  
Anselme, Aquinas, Estius, and other latter Interpreters have justly construed one branch of this offence of the Holy Spirit to be, when through our lewd, despightful words or actions, we grieve and scandalise those Saints and Servants of God, in whom that Holy Spirit dwells.  
It is true (as Zanchius observes well) that it is no thank to a wicked man that the Spirit of God is not grieved by him, even in person; he doth what he can to vex him; the Impossibility is in the Impassibleness of the Spirit of God, not in the Will of the Agent: But although not in himself, yet in his faithful Ones, he may, and doth grieve him: They are the Receptacles of the Holy Ghost, which he so possesses and takes up, that the injuries and affronts done to them are felt, and acknowledged by him: As when an enemy offers to burn, or pull down, or strip & plunder the house, the Master or Owner takes the violence as done to himself; We are the Temples, the Houses wherein it pleaseth the Spirit of God to dwell, what is done to us, is done to him in us; He challengeth as our Actions (The Spirit of God prays in us, Rom. 8.26.) so our Passions also; he is grieved in our grief; such an interest hath God in his, that as Christ the second person in the Trinity could say to Saul, why persecutest thou me? So the Holy Ghost appropriates our injuries to himself. If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ, happy are ye (saith S. Peter) for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified, 1 Pet. 4.14. Lo, the Holy Spirit is glorified by our sufferings, and is evil spoken of in our reproaches, the word is (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) is blasphemed; so as (it is a fearful thing to think of) to speak contumelious words against God's children, is by the Apostles own determination, no better than a kind of blaspheming the Holy Ghost.  
See then & consider ye malicious & uncharitable men, your wrongs reach further than ye are ware of; ye suffer your tongues to run riot in bitter Scoffs, in spiteful slanders, in injurious raylings against those that are truly conscionable, ye think ye gall none but men, worse than yourselves, but ye shall find that ye have opened your mouths against Heaven: I speak not for those that are mere outsides & visors of Christianity, making a show of Godliness, and denving the power of it in their lives; I take no protection of them, God shall give them their portion with Hypocrites; But if he be a true child of God, one that hath the true fear of God planted in his heart, and one that desires to be approved to God in all his ways (though perhaps he differ in judgement, and be of another profession from thee in some collateral matters, (as the God of Heaven stands not upon such points) let him I say be one of God's dear and secret ones, whom thou revilest and persecutest, the Spirit of God feels the Indignities that are offered to such a one, and will let thee feel, that he feels them; make as slight as you will of scandalising and wronging a good man, there is a good God that will pay you for it.  
What an heavy complaint is that, which the Apostle makes to his Corinthians, concerning himself and his fellows: I think (saith he) that God hath set forth us the Apostles last, as it were appointed to death, for we are made a spectacle to the World, and to Angels, and to Men, 1 Cor. 4.9. and verse the 13. We are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things unto this day. Alas if this were the condition of the blessed Apostles to be thus vilified, why should it seem strange to us, their unworthy successors, and Disciples, if we be thought fit for nothing but to be cast upon the dunghill: but these reproaches, however we may take coolly, and calmly, as that Stoic Philosopher did, who whilst he was discoursing of being free from passions (it being the doctrine of that sect, that a wise man should be impassionate) a rude fellow spat purposely in his face, and when he was asked, whether he were not angry; answered, not truly, I am not angry, but I doubt whether I should not be angry at such an abuse; but there is a God that will not put up our contumelies so, we strike his servants on Earth, and he feels it in Heaven, It is very emphatical which the Apostle hath to this purpose, Coloss. 1.24. I fill up (that which is behind) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Astering of the Afflictions of Christ in my flesh: Intimating that there is one entire body (as it were) of Christ's sufferings, part whereof he endured in his own person, and part he still sustains in his members, so as he cannot be free whiles they suffer, inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of my brethren, ye did it unto me, Mat. 15.40. As the soul feels what is done to the body (the Iron entered into his Soul, saith the Psalmist) so what is done to the faithful soul, God is sensible of, and will revenge it accordingly, what shall be done to thee thou false Tongue, saith the Psalmist, even mighty and sharp Arrows with hot burning Coals: Psal. 102.3. Thou hast shot thine Arrows, even bitter words against Gods chosen one's, and God shall send thee sharper arrows of his vengeance, singing into thy bosom; thy tongue hath been set on fire with contention, and hath helped to kindle it in others, and now God shall fill thy mouth with hotter coals of that fire which shall never be quenched. Oh then as we tender our own safety, let us bind our Tongues, and hands to the good behaviour, and resolve with the holy Apostle, To give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God: 1. Cor. 10.32.  
Now as the holy Spirit of God both in himself and in his Children, is grieved with our lewd speeches, and offensive carriage, so contrarily, God, and his holy Spirit are joyed in our gracious speeches, and holy conversation, Luc. 15.10. I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth: Lo this is God's joy and the Angels witness it, it is the owner that hath found the lost Groat, and that saith Rejoice with me: how doth conscionable and godly behaviour, and holy Communication make Music in Heaven.  
We have known many that have thought their time well bestowed, if they could make a great Man smile (Principibus placuisse, etc.) And perhaps their facetious urbanity hath not passed unrewarded; Oh what shall we think of moving true delight to the King of glory: It was no small encouragement to the Colossians, that the Apostle professes he was with them rejoicing, and beholding their Order, Coloss. 2.5. What a comfort than must it needs be, that the great God of Heaven is with us, and takes notice of our carriage, and contentment in it, 
Revel. 2.2.  I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, saith the Spirit of God to the Angel (or Bishop) of the Church of Ephesus: and Videndo vidi, saith God to Moses, concerning the Israelites, I have seen the afflictions of my people: it is said of Anthony the Hermit, Let no man bogle at this, that I mention an Hermit to this Congregation, (those first Eremites that went aside into the Wilderness, to avoid those primitive persecutions, were holy men, great Saints, and of a quite different alloy from those of the present Romish Church, Mera Nominum Crepitacula) that when he was set upon by Devils, and buffeted by them, as St. Paul was, 2 Cor. 12. (according to learned Cameran his interpretation) after the conflict he cried out, O bone Jesus ubi eras? O Lord Jesus where wast thou? and received answer, juxta te eram, etc. I was by thee, and looked how thou wouldst demean thyself in thy combat; who would not fight valiantly, when he fights in the eye of his Prince?  
It is the highest consideration in the World, this, how doth God relish my actions and me? The common rule of the World is, what will men say? what will my neighbours? what will my superiors? what will posterity? and according to their conceits we are willing to regulate our carriage: but a true Christian looks higher, and for every thing he says or does, inquires after the censure or allowance of God himself, still caring that the words of his mouth, and the meditations of his heart may be accepted of his God: and if his heart tell him, that God frowns at his actions, all the World cannot cheer him up; but he will go mourning all the day long, till he have made his peace, and set even terms between God and his Soul: but if that tell him all is well, nothing in the world can deject and dishearten him; but he takes up that resolution which Solomon gives for advice, Let thy Garments be white, and let no Oil be wanting to thine head, go thy way, Eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy Wine with a merry heart, for now God accepteth thy works, Eccles. 9.7, 8. And this consideration as it never can be unseasonable, so is a most fit cordial for every honest and good heart, in these dismal times; we are in a sad condition, and perhaps in expectation of worse, the sword is either devouring or threatening, we are ready to be swallowed up with grief, or fear: what should we now do? Dear Christians let every one of us look in what terms he stands with his God, do we find the face of God clouded from us, let our souls refuse comfort till we have recovered his favour, which is better than life; do we find ourselves upon our sound repentance, received to grace and favour of the Almighty, and that he is well pleased with our persons, and with our poor obediences, and that he smiles upon us in Heaven, courage, dear Brethren, in spite of all the frowns and menaces of the World; we are safe and shall be happy: here is comfort for us in all tribulation 2 Cor. 1.4. with that chosen vessel, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; ●e are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; 
2. Cor. 4.8.  cast down, but not destroyed; for which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, 
16.  yet the inward man is renewed day by day, for our light Affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us, 
18.  a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: to the full possession whereof, the God that hath ordained us, graciously bring us, for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous. To whom with the Father, and the holy Ghost, three persons, and one glorious God, be given all praise honour, glory, and dominion now, and for evermore.   

A Second SERMON In prosecution of the same Text, PREACHED AT St. GREGORY'S CHURCH IN NORWICH July 21. 1644.  By JOS. B. of N. EPHES. 4.30. 
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption.  
WE have done with the Dehortation itself, and therein with the Act forbidden, (Grieve not;) and with the title of the Subject, (the Holy Spirit of God;) We descend to the enforcement of the Dehortation, by the great merit of the Spirit of God; (whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption.)  
Those that are great and good, we would not willingly offend, though mere strangers to us: but if they be besides, our great friends and liberal Benefactors, men that have deserved highly of us, we justly hold it a foul shame, and abominable ingratitude, wilfully to do aught that might affront them. It is therefore added for a strong dissuasive from Grieving the Spirit of God, that by him we are sealed to the day of redemption: All the world shall in vain strive to do for us, what our great Friend in Heaven hath done; our loathness therefore to grieve him, must be according to the depth of our obligation to him: Cast your eyes then a little upon the wonderful Benefit here specified; and see, First, what this day of Redemption is: Secondly, what is the sealing of us to this day: and Thirdly, why the sealing of us to this day should be a sufficient motive to withhold us from grieving the Holy Spirit of God. These three must be the limits of my Speech and your Atrention.  
Redemption signifies as much as a Ransom; A Ransom implies a Captivity or Servitude; There is a threefold Captivity from which we are freed; Of Sin, of Misery, of Death: For the first, We are sold under sin, saith our Apostle: No Slave in Argier is more truly sold in the Market under a Turkish Pirate, than we are naturally sold under the Tyranny of sin; by whom we are bound hand and foot, and can stir neither of them towards God; and dungeoned up in the darkness of our ignorance, without any Glimpse of the vision of God, For the second; the very name of Captivity implies Misery enough; what outward evil is incident into a man which bondage doth not bring with it? Woe is me, there was never so much captivity in this land since it was a Nation, nor so woeful a Captivity as this, of brethren to brethren; Complaints there are good store on both sides; of restraint, want, ill-lodging, hard and scant diet, Irons, insultations, scorns, and extremities of ill usage of all kinds: and what other is to be found in the whole course of this wretched life of ours, the best whereof is vanity, and the worst infinite vexations; But Thirdly, if some men have been so externally happy, as to avoid some of these miseries (for all men smart not alike) yet never man did or can avoid the third; which is obnoxiousness to death: By the offence of one, saith the Apostle, judgement came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.18. Sin hath reigned unto death, Ps. 21. It is more than an Ordinance, a statute law in Heaven; Statutum est, etc. It is enacted to all men once to die, Heb. 9.27. This then is our bondage or captivity, now comes our redemption from all these at once: when upon our happy dissolution we are freed from sin, from misery, from death; and enter into the possession of glory: thus our Saviour, Lift up your heads, for the day of your redemption draweth nigh; thus saith St. Paul, The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the Sons of God. Rom. 8.21. It is the same condition of the members of Christ, which was of the head, that they overcome death by dying; when therefore the bands of death are loosed, and we are fully freed from the dominion of the first death, and danger of the second, and therein from all the capacity, not only of the rule and power of sin, but of the life and indwelling of it; and from all the miseries both bodily and spiritual that attend it; and when in the same instant our soul takes possession of that glory, which shall once, in the consociation of its glorious partner, the body, be perfectly consummated: Then, and not till then is the day of our redemption. Is there any of us therefore that complains of his sad and hard condition here in the world; pains of body, grief of mind, agonies of soul, crosses in estate, discontentments in his families, suffering in his good name? let him bethink himself where he is; this is the time of his captivity; and what other can be expected in this case? Can we think there is no difference betwixt liberty & bondage? Can the slave think to be as free as his Patron? Ease, rest, liberty must be looked for elsewhere; but whiles we are here we must make no account of other than these varieties of misery: our redemption shall free us from them all. But now perhaps some of you are ready to say of the Redemption, as they did of the Resurrection, that it is passed already; and so indeed it is, one way; in respect of the price laid out by the Son of God; the invaluable price of his blood for the redemption of man; but so, that it must be taken out by, and applied to, every soul inparticular, if we will have the benefit redound to us; It is his Redemption before, it is now only our Redemption, when it is brought home to us.  
Oh than the dear and happy day of this our final redemption, wherein we shall be absolutely freed from all the miserable sorrows, pains, cares, fears, vexations which we meet withal here below, and, which is yet more, from all the danger of sinning, which now every day adds to the fearfulness of our account; and lastly, from the woeful wages of sin, Death, bodily, spiritual, eternal; here is a redemption worth our longing for; worth our joying in: when Joseph was fetched out of Pharaohs Gaol, and changed the nasty rags of his prison for pure linen vestures; and his Iron fetters for a chain of Gold, and his wooden stocks for Pharaohs second Chariot (Gen. 41.42.) do we not think he must needs be joyfully affected with it? When Peter was called up from betwixt his Leopards (as that Father terms them) and had his shackles shaken off, and was brought through the Iron gates into the free and open street; or when Daniel was called out of the lion's den to the embracements of Darius, could he choose but rejoice in the change? when Lazarus was called (after three days entombing) out of his grave, and saluted his mourning sisters, and walked home with his friends, could there be aught but the voice of joy and gladness among them? But, alas, all these are but slight resemblances of the blessed Redemption which is purchased for us, who are thus ransomed from sin, and death: Rather, if we could imagine the soul of a Trajan fetched out of hell by the prayers of Gregory, or of a Falconella by Tecla, according to the bold legends of lying fablers, and now freed from those intolerable and unconceivable torments, we might apprehend in some measure what it is that is wrought for our souls, in this merciful redemption; and what is the favour of that deliverance, which we must long to have fully perfected: But, alas, what shall I say to us? We are enslaved, and fettered, and we are loath to be free; we are in love with our bonds, with our miseries, with our sins; and when death comes like a good Ebed-molech to drag us up out of our dungeon, we are unwilling to put the rags under our armpits, and to lay hold of that our sure, and happy conveyance to the light and liberty of the Saints: Oh our wretched unbelief that is guilty of this slackness of our desires; whereas if we were what we profess ourselves, we would think the time long till it be accomplished, and say, Come Lord Jesus, come quickly; even so, come Lord Jesus, come quickly, and make up our full redemption from misery, from sin, from death, and bring us into that glorious liberty of the Sons of God,  
This, for the day of our redemption; now Secondly let us see what this sealing is to the day of Redemption. I find in God's book three uses of a seal; 1. For secrecy, 2. For peculiar designation. 3. For certainty and assurance.  
For secrecy first; So God speaking of the condition of Israel, Deut. 32.34. Is not this laid up in store, and sealed up among my treasures? So Esay speaking of a vision of his; It shall be as the letter of a book sealed; whereof one shall say, Read this, the other shall answer, I cannot for it is sealed, Esa. 29.11. Yea this sealing argues a long reservation and closeness: Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up, and sealed to the time of the end. Dan. 12.9. and thereupon it is, that John is forbidden to seal up the book of his prophecy; Revel. 22.10. for the time is ●igh at hand: so we are wont to do in ordinary practice; that Closet which we would have no body go into, we seal up; that bag which we would not have opened, and that letter which we would not have seen by others, we seal up, and think it a great violation of civility to have it opened; Hence is that sigillum confessionis (the seal of confession) amongst the Romish Casuists held so sacred, that it may not in any case whatsoever, be broken up: Insomuch as their great Doctor, Martinus Alphonsus Vivaldus, goes so far as to say, Si penderet salus vel liberatio totius mundi ex revelatione unius peccati, non esset revelandum, etiamsi totus mundus esset perdendus, That if the safety of the whole World should depend upon the revealing of one sin; it is not to be revealed, though all the World should be destroyed; and adds, Imo propter liberationem omnium animarum totius mundi non est revelandum, Though it were for the freeing of all the souls of the whole World, it is not to be revealed, in his Candelabrum aureum: De sigillo; number the 11th. A strange height of expression, to give the World assurance of the close carriage of their auricular Confession; and that not without need; for were it not for this persuasion their hearths might cool, and men would keep their own counsel: and surely, not to meddle with their tyrannical impositions upon the conscience, in their forced confessions, which we do justly call carnificinam conscientiae; I should hold and profess, that if a man should come in the anguish of his soul for some sin, to unload his heart secretly to the bosom of his Minister, of whom he looks for counsel and comfort, if in such a case that Minister should reveal that sin to any other whosoever, no death were torment enough for such a spiritual perfidiousness: all secrets are at the least sub sigillo fidei, under the seal of fidelity, and therefore not to be revealed.  
For peculiar designation; thus our blessed Saviour speaking of himself, the Son of man, adds, For him hath God the Father sealed, Joh. 6.27. that is; hath designed him to the special office of his Mediatorship: So Revelation. 7.5. Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand; and so the name of the number of the several tribes, to the whole sum of an hundred forty four thousand were designed to Salvation.  
But the chief use of the seal is for certainty and assurance; so Jezebel, to make sure work with the Elders of Jezreel for the dispatch of Naboth, sealed it with Ahabs' seal, 1 Kings. 21. so the Jewish Princes, Priests, and Levites when they had made their covenant, sealed it with their seals, Nehem. 9 the last verse. Hence haman's Order for the destruction of the Jews was sealed with the King's seal, Esth. 3.12. and the countermand for their preservation so sealed also, Esth. 8.8. so Jeremy for his land at Anathoth, wrote and sealed, Jerem. 32.9. so the grave-stone of Christ's Tomb was sealed, Matth. 27.66. And still this is our practice, that which we would make sure, and past all question, we give not under our hand only, but our seal also.  
In all these three regards of secrecy, peculiar designation, and certainty, the Church is sons obsignatus, a well sealed up, Cant. 4.12. and she justly prays, Set me as a Seal upon thine heart, and a Seal upon thine arm Cant. 8.6.  
Let us take them severally into our thoughts: and first for the Secrecy; It is a sure word which the Spirit of God hath, 2 Tim. 2.19. The foundation of God remaineth sure, having this seal; The Lord knoweth who are his; The Lord knoweth and none but he; neither Man nor Angel: It is sealed on purpose, that it may be concealed, and reserved only in the counsel of the most High: It is therefore a most high and dangerous presumption in any man to pass a judgement upon the final estate of another, especially to the worse part; This is no other than to rush into the Closet of the Highest, and to break open his cabinet, and to tear up the privy Seal of Heaven; an insolence that God will not pass over unrevenged: It was a good answer that the Servant gave in the story, who carrying a covered dish through the Street, and being asked what it was, answered, It is therefore covered that thou mayest not know; and so it is here; the final estate of every Soul is sealed, that it may be known only to the God of Heaven: and if any man dare to pry into this Ark of God, with the men of Bethshemesh, let him fear to be struck dead as they were, 1 Sam. 6. The Romanists have taken too much boldness this way: there is one of their Saints, St. Matilda, or St. Maude a Prophetess of theirs, which in her Revelations professeth that she would needs know of God what became of the Souls of four men; Samson, Solomon, (whom I must tell you the greatest part of the Romish Doctors give out for a cast away, very injuriously, and uncharitably, since that besides his being a type of Christ, and a penman of some part of holy Scripture, his Ecclesiastes is a plain publication to all the World, of his penance for his former miscarriages) Origen and Trajane: and received this answer; What my pity hath done with Samson, I will not have known, that men may not be encouraged to take revenge on their enemies: what my mercy hath done with Solomon I will not have known lest men should take too much liberty to carnal sins: What my bounty hath done with Origen I would not have known, lest men should put too much confidence in their knowledge; What my liberality hath done with Trajan, I would not have known for the advancement of the Catholic faith, lest men should slight the Sacrament of Baptism; a presumptuous question, and an answer answerable. So they have not stuck to tell us, that the same day that their St. Thomas Becket died, there died in all the World three thousand thirty and three; whereof 3000. went to Hell; thirty to Purgatory, and three (whereof their Saint was one) to Heaven; sure I think much alike: I will not weary you with their frenzies of this kind; they have bragged of some of their Saints who have had this deep insight into the hearts of men, and counsels of God, that they could tell by the view who should be saved, who condemned; and some fanatic Spirits in our Church have gone so far as to take upon them (as some vain Palmisters by the sight of the hand to judge of fortunes) by the face, and words, and garb, and carriage of men to pass sentence of reprobation upon other men's souls: what an horrible insolence is this in any creature under Heaven, or in it? There may be perhaps grounds to judge of a man's present condition; God doth not call any man to stupidity, or unreasonableness; If I see a man live debauchedly in drunkenness, in whoring, in professed profaneness: If I hear him in his ordinary speeches to tear God's name in pieces with oaths and blasphemies, I may safely say that man is in a damnable condition; and must demean myself to him accordingly, forbearing an entire conversation with him; with such a one eat not, saith the Apostle; but if I shall presume to judge of his final estate, I may incur my own condemnation, in pronouncing his Judge not that ye be not judged: Perhaps that man whom thou sentencest, is in the secret counsel of God sealed to life; and shall go before thee to Heaven: who that had seen Manasses revelling in his Idolatry, Magic, Murder, worshipping all the host of Heaven, polluting the house of God with his abominable altars, using sorceries, and enchantments, filling the streets of Jerusalem with innocent blood (2 Kings 21.) would not have said there is a castaway? Yet howsoever the history of the Kings leaves him in his sin, and dishonour, yet in the 2 Chron. 33. You find his conversion, his acceptation, his prayer, and how God was entreated of him; vers. 19 So as for aught we know, he lived a Devil and died a Saint. Who that had seen and heard Soul breathing out threaten, and executing his bloody cruelties upon the Church of God, dragging poor Christians to their judgements and executions, would not have given him for a man branded for hell? yet behold him a chosen vessel, the most glorious instrument of God's name that hath been since Christ left the earth: as thou lovest thy Soul therefore, meddle not with God's seal; leave that to himself: Thou mayest read the superscription of a man if thou wilt; and judge of his outside, but take heed of going deeper: look well to the seal that God hath set upon thine own soul; look for that new name which none can read but he that hath it; this is worth thine enquiry into; and God hath given thee the Characters whereby to decipher it; whom he did predestinate, them also he called, and whom he called them also he justified, and whom he justified, them also he glorified; that is, they are as sure to be glorified as if they were glorified already, Rom. 8.30. Read thine own name in the book of life, and thou art happy; as for others, let thy rule be the judgement of charity; and let Gods seal alone: Secret things belong to God; and things revealed to us, and our children; but if thou wilt needs be searching into God's counsel, remember that of Solomon, as the Vulgar reads it, Prov. 25.27. Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur a gloria; He that pries into Majesty, shall be overwhelmed with glory.  
Now, that from the Secrecy we may descend to the Peculiarity of Designation: You know it in common practice in your trades and merchandise, that when a man hath bought a parcel of commodities he sets his mark upon them; to distinguish them from the rest in the warehouse; so doth our God; he sets a mark upon his own, whereby they are plainly differenced from others: And this mark, besides the stamp of his eternal decree, is true sanctification: By this than it is, that we are known from the World: As upon some large plain, where there are several flocks and herds feeding together, every one knows his own by his mark. So the man with the writer's inkhorn set a mark upon those which mourned for their own sins, and the sins of their people, Ezek. 9  
It is therefore so far from truth, that our sanctification is no certain proof of our sonship and of our interest in the covenant of grace; as, that there is no other besides it: And indeed, what other can we insist upon? Outward profession will not do it; many a one shall say, Lord, Lord, with a zealous reduplication, which yet shall be excluded; And for pretended revelations, they are no less deceitful; Satan oftentimes transforming himself into an Angel of light; A Zidkijeh thinks he hath the Spirit as well as any Michaiah of them all: our books are full of the reports of dangerous delusions of this kind; whereby it hath come to pass that many a one in stead of the true David hath found nothing but an image of clouts laid upon a bolster stuffed with Goat's hair, 1 Sam. 19.16. But this mark of real sanctification cannot fail us: It will ever hold good that which St. Paul hath, Rom. 8. So many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God: Nothing in this World can so highly concern us as this, to see and know whether we be sealed to the day of Redemption: Would we know how it may be evidenced to us; look upon the impression that God's Spirit hath made upon our hearts and lives, if he have renewed us in the inner man, and wrought us unto true holiness, to a lively faith, to a sincere love of God, to a conscionable care of all our actions; and to all other his good graces, doubtless we are so sealed, that all the powers of Hell cannot deface; and obliterate this blessed impression.  
But the principal & main use of this Seal is for certainty of performance. If we have the word of an honest man, we believe it; but if we have his hand we make ourselves more sure: but if we have both his hand and seal we rest secure of the accomplishing of what is given, or undertaken. How much more assurance may we have, when we have the word of a God, whose very title is Amen, Rev. 3.14. & whose promises are like himself, Yea and Amen, 2 Cor. 1.20. Alas, the best man is deceitful upon the balance; and his true stile is, Omnis homo mend axe, every man is a liar. But for this God of truth, Heaven and Earth shall pass away, before one tittle of his word shall fail; but when that promise is seconded by his Seal, what a transcendent assurance is here? It is the charge of the Apostle Peter; Give diligence to make your calling and election sure, 2 Pet. 1.10. Sure, not in respect of God; whom no changes can reach; whose word is, I am Jehovah; my counsel shall stand; but in respect of our apprehension; not in regard of the object only, which cannot fail, but even of the subject also: which if it were not feasible, sure the Spirit of God would not have enjoined it, or imposed it upon us; The Vulgar reads (Per bona opera) by good works. And indeed it is granted by Beza, and Clamier, that in some Greek copies it is (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) whereupon Bellarmine would fain take an advantage to prove his conjectural assurance; A strange match of words merely contradictory; for if but conjectural, how can it be assurance? and if it be assurance, how only conjectural? we may as well talk of a false truth, as a conjectural assurance.  
But that implication of Bellarmine is easily blown over, if we consider that these Good works, do not only comprehend external works, as almsdeeds, prayer, attendance on God's ordinances, and the like: but also the internal acts of the soul: the Acts of believing, the Acts of the love of God, the Acts of that hope which shall never make us ashamed. These will evidence, as our calling and election, so the certainty of both, and therefore are the seal of our Redemption. Let foolish men have leave to improve their wits to their own wrong; in pleading for the uncertainty of their right to Heaven; But for us, let us not suffer our souls to take any rest till we have this blessed seal put upon us to the assuring of our Redemption and Salvation; that we may be able to say with the chosen vessel; God hath sealed us, and given us the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts, 2 Cor. 1.22. If we have the grant of some good lease, or some goodly Manor made to us by word of mouth, we stay not till we have gotten it under black and white; and not then, till we have it under seal; nor then (if it be a perpetuity) till we have livery and seizing given us of it; and when all this is done, we make account securely to enjoy our hopes; and shall we be less careful of the main-chance, even of the eternal inheritance of Heaven? Lo here all these done for us! Here is the word preaching peace and Salvation to all that believe; here are his Scriptures the internal monuments of his written word, confirming it; here is the seal added to it; here is the Livery and Seizing given, in the earnest of his Spirit, and here is sufficient witness to all; even God's Spirit witnessing with our Spirits that we are the sons of God; Let us find this in our bosom and we are happy; neither let our hearts be quiet till we can say with the chosen Vessel, I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor Angels, nor Principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any creature can be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Rom. 3. the last verse. Lo, this is not a guess, but an assurance (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) neither doth the Apostle speak of his own special revelation (as the Popish Doctors would pretend) but he takes all believers into the partnership of this comfortable unfailableness (nothing shall separate us) thus happy are we if we be sealed unto the day of Redemption.  
Having now handled the parts severally, let us (if you please) put them together, and see the power of this inference or argument: ye are by the Spirit of God sealed to the day of redemption, Oh therefore grieve not that Spirit of God by whom ye are thus sealed. The Spirit of God hath infinitely merited of you; hath done so much for you, as ye are not capable to conceive, much less to answer in so Heavenly an obsignation; Oh then be you tender of giving any offence to that good Spirit; Do not you dare to do aught that might displease that loving and beneficent Spirit. Be not you so much your own enemies, as to give just distaste to your good God. So as the force of the argument, as we intimated at the first, lies upon an action of unkindness; affording us this instruction, that the ground of God's children's fear to offend must be out of love and thankfulness; great is thy mercy that thou mayst be feared, saith the Psalmist; he doth not say; great is thy mercy that thou mayst be loved; nor, great is thy Majesty that thou mayst be feared; but great is thy mercy that thou mayst be feared: base servile natures are kept in with fear of stripes, but the ingenuous disposition of Gods dear ones is wrought upon by the tender respect to the goodness and mercy of that God who hath so infinitely blessed it. It is an emphatical expression that of St. Paul For the love of Christ constraineth us: 2. Cor. 5.14. Lo, here is a kind of force and violence offered to the soul; but it is the force of love, than which nothing can be more pleasing, neither will God offer any other; it can be no will that is forced; God will not break in upon the soul; but wins it with those sweet solicitations that are more powerful than those of fear: Men commonly run in a full career towards Hell, it were happy that any thing in the world could stay them; but are there any of us that find a restraint upon ourselves, in the midst of our evil ways, so as we make a stop in this pernicious course of our sinning? whence is it? Is it out of a mere fear of the pains of Hell, of those eternal torments that abide for sinners? This is little thank to them: Nature even in brute Creatures will teach them to affect their own preservation; and to avoid those things which will necessarily draw on their destruction; Balaams' ass seeing the Angel's sword, will strive to decline it; every slave will tug hard to escape the lash: but is it in a sweet sense of the mercies of God, who hath done so much for thy soul? is it out of a conscience not to offend so holy and munificent a God, who hath purchased thee so dear, and sealed thee up to the day of Redemption; now, thou hast in thee a true generosity of spirit; this argues thee to have the proper affections of a true child of God; for every child of God is spiritually good natured; It is not so with our natural children; A stomachful Esau knows that his good Father cannot but be displeased with his Pagan matches; yet he takes him wives of the Daughters of Heth: Gen. 26.35. And an ambitious Absalon dares rise up in rebellion against his tenderly-loving Father; but grace hath other effects; the spiritual generation of God's faithful ones, are dearly affectionate to their Father in Heaven, and apply themselves to all obedience out of mere love and duty. The Son, and the slave are both enjoined one work (God be thanked we can have no instance in this kind, that vassalage is happily and justly extinguished as unfit to be of use amongst Christians) but where it obtaineth still, the Son and the slave do one work, but out of different grounds; the Son to please his Father; the slave that he may avoid the stripes of an imperious Master, therefore the one doth it cheerfully and willingly; the other grudgingly and repiningly; the one of Love, and Gratitude, the other out of fear. This is a point worthy of our serious consideration, as that which mainly imports our souls, what are the grounds of our either actions, or forbearances; we endeavour some good duties, we refrain from some sins; out of what principles? Some there are that can brag of their immunity from gross sins, with the proud Pharisee, I am no fornicator, no drunkard, no murderer, no liar, no slanderer, no oppressor; And I would to God every one of you that hear me this day could in sincerity of heart say so; But what is the ground of this their pretended inoffensiveness? If it be only a fear of Hell, and of the wrathful indignation of that just Judge, thou canst reap small comfort to thy Soul in this condition; for this is out of mere self-love, and desire to escape pain and misery, which is incident into the worst of creatures: Even the evil Spirits themselves are afraid of tormenting, and deprecate the sending them back to their chains: But if it be out of a gracious, and tender love to God; out of a filial fear of the displeasure of a God that hath done so much for thee, this argues the disposition of a true child of God, and may justly administer comfort to thy Soul, in the time of thy trial: Oh that we could every one of us lay before our eyes the sweet mercies of our God; especially his spiritual favours; how freely he hath loved us, how dearly he hath redeemed us; even with the most precious blood of the Son of his love; how graciously he hath sealed us up to the day of our redemption? and that we could make this use of it to be a strong retractive from any, even of our dearest, and gainfullest sins; Carry this home with you, dear brethren, I beseech you, and fail not to think of it upon all occasions when ever you shall find yourselves tempted to any sin whatsoever of lust, of excess, of covetous desires, have this Antidote ready in your bosoms, which good Joseph had; How shall I do this great evil and sin against God; As good Polycarpus that holy Martyr, when for the preservation of his life he was urged to renounce Christ, said; Fourscore and six years have I been his servant, and he never did me hurt; and shall I deny my Sovereign King that hath so graciously preserved me? If out of these grounds thou canst check thy sins; and canst say; Lord I have been careful not to grieve thy good spirit, because thou in thine eternal love hast sealed me thereby to the day of my redemption, be confident, that thy redemption is sealed in Heaven, and shall in due time be manifested to thine investiture with the eternal glory and happiness which God hath prepared for all his; To the participation whereof, that God who hath ordained us, in his good time mercifully bring us, for the sake of the Son of his love, Jesus Christ the just, to whom with the Father, and the blessed Spirit one infinite and incomprehensible God be given all praise, honour, and glory, now and for evermore. Amen.   

A SERMON Preached on WHITSUNDAY, IN THE PARISH-CHURCH OF HIGHAM, In the Year 1652.  ROM. 8.14. 
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God.  
THis only day is wont to be consecrated to the Celebration of the descent of the holy Spirit, and therefore deserves to be (as it is named) the true Dominica in albis, Whit-sunday: white is the colour of Innocence and joy in respect of the first, this, together with the feast of Easter was wont in the primitive times to be the solemn season of Baptism, and sacramental Regeneration: in respect of the second, it was the season of the just Triumph and exultation of the Church; which was as this day graced, confirmed, and refreshed, with the miraculous descent of the promised comforter; in both regards every Christian challenges an interest in it; as these who claim to be the Sons of God by Baptism, the Sacrament of Regeneration, and to be endued and furnished with the sanctifying gifts of that blessed Spirit, whose wonderful descent we this day celebrate: which how can we do better than by enquiring into what right we have to this holy spirit, and to that sonship of God, which in our Baptism we profess to partake of: we are all apt upon the least cause to be proud of our parentage. There are Nations (they say) in the world, whereof every man challenges gentility, and kindred to their King; so are we wont to do spiritually to the King of Heaven. Every one hath the Spirit of God; every one is the son of God. It is the main errand we have to do on the Earth to settle our hearts upon just grounds, in the truth of this resolution; and this text undertakes to do it for us, infallibly deciding it, that those, and none but those, that are led by the Spirit of God, are the Sons of God.  
So as we need not now think of climbing up into Heaven, to turn the books of Gods eternal Counsel; nor linger after Enthusiasms and Revelations, as some fanatical spirits use to do; nor wish for that holy Dove to whisper in our ear, with that great Arabian impostor; but only look seriously into our own hearts and lives; and try ourselves thoroughly by this sure, and unfailing rule of our blessed Apostle, So many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God, let my speech, and your attention then be bounded in these three limits: Here is First a privilege, To be the Sons of God. Secondly a qualification of the privileged, To be led by the Spirit. Thirdly an Universal predication of that privilege upon the persons qualified; So many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God; I need not crave your attention, the importance of the matter challenges it. To the first then; it is a wonderful and inexplicable privilege, this, To be the Sons of God; no marvel if every one be apt to claim; The glory of Children are their Fathers, Prov. 17.6. How were the Jews puffed up with that vain gloriation that they were the Sons of Abraham, and yet they might have been so; and have come from hated Esau, or ejected Ishmael: what is it then to be the Sons of the God of Abraham? Ye know what David could say upon the tender of matching into the blood royal; seemeth it a small matter to you to be the Son in Law to a King? Oh what then is it to be the true born sons to the great King of Heaven? The Abassins' pride themselves to be derived from that Son whom they say the Queen of Sheba had begotten of her by Solomon when she went to visit him; it is enough that it was Princely though base; how may we glory to be the true and legitimate issue of the King of glory? the great Lord in the Gospel is brought in by our Saviour in his parable to say, They will reverence my Son; and Amnons' wicked kinsman could say to him, Why art thou, the King's Son, so sad? as if the sonship to a King were a supersedeas to all whatsoever grief or discontentment. Neither is there matter of honour only in this privilege but of profit too; especially in the case of the Sons of this Heavenly King, whose Sons are all heirs, as ye have it v. 17. with men indeed it is not so: Amongst God's chosen people the first born carried away a double portion; but in some other Nations, and in some parts of ours, the Eldest goes away with all; as on the contrary others are ruled by the law or custom of Gavell kind and the like institutions; where either the youngest inherit; or all equally; but generally it is here with us contrary to that old word concerning Isaac's twins, the lesser serves the greater. Johosaphat gave great gifts to his other sons, but the Kingdom to the Eldest, Jehoram, 1 Chron. 21.3. so as the rest were but as subjects to their Eldest Brother; in the family of the highest it is not so; there are all heirs; all inherit the blessings, the honours: as all are partakers of the Divine nature; and of every one may be said by way of Regeneration, that which was eminently, and singularly said by the way of eternal generation of the natural and coessential Son of God, Thou art my Son, I have begotten thee; so all are partakers of those blessings, and happy immunities which appertain to their filiation and what are they? Surely great beyond the power of expression; for first in this name they have a spiritual right to all the creatures of God? all things are yours, saith the Apostle; A spiritual, I say, not a natural, not a civil right, which men have to what they legally possess; we must take heed of this error which makes an Universal confusion where ever it prevails: all these earthly affairs are managed by a civil right; which men have whether by descent, or lawful acquisition: so as it is not for any man to challenge an interest, either ad rem, or in re, in the goods of another; but God's children have a double claim to all they possess, both civil from men, and spiritual from God; The Earth hath he given to the Sons of men, saith the Psalmist; and men by just conquest, by purchase, by gift convey it legally to each other; Besides which they have a spiritual right; for God hath given all things to his Son as Mediator, and in and by him to those that are incorporated into him; so as now in this regard every child of God is mundi dominus, the Lord of the World, as that Father truly said;  
Secondly, they have in this name an interest in God himself (for what nearer relation can there be, then betwixt a father and a son:) An interest in all his promises, in all his mercies, in all that he is, in all that flows from him, in his remission, protection, provision. Which of us earthly parents, if we extinguish not nature in ourselves, can be wanting in these things to the children of our Loins? How much more impossible is it that he who is All love, 1 Job. 4.16. should be wanting to those that are his by a true regeneration. Hence is that enforcement, which God useth by his Prophet, Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb; yea they may forget, yet will not I forget thee: Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, Esay 59.15, 16.  
Thirdly, hence follows an unquestionable right in attendance and Guardianship of the blessed Angels, Psal. 91.11. They are the little ones whereof our Saviour, Matth. 18. the especial charge whom those glorious Spirits are deputed to attend, Hebr. 1.14. And oh what an honour is this, that we are guarded by creatures more glorious in nature, more excellent in place and office, than ourselves? What a comfortable assurance is this that we have these troops of Heavenly Soldiers pitching their tents about us; and ready to saveguard us from the malice of the principalities and powers of darkness?  
Lastly in this name they have a certain, and unfailable claim to eternal glory; For what is that but the inheritance of the Saints, Colos. 1. Who should have your Lands but your heirs, and Lo, these are the heirs of God; and none but they: Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you (saith our Saviour) Matth. 25.34. Many a one here is borne to a fair estate, and is stripped of it, whether by the just disherison of his offended Father, or else by the power, or circumvention of an adversary, or by his own misgovernment, and unthriftiness; here is no danger of any of these. On our Father's part, none, For whom he loves, he loves to the end: On our Adversaries part, none, None shall take them out of my hand, saith our Saviour, The gates of Hell shall not prevail against his: On our part, none; For whereby can we lavish out our estate but by our sins, and he that is borne of God sinneth not; sinneth not so as to incur a forfeit; he may so sin as to be frowned on for the time, to be chid, yea perhaps to be well whipped of his Father, not so as to be unsonned, or disherited: For the seed of God remains in him; Lo whiles he hath the Divine seed in him he is the Son of God, and whiles he is a Son he cannot but be an heir: Oh than the comfortable and blessed privileges of the Sons of God enough to attract and ravish any heart; for who doth not effect the honour of the highest parentage, not under Heaven but in it? who can be but eagerly ambitious of the title of the Lord of the world, so closely yea to be interessed in the great God of Heaven and Earth, by an inseparable relation to be attended on by those mighty and majestical Spirits; and lastly, to be feoffed in the all-glorious Kingdom of Heaven, and immortal crown of glory? None of you can be now so dull as not desire to be thus happy, and to ask as the blessed Virgin when she was told of her miraculous conception, Quomodo fiet istud? How shall this be? How may I attain to this blessed condition? This is a question worth ask. Oh the poor and base thoughts of men! How may I raise my house? how may I settle my estate? How may I get a good bargain? how may I save or gain? how may I be revenged of mine enemy? whiles in the mean time we care not to demand (what most concerns us) which way should I become the child of God? But, would we know this, to which all the World is but trifles? surely it is not so hard as useful, whose Sons we are by nature, we soon know too well. It is not enough to say, our Father was an Amorite, and our Mother an Hittite, or to say we are the children of this world, Luke 16.8. or a seed of falsehood, Esay 57.4. or yet worse the children of the night and darkness, 1 Thess. 5.5. worse yet, we are filii contumaciae the sons of wilful disobedience, as the original runs, Ephes. 2.3. and thereby yet worse, the sons of wrath, Ephes. 2.2. and which is the height of all miseries, the Sons of death and eternal damnation; how then, how come we to be the Sons of God? It is the Almighty power of Grace that only can make this change: A double Grace; the Grace of Adoption, the Grace of Regeneration: Adoption; God hath predestinated us to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ, Ephes. 1.5. Regeneration; So many as received him, he gave them this power or right to be made the Sons of God; those which are borne not of blood, or the lust of the flesh, but borne of God, John 1.12, 13. and that which refers to both, Ye are all the Children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, Galat. 3.26. Shortly then if we would be Sons and Daughters of God (for the case is one in both, the soul hath no sexes, and in Christ there is neither male nor female) we must see that we be borne again; not of water only; so we are all sacramentally Regenerated, but of the Holy Ghost, If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, 2 Cor. 5.17. we must not be the men we were; and how shall that be effected? In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel, saith the Apostle, 1 Cor. 4.15. He hath begotten us by the word of Truth, Jam. 1.18. This word is that immortal seed whereby we are begotten to God; let this word therefore have its perfect work in us, let it renew us in the inner man; mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections, and raising us up to a new life of Grace and obedience, than God will not shame to own us for his; and we shall not presume in claiming this glorious title of the Sons of God: But if we be still our old selves, no changelings at all, the same men that we came into the World, without defalcation of our corruptions, without addition of Grace, and Sanctification: Surely we must seek us another Father, we are not yet the Sons of God: But me thinks ere I was ware I am falling to anticipate my discourse, and whiles I am teaching how we come to be the Sons of God, am showing how we may know that we are so; which is the drift of this Scripture in the qualification here mentioned: So many as are led by the Spirit of God, are the Sons of God.  
It is not enough for us (my beloved) to be the Sons and Daughters of God, unless we know ourselves to be so: for certainly, he cannot be truly happy, that doth not know himself happy: How shall we therefore know ourselves to be the Sons of God? surely there may be many signs and proofs of it besides this mentioned in my Text, or rather, many specialties under this general. As first, Every Child of God is like his Father: It is not so in carnal Generation: we have seen many Children that have not so much as one lineament of their Parents; and as contrary to their dispositions as if they had been strangers to their loins and womb: In the spiritual sonship it is not so, every Child of God carries the true resemblance of his Heavenly Father; as he that hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation: Because it is written, Be ye holy for I am holy, 1 Pet. 1.15, 16. Well then, my Brethren, try yourselves by this rule; our Heavenly Father is merciful, are we cruel? Our Father is righteous in all his ways, are we unjust? Our Heavenly Father is slow to anger, are we furious upon every sleight occasion? Our Heavenly Father abhors all manner of evil: do we take pleasure in any kind of wickedness? certainly we have nothing of God in us, neither can we claim any kindred with Heaven.  
Secondly, every Child that is not utterly degenerate, bears a filial love to his Parents, answering in some measure that natural affection, which the parent bears towards him; we cannot but know, that the love of God, our Heavenly Father, toward us is no less than infinite, Psal. 103.13. what return do we make of love to him again? we can perhaps talk largely of our love to God, but where is the proof of it? Did we love our Father in Heaven as children, could we strange ourselves from his interest? Can we endure to see him wronged in all his concernments? to hear his sacred and dread name blasphemed? to see his Ordinances trampled upon, his messengers contemptuously used, his house and his day profaned? would we not spit at that son that would put up such indignities offered to his carnal Father? And why will we lay claim to a sonship of God, if we can swallow such spiritual affronts put upon our God?  
Thirdly, every not ill-natured, and ungracious son (as God hath none such) bears a kind of awful respect to his Father, both in what he doth, and in what he suffers. For his actions, he dares not to do any thing wilfully that may work his Father's displeasure; and even those things which he would not stick to do before a stranger, yet before his Father he reverentially forbears to do; If I be a Father, where is my honour? Malac. 1.6. If then we be not awfully affected to the presence of God, If we dare boldly sin God in the face; it argues strongly that we have no filial relation to him: For his sufferings; A child will receive that correction from the hand of a Father, which he would never abide from a stranger: He that would be ready to repay blows to another man, taketh stripes from a Father, and answers them only with tears; Thus, if we be the Sons of God; we do submissly undergo from his hand, what fatherly chastisement he shall be pleased to lay upon us; but if we be ready to struggle, and groiningly repine at his correction, it shows we do not acknowledge him for our Father.  
Lastly, a son as he is wholly at his parents disposing: so he depends upon his Father's provision, expecting such patrimony as his Father shall bestow upon him; and waiting with patience for such child-part as he can have no hope of from a stranger. If we do so to our Heavenly Father, leading the life of faith with him; casting ourselves upon his gracious providence for all good things of either World; and fixing our eyes upon that glorious inheritance which he hath purchased for us above, we do evidently show ourselves to be the sons of God; but what need we any other evidence of this blessed condition, than what is here expressly laid down to our hands in my Text? So many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God.  
What is it then to be led by the Spirit of God? The original is (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) a word, which every Grammarian knows to signify both agi, and duci, to be led, or driven; so where it is said by one Evangelist that Christ was led into the Wilderness to be temped, Mat. 4.1. Of another it is read; that he was driven, Mark 1.12. And though the vulgar reads it here qui aguntur, yet our Rhemists turn it, Those that are led; noting in the margin, out of St. Augustine's true explication, that God's children are not violently compelled against their wills, but sweetly drawn, moved, and induced to do good; So as this word than implies; both an act of God's Spirit working in us; and our complying with that act in an obedient and ready conformity thereunto: For wherever the Spirit of God is, it is not idle and ineffectual, but it is still directing and inclining unto good; and whosoever is led by that Spirit, yields himself to the motions and guidance; Acti agimus, as the old word is. In all leading therefore, and so in this, there must be an hand to guide, and a foot to follow; good motions on God's part, and motions in good, on ours; both these must go together, else there is no leading by the Spirit of God. It is not enough that good thoughts are injected into us by the holy Spirit; yea it is so far from availing us, as that a man is so much the worse for those good motions he entertains not, as the motions are more excellent, and divine; But those good injections must be received, embraced, delighted in, and followed home in a constant and habitual practice, with a resolute rejection, and detestation of the contrary.  
Besides that spirit of our mind (Ephes. 4.23.) which lodgeth in every breast, every man is led by some spirit or other: One is led by a spirit of Error (1 Tim. 4.1.) and seduction in matter of understanding: Another by the spirit of giddiness, Esa. 19.14. into wild fancies, and brainsick imaginations; another is led by the Spirit of bondage, to slavish fears, and afflictive horrors, as in the next verse to my Text; another, by the spirit of the World, 1 Cor. 2.12. Another (and indeed all these) by the unclean Spirit, as he is usually styled, in the Gospel; others which are all the regenerate are led by the Spirit of God: when our Saviour said to his too fiery Disciples, Ye know not of what Spirit ye are, he implies that of some spirit they must needs be: now there are those that pretend to be led by the spirit of God, and are not. St. Paul could upon good warrant say, I trust I have the Spirit of God; that trust was (however he modestly expresses it) no less than a certain knowledge; but a Zidkijah on the other side in a false presumption can say, Which way went the Spirit of God from me, to speak to thee?  
I remember in the history of the Anabaptists of Munster, one of those illuminated companions of John Becold, and Onipperdoling is said to have killed his own natural Brother in the face of his parents; and professed to do it upon a revelation from the Spirit, the night before; And what heresies, and prodigious opinions have been set on foot, and maintained to the death under pretence of the dictation and warrant of God's Spirit, who can be ignorant? Let us therefore inquire how a man may know, whether he be truly led by the Spirit of God.  
First then the Spirit of God leads no man but in a right way: and what is that but the way of God's Commandments? All other ways are ways of our own, obliqne and crooked, as deviating from the strait line of righteousness: In them either we lead ourselves, or Satan leads us; If any man be tempted; let him not say that he is tempted of God; God moves to holy duties, to just and charitable actions, and none but them; for he cannot be contrary to himself: Is there any of us therefore that is carried on in a course of uncleanness, excess, disobedience, oppression, or any other sin whatsoever; Alas, we are led by a contrary spirit in the dark ways that lead to death and Hell. It were blasphemy to father these sinful mis-leadings upon the holy Spirit of God.  
Secondly, God's Spirit leads no man but by a just rule; That rule is the word of truth, in all matter of judgement that must direct us; uncertain and variable Traditions, private and ungrounded Revelations, which are any way cross to this recorded will of God are the deceitful guides of the spirit of error. If then any frantic or superstitious person, shall pretend any other direction than God hath given us in his revealed will; well may I say of him, as St. Paul dares say of an Angel from Heaven (if any such could be guilty of that offence) Let him be Anathema.  
Thirdly, God's Spirit leads his sweetly and gently, disponit omnia suaviter, not in a blustering and hurrying violence, but by a leisurely, and gracious inclination; so in Elijahs vision; There was fire, wind, Earthquake, but God was in none of them; these were fit preparatives for his appearance; but it was the still soft voice, wherein God would be revealed, 1 Kings 19.12. Those that are carried with an heady and furious impetuousness, and vehemence of passion in all their proceed, which are all rigour and extremity; are not led by that good spirit, which would be styled the spirit of meekness; who was pleased to descend not in the form of an Eagle, or any other soul of prey, but in the form of a meek and innocent dove.  
Fourthly, God's Spirit leads on in a constant way of progression from grace to grace, from virtue to virtue, like as the sun arises by degrees to his full meridian; whereas passion goes by sudden flashes like lightning; whereof the interruptions are as speedy and momentany as the eruptions; The very word of leading implies a continuance; neither can they be said to be led on, that make no proceed in their way; if either therefore we go backward, or stand still in goodness; if we promove not from strength to strength, we have no ground to think we are led by the Spirit of God.  
Lastly, Flesh and Spirit are ever opposite one to the other, and go still contrary ways, and lead to contrary ends; If ye walk after the flesh, ye shall die, saith our Apostle. Nature and Grace which have their hands in this manuduction both ways, stand in perpetual opposition to each other; If therefore we be led by our sensual appetite to do and affect that which is pleasing to corrupt nature, we are led by that blind guide the flesh, and if the blind lead the blind, it is no marvel if both of them fall into the pit of perdition; but if we mortify our evil and corrupt affections; crossing and curbing our exorbitant and sinful desires, and bringing them forceably under the subjection of God's Spirit: Now we may be assured to be led by the Spirit of God.  
Other particularities of discovery might be urged, whereby we might easily judge of our own conditions; but these are enough whereby we may try ourselves, our guides and ways: It is clear then (to sum up these proofs of our estate) that only they who walk in the ways of God's commandments, who are directed by the revealed Will and word of God; who are sweetly inclined by the gracious motions of his Spirit; who go on in a constant fashion, through all the degrees of grace and obedience; who restrain their own natural desires and affections, submitting themselves wholly to the government of the Holy Ghost; only they (I say) are led by the Spirit of God.  
Five sorts of men there are, therefore, who, what challenge so ever they may pretend to make, are not led by the Spirit of God.  
First, those that go on in a known evil way; Led me O Lord in the ways of thy righteousness, saith the Psalmist: Lo, they are only the paths of righteousness in which God leads us; the rest are false ways, as the Psalmist justly calls them, which every good heart, and much more the holy God utterly abhors; woe is me that I have lived to see those days wherein any that looks with the face of a Christian should maintain that sins are no sins to the faithful; and that he is the holiest man that can sin the boldlyest, and with the greatest freedom from reluctancy: Did ever any man look for Heaven in Hell before? Did ever any seek for the greatest good in the worst of evils? This is not heresy, but mere Devilism; wherewith yet, it seems, some ungrounded souls, are woefully tainted; God be merciful to them, and reclaim them ere it be too late from so damnable an impiety.  
Secondly, those that are led by their own vain imaginations, and illusive dreams in the ways of error; raising unto themselves new and wild opinions, and practices, without any warrant from the written word of God.  
Thirdly, those that are carried by passion, and distemper, though even in good ways, turning a religious heat into fury, and uncharitable rage.  
Fourthly, those that make no progress at all in good, but either decay in grace, or thrive not.  
And lastly, those that humour, and soothe up corrupt nature, caring only to fulfil the lusts of their own flesh: All these, whereof God knows there are too many in the World, yea in the Church of God making a fair flourish of Christianity, are nothing less than led by the Spirit of God; and therefore can lay no claim to the state or title of the Sons of God: which is inferred in the connexion of this qualification with the privilege: being the third head of our discourse, So many as are led by the Spirit of God, are the Sons of God.  
The Spirit of God, is God; neither is mention made here of the Spirit only, as by way of exclusion of the other persons: No, what one doth, all do, according to the old maxim. All the external works of the Trinity are indivisible; it is good reason then, that God should lead his own, and so he doth: But here it will be fit for us to consider How far this leading of God's Spirit will argue and evince this sonship, and whether every conduct thereof will do it?  
There is a work of the Spirit of God at large; The Spirit of God fills all the World, saith the Wiseman, Wisdom 1.7.  
Not so yet, as was the error of P. Abailardus in Bernard, That God's Spirit is anima mundi as the God of the World, not as the soul of the World: As in the state of the first Tohu and Bohu, the Spirit of God sluttered upon the Waters, as it were to hatch the creature which should be produced, Gen. 1.2. so doth he still fill the world for the preservation of this universse: But in this all, he works in man especially; There is a spirit in man, saith Elihu in Job 32.8. and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding; yet this is not the leading of this holy Spirit, that we are in hand with; lower than this, there are certain common graces wrought in men by the Spirit of God; as some general iluminations in the knowledge of divine things; some good moral dispositions, some restraints of evil inclinations and actions, which yet will never reach to evince our sonship to God. How easily were it for me to name you divers Heathens which have been eminent in all these, and yet (for aught we know) never the nearer to Heaven; yet lower, there are some special gifts of the Spirit which we call Charismata, rare endowments bestowed upon some men, excellent faculties of preaching, and praying; power of miraculous workings (as no doubt Judas did cast out Devils as well as the best of his fellow-Apostles) gifts of tongues, and of Prophecy and the like, which do no more argue a right to the sonship of God, than the Manuaries infused skill of Bezaleel and A●oliab could prove them Saints; yet, lastly, there may be sensible operations of the Spirit of God upon the soul in the influences of holy motions into the heart, in working a temporary faith, and some fair progress in an holy profession, and yet no sonship; the world is full of such glow-worms, that make some show of Spiritual Light from God, when they have nothing in them, but cold crudities that can serve for nothing but deceit.  
Will ye then see, what leading of the Spirit can evince us to be the Sons and Daughters of God; know then that if we will hope for a comfortable assurance hereof: we must be efficaciously led by his sanctifying Spirit, first in matter of judgement, secondly in our dispositions, and thirdly in our practice.  
For matter of judgement, ye remember what our Saviour said to his Disciples; When the Spirit of truth is come he will lead you into all Truth, John 16.13. That is into all saving and necessary truths; so as to free us from gross ignorance, or main error: Whosoever therefore is enlightened with the true and solid knowledge of all those points of Christian doctrine, which are requisite for salvation, is in that first regard led by the Spirit; and in this behalf hath a just title to the sonship of God, as contrarily those that are grossly and obstinately erroneous in their judgement of fundamental truths, let them pretend to never so much holiness in heart, or life, shall in vain lay claim to this happy condition of the Sons of God.  
For our disposition secondly. If the holy Spirit have wrought our hearts to be right with God in all our affections; if we do sincerely love and fear him, if we do truly believe in him, receiving him as not our Saviour only, but as our Lord; If our desires be unfeigned towards him; If after a meek and penitent self-dejection we can find ourselves raised to a lively hope, and firm confidence in that our blessed Redeemer; and shall continue in a constant, and habitual fruition of him, being thus led by the Spirit of God, we may be assured that we are the Sons of God; for flesh and blood cannot be accessary to these gracious dispositions.  
Lastly for our practice, it is a clear word which we hear God say by Ezekiel, I will put my Spirit into the midst of you; and will by it cause you to walk in my statutes, and keep my laws, Ezech. 36.27. Lo herein is the main crisis of a soul led by the Spirit of God, and adopted to this heavenly sonship. It is not for us to content ourselves to talk of the laws of our God; and to make empty and formal professions of his name.  
Here must be a continued walk in God's statutes; it will not serve the turn for us to stumble upon some acceptable work, to step aside a little into the paths of godliness, and then draw back to the World; no my beloved, this leading of God's Spirit must neither be a forced angariation (as if God would feoff grace and salvation upon us against our wills) nor some sudden protrusion to good, nor a mere, actual, momentany, transient conduction, for a brunt of holiness and away, leaving us to the sinful ways of our former disobedience, and to our wont compliances with the World, the Devil, and the Flesh; but must be in a steady, uninterrupted, habitual course of holy obedience; so as we may sincerely profess with the man after Gods own heart, My soul hath kept thy Testimonies, and I love them exceedingly, Psal. 119.67. Now then dear Christians lay this to heart seriously; and call yourselves sadly to this trial: What is the carriage of our lives? What obedience do we yield to the whole law of our God? If that be entire, hearty, universal, constant, perseverant, and truly conscientious, we have whereof to rejoice; an unfailing ground to pass a confident judgement upon our spiritual estate, to be no less than happy. But if we be willingly failing in the unfeigned desires and endeavours of these holy performances, and shall let lose the reins to any known wickedness; we have no part nor portion in this blessed condition: Mark, I beseech you, how fully this is asserted to our hands, in this (saith the beloved Apostle) the Children of God are manifest, and the children of the Devil; whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother, 1 Joh. 3.10. Observe I pray you what test we are put to: ye hear him not say who so talks not holily, or who so professes not godliness; in these an hypocrite may exceed the best Saint; but whosoever doth not righteousness: withal see what a clause the Disciple of love superadds to the mention of all Righteousness (neither he that loves not his brother) surely the Spirit of God is a Loving Spirit, Wisdom 1.6. and St. Paul hath the like phrase, Rom. 15.30. To let pass then all the other proofs of our guidance by the spirit: Instance but in this one: Alas my Brethren what is become of that charitable, and christian carriage of men towards one another, which God requires of us and which was wont to be conspicuous amongst Christian compatriots. Woe is me, instead of that true and hearty love which our Saviour would have the Livery of our Discipleship, the badge of our holy profession, what do we see but emulation, envy, & malice, rigid censures, and rancorous heart-burnings amongst men? In stead of those neighbourly, and friendly offices which Christians were wont lovingly to perform to each other, what have we now in the common practice of men, but undermine, oppressions, violence, cruelty? Can we think that the Spirit of him who would be styled Love itself, would lead us in these rugged, and bloody paths? No, no, this alone is too clear a proof how great a stranger the Spirit of God is to the hearts and ways of men; and how few there are that upon good and firm grounds can plead their right to the sonship of God: Alas, alas, if these dispositions and practices may bewray the sons of an holy God, what can men do to prove themselves the children of that hellish Apollion, who was a manslayer from the beginning? For us, my beloved: Oh let us hate and bewail this common degeneration of Christians; and as we would be, and be acknowledged the sons of God, Let us put on as the elect of God holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another, if we have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave us; and above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, Colos. 3.12, 13, 14. And lastly, forsaking the misguidance of Satan, the World, and our corrupt nature which will lead us down to the chambers of death, and eternal destruction, let us yield up ourselves to be led by the holy Spirit of God in all the ways of righteousness, and holiness, of piety, justice, charity, and all manner of gracious conversation, that we may thereby approve ourselves the sons and daughters of God, and may be feoffed in that blessed inheritance which he hath laid up for all his; to the possession whereof may he happily bring us who hath dearly bought us, Jesus Christ the righteous: to whom with the Father and the blessed spirit, one infinite God, be given all praise, honour, and glory, now and for ever. Amen.   

THE MOURNER IN ZION.  ECCLESIASTES 3.4. 
[There is] a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance.  
I Need not tell you that Solomon was a wise man, his wisdom, as it was in an extraordinary measure put into him by him that is wisdom itself; so was it in a more than ordinary way improved by his diligent observation: his observation was Universal of times, things, persons, actions, events: neither did he look his experiments up in the closet of his own breast; but by the direction of God's Spirit laid them forth to the World in this divine sermon, which, not as a King, but as a Prophet he preached to all posterity. Every sentence here therefore is a dictate of the holy Ghost; it is not Solomon then, but a greater than Solomon, even the holy Spirit of the great God that tells you there is not a time only, but a season too, for every thing and for every purpose under Heaven: that is (as I hope you can take it not otherwise) for every good thing, or indifferent; as for evil things or actions, if men find a time, yet sure God allows no season: those are always damnably-unseasonable abuses of times, and of ourselves: not to meddle with other particulars: our thoughts are now by the divine providence pitched upon, a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance, or rather only upon the time to weep and mourn, for our time of laughing and dancing is passed already: and perhaps we have had too much of that in our former times; which makes the causes and degrees of our now weeping and mourning, as more uncouth, so more intensive: we must be so much deeper in our mourning by how much we have been more wild, and wanton in our laughter, and dancing. To fall right down therefore upon our intended discourse without any previous circumlocutions: There is a threefold time of just mourning. 1. When a man is sensible of his punishments. 2. Of his sins, 3. Of his dangers.  
Of his punishments first, or rather which is more general, of his afflictions: for all afflictions are not intended for punishments; some are fatherly chastisements only for our good, whereas all punishments are afflictive; when we are whipped then, when we smart with the rod, we have cause to weep, and if in this case we shed no tears it is a sign of a graceless heart. It is time therefore to mourn when we are pressed by sufferings, whether from the immediate hand of God, or mediately by the hands of men; whether by private, or public calamities; are we smitten in our bodies by some painful and incurable diseases? Doth the pestilence rage in our streets? Hath God forbidden us the influence of Heaven and cursed the Earth with barrenness? Hath he broken the staff of bread, and sent leanness into our souls? Hath he humbled us with the fearful casualties of fire or water? by wracks at Sea, by lightnings and tempests by land? hath he sent murrain amongst our cattle, and destroying vermin into our barns, and fields? now God tells us it is a time to mourn; are we disquieted in our minds by some overmastering passions of grief, for the miscarriages of children, for the secret discontents of domestical jars, for unjust calumnies cast upon our good name? are we molested in our minds and spirits with impetuous, and no less importune then hateful Temptations? now it is a time to mourn: do we find in our souls a decay, and languishment of grace, a prevalence of those corruptions which we thought abated in us? Do we find ourselves deeply soul-sick with our sinful indispositions? Shortly, do we find the face of our God for the time withdrawn from us? Now, now it is a time to mourn.  
If we turn our eyes to those evils which are cast upon us by the hands of men: Do men find themselves despoiled of their estates, restrained of their Liberties, tortured in their bodies? Do they find the woeful miseries of an intestine war; killings, burn, depopulations? do they find fire and sword raging in the bosom of out Land? now it is a time to mourn. Were these evils confined to some few persons; to some special families, they were worthy of the tears of our compassion; for it is our duty to weep with them that weep; but where they are universal, and spread over the whole face of any Nation, there cannot be found tears enough to lament them.  
Punishments than are a just cause of our sorrow and mourning; but to a good heart sin is so much greater cause of mourning, by how much a moral evil is more than a natural; and by how much the displeasure of an Almighty God is worthy of more regard than our own smart: Doth thine heart then tell thee that thou hast offended the Majesty of God by some grievous sin? now is thy time to weep and mourn; as thou wouldst for thy only son; 
Zechar. 12.10.  now it is time for thee to be in bitterness, as one that is in bitterness for his first borne: Thy soul is foul, wash and rinse it with the tears of thy repentance; go forth with Peter, and weep bitterly. Dost thou find in the place where thou livest that sin like some furious torrent bears down all before it? now it is time for thee to mourn for the sins of thy people; and to say as the holy Psalmist did, 
Psal. 119 136.  Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because men keep not thy law.  
Lastly, as our sufferings and our sins make up a due time for our mourning, so do our dangers also; for fear is no less afflictive than pain; yea I know not whether there can be a greater pain than the expectation of imminent mischiefs: Do we therefore see extremities of judgements hover over our heads, ready to fall down, like Sodom's fire and brimstone, from heaven upon us; now is it high time to mourn for the anteverting of a threatened vengeance: shortly therefore, to sum up all that we have spoken, whether we feel evils of punishment or fear them; or be conscious of the evils of sin that have deserved them, we cannot but find it a just time to weep and mourn.  
And now to come home close to ourselves; can any man be so wilfully blind as not to see that all these are met together to wring tears from us, and to call us to a solemn and universal mourning: What single men suffer, themselves best feel; and our old word is, The wronged man writes in marble▪ I meddle not with particulars: Our pains of body, our losses in our estate, our demestique crosses, our wounds of Spirit as they are kept up in our own breasts, so they justly call us to private humiliations; if we cast abroad our eyes to more public afflictions; have we not seen that God hath let his sea lose upon us in divers parts of our Land? as if for a new judgement upon us, he would retract the old word of his decreed limitation; Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed, Job. 38.11. Hath not God given us in divers parts of our Nation a feeling touch of some of the Egyptian plagues, in the mortality of our cattle, in the unusual frequency of noisome and devouring vermin: But woe is me, all these are but fleabites in comparison of that destructive sword that hath gone through the Land, and sheathed itself in the bowels of hundred thousands of brethren. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my People, Jer. 9.1. Was there ever a more fearful example of divine vengeance against any Nation then to be armed against each other to their mutual destruction: that Christian compatriots, brethren, should pour out each others blood like water in our streets, and leave their mangled carcases for compost in our Fields? That none but the sharper sword should be left to be the arbiter of our deadly differences; that Fathers and Sons should so put off all natural affection as to think it no violation of piety to cut the throats of each other: Oh that we have lived to see the woeful havoc that the hellish fury of war hath made every where in this flourishing and populous Island; the flames of hostile fury rising up in our Towns and Cities; the devastation of our fruitful and pleasant Villages; the demolition of our magnificent Structures, the spoils and ruins of those fabrics that should be sacred, in a word, this goodly Land for a great part of it turned to a very Golgotha, and Aceldama: These, these my brethren, if our eyes be not made of pumices, must needs fetch tears from us; and put us into a constant habit of mourning.  
And if our punishments deserve thus to take up our hearts, where shall we find room enough for sufficient sorrow for those horrible sins that have drawn down these heavy judgements upon us?  
Truly, beloved brethren, if we were wholly resolved into tears, and if every drop were a stream, 
1 Kin. 8.38.  we could not weep enough for our own sins, and the sins of our People: Let every man ransack his own breast, and find out the plague of his own heart: but for the present, let me have leave a little to lay before you (though it is no pleasing object) that common leprosy of sin, wherewith the face of this miserable Nation is overspread, whether in matter of practice, or of opinion: For the former, should I gather up all the complaints of the Prophets which they have taken up of old against their Israel and Juda, and apply them to this Church and Nation, you would verily think them calculated to this our meridian; as if our sins were theirs, and their reproofs ours: what one sin can be named in all that black beadrole of wickedness, reckoned up by those holily querulos censors, which we must not own for ours? Of whom do you think the Prophet Esaiah speaks, when he says, Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear; for your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness? Esay 59.2.3. Of whom do ye think the Prophet Micah speaks, when he says, The rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouths? Micah 6.12. Do we think of Epicurism and self-indulgence? Whom do we think the Prophet Amos speaks of, when he says, Woe be to them that are at ease in Zion, that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near, that lie upon beds of Ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointment, but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph, Amos 6.1.3.4.6. Tell me, brethren, was there ever more riot and excess in diet and clothes, in belly-cheer, and back-timber than we see at this day? Do we think of drunkenness and surfeits? Of whom do we think Esay speaks, when he saith, They have erred through Wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the Priest and the Prophet have erred through strong drink (Indian smoke was not then known) they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink, they err in vision, they stumble in judgement, for all tables are full of vomit and filthiness? Esay. 28.7. Of whom doth the Prophet Hosea speak, when he says, Whoredom and Wine and new Wine take away the heart? well may these two be put together, for they seldom go asunder; but tell me, brethren, was there ever such abominable beastliness in this kind as reigns at this day, since the hedge of all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was thrown open?  
And if we think good to put these and some other of their damnable society together; of whom do we think the Prophet Hosea speaks, when he says, The Lord hath a controversy with the Land, because there is no truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God in the Land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out and blood toucheth blood? Hos. 4.1.2. Do ye think of perjury? Of whom do ye think the same Hosea speaks, when he says; They have spoken words swearing falsely in making a covenant? Hos. 10.4. Do we think of the violation of holy things and places? Of whom do we think the Prophet Esay speaks, when he says, Is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes; behold even I have seen it, saith the Lord? Esay. 7.11.  
I could easily tyre you (if I have not done so already) with the odious parallels of our sins with Israel's. Yet, one more, do we think of the bold intrusion of presumptuous persons into the sacred calling, without any commission from God? Of whom do we think the Prophet Jeremy speaks? The Prophet's prophecy lies in my name, I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor spoke unto them: They prophecy unto you a false vision, and the deceit of their own heart, Jer. 14.14. and again, I have not sent these Prophets, yet they run, I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. Jer. 23.21. To what purpose should I instance in more? as I easily might; as practical atheism, falsehood, cruelty, hypocrisy, ingratitude, and in a word, universal corruption: O England, England, too like to thy sister Israel in all her spiritual deformities, if not rather to thy sister Sodom. Behold this was the iniquity of thy Sister sodom, pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her, neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy, Ezechiel 16.49. Lo, thou art as haughty as she, and hast committed all her abominations; But that which yet aggravates thy sin, is thy stubborn incorrigibleness, and impudence in offending: is it not of thee that the Prophet Jeremy speaks, This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction? Jer. 7.28. For, O our God, hast thou not whipped us sound, and drawn blood of us in abundance; yet, woe is me what amendment hast thou found in us? what one excess have we abated? what one sin have we reform? what one vice have we quitted? Look forth brethren into the World, see if the lives of men be not more lose and lawless, their tongues more profane, their hands more heavily oppressive, their conversation more faithless, their contracts more fraudulent, their contempt of God's messengers more high, their neglect of God's ordinances more palpable than ever it was: Yea, have not too many amongst us, added to their unreformation an impudence in sinning? Is it not of these that the Prophet speaketh; Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay they were not ashamed at all, neither could they blush, therefore shall they fall among them that fall, in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord? Jer. 8.12.  
By this time I suppose you see how too much cause we have to mourn for those sins of practice which have fetched down judgements upon us, turn your eyes now a little to those intellectual wickednesses which we call sins of Opinion; Opinion (think some of you now) alas what so great offence can there be in matter of conceit, and in those results of ours ratiocination which we pitched upon in the cases of Religion? let me tell you, dear Christians, what valuation soever you may please to set upon these capital errors of the understanding set abroach for the seduction of simple souls, there is more deadly mischief, and higher offence to God in them, then in those practical evils which honest hearts profess to abhor; These, as they are the immediate sins of our spiritual part; so they do more immediately strike at the God of Spirits in his Truth, and holiness; and as Religion is the highest concernment of the soul, so the depravation of Religion must needs be most dangerous, and damnable. It is no marvel therefore if a truly-zealous Christian could even weep his eyes out to see & hear those hellish heresies, & Atheous paradoxes which have poisoned the very air of our Church wherein they were vented; One beats the keys into the sword, or hangs them at the Magistrate's girdle; so as he suspends religion upon the mere will and pleasure of severaignty: One allows plurality, or community of Wives; another allows a man to divorce that wife he hath upon sleight occasions, and to take another: One is a Ranter, another is a Seeker, a third is a Shaker: One dares question, yea disparage the sacred Scriptures of God; another denies the Souls immortality, a third the Body's resurrection: One spits his poison upon the blessed Trinity; another blasphemes the Lord Jesus, and opposes the eternity of his Godhead; One is altogether for inspirations, professing himself above the sphere of all Ordinances, yea above the blood of Christ himself; Another teaches that the more villainy he can commit, the more holy he is; that only confidence in sinning is perfection of sanctity; that there is no hell but remorse. To put an end to this list of blasphemies the very mention whereof is enough to distemper my tongue and your ears; One miscreant dares give himself out for God Almighty: Another for the Holy Ghost; Another for the Lord Christ, Another (a vile adulterous strumpet) for the Virgin Mary; O God, were there ever such frenzies possessed the brains of men? as these sad times have yielded? Was ever the Devil so prevalent with the sons of men? Neither have these prodigious wretches smothered their damnable conceits in their impure breasts, but have boldly vented them to the World, so as the very presses are openly defiled with the most loathsome disgorgements of their wicked blasphemies: Here, here my dear brethren, is matter more then enough for our mourning; If we have any good hearts to God, if any love to his truth, if any zeal for his glory, if any care for his Church, if any compassion of either perishing or endangered souls, we cannot but apprehend just cause of pouring out ourselves into tears for so horrible affronts offered to the dread Majesty of our God, for so inexpiable a scandal to the Gospel which we profess, for so odious a conspurcation of our holy profession, and lastly, for the dreadful damnation of those silly souls that are seduced by these cursed impostors.  
Ye have seen now what cause we have of mourning for sins both of Practice and Opinion.  
It remains now that we consider what cause of mourning we may have from our dangers: for surely fear as it is always joined with grief, so together with it is a just provoker of our tears. And here if I should abridge all the holy Prophets; and gather up out of them all the menaces of judgements which they denounce against their sinful Israel, I might well bring them home to our own doors and justly affright us with the expectation of such further revenge from Divine Justice; for how can we otherwise think but that the same sins must carry away the same punishments? The holy God is ever constant to his own most righteous proceed; if then our sins be like theirs, why should we presume upon a dissimilitude of judgements?  
Here than it is easy to descry a double danger worth our mourning for; the one, of further smart from the hand of God for our continuing, and menacing wickedness; the other of further degrees of corruption from ourselves: For the first, let that sad Prophet Jeremiah tell you, what we may justly fear. They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared nor walked in my law; Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Behold I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah, Jer. 44.10.11. and if ye will have particularities, have we not cause to fear that he will make good upon us that fearful word, I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the Lord, even loving kindness and mercies? Jer. 16.5. This is an ablative judgement, and that a heavy one too; will ye see a positive one, more heavy than that? Behold I will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the City that I gave to you and your forefathers, and cast you out of my presence. And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten. Jer. 23.39, 40. Will ye have the specialties of his threatened judgements? Behold I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence; I will persecute them with all these, and will deliver them to be removed to all the Kingdoms of the Earth to be a curse, and an astonishment and an hissing, and a reproach among all Nations. Jer. 29.17, 18. But enough, enough of these doleful accents of interminated judgements, wherewith if I would follow the steps of the Prophets I might strike your hearts with just horror: See now the no less danger that arises from ourselves; no less? Yea much greater; for the highest revenge of all other that God takes of men, is when he punishes sin with sin: Let me therefore sadly and seriously tell you, that there is just fear we are running apace into two woeful mischiefs, Atheism and Barbarism: Oh that I were a false Prophet, and did not see too much ground of this fear. The multiplicity of these wild opinions in matter of Religion, if there be not a speedy restraint, can have no other issue, but no Religion: And if we should live to see discouragements put upon Learning and a subtract on or diminution of the maintenance of studied Divines, and an allowance of, or connivance at unlettered preachers; and no care taken of any but some select souls, ignorance, confusion, and barbarity will be the next news that we shall hear of from the Church of England.  
Brethren, if we see not these causes of fear we are blind, and if seeing them we be not affected with them, we are stupid.  
Let this be enough to be spoken of those grounds that make a just time of our mourning: now that our seasonable mourning may not be to no purpose; let us inquire a little how this our mourning should be regulated for the due carriage and conditions of it: And first for the quantity of it; it must be proportioned to the occasion and cause upon which it is taken up: for to mourn deeply upon sleight and trivial causes, were weak and childish; like to those faint hearts that are ready to swoon away for the scratch of a finger: on the contrary not to mourn heavily upon a main cause of grief, argues an insensate and benumbed heart.  
If it be for some vehement affliction of body, good Ezekiah is a lawful precedent for us, Like as a Crane, or a swallow so did I chatter; I did mourn as a dove, mine eyes fail with looking upward: Isaiah 38.14. If it be for some great public calamity, Jeremy tells you what to do; For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl, for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us, Jerem. 4.8. and God's chosen People are a fit pattern; The Elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence, they have cast up dust upon their heads, they have girded themselves with sackcloth, the Virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground, Lament. 2.10. and the Prophet beats them company in their sorrow, Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my People, Lament. 2.11.  
If it be for some personal and grievous sin that we have been miscarried into: Holy David is a meet example for us; My bones, saith he, waxed old, through my roaring all the day long; for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer, Psal. 32.3, 4. and elsewhere, My sore ran in the night, and ceased not, my soul refused to be comforted; I complained, and my Spirit was overwhelmed, Psal. 77.2, 3. Where are those panders of sin the Romish casuists, that teach the least measure of sorrow, even mere attrition, is enough for a penitent. Surely, had the man after Gods own heart thought so, he had spared many a sigh, and many a sob, and many a tear that his sins cost him; and so must they do us, if ever we hope to recover true comfort to our souls; and certainly could we be rightly apprehensive of the dread Majesty of the most high God whom we move to anger with our sin; and could consider the heinousness of sin whereby we provoke the eyes of his glory; and lastly the dreadfulness of that eternal torment which our sin draws after it, we could not think it easy to spend too much sorrow upon our sins.  
Lastly, if from our own private bosom, we shall cast our eyes upon the common sins of the times, and places wherein we live, a taste whereof I have given you in this our present discourse; where, oh where shall we find tears enough to bewail them? now sackcloth and ashes, sighs and tears, weeping and wailing, rending of garments, yea rending of hearts too are all too little to express our just mourning. When good Ezra heard but of that one sin wherewith both Priests and Levites, and the Rulers and People of Israel were tainted, which was their intermarriage with the Heathen, so as the holy seed was vitiated with this mixture, how passionately was he affected! Let himself tell you; When I heard this thing (saith he) I rend my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head, and of my beard, and sat down astonished until the evening sacrifice, Ezra 9.3, 4. What would he have done think we, if he had seen so many abominations, and heard so many and soul blasphemies of his Israel as we have been witnesses of in these last times? This for the quantity.  
Now secondly, for the quality of our mourning, we may not think to rest in a mere sorrow, in a pensive kind of sullenness, Worldly sorrow causeth death, 2 Cor. 8.10. For by the sorrow of the heart the Spirit is broken, Prov. 15.13. and a broken spirit drieth the bones, Prov. 17.22.  
And this is one main difference betwixt the Christian mourner and the Pagan; both equally complain, both are sensible of the causes of their complaint; but the sorrow of the one is simply and absolutely afflictive, as looking no further but to the very object of his grief; the other is mixed with divers holy temperaments: as with a meekness of Spirit, with a faithul reliance upon God, yea even with some kind of joy itself; for, when we are bidden to rejoice continually, Philip. 4.4. even the dismal days of our mourning, are not excepted; Not so only, saith the Apostle, but we glory in tribulations, Rom. 5.3. Yea more than so, My brethrens (saith St. James) count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, James 1.2.  
Thirdly, for the manner of our mourning: we cannot but take notice that there is a solemn mourning, and there is a private and domestical; the solemn is by public indiction of authority: That only Power that can command our Persons, may command our humiliation and prescribe the circumstances of the Performance of it: Niniveh itself had so much divinity as to know and practise this truth; How strict a Proclamation was that of the King of that Heathen City; Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste any thing, let them not feed nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, etc. As for the choice and punctuality of the time whereto this public mourning must be limited, where should it rest but in the hand of sovereignty; whose wisdom is to be presupposed such as to pitch upon the meetest seasons for this Practice: It is very remarkable that we find recorded in the case of Israel's Public mourning, Nehem. 8.9, 10.  
Then Nenemiah which is the Tirshatha, or governor, and Ezra the Priest, the Scribe, and the Levites, that taught the People said unto all the People; This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep; Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord, neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.  
A consideration (if I may intimate it without presumption) meet to be tendered to our Brethren of the neighbour Church, who are wont to cast their public fasts upon the Lord's day, contrary no less to the determination of the Counsels of the Evangelical Churches, than the practice of the Jewish: For what other is this but God's holiday; of which we may well take-up the words of the Psalmist, This is the Day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. As it would therefore be utterly unseasonable to rejoice in a day of mourning: so must it needs be to mourn in a day of rejoicing.  
The rites and forms of public mournings may and were wont to vary according to the usages of several Nations and Churches; how ceremonious the Jews were in this kind I need not tell you; here was rending of garments, girding with sackcloth, muffling of faces, prostration on floors, covering with ashes, howling on the housetops, cutting and tearing of hair, wring of hands, and all possible gestures that might express depth of passion; And so much of this is imitable by us, as may in a grave Christian fashion testify our dejection and true sorrow of heart upon the occasion of public calamities; this solemn humiliation then being always joined with an afflicting the body by fasting (for deep sorrow doth both take away appetite, and disregards nature) so it calls us for the time to an absolute forbearance, and neglective forgetfulness of all Earthly comforts; In which regard the Popish mock-fasts which allow the greatest dainties in the strictest abstinence; and the Turkish, which shut up in an evening gluttony, are no better then hypocritical counterfeits of a religious self-humbling: those habits then, those discourses or actions, those contentments which are in themselves perhaps not lawful only, but commendable, must now be avoided as unseasonable, if not sinful: How heinously did the Almighty take this mistimed pleasure and jollity at the hands of his people the Jews? In that day (saith Esay) did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: And behold joy and gladness, slaying Oxen, and kill Sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine; let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall die. And what was the issue? It was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts, surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord God of Hosts, Esay 22.12, 13, 14.  
In matter of private mournings every man is allowed to be the arbiter of his own Time, Place, Measure, manner of performance: always so, as that he keep within the just bounds of piety, decency, discreet moderation; as Bernard well adviseth in the like kind, so punishing a Rebel, that he do not destroy a subject: Neither can I apprehend any reason, if we entertain a well grounded sorrow, 
Mat. 6.16.  why we may not express it: Not in an hypocritical way of ostentation as the vain Pharisees taxed by our Saviour, which disfigured their countenances, and did set a sour face upon a light heart, that they might appear unto men to fast, but in a wise, sober, seemly, unaffected deportment: to instance in the case of the death of those to whom we have the dearest relation; there can be no case wherein mourning can be more seasonable; it is no less than a judgement that God denounceth against King Jehojakin, They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my Brother, or Ah Sister, they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah Lord, or Ah his glory, Jer. 22.18. And it was an hard word that God spoke to Ezekiel; Son of man, behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke; yet shalt thou neither mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down, forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, etc. Ezek. 24.16. Lo such a wise as it might have been, froward, disobedient, unquiet, it had been no greatly difficult charge to have parted with her; but it seems ezekiel's was a dear, pleasing, loving consort, even the desire of his eyes, and the comfort of his life, and therefore to part with her without tears must needs be a double grief to his Soul: as therefore 'tis unnatural and inhuman not to mourn for Parents, Wives, Husbands, Brothers, Sisters, Children, Friends: so it cannot be unmeet to testify our mourning even by our outward habit; I could never see a reason why it should not be fit to wear blacks upon funeral occasions; Neither Piety nor Charity is an enemy to civil ceremonies; This colour and fashion is not indecent, nor justly offensive, so as the mind be free from superstition and overnice curiosity; such, as Balsac jeers at in his vain French Lady, who affected to have not her house only, but all the vessels and utensils that belong to it put into that hue. 
Alexand. ab Alexandro. Genial. Dierum l. 3. c. 7.  If you tell me that the Heathens mourned thus; I must tell you that all did not so; some Nations mourned in white, others in blue, others in purple, and if all had done so, they are no ill patterns in matters of mere civilities; besides that in reason this colour is most proper for sad occasions, for as white comes nearest to light, and black to darkness, so we know that light and joy, darkness and sorrow are commonly used to resemble and express each other.  
Well may we then outwardly profess our inward mourning for the dead; but yet not beyond a due moderation; It is not for us to mourn as men without hope, as the Apostle holily adviseth his Thessalonians: Our sorrow must walk in a midway betwixt neglect and excess! Sarah was the first that we find mourned for in Scripture; and Abraham the first mourner; now the Hebrew Doctors observe that in Genesis. 23.2. where Abraham's mourning is specified, the letter which is in the midst of that original word that signifies his weeping, is in all their Bible's written less than all his fellows; which they who find mountains in every tittle of Moses interpret to imply the moderate mourning of that holy Patriarch; surely, he who was the Father of the faithful did by the power of his faith mitigate the sorrow for the loss of so dear a partner.  
Thus much for the manner of our mourning: Now for as much as it is the mourner in Zion, not in Babylon, whom we look after; In the fourth place the inseparable concomitant of his mourning, must be his holy devotion; whether it be in matter of suffering, or of sin; in both which our sorrow is ill-bestowed, if it do not send us so much the more eagerly to seek after our God; Thus hath the mourning of all holy souls ever been accompanied: the greatest mourner that we can read of, was Job, who can say, My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burnt with heat. Job. 30.30. How doth he lift up his eyes from his dunghill to Heaven? and say; I have sinned, what shall I do to thee, O thou Preserver of men? Job. 6.20. The distresses of David, and the depth of his sorrows cannot be unknown to any man that hath but looked into the book of God; and what are his divine ditties but the zealous expressions of his faithful recourses to the throne of grace? good Ezra tells you what he did, when he heard of the general infection of his people with their Heathen matches; Having rend my garments, and my mantle I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands, unto the Lord my God; and said, O my God I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face to thee, O my God, for our iniquities are increased over our heads, and our trespass is grown up to the Heavens. Ezra. 9.5.6. And Daniel, a no less devour mourner then he, lays forth himself in as holy a passion; I set my face unto the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes; and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said; O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; we have sinned, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgements, etc. Hereupon it is that prayer is ever joined with fasting in all our humiliations; without which the emptiness of our maws were but a vain and purposeless ceremony: as that which was only taken up to whet our devotions, and to give a sharper appetite to pious duties: So as he that mourneth and fasteth without praying, is, as he that takes the preparative but refuses the medicine that might bring him health; or as he that toils all day in the vineyard, and neglects to call for his wages.  
This for the companion of our mourning; Fifthly, and Lastly, The attendant of our mourning is the good use that must be made of it, for the bettering of the Soul: for surely, affliction never leaves us as it finds us: if we be not better for our mourning, we are the worse: He is an unprofitable mourner that improves not all his sorrow to repentance and amendment of life; whether his sin be the immediate object of his grief or his affliction; and this is both the intention of our Heavenly Father in whipping us, and the best issue of our tears: Thus it was with his Israel, Their days (saith the Psalmist) did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble; when he slew them, than they sought him; and they returned, and inquired early after God; 
us. 35.  And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer.  
To the same purpose is that of Jeremiah; In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping, they shall go and seek the Lord their God; they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten: Jerem. 50.4.5.  
Surely, as he were an unnatural parent that would scourge his child with any other purpose then to correct and amend somewhat amiss in him; so is he no better than an ungracious child, that makes a noise under the rod, but amends not his fault.  
Here then let mine eyes run down with tears, night and day, and let them not cease for the obstinate unproficiency of the sons of my mother under the heavy hand of my God, O Lord are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return. Jerem. 5.3. how sadly dost thou complain of us under the person of thine Israel? In vain have I smitten your children, they received no correction, Jerem. 2.30. Notwithstanding all the fair warnings that thou hast given us. We run on resolutely in the course of our wickedness, as if those paths were both safe and pleasing, giving thee just cause to renew thine old complaint against the men of Judah and Jerusalem; Thus saith the Lord; Behold I frame evil against you, and devise a devise against you, Return ye now every one from his evil ways, and make your ways, and your do good; And they said, There is no hope, but we will walk after our own devises, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. Jerem. 18.11.12. woe is me, who sees not that after all the blood that thou hast let out of our veins, we are still full of the deadly inflammations of pride, and maliciousness? that after we have drunk so deep of the cup of thy fury even to the dregs, we cease not to be drunk with the intemperate cups of our beastly excess? and after strict professions of holiness have run out into horrible blasphemies of thy sacred name? So as we have too just cause to fear lest thou have decreed to make good upon us that woeful word which thy Prophet denounced against thy once-no-less-dear people, I will make this Land desolate, and an hissing, every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and hisse, because of all the plagues thereof. Jer. 18.8.  
Hitherto than I have showed you the just grounds of our mourning; afflictions, sins, dangers, and applied them to our own condition, I have showed you the due regulation of our mourning in the quantity, the quality, the manner of performing it, the company that goes with it, and the train that follows it; what remains now but that I should labour to persuade you all to be true mourners in our Zion? were it my work to exhort you to mirth and jollity, the task were both pleasing to undertake, and easy to perform; for we all naturally affect to be delighted, yea I doubt there are too many Christians that with the Epicure place their chief felicity in pleasure; but for sorrow and mourning it is a sour and harsh thing, unpleasing to the ear, but to the heart more; But, if, as Christians, we come to weigh both these in the balance of the sanctuary, we shall find cause to take up other resolutions; will ye hear what wise Solomon says of the point? Sorrow, saith he, is better than laughter; And it is better to go to the house of mourning, then to the house of feasting. 
Eccles. 7.2, 3.  Lo, his very authority alone were enough, who, as a great King, had all the World to be his Minstrel; but withal, he sticks not to give us his reason, why then is sorrow better than laughter? [For, by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better] look to the effects of both, and you shall easily see the difference: sorrow calls our hearts home to God, and ourselves, which are apt to run wild in mirth; where did you ever see a man made more holy with worldly pleasure? no, that is apt to debauch him rather; but many a soul hath been bettered with sorrow; for that gins his mortification, recollecting his thoughts to a serious consideration of his spiritual condition, and working his heart to a due remorse for his sin, and a lowly submission to the hand that inflicts it.  
And why should it be better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting? [For this is the end of all men, and the living shall lay it to his heart] The house of mourning hath here principally respect to a funeral; the death which is lamented for, being the end of all flesh, a man is here, and thus, put feelingly in mind of his mortality▪ which in an house of feasting and jollity is utterly forgotten: By how much than it is better for a man to have his heart kept in order by the meditation of death, then to run wild after worldly vanity; by so much is the house of mourning better than the house of feasting.  
But if this be not persuasive enough; hear what a greater than Solomon says, 
Mat. 5.4.  Blessed are they that mourn; Lo, he that is the author, and the owner, and giver of blessedness tells you where he bestows it, even upon the mourners; Did ye ever hear him say, Blessed are the frolic and jovial? Nay, do ye not hear him say the contrary; Woe be to you that laugh now? and though he needed not (whose will is the rule of all justice, 
Luke 6.25.  and paramount to all reason) yet he is pleased to give you the reason of both; Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted; and woe be to you ●hat laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep: Lo, joy and comfort is the end of Mourners; and mourning and weeping is the end of mirth and Laughter: O Saviour, give me leave to wonder a little at this contrariety; That to which the blessing is promised (which is mourning) is made the curse of laughter and joy: for they shall mourn that rejoiced, and yet they that mourn shall rejoice.  
Is it not partly for that necessary vicissitude which thou in thine infinite wisdom hast set of joy and mourning? so as no man can be always capable of both these; but he that rejoiceth must have his turn of mourning (as Abraham told the rich glutton in his torment, and he that mourneth must have a time of rejoicing; Or is it for the great difference that there is of the several kinds of mourning and joy? for as there is a natural joy and sorrow which is neither good nor evil but in itself indifferent, so there is a carnal sorrow and joy which is evil, and a spiritual joy and sorrow which is good; there is a temporal sorrow and joy interchanged here, and there is an eternal joy or sorrow reserved for hereafter: So than hath thine infinite justice and wisdom distributed thy rewards, and punishments, that the carnal and sinful joy is recompensed with eternal sorrow and mourning; the holy and spiritual mourning with eternal joy and blessedness. Do we then desire to be blessed? we must mourn; do we desire to have all tears wiped hereafter from our eyes? we must not then have our eyes dry here below. And surely, did we know how precious our tears are in the account of the Almighty, we would not be niggardly of those penitent drops; These, these, if we know not, are so many orient pearls laid up in the Cabinet of the Almighty; 
Ps. 56.8.  which he makes such store of, that he books their number for an everlasting remembrance; and lest one tear should be spilt, he reserves them all in his bottle. Do we not remember that he hath promised an happy and glorious harvest for a wet seedtime? That those which sow in tears shall reap in joy? 
Ps. 126.5, 6.  that every grain which we sow in this gracious rain, shall yield us a sheaf of blessedness: If then we believe this unfailable word of truth, who would not be content to mourn awhile that he may rejoice for ever? Oh the madness of carnal hearts, that choose to purchase the momentany pleasure of sin, with everlasting torments, whiles we are hardly induced to purchase everlasting pleasures, with some minute's mourning!  
Neither is it the pleasure of the Almighty to defer the retributory comforts of his mourners till another World; even here is he ready to supply them with abundant consolations; The sweet singer of Israel was experimentally sensible of this mercy, In the multitude of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts have refreshed my soul, Psal. 94.19. Neither was the chosen Vessel any whit behind him, in the experience and expression of this gracious indulgence of the Almighty, 
2 Cor. 1.3, 4.  Blessed be God (saith he) even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comforts wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God; what do I stand to instance in the persons of some special favourites of heaven? it is the very office of the Messiah, the perfect Mediator betwixt God and man, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord; and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, Esa. 61.2.3. So as all Gods faithful ones may cheerfully expect the performance of that cordial promise which the God of truth hath made to his Israel; Their soul shall be as a watered Garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all; then shall the Virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together, for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow, Jerem. ●1. 12, 13.  
But if the justice of God have been so highly provoked by the sins of a particular Nation, as that there is no remedy but the threatened judgements must proceed against them; remember what charge Ezekiel tells you was given to the man clothed in linen that had the writer's inkhorn by his side; The Lord said unto him, go through the midst of the City, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof, Ezek. 9.3, 4.  
Lo, these marked Jews own their life to their tears, if they had not wept for their fellows, they had bled with their fellows; If their sighs could not save their people from slaughter, yet they have saved themselves; their charitable mourning is recompensed with their own preservation.  
Oh than my brethren as we desire the joys of another World, and as we tender our own comfort and safety in this; let us not be sparing of our tears; let them flow freely out for our own sins first, and then for the sins of our people? let not our mourning be perfunctory, and fashionable: but serious, hearty, and zealous, so as that we may furrow our cheeks with our tears; Let our devotions, that accompany our mourning be fervent and importunate as those that would offer a kind of holy force to Heaven: wrestling with the Angel of the covenant for a blessing; Let our amendment which should be the effect of our mourning be really conspicuous to the eyes both of God and men: And finally that our mourning may be constant and effectual, let us resolve to make it our business, and for that purpose let us solemnly vow to set apart some time of each day for this sad, but needful task: and which is the main of all) since the public is most concerned in this duty, Oh that the trumpet might be blown in Zion, fasts sanctified, solemn assemblies called that the Ministers of the Lord, as the chief mourners might weep aloud in God's sanctuary, 
Joel. 2. ●5.  and say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, wherefore should the enemies of thy Church say among the people, where is their God? This were the way to reconcile our offended God, to divert his dreadful judgements, to restore us to the blessings of peace; and to cause the voice of joy and gladness to be once again heard in our land.   

ON EASTER-DAY, AT HIGHAM 1648.  1 COR. 5.7. 
For Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast.  
THe feast; that is the passover of the Jews than expiring, or the Christians Easter then succeeding; indeed I know not whether both be not alluded to; for this Epistle is conceived to have been written by the Apostle some 24. Years after our Saviour's passion; ere which time it is more than probable that the feast of Christ's resurrection was solemnly celebrated by the Christian Church; this I am sure of, that no record in all history mentions the time when it began to be kept; and therefore it is most likely according to Augustine's received rule to be deduced from the observation of the Apostles. There were ancient and eager quarrels betwixt the Eastern and Western Churches about the day whereon it should be kept; but whether it should be kept or no, there was never yet any question since Christianity looked forth into the World: and as that Pasche, so this Easter is justly the feast, for the eminency of it above the rest; for if we do with joy and thankfulness according to the Angel's message solemnize the day wherein the Son of God, our blessed Redeemer being born, entered the life of humane nature: how much more should we celebrate that day, wherein having conquered all the powers of death and Hell he was, as it were, born again to the life of a glorious immortality? But to leave the time, and come to the Text. This (for) that leads it in, is both a relative, and an illative; referring to what he had said in the foregoing words; and inferring a necessary consequence of the one clause upon the other; Purge out the old leaven; for Christ our passover is sacrificed for us; The whole Text is Allegorical; alluding to the charge and duty of God's ancient people, the Jews, in the observation of their passover; who upon no less pain than cutting off from the Congregation of Israel, must admit of no leavened bread to be eaten or found in their houses during the whole seven days of this celebrity, as you may see Exod. 12.17.18, etc. As therefore the ceremonial passover would admit of no material leaven: So the spiritual passover may not abide any leaven of wickedness, Purge therefore out the old leaven; For Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.  
The first work then that we have to do, is, to cast back our eyes to the ground of this institution, and to inquire why no leaven might consist with the Jewish passover; And we shall find that there was not the same reason of the first observation of this ceremony, and of the following: The first was Necessity; Devotion was the ground of the rest. Necessity first; for in that sudden departure which they were put upon, there could be no leisure to leaven their dough, as you may see, Exod. 12.39.  
Devotion afterward in a grateful recognition both of their own servile condition; and of the gracious providence of God: In the former they were called to look back upon their old Egyptian servitude by their unleauned bread; for this was (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) the bread of affliction as we turn it, or the bread of the poor, as the word signifies, which they must now eat to put them in mind of their hard and poor condition in Egypt under their evil task masters all their lives after, as Deut. 16.3. to the same purpose it was that they must eat the Lamb, not with sour herbs as it had wont to be turned; (for a sharp kind of sourness in sauces is esteemed pleasing and tasteful) but with bitter herbs, yea, as the word is in the Original (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) cum amaritudinibus) with bitternesses.  
In the latter they were minded of a double providence of the Almighty: One, that God was pleased to fetch them out of Egypt in an happy suddenness; even when they had no leisure to make up their bach; The other that he sustained them with this unleavened dough till he sent them Manna in the Wilderness. The one was the bread of the poor, the other the bread of Angels. As therefore he would have a pot of Manna kept in the Ark for a Monument of that miraculous food wherewith he fed them in the desert; so he thought good to ordain this observation of unleavened bread for a perpetual memorial of their provision preceding it.  
And this was not only a charge but a sanction, under the severe penalty whether of excommunication, or death, or both: both for the authority of the Commander, and for the weight of the institution; whereby God meant both to rub up their memory of a temporal benefit passed: and to quicken their faith in a greater spiritual favour of their future Redemption from sin and death by the blood of that true paschal lamb which should be sacrificed for them.  
This is the ground of this institution. Now let us if you please inquire a little into the ground of this allusion to the leaven, the nature and signification of this employed comparison here mentioned; and we shall easily find that leaven hath first a diffusive faculty; so it is taken both in the good part, and the evil: in good, 
Mat. 1● 33.  so the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leauned: Lo these same (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) were more than a bushel of our measure, and one morsel of leaven seasons it all. In evil, so here immediately before my Text in an ordinary Jewish proverb A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump: Secondly it hath in itself a displeasing sourness, in which regard it is an ill construction attributed both to false doctrine, and to evil manners. To false doctrine: 
Mat. 16.6.  Take heed saith our Saviour of the leaven of the Pharises; To ill manners; so in the next words ye have the leaven of malice and wickedness.  
So then here the very inference offers us these two necessary heads of our discourse; 1. That sin, or the sinner (for it may be taken of either or both) is spiritual leaven. 2. That this leaven must be purged out because Christ is our passover, and sacrificed for us.  
For the first: sin hath the true qualities of leaven; both in respect of the offensive sourness, and of the diffusion. In the former nothing can be so distasteful unto God, as sin; Indeed nothing can displease but it; as nothing is so sweet and pleasing to him as the obedience of his faithful ones. If any edible thing could be more offensive to the palate; Sin would be likened to it; As indeed it is still resembled by whatsoever may be most abhorring to all the senses: To the sight; so it is compared to filth, Esa. 4.4. Psal. 14.3. to beastly excrements; 2 Pet. 2.22. to spots and blemishes, 2. Pet. 2.13. to menstruous and polluted blood, Ezec. 16.6. To the smell; so to a corrupted ointment; to the stench of a dead carcase; what should I instance in the rest? How should it be other then highly offensive to the Majesty of God, when it is professedly opposite to divine justice? since all sin is the transgression of the royal law; even the conscience which is God's taster finds it abominably loathsome; how much more that God who is greater than the conscience; who so abhors it that (as we are wont to do to the potsherd which hath held poisonous liquor) he throws away and breaks the very vessel wherein it was: as he that finds an hair or a coal in the daintiest bit, spits it out all. Did God find sin in his Angels? he tumbles them down out of Heaven; Doth he find sin in our first parents? he hurls them out of Paradise; Yea, did he find our sins laid upon the blessed Son of his love; of his nature? he spares him not awhit, but lays load upon him till he roars out in the anguish of his Soul. Lo, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisements of our peace were upon him, and by his stripes we are healed, Esa. 53.5.  
And to whom should we rather conform ourselves then to the most holy God? what diet should we affect but his who is the rule of all perfection? How then should we utterly abhor every evil way, how should we hate our sins with a perfect hatred? And surely, the more ill savour and loathliness we can find in our bosom sins, the nearer we come to the purity of that holy one of Israel, our blessed Redeemer whose stile it is, Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness. Ps. 45.7. Oh then be we perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect; Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purge your hearts ye double minded.  
What shall we say then to the disposition of those men, that can find no savour in any thing but their sins? No morsel goes down sweetly, merrily, with them but this: woe is me, how do they cheer themselves with the hope of enjoying their sinful pleasures? how do they recreate themselves with the memory of their forepassed filthiness? how do they glory in that licentious liberty which they indulge unto themselves? how do they even when they are grown old and past beastly action, tickle themselves with the wanton remembrances of their younger bestialities? yea so hath the delight in sin most woefully besotted them, that they respect not friends, estate, children, health, body, soul, in comparison of the bewitching contentment they find in their sins; Oh poor miserable souls! Oh the wretchedest of all creatures, not men but beasts! let me not seem either unmannerly, or uncharitable, to speak from the mouth of God's Spirit: you know the word Canis ad vomitum; The dog to his vomit; The swine to its mire: And if they will needs be dogs; how can they look for any other but dog's entertainment? Foris Canes without shall be dogs, Revel. 22.15. But for us dear Christians let me take up that obtestation of the Psalmist. Oh all ye that love the Lord, hate the thing which is sin, Psal. 97.10. let us hate even the garment spotted with the flesh, yea let us hate ourselves that we can hate our sins no more: And if at any time through the frailty of our wretched nature, and the violence of tentation we be drawn into a sinful action, yet let us take heed of being leavened with wickedness, Purge out the old leaven; for Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.  
Now, as sin is leaven in respect of the souring quality of it, so also in respect of the diffusive: It began with one Angel and infected Legions; It began with one Woman, it infected all the Generation of Mankind; let it take hold of one faculty, it infecteth the whole soul and body; let it seize upon one person in a family it corrupts the whole house; from thence it spreads over the neighbourhood; and taints whole Towns, Cities, Regions: as it is with certain contagious diseases that have not been bounded with mountains or Seas: It is very pregnant which St. Paul speaks of Hymeneus and Philetus whose word (saith he) will eat as doth a canker or a gangrene, 2 Tim. 2.17. ye see how a gangrene even from the least toe soon strikes the heart; and the canker from a scarce sensible beginning consumes the gums, eats through the cheek, eats down the nose and will admit of no limits but deformity and death: thus it is with sin whether intellectual or moral: Arianisme began in a family, spread over the World. And Antinomianisme began in one Minister of this diocese and how much it is spread, I had rather lament, then speak.  
I doubt not but many of you who hear me this day have had lamentable proofs of this truth: let there be but a drunkard, or a swearer in a family how soon hath this scabbed sheep tainted the whole flock; Grace and Godliness is not so easily propagated: sin hath the advantage of the proclivity of our wicked nature. It hath the wind and tide both with it, goodness hath both against it: health doth not use to be taken from others, but sickness doth.  
Since your wickedness is of so spreading a nature, how careful should we be to prevent, and resist the very first beginnings of sin; It is a 1000 times more easy to keep the floodgates shut, then to drain the lower grounds when they are once overflown.  
2ly. How shy and weary should we be of joining societies with the infectious, whether in opinion, or in manners: A man that is an heretic reject, saith St. Paul, Tit. 3.10. If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or a railer, or an idolater, or a drunkard, with such a one eat not, 1 Cor. 5.11. withdraw yourselves from the tents of these men, etc. into their secret, etc.  
3ly. How much doth it concern all public persons whether ecclesiastical or civil to improve their authority to the utmost for the timely preventing of the spreading of vice: and for the severe censure and expurgation of those whom the Psalmist (as the original word signifies) calls leavened persons, Ps. 71.4. The palpable neglect whereof hath been a shameful eyesore to the conscientious beholders, a soul blemish to the Gospel; and a just scandal upon the Church. And though another man's sin cannot infect me unless I do partake with him in it: yet a true Lot will vex his righteous soul with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites; and even others sins may help to draw down judgements upon the community wherein they live: good reason that all care should be taken for purging out the old leaven, that so the old leaven being purged out the whole lump may be holy.  
So much of the first point, that sin is leaven; the second follows that this leaven must be purged out if we would have any interest in Christ our passover which is sacrificed for us: The inference you see doth necessarily imply so much In vain should any Jew talk of keeping a passover to God, if he would eat the Lamb with Leavened bread; in vain should any Christian talk of applying Christ to his soul, whiles his heart willingly retains the leaven of any known sin.  
Certainly this is a common, and a dangerous cozenage whereby millions of souls cheat themselves into hell; they fond think they may hold fair quarter with Christ, and yet give secret entertainment to their sins, Demas thinks he may embrace the present world and yet need not leave his hold of Christ; Ananias and Sapphira will closely harbour an hypocritical sacrilege, and yet will be as good professors as the best. A Simon Magus will be baptised Christian, yet a sorcerer still: and many a one still thinks he may drink, and swear, and debauch, and profane Gods ordinances; and rob God's house, and resist lawful authority, and lie and plunder, or slander his neighbour, and yet hold good terms with a forward profession. Yea there are those that will be countenancing their sins with their christianity, as if they were privileged to sin because they are in Christ: Then which there can not be a more injurious and blasphemous fancy. Certainly their sins are so much more abominable to God and men by how much more interest they challenge in a Christian profession: yea if but a bare entertainment of a known sin; it is enough to bar them out from any plea in Christ.  
Vain fools, now grossly do these men delude their own souls whiles they imagine they can please God with a leavened passover; this is the way to make them and their sacrifices abominable to the Almighty: It is to them that God speaks as in thunder and fire, What dost thou taking my covenant into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest to be reform, and hast cast my words behind thee, Psal. 50.16, 17. To them it is that he speaks by his Prophet Esay 66.3. He that killeth an ox as if he slew a man, he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a dogs-neck: Shortly then my brethren, since we are now addressing ourselves to this Evangelical passover; if ever we think to partake of this Heavenly feast with true comfort to our souls; Let us see that we have clearly abandoned all the sour leaven of our sins: let us come with clear, and untainted souls to this blessed feast; and say and do with holy David, I will wash my hands in innocency, O Lord, and so will I go to thine altar, Ps. 26.6.  
Thus long we have necessarily dwelled upon the inference, and contexture of this scripture, we now come to scan this divine proposition as it stands alone in itself; wherein our meditation hath four heads to pass through: 1. That Christ is a passover: 2. Our Passover. 3. Our Passover sacrificed. 4. sacrificed for us.  
To begin with the first. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we find, is derived not from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which signifies to suffer, as some of the Latin fathers out of their ignorance of Language have conceived, but from the Hebrew (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) which signifies a transition, well turned by our language into Passe-over: For here was a double passover to be celebrated; 1. The Angel's passing over the houses of the Israelites, when he smote all the first born of Egypt; and 2ly. Israel's passing out of Egypt. The word admits of many senses: sometimes it is taken for the time of this solemnity, Act. 12.4. sometimes for the sacrifices offered in this solemnity, Deut. 16.4. sometimes for the representation of the act of God's transition, Exod. 12.11. Sometimes for the Lamb that was then to be offered and eaten, 2 Chron. 35.11. They killed the passover, and the Priests sprinkled the blood from their hands: Thus is it taken in this place when it is said Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. So as here is a trope or figure twice told; First, the lamb is the passover, Secondly, Christ is that paschal Lamb.  
You would think this now farfetched, here was a double passing over. The Angels passing over the Israelites, the Israelites passing out of Egypt; both were acts, the one of God, the other of men; as for the lamb it is an animal substance; Yet this Lamb represents this passover. This is no news in sacramental speeches: The thing signed is usually put for the sign itself: My covenant shall be in your flesh; that is, circumcision, the sign of my covenant, the rock that followed them was Christ, 1 Cor. 10.4. that is Christ was represented by that rock, This cup is the new testament, So here Christ our passover: 
Gen. 17.13.  that is Christ represented by the Paschal-lamb. What an infatuation is upon the Romish party, that rather than they will admit of any other than a gross literal capernaitical sense in the words of our Saviour's sacramental supper, This is my body, will confound Heaven and Earth together; and either by a too forceable consequence endeavour to overthrow the truth of Christ's humanity, or turn him into a monster, a wafer, a crumb, a nothing. Whenas St. Austin hath told us plainly, sacramentaliter intellectum vivificabit: Take it in a sacramental sense there is infinite comfort, and spiritual life in it. As for his body St. Peter hath told us the heavens must contain him till the time of the restitution of all things, Acts 3.21. Yea when our Saviour himself hath told us, the words that I speak are spirit and life. Jo. 6.  
Now what a marvellous mercy was this of God to Israel, thus to pass over them when he slew the firstborn of Egypt? There was not an house in all Egypt wherein there was not mourning and lamentation; no roof but covered a suddenly made carcase: what an unlooked for consternation was here in every Egyptian Family? Only the Israelites that dwelled amongst them were free to applaud this judgement that was inflicted upon their tyrannous persecutors, and for their very cause, inflicted: for this mercy are they beholden under God, to the blood of their Paschal-lamb sprinkled upon their door-posts: Surely had they eaten the lamb, and not sprinkled the blood, they had not escaped the stroke of the destroying Angel; This was in figure; In reality it is so, It is by, and from the blood of our redeemer sprinkled upon our souls that we are freed from the vengeance of the Almighty. Had not he died for us, were not the benefit of his precious blood applied to us; we should lie open to all the fearful judgements of God, and as to the upshot of all, eternal death of body and soul: As then the Israelites were never to eat the Paschal-lamb but they were recalled to the memory of that saving preterition of the Angel, and Gods merciful deliverance from the fiery furnaces of the Egyptians; so neither may we ever behold this sacramental representation of the death of our blessed Saviour, but we should bethink ourselves of the infinite mercy of our good God in saving us from everlasting death and rescuing us from the power of hell.  
This is the first figure; That the Lamb is the Passover. The second follows, That Christ is that Paschal-Lamb. Christ then being the end of the Law, it is no marvel if all the ceremonies of the Law served to prefigure, and set him forth to God's people; but none did so clearly and fully resemble him as this of the paschal Lamb: whether we regard, 1. the choice, 2. the preparation, 3. the eating of it.  
The choice whether in respect of the nature, or the quality of it: the nature, ye know this creature is noted for innocent, meek, gentle, profitable: such was Christ our Saviour. His forerunner pointed at him under this stile; Behold the Lamb of God, what perfect innocence was here? No guile found in his mouth: Hell itself could find nothing ro quarrel at in so absolute integrity: What admirable meekness? He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so opened be not his mouth, Esay 53.7. Doth his own treacherous servant betray him to the death? Friend, wherefore art thou come? Mat. 26.50. Do the cruel tormentors tenter out his precious limbs and nail his hands and feet to the tree of shame and curse; Father forgive them for they know not what they do: Oh patience and meekness incident into none but an infinite sufferer!  
2ly. The quality, Every Lamb would not serve the turn: it must be agnus immaculatus, A lamb without blemish that must be paschal: Exod. 12.5. Neither doth it hinder aught that leave is there given to a promiscuous use either of lamb or kid for the sacramental supper of the passover; For that was only allowed in a case of necessity, as Theodoret rightly; and as learned Junius well, in the confusion of that first institution; wherein certainly a lamb could not be gotten on the sudden by every Israelitish housekeeper to serve six hundred thousand men; and so many there were, Exod. 12.37.  
This liberty than was only for the first turn as divers other of those ceremonious circumstances of the passover were, namely the four day's preparation, the sprinkling of the blood upon the door-cheeks, eating with girded loins, and staves in their hands, which were not afterward required or practised.  
The lamb than must represent, a most holy and perfectly sinless Saviour; could he have been capable of the least sin even in thought he had been so far from ransoming the World, that he could not have saved himself; Now his exquisite holiness is such as that by the perfection of his merits he can and doth present his whole Church to himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; as holy and without blemish, Ephes. 5.27. Canst thou therefore accuse thyself for a sinful wretch, a soul blemished with many foul imperfections. Look up man, lo, thou hast a Saviour that hath holiness enough for himself, and thee, and all the World of believers: close with him, and thou art holy and happy; Behold the immaculate lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, thine Therefore if thou canst lay hold on him by a lively faith, and make him thine.  
This for the choice; the preparation follows: so Christ is the paschal lamb in a threefold respect: in resemblance of his kill, sprinkling his blood, and roasting.  
1. This Lamb, to make a true passover, must be slain; So was there a necessity that our Jesus should die for us: The two Disciples in their walk to Emaus hear this not without a round reproof from the mouth of their risen Saviour; Oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? Luc. 24.26. Ought not? there is necessity, the doom was in paradise upon man's disobedience (morte morieris) thou shalt die the death. Man sinned, man must die, The first Adam sinned, and we in him; the second Adam must by death expiate the sin: Had not Christ died, mankind must; had not he died the first death, we had all died both the first and second; without shedding of blood there is no remission, Heb. 9.22. Hereby therefore are we freed from the sense of the second death, and the sting of the first to the unfailing comfort of our souls; hereupon it is that our Saviour is so careful to have his death and passion so fully represented to us in both his sacraments: the water is his blood in the first Sacrament; the Wine is his blood, in the second.  
In this he is sensible crucified before our eyes; the bread, that is his body broken, the wine his blood poured out. And if these acts and objects do not carry our hearts to a lively apprehension of Christ our true passover, we shall offer to him no other than the sacrifice of fools.  
Lo here then a sovereign antidote against the first death, and a preservative against the second, the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World: why should we be discomforted with the expectation of that death which Christ hath suffered; why should we be dismayed with the fear of that death which our all-sufficient Redeemer hath fully expiated?  
2ly. In the first institution of this passover; The blood of the lamb was to be sprinkled upon the posts and lintels of the doors of every Israelite: so if ever we look for any benefit from Christ our Passover, there must be a particular application of his blood to the believing soul; even very Papists can say that unless our merits or holy actions be died or tinctured in the blood of Christ, they can avail us nothing: but this consideration will meet with us more seasonably upon the fourth head.  
3ly. This passover must be roasted home, not stewed, not parboiled; So did the true paschal lamb undergo the flames of his Father's wrath for our sins; here was not a scorching and blistering but a vehement and full torrefaction; It was an ardent heat that could fetch drops of blood from him in the garden; but it was the hottest of flames that he felt upon the cross, when he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Oh who can without horror and amazement hear so woful a word fall from the mouth of the Son of God? Had he not said, My Father, this strain had sunk us into utter despair: but now in this very torment is comfort? He knew he could not be forsaken of him of whom he saith; I and my Father are one: he could not be forsaken by a sublation of union, though he seemed so by a substraction of vision (as Leo well) the sense of comfort was clouded for a while from his humanity, his deity was ever glorious, his faith firm; and supplied that strong consolation which his present sense failed of; and therefore you soon hear him in a full concurrence of all Heavenly and victorious powers of a confident Saviour say, Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit; In the mean while even in the height of this suffering there is our ease, for certainly the more the Son of God endured for us, the more sure we are of an happy acquittance from the Tribunal of Heaven, the justice of God never punished the same sin twice over: By his stripes we are healed; by his payment we are discharged, by his torments we are assured of peace and glory.  
Thus much of the preparation; The eating of it follows in the appendances, the manner, the persons.  
The appendances. It must be eaten with unleauned bread, and with sour, or bitter herbs: Of the unleavened bread we have spoken enough before: For the herbs, that nothing might be wanting, the same God that appointed meat, appointed the sauce too, and that was a salad of, not pleasing, but, bitter herbs; herein providing not so much for the palate of the body, as of the soul; to teach us that we may not hope to partake of Christ without sensible disrelishes of nature, without outward afflictions, without a true contrition of Spirit.  
It is the condition that our Saviour makes with us in admitting us to the profession of Christianity; he shall receive an 100 fold with persecutions; those to boot; that for his sake and the Gospels, forsake all, Mark 10.30. Sat down therefore, O man, and count what it will cost thee to be a true Christian, through many tribulations, etc.  
Neither can we receive this evangelical passover without a true contrition of soul for our sins past; think not, my beloved, that there is nothing but jollity to be looked for at God's table. Ye may frolic it, ye that feast with the World; but if ye will sit with Christ and feed on him; ye must eat him with bitter herbs; here must be a sound compunction of heart (after a due self examination) for all our sins wherewith we have offended our good God: Thou wouldst be eating the paschal lamb, but with sugar-sops, or some pleasing sauce; it may not be so, here must be a bitterness of soul, or no passover: It is true that there is a kind of holy mixture of affections in all our holy services; a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoice in him with trembling, saith the Psalmist. It is and should be our joy, that we have this lamb of God to be ours: but it is our just sorrow to find our own wretched unworthiness of so great a mercy. Godly sorrow must make way for solid joy and comfort: if there be any of you therefore that harbours in your breast a secret love of, and complacency in your known and resolved sins (procul, O procul,) let him keep off from this holy Table; let him bewail his sinful mis-disposition and not dare to put forth his hand to this passover till he have gathered the bitter herbs of a sorrowful remorse for his hated offences; And where should he gather these but in the low grounds of the Law? there they grow plenteously; lay the law then home to thy soul, that shall show thee thy sins, and thy judgement School thee.  
Yea, dear Christians, how can any of us see the body of our blessed Saviour broken, and his blood poured out; and withal think and know that his own sins are guilty of this tort offered to the son of God the Lord of life, and not feel his heart touched with a sad and passionate apprehension of his own vileness, and an indignation at his own wickedness that hath deserved and done this? these are the bitter herbs wherewith if we shall eat this passover we shall find it most wholesome, and nourishable unto us to eternal life.  
The manner of the eating of it follows, in three particulars.  

1. The whole lamb must be eaten, not a part of it.  
2. Not a bone of it must be broken.  
3. In one house at once, nothing to be reserved, or carried out.   
For the first; you find it not so in any other cookery or provision of this kind: many a Lamb did the Jews eat in all the year besides, these were halved and quartered as occasion served: but for the paschal Lamb it must be set on all whole; the very entrails must be washed and put into the roast, and brought to the board in an entire dish: whosoever would partake of Christ aright, must take whole Christ, not think to go away with a limb, and leave the rest; that he should dividere mendacio Christum, as that Father speaks: as in God's demands of us he will have all or none; so in his grant to us, he will give all or none; He would not have so much as his coat divided, much less will he abide himself shall; There have been heretics, and I would there were not so still; that will be sharing, and quartering of Christ, one will allow of his humanity, not his eternal deity; another will allow his humane body, but not his soul; that must be supplied by the deity; another will allow a divine soul with a fantastic body; One will allow Christ to be a Prophet or a Priest, but will not admit of him as a King: In vain do all these wretched misbelevers pretend to partake of Christ the passover, whiles they do thus set him on by piecemeal: They are their own monstrous fancies which they do thus set before themselves, not the true paschal Lamb, whom we do most sacrilegiously violate instead of receiving, if our faith do not represent him to us wholly God and Man, soul and body, King, Priest, and Prophet, here he is so exhibited to us, and if we do thus believe in him and thus apply him to our souls, we do truly receive him, and with him eternal salvation.  
Two particulars follow yet more in the manner; then the persons allowed to this banquet, no uncircumcised might eat thereof: Then in the next place we should descend to the second head of our discourse that Christ is our Passover. Then that he is our Passover sacrificed; and sacrificed for us.  
Ye see what a World of matter yet remains and offers itself as in a throng to our meditations; but the long business of the ensuing Sacrament forbids our further discourse, and calls us from speaking of Christ our Passover to partaking of him; For which he prepare our souls that hath dearly bought them, and hath given himself to be our true passover; To whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit one infinite and incomprehensible God be all Praise, Honour, and Glory, now and for ever.  
Amen.   

A SERMON Preached at HIGHAM NEAR NORWICH, ON SUNDAY July 1. 1655.  By JOS. HALL. B. N. The first Epistle of the Holy Apostle Peter, the first Chapter and the 17th. verse 
If ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.  
WHen our blessed Saviour called Peter, and Andrew, his Brother, to their discipleship, he did it in these terms; Fellow me, 
Math. 4.17.  and I will make you Fishers of Men: And indeed, this was their trade and profession: which they practised constantly, 
John. 19.11.  and effectually: Neither doubt I to say that the great draught of Fish, which Peter took up, (when he cast forth his net at the command of Christ after his resurrection) was a type and emblem of that great Capture of souls, which he should make soon after; 
Act. 2.41.  when at one Sermon he drew up no less than three thousand Souls; every exhortation that he made was an Angle, or a casting net to take some hearers; but these two holy Epistles are as some scene, or large drag-net to enclose whole Shoales of believers; and this Text, which I have read unto you, is as a row of meshes knit together, and depending upon each other: First, you have here that our life is a sojourning on Earth, Secondly, this sojourning hath a time; Thirdly, this time must be passed; Fourthly, this passage must be in fear; Fifthly, this fear must be of a Father: Sixthly, he is so a Father that he is our Judge; Lastly, his judgement is unpartial for he judgeth without respect of persons, according to every man's work; all which may well be reduced to these two heads; A charge and an enforcement; a duty and a motive to perform it; The charge, or duty is, To pass the time of their sojourning in fear, the motive, or enforcement, If we call on the Father, etc. The duty though last in place, yet is first in nature, and shall be accordingly meditated of.  
First therefore our life is but a sojourning here; our former translation turns it a dwelling, not so properly; the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is to dwell as a stranger or sojourner; so the French hath it [seiour temporal] so near together is the signification of words of this nature, that in the Hebrew one word signifies both a dweller and a stranger, I suppose, to imply that even the indweller is but a stranger at home. But this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here doth both imply an home, and opposes it. The condition of every living soul, especially of every Christian, is, to be peregrinus, as out of his own Country, and Hospes, as in another's. Think not this was the case of St. Peter only, who by the exigence of his Apostleship was to travel up and down the World; for both it is apparent that Peter (after the shifts of our Jesuitical interpreters) had an house of his own to reside in, Matth. 8.14. and that he writes this to his Countrymen the Jews; amongst whom (notwithstanding their dispersion,) there were doubtless many rich owners; as there are still in many parts of the World after all their disgraceful eliminations: the Father of the faithful was so; Hebr. 11.13. and the Sons of that Father were so after him; Jacob speaks of the days of his Pilgrimage; David was a great King; yet he confesses himself a stranger upon Earth, and that this was hereditary to him; for he adds, as were my Fathers; He had more Land than they; They had some few fields in Bethlehem, he ruled from Dan to Beersheba, yet a professed stranger; wherein as he was a type of Christ so an example of all Christians; as strangers and pilgrims (saith the Apostle) abstain from fleshly lusts; The faithful man is, according to that of Bernard, the Lords servant; his neighbour's fellow, and the World's Master; All things are yours, saith the Apostle, yet is he the while but a sojourner upon his own inheritance; no worldly respects can free-denizen a Christian here; and of peregrinus make him civis.  
No it is out of the power of all earthly commodities to naturalise him; for neither can his abiding be here, if he should love the earth never so well, neither shall he find any true rest, or contentment here below; if any wealthy citizen upon the uncertainty of trade, shall have turned his shop-book, and his bags into lands and manors, and having purchased plentifully, and called his land by his name, shall be so foolish as to set down his rest here and say, Hic requies mea; soul take thy ease, he may well look that God will give him his own; with a Thou fool, this night, etc.  
It is true; the worldly man is at home in respect of his affections; but he is, and shall be a mere sojourner in respect of his transitoriness. His soul is fastened to the earth; all his substance cannot fasten himself to it: Both the Indies could not purchase his abiding here; this is our condition as men, but much more as Christians, we are perfect strangers and sojourners here in the world; and if we be no other than such, why do we not demean ourselves accordingly?  
If then we be but sojourners and that in a strange nation, here must be an (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) an unmeddlingness with these worldly concernments, not that we should refrain from managing the affairs of this present life; without which it were no living for us upon earth; there is a difference betwixt (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) necessary business, and unnecessary distractions: A man that sojourns abroad in a strange country finds himself no way interessed in their designs, and proceed: what cares he who rises, or falls at their Court? who is in favour and who in disgrace; what ordinances or laws are made, and what are repealed; he says still to himself, as our Saviour said to Peter, Quid ad te? What is that to thee? Thus doth the Christian here; he must use the World as if he used it not; he must pass through the affairs of this life, without being entangled in them, as remembering who and where he is; that he is but a sojourner here.  
Secondly, here must be a light address; no Man that goes to sojourn in a strange Country will carry his lumber along with him; but leaves all his household stuff at home; no, he will not so much as carry his stock of money or Jewels with him: as knowing he may meet with dangers of thiefs, and robbers in the way, but makes over his money by exchange to receive it where he is going, ye rich men cannot think to carry your pelf with you into Heaven; no, it were well if you could get in yourselves, without that cumbrous Load, it may keep you out, ye cannot carry it in: if you will go safe and sure ways, make over your stock by exchange that is, (as our Saviour tells you) make you friends of the unrighteous Mammon, 
1. Tim. 6.19.  that when ye go hence they may receive you into everlasting habitations; those riches which Solomon saith have wings, and therefore may fly up, and (being well used) may help to carry up your souls towards Heaven; if you clip their wings may prove as clogs to weigh your souls down to Hell: dispose of them therefore where you may be sure to find them with an happy advantage to yourselves, and do not think to keep them still in your hands, remembering that you are but sojourners here.  
Thirdly, if ye be but strangers and sojourners here, you must make account of no other than hard usage in the world; it is the just Epithet of the world which Julius Scaliger gives unjustly to London, Torva peregrinis; but we cannot add that which follows, sed non & inhospita; for surely there is nothing to be expected here but unkind and churlish entertainment; we know that God still puts together the Stranger, the Widow, and the Orphan; these are every where most exposed to wrong; as men are still apt to climb over the hedge where it is lowest.  
The good Shunamite, when the Prophet offered her the favour to speak to the King for her, could say, I dwell amongst my own People; intimating, that while she dwelled at home amongst her good Neighbours, she had no need of a Friend at Court. But when she had been abroad sojourning in the land of the Philistims, 
2 Kings. 8.  and in her absence was stripped of her house and Land, she is fain to come with an humble petition in her hand, suing to be righted against the injurious usurpation of her cruel oppressor: Do we therefore find harsh usage at the hands of the World? are we spitefully entreated by unjust men, our reputation blemished, our profession slandered, our goods plundered, our estates causelessly impaired, our bodies imprisoned: and all indignities cast upon us, and ours? let us bethink ourselves, where and what we are: strangers and sojourners here. And let us make no reckoning to far any otherwise whiles we sojourn in this vale of tears.  
Lastly, if we be strangers and Pilgrims here, we cannot but have a good mind homeward: It is natural to us all to be dearly affected to our home, and though the place where we sojourn be handsomer, and more commodious than our own, yet we are ready to say, Home is homely, and our heart is there, though our bodies be away; and this is a difference betwixt a banished man, and a voluntary Traveller; The exiled man hath none but displeasing thoughts for his native Country, would fain forget it, and is apt (as we have had too much proof) to devise plots against it, whereas the voluntary Traveller thinks the time long till he may enjoy his long desired home; and thinks himself happy, that he may see the smoke of his own chimney; and if our lot be fallen upon a stony and barren Ithaca, yet it is not all the glorious promises of a Calypso can withdraw us from desiring a speedy return to it; beloved, we know we are strangers here; our home is above. There is our Father's house, in which there are many mansions, and all glorious: If this earth had as many contentments in it, as it hath miseries and vexations, yet it could not compare with that region of blessedness which is our only home: Oh than if we believe ourselves to have a true right to that abiding City, to that City which hath foundations where our Father dwells, why do we not long to be possessed of those glorious, and everlasting habitations? we find it too true which the Apostle says, That whiles we are present in the flesh we are absent from the Lord. 
2 Cor. 5.  Why are we not hearty desirous to change these houses of clay for that house not made with hands eternal in the heavens? we may please ourselves in formalities, but I must tell you it is no good sign if we be loath to go home to our father's house: Me thinks this word (here) should be emphatical; in deed it is not in the original text, but it is both sufficiently employed, and would seem to intimate a kind of comparison between the place of our sojourning, and the place of our home. Here is trouble and toil, there is rest; Here is disorder and sin, there perfection of order and holiness, Here we live with men, yea beasts, yea, if (on some hands) I should say with incarnate Devils, I should not be uncharitable, there, with God and his blessed Angels, and the souls of righteous men made perfect: Here are continual changes and successions of sorrow, there an eternity of unintermitted and unconceivable joys; 
Ps. 42.1.  Oh then how can we choose but say with David, as the Hart panteth after the water-brooks, 
Philip. 1.  so doth my soul pant after thee O God; and with the chosen vessel, I desire to departed hence and to be with Christ? This for our sojourning here.  
Now, for the time of our sojourning.  
Time is the common measure of all things, the Universal metwand of the Almighty, Eccles. 3.1. There is a time for all things saith wise Solomon, and but a time; for the motions of time are quick and irrevocable, ye cannot think of it but with wings; It is but a short word, a monosyllable; yet, whiles we are speaking of it, it is gone. As for the Time of our sojourning; Moses reckons it by years, Job by months, and those of vanity; old Jacob, and David by days; the Apostle shuts it up closer; and calls the very age of the World, hora novissima, the last hour: all imply a quickness of passage. It is a true observation of Seneca, Velocitas temporis (saith he) the quick speed of time is best discerned when we look at it past, and gone, and this I can confirm to you by experience. It hath pleased the providence of my God so to contrive it, that this day, this very morning fourscore years ago I was born into the World: a great time since, ye are ready to say; and so indeed it seems to you that look at it forward, but to me that look at it as past, it seems so short that it is gone like a tale that is told, or a dream by night, and looks but like yesterday. It can be no offence for me to say that many of you who hear me this day, are not like to see so many Suns walk over your heads, as I have done; yea, what speak I of this? there is not one of us that can assure himself of his continuance here one day; we are all Tenants at will, and (for aught we know) may be turned out of these clay cottages at an hours warning: oh then what should we do but, as wise Farmers who know the time of their lease is expiring, and cannot be renewed, carefully and seasonably provide ourselves of a surer, and more during tenure. I remember our witty Countryman Bromiard, tells us of a Lord in his time that had a fool in his house (as many great men in those days had for their pleasure) to whom this Lord gave a staff and charged him to keep it till he should meet with one that were more fool than himself; and if he met with such a one, to deliver it over to him.  
Not many years after this Lord fell, sick, and indeed was sick unto death: His fool came to see him, and was told by his sick Lord that he must now shortly leave him; And whither wilt thou go said the fool? Into another World said his Lord; and when wilt thou come again; within a month? No; within a year? No: when then? Never. Never? and what provision hast thou made for thy entertainment there whither thou goest? None at all: No, said the fool, none at all? Here, take my staff; Art thou going away for ever, and hast taken no order nor care how thou shalt speed in that other World whence thou shalt never return? take my staff, for I am not guilty of any such folly as this; and indeed, there cannot be a greater folly, or madness rather, then to be so wholly taken up with an eager regard of these earthly vanities, which we cannot hold, as to utterly neglect the care of that eternity, which we can never forego; and (consider well of it) upon this moment of our life depends that eternity either way: My dear Brethren it is a great way to Heaven; and we have but a little time to get thither; God says to us, as the Angel said to Elijah, Up, for thou hast a great journey to go; and if (as I fear) we have loitered in the way; and trifled away any part of the time in vain impertinencies, we have so much more need to gird up our loins, and to hasten our pace; our hearts, our false hearts are ready like the Levites servant to show us the World, and to say as he did of Jebus, Come I pray you let us turn in to the City of the Jebusites and lodge there; 
Jud. 19.12.  Oh let us have his Master's resolute answer ready in our mouths, We will not turn aside into a City of strangers, neither w●ll we leave till we have got the gates of God's City upon our backs.  
Time is that whereof many of us are wont to be too prodigal; we take care how to be rid of it; and (if we cannot otherwise) we cast it away, and this we call Pass-time: wherein we do dangerously mistake ourselves; and must know that time is, as the first, so one of the most precious things that are: Insomuch as there are but two things which we are charged to redeem, Time and Truth.  
I find that in our old saxon language, a Gentleman was called an Idle-man, perhaps because those who are born to fair estates are free from those toils and hard labours which others are forced to undergo. I wish the name were not too proper to overmany in these days, wherein it is commonly seen that those of the better rank who are born to a fair inheritance so carry themselves as if they thought themselves privileged to do nothing, and made for mere disport and pleasure; But alas can they hope that the great God when he shall call them to give account of the dispensation of their time and estate, will take this for a good reckoning. Item, so many hours spent in dressing and trimming, so many in Idle visit, so many in gaming, so many in hunting and hawking, so many in the playhouse, so many in the Tavern, so many in vain chat; so many in wanton dalliance? No, no my dear Brethren, our hearts cannot but tell us how ill an Audit we shall make upon such a woeful computation, and how sure we are to hear of a Serve nequam, Thou evil Servant, and unfaithful; and to feel a retribution accordingly.  
Let us therefore in the fear of God be exhorted to recollect ourselves, and since we find ourselves guilty of the sinful mispense of our good hours, let us, whiles we have space, obtain of ourselves to be careful of redeeming that precious time we have lost; as the Widow of Sarepta, when she had but a little oil left in her cruse, and a little meal in her barrel, was careful of spending that to the best advantage: so let us, considering that we have but a little sand left in our glass, a short remainder of our mortal life, be sure to employ it unto the best profit of our souls; so as every of our hours may carry up with it an happy Testimony of our gainful improvement: that so, when our day cometh, we may change our time for eternity: the time of our sojourning for the eternity of glory and blessedness.  
Thus much for the time of our sojourning; now as for the passage of this time, I shall spare any further discourse of it, though this is a matter well worthy of our thoughts; and indeed we that live within the smoke of the City, have our ears so continually enured to the noise of passing-bells, that it is a wonder we can think of any thing but our passing away, together with our time, unless it be with us, as with those that dwell near the Cataract of Nilus, whom the continual noise of that loud waterfall is said to make deaf. But since we are fallen upon the mention of this subject, give leave I beseech you to a word of not unseasonable digression. I have noted it to be the fashion here amongst you, that when a neighbour dies, all his friends in several parishes set forth their Bells to give a general notice of his departure; I do not dislike the practice, it is an act of much civility, and fair respect to the deceased; and if the death of God's Saints be (as it is) precious in his sight, there is great reason it should be so in ours, and therefore well worthy of a public notification; But let me tell you that in other well-ordered places where I have lived, it is yet a more commendable fashion, that when a sick neighbour is drawing towards his end, the Bell is tolled to give notice of his dying condition, that all within hearing may be thereupon moved to pour out their fervent prayers for the good of that departing soul, suing for mercy and forgiveness, and a clean passage of it to the approaching glory; if there be civility and humanity in the former course there is more charity and piety in this; but this by the way. This term of our passage is but, an English expression, the original word is (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) which signifies rather our conversing: passing this therefore, let us meditate upon the modification of this passage of our time; which is said must be in fear.  
Fear is an unwelcome and unpleasing word, and the thing more; for we commonly say, that only evil is the object of fear; and that whom we fear we hate; and perhaps, the Authors and Abettors of the uncomfortable doctrine of diffidence and uncertainty of resolution in the spiritual estate of our souls, would be glad of such an overture for the maintenance of those disheartening positions which they have broached unto the World to this purpose, but their mouths are soon stopped, with the addition of the name of a Father, which is abundantly sufficient to sweeten this harsh sound of fear! so as this clause of the Text may seem to be clearly commented upon by that of Romans 8.15. For ye have not received the Spirit of b●ndage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we try, Abba, Father; There are indeed, terrores Domini, the terrors of the Lord, 2 Cor. 5.11. For such is the dreadful Majesty of the infinite God, that his presence, even when he desires to appear most amiable, overlays our weakness; 
Jud. 13.22.  yea so awfully glorious is the sight of one of his Angels, that Manoah and his wife thought they should die of no other death; yea, and sometimes, like a displeased Father he knits his brows upon his dearest (if offending) children: the Man after his own heart could say, Thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind: thy fierce wrath goeth over me, Psal. 88.15, 16. which he speaks not only out of a true sense of his own misery, but as a just Type of him, who in the bitterness of his agony did sweat drops of blood, and with him cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? who yet was heard in that which he feared; heard and freed, heard and crowned; thus sad may be the condition of the best of Saints in the pangs of their trials; which yet can be no other than safe, while, with their Captain and Saviour, they can say, My God, my God, and may hear God say unto them; Fear not for I have redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name, thou art mine, Esa. 45.1. That we may see then what fear it is which is here recommended to us as an inseparable companion in this our pilgrimage, know, that there is a base kind of fear incident into the worst of men, yea beasts, yea Devils; the Devils believe and tremble (saith the Apostle) and we know the dog fears the whip, and the horse the switch, and the slave fears the lash of his cruel Master, this is therefore called a slavish fear which though it be not good in itself, yet may have this good effect in wicked men to restrain them from those villainies which they would otherwise commit; and certainly were it not for this, there were no living amongst men; Earth would be Hell: there is besides a distrustful fear in unsettled hearts; which is an anxious doubt lest God will not be so good as his word, and perform those promises which he hath made to us; this is highly sinful in itself, and infinitely dishonourable and displeasing unto God; for, if an honest man cannot endure to be disinherited, how heinously must the God of truth needs take it that his fidelity should be called into question by false-hearted men: The fear that we must ever take along with us, is double: A fear of reverence, and a fear of circumspection; the first is that whereof Malachy 1.6. A Son honoureth his Father, and a servant his Master, If then I be your Father where is my honour; and if I be your Master where is my fear? And this fear consists in our awful and trembling acknowledgement of his dread presence, in our reverential, and adoring thoughts of his infiniteness: in our humble and holy desires to be allowed of him in all things; this is that which wise Solomon more than once tells us in the beginning, or (as the word rather signifies) the chief point of wisdom, and which the Psalmist truly tells is accompanied with blessedness. The latter which I call a fear of circumspection, is a due and tender regard to all our ways, not without an holy jealousy over ourselves in all our actions, words, and thoughts, lest we might do, say, or think any thing that might be displeasing to the Majesty of our God, whereof Solomon, Blessed is the Man that feareth always; but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief, Prov. 28.14. Now, these two fears are as twins that are joined together in the bulk of the body, inseparable; and are so comprehensive, that all Religion is expressed by the name of fear; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendered by Timoratus: indeed where this fear is, there can be no other than a gracious heart: for this will be sure to work in a man true humility, the Mother of virtues; when he shall compare his dust and ashes, with the glorious Majesty of God, when he sees such an Heaven rolling over his head, such an Earth and Sea under him, how can he but say, Lord, what is man? this will make him think himself happy that he may be allowed to love such a God: that such a worm as he may be admitted to have any interest in so infinite a Majesty, this will render him carefully conscionable in all his ways, that he would not for a World do any thing that might offend such a God, yea it will make him no less fearful of sin then of Hell: see Gods own connexion when he gives a Character of his Servant Job: A perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil, Job. 1.8. Lo, he that fears God will therefore eschew evil, will not dare to sin: if Satan shall lay all the Treasures of the World at his fear, he will say in an holy scorn, Thy Gold and thy Silver perish with thee; if all the philtr●s and wanton allurements of a great and beautiful mistress shall lay siege to him, he will say with good Joseph, 
Gen. 39.9.  How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God: But O God, who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Is there such a thing as the fear of the Lord amongst men? Can we think that the common sins of the times can stand with the least scruple of the fear of the Almighty? woe is me, what rending and tearing of the sacred name of God in pieces, with oaths and blasphemies do we meet with every where? what contempt of his holy Ordinances and Ministers?  
What abominable sacrileges? what foul perjuries? what brutish and odious drunkenness, and epicurean excess? what fraud and cozenage in trading? what shameful uncleanness? what merciless and bloody oppressions; Oh where, then, where is the fear of a God to be found the while? yea to such an height of atheous boldness, and obduration are the russians of our time grown, that they boast of it as their greatest glory, to fear nothing, Neither God nor Devil; they feast without fear, they fight without fear, they sin without fear.  
But hear this ye careless and profane epicures that say, Tush doth God see it? Is there knowledge in the most high? Hear this ye formal hypocrites that can fashionably bow, to him whose face you can be content to spit upon, and whom ye can abide to crucify again by your wicked lives; Hear this ye Godless and swaggering roarers, that dare say with Pharaoh, Who is the Lord? You that now bid defiance to fear, shall in spite of you learn the way to fear; yea to tremble, yea to be confounded, at the terrors of the Almighty; Those knees that are now so stiff, that they will not bow to God, shall once knock together; those teeth, through which your blasphemies have passed, shall gnash, those hands, that were lift up against Heaven shall shake, and languish. If ye were as strong as Mountains, before his presence the Mountains fled, and the hills were moved; If as firm as rocks, who can stand before his wrath: His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken before him; Nahum. 1.6. If as the whole Earth, whose title is, That cannot be moved; The Earth trembled and quaked, because he was angry, saith the Psalmist; yea, if as wicked as Devils, even they believe and tremble; and if when he doth but thunder in his clouds, the stoutest Atheist turns pale, and is ready to creep into a bench-hole; what shall become of them, when he shall put forth the utmost of his fury and revenge upon his enemies; Lo then, ye that now laugh at fear shall yell and howl like hellhounds in eternal torments and God shall laugh when your fear cometh; ye that would not now so much as with Faelix quake at the news of a judgement, shall irrecoverably shiver in the midst of those flames that can never be quenched.  
But for us, dear and beloved Christians, far be it from us, to be of that iron-disposition; that we should never bow but with the fire; no, we have other more kindly grounds of our fear; Great is thy mercy, saith the Psalmist, that thou mayst be feared; Lo, it is the amiableness of merits that must attract our fear; it is a thing that mainly concerns us to look where and how fears are placed; Far be it from us to bring upon ourselves the curse of wicked ones, To fear where no fear is; as this is the common condition of men. Alas, we are apt to fear the censures and displeasure of vain greatness, whereas that may be a means to ingratiate us with God; shame of the World; whereas that may be a means to save us from everlasting confusion: poverty, whereas that may possess us of a better wealth; death, whereas to the faithful soul that proves the necessary harbinger to eternal rest and glory; in the mean time the same men are no whit afraid of the displeasure of God, and their own perdition; wherein they are like to foolish children, who run away from their parents, and best friends, if they have but a mask or scarf over their faces, but are no whit afraid of fire or water; Away with all these and the like weak misprisions; and if we tender our own safety, let it be our main care to set our fears right; which shall be done, if we place them upon our infinitely great and glorious God, in that relation both of mercy and goodness, wherein he is here recommended to us, as our Father, and that awful apprehension of Justice, wherein he is set forth to us as an unpartial judge of us, and all our actions. Consider then (that from the duty we may descend to the motive) that this fear is of a Father, and therefore a loving fear; but this Father is a judge, and therefore it must be an awful love; how will these two go together, a Father and a Judge? the one a stile of love and mercy, the other of justice. What ever God is, he is all that, he is all love, and mercy; He is all justice; That which God is in the pure simplicity of his essence, we must imitate in our compositions; namely to unite both these in one heart; He is not so a judge that he will wave the title and affection of a Father; he is not so a Father, that he will remit aught of his infinite justice, in any of his proceed: upon both these must we fasten our eyes at once; we must see the love of a Father to uphold, and cheer us; we must look upon the Justice of a Judge that we may tremble; and therefore putting both together we must rejoice in him with trembling: Droop not, despair not, O Man, thou hast a Father in Heaven: all the bowels of mortal and Earthly parents, are strait to his: If Fathers, if Mothers may prove unnatural; there is no fear that God should cast off his mercy, for it is himself. Presume not, O Man; for this Father is a most just Judge. It is for sinful flesh and blood to be partial: Fond parents are apt so to dote upon the persons of their children, that they are willing to connive at their sins; either they will not see them, or not hate them, or not censure them, or not punish them; thus many a son may (according to the Apologue) by't his Mother's ear when he is climbing up to the gallows, but the infinite justice of the great and holy God cannot be either accessary, or indulgent to the least sin of his dearest darling upon Earth; it is a mad conceit of our Antinomian Heretics, That God sees no sin in his elect; whereas he notes and takes more tenderly their offences then any other; Hear what he saith to his Israel; Thee only have I chosen of all the families upon Earth, therefore will I punish thee for all thine iniquities, Amos. 3.2. But let this be enough to be spoken of the conjuncture of these two titles of God; A Father and a Judge: we cannot hope in the remainder of our hour to prosecute both of them severally; let us only touch at the former; it is a dear name, this of a Father: and no less familiar. It is the first word of our Lord's prayer; and in the first clause of our Creed, that which is there the title of his personality in Divine relation; is the same here in his gracious relation to us: Our Father; so he is in the right of Creation [He made us, not we ourselves] in the right of adoption; [we have received the adoption of sons] Galat. 4.5. In the right of regeneration, [In that we are made partakers of the divine nature] 2 Pet. 1.4. I could here lose myself, and yet be happily bestowed in the setting forth of those infinite privileges, that we receive from the hands of our God, by virtue of this happy sonship, but I shall balk this theme for the present, as that we not long since largely prosecuted in your ears; and shall (as my Text invites me) rather put you in mind how vainly we shall pretend a right to this Father, unless we own him; for the words are [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] If ye call him Father as Beza, and our former translation turns it; or (as it is, being a compound word more properly rendered in our present version) If ye call upon the Father; where you have a short, but true Character of a faithful Christian laid forth to you; He is one that calls upon the Father: he saith not upon God absolutely, in the relation to that infinite power which made and governs the World; so Jew's and Turks pretend to do: but in the relation to his blessed paternity, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in him, ours.  
Thus he that calls upon the Father professes himself a true Christian, so St. Paul makes this one of the mottoes of Gods great Seal. Let every one that calls upon the name of the Lord depart from iniquity; and David makes this the pitch-brand (as it were) of wicked wretches, they call not upon God; surely, there is no act we can do, argues more grace then holy invocation, or that equally procures it. There are three motives of our calling upon the Father; Our duty, our need, and our benefit: Our duty; for that God enjoins it, and accounts it an especial part of his worship, They shall call upon me in the day of their trouble and I will hear them, saith God? Our need, for, as we are of ourselves destitute of all good things, so they are only to be derived to us from Heaven by our prayers: Our benefit, for we are assured of all blessings for suing for; Ask and have. In these regards I may truly say that man hath no grace nor goodness in him that prays not, both by himself and with his family: let him never plead his disability to express himself in his devotion; I never knew beggar yet that wanted words to express his wants; were we equally sensible of our spiritual defects we should find language enough to bemoan them: this indevotion plainly bewrays a Godless heart, careless of his duty, insensible of his need, regardless of his benefit, and wholly yielded up to an atheous stupidity. On the contrary to pray well, and frequently is an argument of a pious, and graciously disposed soul; Others may talk to God, and compliment with him, perhaps in Scripture terms which they have packed together, and this may be the phrase of their memory and elocution, but to pour out our souls in our fervent prayers, with a due apprehension of the majesty to whom we speak, and a lively sense of our necessity, with a faithful expectation of their supplies from Heaven, is for none but godly, and well affected suppliants; these cannot call upon the Father without a blessing; It is a notable and pathetical expostulation, which the holy Psalmist uses to the Almighty, How long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth; intimating clearly, that it were strange and uncouth, that a praying people should lie long under any judgement, and should not find speedy mercy at the hands of God: Oh than that we could be stirred up to a serious and effectual performance of this duty for ourselves, for our Brethren, for the whole Church of God: certainly we could not have been thus miserable, if we could have hearty called upon the Father of mercies; and if we could yet ply Heaven fervently, and importunately, with our faithful devotions, we should not fail of an happy evasion out of all our miseries; and find cause to praise him for his gracious deliverance, and his fatherly compassion renewed upon us, and continued to our posterity after us; which our good God for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous, vouchsafe to grant unto us. Amen.   

THE women's VEIL: OR A DISCOURSE Concerning the NECESSITY, or EXPEDIENCE OF THE CLOSE-COVERING OF THE Heads of Women. Intended to have been Preached in the Cathedral at Exeter upon 1 Cor. 11.10. Occasioned by an offence unjustly taken at a Modest Dress.  1 COR. 11.10. 
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the Angels.  
AS the Sacred Counsels of the Church had wont to have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, substantial canons and ritual constitutions; so hath our blessed Apostle: as in all his Epistles so in this; and as in other parts of it so in this Chapter, here are main Canons for the essence of God's service in the matter of the Eucharist; here are Rules of order for the outward fashion of praying and prophesying; these may be as variable as the other are constant, it is no more possible to fit all Churches and Countries with one form, then to fit all bodies with one suit, or all limbs with one size. Neither can I with learned Beza, and Cappellus think that prophesying here is taken for the hearing of prophecies; these things were extraordinarily done till they were restrained. In those Primitive times there were some women extraordinarily gifted by God's Spirit who took upon them to preach and pray publicly, which afterwards St. Paul forbade to his Timothy, 1 Tim. 2.12. They, exercising these manly functions, presumed to take upon them manly fashions; whereas therefore bareheadedness was in Corinth, as also in all Greece and Rome a token of honour and superiority, and covering the head a token of subjection; these forward women usurp upon the fashions of their husbands; and will have their faces seen as well as their voices heard; as the Jesuitesses of late time dared both to attempt and practise, till the late restraint of Pope Urban kerbed and suppressed them; Our holy Apostle, who was zealously careful to reform even Solecisms in the outward deportment of God's service, controls this absurd disorder; and, as the great Master of holy ceremonies, enjoins a modest vail to the women, when they will show themselves in these acts of public devotion: For this cause the women ought to have power on their head because of the Angels.  
Wherein yourselves without me observe two remarkable heads of our discourse. 1. An Apostolical Canon. 2ly. The carriage or grounds of it. The Canon is fully and home-charged, The women ought to have power on their head, The grounds are double; one precedent, For this cause, The other subsequent; Because of the Angels, which in the vulgar, and in St. Ambrose is brought in by a Copulative, & or etiam propter Angelos. From the Canon itself in the generality, you would (of yourselves) in my silence easily infer, that spiritual superiors must take care not only of the substantial parts of God's worship, but of the circumstantial appendances of it; what is a merer ceremony than our clothes? what can seem of less consequence than a vail left off, or put on; the head may be as good, and as full of holy thoughts bare or covered; what is that (you would think) to the heart of our devotion? yet the chosen vessel fears not to seem too scrupulous in laying weighty charges upon us in so small, and (as we might imagine) unimporting a business. Certainly, my beloved, though the King's Daughter be all glorious within and there lies her chief beauty, yet her clothing is of wrought Gold too. And if in the Tabernacle (God's first dwelling place upon Earth) it pleased him to give order for the principal stuff of the vails, and curtains, and frame; for the matter and form of the Ark, and Altars, and Tables of the Face-bread; yet he thought good not to neglect the punctual directions for the Taches, Snuffers, Snuff-dishes, besoms, and the meanest requisites of that sacred Fabric: Justice and Judgement which are the main businesses of the law must be chief regarded; but yet even the tithing of mint and anise and cummin may not be neglected: Had not Simon the Pharisee meant an hearty welcome to our Saviour, he had never undergone the envy of inviting him to his house: but yet our Saviour finds him short of his due compliments, of the hospital kiss of washing, and anointing: Let no man say, what matter is to be made of stuffs, or colours, or postures? God is a Spirit, and will be worshipped in Spirit and truth; these bodily observations are nothing to that spiritual and infinite essence; what Corinthian Gossip might not have said so to our Apostle? yet he sees the respect of these circumstances so necessary, that the neglect of them may, yea will mar the substance; and surely in all experience, were it not for ceremonies what would become of state, government, conversation, religion? and yet, of these there is great difference, some ceremonies are no less than substance to others; and beside the latitude of their nature, they have one aspect as they look toward an imposing authority, and another as they look toward an arbitrary use; It is one thing what men take up out of will or custom, another thing what they conform to out of duty and obedience; so as what our superiors (to whom we must leave to see further than ourselves) think fit to enjoin us, out of their estimation of decency and order, is not now left to the freedom of our election: it is for them to judge, it is for us to obey; neither have we the like reason to censure them for imposing things indifferent, which are found by them to conduce unto holy ends, that they have to censure us for not observing them; herein they are wise and just, whiles we are conceitedly refractory.  
I know how little I need to press this to a people where I can find nothing but an universal conformity; only this touch was needful if but to second and revive those late meet and expedientorders which we lately commended to your careful and Christian observation.  
This from the general and confused view of this Apostolical charge: cast your eyes now upon the particular injunction; The Woman ought to have power on her Head, what is this power but a signification of her husband's power over her? for it is worth observing that the Hebrew word which signifies a vail: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signifies also power, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being derived from a root of that sense; so as the meaning plainly is, The woman ought to wear that on her head, which may import and testify that she is under her husband's power which is, as the Valentinians read it not amiss in Irenaeus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a vail, or covering; here therefore ye have an evident Metonymy; the thing signified which is the husband's power is put for that which signifies it, which is the woman's vail so as this proposition than lies open to a double consideration; the one in reference to the thing signified, which is the husband's power over the wife, the other in reference to the sign implying it, which is the wife's vail or covering of the head: of both briefly.  
The first, that the husband hath power over the wife, is so clear both in nature, and reason, that I shall willingly save the labour of a proof; it is enough that by her Creator she was made for an helper: and an helper doth necessarily argue a principal; it is enough, for matter of institution, that he who gave her a will appointed it should be subject to the will of her husband; which how deep an impression it took in very Heathens appears clearly enough in the Persian sages censure of Vashti Est. 1.  
And that it may appear the liberty of the Gospel doth no whit alter the case; How do the blessed Apostles St. Paul and St. Peter redouble the charge of wives be subject to your Husbands, Colos. 3. 1 Pet. 3. And indeed how is the husband the head if he be not both more eminent, and furnished with the faculty of directing the whole body? A Virtuous woman saith, Solomon, is the crown or Diadem of her Husband, Prov. 12.3, Lo, she is the crown for the ornament of his head, but if she be virtuous she doth not affect to be the head: and if the Crown be set upon the head (as the husband may give honour to the weaker vessel) yet it is a pitiful head that is not better than the crown that adorns it; but why urge I this? none but some mamish Monsters can question it, and if there be any such that would fain read the words amiss, that the wife hath power over her head, they are more worthy to be punished by the whip of authority, then by their neighbour's shame, or my censure. But to say as it is, they are rare complaints that we hear of in this kind; I would the contrary were not more frequent; The man hath power over the wife, and he knows it too well; and uses it too boisterously; this sweet, gentle, and familiar power which he should exercise over his other-self, is degenerated in the practice of too many into a stern Tyranny; according to the old Barbarian fashion in Aristotle's time which holds even still, their wives are their slaves: This is not for the woman to have power on her head; but for the man to have power in his hand, for the hand to have power on the body, an unmanly and savage power to the very destruction of itself: This kind of cruelty cries unto me daily for redress; and give me leave to cry out against it as the most odious and abominable oppression that is incident into him that would be called a man; for the deareness of the relation aggravates the violence; to strike a beast causelessly is unmerciful; a slave, unchristian; a stranger, furious; a child unmanly, but our own flesh monstrous; this is to do that which no man does saith our Apostle, Ephes. 5.29.  
There was in the time of Gregory 10th. (about 1275) (as our histories tell us) a brood of mad heretics which arose in the Church, whom they called Flagellantes, the whippers, which went about through France and Germany lashing themselves to blood.  
A guise, which though at the first cried down, is since taken up by some mis-zealous penitents of the Romish Church, who do not only take pleasure, but place merit, in blood; a lesson taken out, by both of them from the Baalites 1 K. 18. Men, rather more prodigal of their flesh then the lavishest of these late zealots, surely what those Bigots did and do out of falsely named religion, these husbands of blood (as Zipporah miscalled Moses) do out of a crabbed and imperious cruelty, even draw blood of those bodies which a several kin cannot difference from their own.  
Far, far be this, more than Turkish, more than Paganish inhumanity from those that would pass for Christians; for you my dear Brethren, let it be enough for me to mention that gracious and needful charge of our blessed Apostle (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) Husbands love your wives, and be not bitter to them, Colos. 3.19.  
Whiles their heads confess your power, take you heed lest your power be abused to vex their hearts, and to tyrannize over their bodies.  
This for the power here signified of the Husband over the wife; we descend to the signification of that power by the covering of the head: an ancient custom and that which was practised among all civil Nations; hence the Romans expressed the woman's marriage by, nubere, which signifies to veil; whereupon a cloud is termed nubes because it is, as a vail, drawn betwixt Heaven and our sight: Neither doubt I but before all latinity was hatched this was alluded to by Abimelech, Genes. 20.16. (Hu ceseth gnenaiim) he is the covering of thine eyes; said that Heathen King to Sarah concerning her husband; a covering which both protects, and limits the eye: The Apostles charge then is that the woman's head ought to be covered, to show that she is under another's power; but how and how fare, and when this covering is required, will require a further disquisition: which I shall the rather enter into, because I see some religious, and well affected women carried away with Erroneous opinions concerning this point; whose tender consciences have been abused by the misinterpretations of some ignorants to be drawn to hold that this covering must be absolute; and total, and perpetual, so as if any hair at all be seen, it is a violation of this charge and their duty; to which purpose they urge that verse 15 as a full commentary upon this text, that the hair was given the woman for a covering; and upon this ground they are apt to censure them who take liberty to expose any of their hair, though never so moderately to others view: I beseech you dear Brethren and Sisters misconstrue me not as one that affect to be a Patron of ruffianly and dissolute fashions, of excess or immodesty in this kind; these I hate from my soul; and must tell those vain dames that where such bushes are hanged out, 'tis an argument that something is exposed to sale; but as I would not have you inordinately wild, so I would not have you scrupulously superstitious, in restraining the due bounds of lawful Christian liberty, and placing sin where God never meant it; That I may therefore lay some grounds of this my just determination, know first that in the use of garments and these outward appendances of the body there is much latitude and variety according to the several guises of Nations, and degrees of persons: there are Countries the extremity of whose cold climate is such that it is no boot to bid both sexes be covered, yea muffled up, for their own safety; there are others so scorching that will hardly admit of any covering either for head or body; there are some whose hair is so large, that is able to hid them, there are others whose curled heads are alike short in both sexes, and give no advantage to the covering of either: he that made these differences of climates and people hath not thought fit to confine them to one universal rule, only contenting himself with a general prescription of decency which in all Countries must be regulated according to the custom or convenience of the place. For certainly these sacred ceremonies must follow the rule of the civil, for that which is held a token of subjection to our Princes and other superiors, in all Countries is so used in the service of the King above all Gods: the Turks and all Mahometans therefore not uncovering their heads to their Bashaes', or their Grand Lord; keep their heads covered in their devotions: and only by bowing or prostration testify their humble subjection to God. The French Divines preach with their hats on, ours uncovered; both pretend good reason; and custom for these contrary fashions; neither are either of them to be censured as faulty, and exorbitant: and with us we hold the head uncovered if the hat be off, though the cap be on: others make no difference if there be aught at all on the head.  
Consider, Secondly, that the hair was given by God both to Men and Women for an ornament: for which cause though it pass in our account for no better than an excretion, yet it was created together with Man and Woman in their first Perfection; Were it not thus, surely Baldness would be held a Beauty, and no● a Blemish; Neither would the Prophet Elisha have taken it for so heinous an affront that the children cried, ascend calve. Neither would God have expressed it, as an intimation of his severest judgement upon Israel; on every head shall be baldness, Jer. 48.37. Neither would God have ordained it for a law to Israel that he who was enamoured of a captive woman should first shave her hair to take off the edge of his affection, Deut. 21.12. Neither would Nehemiah have taken this revenge of the hair of hi● mis-married Countrymen, Nehem. 13.25. It was but a just question that Augustus Cesar asked his Daughter Julia, when she had her white hairs pulled out daily: whether within a few years she had rather be grey, or bald.  
And our story tells us that when it was asked why the Spartans' suffered their hair to grow. Ageselaus answered, that was the cheapest ornament that belonged to the body: In a word therefore if our hair were given for a deformity to us, it could but be all hidden.  
Let it be Thirdly considered that our Apostles main drift here is to give order for the habiting of women in the public assemblies, and exercises of their devotions, not for their ordinary and domestic attire.  
Which appears plainly in the 5th. verse: Every Woman that prayeth or prophesyeth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head; he saith not, every woman that walks abroad upon civil occasions, or, that stays at home upon her household affairs, without a vail on her head, dishonours her head; and verse 13. Judge in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? It is a public prayer that is there meant, parallel to the prophecy before mentioned; both which in these first times of the Church were in extraordinary use; without the danger of a precedent to us, upon whom the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Church, and the ends of the World are at once come. And if there were no more proofs, my Text were enough, which enjoins the vailing of the head is to be used because of the Angels; relating (as all interpreters give it) to the public Congregations of the Saints of God, as we shall see in the sequel.  
Lastly it must be known that this covering of the head hath principal relation to the face, which is the best and most conspicuous part of the head; so as it is supposed that the humility and modesty of the woman doth most show itself in the vailing of the face from the view of beholders; the back parts of the head not giving so much cause of note and distinction, not so much occasion of temptation to any eye; those therefore who by virtue of this place would have all their hair hid, must much more, and upon better reason contend that their face should be always covered; wherein one absurdity, and servile inconvenience would easily draw on another.  
Shortly then, it follows irrefragably from all this; that however the garish, and wanton fashion of the woman's dissheveling her hair, and the lascivious turning it into nets for the catching of fond and amorous eyes, be justly forbidden both to grave matrons, and to chaste, and well governed Virgins, yet that no law of God, or good reason disallows such a moderate laying out of some part of the hair, as may give a safe comeliness to the face, without the just scandal of any wise beholder.  
Neither doth that other Text make aught for this fancy; where the Apostle tells us that the woman's hair was given her for a covering; but rather evinces the contrary.  
The meaning is, it was given her for a covering, actively to cover her, not passively to be covered by her.  
For St. Paul intending to show how unseemly it was for women to show themselves in public exercises, with a bare face, an open brow, a uncovered hair before the multitude, fetches an argument from nature itself, which plainly points her what she ought to do: in that it hath furnished her with a native vail, which is her hair: since therefore provident nature hath given her a long hair purposely to be a cover unto her, it therein shows how fit it is, that her modesty and discretion should provide her such a covering for her head when she will be opening her mouth in the public assembly, as may testify her womanly bashfulness, and humble subjection.  
To shut up this point therefore, there can be no just pretence from this, or any other Scripture for this mis-raysed scrupulousness. Rather for the contrary the holy Ghost seems to make, in that his Divine Epithalamion, wherein he brings in Christ the Heavenly Bridegroom magnifying his bride the Church with this sweet allusion. Behold, thou art fair my love, Behold thou art fair, thou hast doves eyes within thy locks; thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead. Cantic. 4.1. Lo, the dovelike eyes of the Church are within her locks; and her hair is not as an hidden flock, but appears; and that in a glorious beauty. Let not well affected Christian bring herself under the bondage of an observation which God never enjoined, or pass a groundless and rash verdict upon others for that which God hath never forbidden; but with a due care of an holy outward decency, Let every one in the fear of God look to the hidden Man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Pet. 3.4. And so I have done with the Rule or Canon of the Apostle: Come we now to the grounds of it; The former whereof hath reference to what he had concerning the eminent condition of the Man in respect of the Woman; fetched from both the material and final cause: Material, the woman is of the Man; Final, the woman is created for the man; not the contrary; but because this point is coincident with that which we have formerly touched, concerning the husband's superiority, I shall not need to renew my discourse upon this subject, but choose rather to descend to that second ground, which by the vulgar and some Fathers quoting the place, is brought in by way of a copulative, And, because of the Angels: a ground so deep, that great wits and judgements have professed not to fathom it: Quid hoc sit (saith learned Beza) nondum intelligo and our no less learned Cam●ron confesses, that herein Interpreters differ, ut qui maxim. For those late writers which have read the words (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) Because of the young Men, I must needs say they would make a clear sense, if we might take their words for the use of any such word in the Greek Tongue; which for my part I must confess never to have met with. To pass over the improbable guesses of many; The words are taken by some in a borrowed sense; by some others in a natural. In a borrowed sense by those either who by Angels here understand God's Ministers; or, as those that take it for holy men of what ever profession.  
These latter seem not to have any fair warrant for their interpretation, since, however we find somewhere that the Saints shall be in a condition like to the Angels, yet no no where do we find them called Angels: the former want not good probability for their construction; neither is it an unusual thing with the Spirit of God to call his Ministers by the name of Angels. So Malachy 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he is the Angel or Messenger of the Lord: and of John the Baptist the same Prophet can say Mal●c. 3.1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will send my messenger or Angel: yea the very name of the Prophet that writes is no other than Malachy My Angel. And ye know in the Apocalypse how oft the prime Governors of the Church are called Angels; whereupon St. chrysostom (as I remember) makes the reason of that full expression of St. Paul (If an Angel from Heaven, Galat. 1.) to allude unto this distinction that even God's Ministers are his Angels too, though upon Earth, a title given them both in regard of their mission and of their near relation to God; and of those qualities which these Men of God should imitate in those blessed Spirits.  
The very name is doctrinal, and teacheth us both what God expects from us both to himself and you; and what he expects from you to us; From us faithfulness and diligence in his holy errands, whereabouts we are sent to the World; from you, love and reverence to those Messengers which he employs about your Salvation; but, it was my meaning only to call to this sense at the window in my passage; as that which I hold not within the compass of the Holy-Ghosts intention; Doubtless the sense is natural and proper; not of men by way of allusion; but of those which are Spirits, by essence: and yet even in this sense there is some variety of judgement, whiles some take this to be spoken of evil Angels, others of good; Those which apply this to evil Angels are likewise in a double opinion; For some take it passively; lest even those Angels should be tempted; others actively, lest they should take occasion to tempt.  
The former conceit is as gross as it hath been ancient, of Tertullian and some others, that even spirits (to whom they ascribe a kind of materiality) may be taken with the immodest venditation of a fleshly beauty; to which purpose they do ignorantly mistake that of Genes. 6.2. That the Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men that they were fair; not considering the sequel, that they took them wives of all that they chose; Surely, if ever spirits have affected these fleshly sins, yet of married Spirits there was never dream in any sober head.  
This fancy is too absurd to merit a confutation: No doubt wicked spirits take delight in drawing the Sons of men to inordinate affections, and beastly practices; but that themselves place any pleasure in bodily obscenities is a matter not easy to be believed; Or, if they should be obnoxious to those carnal desires, that the interposing of a vail should any way avail to the restraint of their wicked inclinations, and purposes it is too poor a thought to enter into any wise understanding.  
The other [viz. lest those Spirits should take this occasion of tempting] might pass for currant; if ever we could find in the whole body of the Scripture where the evil spirits are absolutely called Angels without some addition of distinction, (which is learned cameron's observation) except only that one, 1 Cor. 6.3. where they are so styled for the greater honour of the Saints that shall judge them: However, the truth of the proposition is undeniable; that so we ought to habit, and order ourselves, that we may not give advantage to the evil Spirits either to our temptation, or their prevalence: we may be sure those tempters will omit no occasion of winning us to filthiness. Do you not think that when they see wanton dames come disguised into God's house, as it were into the box of the playhouse, with their breast bore almost to the Navel, their arms to the elbow, their necks to the shoulder-points, darting their lascivious eyes every way, and in their whole fashion and gesture bewraying such lightness as might be able to debauch a whole assembly, think ye not, I say, that they applaud themselves in so rich a booty; as knowing that every eye that is transported, and every heart that is fired with that immodest gazingstock are so many spoils and trophies of their Temptations? It is a true and seasonable word that holy Cyprian said to the dames of his time that it was not enough for them to keep themselves from being corrupted by others solicitations, unless they took care so to dress and deport themselves that they might not be occasions of raising wanton thoughts in the beholders; For surely, we can not free ourselves from those sins wherein others by our means (though besides our particular intentions) are ensnared; there is much liberty, I confess, in matter of attire, but let me withal give you St. Paul's Item to his Galathians; Brethren, ye have been called to liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another, Galat. 5.13. When and how is our liberty an occasion to the flesh, but when we do so prank up and pamper our flesh as that we regard not therein any others dangers; which when soever we are drawn to do, we may be sure we have so wary and vigilant spirits to watch us, as that no advantage can be let fall against our souls: as therefore wise and careful commanders do not only cast how to impugn, oppress, and annoy an enemy, but also how to remove those helps which might be advantageous to him in his siege, even to the demolishing of Suburbs, and stopping up of Fountains, and the like; so must we do in this spiritual warfare of ours; we must not only stir up our courage and endeavours to resist and vanquish tentations, but we must bend our utmost care upon the prevention, and removal of whatsoever, in our apparel, carriage, diet, recreations may be likely to give furtherance to their assault, or prevalency: and in the whole practice of our lives so demean ourselves as that we may, according to the charge of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; not so much as give an occasion to an adversary; 1 Tim. 5.14. wether of calumny, or of Triumph: oh that we could be fearful of doing any unfit thing because of the evil Angels; we shall be sure to hear of it again to our cost; even the most careless boys will be afraid to offend in the face of the monitor, such are the evil Angels to us. Be sure every unbeseeming and unlawful act that passeth from us, is upon their file; and shall once be urged against us to our shame and conviction; My Brethren we would be loath to come under the power of their torment; as we would avoid this fearful issue, let us be jealous of their suggestions, and our carriage; and not dare to do aught that may be scandalous, Because of the Angels.  
Good use may be made (you see) even of this sense; but I take it our Apostle intended here to intimate the presence of, and respect to the good Angels.  
It is no a less comfortable than well-grounded point of Divinity, That none of God's Children upon Earth want the assidence and Ministration of those blessed spirits, we have it from him that cannot fail us. Matth. 18.10. and the sweet singer of Israel had warbled out this Heavenly note before him; The Angels of the Lord encamp about those that fear him, Ps. 34.7. And he that was rapt up into the third Heaven and saw those wonderful Orders of Angels, can tell us they are all ministering Spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation: Heb. 1.14. Now these, as they guard and attend every of God's elect ones when they are singled and sequestered in the greatest solitariness, so we can not think they leave their whether common or several charges, when they assemble together for the exercises of piety and devotion: so as the public meetings of God's Saints can be no other than filled with whole troops of Angels; This as it is a truth; so it was the received opinion of the Jews, as Capellus pregnantly citys it out of the Sedar Tephilloth of the Portugal Jew's; in his learned Spicelegium; Coronam dant tibi Domine Deus noster Angeli, turba illa superna cum populo tuo Israel hic inferne Congregato. O Lord our God the Angels give glory to thee, even those Heavenly troops that are assembled with thy Israel here below. Out of the reverend and awful respect therefore that is due to these glorious (though invisible) beholders there may no unseemly thing be done or admitted in the Church of God; and therefore The Women ought to have power on their Heads because of the Angels; and surely, my beloved, were we fully persuaded that now at this present, there is within these walls a greater Congregation of Angels, then of Men and Women, I suppose it could not but strike such an awe into us, as to make us at once holily, mannerly and fervently devout: It is a great fault in us Christians that we think of nothing but what we see; whereas that spiritual, and intelligible World, which is past the apprehension of these Earthly senses, is far greater, far more noble and excellent than all visible and material substances. Certainly there is not one Angel in Heaven that hath not more glory than all this sensible World can be capable of: what should I tell you of the excellency of their nature, the height of their offices, the Majesty of their persons, their power able to confound a World, their nearness both of place and of essence to that infinite deity; their tender love and care of mankind, any of which were able and worthy to take up a whole lives meditation.  
And if there be so much perfection in one, how unconceivable is the concurrent lustre, and glory of many: had we eyes to see these invisible supervisors of our behaviour we could not, we durst no let fall any so much as indecent gesture before such a presence. Quicken then (I beseech you) and sharpen your eyes, dear and beloved Christians, to see yourselves seen even of them whom ye cannot see, and let your whole carriage be thereafter; he is not worthy to claim more privilege then of a beast, that can see nothing but sensible objects: brute Creatures can see us; if we see nothing but ourselves, and then, wherefore serves our understanding, wherefore our faith? and if we see invisible beholders why are we not affected accordingly; certainly it were better for us not to see then, than, seeing, to neglect their presence.  
What is then the honour, what the respect that we must give to the Angels of God who are present in our holy assemblies: I must have leave to complain of two extremities this way: There are some that give them too much veneration, there are others that give them no regard at all: In the first are those within the Roman Clientele; who are so overcourteous as that they give them no less than the honour of adoration, of invocation, reviving herein the erroneous opinion and practice of them which Theodoret held confuted by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians. It is the praise that Franciscus de Sales Bishop of Genua gives to Petrus Faber, one of the first associates of Ignatius Loiola that his manner was, whensoever he came to any place he still made suit to the Tutelar Angels, that presided there for their aid of converting the people from heresy; and found great success in it: This imploration and worship is ordinary; wherein they do that to the Angels, which the Angels themselves have forbidden to be done: and yet I must needs say if any creature could be capable of a religious worship, it is they; and if any creature were fit to be prayed unto, it is they rather then the highest Saints of Heaven: for whereas it is the just ground of our refusing to pray to the Saints that we cannot be sure of their presence, and notice, (sure rather of the contrary) and therefore cannot pray in faith; that ground is here justly removed, we are sure that the Angels of God are present with us; we are sure that they hear us pray; but this is an honour reserved as peculiar to the God of Angels, and to that one mediator betwixt God and man, Jesus Christ, those Spirits hate to be made rivals to their maker; neither have we learned that unreasonable modesty to sue to waiters, when we are called up to supplicate the King.  
The other extreme is of careless christians, that do no more think of Angels, then if there were none; suffering their bodily eyes to be taken up with the sight of their assembled neighbours, but never raising their spiritual eyes to behold those spiritual essences which are no less present; and certainly I fear we are all much to blame this way; and may justly tax ourselves of an unthankful, dull, irreligious neglect of these glorious Spirits; I find that the Mahometan Priests in their Morning and Evening prayer still end their devotion with Macree Kichoon; Be Angels present: and the people shout out their Amen: and shall our piety this way be less than theirs. Surely the Angels of God are inseparably with us; yea whole cohorts, yea whole Legions of those heavenly soldiery are now viewing & guarding us in these holy meetings, and we acknowledge them not; we yield not to them such reverend and awful respects as even flesh and blood, like our own, will expect from us. Did we think the Angels of God were with us here, durst those of us which dare not be covered at home (as if the freedom of this holy place gave them privilege of a lose and wild licentiousness) affect all saucy postures, and strive to be more unmannerly than their Masters?  
Did we consider that the Angels of God are witnesses of our demeanour in God's house, durst we stumble in here with no other reverence than we would do into our Barn, or Stable; and sit down with no other care than we would in an alehouse, or Theatre?  
Did we find ourselves in an assembly of Angels, durst we give our eyes leave to rove abroad in wanton glances? our tongues to walk in idle and unseasonable chat? our ears to be taken up with frivolous discourse? Durst we set ourselves to take those naps here whereof we failed on our pillow at home; certainly my beloved, all these do manifestly convince us of a palpable unrespect to the blessed Angels of God, our invisible consorts in these holy services.  
However than it hath been with us hitherto; let us now begin to take up other resolutions; and settle in our hearts an holy awe of that presence wherein we are; Even at thy home address thyself for the Church; prepare to come before a dreadful Majesty of God and his powerful Angels; thou seest them not; no more did Elishaes' servant till his eyes were opened: It is thine ignorant and gross infidelity that hath filmed up thine eyes, that thou canst discern no spiritual object; were they but anointed with the eyesalve of faith, thou shouldest see God's house full of heavenly glory, and shouldest check thyself with holy Jacob, when he awaked from his divine vision; Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not; how dreadful is this place; this is no other but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven, Gen. 28.16, 17. Oh then when thou settest thy foot over the threshold of God's Temple tremble to think who is there, lift up thine awful eyes, and bow thine humble knees, and raise up thy devout and faithful soul to a religious reverence and fear of those mighty and Majestical Spirits that are there; and of that great God of Spirits, whose both they and thou art; and study in all thy carriage to be approved of so glorious witnesses and overseers. That so at the last those blessed Spirits with whom we have had an invisible conversation here, may carry up our departing souls into the heaven of heavens, into the presence of that infinite, and incomprehensibly-glorious God, both theirs and ours, there to live and reign with them in the participation of their unconceivable bliss and glory. To the fruition whereof he that hath ordained us, graciously bring us by the mediation; and for the sake of his blessed Son Jesus; To whom with thee O Father of Heaven, and thy coeternal Spirit, three persons in one God, be given all praise, honour, immortality now and for ever.   

HOLY DECENCY IN THE WORSHIP of GOD.  By J. H. B. N. 
I Know that a clean heart, and a right spirit is that which God mainly regards; For as he is a Spirit so he will be served in Spirit; but withal, 
John. 4.24.  as he hath made the body, and hath made it a partner with the Soul, so he justly expects, that it should be also wholly devoted to him; so as the Apostle, upon good reason, prays for his Thessalonians, that their whole Spirit, and Soul, 
1 Thes. 5.23.  and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; and beseeches his Romans by the mercies of God that they present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God. 
Rom. 12.1.   
Now as the body is capable of a double uncleanness; the one, moral; when it is made an instrument, and agent in sin; the other natural when it is polluted with outward filthiness, so both of these are fit to be avoided in our addresses to the pure and holy God; the former out of God's absolute command, who hath charged us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness both of the flesh and Spirit; the latter out of the just grounds of Decency, 
2 Cor. 7.1.  and expedience: for though there be no sinful turpitude in those bodily uncleanenesses, wherein we offer ourselves to appear before the Lord, our God; yet there is so deep an unbeseemingness in them, as places them in the next door to sin: Perhaps Gods ancient people the Jews were too superstitiously scrupulous in these external observations; whose Talmud tells us of one of their great Rabbis that would rather suffer under extremity of hunger and thirst, then taste of aught with unwashen hands: as counting that neglect equal to lying with an harlot; and who have raised a great question whether if any of their poultry have but dipped their beak in the bowl, the water may be allowed to wash in; forbidding to void the urine standing (except it be upon a descent of ground) lest any drop should recoil upon the feet; and in case of the other evacuation, beside the paddles-staff, and other ceremonies in uncovering the feet, enjoining to turn the face to the South, not to the East or West, because those coasts had their faces directed towards them in their devotions: what should I speak of their extreme curiosity in their outward observances concerning the Law; which no man might be allowed to read whiles he was but walking towards the unloading of nature or to the bath, or near to any place of annoyance; no Man might so much as spit in the Temple or before that sacred Volumn, or stretch forth his feet towards it, or turn his back upon it, or receive it with the left hand: no Man might presume to write it but upon the parchment made of the skin of a clean beast: nor to write or give a bill of divorce but by the side of a running stream: yea the very Turks as they have borrowed our circumcision, so also religious niceties from these Jews, not allowing their Alcoran to be touched by a person that is unclean.  
But surely, I fear these men are not more faulty in the one extreme, than many Christians are in the other; who place a kind of holiness in a slovenly neglect; and so order themselves as if they thought a nasty carelessness in God's services were most acceptable to him: Hence it is that they affect homely places for his worship; abandoning all magnificence, and cost in all the acts and apendances of their devotion; clay and sticks please them better, than Marble and Cedars; Hence it is that their dresses make no difference of festivals; all stuffs, all colours are alike to them in all sacred solemnities; Hence that they stumble into God's house without all care or show of reverence; and sit them down at his Table, like his fellows, with their hats on their heads; Hence that they make no difference of coming with full paunches to that heavenly banquet; and that the very dogs are allowed free access and leave to lift up their legs at those holy tables, In quibus populi vota & membra Christi portata sunt, Optat. Milevit l. 6. where we partake of the Son of God.  
For the rectifying of which misconceits and practices, let it be laid down as an undoubted rule; that it is a thing wellpleasing to God that there should be all outward cleanliness, gravity, reverend and comely postures, meet furniture, utensils, places, used and observed in the service of the Almighty: a truth sufficiently grounded upon that irrefragable Canon of the Apostle: Let all things be done decently and in order; whereof Order refers to persons, 
1 Cor. 14 40.  and actions; decency to the things done, and the fashion of doing them: disorder therefore and indecency, as they are a direct violation of this Apostolic charge, so doubtless they are justly offensive to the Majesty of that God whose service is disgraced by them, as for disorder it falls not into our present discourse; in matter of indecency the main disquisition will be how it may be judged, and determined; to know what is comely, hath been of old noted to be not more commendable than difficult; for the minds of men may be of a different diet; one may approve that for decent which another abhors as most unbeseeming: Suarum rerum nemo non mitis arbiter & pius judex, Petrarch. A Cynic cur or some Turkish Saint may think it not uncomely to plant his own kind in the open market place; and Xenophon tells us of a certain people, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. etc. Xenoph. de ●aeped. Cry. l 5.  called Mosynecians whose practice was to do all those acts in public which other men men (placing shame in them) are wont to reserve for the greatest secrecy? and contrarily: to do those things in private, which other Nations thought fit for the openest view, and we find that the Stigmatical Saint of the Church of Rome (who could say of himself that God would have him fatuellum quendam) Dixit mihi Dominus quod volebat me esse unum fatuellum in hoc mundo, 
Conform. Separator. ) thought it no shame to go stark naked through the streets of Assisium: So did Theodore the Tailor and seven Men, and five Women Anabaptists strip themselves and ran naked through Amsterdam, Guy de Bres. Idem fecit coram Episcopo Assisii. lib. Conform. p. 211. But certainly there are unquestionable rules, whereby decency may be both regulated and judged: 
1 Cor. 11.13.14.16.  The great Doctor of the Gentiles when he would correct an indecent practice in his Corinthians uses these three expressions, Judge in yourselves is it comely? Doth not nature itself teach you? We have no such custom, nor the Churches of God: Wherein he sends us for the determination of decency, to the judgement of our right reason, undebauched nature, and approved custom; and surely, if we follow the guidance of these three, we cannot easily err in our decision of comeliness both in our carriage in humane affairs, and in the services of God; all these will tell us that it is most meet that all outward cleanliness gravity, modesty, reverence, should be used in all the actions of divine worship; and will in form us that whatsoever fashion of deportment is held rude & uncivil in humane conversation, is so much more indecent in divine actions, by how much the person whom we deal with is more awful, and worthier of the highest observance.  
It is no other than an error therefore in those men who think that if they look to the inward disposition of the soul it matters not in what posture, or what loathsome turpitude the body appears before the Almighty; Even that slovenly Cynic when he saw a woman bowing herself forward too low in her devotion, could chide her for her unregard to those deities, which beheld her on all sides; Our blessed Saviour though he had good cheer at the Pharisees house, yet he somewhat taxeth his host for want of a due compliment; 
Luc. 7.44.46.  I entered into thine house, thou gavest me not water for my feet, mine head with oil didst thou not anoint, etc. He looks still for meet formalities of good entertainment as well as the substance of the dishes: It was God's charge that no steps should be made to go up to his altar; 
Exod. 20 26.  lest the nakedness of the sacrificer should be discovered; for this cause it was that he who made the first suit of skins for our first parents, ordained linen breeches for his Priests in their ministrations.  
God hath no where commanded us to cut our nails, or our hair; but it were a foul indecency not to do both: and if we would justly loathe a man that should come to our table like wild Nabuchadnezzar in the desert, with hair to his waist, and claws on his fingers, how much more odious would this seem in a man, that should thus thrust himself in to the Table of the Lord? and if our displeasure would justly arise at that barbarous guest, which should come to our board with his hands be smeared with ordure or blood, how can we think it can be otherwise then ill-taken of the holy God, that we should in a beastly garb offer ourselves into his presence.  
It is not only in regard of spiritual filthiness, that the evil Spirits are called unclean; but even of external also; wherein how much they delight; we may well appeal to the confessions of those Witches and Sorcerers, which upon their conviction, and penitence have laid open the shameful rites of their nightly meetings; 
Bod in Demonomania, etc. Augustin l. de Haeres. Philastr. de Haeres.  Neither was it without cause that some of their prime agents in the ancient Church were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from those filthy fashions which were in use amongst them. Gnostici borboritae quasi coenosi, ob turpitudinem in suis mysteriis, etc.  
Contrarily, what pleasure the pure and holy God takes in the cleanness, both of flesh, and spirit, is abundantly testified by to those many, and strict injunctions of lotions, and purifications, which we find, upon every occasion in his ancient law; and though those laws be not now obligatory, as being for the substance of them ceremonial and typical, yet they have in them so much tincture of an eternal morality, as to imply a meetness of decent cleanliness in the services of God.  
In the observation whereof it is meet for us to hold a middle way betwixt superstition, and neglect; it is easy to note how in the former extreme, a superstitious curiosity hath crept into the Church of Rome; in so much as it may well vie with the Jewish, 
Bartol. Gavant. part 5. de nitore & mundity sacrae supellectris. Idem. Tit. ●alix. Tit. Canon· mun●ra. V Pr●cessio Ibid Gavant Mo●esin. Scot de orig. Papat. 9 Gavant. v. Ecclesia. Abradendi pa ietis sic & Donatislae Optat. l. 6. 'tis Cemiteria.  for multitude and niceness of observances; Their Altar-clothes must not be touched but with a brush appropriated to that service; their corporals must first (ere they be delivered forth) be washed by none but those that are in sacred orders, in a vessel proper only to that use, with soap and lie; and after with pure water, which after the rinsing, must be poured into the sacrarium; their chalices must not be touched by one that is not in Orders: No glove may be worn in their choir: No woman or lay man may make their host, neither may any lay-person so much as look at that sacred wafer out of his window; Their missal cushions may not be brought so much as for the Bishop to kneel on: The Stones of a demolished Church may be sold to lay-men, but with reservation of uses: neither may so much as an house for the curate, be built upon the same floor, but by the Pope's licence: Upon the burial of an heretic within the precincts the Church must be reconciled, and the walls scraped: The grass in the Churchyard may not be used to any pasturage; their Agnus-Dei may not be touched by a Layman, no not with gloves on, or with a pair of tongues: What should I instance in more; a just volume would not contain the curious scruples of their nice observances, in their vestments, consecrations, sacramental rites; and indeed, in the whole carriage of their religious devotions; in all which they bring themselves back under the bondage of more than Judaical ceremonies: placing God's worship in the ritual devices of men, and bringing their consciences under the servile subjection to humane impositions; That liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free calleth us to the avoidance of this unjust excess: But withal our reverential fear of the God of heaven, calls us to eschew in the other extreme all sordid incuriousness, and slovenly neglect in his immediate services.  
To which purpose let it pass for a sure rule that there is a kind of Relative holiness in persons, things, times, places, actions: Relative, I say, not inherent in themselves but in reference to their use, and destination; and in the second place, that even this kind of holiness challengeth a reverend respect from us: A person whose profession is holy, by his solemn consecration to God, should and ought to carry more veneration from us then every common man. The holy elements in the sacrament, being now set apart to this divine use, should be otherwise regarded of us then the common bread, and wine at the Tavern: in respect of that blessed mystery whereto they are appropriated: God's holy day is held worthy of more respect from us, than all the days in the year besides; and why should it not be so likewise in places and actions? Even in our own houses we observe a decency, and different regard of rooms; holding it unbeseeming that the businesses of the scullery should be done in our parlour, or that our bedchamber should be made a larder: And can we think it less uncomely to put Gods peculiar house to the use of a kitchen, or stable? Surely, the service whereto it is ordained, and the name that it bears, aught to privilege it from all either base, or profane employment.  
As for sacred actions, as they have more life in then the outward circumstances of time and place, so they do justly require more respect in the managing of them; in our petitions, if we come to earthly princes upon our knees, with an awful reverence; how much more ought we to do so to the King of glory? In our receipt of the blessed Eucharist, our demeanour must be no other than such as may become the guests of the great King of Heaven, and the commensals of the Lord Jesus, of whom and with whom we do then communicate; in hearing or reading the Divine Oracles, our deportment must be such, as may argue our putting a difference betwixt the word of the everliving God; and the fallible dictates of mortal men like ourselves.  
And as it is in outward decency and cleanliness, so also in the matter of cost, or handsomeness (at least) in the utensils and structures that belong to God; wherein it is a marvel how much we in this last age of the world have varied from our predecessors, in the first establishment of Christianity: Nihil refert sive ex auro, sive ex ligno sit Templum; sive sit stabulum sicut in Bethleem, sive regia domus sicut in Jerusalem. Luth. in Psal. 122. They thought nothing good enough for God Almighty, we think nothing too mean. Upon the first noise of the Gospel, when the secular State was not their friend, the poor Christians were glad to make any shift; if they could build their first Oratories, or Churches of sticks (as at Glastenbury in the entrance of Christianity) they were well apayed: or if but the bare sky were their roof, they were well enough contented; but when once Kings became nursing fathers to the Church, what cost, what magnificence was sufficient for God's temples? Even as it was in the Elder times of Gods ancient people● at the first there was a stake pitched for the habitation of the Almighty; afterwards there was a Tabernacle erected, and God was pleased to dwell in Tents; but when Kings were chosen by God to go in and out before his people, now a Stately Structure, one of the wonders of the World, was raised unto God in Zion: in so admirable beauty as dazzled the eyes of the World to behold it. When the Christian Religion than had taken foot in the empire, what sumptuous monuments were erected by that pious Constantine (in whom our Nation claimeth a just interest) let histories speak; no stones were too precious, no metal was too costly for that happy use; and so powerful influence had that example upon Christian Kings and Princes, that each strove who should exceed other in the cost and splendour of those holy fabrics, the riches of their dotation, the price of their sacred vessels; and from them (as from the head to the skirts,) descended to the Christian Nobility and Gentry; in such sort, that in a short space the face of the earth was grown proud to be adorned with so many precious piles, and the Church was grown glorious and happy with so bountiful endowments: and what shall we think of it that the Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles did thus bring presents, and the King of Sh●ba, and Saba did offer gifts? Was it well done, 
Ps. 72.10  or might it not better have been spared? Surely, had those Godly Emperors, Kings, Princes, Peers, Gentry, been of the mind of many modern Christians, they had forborn this care and cost, and turned their magnificence into another channel: But if this bounty of theirs were holy and commendable, as it hath been justly celebrated by all Christians, till this present age; how are those of ours shamefully degenerated, who affect nothing but homeliness and beggary in all that is devoted to the Almighty; and are ready to say contrary to the man after Gods own heart; 
2 Sam. 24.24.  I will offer to the Lord my God of that which shall cost me nothing.  
With what great state and deep expense God was served under the Law, no man can be ignorant; for who knows not the costly furniture of the Tabernacle, the rich habiliments of the Priest, the precious vessels for the sacrifices; and after that the invaluable sumptuousness of the Temple, both without and within; In the marbles, cedars, almuggim trees, brass, silver, gold, in the curious celatures, and artificial textures? in regard of all which for matter and form, what was this other than the glory of the whole earth? and as for the very altar alone (Gods Ariel) that which went up there from, in smoke, both in the daily sacrifices, and the solemn Hecatombs, upon special occasions, what man could value? Besides the triple tithes, first fruits, oblations which were perpetually presented to God for the maintenance of his Priesthood: O the costly services of God under the Law! And do we think the same God is now of a quite other diet, then formerly? Is all this mere ceremony? Is there not so much morality in it as that it is meet the great God, who is the possessor of Heaven and Earth, should be served of the best? that it is not for us to affect too much cheapness, and neglective homeliness in our evangelical devotions? Surely, nature itself calls to us for this respect to a deity, even the very savage Indians may teach us this point of religion; amongst whom we find the Mexicans, a people that had never had any intercourse with the other three parts of the World, Eminent in this kind; what sumptuous, and stately Temples had they erected to their Devils: How did they enrich their miscalled Gods with Magazines of their treasure? And even still the most barbarous and brutish of all those people that bear the shape of men have this principle bred in them, that if they have aught better than other, it is for their God: a principle so much advanced by imperfect Christianity; that the Abassins' hold it piacular to build their own houses of the same matter which is reserved for their Churches; 
Jo. Pories descript. of afric.  to the very fabric and use whereof they yield so much reverence as that their greatest Peer alights from his horse when he comes but within view of those sacred piles.  
And if from those remote parts of the world we shall think fit to look homewards; how just cause shall we find to wonder at the munificent piety of our predecessors, who so freely poured out themselves into bountiful expense for raising of the houses of God in our Island, and endowing them with rich patrimony, that the prime honour of this Nation, all the world over, hath ever been the beauty of our Churches: Neither was it otherwise in all those parts of the World where Christianity had obtained; How frequent was it for a wealthy matron with Vestina, and for a great Nobleman with the Roman Tertullus, Regna potius quam coenobia vir sanctis posteris reliquit, etc. Volaterran, to make God their heir, 
Ex l●bro Portifie. Innocent. 1.  and to enrich his houses and services with the legacies of their jewels, and possessions? Whereupon it came to pass that those structures and vessels which at the first were but of mud, and meaner metals, according to the poverty of the donors; soon after exchanged their homeliness for so glorious a magnificence, as bleared the eyes of the heathen beholders; See, saith that enemy of Christ, in what vessels Mary's son is served; and Ammianus is ready to burst with spite at the liberal provision of God's ministers in comparison of their neglective Paganism, Ut ditenter oblationibus matronarum, etc.  
There may have been some in all ages, that out of a misgrounded humility, and pretended mortification have affected a willing disrespect of all outward accommodations both in their own domestic provisions, and in the public services of God; such were St. Gallus of old; and in later Times, the two famous Franceses of Assize, and of St. Paul: The first whereof, Gallus, 
Wolafrid Strab. c. 18.  as the history reports, when a great Duke out of a reverend opinion of his sanctity had given him a rich and curiously carved piece of plate; Magnoaldus his Disciple who had the carriage of that precious vessel, moving that it might be reserved for the sacred use of God's table, received this answer from him: Son remember what Peter said, Gold and Silver have I none; let this plate which thou bearest be distributed to the poor; for my blessed master Saint Colomb was wont to offer that holy Sacrifice in chalices of brass; because they say, our Saviour was with brazen nails fastened to his cross; thus he in more humility than wisdom; Lep, rosis ulcerosarum plagarum ruebat in Oscula. lib. Confor. Fructu. Separatur. And for the other two; never man more affected bravery and pride than they did beggary, and nastiness; placing a kind of merit in sticks, and clay, in rags and patches, and slovenry; S. Franciscus circa mortem suam in testamento suo scribi voluit quod omnes cellae & domus fratrum de lignis & luto essent tantum, ad conservandam melius humilitatem & paupertatem. Libr. Conform. p. 218. lib. 2. Fructu. 4. Conform. 16. Let these and their ill-advised followers pass for Cynics in Christianity; although now, what ever the original rule of their sordid founder was; even those of that order can in their buildings and furnitures emulate the magnificence of Princes; as if they affected no less excess in the one extreme, than their patron did in the other, Fratres omnes vilibus vestibus induantur; & possunt earepeciare de saccis & aliis peciis cum benedictione Dei. Conform. l. 1. Fructu 9 p. 116. Wise Christians sit down in the mean; now under the Gospel avoiding a careless or parsimonious neglect on the one side, and a superstitious lavishness on the other.  
As for this Church of ours, there is at this time especially little fear of too much; and if we be not more in the ablative, than our Ancestors were in the dative case yet we are generally more apt to higgle with the Almighty; and in a base niggardliness to pinch him in the allowances to his service; wherein we do not so much wrong our God as ourselves; for there is not in all the World so sure a motive for God to give largely unto us, as that we give freely unto God: 
2 Sam. 11, 16.  David did but intent to build God an house, and now in a gracious retribution, God tells him by Nathan, The Lord will build thee an house, and will establish thine house and thy kingdom for ever before thee: and contrarily in this it holds as in all other pious bequests; 
2 Cor. 9.6.  He that soweth sparingly, shall reap sparingly: & if some particular ways of the conveyance of our bounty were anciently ceremonial, 
Prov. 3.9.  yet we are sure this charge is perpetual, Honour the Lord with thy substance. Had our blessed Saviour been of the mind of these dry and pinching Devotionists, he had surely chid Mary Magdalene, for the needless waist of that her precious ointment, and have agreed with Judas how much better it might have been employed for the relief of many poor souls that wanted bread, then in such a compliment of unnecessary delicacy; 
Mat. 26.13.  but how kindly this seasonable expense was taken by our Lord Jesus, appears, in that the memorial of this beneficence is ordained by him to have no narrower bounds of Time or Place, than this blessed Gospel itself.  
Shortly, as the honest and learned Gerson long since distinguished in matter of Doctrine; so must we learn to distinguish in matter of practice; some things are of the necessity of devotion, others of the piety of devotion; and yet further, in this second rank, some things are essential to the piety of devotion, without which it cannot be at all, others are accidental without which it cannot be so well; under this latter sort, expedience and decency both of cleanliness and cost challenge a due place, and cannot justly be denied it: As it is in our own case, some things are requisite out of the necessity of nature, without which we cannot subsist; other things are requisite for the convenience of our estate, without which we cannot maintain a well being; He that hath Bread and Drink, and clothes, may live; but he that hath not his Linen washed and his meat cleanly dressed, and change of warm suits will hardly live with comfort.  
To the great marriage of the King's son in the Gospel, all comers are invited; yea the guests are fetched from the very high ways, 
Mat. 22.9.10.  and hedges, where there could be no probability of any choice Wardrobe, yet when the King comes in, and finds a man without his wedding garment; he in displeasure asks, Friend how camest thou in hither; sufficienty intimating that even comeliness of fashion and meet compliment are worthily expected in the solemn entertainments of God.  
To conclude, if we have rightly apprehended the dreadful and glorious Majesty of the great God; we shall never think we can come with reverence enough into his holy presence; and it is no small appendance of reverence to have our very bodies decently composed before him: and if we have well weighed the absolute sovereignty of this great King of Glory; and the infinite largess of our munificent God, who hath given us ourselves, and all that we have, or are, or hope for, that hath not grudged us aught in earth, or heaven; no not the dear son of his love, and eternal essence; but hath sent him out of his bosom for our redemption: we cannot think all our little enough to consecrate to his blessed name and service; and shall hold that evil eye worthy to be pulled out, which shall grudge the fattest of his flocks, and herds to the altar of the Almighty.  
Now the application of this whole discourse I leave to the thoughts of every reader; who cannot but easily find how too much need there is of a monitor in this kind; whiles the examples of a profane indecency so abound every where to the great shame of the Gospel, and scandal of all ingenious minds. I forbear to particularise; a volume would be too strait for this complaint:  
It is not the blushing of my Nation, the derision of Foreigners, the advantage of adversaries that I drive at, in these seasonable lines; it is the reformation of those foul abuses, gross neglects, outward indignities, notorious pollutions, which have helped to expose the face of this famous Church, late the glory of Christendom, to the scorn of the nations round about us; who now change their former envy at her unmatchable beauty, into a kind of insulting pity of her miserable deformity Return, dear brethren, return to that comely order, and decency which won honour and reverence to your goodly forefathers.  
After the main care of the substance of divine worship (which must be ever holy, spiritual, answerable to the unfailing and exact rule of the eternal word of God) let the outwatd carriage of God's sacred affairs be (what may be) suitable to that pure, and dreadful Majesty whose they are; let his now neglected houses be decently repaired, 
Nequid p●ofanum Templo Dei ins●ratur, ●o●fe●sus sed●m qu●m inhabitat de●e●inquat▪ Cyprian de habits▪ virg.  neatly kept, reverently regarded for the owner's sake, and inviolably reserved for those sacred uses to which they are dedicated; let his holy table be comely spread; & attended with awful devotion, let them be clean both within and without that bear the vessels of the Lord; let the maintenance of his altar be free, liberal, cheerful; let God's chair, the pulpit, be climbed into by his chosen servants, with trembling, and gravity: briefly, let his whole service and worship be celebrated with all holy reverence; this is the way to the acceptation of God, and to honour with men.   

Good Security: A Comfortable DISCOURSE OF The Christians Assurance of Heaven.  Grounded upon 2 Pet. 1.10. 
Give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure.  
IT shall be my only drift, and endeavour in this discourse to settle the hearts of those who profess the name of Christ, in a main case of Christian resolution concerning their present and final estate; the mean whereof is no less comfortable and useful, than the extremes miserably dangerous: whiles one is causelessly confident, and dies presuming; another is wilfully careless, and perisheth through neglect, both fearfully miscarry, and help to fill up hell: I shall desire to guide the wise Christian in a midway between both these, and teach him how to be resolute without presumption; and to be awful without distrust, how to labour for an holy security, and modest confidence. Ere we descend to the matter; Three terms require a little clearing, what this calling is? What election? What the sure-making of both?  
As to the first; this cannot be taken of an outward calling: For we are sure enough of that; wheresoever the Gospel is preached we are called outwardly; neither are we much the nearer to be sure of that, for many are called, few chosen, yea certainly this not answered shall aggravate our damnation; It is therefore an inward and effectual calling that we must endeavour to make sure: a call, not by the sound of the word only, but by the efficacy of the Spirit: The soul hath an ear as well as the body, when the ear of the soul hears the operative motions of God's spirit, as well as the ear of the body hears the external sound of the Gospel: then are we called by God, when true faith is wrought in the Soul, as well as outward conformity in our life; when we are made true Christians as well as outward professors, then, and not till then have we this calling from God.  
Such than is our calling; the election is answerable to it; Not a temporal, and external, to some special office, or dignity; whereof our Saviour, Have not I chosen you twelve. John. 6.70. and Moses his chosen, Psal. 106. Not a singling out from the most, to an outward profession of Christ, whereof perhaps the Apostle, 1 Thes. 1.4. Knowing, beloved, that ye are elect of God, and the Psalmist, Blessed is he whom thou choosest and causest to dwell in thy courts, Psal. 65.5. For notwithstanding this noble and happy privilege, little would it avail us to be sure of this, and no more; no profession, no dignity can secure us from being perfectly miserable, but an eternal election to glory; whereof St. Paul, Ephes. 1.4. God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundations of the World, that we might be holy, and blameless before him in love; and to his Colossians, As the elect of God holy and beloved; such as to whom saving Faith is appropriated, the style whereof is Fidus electorum, the faith of the Elect, Tit. 1.1.  
Such than is our calling, and election. Now this calling, this election must be made sure or firm, as the word (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) signifies: sure and firm, not on God's part who we know is unchangable in his nature, in his counsels. So as in that regard our election (if it be at all is most sure, and surer cannot be; but on ours, not only in respect of the object, which is the truth, and immutability of the thing itself; but in respect of the subject too, the soul that apprehends it; so sure that it cannot be falsified, cannot be disappointed.  
It is not for us to expect such a certainty of knowledge in this point as there is of Principles of Arts, or of those things whereof common sense assures us. Our Schoolmen make distinction of a certainty, evident, and inevident: Evident, which ariseth out of the clearness of the object itself; and the necessary connection of the terms, as that the whole is greater than a part. Inevident, which arises not so much out of the intrinsical truth of the proposition itself, as out of the veracity and infallibleness of the party that affirms it. So both Divine and Humane faith receive their assurance from the Divine or Humane authority whereon it is grounded; and this inevident assurance may be so certain as to expel all prevailing doubt, though not all troubling doubt: Neither need there any other for the Articles of our creed which we take upon the infallible trust of him who is the truth itself, and can no more deceive us then, not be.  
This latter is the certainty, which we must labour to attain unto. In the grant whereof our Romish Divines are generally too straight-laced, yielding yet a Theological certainty which goes far but not home: although some of them are more liberal, as Catharinus, Vega, Ruardus, Tapperus, and Pererius following them, which grant that some holy men, out of the feeling and experience of the power of God's Spirit in them, may without any special revelation grow to a great height of assurance; if not so as that they may swear they are assured of this happy estate of grace, yet so, as that they may be as confident of it, as that there is a Rome or Constantinople, which one would think were enough: but the rest are commonly too sparing, in the inching out of the possibility of our assurance by nice distinctions: Cardinal Bellarmine, makes six kinds, or degrees of certainty; whereof three are clear, three obscure; the three first are the certainty of understanding, the certainty of knowledge, the certainty of experience; The first of them is of plain principles, which upon mere hearing are yielded to be most true, without any traverse of thoughts: The second is of conclusions, evidently deduced from those principles, The third is of the matters of sense about which the eye, or ear is not deceived.  
The three latter certainties which are more obscure are those of Faith, or Belief, and the degrees thereof; The first whereof is the certainty of the Catholic or Divine faith, which depending upon God's authority cannot deceive us. The second is the certainty of humane faith; so depending upon Man's authority, and in such matters, as shut out all fear of falsehood, or disappointment in believing them: as that there was an Augustus Caesar, a Rome, a Jerusalem. The third is the certainty of a well grounded conceit which he pleaseth to call conjectural; raised upon such undoubted signs, and proofs, as may make a Man secure of what he holdeth; and excludes all anxiety, yet cannot utterly free him from all fear. This last he can be content to yield us; and indeed in his stating, the question stands only upon the denial of the certainty of a Divine faith in this great affair: we are ready to take what he gives, so as then here may be a certainty in the heart of a regenerate Man, of his calling and election; and such a one as shall render him holily secure; and free from anxiety; Let the distinguisher weary himself with the thoughts of reconciling certitude with conjectures; security with fear; let us have the security, and let him take the fear to himself: Shortly then, whiles the Schools make much ado of what kind of certainty this must be taken, whether of faith, or of hope, or of confidence: surely, if it be such an hope and confidence as makes not ashamed by disappointing us, both are equally safe; It is enough if it be such a fiducial persuasion as cannot deceive us, nor be liable to falsehood.  
But how far then reaches this assecuration?  
So far as to exclude all fears, all doubting, and hesitation? Neither of these.  
Not all kind of fear; for we are bidden to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, Philip. 2. and to spend the time of our pilgrimage in fear, 1 Pet. 1. Not doubting, which the counsel of Trent would seem to cast upon our opinion; we cannot be so senseless, as not in the conscience of our infirmities, and manifold indispositions find ourselves put to many plunges: but yet so, as that by the power of our faith (which is the victory that overcomes the World) at last we do happily recover, and find ourselves freed by a comfortable and joyful ●●uctation. If any Man could be so fond as to think we stand so sure that we shall never shake, or move, he grossly misconceives our condition; but if so sure that we shall never be turned up by the roots, never removed, after we are fast planted, and grounded in the house of God, he takes us aright; This is a certainty that we may, that we must, labour to aspire unto; Commo vetur sides, non excutitur, as Chamier well; We must therefore give all diligence to make this effectual calling, this eternal election thus sure unto us.  
Mark in what order; first our calling, than our election: nor beginning with our election first; it were as bold; as absurd a presumption in vain Men, first to begin at Heaven, and from thence to descend to Earth. The Angels of God upon jacob's ladder both ascended and descended, but surely, we must ascend only from Earth to Heaven by our calling, arguing our election; If we consider of Gods working, and proceeding with us, it is one thing, there he first foreknows us, and praedestinates us, than he calls us, and justifies us, than he glorifies us. Rom. 8.29.30.  
If we consider the order of our apprehending the State wherein we stand with God, there we are first called, then justified, and thereby come to be assured of our predestination, and glory. Think not therefore to climb up into Heaven, and there to read your names in the book of God's eternal decree, and thereupon to build the certainty of your calling, believing, persevering; this course is presumptuously preposterous: but by the truth of your effectual calling, and true believing grow up at last towards a comfortable assurance of your election; which is the just Method of our Apostle here, Make your calling and election sure.  
Mark then the just connexion of these two; If the calling, than the election; one of these doth necessarily imply the other, many Thousands are outwardly called, who yet have no right in God's eternal election; here is as much difference as between many and few; But where the heart is effectually called home to God, by a true and lively faith applying the promises of God, and laying effectual hold of Christ, there is certainly an election. Doubtless there is much deceit and misprision in the World this way; every Faith makes not an effectual calling; there is a (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) a Temporary, there is an inform, there is a counterfeit Faith. Many a one thinks he hath the true David, when it is but an Image stuffed with goat's hair; we know how deceitful Man's heart is, and how cunning Satan is to gull us with vain shows that he may hold us off from true and solid comforts. But if there be false saith we know there are true ones; yea there could not be false, if there were not a true one; so much more must be our diligence to make sure work for our Faith, and by that, for our calling, which ascertained will evince our election. As Men when they hear there are many counterfeit slips, and much washed and clipped coin abroad, are the more careful to turn over, and examine every piece that passeth through their hands. So then those whom God hath thus joined, neither Man nor Devil can put asunder, Our calling, and Election.  
Three heads then offer themselves here to our present discourse. 1. That our Calling and Election may be made sure. 2. That we must endeavour to make them sure. 3ly. How and by what means, we may and must endeavour to assure them.  
As for the first of these, the very charge and command itself implies it. The justice of God doth not use to require impossible things from us; when therefore he bids us g●●e diligence to do it; what doth it imply but that by diligence it may be done: what will our diligence do in a business that cannot be done, should a man be bidden to take care that he fly well, or wa●k steadily on his head, this would justly sound as a mockery; because he knows they are not feasible: but when he is bidden to walk circumspectly, and to take heed to his feet, it presupposeth our ability, and requireth our will to perform it; and so doth this precept here: Men are apt to employ their wits to their own disadvantage; The Romish Doctors have been of late times very busy to cry down the possibility of this certainty, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Pontificiam nos seriò damnamus & aversamur; & toto coelo errant qui hanc cum isto dogmate confundunt; Alia est istaec perpetua dubitatio sive fluctuatio, qua statuunt Pontificii n●minem in hac vita certitudine fidei certum esse posse se gratiam apud Deum adeptum esse. Quid hoc ad praesentem quae●tionem? Quis nostrûm hanc Pontificiorum sententiam unquam approbavit? Imo ut huic calumniae maturè obviam iremus, in propositione sententiae nostrae, circa quint●m articulum, exsertè professi sumus, thesi 7. Vere fidelem, ut pro tempore praesente, de fidei & conscientiae suae integritate certum esse posse, ita, & de suâ salute, & salutifera Dei erga ipsum benevolentia pro illo tempore certum esse posse, ac debere; addentes insuper, Pontificiam sententiam nos hîc improbare. Remonstr. defence. 51. articuli. p. 338.  they, and none but they; for all Protestants of what profession soever, disclaim this Doctrine; even those our brethren that follow the school of Arminius, are herein (for the possibility of our present certainty,) with, and for us; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pontificiam (they are their own words) nos serio damnamus & aversamur; this popish doubtfulness and irresolution we hate and condemn, etc. So as only the Pontifician Divines are in this point opposite to us all (and not all of them neither Catherinus is for us, and some others come close to us.  
But the stream of them runs the wrong way; teaching that we may hope well, and give good conjectures, and attain perhaps to a moral certitude of our present acceptation, and future blessedness; but that no assurance can be had hereof, nor none aught to be affected without a special revelation, as their St. Anthony, St. Francis, St. Galla, and some few others have had; the contrary whereof their Estius dare censure for perdita, & per●itrix haeresis. Why will wise men affect to be thus much their own enemies? Is not salvation the best of good things? Should not a man rather incline to wish himself well? What pleasure then can it be for a man to stand in his own light, and to be niggardly to himself where God hath been bountiful? to stave himself off from that comfortable certainty which God hath left in his possibility to make good to his own Soul?  
Let us then a little inquire into the feasibleness of this great improvement of our holy and Christian diligence; And certainly, if there be any let in the possibility of this assurance, it must be either in our present faith, or in the perpetuation of it; for in the connexion of a lively faith with salvation, it cannot be; That he who effectually believes, and perseveres to the end shall be saved, no man, no Devil can deny; all the doubt is whether the man can know that he doth thus believe, that he shall continue so to believe. And why should there be any doubt in either of these? I am sure for the first; the chosen vessel could say, I know whom I have believed, 2 Tim. 1. and speaks this not as an extraordinary person, (an Apostle) but as a Christian; therein affirming both the act of his faith, and the object of it, and his knowledge of both; for whiles he saith, I know whom I have believed, he doth in effect say, I know that I have believed, and I know what I have believed; God my Almighty Saviour is the object of my faith, my faith layeth sure hold on this object, and I know that my faith lays undoubted hold on this happy object. I know whom I have believed; and why should not we labour to say so too? Some things the Apostle did as a singular favourite of Heaven, of this kind were his raptures and visions, these we may not aspire to imitate; other things he did as an holy man, as a faithful Christian, these must we propose for our examples; and indeed, why should not a man know he believes? What is there in faith (even as we define it) but knowledge, assent, application, affiance, receiving of Christ, and which of these is there that we cannot know? Surely there is power in the soul to exercise these reflex actions upon itself. As it can know things (contrary to the fanatic sceptic) so it can know that it knows; These inward acts of knowledge, and understanding are to the mind, no other, than the acts of our sensitive powers are unto our senses, and a like certain judgement passeth upon both: as therefore I can know that I hear, or that I see, or touch; so can I no less surely know that I do know, or understand.  
And the object doth no whit alter the certainty of the act; whiles a divine truth goes upon no less evidence and assurance, why may not a man as well know that he knows a divine truth, as an humane?  
The like is to be said of those other specialties which are required to our faith; Our faith assents to the truth of God's promises; what should hinder the heart from knowing that it doth assent? Do not I know whether I believe a man on his word? Why should I not know the same of God? when an honest man hath by his promises engaged himself to me to do me a good turn, do not I know whether I trust to him, whether I make use of that favour in a confident reliance upon the performance of it? the case is the same betwixt God and us; Only we may be so much the more infallibly assured of the promised mercies of our God, by how much we do more know his unfailingness, his unchangeableness.  
Yea so feasible is this knowledge, as that our Apostle chargeth his Corinthians home in this point, 2 Cor. 13.5. Prove yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; Try yourselves, know ye not your own selves that Christ Jesus is in you except ye be Reprobates; what can be more full? To be in the faith is more than to believe; it intimates an habit of faith, that is more than an act; Now what proof, what trial can there be of our faith if we cannot know that we have faith? Surely a trial doth ever presuppose a knowledge, If a man did not know which were good gold, to what purpose doth he go to the Test?  
Now how dwells Christ in us but by Faith? So may they, so must they know Christ to be in them, that if they have him not, they are reprobates: And if they know not they have him, they can have no comfortable assurance against their reprobation. See then how emphatical and full this charge is; He saith not, Guess at yourselves; but prove and try yourselves: He saith not, do ye not morally conjesture? but, do ye not know: He saith not, whether ye hope well, but, whether ye be in the Faith; And that, not of the Faith of Miracles, as chrysostom, and Theophilact; nor of a Faith of Christian profession, as Anselme; but such a Faith as whereby Christ dwells in our hearts; He saith not, Lastly, unless ye be faulty, and worthy of blame, but, unless ye be reprobates: The place is so choakingly convictive, that there can be no probable elusion of it.  
The shift of Cardinal Bellarmine (wherein yet he would seem confident) is worthy of pity; that the place hath no other drift but to imply the powerful presence of Christ amongst the Corinthians; strongly confirming the truth of his Apostleship; whereby, if there were any faith at all in them, except they were given up to a reprobate sense, they must needs be convinced of the authority of his Ministry; for what was this to their being in the faith, whereof they must examine themselves? or, who can think that to be in the faith is no more than to have any faith at all? Neither doth the Apostle say, that Christ is among you, but in you; neither could the not knowing of Christ's presence amongst them by powerful Miracles, be a matter of reprobation; so as this sense is unreasonably strained to no purpose; and such as no judicious spirit can rest in, and this act of our knowledge is taken for granted by him that works it in us.  
And indeed what question can there be of this act when God undertakes it in us? The Spirit of God witnesseth with our Spirits, that we are the Sons of God, Rom. 8.16. Can any Man doubt of the truth of God's Testimony? Certainly, he that is the God of truth cannot but speak truth; now he witnesseth together with us. Yea but you say, though he be true yet we are deceitful, and his Spirit doth but witness according to the measure of our receipt, and capacity, which is very poor and scant, yea and perhaps also uncertain. Take heed, whosoever thou art, lest thou disparage God, whiles thou wouldst abase thyself; he witnesseth together with us; The Spirit of truth will not witness with a lying Spirit; were not therefore that witness of ours sure, he would check us, and not witness with us: Now what witness can he give with us, and to us if we do not hear him, if we do not know what he says; if we cannot be assured of what he testifies? Let no Bellarmine speak now of an experiment of inward sweetness and peace, which only causeth a conjectural, and not an unfailing certainty: The Man hath forgot that this Testimony is of the Spirit of adoption, whereby we do not seem Sons, but are made so, and are so assured: and that it is not a guess, but a witness; and Lastly that there can be no true inward peace out of mere conjectures. Yea, here is not only the word of God for it; but his seal too; and not his seal only, but his earnest; what can make a future match more sure than hand and seal? and here we have them both. 2 Cor. 1.22. Who hath sealed us; Lo the promise was passed before (vers. 20.) and then yet more confirmed (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) vers. 21. and now past under seal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. vers. 22.  
Yea but the present possession is yet more, and that is given us in part by our received earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Earnest is a binder; wherefore is it given but by a little to assure all?  
In our transactions with Men, when we have an honest Man's word for a bargain, we think it safe; but when his hand and seal, infallible; but when we have part in hand already, the contract is past, and now we hold ourselves stated in the commodity what ever it be. And have we the promise, hand, seal, earnest of God's Spirit, and not see it, not feel it, not know it?  
Shortly, whom will we believe if not God, and ourselves? No Man knows what is in Man, but the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Man that is in him, as St. Paul to his Corinthians. Ye have heard God's Spirit; hear our own; out of our own mouth. Doth not every Christian say, I believe in God, etc. I believe in Jesus Christ; I believe in the holy Ghost; I believe the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, and life Everlasting? And doth he say he believes when he believes not, or when he knows not whether he believe, or no, what a mockery were this of our Christian profession? Or, as the Jesuitical evasion commonly is, is this only meant of an assent to these general truths, that there is a God, a Saviour, a sanctifier, Saints, remission, salvation, not a special application of these several articles to the soul of him whose tongue professeth it? Surely then, the devil might say the creed no less confidently, than the greatest Saint upon Earth: There is no Devil in hell but believes (not without regret) that there is a God that made the World, a Saviour that redeemed it, a blessed Spirit that renews it, a remission of sins, an eternal Salvation to those that are thus redeemed, and regenerate; and if in the profession of our faith we go no further than Devils, how is this Symbolum Christianorum? To what purpose do we say our creed?  
But if we know that we believe for the present, how know we what we shall do? what may not alter in time? we know our own frailty and fickleness; what hold is there of us weak wretches, what assurance for the future? Surely, on our part, none at all; If we be left never so little to ourselves, we are gone; on God's part enough; there is a double hand mutually employed in our holdfast; Gods and ours; we lay hand on God; God lays hand on us; if our feeble hand fail him, yet his gracious and omnipotent hand will not fail us: even when we are lost in ourselves, yet in him we are safe; he hath graciously said, and will make it good; I will not leave thee nor forsake thee: The seed of God, saith the beloved disciple Joh. 3. remains in him that is born of God; so as he cannot (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) trade in sin, as an unregenerate, not lose himself in sinning; so as contrary to Card. Bellarmine's desperate Logic, even an act of infidelity cannot mar his habit of faith; and though he be in himself, and in his sin guilty of death, yet through the mercy of his God, he is preserved from being swallowed up of death; whiles he hath the seed of God, he is the Son of God; and the seed of God remains in him always.  
That of the great Doctor of the Gentiles is sweet and cordial, and in stead of all to this purpose; Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. I am fully persuaded that neither Death, nor Life, nor Angels, nor Principalities, nor Powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ ●esus our Lord. Rom. 8.39. O divine oratory of the great Apostle! Oh the heavenly and irrefragable Logic of God's Penman! it is the very question that we have now in hand which he there discusses; and falls upon this happy conclusion, That nothing can separate Gods elect from his everlasting love; he proves it by induction of the most powerful agents, and triumphs in the impotence, and imprevalency of them all; and whiles he names the principalities and powers of darkness, what doth he but imply those sins also by which they work?  
And this he says not for himself only, (lest any with Pererius, and some other Jesuits, should harp upon a particular Revelation) but who shall separate us? he takes us in with him; and if he seem to pitch upon his own person in his (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) yet the subject of this persuasion reacheth to all true believers, That nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord: Us, not as it is overstretched by Bellarmine and Vasquez, indefinitely, for those that predestinate in general, but with an employed application of it to himself, and the believing Christians to whom he wrote; The place is so clear and full, that all the miserable and strained Evasions of the Jesuitical gainsayers cannot elude it; but that it will carry any free and unprejudiced heart along with it; and evince this comfortable truth, That, as for the present, so for the future we may attain to be safe for our spiritual condition.  
What speak I of a safety that may be, when the true believer is saved already? already passed from death to Life; already therefore over the threshold of Heaven. Shortly then our faith may make our calling sure; our calling may make sure our election; and we may therefore confidently build upon this truth that our calling and election may be made sure.  
Now many things may be done, that yet need not, yea that ought not to be done; This both aught and must be endeavoured, for the necessity, and benefit of it. This charge here as it implies the possibility, so it signifies the convenience, use, profit, necessity of this assecuration, for sure if it were not beneficial to us, it would never be thus forceably urged upon us; And certainly there needs no great proof of this. For nature and our self-love grounded thereupon easily invites us to the endeavour of feoffing ourselves in any thing that is good; this being then the highest good that the Soul of Man can be possibly capable of, to be ascertained of Salvation, it will soon follow, that since it may be done, we shall resolve it ought, it must be endeavoured to be done.  
Indifferent things, and such as without which we may well subsist are left arbitrary to us; but those things wherein our spiritual well-being consisteth must be mainly laboured for; neither can any contention be too much to attain them; such is this we have in hand; without which there can be no firm peace, no constant, and solid comfort to the Soul of Man; Three things then call us to the endeavour of this assurance; our duty, our advantage, our danger.  
We must do it out of duty; because our God bids us; God's commands like the Prerogatives of Princes must not be too strictly scanned; should he require aught that might be loss-full, or prejudicial to us, our blindfold obedience must undertake it with cheerfulness; how much more then, when he calls for that from us, than which nothing can be imagined of more, or equal behoof to the Soul. It is enough therefore that God by his Apostle commands us to Give diligence to make our calling and election sure; Our Heavenly Father bids us, what sons are we if we obey him not? Our blessed Master bids us, what Servants are we if we set not ourselves to observe his charge? our glorious and immortal King bids us, what subjects are we if we stick at his injunction? out of mere duty therefore we must endeavour to make our calling, and election sure.  
Even where we own no duty, oftentimes advantage draws us on; yea many times across those duties which we own to God and Man; how much more where our duty is seconded with such an advantage, as is not parallelable in all the World beside.  
What less, what other follows upon this assurance truly attained but peace of conscience, and joy in the holy Ghost? in one word, the beginning of Heaven in the soul.  
What a contentment doth the heart of Man find in the securing of any whatsoever good? what a coil do mony-Masters keep for security of the sums they put forth; and when that is taken to their mind are ready to say with the rich Man in the Gospel, Soul take thy ease. Great ventures at Sea how willingly do they part with no small part of their hoped gain to be assured of the rest? How well was Ezekiah apaid, when he was assured but of fifteen years added to his life? How doth Babylon applaud her own happiness to herself, when she can say, I sit as a Queen, I shall not be a widow, I shall know no sorrow: It must needs follow therefore that in the best things assured there must be the greatest of all possible contentments.  
And surely, if the heart have once attained to this, that upon good grounds it can resolve, God is my Father, Christ Jesus is my Elder Brother, the Angels are my Guardians; Heaven is my undoubted patrimony, how must it needs be lift up, and filled with a joy unspeakable and glorious? What bold defiances can it bid to all the troops of worldly evils, to all the powers of Hell? with what unconceivable sweetness must it needs enjoy God, and itself? how comfortably and resolutely must it needs welcome death, with that triumphant champion of Christ, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, and now from henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, etc. 2. Tim. 4.7, 8. Out of the just advantage therefore of this assurance we must endeavour to make our calling and election sure.  
Neither is the advantage more in the performance hereof then there is danger in the neglect. In all uncertainties there is a kind of afflictive fear, and troublesome misdoubt: Let a man walk in the dark, because he cannot be confident where safely to set his steps, he is troubled with a continual suspicion of a sudden miscarriage, and therefore goes in pain; what can there be but discomfort in that soul which knows not in what terms it stands with God? Yet, whiles there is life, there may be hope of better; But if that soul be surprised with an unexpected death, and hurried away with some sudden judgement, in this state of irresolution, in how deplored a condition is it beyond all expression? I cannot but therefore lament the woeful plight of those poor souls that live & die under the Roman discipline, who when they have most need of comfort in the very act of their dissolution are left pitifully disconsolate, and given up by their teachers to either horror, or suspense. Even the most Saintlike of them; (except his soul fly up in Martyrdom like gedeon's Angel in the Smoke of his incense) may not make account of a speedy ascent to heaven; insomuch as Cardinal Bellarmine himself, of whom our Coffin dares write that his life was not stained with mortal sin, (pag. 27.) He that could call heaven Casamia; and whose canonisation the Cardinals thought fit to be talked of in his sickness; when Cardinal Aldobrandino desired him, that when he came to heaven he would pray for him, answered, To go to heaven so soon is a matter too great for me; men do not use to come thither in such haste, and for me, I shall think it no small favour to be sure of purgatory, and there to remain a good while (pag. 42.) (which yet (himself can say) differs not much, for the time, in respect of the extremity of it, from hell itself) and to be a good while there? O terror past all reach of our thoughts; And if the righteous be thus saved, where shall the sinners appear?  
For aught they can, or may know; hell may, but purgatory must be their portion, heaven may not be thought of without too high presumption.  
Certainly if many despair under those uncomfortable hands I wonder that no more; since they are bidden to doubt, and beaten off from any possibility of the confidence of rest and happiness.  
But whiles I urge this danger of utter discomfort in our irresolution; I hear our adversaries talk of a double danger of the contrary certitude; A danger of pride, and a danger of sloth. The supposed certainty of our graces breeds pride saith their Cardinal; The assurance of our election, sloth, saith their Alphonsus a Castro, out of Gregory.  
And indeed if this cordial doctrine be not well given, well taken, well digested, it may, through our pravity, and heedlessness turn to both these noxious humours; as the highest feeding soon causeth a dangerous Plethory in the body. How have we heard some bold ungrounded Christians brag of their assurance of glory, as if they had carried the keys of heaven at their Girdle? How have we seen even sensual men flatter themselves with a confident opinion of their undoubted safety; & unfailable right to happiness? How have we known presumptuous Spirits that have thought themselves carried with a plerophory of faith when their sails have been swelled only with the wind of their own self-love? how many ignorant souls from the misprision of Gods infallible election have argued the needlessness of their endeavours, and the safety of their ease and neglect's? As ye love yourselves, sail warily, betwixt these rocks and sands on either side.  
But if these mischiefs follow upon the abuse of a sound and wholesome doctrine, God forbidden they should be imputed to the truth itself; as if that God who charges us to do our endeavour to make sure work of our calling and election did not well foresee the perils of these mistaking; and if notwithstanding the prevision of these errors his infinite wisdom hath thought fit to enjoin this task, how safe how necessary is it for us to perform it? Did these evils flow from the nature of the doctrine, we had reason to disclaim it; but now that they flow from the corruption of our nature, fetching evil out of good, we have reason to embrace the doctrine, and to check ourselves.  
What a slander is this? Doth the known certainty of our graces breed pride? Surely, did we challenge these graces for our own, there might be some fear of this vice; but whiles we yield them to be Gods, how can we be puffed up; what a madness is it in a Man to be proud of another's glory? It is a great word of the Apostle I can do all things, but when he adds, through him that strengthens me, now, the praise is all Gods, and not his; now, he boasts all of God, nothing of himself; No, presumption is proud, but faith is humble. There can be no true faith without repentance; no repentance without self-dejection. Yea, the very proper basis of all grace whatsoever is humility; much more of faith; since a Man cannot so much as apprehend that he hath need of a Saviour, till he be vile in his own eyes, and lost in his own conceit. Yea so far is the known certainty of grace from working pride, as that it is certain there can be no grace, where there is pride of grace; so as whiles Gregory can say Si scimus nos habere gratiam, superbimus, If we know we have grace, we are proud; I shall by a contrary inversion not fear to say; Si superbimus, scimus nos non habere gratiam, If we be proud, we know we have no grace.  
Sloth and security is the more probable vice; why may not the spiritual sluggard say; If I be sure of my calling and election, and God's decree is unchangeable, what need I care for more? sit down, soul, and take thine ease; ut quid perditio haec? To what purpose dost thou macerate thyself with the penal works of an austere mortification? what needest thou toil thyself in the busy labours of a constant devotion? what need these assiduous prayers, these frequent sermoning, these importune communicating? thou canst be but sure of thine election; thou art so already; sit down now my soul, and take not thy ease only but thy pleasure; let thyself freely lose to those contentments, wherein others seek and find felicity; Be happy here, since thou canst not but be so hereafter.  
A Man might perhaps speak thus, but can a believer say so? Whose faith quells the very thought of this pernicious security; and excites him more to a careful endeavour of all good actions, than reward can the ambitious, or fear the cowardly? Lo this Man will be sure to do so much more good, by how much he is more sure of his election; and will be more afraid of sin, than another is of hell; He well knows the inseparable connexion betwixt the end, and the means, and cannot dream of obtaining the one, without the other; he knows that mortification of his corruptions, and the life and exercise of grace are the happy effects of his gracious and eternal election. If he look to his calling, he meets with that of the Apostle, We are called, not to uncleanness, but to holiness, 1 Thes. 4.7. If to his election; we are chosen that we might be holy, and without blame before him in love, Ephes. 1.3. Both calling and election call him to nothing but holiness; and he will more busy himself in the duties of piety, charity, justice, out of love, than a servile nature would out of constraint; and will do more good, because he is elected, than a mercenary disposition would do, that he might be elected; and will be more careful to avoid sin, because he makes account of Heaven, than a slavish mind can, or will be that he may avoid hell; Ezekiah hath fifteen years promised to be added to his life; he is sure God cannot deceive him; what then? doth he say; though I take no sustenance I shall live; let me take poison: let me run into fire or water, or upon the sword of an enemy, fifteen years is my stint, which can no more be abridged, then prolonged; I will never trouble myself with Eating, or Drinking, I will rush fearlessly upon all dangers? none of these, he that knows he shall live, knows he must live by means; and therefore feeds moderately, demeans himself no less carefully that he may live, than any other whose life is uncertain. It is for ignorant Turks to make so ill use of their predestination, that because their destiny is written in their foreheads; they need not regard danger, but may securely sleep upon the pillow of him that died the day before of the plague: wisemen know that divine providence is no exemption of our best care.  
It cannot stand with a true favourite of Heaven to make so ill use of God's mercies, as to be evil, because he is good; to be secure, because he is bountiful and unchangeable; what remains then? but that out of our duty to the command, out of our sense of the advantage, out of our care to shun the danger of the neglect, we should stir up ourselves, by all means possible, to make our calling and election sure. Away with our poor and petty cares wherewith our hearts are commonly taken up: One cares to make his house, or his coffers sure with bolts and bars; another cares to make his money sure by good bonds and Counter-bonds; another his estate sure to his posterity by conveyances and Fines; Another his adventure sure by a wary precontract; Alas what sorry worthless things are these in comparison of eternity? And what a slippery security is that which our utmost endeavours can procure us in these transitory and unsatisfying matters? Oh our miserable sottishness if whiles we are studiously careful for these base perishing affairs, we continue willing unthrifts in the main and everlasting provision for our souls!  
Religion gives no countenance to ill-husbandry, be careful to make your houses sure; but be more careful to make sure of your eternal mansions; be careful for your earthly wealth, but be more careful of the treasures laid up in Heaven. Be careful of your estate here, but be more careful of that glorious patrimony above.  
Briefly, be careful to live well here, be more careful to live happily for ever.  
Ye have seen that we may, and that we must endeavour to make sure our calling and election: Our next work is to show how and by what means they may, and must be endeavoured to be assured.  
In some few Greek copies, which Rob. Steven had seen, or in two copies, as Beza found it, or in Aliquo codice, as Mariana, there is an addition of words to the text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; By good works: The vulgar reads it thus, and the Council of Trent citys it thus, and some of ours; so the text runs thus: Give diligence that by good works ye may make your calling and election sure: I inquire not how duly; but certainly there is no cause that we should fear, or dislike this reading: good works are a notable confirmation to the soul of the truth of our calling and election: Though Cardinal Bellarmine makes ill use of the place; striving hereupon to infer that our certitude is therefore but conjectural, because it is of works; For the solution whereof, justly may we wonder to hear of a conjectural certitude. Certainly we may as well hear of a false-truth; what a plain implication is here of a palpable contradiction? Those things which we conjecture at, are only probable, and there can be no certainty in probability. Away with these blind peradventures; had our Apostle said (and he knew how to speak) guess at your calling and election by good works, his game here had been fair; but now when he says: By good works endeavour to make your calling and election sure, how clearly doth he disclaim a dubious hit I-misse-I; and implies a feasible certainty. And indeed what hinders the connection of this assurance? Our works make good the truth of our faith, our faith makes good our effectual calling, our calling makes good our election, therefore even by good works we make our election sure. Neither can it hurt us, that the Cardinal saith we hold this certainty to be before our good works, not after them; and therefore that is not caused by our good works. We stand not nicely to distinguish how things stand in the order of nature; surely this certainty is both before, and after our works, before in the act of our faith; after in our works, confirming our faith; neither do we say this certainty is caused by our good works, but confirmed by them; neither doth this (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) imply always a thing before uncertain (as learned Chamier well) but the completing and making up of a thing, sure before. To which also must be added that these (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) good works must be taken in the largest latitude; so as to fetch in not only the outward good offices that fall from us in the way whether of our charity, justice or devotion, but the very inmost inclinations, and actions of the soul, tending towards God; our believing in him, our loving of him, our dreading of his infinite Majesty; our mortification of our corrupt affections, our joy in the holy Ghost, & whatsoever else may argue or make us holy: These are the means by which we may, and must endeavour to make our calling & election sure. But to let this clause pass as litigious; the undoubted words of the text go no less, If ye do these things ye shall never fall; (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) these things, are the virtues precedently mentioned; and not falling, is equivalent to ascertaining our calling and election. Not to instance then, and urge those many graces which are here specified, I shall content myself with those three Theological virtues (singled out from the rest) faith, hope, charity, for the making sure our calling and election.  
For faith, how clear is that of our Saviour, He that believes in him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but hath passed from death to life; Joh. 5.24. This is the grace by which Christ dwells in our hearts, Ephes. 3.17. and whereby we have communion with Christ, and an assured testimony of and from him; For he that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself, 1 John 5.10. And what witness is that? This is the record that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son, verse 11. He that hath the Son hath life, verse. 12. See what a connection here is, Eternal life first: this life eternal is in and by Christ Jesus; this Jesus is ours by faith; This Faith witnesseth to our souls our assurance of Life Eternal.  
Our hope is next, which is an (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) a thrusting out of the head to look for the performing of that which our faith apprehends; and this is so sure a grace as that it is called by the name of that glory which it expecteth, Colos. 1.5. For the hope sake which is laid up for you in heaven, that is, for the glory we hope for: Now both faith and hope are of a cleansing nature; both agree in this, Purifying their hearts by faith, Act. 15.9. Every one that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure, 1 Joh. 3.3. The Devil is an unclean Spirit, he fowls wheresoever he comes, and all sin is nasty, and beastly: Faith and hope (like as neat huswives when they come into a foul and sluttish house) cleanse all the rooms of the soul; and make it a fit habitation for the Spirit of God. Are our hearts lifted up then in a comfortable expectation of the performance of God's merciful promises? and are they together with our lives swept and cleansed from the wont corruptions of our nature, and pollutions of our sin? this is an undoubted evidence of our calling and election.  
Charity is the last which comprehends our love both to God and man, for from the reflection of God's love to us, there ariseth a love from us to God again: The beloved Disciple can say, We love him because he loved us first, 1 John 4.19. And from both these, resulteth our love to our brethren, which is so full an evidence that our Apostle tells us, we know we are passed from death to life, because we love the brethren, 1 Joh. 3.14. For the love of the Father is inseparable from the love of the Son; he that loves him that begets, loves him that is begotten of him.  
Shortly then, think not of a ladder to cl●mbe up into heaven to search the books of God.  
First look into your own lives; those are most open, we need no locks or keys to them: the Psalmist in his fifthteenth, will tell you who is for that blissful Zion; are your lives innocent, are your works good and holy, do ye abound in the fruits of piety, justice, Christian compassion? Let these be your first trial, it is a flat and plain word of the divine Apostle, whosoever doth not righteousness, is not of God, 1 John 3.10. Look secondly into your own bosoms, open to none but your own eyes, If ye find there a true and lively faith in the Son of God, by whose blood ye are cleansed from all your sins; by virtue whereof ye can cry, Abba Father; a sure hope in Christ purifying your souls from your corruptions, a true and unfeigned love to your God and Saviour who hath done so much for your souls, so as you dare say, with that fervent Apostle, Lord thou knowest that I love thee, and in him, and for his sake, a sincere love to his children, as such: Not as men, not as witty, wise, noble, rich, bountiful, useful, but as Christians showing itself in all real expressions: These, these are excellent and irrefragable proofs, and evictions of your calling and election. Seek for these in your hearts and hands, and seek for them till ye find them, and when ye have found them make much of them as the invaluable favours of God, and labour for a continual increase of them, and a growth in this heavenly assurance by them.  
What need I urge any motives to stir up your Christian care and diligence? Do but look first behind you, see but how much precious time we have already lost? how have we loitered hitherto in our great work? Bernard's question is fit still to be asked by us of our souls, Bernarde, ad quid venisti? Wherefore are we here upon earth? To pamper our Gut? To tend our hide? To wallow in all voluptuous courses? To scrape up the pelf of the World, As if the only end of our being were carnal pleasure, worldly profit? Oh base and unworthy thoughts! What do we with reason if we be thus prostituted? It is for beasts, which have no soul, to be all for sense. For us, that have ratiocination, and pretend grace, we know we are here but in a thoroughfare to another world, and all the main task we have to do here in this life, is to provide for a better; Oh then, let us recollect ourselves at the last, and redeem the time; and overlooking this vain and worthless World bend all our best endeavours to make sure work for eternity.  
Look secondly before you; and see the shortness, and uncertainty of this, which we call a life; what day is there that may not be our last? what hour is there that we can make account of as certain? And think how many Worlds the dying Man would give (in the late conscience of a careless life) for but one day more to do his neglected work? and shall we wilfully be prodigal of this happy leisure and liberty, and knowingly hazard so woeful, and irremediable a surprisal.  
Look thirdly below you; and see the horror of that dreadful place of torment, which is the unavoidable portion of careless and unreclaimable sinners; consider the extremity, the eternity of those tortures, which in vain the secure heart slightly hoped to avoid.  
Look lastly, above you, and see whether that Heaven (whose outside we behold) be not worthy of our utmost ambition, of our most zealous, and effectual endeavours;  
Do we not think, there is pleasure, and happiness enough in that region of glory and blessedness, to make abundant amends for all our self-combats, for all our tasks of dutiful service, for all our painful exercises of mortification? Oh then, let us earnestly, and unweariably aspire thither, and think all the time lost, that we employ not in the endeavour of making sure of that blessed and eternal inheritance; To the full possession whereof, he that hath purchased it for us by his most precious blood in his good time happily bring us. Amen.   

A Plain and Familiar Explication OF CHRIST'S PRESENCE IN THE SACRAMENT OF HIS Body and Blood, Out of the Doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND. For the satisfying of a Scrupulous Friend. Anno 1631.  
THat Christ Jesus our Lord is truly present, and received in the blessed Sacrament of his body and blood, is so clear and universally agreed upon, that he can be no Christian that doubts it. But in what manner he is both present and received is a point that hath exercised many wits, and cost many thousand lives; and such as some Orthodox Divines are wont to express with a kind of scruple, as not daring to speak out; For me, as I have learned to lay my hand on my mouth where God and his Church have been silent, and to adore those mysteries which I cannot comprehend, so I think it is possible we may wrong ourselves in an over-cautious fear of delivering sufficiently-revealed truths; such I take this to be which we have in hand; wherein as God hath not been sparing to declare himself in his word, So the Church of England our dear Mother hath freely opened herself in such sort as if she meant to meet with the future scruples of an overtender posterity.  
Certainly there can be but two ways wherein he can be imagined to be present, and received; either corporally, or spiritually: That he should be corporally present at once, in every part of every Eucharistical Element through the World, is such a Monster of opinion as utterly overthrows the truth of his humane body, destroys the nature of a Sacrament, implies a world of contradictions, baffles right reason, transcends all faith, and in short, confounds Heaven and Earth; as we might easily show in all particulars if it were the drift of my discourse to meddle with those which profess themselves not ours: who yet do no less than we cry down the gross and Capernaitical expression which their Pope Nicholas prescribed to Berengarius; and cannot but confess that their own Card. Bellarmine advises this phrase of Christ's corporal presence should be very sparingly, and warily taken up in the hearing of their people: but my intention only is to satisfy those Sons of the Church, who, disclaiming from all opinion of Transubstantiation, do yet willingly embrace a kind of irresolution in this point, as holding it safest not to inquire into the manner of Christ's presence.  
What should be guilty of this nice doubtfulness I cannot conceive, unless it be a misconstruction of those broad speeches, which antiquity (not suspecting so unlikely commentaries) hath upon all occasions been wont to let fall concerning these awful mysteries. For what those Oracles of the Church have divinely spoken in reverence to the Sacramental union of the sign, and the thing signified in this sacred business, hath been mistaken, as literally and properly meant to be predicated of the outward Element: hence have grown those dangerous errors, and that inexplicable confusion which hath since infested the Church.  
When all is said, nothing can be more clear, then that in respect of bodily presence the Heavens must contain the glorified humanity of Christ until his return to judgement. As therefore the Angel could say, to the devout Maries after Christ's resurrection seeking for him in his grave, He is risen, he is not here; so they still say to us seeking for his glorious body here below: He is ascended, he is not here; It should absolutely lose the nature of an humane body if it should not be circumscriptible. 
Mar. 16.6.  Glorification doth not bereave it of the truth of being what it is. It is a true humane body, and therefore can no more according to the natural being even of a body glorified, be many where's at once, then according to his personal being it can be separated from that Godhead which is at once every where; Let it be therefore firmly settled in our souls as an undoubted truth, That the humane body of Christ in respect of corporal presence is in Heaven, whither he visibly ascended, and where he sits on the right hand of the Father, and whence he shall come again with glory: a parcel of our Creed which the Church learned of the Angels in Mount Olivet; who taught the gazing disciples that this same Jesus which was taken up from them into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as they saw him go into Heaven, which was with wonderful glory and magnificence. Far be it from us then to think that the blessed humanity of the Son of God should so disparage itself, as where there is neither necessity nor use of a bodily descent to steal down, and convey himself insensibly from Heaven to Earth daily, and to hid up his whole sacred body in an hundred thousand several pixes at once.  
It is a wonder that superstition itself is not ashamed of so absurd and impossible a fancy; which it is in vain for Men to think they can salve up with a pretence of omnipotence: we question not the power of God, but his will: and do well know he cannot will absolute contradictions, Deus hoc potenter non potest, as one said truly.  
That which we say of Christ's presence, holds no less of his reception; for so do we receive him into us, as he is present with us, neither can we corporally receive that which is bodily absent: although besides the common incongruity of opinion, the corporal receiving of Christ hath in it a further prodigiousness, and horror: all the Novices of the Roman Schools are now ashamed of their Pope's Dentibus teritur, but when their Doctors have made the best of their own Tenent, they cannot avoid St. Augustine's flagitium videtur praecipere; By how much the humane flesh is and aught to be more dear, by so much more odious is the thought of eating it, neither let them imagine they can escape the imputation of an hateful savageness in this act, for that it is not presented to them in the form of flesh, whiles they profess to know it is so, howsoever it appeareth: Let some skilful cook so dress man's flesh in the mixtures of his artificial hashes, and taste full sauces, that it cannot be discerned by the sense, yet if I shall afterwards understand that I have eaten it, though thus covertly conveyed, I cannot but abhor to think of so unnatural a diet; Corporally then to eat (if it were possible) the flesh of Christ, 
Joh. 6.63.  as it could (in our Saviour's own word) profit nothing, so it could be no other than a kind of religious Cannibalism, which both nature and grace cannot but justly rise against.  
Since therefore the body of Christ cannot be said to be corporally present, or received by us, it must needs follow that there is no way of his presence or receipt in the Sacrament but spiritual, which the Church of England hath laboured so fully to express both in her holy Liturgy, and publicly-authorized homilies, that there is no one point of divine truth which she hath more punctually and plainly laid down before us: What can be more evident than that which she hath said in the second exhortation before the Communion? thus,  
Dear beloved, forasmuch as our duty is, to render to Almighty God our heavenly Father most hearty thanks, for that he hath given his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, not only to die for us, but also, to be our spiritual food and sustenance, as it is declared unto us, as well by God's word, as by the holy Sacraments of his blessed body and blood, etc. Lo, Christ is in this Sacrament given to us, to be our spiritual food, in which regard also this sacrament is in the same exhortation called a Godly and heavenly feast, whereto that we may come holy and clean, we must search and examine our own consciences (not our chaps and maws) that we may come and be received as worthy Partakers, of such an Heavenly Table.  
But that in the following exhortation is yet more pregnant, that we should diligently try and examine our faith before we presume to eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For as the benefit is great if with a true penitent heart, and lively faith we receive that holy Sacrament, (for then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood, than we dwell in Christ, and he in us, we be one with Christ, and Christ with us,) so is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily. What terms can be more express? it is bread and wine which we come to receive, that bread and that wine is sacramental. It is our heart wherewith we receive that sacrament, it is our faith whereby we worthily receive; this receipt and manducation of the flesh of Christ is spiritually done, and by this spiritual receipt of him, we are made one with him, and he with us; by virtue, then, of the worthy receipt of this sacramental bread and wine we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ spiritually; and there grows hereby a reciprocal union betwixt Christ and us, neither is he otherwise one with us, than we are one with him, which can be no otherwise then by the power of his institution, and of our faith.  
And that no man may doubt what the drift and purpose of our blessed Saviour was in the institution and recommendation of this blessed sacrament to his Church, it follows in that passage; And to the end that we should always remember the exceeding great love of our master and only Saviour Jesus Christ thus dying for us, and the innumerable benefits which by his precious bloodshedding he hath obtained to us, he hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries as pledges of his love, and continual remembrances of his death to our great and endless comfort: If therefore we shall look upon and take these sacred elements as the pledges of our Saviour's love to us, and remembrances of his death for us, we shall not need, neither indeed can we require by the judgement of our Church to set any other value on them: But withal that we may not slightly conceive of those mysteries, as if they had no further worth than they do outwardly show, we are taught in that prayer which the Minister kneeling down at God's board is appointed to make in the name of all the communicants before the consecration, that whiles we do duly receive those blessed elements we do in the same act, by the power of our faith eat the flesh, and drink the blood of Christ; so effectual and inseparable is the sacramental union of the signs thus instituted by our blessed Lord and Saviour, with the thing thereby signified; for thus is he prescribed to pray; Grant us therefore gracious Lord so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood; and that we may ever dwell in him, and he in us.  
Implying, that so doth our mouth and stomach receive the bread and wine as that in the mean time our souls receive the flesh, and the blood of Christ; now the soul is not capable of receiving flesh and blood but by the power of that grace of faith which appropriates it: But that we may clearly apprehend how these Sacramental acts and objects are both distinguished, and united, so as there may be no danger of either separation or confusion, that which followeth in the consecratory prayer, is most evident: Hear us O merciful father we beseech thee, and grant that we receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine, according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most blessed body and blood, who in the same night that he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying; Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me.  
What more can be said? what come we to receive outwardly? The Creatures of bread and wine? To what use? In remembrance of Christ's death and passion? what do we the whiles receive inwardly? we are thereby made partakers of his most blessed body and blood: by what means doth this come about? By virtue of our Saviour's holy institution: still it is bread and wine in respect of the nature and essence of it, but so that in the spiritual use of it, it conveys to the faithful receiver, the body and blood of Christ; bread and wine is offered to my eye and hand, & Christ is tendered to my soul. Which yet is more fully (if possibly it may be) expressed in the form of words prescribed in the delivery of the bread and wine to the communicant. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy body & soul into everlasting life, and take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thine heart by faith with thanksgiving, etc. No gloss in the world can make the words more full and perspicuous: So do we in remembrance of Christ's death take and eat the sacramental bread with our mouths, as that our hearts do feed upon the body of Christ by our faith, And what is this feeding upon Christ? but a comfortable application of Christ and his benefits to our souls? Which is, as the prayer next following expresses it, Then do we feed on Christ, when by the blessed merits and death of our blessed Saviour, and through faith in his blood we do obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion and are fulfilled with his grace, and heavenly benediction: Or if we desire a more ample commentary upon this sacramental repast, and the nourishment thereby received, the prayer ensuing offers it unto us in these words, We most hearty thank thee, for that thou hast vouchsafed to feed us which have duly received these holy mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, and dost assure us thereby of thy favour and goodness towards u● and that we be very members incorporate in thy mystical body, which is the blessed company of all faithful people; and be also heirs through hope of thy everlasting kingdom by the merits of the most precious death and passion of thy dear Son. This then is to feed upon Christ: Lo, the meat and manducation and nourishment are all spiritual, whiles the elements be bodily and sensible, which the allowed homilies of the Church also have laboured in most significant terms to set forth; Thou must carefully search and know (saith the first sermon concerning the sacrament (Tome 2.) what dignities are provided for thy soul, whither thou art come, not to feed thy senses and belly to corruption, but thy inward man to immortality and life, nor to consider the earthly creatures which thou seest, but the heavenly graces which thy faith beholdeth; For this table is not, saith chrysostom, for chattering jays but for Eagles, who fly thither where the dead body lieth. And afterwards, to omit some other passages, most pregnantly thus; It is well known the meat we seek for in this supper is spiritual food, the nourishment of our soul, a Heavenly refection, and not earthly, an invisible meat and not bodily, a ghostly substance and not carnal; so that to think without faith we may enjoy the eating & drinking thereof, or that that is the fruition of it, is but to dream a gross carnal feeding, basely abjecting and binding ourselves to the elements and creatures; whereas by the advice of the council of Nice we ought to lift up our minds by faith, and leaving these inferior and earthly things, there seek it where the son of righteousness ever shineth. Take this lesson (O thou that art desirous of this table) of Emissenus a godly father, That when thou goest to the reverend communion to be satisfied with spiritual meats, thou look up with faith upon the holy body and blood of thy God, thou marvel with reverence, thou touch it with the mind, thou receive it with the hand of thy heart, and thou take it fully with the inward Man. Thus that homily in the voice of the Church of England.  
Who now shall make doubt to say that in the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist, Christ is only present and received in a spiritual manner? so as nothing is objected to our senses, but the Elements, nothing but Christ to our faith; and therefore that it is requisite we should here walk with a wary, and even foot as those that must tread in the midst betwixt profaneness, and superstition; not affixing a deity upon the Elements on the one side, nor on the other slighting them with a common regard; not adoring the Creatures, not basely esteeming their relation to that Son of God whom they do really exhibit to us. Let us not then think it any boldness either to inquire or to determine of the manner of Christ's presence in the Sacrament; and confidently to say, that his body is locally in Heaven, spiritually offered to, and received by the faith of every worthy communicant upon Earth; True it is that in our Saviour's speech, Joh. 6. to believe in Christ, is to eat his flesh and to drink his blood, even besides & out of the act of this Eucharistical supper; so as whosoever brings Christ home to his soul by the act of his faith, makes a private meal of his Saviour; but the holy Sacrament superadds a further degree of our interest in the participation of Christ; for now over and above our spiritual eating of him, we do here eat him Sacramentally also: every simple act of our faith feeds on Christ, but here by virtue of that necessary union which our Saviour's institution hath made betwixt the sign and the thing signified, the faithful communicant doth partake of Christ in a more peculiar manner; now his very senses help to nourish his soul, and by his eyes, his hands, his taste, Christ is spiritually conveyed into his heart; to his unspeakable and everlasting consolation.  
But to put all scruples out of the mind of any reader concerning this point; Let that serve for the upshot of all, which is expressly set down in the 5th. Rubric in the end of the Communion set forth as the judgement of the Church of England both in King Edward's, and Queen Elizabeth's time, though lately upon negligence omitted in the impression, In these words; Lest yet the same kneeling might be thought or taken otherwise, we do declare, That it is not meant thereby that any adoration is done, or aught to be done either unto the sacramental bread and wine there bodily received, or unto any real and essential presence there being of Christ's natural flesh and blood; For as concerning the sacramental bread and wine, they remain still in their very natural substances, and therefore may not be adored; for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians; and as concerning the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ they are in Heaven, and not here for it is against the truth of Christ's natural body to be in more places than one, at one time, etc. Thus the Church of England having plainly explicated herself, hath left no place for any doubt concerning this truth; neither is she any changeling in her judgement, however some unsteady minds may vary in their conceits; away then with those nice scruplers, who for some further ends have endeavoured to keep us in an undue suspense, with a (non licet inquirere de modo) and conclude we resolutely that there is no truth in divinity more clear than this of Christ's gracious exhibition, and our faithful reception of him in this blessed Sacrament.  
Babes keep yourselves from Idols. Amen.   

A LETTER FOR THE OBSERVATION OF THE FEAST OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY.  
Sir, with my Loving Remembrance,  
IT cannot but be a great grief to any wise and moderate Christian to see zealous & well meaning souls carried away after the giddy humour of their new teachers, to a contempt of all holy and reverend antiquity, and to an eager affectation of novel fancies even whiles they cry out most bitterly against innovations: When the practice and judgement of the whole Christian world ever from the days of the blessed Apostles to this present age is pleaded for any form of government or laudable observation, they are strait taught, That old things are passed, and that all things are become new; making their word good by so new, and unheard-of an interpretation of Scripture, Whereby they may as justly argue the introducing of a new Church, a new Gospel, a new Religion, with the annulling of the old: And that they may not want an all-sufficient patronage of their fond conceit, our blessed Saviour himself is brought in, who in his sermon on the mount controlled the antiquity of the pharisaical glosses of the law; Ye have heard that it was said by them of old, thus, and thus, but I say unto you, &c, as if the Son of God in checking the upstart antiquity, of a misgrounded and unreasonable tradition, meant to condemn the truly-ancient and commendable customs of the whole Christian Church; which all sober and judicious christians are wont to look upon with meet respect and reverence: And certainly whosoever shall have set down this resolution with himself to slight those either institutions or practices which are derived to us from the Primitive times, and have ever since been entertained by the whole church of Christ upon earth, that man hath laid a sufficient foundation of Schism and dangerous singularity; and doth that which the most eminent of the Fathers, St. Augustine, chargeth with no less than most insolent madness. For me and my friend, God give us grace to take the advice which our Saviour gives to his spouse, to Go forth by the footsteps of the Flock, and to feed our Kids beside the Shepherd's tents, (Cant. 1.8.) and to walk in the sure paths of uncorrupt antiquity. For the celebration of the solemn Feasts of our Saviour's Nativity, Resurrection, Ascention, and the coming down of the Holy Ghost, which you say is cried down by your zealous lecturer one would think there should be reason enough in those wonderful and unspeakable benefits which those days serve to commemorate unto us; For, to instance in the late feast of the Nativity, when the Angel brought the news of that blessed birth to the Jewish shepherds, Behold, saith he, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people; for unto you is borne this day a Saviour. If then the report of this blessing were the best tidings of the greatest joy that ever was, or ever could be possibly incident into mankind, why should not the commemoration thereof be answerable? Where we conceive the greatest joy, what should hinder us to express it in a joyful festivity.  
But you are taught to say, the day conferred nothing to the blessing, that every day we should with equal thankfulness remember this inestimable benefit of the incarnation of the Son of God, so as a set anniversary day is altogether needless; know then and consider, that the all wise God, who knew it fit that his People should everyday think of the great work of the creation, and of the miraculous deliverance out of the Egyptian servitude, and should daily give honour to the Almighty creator and deliverer, yet ordained one day of seven for the more special recognition of these marvellous works; as well knowing how apt we are to forget those duties wherewith we are only encharged in common without the designment of a particular rememoration. Besides, the same reason will hold proportionably against any monthly or annual celebration whatsoever; the Jews should have been much to blame, if they had not every day thankfully remembered the great deliverance which God wrought for them from the bloody design of cruel Haman, yet it was thought requisite (if not necessary) that there should be two special days of Purim set apart for the anniversary memorial of that wonderful preservation: The like may be said for the English Purim, of our November; it is well if, besides the general tye of our thankfulness, a precise day ordained by authority can enough quicken our unthankful dulness to give God his own for so great a mercy; shall we say now, it is the work of the year, what needs a day? As therefore no day should pass over our head without a grateful acknowledgement of the great mystery of God incarnate. So withal, the wisdom of the primitive Church (no doubt by the direction of the holy Ghost) hath pitched upon one special day wherein we should entirely devote our thoughts to the meditation of this work, which the Angels of heaven can not enough admire.  
But you are told that perhaps we miss of the day since the season is litigious, uncertain, unknown, and in likelihood other than our December; and that it is purposely not revealed, that it may not be kept: As to the first, I deny not, that the just day is not certainly known: The great Saviour of the World that would have his second coming without observation going before it; would have his first coming without observation following it; he meant to come down without noise without a recorded notice: Even in the second hundred (so ancient we are sure this festivity is) there was question, and different opinions of the season; the just knowledge and determination whereof, matters nothing at all to the duty of our celebration: Most sure we are that such a day there was; and no less sure, that it was the happiest day that ever looked forth into the world; it is all one to us whether this day or that; we content ourselves with this, that it hath pleased the Church for many hundred years to ordain this day for the commemoration of that transcendent blessing; what care we to stand upon those twelve hours that made up the artificial day wherein this wonderful work was wrought? which we are sure cannot but be much changed by so many intercalations; so long and constant a practice of the christian church, upon so holy grounds is no less warrant to us then if an Angel from heaven should have revealed unto us the just hour of this blessed Nativity  
As to the second, Surely whosoever shall tell you that God did purposely hid this day from us, that it might escape a celebration, as he concealed the burial of Moses to avoid the danger of an idolatrous adoration, makes himself a presumptuous commenter upon the actions of the Almighty. Where did God tell him so? Or what revelation can he pretend for so bold an assertion? If this were the matter, why then did not the same God with equal caution conceal the day of the Passion, Resurrection, Ascension of our blessed Saviour, and of the descent of the Holy Ghost? the observation of all which days, is with no less vehemence and upon the same danger cried down by these scrupulous persons. Either therefore let him say that God would have these other feast days observed because he would have them known to the world, or yield that he did not therefore conceal the day of the Nativity of Christ, because he would not have it observed.  
But you hear it said, There is popery and superstition in keeping that day; tell those that suggest so, that they cast a foul slander upon the Saints of God in the primitive times, upon the holy and learned fathers of the Church who preached, and wrote for, and kept the feast of Christ's Nativity with sacred solemnity, many hundred years before popery was hatched; and that they little know what wrong they do to religion and themselves, and what honour they put upon that superstition which they profess to detest; in ascribing that to popery which was the mere act of holy and devout Christianity.  
But to colour this plea, you are taught that the mystery of iniquity began early to work, even in the very Apostolic times, and that Antichrist did secretly put in his claw, before his whole body appeared.  
Surely there is singular use wont to be made of this shift by those which would avoid the countenance of all primitive authority to any displeasing (how ever lawful and laudable) institutions and practices; So the Anabaptist tells us that the Baptising of children is one of the timely workings of the mystery of iniquity; So the Blasphemous Nearrians of our time tell us that the mystery of the blessed Trinity of persons in the unity of one Godhead is but an ancient devise of Antichrist working underhand before his formal exhibition. Every sect is apt to make this challenge; and therefore it behoves us wisely to distinguish betwixt those things which Men did as good Christians, and those which they did as engaged to their own private or to the more common interest of others. what advantage can we conceive it might be to Antichrist, that Christ should have a day celebrated to the memory of his blessed Birth; and that devout Christians should meet together in their holy assemblies to praise God for the benefit of that happy incarnation? and what other effect could be expected from so religious a work, but glory to God, and edification to Men? who can suppose that the enemy of Christ should gain by the honour done to Christ? Away therefore with this groundless imagination; and let us be so popish, so superstitious as those holy Fathers, and Doctors of the primitive Church, famous for learning and piety, who lived and died devout observers of this Christian festival.  
But you are bidden to ask what warrant we find in the word of God (which is to be the rule of all our actions) for the solemn keeping of this day? In answer, you may if you please tell that questionist, that to argue from Scripture negatively in things of this nature is somewhat untheological; Ask you him again with better reason, what Scripture he finds to forbid it? for if it be unlawful to be done which is not in God's word commanded, than much rather that which is not there forbidden cannot be unlawful to be done; General grounds of edification, decency, expedience, peaceable conformity to the injunctions of our spiritual governors are in these cases more then enough to build our practice upon. If it be replied that we are enjoined six days to labour, and forbidden to observe days & times, (as being a part of the Jewish pedagogue, two common pretences wherewith the eyes of the ignorant are wont to be bleared) know that for the first, it is not so much preceptive as permissive; neither was it the intention of the Almighty to intersperse the command of humane affairs in the first Table of his royal law, wherein himself and his service is immediately concerned; In such like expressions, mayst, and, shalt are equivalent, and promiscuously used; that instance is clear and pregnant Gen. 2.16. The Lord, saith the Text, commanded the Man, saying, Eating thou shalt eat of every tree in the Garden, which our last version renders well to the sense, Thou mayst freely eat of every tree in the Garden; And if the charge in that fourth commandment were absolute and peremptory, what humane authority could dispense with those large shreds of time which are usually cut out of the six days for sacred occasions? what warrant could we have to intermit our work for a daily lecture, or a monthly fast, or for an anniversary Fifth of November? and if notwithstanding this command of God, it be allowed to be in the power of Man, whether Sovereign (as Constantine appropriated it) or spiritual, to ordain the setting a part of some set parcels of time to holy uses, why should it be stuck at in the requiring and observing the pious and useful celebrity of this festival?  
As for that other suggestion of the Apostles taxation of observing days and times, any one that hath but half an eye, may see that it hath respect to those Judaical holy-days which were part of the ceremonial law, now long since out of date; as being of typical signification, and, shadows of things to come.  
Should we therefore go about to revive those Jewish feasts, or did we erect any new day to an essential part of the worship of God, or place holiness in it, as such we should justly incur that blame which the Apostle casts upon the Galatian, and Colossian false-teachers.  
But to wrest this forbiddance to a Christian solemnity which is merely commemorative of a blessing received, without any prefiguration of things to come, without any opinion of holiness annexed to the day is no other than an injurious violence.  
Upon all this which hath been said, and upon a serious weighing of what ever may be further alleged to the contrary, I dare confidently affirm that there is no just reason why good Christians should not with all godly cherefulness observe this, which that holy father styled the metropolis of all feasts; To which I add that those which by their example and doctrine slight this day, causing their people to dishonour it with their worst clothes, with shops open, with servile works, stand guilty before God of an high and sinful contempt of that lawful authority under which they live; for as much as by the statutes of our land, made by the full concurrence of King and state, this day is commanded to be kept holy by all English subjects; and this power is backed by the charge of God, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake.  
If now after all this I should let my pen lose to the suffragant testimonies whether of antiquity, or of modern divines, and reformed churches, I should try your patience, and instead of a letter send you a volume; Let it suffice that ever since the second hundred year after Christ, this feast hath without contradiction obtained in the church of God; and hath received many noble Eulogies, and passionate enforcements from the learned and holy Fathers of the church; amongst the rest that of Gregory Nazianzen is so remarkable that I may not omit it; as that which sets forth the excess of joyful respect wherewith the ancient Christians were wont to keep this day.  

In his oration upon the day of the Nativity of Christ.  Let us (saith he) celebrate this feast, not in a panegyrical but divine, not in a worldly but supersecular manner; not regarding so much ourselves or ours, as the worship of Christ, etc. And how shall we effect this? Not by crowning our doors with garlands, nor by leading of dances; nor adorning our streets, not by feeding our eyes, not by delighting our ears with songs, not by effeminating our smell with perfumes, not with humouring our taste with dainties, not with pleasing our touch, not with silken and costly clothes, etc. not with the sparkling of jewels, not with the lustre of Gold, not with the artifice of counterfeit colours, etc. let us leave these things to Pagans for their pomps, etc. But we, who adore the word of the father, if we think fit to affect delicacies, let us feed ourselves with the dainties of the law of God, and with those discourses especially which are fitting for this present festival. So that learned eloquent father, to his auditors of Constantinople.  
Whereto let me (if you please) have leave to add one or two practical instances: One shall be of the good Emperor Theodosius lying now for eight months under the severe censure of Bishop Ambrose; when the feast of the Nativity drew near, what moan did that religious Prince make to his courtiers, that he was by that reresolute Bishop shut out (for his bloodguiltiness) from partaking with the assembly in that holy service; 
Histor. Tr●par. 〈◊〉. ●. c 3●  and what importunate means did he make for his admission! had that gracious Emperor been of the diet of these new divines, he would have slighted that repulse; and gladly taken this occasion of absence from that superstitious solemnity; or had one of these grave monitors been at his elbow, he might have saved that pious Prince the expense of many sighs, and tears which now he bestowed upon his abstention from that dearly affected devotion.  
The other shall be an history of as much note as horror; 
Nicephor. l. 7. c. 6.  too clear a proof of the ancient celebration of this festival; It was under the Tyranny of Dioclesian & his copartner Maximinus, that twenty thousand Christians, which were met to celebrate the feast of this blessed Nativity in the large Church of Nicomedia, were made an Holocaust, and burnt, together with that goodly Fabric, to ashes, on that day.  
Lo, so great a multitude as twenty thousand christians, of all ages, of both sexes, had not thus met together in a time of so mortal a danger, to celebrate this feast, if the holy zeal of their duty had not told them they ought to keep that day which these novellers teach us to contemn.  
Now let these bold men see of how contrary a disposition they are to these blessed Martyrs, which as this day sent up their souls (like to Manoahs' Angel) to heaven in those flames.  
After thus much said; I should be glad to know (since reason there can be none) what authority induces these gainsayers to oppose so ancient and received a custom in the Church of God; you tell me of a double testimony cited to this purpose, the one of Socrates the Historian; which I suppose is fetched out of his 5th. book of Ecclesiastical story, chap. 21. where, upon occasion of the feast of Easter, he passeth his judgement upon the indifferent nature of all those ancient feasts which were of use in the primitive times; showing that the Apostles never meant to make any law for the keeping of festival days; nor imposed any mulct upon the not keeping them, but left men to the free observation thereof.  
For answer whereunto, I do not tell you that this author is wont to be impeached of Novatianisme; and therefore may seem fit to yield patronage to such a client; I rather say that (take him at the worst) he is no enemy to our opinion, or practise; we agree with him, that the Apostles would have men free from the servitude of the Jewish observation of days; that they enacted no law for set festivals, but left persons and places so to their liberty in these cases, that none should impose a necessity upon other; this were to be pressed upon a Victor Bishop of Rome, who violently obtruded a day for the celebration of Easter upon all Churches (supposing in the mean while an Easter universally kept of all christians, though not on the same day) this makes nothing against us, who place no holiness in the very hours, nor plead any Apostolical injunction for days, nor tie any person or Church to our strict calendar, but only hold it fit out of our obedience to the laws both of our church and kingdom, to continue a joyful celebration of a memorial day to the honour of our blessed Saviour.  
But that other authority which you tell me was urged to this purpose, I confess, doth not a little amaze me; it was, you say, of King James our learned Sovereign of late and blessed Memory; whose testimony was brought in before the credulous people (not without the just applause of a Solomon-like wisdom) as crying down these festivals, and in a certain speech of his applauding the purity of the church of Scotland above that of Geneva for that it observed not the common feasts of Christ's Nativity, and Resurrection, etc. Is it possible that any mouth could name that wise and good King in such a cause, whom all the world knows to have been as zealous a patron of those festivals, as any lived upon earth? and if he did let fall any such speech before he had any Down upon his chin, & whilst he was under the serule, what candour is it to produce it now to the contradiction of his better experience, and ripest judgement? Nay, is it not famously known that it was one of the main errands of his journey into his native Kingdom of Scotland, to reduce that church unto a conformity to the rest of the Churches of Christendom in the observation of these solemn days? 
One of the five Articles of Perth.  and to this purpose, was it not one of the main businesses which he set on work in the Assembly at Perth, and wherein he employed the service of his worthy Chaplain Doctor Young, Dean of Winchester, to recall, and re-establish these festivals?  
And accordingly, in pursuance of his Majesty's earnest desire this way, was it not enacted in that Assembly that the said feasts should be duly kept? Doubtless it was, and that not without much wise care and holy caution; which act because it cannot be had every where, and is well worthy of your notice, and that which clears the point in hand, I have thought good here to insert: the tenor of it therefore is this.  
As we abhor the superstitious observation of Festival days by the Papists, and detest all licentious, and profane abuse thereof by the common sort of professors; so we think that the inestimable benefits received from God, by our Lord Jesus Christ his Birth, Passion, Resurrection, Ascension, and sending down of the Holy Ghost, was commendably, and godly remembered at certain particular days and times by the whole church of the World, and may be also now; Therefore the Assembly ordains, that every Minister shall upon these days have the commemoration of the foresaid inestimable benefits, and make choice of several and pertinent texts of Scripture, and frame their doctrine and exhortation there to, and rebuke all superstitious observation, and licentious profanation thereof.  
I could (if it were needful) give you other proofs of King James his zeal for these days; but what should I spend time in proving there is a sun in the Heaven, and sight in that Sun? The name of that great King suffereth for his excess this way. Shortly then, the Church of God, his anointed, law, antiquity, reason are for us in this point, and I doubt not but you will gladly be on their side; away with all innovations and frivolous quarrels, we were divided enough before, and little needed any new rents. The God of peace quiet all these distempers, and unite our hearts one to another, and all to himself.  
Farewell in the Lord.   

TO My Reverend and worthily Dear Friend, Mr. WILLIAM STRUTHERS: One of the Preachers of EDINBOURGH.  
THe haste of your Letters (my reverend and worthy Mr. Struthers) was not so great, as their welcome, which they might well challenge for your name; but more for that love and confidence which they imported: thus must our Friendship be fed, that it may neither feel death nor age.  
The substance of your Letter was partly Relation, and partly Request; For the first; Rumour had in part prevented you, and brought to my ears those Stirs, which happened after my departure; and namely, together with that impetuous Protestation, some rude deportment of ill-governed Spirits towards his Majesty. Alas! (my dear Brother) this is not an usage for Kings, they are the nurses of the Church; if the child shall fall to scratching and biting the breast, what can it expect but stripes and hunger? your Letter professes that his Majesty sent you away in peace, and joy, and why would any of those roughhewn Zelots send him away in discontentment? But this was (I know) much against your heart, whose often protestations assured me of your wise moderation in these things. How earnestly have you professed to me, that, if you were in the Church of England (such was your indifferency in these indifferent matters) you would make no scruple of your ceremonies? yea, how sharp hath your censure been of those refractories amongst us that would forgo their stations, rather than yield to these harmless impositions? So much the more, therefore, do I marvel how any delator could get any ground from you, whereon to place an accusation in this kind! But this, and the rest of those historical passages, being only concerning things past, have their end in my notice; Let me rather turn my pen to that part which calleth for my advice, which, for your sake, I could well wish, were worthy to be held such, as that yourself and your colleagues might find cause to rest in it: howsoever, it shall be honest and hearty, and no other than I would, in the presence of God, give to my own soul! Matters (you think) will not stand long at this point, but will come on further and press you to a resolution! What is to be done? will you hear me counselling as a friend, as a Brother? Since you foresee this; meet them in the way, with a resolution to entertain them and persuade others. There are five points in question: The solemn festivities: The private use of either Sacrament: Geniculation at the Eucharist: Confirmation by Bishops. For these, there may be a double Plea insinuated (by way of comparison) in your Letters; Expedience in the things themselves; Authority in the commander: some things are therefore to be done; because they are commanded: some others are therefore commanded; because they are to be done: obedience pleads for the one, justice for the other; If I shall leave these in the first rank, I shall satisfy, but if in the second I shall supererogate; which if I do not, I shall fail of my hopes.  
Let me profess to you seriously. I did never so busily and intentively study these ritual matters, as I have done since your Letters called me unto this task. Since which time (I speak boldly) I made no spare either of hours, or papers, Neque enim magna exiliter, nec seria perfunctory, as I have learned of our Nazianzen; and besides, this, under one name, seemed a common cause, and therefore too worthy of my care.  
These are not (you know) matters of a day old, neither is it his Majesty's desire, to trouble you with new coins, but to rub up the rusty and obliterate face of the ancient. And surely, the more my thoughts were bend upon them, the more it appeared to me, that his Majesty's intention is to deal with your Church, as he hath lately done with your Universities; From which, I know not what indiscreet and idle zeal had banished all higher degrees; the name of a School-Doctor was grown out of date; only one Graduate (that I heard of) at St. Andrews, outlived that injury of times: Now comes his Majesty (as one born to the honour of learning) and restores the Schools to their former glories: This is no innovation (you will grant) but a renovation.  
No other is that which his Majesty wisheth to your Church: For, tell me I beseech you (my dear Mr. Struther) do not you think that those which took upon them the reformation of your Church went somewhat too far? And (as it is in the fable) enwrapped the Stork together with the Cranes? I know your ingenuity such, as you cannot deny it: This you will grant apparently in the Church-patrimony (witness your own learned and zealous invective how miserably spoilt) in the exauthoration of Episcopal office and dignity, in the demolition of Churches, and too many other of this stamp; so violent was that holy furor of piety: that hence it might well appear, what difference there is, betwixt the orderly proceed of princely authority, and popular tumult: And why should you not yield me this in the business questioned?  
Do but consider how far it is safe for a particular Church to departed from the ancient and universal, and you cannot be less liberal: Surely no Christian can think it a sleight matter, what the church diffused through all times and places, hath either done or taught For doctrine or manners there is no question, and why should it be more safe to leave it in the holy institutions that concern the outward forms of God's service? Novelty is a thing full of envy and suspicion, and why less in matters of rite than doctrine? The Church is the mother of us all, the less important those things are which (in the power of a parent) she enjoins, the more hateful is the detrectation of our observance; you remember the question of the Syrians wise Servant; Father, if he had commanded thee some great matter wouldst thou not have done it? True it is, that every Nation hath her own rites, gestures, customs, wherein it was ever as free for it to differ from the rest of the World, as the world from it, yet in the mean time the sacred affairs of God, have been ever acknowledged to have one common fashion of performance, in those points especially wherein hath been an universal agreement, every face hath his own favour, his own lines, distinct from all others, yet is there a certain common habitude of countenance and disposition of the forehead, eyes, cheeks, lips common unto all, so as who, under this pretence of difference, shall go about to raise an immunity from such ceremonies, do no other than argue, That because there is a diversity of proportions of faces, we may well want a brow or a chin.  
There is nothing that the pontificians do so commonly and with so much noise upbraid us with, as our discession from the mother church, that is, as they interpret, the Roman, neither is there any one amongst all the loads of their reproaches that hath wrought us more envy than this. And how do we free ourselves from the danger of this odious crimination, but thus (not to stand upon the imperious title of motherhood) That since for order sake, we acknowledged this primacy of the Western Church, we never departed one inch from the Roman, save where she is perfidiously gone from God, and herself? Now, the cases questioned are for the most part only such, as you will confess before the suspicion of Antichristian Apostasy to have obtained each where in the church. Begin if you please with the solemn festivities, turn over (I beseech you) the histories of times, and places; you shall never find where these were either newly appointed, or not constantly and continuedly observed in the church of God. I confess with Socrates that neither Christ nor any Apostle enacted a law for these, but withal, I must put you in mind, that what he denies to constitution, he grants to custom, and, observatio inveterata (that I may speak with Tertullian) praeveniendo statum facit.  
As for the solemn feast of Easter which the Ancyran counsel called Diem magnum, how hotly the Church (even then in her swathing bands) contended about it, all the World knows. I speak nothing of the friendly differences of Policarpus and Anacletus, nor of the Angel of Hermes; The East and West were in this point fearfully divided; one part pleads a tradition from John and Philip, the other from Peter and Paul, both sides fought long and sore; at last the Roman Victor won the day, (postquam Asiae Episcopos fulmine sacro perculisset) Let Irenaeus deeply censure him as a furious disturber of the public peace; I meddle with neither part: This strife at last well laid, is after revived by the Syrian Divines? How strongly doth the famous Nicene Council oppose itself to these now Tesseradecatites (as those times called them) yea what other cause was there (except the madnesses of Arrius and his followers, the Meletians and Colluthians) of calling that venerable assembly together? after all this what discourses passed betwixt Leo the first, Archbishop of Reme and Paschasinus Lylibetanus, were needless to rehearse; and, how hot chrysostom was in this cause, need no other proof then, that, (as Socrates witnesses) he took away the Churches from them which tied Easter to the fourteenth Moon. Now, then, wherefore (I beseech you) was all this Asian conflict, wherefore this triumph of Victor, wherefore this infamous brand of the Quartadecimani?  
Wherefore were those paschal Letters of the ancient, or golden number, or the calculations of the Bishops of Alexandria, or the curious determinations of the Nicene fathers, or the nice reckon of Leo and Paschasinus, if this might have passed for lawful, with one breath to deny the day, and with one dash to blot it out of the holy Calendar? certainly the ancients knew not how to be thus witty, neither durst they thus boldly cut that knot, in the untying whereof, perhaps, they overspent their care and diligence. O ridiculous head of antiquity, if this short course might have been safely held in those former ages! Yea, tell me, I pray you, in all your readings, where ever you met with any man (besides those whom the Church hath held worthy the black mark of heresy) who either denied all observations of this solemnity, or approved the refusal of it by others? I can name you Aerius, a man blemished with more than the scars of one heresy; And what (saith he) is the Pasch, that you keep? you are again addicted to Jewish fables; we must keep no pasch, for Christ our pasch is offered for us, and I can show you Epiphanius flying in his face with this just reply, Who is likely to know more of these matters? this seduced wretch which is yet living in the World, or those witnesses which have been before us, and had the tradition of the Church with them, which received from their fathers, that which, their fathers received from their forefathers, and still retains what they taught both for faith and tradition?  
The same reason is there for the other feasts. Unto this of the Easter (that I may speak in Leo's words to the Bishops of Sicily) is added the sacred solemnity of Penticost in memory of the coming of the holy Ghost, which depends upon the time of the paschal feast: Neither did Eusebius doubt to call this festivitatum omnium principem; You know how honourable mention is made of it by Gregory Nazianzen, The Jew (saith he) keeps feast days, but according to the letter; the Gentile keeps feast days, but according to the flesh; we keep feast days also, but that we may say or do something according to the Spirit; and soon after, The Hebrews keep their Penticost, and we keep it as we do some other Jewish rites, but they Typically, we Mystically, we celebrate Penticost for the coming of the holy Ghost, as the day set for the performance of this promise and the fulfilling of our hope, and how great a mystery is this, how sacred.— I cannot therefore pass over that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Centurists which can say there is scarce any express mention of any of the feasts in antiquity, besides Easter; I may not admit all the bedroll that Polydore Virgil inserts into the Apostolical solemnities, I had rather hold the midway between both. That memorable place of Austin is to me in stead of a thousand witnesses, neither need we care for other evidence whilst we have one so absolute, you know where to find it, in the 118. Epistle to Januarius, Illa autem, quae non Scripta sed tradita custodimus, quae quidem toto terrarum orbe observantur, dantur intelligi, vel ab ipsis Apostolis, vel plenariis conciliis (quorum est in Ecclesia saluberrima authoritas) commendata, atque statuta retineri; sicut quod domini passio, & resurrectio, & ascensio in coelum, & adventus de coelo spiritus sancti, anniversaria solemnitate celebrantur, & si quod aliud occurrerit; quod servatur ab universa, (quacunque se diffundit) Ecclesia.  
But if these feasts could not show so ancient and noble a pedigree, what hinders that the Church may not appoint certain days to the blessed memory of these excellent benefits? Doubtless, this right she hath heretofore challenged to herself in lesser occasions, and I do not find any man that ever accused her of rashness, or presumption, how solemn the days of Purim were to the Jews, is known to all, denied of none, and their (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) feast of Dedication (which Castalio affectedly calls Renovalia) set a part to the memory, not so much of the temple, as the altar recovered from former profanation, our Saviour himself (you know) honested with his presence: look on the history of the Maccabees (that book, if for matter of faith it be Apocryphal, yet hath Canon enough for matter of fact) you shall find that when Nicanor (the deadly enemy of the Jews) was discomfited, and slain, a day was appointed by public authority (next before Mardokees feast) to be kept anniversarily sacred unto the memory of that deliverance and victory: and what other do we in this happy Island, whiles we yearly celebrate those two blessed days, to the miracle of the preservation of our King, Church, State, with the joy both of love, and duty; then do the Streets of your Edenbourgh smoke with many thankful fires, and your Arthures-seat flames with the bonfires of your triumph and exultation; and shall the days of Christ, wherein we were graciously delivered from the jaws of hell, carry from us less joy and celebrity: Surely your church shall abate nothing of her purity, in joining herself to all the rest of the world, ancient and modern, in the observation of the feast of her Saviour.  
As for the private administration of both the Sacraments; the difference of time, or place, cannot be of that value, as that for it, the participation of those divine mysteries should be neglected; there is a direct precept for either sacrament, given by the heavenly author of both, and commended by the hands of the Apostles to the succeeding Church, there is no precept of time or place, and shall we omit that which Christ hath commanded, for that which he commanded not?  
The holy mysteries are as the body, circumstances are as the clothes, it were to be wished that a goodly beautiful body, should be fitly suited with clothes of due colours and fashions, but if it should fall out (through extremity of want) that there must be a meet elegancy lacking in the clothes, shall we therefore despise the body, and cast it out for an unprofitable carcase? If there did not a great necessity lie upon the sacraments, if there did not much divine consolation flow from them, why would Christ leave them to his own spouse the church as the precious pledges of his love? A necessity of the means no man can deny, the necessity of the end is not undeservedly litigious. Indeed God hath not bound himself to any means (good reason his omnipotency should be free) but he hath thought good to bind us unto means; so as whosoever shall wittingly and wilfully omit these saving institutions, is justly guilty of the violation of so holy an ordinance, and withal of his own judgement. The dilation of the sign of that old covenant you know how heavy it lay upon holy Moses, and the voluntary neglect of that other Sacrament (beyond the double day appointed) was wont (you know to be punished with no less than excision from the Congregation of Israel, and is there less necessity, less use of the Evangelical Sacraments?  
To follow this instance a little further; tell me (I pray you) were not both those ancient Sacraments accustomed unto private roofs? Of the Paschal dish there can be no doubt, that holy feast was by the author of it destined to the private families of his Israel: perhaps you will stick a little at the other. I do not tell you of Abraham, of Zipporah; look but upon the forerunner of Christ, you will find it likely, that his circumcision was within doors; his mother Elizabeth was either present, or not far off at the ceremony (as it is most probable) she changed his name, upon the act. Now it could not be, that the eighth day of her childbirth could allow her to go forth, whose uncleanness by the law penned her up for thirty days; But what do I urge this uncertainty? still by the tradition of the Jews, either the Synagogue, or the chamber, is indifferently allowed to this act. And why should the Sacrament of the new law be so affixed to our Churches, that, not necessity itself should be able to fetch these wholesome remedies home to our houses? sure I am the fathers of the ancient Church were of another mind; who (before the fancy of opus operatum was hatched) conceived such necessity of the Sacraments, that Cyprian can tell you of Clinici, as well as Peripateitci, that others in case of extremity would have no difference made of land, or water, house or way, bed or pavement. And how is it that our liberty hath made us more strict, or our straightness hath made us more free? more strict for the place, more free for the conceit of necessity.  
But if privacy be so opposite to the nature of a Sacrament, why may it not be avoided, even in a parlour? for in such a case, the Church removes thither, the walls (you think) confer nothing, the people are by the order of the Church commanded to assemble in a due frequency to the honour of either sacrament, so as now I see not other difference but this; Those which, in the case of some private fast, can be content for their preaching to change the Church into a chamber, in the case of baptism, make dainty to change a chamber into a Church.  
For geniculation in the Eucharist, I am deceived if ever ceremony could complain of a more unjust displeasure, or plead better desert. For the Antiquity of it, those that fetch it from Honorius, are ill heralds. They might know that Averro (an age before him) could say (in a misprision of the gesture) Christiani adorant quod edunt; and the best of the Fathers many ages before him, Nemo manducat nisi prius adoraverit; For the expedience, what business can pass betwixt Heaven and Earth, God and Man, so worthy of reverence, as that, wherein Man receives God; even the smallest gifts, we receive from Princes upon our knees, and now, when the Prince of our peace gives himself to us, shall we grudge to bow. I know the old challenge, Artolatry. But shall others superstition make us unreverent? Shall not God have our knees, because Idols have had the knees of others? But what do I press this to you, who professed to me (if I remember well) your approbation hereof in our English Congregations: The Sacrament is every where the same; Nothing but want of use hath bred a conceit of uncouthness in that, which custom would approve and commend.  
As for confirmation by Bishops; I need to say little, because it little concerns you, as an action appropriate to superiors; neither (I think) do you envy it to them. That the ceremony it self is both of ancient and excellent use, I know you will not deny; for the one, Melancton gives it the praise of, Utilis ad erudiendos homines, & retinendos in vera agnitione Dei. For the other, Zuinglius can assure you, Confirmationem tum fumpsisse exordium, eum vulgo caeptum est infantes tingi. In regard of both, reverend Calvin wisheth it again restored to the Church, with no small fervency: all the doubt is in the restriction to Bishops, wherein I will only send you to learned Bucer; signum impositionis manuum, etiam soli episcopi praebebant, & non absque ratione, sive enim sit foedus Domini baptizatis confirmandum; sive reconciliandi qui gravius peccaverunt, sive ecclesiis ministri ordinandi, haec omnia ministeria maxim decent eos, quibus ecclesiarum cura demandata est! This, as it was done only at first, by the Apostles, in the case of the Samaritans, so from them was by the Church derived to the Bishops, as Chrysostom directs, praepositis suis, as Cyprian, and Austin speak; But what need I cite Fathers, or counsels for that, which worthy Calvin himself both confesses, and teaches; Certainly nothing but continuance and abuse hath distasted these things, which (if time had been their friend) never wanted that which might procure them grace and respect from the World.  
For their own sakes therefore, I need not doubt to say, that all these are worthy of your good entertainment; much more then, when they come to you with the billets of authority in their hands; were they but things in the lowest rank of indifferency, the power that commands them, might challenge their welcome, how much more than when they have an intrinsical worthiness to speak for them? Your Letter hath well insinuated what the power of Princes is, in things of middle natures; whereof your Apostles rule will eternally hold, not for fear, but for conscience. Indeed, wherein is the power of royal authority, if not in these things? Good and evil have their set limits, determined by God himself, only indifferent things have a latitude allowed for the exercise of humane commands, which if it might be resisted at pleasure, what could follow but an utter confusion of all things?  
This ground, as it hath found just place in your own breast, so were very fit to be laid, by all your public discourses, in the minds of the people, as that which would not a little rectify them, both in judgement and practice.  
There is no good heart whom it would not deeply wound, to hear of the least danger of the dissipation of your Church; God in Heaven forbidden any such mischief, our prayers shall be ever for your safety; but if any inconvenience should, on your parts, follow upon the lawful act of authority, see ye, how ye can wash your hands, from the guiltiness of this evil. This is (I hope) but your fear; Love is in this sense full of suspicions, and commonly projects the worst; It is Nazianzens advise, Dum secundo vento navigas, naufragium time, tutior eris a naufragio, adjutorem tibi ac soci●m adjungens timorem. Farr, far is it from the heart of our Gracious Sovereign (who holds it his chief glory to be amicus sponsae) to intent aught that might be prejudicial to your Church. If his late journey, his laboursome conferences, his toilsome endeavours, his beneficial designs have not evinced his love to you, what can do it? And can any of yours think that this affection can stand with a will to hurt you? I know nothing (if I may except his own soul) that he loves better than your Church, and State, and if he did not think this a fruit of his love, he would be silent; what shall he gain by this, but that advantage which he promiseth to himself of your good, in your assimilation to other churches; a matter wherein I need not tell you there is both honour and strength.  
The mention whereof draws me (towards the closure of my long letter) whether to an Apology, or interpretation of myself; belike some captious hearers took hold of words spoken in some Sermon of mine that sounded of too much indifferency in these businesses (ubi bos herbam, vipera venenum, as he said) as if I had opened a gap to a lawless freedom, in teaching that no church should prescribe to other; that each should sit peaceably down with her own fashions; but did I say (you that herd can clear me) that one Church should not be moved with the good example of other? that there are not certain sacred observations, which should be common to all churches? that though one Church might not prescribe to other (because they are sisters) one King may not prescribe to two Churches, whereof he is head? None of these, which I hate as monstrous; examples may move, authority may press the use of things indifferent, expedient, and it is odious to seem more holy than all others, or to seem more wise than our heads.  
You have my opinion at large (my loves and beloved Mr. Struther) how pleasing it may be, I know not, how well meant, I know, if your letter were an history, my answer is proved a volume, My love and desire of your satisfaction hath made me (against my use) tedious. How well were every word bestowed, if it might settle you where I would; howsoever my true endeavour looks for your acceptation, and my affections and prayers shall ever answer yours: who am  
Your unfeignedly loving friend and Fellow-Labourer, Jos. Hall. Waltham Abbey. Octob. 3.  
Return my thanks and kind remembrance to those worthy Gentlemen from whom you sent me commendations; and to your Wife and all our Friends.   

Clarissimo viro D. Baltasari Willio S. Theol. D. ET In Bremensi Ecclesia Professori Celeberrimo Gratiam ac Pacem.  
SI quam mihi misisti schedulam, censores tui perlegissent, (frater admodum reverende) non opus fuisset, ut ego judicium hoc meum qualecunque, interponerem; facile profecto illi (siquis pudor) quam tibi temere objectarunt calumniam, & ultro revocassent: Tanto enim cum candore animi, tamque irrefragrabilibus indiciis, te ab illis sive criminationibus, seu vero impaectae haereseos suspicionibus quibuscunque, in hisce chartis Liberasti; ut, post hujusmodi Apologiam, ipsa non habeat invidia, quod tibi deinceps objicere possit, ede literas tuas, responso meo parces: quandoquidem tamen meam de quibusdam commentariorum tuorum locis sententiam ita ardenter desideras, non possum non tibi in re tantilla satisfacere: Hoc vero inprimis ora obturet cavillantium, quod ejusmodi elegeris operis tui patronos; alios profecto quaesivisses, si in Arminii, nedum Socini, castra transfugere voluisses: Non D. Poliandrum, Walaeum, Thysium, Triglandum, sidera pridem in Dordraceno caelo conspicua; quorum insuper censuris ista tua tam modeste subjeceris, aut probanda, aut, si foret opus, corrigenda.  
Loca quae offendiculo fuisse ais, examinavi sedulo; nihil prorsus est in prima praefatione tua, quod vel obtorto collo trahi possit ad heterodoxam aliquam gratiae divinae universalitatem stabiliendam; sed & illa in Zachar. 4. ejusdem omnino census, nihil habent errori alicui affine: Ostendunt tantum manifestum gratiae divinae, succedentibus seculis, erga Ecclesiam suam, in Lunimis salvifici expansione one ampliore, clarioreque, specimen, & incrementum; quo quid ver●us cogitari potest? Conquirunt profecto & fingunt istic errores malevo●●, non inveniunt: Absolutam praedestinationem negat praefatio posterior; sed, eo lensu, quo clarissimus collega tuus, D. Lud. Crotius, Syntagmatis pag. 978. non sine respectu ad ipsam decreti executionem; decreti inquis electionis; sundamentum Christus est, conditio salvandis implenda; fides, & salvandis, dixisti implenda; non in eligendis praevisa, & praer●quisita; quis sanus aliter dixerit?  
Quae de reprobatione definiisti, non alia sunt quam quae a Theologis Dordracenis, ex professo tradita sunt: Nec enim aliud est, Deum ex absoluta voluntate neminem excludere a gratia, & aeterno exitio destinare, quam, Deum neminem absque intuitu peccati damnare voluisse; culpam ergo reprobationis in mortalium pertinacia & incredulitate haerere tutissime, verissimeque determinasti.  
Analysin quod spectat loci illius celeberrimi ad Rom. 9 norunt Dordraceni omnes, me non monuisse modo, sed & pro concione publica, obnixe etiam efflagitasse, ut ad hoc ipsum examen, tota de praedestinatione controversia revocaretur, ab utraque authorum Litigantium parte tentatum est hoc palam: subque praelo non uno; quo autem successu, silere mavelim. Certe dum alii rigidiorem sectantur viam, in absolutam Dei potestatem, voluntatemque, absque ulla ratione peccati, rejicientes plurimorum perditionem; alii libertatis humanae Parasiti, ita sui juris faciunt homines ac si nulli omnino decreto subjicerentur, utrinque satis periculose peccatur: deseritur, medium tenens, veritas; quae tamena moderatis quibusque ingeniis officiose colitur: Quod tu dum facis, tuto profitere te Synodi Orthodoxae Dordracenae Theologis, nullatenus adversari; quoties enim quamque rotunde celeberrimi illi doctores professi sunt, Deum neminem damnare aut damnationi destinare, nisi ex consideratione peccati? ut Britanni nostri, Artic. 1. Thes. 5. Sed & fratres Hassiercos multis hoc argumentis comprobasse palam est: Nec qui Theologorum omnium, accuratius expressiusve istud docuerunt, quam Bremenses vestri; nec abludit ipsa Synodi vox, quae reprobationem ipsam definiens, praeteritos eos esse, ait, quos ex liberrimo, justissimo, irreprehensibili & immutabili beneplacito in communi miseria in quam se sua culpa praecipitarunt, praeteritionem, de relectionemque (Synodi verba agnoscimus) ac deinde, aeternae propter suam infidelitatem, & alia peccata punitionis decretum quis sanus inficietur? Distinctionem illam inter negativam reprobationem, sive non electionem, & positivam, sive praeparationem poenae eorum qui in statu corruptionis relicti, judicium sibi meritissimum accersunt, quis non libenter agnoscat? Resistere nos nimis saepe, Gratiae divinae ad conversionem nostram nos importune satis invitanti, urgentique, quis negit? Modo concedatur & illud; esse quandam peculiarem gratiam sive per Dei sapientiam, sive per ejus potentiam administratam; cui homo, qui per eam vocatur, non resistit, & quae a nullo duro corde respuitur, quod tu (cum Theologis Leydensibus, (ut & illi cum S. Augustino) rectissime asseruisti. Sed quid ego telam tuam retexo? Oculatus oportet adversarius sit, qui in hisce novem de Reprobratione sectionibus, quicquam invenerit, quod veritati divinae, sanctaeque charitati non sit omni modo consentaneum.  
Mitior Paulo fortasse videri potest illa, quae de sacrae caenae privata administratione moveri Lis solet; quae tamen etiam Ecclesiis nostris, nescio quas turbas fecerit. Hic scilicet unus est, ex quinque illis articulis Perthanis Ecclesiae Scoticanae, a doctissimo Regum Jacobo: VI pridem propositis, multorum ex inde calamis satis superque agitatus: praeter nostros, doctissimus Episcopus Berchinensis●, post illum, D. Johannes Forbesius, aliique Theologi Aberdonenses, ingenia hic sua, magna cum Laude exercucrunt; Certe miror ego, qua tandem freti ratione, privati quidam Theologi, saluberrimo huic, sed & antiquissimo, receptissimoque in Ecclesia, mori sese opposuerint. Unquam ne vetuit hoc privatim fieri Christus, aut Apostolorum quisquam? Facite hoc, inquit Christus: Factum praecepit, non meminit loci: Institutio ipsa salutaris est, temporis Locive circumstantia ita inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 merito collocanda, ut tanti sacramenti essentiae nihil quicquam praejudicare debeat: Q●od si locum spectare velimus curiosius, In caenaculo cepit caena sacra, non in templo; intraque privatos, ut tu probe monuisti, Lares, ab Apostolis, discipulisque, pro temporis ratione, celebrata; synaxis est, quis nescit? Ideoque Ecclesiae Dei haud paulo congruentior: Si qua tamen postulet necessitas, sive multorum communis sive privata postulantis, nulla dari potest ratio, cur Christianis animis, praesertim cum morbis, morteque ipsa conflictantibus, ita gratum, & efficax remedium non ultro suppeditetur: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est sanctis Patribus, Lasso igitur, jamque in extremis agenti viatori, petenti in super, qua tandem pietate denegetur? De tanti hujus sacramenti virtute, Christianus esse nequit qui ambigat, non potest igitur non pium esse tam salutaris sacramenti desiderium, cui ut tempestive satisfiat, caverunt, praeter citatos a te patres, authoresque probatissimos, concilia etiam non pauca, Nicenum illud Oecumenicum, Can. 13. Carthaginense quartum, Can. 76, 78. Vasense, 1. Can. 2. alia. Inter Ecclesias vero reformatas a te commemoratas, certe nostrae Anglicanae non alia unquam fuit, seu Lex, seu Praxis, (utpote quae hanc sibi regulam semper figendam sensuerit, toties a scitissimo Rege Jacobo. p. in inculcatam) nihilo longius a Romana discedere Ecclesia, quam illa a se, a primigenia puritate discessisse deprehendatur. Graviter ergo, pie, ac prudenter quaestionem tu hanc (si quid ego judicare possum) pertractasti, remque totam tanta cum moderatione ac cautela determinasti, ut mirum sit, siquis vestrorum deinceps, in tam sano vereque Theologico judicio non acquiescat.  
Breviter, de re tota sic habeto; Consilium illorum, qui declarationem hanc tuam, ut valde piam, Ecclesiaeque Dei perutilem, edendam, jurisque publici faciendam censent, non possum ego non calculo me summopere comprobare. Non parum ere fuerit Ecclesiae, ut hujusmodi extet exemplar candoris, & equanimitatis Christianae, ut moderato qui sunt animo, habeant quod tenere debeant, & qui temere maluerint contradicere post 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tandem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 videant quod erubescere debuerint; Deus, pacis Author, Ecclesiam suam totam in concordi veritate stabiliat.  
Vale Frater venerande. A conservo tuo fideli ac benevolo. Jos. Exon. Dat. e Pallatio Nostro Exon.   

Reverendo in Christo Fratri, viro clarissimo, D. LUDOVICO CROCIO S. Theologiae D. ET In Illustri Schola Bremensi Professori Gratiam ac Pacem.  
QUam nobis olim Dordrechtum conciliavit amicitiam, mi Croci eam & recolere saepius, & modis quibuscunque fovere quid ni senescentibus cordi sit? Video te solum, ex collegis tuis superstitem: Evolasse reliquos, caelumque cum terra jam diu commutasse, Nos vero quam diu hic sumus? Faelices interea, qui temporis hoc quantulumcunque bene agendo terimus; quod certe dum facimus, invidiam vel comitem, vel saltem asseclam, fato quodam sustinere necesse habemus:  
Pergant porro nostrae patientiae praecones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, modo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, beatos nos hoc modo facient, dum vellent miseros:  
Legi quantum pro tempore licuit, Syntagma tuum; egregium profecto opus, & te dignum: Loca a te notata perpendi serio; ut libere loquar quod censeo, occurrebant mihi multa paulo enucleatius quam ab aliis Theologis fieri solet, in magno hoc praedestinationis mysterio explicata, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vero illa, quae tibi a quibusdam objici quiritaris qua tandem ratione hinc elici possint, nullus comperio; primum illud caput, vere profecto aureum de principiis humanae salutis probe (uti par est) pensitatum & intellectum, ab omni te impacti erroris suspicione facile liberarit: Utcunque enim universalem Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solito plenius dilucidiusque depinxeris, (quae quidem nunquam poterit, me judice, nimium depraedicari) cum tamen triplicem illam universalis dilectionis limitationem insuper addideris, omne amoves Pelagianismi, Huberismique a tua sententia periculum: Nec enim communis illa Dei misericordia, qua humano praesertim generi bene vult, & bene placet, quicquam praejudicat speciali illi benevolentiae, ac amori, quo electos suos gratiosissime prosequitur: Fratribus quidem omnibus multiplicat Joseph fercula, Beniamini vero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
Tuta sunt hic omnia dum nos nihil nobis tribuamus, Dei misericordiae, in Christo filio suo, totum salutis, & destinandae & impetrandae negotium acceptum ingenue feramus: Quis vero tibi illa odiosa exprobraret nomina, quae tu ubique conspuis & detestaris?  
Haeret apud me illud, fateor, aliquantum, & explicatione quadam videtur indigere, quod capite 6. de gratia vocationis sect. 16. occurrit; ubi formulam faederis gratiae expositutus, ais, Peccatum Primorum parentum, atque adeo & peccatum originis, tanquam opus Diaboli, hactenus destructum, ut Satanas propterea nullum jus & potestatem in homines habeat; ita ut propterea nemo necessario damnandus sit, nisi nova peccata accedant, quibus homines fiant gratiae incapaces, ac denuo in plenam servitutem & possessionem Satanae redeant. Semper enim mihi, sed & aliis visum est, promissum illud de serpentis capite a femine mulieris conterendo, intelligi de victoria quam semen illud benedictum reportarit sibi, ac electis suis; ut planius loquar non universali quadam destructione peccati originis, quasi nullum jus in homines habitum, sed in suos electos nullum; neque de originali illo peccato tantum, sed & de omnibus quibuscunque satanae molitionibus construi debere: invidiam tibi forsan aliquam creet ille locus; donec uberiore aliqua interpretatione vindicetur: Quod ergo Pagina sequente subinsers.  
Justificationem vitae, ita vi mortis Christi in omnes homines transiisse, ut libertatem & jus ad vitam aeternam consecuti sint, nisi per novam inobedientiam, & peccatum gratiam illam amittant: hoc plane animo a te scriptum censeo, ut de sola possibilitate sub fidei habendae conditione, istud intellexeris; eo profecto se extendebat virtus vivificae illius mortis, ut qui credunt a reatu originalis peccati certo liberentur: Ut quae non obstante peccato sive originali, sive actuali quocunque, & jus ad vitam, & vitam ipsam consequantur, utque reconciliabilit as quaedam humani generis eo usque, hac ratione, obtineretur, quo quisque mortalium modo resipiscere sic credere possit, salutem adipiscatur; id quod ●u ipse ubique videris inurere: Nihil ergo certius est, quam quod mox subjicis, Christum omnium hominum salutem aliquo modo quaesivisse, omnibusque ad eam aliquo modo profuisse, quaesivit hoc certe beneficentissimus servator, quodque non invenerit in homines ipsos, non in redemptorem cudenda est haec faba; Qui potest ergo salus esse quibusdam simpliciter impossibilis, quam ille (quem penes est) omnibus, sub conditione ferio obtulerit: & reapse praestare (modo ipsi sibi non deforent) paratus sit; impossibilis modo, sed & certa; quis hic non tacite ac humiliter acquiescat; sententiam hanc vestram meminimus nos, Clarissimum D. Martimum collegam tuum J. M. in Synodo Dordracena Thesibus suis illic exhibitis, aperte, pleneque, explicasse, ut mirum sit suboriri modo quenquam, qui vos illi suffragrantes tam sero erroris insimulet: Breviter quoque oculos conjicio, illud video, & in hac desinam censura, nisi Lectori charitas deesset, non deforet scripto fides.  
Praefationem tuam quod attinet, quae de septem Asiaticis Ecclesiis commentari libuit (qua in re concinit tibi, uti video, Doctissimus Collega tuus, D. Willius, passim, in suis & proloquiis & commentariis) Laudo equidem velut ingeniose satis, neque sine probabili aliqua veri specie, a vobis dicta; solide tamen, & ad mentem Evangelici scriptoris exarata, concedere nequeo; Illas etenim ecclesias septem, esse typos quosdam historicopropheticos succedentium sibi, ab illo aevo, ecclesiae conditionum, quis largiatur? Ta●c profecto aliquid Brightmannus noster, aut Parkerus vigilans somniarit, nollem vobis tantis viris excidisse, Cum palam sit, spiritum sanctum eas ipsas illius temporis ecclesias, sed & earum episcopos, singulariter notasse. Personalia sunt, ilicet, quae pastori cuique objiciuntur, nec ad caetum integrum, multo minus ad Typicas, nescio quas, successiones detorquenda; sed & incurrunt in se invicem, quae de unaquaque ecclesia praedicantur; nec cuiquam istarum soli distincte competere possunt; ut per omnia tenere nequeat illa quam imaginamur, analogia: Aurea scilicet illa, & Apostolica aetas, quam per Ephesiam ecclesiam figurari vultis, uti non perdiderat (quantum nobis innotuit) charitatem suam primam; ita, non prorsus immunis fuit, ab illis persecutionibus, quae seculis sequentibus efferbuerunt; In Smyrnensi illa ferrea (metallorum enim similitudine quadam haec omnia illustrare maluisti) synagogae Judeorum jam tum Christianismo infestissimae non Ethnicorum furores designantur.  
Polemicam vero Pergamensem quod spectar, ipse Antipas Martyr, eo tempore, sine dubio, notissimus, nominatim, velut recentissimae memoriae celebratur, ut certo certius sit de re dudum praeterita locutum, cum spiritu, evangelistam, nec de illo aevo, (cui tu istud confers) vere praedicare potest [Nomen meum retines, non negasti fidem] cum totus fere orbis ad Arrianismum desciverit; Thyatirensi devotae ac religiosae, quae a Carolo magno ad Carolum quintum interjecta est, quam nullo jure imputatur, quod patiatur Jezebelem Prophetissam (Hildebrandinam nempe ut tu interpretaris dominationam) seducere servos Dei; quasi in ecclesiae illius, impotenter adhuc delitescentis, potestate fuisset, Romanae Ecclesiae tyrannidem jam tum impedire aut coercere: Sardensis illa sive politica, quae a Carolo quinto, hucusque extenditur, non tam episcopalis est ais, quam Principalis; memineris tamen haec Angelo, id est Episcopo non Principibus dicta fuisse; Illud vero visne ut merito competat Protestantium caetui, [Nomen habes quod vivas sed mortuus es;] Moribunda corrobores?] Absit ut haec tam gravia nostris aggeramus, nolo singulis insistere; praeter scopum enim haec omnia, da veniam (colendissime frater) libertati huic meae: non possum tibi in illa Asiaticarum Ecclesiarum interpretatione (re non admodum gravi) consentire; utcunque vero praemissae hae fidem apud me parum invenerint, conclusionem tamen tuam, ex animo amplector, & exosculor; hinc nempe sumpta occasione tempestive ad concordiam Ecclesiis Evangelicis suadendam dilaberis: Hoc ego tibi ac tuis inprimis gratulor, hoc precor, hoc urgeo; certe qualiscunque tandem fuerit illa Sardensis, utinam, O utinam, Ecclesia Dei nostro hoc aevo ad pacem se publicam (non seposito interim veritatis studio) unanimiter componeret; video equidem, & gaudio vos professores, doctissimos celeberrimosque, Bremenses pium hoc, Deoque Angelis & hominibus gratissimum opus promovere paratissimos esse. Id quod non modo ex Duraeo meo studiosissimo tanti beneficii parario, gratulabundus accepi, sed ex scriptis insuper vestris facile persentisco: Dolet mihi interim, quod videam praeter iniquam temporum conditionem quorundam pervicacem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacrosanctum hoc caeptum aliquantum remorari; humanum profecto est quod isti sapiunt.  
Ita nempe dediti sunt quidam vel fuis, vel praeceptorum fuorum opinionibus, partiumque studiis pertinaciter fovendis, ut ne verba quidem (rebus quantum libet salvis) indulgere velint publicae paci, ac charitati: Sane, qui sic affecti sunt, ubi precium unitatis Evangelicae plane videntur nescire, ita aliquando sine dubio sentient quid sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, & Ecclesiam Dei suis manibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usque inquietare. Certe, si quod in Synodo Dordracena propositum fuit & a Theologis exteris fervide satis expeditum, pariter obtinuisset, praecepta jam diu fuisset omnis haec, quae modo vobis negotium facessit, contendendi ansa: Memineris tu probe (mi Croci) ubi me nimis iniqua valetudo, invitum ab illo Doctorum virorum consessu abripuisset, incidisse quaestionem, non hercle intempestivam, Sessione 132. de Rejectione duriorum quarundam, & incommodiorum locutionum, quae in nonnullis Reformatorum doctorum scriptis passim reperiuntur, quae infirmioribus scandalum, adversariis calumniam subministrare solent; Britanni nostri Theologi, toti in eo erant, sed & Hassiaci, & vos etiam Bremenses, sani hujusce concilii rationibus paulo acrius urgendis non defuistis; potiora ne dicam, an plura vicerent suffragia, non disputo; certe rejectio illa phrasium incommodarum pro tempore rejecta est; saltem omissa; ne quid pateretur Orthodoxa authorum, ita vel durius vel inprudentius locutorum doctrina: Praesertim cum, praeter alias rationes, plurimi essent ex iis loquendi modis, qui dextre ac commode (modo charitas adhiberetur) explicari possent, nempe sederunt ibi aliqui, de ecclesia Dei alias benemeriti Theologi qui in hoc genere non nihil forte peccaverunt: praeter alios etiam melioris notae primipilos, (modo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) quorum existimatio●i hac ratione paululum indulgere visum est, absit vero ut ego tot, tantorumque Theologorum (quorum memoriam revereri soleo) judicium vellicare ausim, utinam tamen (fas enim mihi erit, etiam tam sero optasse) charitatis pietatisque publicae ratio, eo usque apud doctissimos viros clarissimos fratres nostros, valuisset, ut inter Doctrinae Orthodoxae incolumitatem, & phrase incommodarum periculum, inter quorundam authorum existimationem, & communem Christianae Reipublicae indemnitatem paulo accuratiorem distinctionem adhibuissent. Quid enim? Opus ne habet Orthodoxa Doctrina hujusmodi fulcris? Annon eo magis constat illa sibi & honorem suum eo magis inviolatum servat, quo ab illis intutiorum locutionum excessibus liberior prodierit? Nonne palam est hujusmodi duriusculas loquendi formas non paulum praejudicii creasse veritati pacem vero publicam vel ex imo turbasse, quis non videt? En modo non sine causa calumniari videntur adversarii, nos admisisse rerum illarum solaecisimos, qui tam incommodis locutionum modis videntur inuri? Hinc causa Dei non parum patitur & Damni, & opprobrii; sint vero ex illis loquendi formulis, quaedam ab ipso spititu sancto, in sacris literis, aliquando usurpatae: hinccine sequetur ut quae per sacram quandam hyperbolem exprimere voluit Deus ea nos simplici sensu, velut axiomata Theologica tuto propinare possimus orbi Christiano? Et parentes & animam nostram odisse nos jubet ali●ubi Deus; novimus quo sensu utrunque; jam si quis, hac authoritate fretus, absolute, simpliciterque docuerit, officium esse Christiani cujusque abdicare parentes, suam ipsius animam proculcare, satin' sanus videbitur? Cultellum aliquando gutturi applicare, jubet per Salomonem spiritus; quisquamne sobrius hoc proprio & literali sensu faciendum suaserit? Indurate corda, & excaecare oculos dicitur Deus, nos haec ipsi velut propria quaedam & immediata effecta tribuemus, suus ergo relinquendus est Deo loquendi modus, quod ille figurato quodam sermonis excessu exprimere maluit, non nobis illico trahi debet in simplicis enuntiationis exemplar.  
Sint harum phras●●n aliquae, quas sano sensu ipsi censores admiserint; sint plurimae, quae dextre ac commode (modo charitas adhibea ur) explicari possint; atqui interim, de sano illo sensu, inter partes lis erit vel maxima; & charitas haec, ubi lites incalescere cae●erint, ubi locum invenit? Certe, qui litigare mavolunt non solent ita benigne cum adversariis agere, ut sensum (siquis sit) controversae propositionis commodissimum, eruere velint: sic ergo loqui tutum est, ut qui cavillari studet, (si fieri possit) locum non habeat ubi aut uncum, aut pedem figat; Medeatur vero huic malo charitas, quaero tamen jam meritissimo, utiliusne tollendis, an commode interpretandis hisce formulis sese charitas exercuisset? Pateus est non procul a via, profundus & itineranti periculosus; gratiusne opus fecerit viatori, qui illum rudere ac lapidibus adobruat, an qui jusserit incolas, monere illac transeuntes, ne se incauti praecipitent; morbus mihi minitatur, novi quo pharmaco possim ejus dolorem lenire tandem, & mortis, alioqui forte secuturae, periculum evadere; consultumne mihi erit sinere, ut malum hoc ingruat, & ingravescar, cui tempestivo potuissem remedio occurrisse? Ego certe si res ageretur mea, curarem cum primis noxios humores sive corrigi sive oportune expurgari; & cardiaca deinde quibus natura contra hostes impetum corroboretur, subministrari, sic & in illis, quae Ecclesiae periculum intentant, sive erroribus, sive parum tutis dogmatibus, sive male sanis locutionibus factum oportuit, & ita proculdubio fecissent gravissimi illi, Doctissimique Theologi, si istum, quem modo cernimus, tollerantiae exitum, jam tum praevidere potuissent; ubi enim illi hac ratione paci publicae litatum voluerunt, contra evenit, jurgiorum ac discordiarum semina (quod maximopere delendum est) hinc inde, per agros Ecclesiae infeliciter iacta, ubique pullulasse; neque deerit unquam (si quid ego hariolari possum) contentionum materia, donec ista litium infausta seges authoritate publica radicitus evelli possit; Quod uti fiat, exorandi sunt orbis domini, ut conventu Doctorum Theologorum tempestive habito, communi consilio (interveniente ipsorum imperio) tollantur ista sive calami, sive mentis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qualiacunque.  
Quod dum fieri possit, monendi rogandique sunt doctissimi quique viri frates nostri Charissimi, eousque uti paci studeant omnes, ut posthabita verborum cura rebus ipsis componendis operam suam toti impendant: Id nimirum solicitos nos habet, ut veritas Dei in cordibus hominum (nobis suasoribus) locum invenire possit; hoc vero, si quo suaviore, ac blandiore modo effici queat, nonne multo gratius, aptabiliusque foret, quam ut rigidiore, ac duriuscula agendi ratione, bilem, scandalumve infirmiori cuique moveremus: ulcus meum qui leviore tractaverit manu, modo non minus cito sanaverit, dignus est quem amicius excipiam. At at, nisi in re ipsa paululum haereremus non ita nimium de verbis laborare precium operae duceremus: De ipsis quidem, fateor, notionum quarundam momentis, aliquid litigii est, sed, quod vix cernat oculatus arbiter, vix curet pacificus: Ad eundem video exitum veritatis Theologicae tendere utriusque partis sententiam, non sine aliquo interim, in via, discrimine; non est quod de unoquoque vestigio nimium soliciti simus quin post passus unius, alteriusve divertiunculam idem omnino stadium emetimur, mollior placet huic semita, illi calcata, vel silicea, recta ducit utraque ad metam eandem; quis istic jurgio locus? quod si sua cuique (uti fit) placuerit sententia, nec quis cedere velit alteri paulo aliter animi sui sensum exprimenti, litesque adhuc inter partes infeliciter continuentur; illud ego fratribus meis cum primis suaserim (quod in omnibus hujus generis controversiis tutissimum, utilissimumque semper expertus sum) ut ad generaliores quasdam enuntiandi formulas confugiamus; neque ultra terminos ita fixos, sinatur alterutrius partis discursus evagari; Quod de doloso communiter dici solebat olim, liceat mihi de pacifico dicere; versatur ille in generalibus; nec quid pensi habet ad specialissima quaeque descendere; nempe, ex imis illis conceptuum humanorum fractionibus, ac divisiunculis, nimio quam accuratis, oriri solent discordiae, inter illos, qui vel de proximis rerum capitibus perpacate consentirent. Hac profecto ratione, plurimae, quibus orbis Christianus misere conflictatur, lites sopirentur: Caute tamen istic, & non sine summa fide, ac sana discretione procedendum est; ne forte, dum paci nimium intenti sumus, veritatis integritatem vel violemus, vel inique supprimamus; ubi ergo de ipsis Christianae fidei capitibus deque summa religionis quaestio est, nihil non urgeri debet, in quo salus vertitur hominis Christiani, nihil istic non momentosum, & quovis dignum certamine videri debet, sed ubi de Dogmatibus quibusdam fere adiaphoris, deque tricis (uti fit) Scholasticis, a salutis sive spe, sive periculo longe alienis, disputatur, non est quod nimis anxie singula disquiramus, & de minimis quibusque opinionum apicibus curiosius contendamus, sat erit in generalioribus quibusdam exprimendi modis conspirasse.  
Quod si qui sint opinionum suarum paulo tenaciores, qui de levissimis quibusque controversiarum particulis veluti pro aris ac focis digladiari malunt, valde expediens suerit, illud unum praecipue accurare, ut isti, moderatis quibusque agendi rationibus, (si fieri possint) convincantur; inter quas nulla mihi, serio cogitanti, occurrit probabilior, quam ut certae quaedam figantur regulae Dogmaticae, irrefragabiles illae quidem & utrique parti in confesso, ad quarum veluti examen utrorumque sententiae reducantur, exiganturque: Certum est, enim, vera quaeque ubique 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; quae ergo inter se comparata ab indubitate veris dissonare deprehenduntur, in falsi suspicionem justissime incurrunt; Ut in hisce quas modo sub manibus habemus controversiis, sunto, si placet, hujusmodi.  
Fieri non potest ut voluntatis Dei quae omnium causa est, causa detur ulla, nempe hoc foret, praeter curiosam quandam insolentiam, ultra infinitum procedere.  
Et si Deus juste uti potuisset jure suo absoluto in creaturas sua●, secundum ordinatum tamen jus, ac revelatum, procedere & solet, & vult.  
Cum Deus sit ipsa essentialis bonitas, sapientia, justitia, adeoque omnis bonitatis, sapientiae, justitiae, fons & scaturigo, nihil potest ab illo fluere, quod non perfecte bonum, sapiens, justumque sit, in illius ergo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humillime acquiescere debemus creaturae.  
Sed & hinc necessario sequitur nihil boni inesse posse creaturae, nisi quod ab ipso, boni omnis principio, inditum suerit, & ab ipso derivatum.  
Sed & hoc insuper; Deum non esse authorem peccati. Illud solebat offendiculi, saepe praetendere, D. Tilenus, hospes olim meus, jam tum mutatae infeliciter sententiae reus, quorundam nostrorum rigore, aliquid hic in Deum conjici, sanctissimo ipsius numine indignum protestatus interea omnia se paratum concedere, modo Dei bonitas, & justitia hac in re integra & illibata conservaretur, absit vero ut quis Christianus aliter aut sentiat, aut loquatur: Omnes in hanc sententiam pedibus imus unanimiter, reus peragatur blasphemiae, qui cum Florino, contra hiscere ausit.  
Deum neminem damnare nisi propter peccatum, damnatio enim actus est punitivae justitiae, punitio autem culpam supponit; quis enim justus plectat innocentem?  
Deum serio invitare omnes ubicunque terrarum ad fidem & penitentiam, & sub illa conditione, ad salutem: non eo solum animo ut inde fiant inexcusabiles (hoc enim nihil sonat philanthropicum) sed ut vere si jussa praestiterint, assequantur quod gratiose proposuit.  
In re praedestinationis nihil nobis negotii esse debet cum arcanis Dei consiliis, sed secundum revelatam ejus voluntatem, de nobis, aliisve judicandum; ita ergo nos gerere debemus in tota vitae nostrae institutione & in operando salutem nostram, ac si nulli occulto Dei decreto subessemus. Quid ad te, O homo, quod in coelo statutum est! Fac tu quod sanctissimus, & justissimus, Creator, Redemptorque, tibi injunxit faciendum, non potes non tutus & salvus esse; alias, frustra es, qui tibi salutem polliceris, sic itaque fidei, paenitentiae, bonisque operibus danda est opera, quasi ab illis unice penderet salus, & immunitas ab omni reprobationis periculo; sic cavenda infidelitas, omnisque legis divinae certa, lubensque violatio, ac si seposita quavis absconditi decreti ratione, damnatio istinc sequeretur; qui secus fecerit, & a priori, de aeterna sui conditione judicium feret, misere abutetur secretis Dei consiliis, quae silenter debuisset revereri.  
In actibus ad conversionem praeviis, bonisque motibus quos spiritus De●ingerit, etiam nondum renatis, Deus neminem deserit, prius quam deseratur ipse; sola ergo culpa sua ad regenerationem serio invitati gratia ulteriore destituuntur, & spontanea infidelitate & contumacia pereunt.  
Sed video me longius quam mihi proposueram excurrisse, vide quo me provexerit pacis amor, ut ego ista tibi, Theologo exercitatissimo suggererem, huic tu praesumptioni ignosces; & si quid erraverit festinatio mea, comiter monstrabis: Perges denique bene velle huic, quam tantopere boni omnes expetimus, Paci, & Duraeum nostrum, fidissimum ejus proxenetam omni amore ac studio, quod facis, prosequi & mutuis insuper precibus, piisque officiis bear.  
Tuum in Christo fratrem ac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fidelissimum. Jos. Exon.   

Clarissimo Viro, Theologo gravissimo, D. HERMANNO HILDEBRANDO AD S ti. STEPH. Ecclesiae BREMENSIS Pastori Vigilantissimo, Salutem ac Pacem.  
INcumbat mihi licet plus modo quam cui ferendo par sim oneris (reverende admodum in Christo frater) non potui tamen committere ut votis tuis tam piis, tam pacificis deesse viderer: Ipse curabo ne nihil respondeam, ignosce tu, si brevius.  
Declarationem tuam trium Articulorum in conventu cleri Bremensis praelectorum, gravem illam quidem, moderatam, solidam, vereque Orthodoxam quanta potui cum cura perlegi, clausulasque singulas pensitavi sedulo; quoque accuratiori trutinae singula subjecerim eo magis subiit animum, mirari quid illud tandem sit, quod parum aequis, apud vos censoribus displicere possit; aut ubi demum lateat illud, de quo quosdam ais immane quantum conqueri, Pelagianismi sive (quod horribilius dictu) Socinismi virus. Fallor si qua istic occurrat phrasis, aut vero syllaba, quae vel ex ipso sacro Scripturarum fonte, vel ex sanctorum patrum rivulis, vel denique ex aliorum probatissimorum authorum (praesertim vero Theologorum Dordracenorum) situlis parum petita sit: Absit vero ut quis istorum cuiquam tam prodigiosae opinionis crimen impingere ausit. Cautius tu quidem, & paulo mollius exprimere maluisti haec divinae veritatis arcana, quam rigidiores quidam (sani licet) Theologi solent; quam tibi sive prudentiam, sive moderationem ex animo gratulor: Ilicet haec recta est ad Christianam concordiam via, hoc est quod vox clamantis in deserto praeconiata est olim, parare semitam Deo pacis aspera in vias planas redigere: Ambulent alii, si volunt, per dumos salebrasque, compla●emus nos (quantum possimus) sacros hosce calles ut libero ac inoffenso pede coelum versus progredi liceat; quantum cumque sane operae huic negotio posuerimus, arduum satis comperiemus hoc iter; non est quod nos viam insuper silice sternamus, aut vepribus: Nesciunt profecto qui ista criminantur, nesciunt, quantum de Templo Dei mereantur illi, qui seu saxa seu trabes fabricae huic exaedificandae dolare, ac levigare norunt, modo id, praesertim, absque nimio malleationis strepitu fieri possit; quod gravitatem tuam admodum prudenter istic allaborasse sentio.  
Quod ad rem ipsam attinet, quisquam ne sanae Theologiae candidatus est, qui merito mortis Christi limites quosdam suos figendos censeat? nempe omnipotens est, infinitaeque virtutis ille Dei filius, quibus ergo redimendis, & carnem induere & sanguinem suum effundere voluit, iis ut non sufficiat, (quod sibi praestituit) universis quam nimis sonare videtur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Generi autem humano redimendo & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mortem suam intendisse benignissimum mundi redemptorem, quoties quamque expresse docet Scriptura? Cum vero nemini sano displicere possit haec spiritus sancti (ubi in sactis literis occurrit) Phraseologia, qui fit quod nostro transcripta calamo parum arrideat; Illa certe distinctio inter (ipso quidem actu) sufficientiam, effecientiamque mortis Christi, inter meritum ex una parte, & effectum eventumque Theanthropicae illius redemptionis, ex altera; inter precium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infiniti, & salutarem ejus applicationem ita & vera & necessaria est, ut absque illa fieri non possit, quin perperam de magno mundi salvatore, deque mysterioso redemptionis negotio sentiamus: Certe ita pro omnibus mortuus est Christus, ut parum interea profit omnibus ad salutem: 
D. par. Judicio de 5. Art. Art. 20. Sent. Palat. Theol. Art. 2. prop. 4.  Non illo ergo in sensu pro omnibus mortuus est Christus quo doctissimus Paraeus (cui concinunt & Theologi Palatini) vocem interpretatur, ubi ait mori pro aliquo proprie esse, morte sua aliquem a morte liberare, seu ita mori alicujus loco, ut ipse vivat; eo quidem modo haec loquendi formula, non meritum modo sed et efficaciam universalem, effectumque commune mortis Christi complecteretur, quod nemo sanus (cum Hubero) illi (quantum libet salvificae) attribuendum judicarit: Hoc vero quod non fiat hominum certe culpa fit, non servatoris. In Caelesti hoc meritorum Gazophylacio, sat repositum est Thesauri, redimendis tot mundorum myriadibus, quot sunt hominum capita; quod si qui ita sint vel socordi, vel praefracto ingenio, ut quanrumvis voce Evangelii moniti ac incitati, nec movere pedem, nee manum exporrigere velint, petendo reportandoque suo (quam libet ingenti) pretio, digni sunt ilicet qui captivi moriantur; quid hic interum decedit infinitae redemptoris munificentiae? 
Sent. de 5. Artic. ad Synod   
Placere mihi solet heic Molinaei mei, viri clarissimi satis apta similitudo, illustrandis, illuminandisque omnibus, datus est sol huic mundo; sunt tamen caeci non pauci, sunt alii carcerum tenebris damnati, somno sepulti sunt alii: Parum fruuntur isti omnes solis bene●●cio, quid hoc ad magnum illud ac munificum luminare? Oculati quotquot sunt, subque dio vigilant gaudent hac luce, illiusque radiis refocillantur; pariter se habet cum morte Christi, cujus fructus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patescit quidem omnibus meritorie, non efficaciter: in se sufficit omnibus; non omnibus interea sive ad remissionem sive ad salutem applicatur; reconciliabile est hac ratione totum genus humanum; actu autem ut reconcilietur, quiddam aliud insuper requiritur; impletio scilicet conditionis gratuiti foederis, quae in fide recipientis consistit: Credunt autem efficacissima virtute hujus salvificae mortis quotquot ad salutem ordinati sunt; hanc vero exprimendi formulam quod parum ferre videantur Theologi Palatini; hinc fit, quod Remonstrantium nonnullis (longius multo quam par erat procedentibus) contra-venire istic studuerint, utpote qui non meritum modo sed et efficaciam mortis Christi toti humano generi actu communicare videantur; re tamen ipsa fratres Palatini de merito precioque mortis Christi infinito, 
Sent. Palat. Theol de 5. art. Art. 2. propos. 2, & 3.  applicabili quidem universis (si possent credere) mortalibus, solis electis salutariter applicato idem nobiscum sentiunt. Sed & eadem ipsa est promissionum insuper divinarum extensio; per totum terratum orbem nemo homo est, cui non istae libere promulgati, & possint & debeant; occurrat mihi quivis vel Turca, vel Judaeus, vel Judus, quidni ego fidenter, & serio illi dixerim. Ita O homo, pro te mortuus est Christus, ut si in ipsum credideris certo salvaberis; sed & omnium eadem plane ratio est, quae unius: Quicquid sit, ob defectum salutaris precii certum est neminem unquam periisse n●minem unquam periturum; sic ergo (ut Theologi nostri Britanni plene & perspicue) Christus pro omnibus mortuus est, ut omnes & singuli, mediante fide possint virtute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hujus, remissionem peccatorum, & vitam aeternam consequi; Sic pro electis mortuus est, ut ex merito mortis ejus, secundum eternum Dei beneplacitum, specialiter illis destinato, & fidem infallibiliter obtin●ant, & vitam eternam.  
Breviter, ita primum hunc de morte, & merito Christi articulum tractasti ut plane habeas scripturas, patres, scriptores quosque Orthodoxos, tibi pleno ore suffragantes: sed & Ecclesia nostra Anglicana ita hic tota tua est, ac si ipsissima illius verba suisses ubique mutuatus.  
Secundum porro articulum (meo quidem judicio) dici vix potest solidiusne, an modestius exegeris, si quis alius in tota Theologia, ille profecto de reprobatione locus, lubricus est; in quo labi, & facile sit, & periculosum, tu vero ita caute istic movisti pedem, ut neque blandiores decreti aestimatores quicquam, quod culpent, invenire possint, nec severiores, quod desiderent; eo magis mihi mirandum videtur quid illud sit, quod censurae suae praetendere possint scitissimi cavillorum artifices: Dicam certe quod res est, totus iste (uti a te explicatur) locus nihil aliud est, quam sententiarum Dordracenarum accurata quaedam contractiuncula; in qua non sensum modo illibatum, sed et plerunque, verba ipsissima satis curiose retinuisti: Qui sit ergo ut quibus illa Synodus in pretio est, tam justa ac fidelis ejusdem displiceat epitome? Certe ni tu digitum intendas ego quid haereat nullus inveniam. Enim vero, esse quandam reprobationem, camque ab aeterno, quis dubitat? Sed & hanc reprobationem, (qua omnipotentis Dei actum spectat) ejusdem esse quorundam hominum quos decrevit Deus in communi miseria, in quam se sua culpa praecipitarunt, relinquere; tandemque non tantum propter infidelitatem, sed etiam caetera omnia peccata, ad declarationem justitiae suae damnare, & aeternum punire; sic illi, culpa ergo & peccata, ita hic interveniunt, ut positiva reprobatio absque his non sine summa injuria, Deo attribuatur: Hoc est quod tu, ex Augustino, Fulgentio, Prospero, ex omnibus Ecclesiarum confessionibus, ex Orthodoxis quibusque authoribus, facili negotio eviceris: Meritissimo ergo inveheris in illorum explicationem, & rigidam & plane iniquam, qui electioni liberae, & gratuitae reprobationem absolutam, ex mero odio profectam opponendam censent: Ecquod enim odit Deus praeter peccatum? et propter peccatum, non, in se, creaturam suam? Hoc sane seposito, vidit Deus omnia quae fecerat, & bona pronuntiavit, quomodo vero se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praestaret Deus si hominem, qua hominem odio haberet; Praeibis ergo & tu mihi verba illa, quibus ego lubentissime assentior, ut summe pia, & suavissima illa vox est, nos gratiuto ex mera misericordia, & beneplacito Dei fuisse electos in Christo ad salutem, ita nec satis pia nec tolerabilis altera, Merito perire alios, etiamsi in Adamo non essent perditi, quoniam Deus ita praefecit Christum Ecclesiae suae caput, ut in eo servemur, non omnes, sed qui sumus electi. Quod zelus hic tuus, ut & boni cujusque exardescat, non hercle miror; Quid enim hoc aliud est, nisi tyrannidem quandam affingere misericordissimo Numini? Absoluta ipsius in creaturam potentia quousque se extendat, nemo est qui dubitet: illam vero ut in nos exerat, exerce atque Deus, qui cum ordinato jure cum hominibus agere decreverit, toties dilectionem suam, desideriumque humanae salutis protestatus est, durius est quam ut a quoquam Christiano cogitari debeat; utinam vero odiosae hujusmodi loquendi formulae, aut nunquam pio alicui, doctoque reformatae Religionis professori excidissent, aut si aliquando temere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excesserint, aeternae oblivioni damnatae illico fuissent; Hujusce surfuris sunt incommodae illae, ac incongruae locutiones, quas Theologi Dordraceni, non pauci, rejici, corrigique voluerunt; quod & tunc temporis factum fuisset, nisi quorundam existimationi forte plus nimio fuisset indultum; Qua de re largius aliquanto scripsi ad Collegam tuum clarissimum D. Crocium; Literas ille meas tecum sine dubio communicabit; in eadem vos navi estis uterque, ejusdem consilii sortes ut sitis, par est. Interim, Analysis haec tua (ut in hac resolvendi facultate praecellere te video) scopo loci illius optime quadrare videtur, nec a quoquam merito impugnari potest: Ut Scriptura tota, ita illa cum primis ad Romanos (quod patrum doctissimus olim) plena est sensibus; vix dari potest ita certa loci alicujus resolutio, quin & alia satis commoda possit, fortassis superadjici: suis alii litent sententiis, ego tuam hanc loci contexturam & explicationem valde probo; si quis contra mussitet, dic illi meo (si vis) nomine, carpere multo facilius esse quam emendare. Tu vero, vir celeberrime, perge quod facis, sanctis hisce, piisque laboribus de Ecclesia Dei bene promereri; & (quod tibi ac tuis ex animo gratulor) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, precibusque tuis adjuva  
Devotissimum tibi in Domino Fratrem ac Symmystam Jos. Exon. Dat. in Pallat. nostro Exon.   

A MODEST OFFER OF Some Meet CONSIDERATIONS TENDERED To the Learned PROLOCUTOR, And to the rest of the ASSEMBLY of DIVINES Met at WESTMINSTER.  
LEarned and Reverend Brethren; If you be now (as is supposed) upon the advice of a Form of Church-Government; I beseech you, in the fear of God, setting aside all prejudice, to take into your sad thoughts these considerations following.  
It is (I perceive an usual Prayer of many Preachers well affected to your Assembly, that God would now (after 1600 years universal practice of the whole Church of Christ, upon earth) show you the pattern in the mount; as if, after so long and perfect inquisitions, there could be any new discoveries of the form that was, or should be; wherein, I suppose their well-meaning is not a little injurious both to the known truth, and to you: for, what revelations can we expect thus late: or what monuments of either Scripture, or history can now be hoped to be brought to light, which your eyes have not seen, and former ages have not inquired into: Surely, ye well know, there can be but these three forms of Church-government, possibly devised; Either by Bishops, or by Presbyteries, or by the multitude of several and select congregations: Every of which, have both their abettors, and their adversaries; The first hath all times, and places, since the days of the blessed Apostles, till this age, to stand for it; The second hath the late persecuted, reformed Church of France, (which never desired, or meant to make their necessitated form, a pattern for others) the Netherlands, and Scotland, for precedents of it; The third hath the Ministers of New-England, and their Associates, commonly styled by the name of INDEPENDENTS, vehemently contending for it: The adversaries of every of these are as well known, as their friends; and the pleas, which every of them makes for itself, are as well known as either.  
I suppose it is yet res integra; else, I should lay my finger upon my lips; Both the Houses of Parliament, your Assembly, and the whole Kingdom, stand yet free, and unengaged to any part: For the National Covenant (as it is interpreted by some of yourselves, and those other Divines whose allowed Sermons have commented upon it) intends not to abjure, and disclaim Episcopacy, as such; but only bends against the whole present fabric of Government, as it is built on these Arches, these Pedestals; so as if it be taken asunder from those (some of them, not necessary) appendances, you are no way forstalled in your judgement against it; nor any other, that hath lift up his hand in this solemn Covenant.  
That I may not urge the Latin Translation of the same Covenant, printed and sent abroad to the Low-Countries and France, and other Churches, which ran only upon tyrannicum regimen Episcoporum; that only the Tyrannical Government of the prelate's, not their fatherly and brotherly preeminence, is there abjured.  
Your wisdoms know well how to distinguish betwixt a Calling, and the abuses of the execution thereof; betwixt the main substance of a Calling, and the circumstantial and separable appurtenances thereunto; from which it may be devested, and yet stand entire.  
I should be a flatterer of the times past (which is not often seen) if I should take upon me to justify, or approve of all the carriages of some that have been entrusted with the keys of Ecclesiastical Government: or to blanche over the Corruptions of Consistorial Officers, in both these, there was fault enough, to ground both a complaint, and Reformation; and, may that man never prosper, that desires not an happy Reformation of what ever hath been, or is amiss in the Church of God; but this I offer to your serious consideration, whether Episcopacy, stripped of all circumstances that may be justly excepted against, and reduced to the Primitive estate, may not be thought a form, both better in itself, and more fit for this Kingdom and Church, then either of the other.  
How ancient it is, I need not appeal to any but yourselves, who do well know, that there was never yet any History of the Church, wherein there was not full mention made of Bishops, as the only Governors thereof; neither can any learned adversary deny, that they have continued, with the general allowance of God's Church from the very Apostolic times, until this present age. And whether it can be safe, and, lie not open to much scandal, to exchange so ancient an institution hitherto perpetuated to the Church, for a new, where no necessity enforces us, judge ye.  
How universal it is, being the only received government of all the Christian Churches over the face of the whole earth, (excepting only this small spot of our neighbourhood) ye know as well, as the undoubted relation of the Christianography can tell you: and how unsafe it may be, to departed from the form of all the Churches, that profess the name of Christ, (who do all submit themselves to Bishops, or Superintendents, except the fore-excepted) I leave to your grave judgement.  
Besides, how Episcopacy is, and hath long been settled in this Kingdom, and (as it were) incorporated into it; and enwoven into the municipal Laws of this Land, so as that it cannot be utterly removed, without much alteration in the whole body of our Laws; is a matter well worthy of not the least consideration.  
But, all these would yet seem light upon the Balance, if there were not an intrinsical worth in the institution itself, that might sway with you: The covenant binds to the endeavours of such a Government, as is according to the Word of God, and the example of the best Reformed Churches. And now, let me appeal to your own hearts, and the hearts of all judicious and unprejudicated Readers, whether the rules of Church Government, laid forth in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, do not suppose, and import that very proper jurisdiction, which is claimed by Episcopacy at this Day: Which, if it were not intended to be left as a perfect pattern to succession; the whole Church of Christ should have been left in the dark, without any direction for the succeeding administration thereof: Those charges are plainly given, not to many, but to one; and do most manifestly imply, not a party, but preeminence and power.  
And if the example of the best Churches must carry it: What Church could be more pure, and more fit for our imitation, than the Primitive? And that part of it which immediately followed the Apostles of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ? And do not you full well know, that our Histories, and unquestionable Author's name the men, whom those Apostles, by imposition of hands, ordained to this function? Do not Ignatius, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Polycrates, Egesippus, Clemens, Eusebius, Jerome instance in those persons, who succeeded each other in those first Sees? If you tell me of the difference betwixt the Episcopacy of those first Ages of the Church, and that of the present times; I do willingly yield it, but, withal, I must add, that it is not in any thing essential to the calling, but in matters outward, and merely adventitious; the abatement whereof (if it should be found needful) diminisheth nothing from the substance of that holy institution; What can be more express, then, in the ancientest of them, the Blessed Martyr, Ignatius, the mention of the three distinct degrees of Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons; encharged with their several duties which were yet never intermitted and let fall to this present day; How frequently, and vehemently doth he in his genuine Epistles (twice in that to the Ephesians) call for due subjection to the Bishops and the Presbytery? How distinctly doth he in his Epistle to the Magnesians, name their Bishop, Dama; their Presbyters, Bassus, Appollonius, Stephanus? How doth he in his Epistle Ad Trallianos set forth the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and and the Presbytery, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. And if any man shall be so unjustly scrupulous, as to call into question the credit of this gracious Author, (reserved, no doubt, by a special providence, for the conviction of the Schisms of these last times) therein outdoing Vedeliu● himself, (who stoutly asserteth some of these Epistles, whiles he rejects others as supposititious) let him cast his eyes upon the no less famous, and holy Martyr, and Bishop, Polycarpus; 
Iren. advers. Haeres. l. 3. c. 3.  who (as Irenaeus, an unquestionable Author tells us, one, whose eyes beheld that Saint) did not only converse with those that had seen Christ, but also was by the Apostles constituted in Asia, Bishop of the Church of Smyrna. Let him, if he can, deny Cyprian the holy Martyr and Bishop of Carthage, writing familiarly to the Presbyters, and Deacons there; sometimes gravely reproving them; sometimes fatherly admonishing them of their duties; in divers of his Epistles. Let him deny, that his contemporary Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, acknowledgeth 46. Presbyters committed by the Catholic Church, to his charge: Shortly, let him, if he stick at this truth, deny that there was any Christian Church of old, any History.  
All which duly considered, I would fain know what reason can be showed, why that ancient, yea first government by the Bishop and his Presbytery, received, and with all good approbation and success, used in the Primitive Church, and derived (though not without some faulty omissions, and intertextures, which may easily be remedied) until this present day, should not rather take place; then a government lately, and occasionally raised up in the Church, for the necessity, or convenience of some special places, and persons; without any intention of an universal rule and prescription.  
If you shall say that this Government by Bishops hath been found, by sad experience, hitherto, a block in the way of perfect Reformation, destructive to the power of Godliness, and pure Administration of the Ordinances of Christ; give me leave to answer; That, first, I fear, the Independent part, will be apt to say no less of the Presbyterian; boldly pressing their defects, both in constitution, and practise; and publicly averring, the exquisitely-reformed way to lie betwixt the Episcopal, and Calvinian, which they have had the happiness to light upon; neither want there those, who, upon challenge of further illumination, tax those Semi-separatists, as coming far too short of that perfection of Reformation, which themselves have attained.  
Secondly, I must, in the fear of God, beseech you here to make use of that necessary distinction, betwixt Callings, and Persons; for it oftentimes falls out, that the Calling unjustly suffers for that, whereof only the Person is guilty; Let the Calling be never so holy, and the rules of Administration never so wise, and perfect; yet if the person, in whose trust they are, be either negligent, or corrupt, or impotent in ordering his passions and carriage, it cannot be but all things must go amiss, and much disorder and confusion must needs follow to the Church of God; and if such hath been the case in some late times, why should the blame be laid upon the calling, which both is innocent, and might have been better improved? Give me a Bishop (such there have been, and such there are, let D. Potter the late Bishop of Carlisle, for instance, be one) that is truly conscionable, pious, painful, zealous in promoting the glory of God, ready to encourage all faithful Preachers, and to censure and correct the lazy, and scandalous; careful of the due imposition of his hands; meek and unblameable in all his carriage; and now tell me how the government of such an one (regulated by the holy and wholesome Laws of our Church) can be said to be obstructive to the success of the Gospel, or to destroy the power of Godliness? certainly; if all be not such, the fault is in the men; their Calling doth not only admit of, but incites them to all virtue and goodness; whereof if they be defective, let the Person take off the blame from the Function.  
Neither doubt I to affirm, that it may well be made good, that the perfectest Reformation, which the Church of God can be capable of, here upon earth, may consist with Episcopacy, so regulated, as it may be, if it please the High Court of Parliament to pitch upon that course: And indeed how can it be conceived, that the careful inspection of one constant, prudent, and vigilant overseer, superadded to a grave and judicious Presbytery, should be any hindrance to the progress of godliness? Especially, when he is so limited by the bounds of good laws and constitutions, that he cannot run out, without the danger of a just censure; There are already many excellent rules of Government, if they were awaked, and actuated by full authority; and, where there is any deficiency, more might be easily added to make the body of Church-Lawes complete.  
To give a taste of what may be effected, with very little or no alteration of one Form of Government to another.  
I remembered one of our Brethren of Scotland, in a Discourse tending to the advancing of the Presbyterian way, tells us, that Dr. Montague, the late worthy Bishop of Winchester, asked King James of blessed memory, (whose sweet affability the world well knew) How it came about, that there were so few heresies, and errors of doctrine, broached, and prosecuted, to the public disturbance of the Church of Scotland? Unto which, the wise and learned King is said to have returned this Answer; That every Parish hath their Pastor, ever present with them, and watching ever them; That the Pastor hath his Elders and Deacons, sorted with him; That he, with them, once a week, meets at a set time and place, for the censure of manners, or what ever disorder falls out in the Parish; so as he, by this means, perfectly knows his flock; and every aberration of them, either in matter of opinion, or practise: And lest any Error, or Heresy may seize upon the Pastor; they have their Presbyteries, consisting of several Shrivalties, which meet together in the chief Town or City next to them, every week also once; and have there their exercise of Prophesying; after which, the Moderator of the said meeting asks and gathers the judgements of all the said Pastors, concerning the doctrine then delivered, or, of any other doubtful point, that is then and there propounded; And if the said Presbyters be divided in their opinions, than the question is, under an enjoined silence, put over to the next Synod, which is held twice a year; unto that all the Pastors of that Quarter, or Province, duly resort; accompanied with their Elders; the Moderator of the former Synod gins the Action; then a new Moderator is chosen for the present, or (as it seldom falls out) the last Moderator, by Voices, continued.  
Any Question of doubt being proposed, is either decided by that meeting, or (if it cannot be so done) is, with charge of silence, reserved till the National Synod, or General Assembly; which they hold every year once: Whither come not the Pastors only, but the King himself, or his Commissioners; and some of all Orders and Degrees, sufficiently authorized for the determining of any controversy, that shall arise amongst them. Thus he. And certainly this bears the face of a very fair and laudable course, and such, as deserves the approbation of all the wellwillers to that discipline: But let me add, that we either have, or may have, (in this very same state of things, with some small variation) in effect, the same Government with us; only there wants some care and life in their execution, which might, without much difficulty, be redressed; Every Parish hath, or by Law ought to have their Minister ever present with them; and carefully watching over them. Instead then of their Pastor, Elders and Deacons; we have in every Parish, the Minister, whether a Rector, or Vicar; Churchwardens, Questmen, or Sidemen, and Overseers for the Poor; and in places of any eminence, a Curate or Assistant to the Rector, who is a Deacon at least; These may, and aught, and in some places do duly meet together, every week, on a set day in their Vestry; and decide such differences as happen amongst them; and may well be enjoined, to take notice of such abuses and misdemeanours, as are incident into their Parish, for their speedy reformation, within the Verge of their own power.  
In stead of their Presbyteries, consisting of several Pastors, we have our number, and combination of Ministers, in the Divisions of our several Deaneries; under which are ranged all the Ministers within that circuit; Over whom the Rural Dean (as he is called) is every year chosen, by the said Ministers of that division, as their moderator, for the year ensuing; whose office (if it were carefully looked unto, and reduced to the original institution) might be of singular use to God's Church; This Deanery, or Presbytery, consisting of several Pastors, may be enjoined to meet together every month, or oftener (if it seem fit) in some City or Town next unto them; and may there have their exercise of prophesying, as I have known it practised in some parts of this kingdom; and as it is earnestly wished and recommended, by that excellently-Learned Lord Verulame, late Lord Chancellor of England, in his prudent considerations: and then, and there, may endeavour to decide any doubt, that may arise in their several Parishes; either concerning the doctrine of their Minister, or scruple in cases of conscience, and may trans●ct any public business that may concern their whole division; But if any such matter or question should arise, as their divided opinions cannot fully determine; it may (under charge of silence) be put over to a more public meeting; which is the Synodal assembly of the Clergy held twice a year, under the moderation (hitherto) of the Archdeacon; and if there the question fail, of a full determination, it is, or may be referred, (with like silence and peace) to a Diocesan Synod, which may be held every year once; under the presidency of the Bishop; and if yet the decision come not home, it may be referred to the determining of a Provincial Synod, or yet higher, to a National: So as in these cases of doubts, or errors, if men would not be wanting to themselves, nothing needs to be wanting in the state we now stand in, to the safety, and happiness of our Church.  
For matter of ordination of Ministers; the former constitutions of our Church have deeply enjoined the presence, and assistance of those, who, by their original institutions, are the Presbytery of the Bishop, at, and in, the examination, and allowance of the persons to be ordained; requiring also, the joint-imposition of those hands, which attested the sufficiency of the said Examinants'; not without a severe sanction of two years' suspension, of the act of Ordaining, to pass upon any Bishop, or Suffragan, that shall be found failing in any of the particulars; the qualification of those that are to be ordained, is in our Canons already set forth, with much caution; for their age, their degrees, their abilities, the testimony of their holy conversation; neither need I doubt to affirm, that he, who (besides all other circumstances of Education) is able to give a good account of his faith in Latin, according to the received Articles of the Church of England, and to confirm the same by sufficient testimonies, out of the holy Scripture, may be thought competently fit, (for matter of knowledge) to enter upon the first step of Deaconship; which the wisdom of the Church hath (according to the Apostles rule) appointed (not without a sufficient distance of time) in way of probation, to the higher order of Ministry; forbidding to give both orders at once; and requiring, that he, who is ordained Deacon, shall continue a whole year, at least in that station, except, upon some weighty reasons, it shall seem fit to the Bishop, to contract the time limited: and, lest there should be any subreption in this sacred business, it is Ordered, that these Ordinations should be no other than solemn, both in respect of time & place; neither ought they to be, nor in some places are, without a public precognization of lawful warning affixed upon the Cathedral Church door, where the said Ordination shall be celebrated; and over and besides the charge, that none shall be admitted to be a Candidate of holy Orders, but he who brings sufficient testimonials of his good life and conversation, under the seal of some College in Cambridge or Oxford, or of three, or four grave Ministers, together with the subscription and testimony of other credible persons, who have known his life & behaviour, by the space of three years next before; it is well known to you, that before the act of ordination there is public Proclamation made to the whole Assembly, that if any man knows any crime or impediment in any of the persons presented, for which he ought not to be ordained, that he should come forth and declare it before any hand be laid upon his head, for his full admission.  
Notwithstanding all which care of our dear Mother the Church of England; if it shall be thought meet, that any further act of Trial, shall pass upon those, which are suitors for Ordination, how easily may it be ordered, that at the monthly (or, if need be, more frequent) meeting of the Ministers, within the same Presbytery, or Deanery; they may be appointed to make trial of their gifts, and undergo such further examination of their abilities, as shall be thought requisite, ere they shall be presented, and admitted by the Bishop, and his Presbytery to that holy function.  
And whereas it is much stood upon, that it is meet the people, (whose souls must have right in him, to whose trust they are committed) should have some hand in their consent to that Pastor, by whom they must be fed; it must be said, that besides their devolution of their right to the patron, who, as their trustee, presents a Minister for them, it may be no prejudice at all to the power which by Law and inheritance is settled upon the patron, that the person whom his choice pitches upon, be appointed beforehand to preach, (for a trial) to that Congregation to which he is so designed; and if either for his voice, or other just exceptions he be found unmeet for them, that another, more fit may be recommended by the said Patron to the place; but if through faction, or self-will, or partiality, the multitude shall prove peevish, and fastidious, they may, in such a case, be overruled by just authority.  
As for matter of censures, it may not be denied, that there hath been great abuse in the managing of them, both upon Ecclesiastical persons, and others: suspension of Ministers upon slight, and insufficient causes, both ab officio, and beneficio, hath been too rife in some places of latter times; and the dreadful sentence of excommunication hath too frequently, and familiary passed upon light and trivial matters: How happy were it, if a speedy course may be taken, for the prevention of this evil; In the conference at Hampton-Court, a motion was strongly made to this purpose, but without effect; if the wisdom of the present Parliament shall settle some other way for the curbing of contumacious offences against Church-authority, it will be an act worthy of their care and justice. In the mean time, as for this, and all other Ecclesiastical proceed, it may with much facility, and willing consent of all parts, be ordered, that the Bishop shall not take upon him, to inflict either this, or any other important censure, without the concurrence of his Presbytery; which shall be a means (in all likelihood) to prevent any inconvenience that may arise from the wont way of Judicature.  
As for the co-assession of a Lay-presbytery, in swaying these affairs of Church-government; Ye well know how new it is; some of you might have been acquainted with the man that brought it first into any part of this Island; and what ground there is for it, either in Scripture, or antiquity, I appeal to your judgement: Surely the late learned Author of the Counsel for the reforming the Church of England, (although otherwise a vehement assertor of the French Discipline) ingenuously confesseth, that however those Protestants which live under Popish Governors, have done wisely, in deputing some choice men, selected out of their congregations, whom they call Elders, to share with their pastors, in the care and management of Ecclesiastical affairs; Yet those Protestant Churches which live under the government of Protestant Princes, may with the safety of those respects, which mutually intercede betwixt Pastors and People, forbear any such deputation: for as much, as the supreme Magistrate, transfers (for the most part) to himself, that which is the wont charge of those deputed Elders; concluding, that those men, do merely lose their labour who so busily endeavour on the one side, to disprove the antiquity of the Lay-Eldership; and, on the other, by weak proofs to maintain, (clean contrary to the mind of the Apostle) that the text of Saint Paul (1 Tim. 5.17.) is to be understood of Pastors, and Lay-Elders; Thus he; with what fair probability, I leave to your judgement.  
Neither is it any intention of mine to meddle with any piece of that government, which obtaineth in other the Churches of God; but only, to contribute my poor opinion, concerning the now-to-be-setled affairs of our own.  
What shall I need to suggest unto you the dangerous underwork of other Sects? secretly endeavouring to spring their hidden mines to the overthrow both of the one government, and the other; whereof, without speedy remedy, perhaps it will be too late to complain; no doubt, the wisdom, and authority of that great Senate (whom ye also serve to advise) will forthwith interpose itself to the prevention of those mischiefs, which the variety of these heresies, and sects (though some of them cloaked with the fairest pretences) threaten to this poor Church: It is no boot for me to tell you, that the less disunion there is, the more ground of safety; and that where the holy purposes of Reformation may be effected, with the least change, there must needs be the most hope of accordance.  
The rest to the wise application of the powerful and judicious; It is enough for me to have thus boldly shot my bolt amongst you; and to have thus freely discovered my honest, and well meant thoughts to so able judgements; What I want in my poor endeavours shall be supplied with my prayers, that God would be pleased to compose all our miserable distractions, and to put an happy issue, to the long and perilous agitations of this woefully tottering and bleeding Church and Kingdom; Which the good God of Heaven vouchsafe to grant for his great mercy's sake, and for the sake of the dear Son of his love Jesus Christ, the Just. Amen  
Philalethirenaeus. Septemb. 12. 1644.   

Certain IRREFRAGABLE PROPOSITIONS WORTHY OF SERIOUS CONSIDERATION.  By J. H. B. of EXON. 

1.  
NO man may swear, or induce another man to swear unlawfully.   

2.  
IT is no lawful Oath that is not attended with Truth, Justice, and Judgement, Jer. 4.2. the first whereof requires that the thing sworn be true: the second, that it be just: the third, that it be not undue, and unmeet to be sworn and undertaken.   

3.  
A Promissory Oath which is to the certain prejudice of another man's right, cannot be attended with Justice.   

4.  
NO prejudice of another man's right can be so dangerous and sinful, as that prejudice which is done to the right of public and Sovereign Authority.   

5.  
THe right of Sovereign Authority is highly prejudiced, when private subjects encroach upon it; and shall, upon suspicion of the disavowed intentions, or actions of their Princes, combine, and bind themselves to enact, establish, or alter any matters concerning Religion, without (and therefore much more if against) the authority of their Lawful Sovereign.   

6.  
A Man is bound in Conscience to reverse and disclaim that which he was induced unlawfully to engage himself by Oath to perform.   

7.  
NO oath is, or can be of force, that is made against a lawful oath formerly taken; so as he that hath sworn Allegiance to his Sovereign, and thereby bound himself to maintain the right, power, and authority of his said Sovereign, cannot by any second oath, be tied to do aught that may tend to the infringement thereof: and if he have so tied himself, the Obligation is, ipso facto, void and frustrate.   

COROLLARY.  
IF therefore any sworn Subject shall by pretences and persuasions, be drawn to bind himself by Oath or Covenant, to determine, establish, or alter any act concerning matter of Religion, without, or against the allowance of Sovereign Authority, the act is unlawful and unjust, and the party so engaged is bound in conscience to reverse and renounce his said act: Otherwise (besides the horrible scandal which he shall draw upon Religion) he doth manifestly incur the sin of the breach of the third and fift Commandments.   

Two, as undoubted Propositions concerning Church-government.  
1.  
NO man living, no History, can show any well-allowed and settled Nationall Church in the whole Christian World, that hath been governed otherwise then by Bishops, in a meet and moderate imparity, ever since the times of Christ and his Apostles, until this present Age.   

2.  
NO man living, no record of History can show any Lay-Presbyter that ever was in the whole Christian Church, until this present Age.   

COROLLARY.  
IF men would as easily learn as Christian wisdom can teach them, to distinguish betwixt callings and persons, betwixt the substance of callings, and the not necessary appendances of them, betwixt the rules of Government, and the errors of Execution, those ill-raised quarrels would die alone.  
Da pacem Domine. Amen. J. E.    

VIA MEDIA. The way of Peace IN THE FIVE BUSY ARTICLES Commonly known by the Name of ARMINIUS. TOUCHING 

1. Predestination.  
2. The Extent of Christ's Death.  
3. Man's freewill and corruption.  
4. The manner of our conversion to God.  
5. Perseverance.   Wherein is laid forth so fair an Accommodation of the different Opinions as may content both parts and procure happy accord.  
By J. H. D. of Worcester.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year MDCLX.   

TO THE KING'S Most Excellent MAJESTY.  
May it please your Majesty,  
THere needs no prophetical Spirit to discern by a small Cloud, that there is a storm coming towards our Church, such a one, as shall not only drench our plumes, but shake our peace. Already do we see the Sky thicken, and hear the winds whistle hollow afar off, and feel all the Presages of a Tempest, which the late example of our Neighbours bids us fear. It boots not to persuade your Majesty to betake yourself to your Chariot, to outride the shower, since your gracious compassion would not be willing to put off the sense of a common evil: Rather let me take boldness to implore your Majesty's seasonable prevention: Only the powerful breath of your Sovereign authority can dispel these Clouds, and clear our Heaven, and reduce an happy Calm. In the mean time give leave to your well meaning Servants, to contribute their best wishes to the common Tranquillity. I see every Man ready to rank himself unto a side, and to draw in the quarrel he affecteth: I see no Man thrusting himself between them, and either holding, or joining their hands for peace: This good (however thankless) office I have here boldly undertaken, showing how unjustly we are divided, and by what means we may be made, and kept entire. A project (which if it may receive life, and light from your gracious eyes, and shall by your Royal command be drawn into speedy practice) promiseth to free this noble and flourishing Church from a perilous inconvenience. Let it be no disparagement to so important a motion, that it falls from so mean a hand, than which, yet none can be more sincerely consecrated to the service of your Majesty and this Church, the mutual happiness of both which, is dearer than life to  
Your Majesty's most humble, and faithful devoted Subject and Servant JOS. HALL..   

THE First Article OF GOD'S PREDESTINATION.  
1 WHatsoever God, who is the God of truth, hath engaged himself by promise to do, the same he undoubtedly hath willed, and will accordingly perform.  
2. There is no Son of Adam, to whom God hath not promised, that, if he shall believe in Christ, repent, and persevere, he shall be saved.  
We must receive God's promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scriptures, and in our do, that will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God.  Artic. of the Chu. 17. 
Est generalis, & conditionata voluntas, seu generalis promissio Evangelica, etc. docens promissiones divinas sic amplectendas esse, ut nobis in sacris literis generaliter propositae sunt.  D. Overal. de 5. Artic. in Belgio controversis. Art. 1. 
3. This general, and undoubted will of God, must be equally proclaimed to all Men through the World without exception, and aught to be so received, and believed, as it is by him published, and revealed.  
Est quidem decretum hoc annuntiativum salutis omnibus ex aequo, & indiscriminatim promulgandum. Theol. Britan. Dordrac. in Acts Synodi in Thesibus heterodox.  Thes. 1. 
Gratiam communem & sufficientem in mediis divinitus ordinatis, si homines verbo Dei Spirituique sancto deesse noluerint, etc.  D. Overal. Artic. 1. 
4. All Men (within the Pale of the Church especially) have from the mercy of God such common helps towards this belief, and Salvation, as that the neglect thereof makes any of them justly guilty of their own condemnation.  
In Ecclesia, ubi juxta promissum hoc Evangelii, salus omnibus offertur, ea est administratio gratiae quae s●fficit ad convincendos omnes impenitents & incredulos, quod sua culpa voluntaria, & vel neglectu, vel contemptu Evangelii perierint, & oblatum beneficium amiserint.  Theol. Britan. Dordrac. de Art. 2. Thes. 5. 
5. Besides the general will of God, he hath eternally willed, and decreed to give a special, and effectual grace to those, that are predestinate according to the good pleasure of his will, whereby they do actually believe, obey, and persevere, that they may be saved: so as the same God, that would have all Men to be saved, if they believe, and be not wanting to his Spirit, hath decreed to work powerfully in some, whom he hath particularly chosen, that they shall believe, and not be wanting to his Spirit in whatsoever shall be necessary for their salvation.  
Deinde in secundo loco, ut succurreret humanae infirmitati, etc. voluisse addere specialem gratiam magis efficacem & abundantem, quibus placuerit communicandam, per quam non solum possint, sed etiam actu velint, credant, obediant & perseverent.  D. Overal. Art. 1. 
He hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of Mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as Vessels made to honour; wherefore they which be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in them in due season, they through grace obey the calling, they be justified freely, they be made sons of God by adoption, they be made like the image of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, they walk religiously in good works, and at length by God's mercy they attain to everlasting felicity.  Art. of Relig. Art. 17. 
6. It is not the prevision of faith or any other grace, or act of Man, whereupon this decree of God is grounded, but the mere, and gracious good will, and pleasure of God from all eternity appointing to save those, whom he hath chosen in Christ, as the head and foundation of the elect.  
7. This decree of God's election is absolute and unchangeable and from everlasting.  
8. God doth not either actually damn or appoint any soul to damnation without the consideration and respect of sin.  
Non ex praescientia humanae fidei, aut voluntatis, sed ex proposito divinae voluntatis, & gratiae de his, quos Deus elegit in Christo liberandis & salvandis.  D. Overal. Art. 1. 
Particular decretum absolutum.  D. Overal. ibid. 
Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby before the foundations of the world were laid, he hath constantly decreed, etc.  Article of Relig. 17. 
Deus nominem damnat, aut damnationi destinat, nisi ex consideratione peccati.  Theol. Britan. Dordr. Artic. 1. de reprob. Thes. 5.  

Of Christ's Death.  
DEus lapsi generis humani miseratus, misit filium suum, qui seipsum dedit pretium redemptionis pro peccatis totius mundi.  
Nemo mortalium est qui non possit vere, & serio per Ministros Evangelii vocari ad participationem remissionis peccatorum, & vitae aeternae per hanc mortem Christi.  Theol. Brit. Dordr. de 2 Art. Thes. 3. 
GOd pitying the woeful condition of man fallen by his free will into sin, and perdition, sent his own Son, that he should give him himself as a ransom for the sins of the whole World, so as there is no living soul, that may not be truly, and seriously invited by his faith to take hold of the forgiveness of his sins, and everlasting life by the virtue of this death of Christ with certain assurance of obtaining both.  
In hoc merito Christi sundatur universale promissum Evangelicum, juxta quod omnes in Christum credentes remissionem peccatorum & vitam aeternam re ipsa consequantur.  Theol. Britan. Dordrac. ibid. Thes. 4. 
2. Upon this infinite merit of Christ's death is grounded that universal promise, and covenant of the Gospel, offering remission, and salvation to all Men through the whole World, if they be not wanting to the receipt thereof.  
Illud pretium quod solutum est pro omnibus, & quod omnibus credentibus certo proficiet ad vitam aeternam, non proficit tamen omnibus, etc.  Theol. Brit. Dordr. de Art. 2. Explic. Thes. 3. 
3. Notwithstanding this infinite merit of Christ's death, the fruit and benefit thereof doth not accrue to all Men, but to those only who do apply the virtue of his death by faith.  
Constat Christum proponendo Evangelium, etiam illam gratiam internam administrasse, quae hactenus sussiciebat, ut ex eo quod non acceptarent, vel rejicerent Evangelium juste coargui possint infidelitatis.  Theol. Britan. ibid. in explicat. Thes. 5. 
In Ecclesia, & ubi salus omnibus offertur, ea est administratio gratiae quae sufficit ad convincendos omnes impenitents, & incredulos, quod sua culpa voluntaria, & vel neglectu, vel contemptu evangelii perierint, ut supra.  
4. Those within the Church especially, that do not reap this benefit by the death of Christ perish manifestly by their own default, forasmuch, as God hath ordained, that wheresoever the gracious promise of the Gospel shall be preached, there shall be, and is withal ordinarily so much supernatural grace offered together with the outward means, as may justly convince the impenitent, and unbelieving of a wilful neglect, if not a contemptuous rejection.  
5. Besides this general promise of the Gospel, God hath decreed to give a special, more abundant, and effectual grace unto his elect, whereby they may be enabled certainly, and infallibly to apply unto themselves the benefit of Christ's death, and do accordingly believe, and persevere, and attain Salvation.  
3. Supposita morte Christi pro omnibus hominibus, & intention Dei conditionata de gratia promissionis Evangelicae generali, addit intentionem Dei specialem de applicando beneficio mortis Christi per gratiam magis abundantem, & efficacem absolute, certo & infallibiliter solis electis fine praejudicio reliquorum.  D. Overal. ibid. Art. 2.  

The Third and Fourth ARTICLE Of Man's Corruption, His Free-will, His Conversion to God, and the Manner of it.  
OMnes consentiunt liberum arbitrium nihil boni posse sine gratia praeveniente, comitante, subsequent, ita ut gratia teneat principium, medium, & finem, in conversione, & fide, & omni opere bono.  D. Overal. ibid. Art. 3. 
1. Man's will since the fall hath of itself no ability to any Spiritual Act: every good motion of it must come from the Grace of God preventing▪ accompanying, following it, yea naturally it is inclinable to all evil.  
In voluntate Scilicet lapsa est potentia passiva ad esse hoc supernaturale extrinsecus adveniens recipiendum, non autem activa ad idem, vel per se, vel cum alio producendum,  Theol. Brit. de Artic. 3. & 4. Thes. de conversione 2. 
Ipsam voluntatem bonam faciendo vivisicat,  Epist. Synod. Episc. Afric. cit. ibid. 
2. There is not therefore in the will of the natural man any active power to work his own conversion: In the regeneration God infuseth a new life, he quickeneth the will by making it good.  
Sunt quaedam opera externa ab hominibus ordinarie requisita priusquam ad statum regenerationis, aut conversionis perducantur.  
3. There are yet certain foregoing acts, that are prerequired to the conversion of a man, and they are both inward and outward.  
Quae ab iisdem quandoque libere fieri, quandoque libere omitti solent, ut adire Ecclesiam, audire verbi praeconium, & id genus alia.  ibid. 
4. Outward as to go to the Church, to sit reverently, to hearken to the word spoken: In these we have freedom of will either way.  
Sunt quaedam effecta interna ad conversionem sen regenerationem praevia, quae virtute verbi, spiritusque in nondum justificatorum cordibus excitantur, qualia sunt, notitia voluntatis divinae, sensus peccati, timor poenae, cogitatio de liberatione, spes aliqua veniae.  ibid. Thes. 2. 
Non solet gratia divina homines perducere per subitum Enthusiasmum sed multis praeviis actionibus ministerio verbi subactos, & praeparatos.  ibid. in explic. Thes. 2. 
5. Inward as the knowledge of God's will, the feeling of our sin, the fear of hell, the thought of deliverance, some hope of pardon; for the grace of God doth not use to work upon a Man immediately by sudden raptures, but by meet preparations, informing the Judgement of his danger, wounding the conscience by the terrors of the law, suppling it by the promises of the Gospel: These inward Acts tending towards conversion are by the power of the word, and Spirit of God wrought in the heart of a Man not yet justified.  
Quos Deus mediaente verbo per spiritum suum hunc in modum afficit, eos ad fidem conversionemque vere, & serio vocat, & invitat,  Theol. Brit. ibid. Thes. 3. 
6. Those whom God thus affects by his word, and Spirit, he doth truly and seriously call, and invite to faith, and conversion.  
7. Those whom he hath thus affected, and called, he forsakes not, neither ceaseth to further in the way to their conversion, till through their willing neglect, or repulse of this initial grace, he be forsaken of them.  
Quos ita afficit Deus, non deserit, nec desistit in vera ad conversionem via promovere, priusquam ab illis per neglectionem voluntariam, aut hujus gratiae initialis repulsam deseratur.  
Hi praecedanei effectus virtute verbi spiritusque rebellis voluntatis vitio suffocari, ac penitus extingui possunt, & in multis solent, adeo ut nonnulli in quorum mentilus virtute verbi, spiritusque impressa fuit aliqualis notitia veritatis divinae, dolour de peccatis suis, aliquod desiderium, & aliqua cura liberationis mutentur plane in contrarium, verita●em rejiciant, & odio habeant, concupiscentiis suis se tradant, in peccatis occalleant,  ibid. Thes. 5. 
8. These foregoing inward acts wrought by the word, and Spirit both may be, and are many times through the fault of the rebellious will choked, and quenched in the hearts of Men; so as after some knowledge of divine truth, some sorrow for sin, and desire, and care of deliverance they fall off to the contrary, and give themselves over to their own lusts.  
Ne Electi quidem ipsi in his praecedane is ad regenerationem actibus ita se gerant unquam, quin ut propter negligentiam & resistentiam suam possint just a Deo deseri & derelinqui; sed ea est erga eos Dei specialis misericordia, ut quam vis, etc. Eos tamen iterum, iterumque urgeat Deus, nec desistat promo vere donec eosdem gratiae suae prorsus subjugaverit, ac in statu filiorum regeneratorum collocaverit,  Theol. Br. ibid. Thes. 6. 
9 Yea the very elect of God do not so carry themselves in these foregoing Acts, but that they do ofttimes justly deserve for their neglect and resistance to be forsaken of God; But such is his special grace and mercy to them, that he notwithstanding follows them effectually with powerful helps till he have wrought out his good work in them.  
Gratiam specialem, & essicacem ad salutem certo perducentem, his, quos Deus ex beneplacito suo gratioso elegerit, propriam profitetur,  D. Overal. in Art. 3. Sent. 3. 
10. When the hearts of his elect are thus excited, and prepared by the foregoing Acts of grace, God doth by his secret, and wonderful work regenerate, and renew them, infusing into them his quickening Spirit, and induing all the powers of their soul with new qualities of grace, and holiness.  
Deus animos electorum suorum praedictis gratiae suae actibus excitatos, & praeparatos intima quadam, & mirabili operatione regenerate, & quasi de novo creat infundendo spiritum vivificantem, & omnes animae facultates novis qualitatibus imbuendo,  Theol. Br. de convers. Thes. 1. 
11. Upon this conversion, which God works in the heart, follows instantly our actual conversion to God, whiles from our new changed will, God fetches the act of our believing, and turning to him. He gives that power, which the will exercises: so as it is at once both ours, and Gods; ours in that we do work; Gods, in that he works it in us.  
Praedictam conversionem sequitur haec nostra conversio actualis Deo perliciente ipsum actum credendi, & convertendi, ex mutata voluntate quae acta adeo agit & ipsa convertendo se ad Deum, & credendo; hoc est actum suum vitalem simul eliciendo,  ibid. 
12. In working upon the will, God doth not overthrow the nature of the will, but causeth it to work after its own native manner, freely, and willingly, neither doth he pull up by the roots that sinful possibility, which is in our nature to resist good motions, but doth sweetly, and effectually work in Man a firm and ready will to obey him, his grace is so powerful, that it is not violent.  
Divina haec actio non laedit voluntatis libertatem, sed roborat, neque tamen extirpat radicitus vitiosam resistendi possibilitatem, sed & pravitatem ad resistendum motibus spiritus sancti; sed haec resistibilitas propter efficacissimam, & suavissimam motionem gratiae nequit in actum hic & nunc erumpere, huic gratiae resisti nequit, quia primum operatur velle, id est non resistere, etc.  ibid. in explic. Thes. 2. 
Deum cum voluerit, & quibus voluerit gratiam tam abundantem, tam potentem, aut congruam, aut alio modo efficacem concedere, ut quamvis possit voluntas ratione suae libertatis resistere, non tam●n resistat, sed certo & infallibiliter obsequatur,  Dr. Overal. in Artic. 4. 
It is true that whiles our natural concupiscence reigns in us we have not only a possibility but a proneness to resistance which yet is by the gracious and effectual motion of God Spirit so over ruled, that it breaks not forth into a present Act, for God works in us to will, that is, not to resist: Yea the very will to resist, is for the time taken away by the power of grace.  
Deus hominem conversum, & fidelem non ita semper movet ad bonos actus subsequentes, ut tollat ipsam voluntatem resistendi, sed quandoque permittit illam vitio suo deficere a ductu gratiae, & in particularibus multis actibus concupiscentiae suae parere,  Theol. Br. ibid. Thes. 3. 
13. God doth not always so work in the regenerate, that he doth ever take from them this will to resist, but sometimes suffers them through their own fault to give way to their own sinful desires; for howsoever in those principal Acts, which are absolutely necessary to Salvation the grace of God works powerfully in the elect, both the will, and the deed in his own good time, yet in some particular acts, he thinks good for his own holy purposes to leave the best Men sometimes to themselves, who do thereupon grieve his good Spirit by a recoverable resistance.  
Oportet semper discrimen statuere inter illos actus principales, sine quibus salus Electorum non constat, & particulares subsequentes actus, etc.  ibid. in explic.  

Of the Fifth ARTICLE OF PERSEVERANCE.  
QUibusdam non electis conceditur quaedam illuminatio supernaturalis, cujus virtute intelligant ea, quae in verbo Dei annuntiantur esse vera; iisdemque assensum praebent minime simulatum. In iisdem ex hac cognition, & fide oritur affectuum quaedam mutatio, & morum aliqualis emendatio, non electi huc usque progressi ad statum tamen adoptions & justificationis nunquam perveniunt,  Theol. Br. de 5. Art. Thes. 1, 2, 3, 4. 
1. EVen among those, which belong not to the election of God there are some, that are enlightened by supernatural knowledge, and give their assent to the truth of the Gospel, receiving the same with some joy, and from that knowledge, and faith find some change in their affections, and lives, who yet howsoever they may pass in the judgement of charity, never attained to that hearty renovation, which is joined with justification, nor yet to the immediate disposition thereunto, and therefore were never in the true State of the adoption of Sons; these may utterly fall away from that grace, which they have professed.  
Unde constat ●os nunquam reipsa pertingere ad illam mentis, & affestuum mutationem, & renovationem, quae cum justificatione conjuncta est; imo nec ad illam, quae proxime praeparat, ac disponit ad justificationem,  ibid. in explic. 4. Artic. 
Idem regeniti ac justificati quandoque suo vitio incidunt in atrocia peccata,  ibid. Thes. 3. de persever. 
2. The true believer, and regenerate hath no immunity, or privilege, whereby he is secured from falling into those horrible sins, which are committed by others.  
Indignationem Dei paternam incurrunt, damnabilem contrahunt,  etc. ibid. 
Ita ut dum in eo statu impoenitentes persistunt, nec de●eant, nec possint aliter sibi persuadere, quam se esse morti obnoxios,  in explic. ejusd. Art. 
3. Whiles he continues in those sins, he runs into the displeasure of God, and is in the guilt of damnation, so as he neither can, nor aught to persuade himself other, than that abiding in this State impenitent, he is obnoxious to eternal death.  
Talis peccator stat merito suo damnandus,  Theol. Br. ibid. Thes. 5. 
Jus ad regnum non tollitur, etc. Jure regni haereditario excidere non potest,  in explic. Art. 6. 
Tertia sententia Ecclesiae Anglicanae ponit cum Augustino credentes quidem communiter posse a gratia, & fide per carnis infirmitatem & tentationis recidere & etiam deficere; sed addit illos credentes, qui secundum propositum vocati sunt, quique in fide viva solide radicati fuerint, non posse totaliter, aut finaliter deficere, & perire, sed per gratiam Dei specialem, & efficacem ita in fide vera, & viva perseverare, ut tandem ad vitam eternam perducantur,  D. Overal. in Art. 5. 
4. Howsoever such a one stands by his own desert in the State of damnation, yet those who are sound rooted in a true, and lively faith, lose not all their right to the inheritance of Heaven, neither can either totally, or finally fall from grace, and perish everlastingly: But by the special, and effectual favour, and inoperation of God are kept up, and enabled to persevere in a true, and lively faith, so as that at last they are brought to eternal life.  
These are the Articles of accord, which whosoever holdeth and resteth in, my soul betwixt him, and his harms in the ignorance of further particulars. Let there be a thousand parcels, and Atoms of truth contained in these heads, there needs no more be known, perhaps not all these, let there be no fewer errors in misholding those other manifold shreds of opinion, yet these are no rubs in our way to Heaven: And if now having consented in these chief specialties, we will needs fall out about immaterial inferences, we are like to quarrellous brethren, who having agreed upon the main division of their inheritance, fall out about some heaps of rubbish. Away with this unquiet Spirit from us, that profess Christians; what should these Mattocks and hammers sound in the living Temple of the holy Ghost?  
Men, Brethren, Fathers help; who sees not a dangerous fire kindling in our Church by these five fatal brands? which if it be not speedily quenched, threatens a furious eruption, and shall too late die in our ashes. That crafty Devil, that envies our peace, takes this perilous season to distract us, that so we might fall as a prey to a common Enemy. It is not yet too late to redress this evil: A few Pailsfull may yet seasonably extinguish this weak flame, which time will make headstrong, and irremediable. Let me boldly say, it is not disputation, it is not Counter-writing that can quench it; These courses are but the bellows to diffuse, and raise these flashes to more height, and rage; we saw it in the practice of our neighbours, never did that Belgic quarrel grow to extremity, till after the solemn conference before the States at the Hague, which was intended to appease it. There is no possible redress, but in a severe Edict of restraint to charm all tongues, and pens upon the sharpest punishment from passing those moderate bounds, which the Church of England, guided by the Scriptures hath expressly set, or which on both sides are fully accorded on. If any Man herein complain of an usurpation upon the conscience and an unjust servitude, let him be taught the difference betwixt matters of faith, and Scholastical disquisitions: Those have God for their author, these the brain of Men, Those are contained in Scriptures, either in express Terms, or irrefragable consequences; these are only deduced thence by such crooked inferences as cannot command assent; Those do mainly import our Salvation, these not at all. Those are for the Pulpit, these for the Schools; In those the heart is tied to believe, the tongue must be free to speak, In these the heart may be free, the tongue may be bound, of this latter sort are the points we have now in hand, besides, and after the accorded particulars, which how unfit they are for popular ears, and how unworthy to break the peace of the Church, shall appear in the difficulty of the questions in the unimportance of the ill raised differences.  
Visum sapientissimo numini obscuritate quadam & locorum ambiguitate involvere haec mysteria.  
For the former we need no other Judge then St. Austin himself, who calls this question of predestination, whereon the rest depend, Questionem difficillimam, & paucis intelligibilem, a question most difficult, and which but few can understand. What need we any other witness then the learnedst followers of Arminius, who in their Epistle to foreign Divines confess that it hath seemed good to the most wise God to involve these mysteries in obscurity, and in an ambiguity of places seemingly contradictory.  
Haec ipsa de praed. perplexa, spinosa & obscuritate sua molestissima, ibid.  
And some Pages after, they profess to subscribe to the Judgement of all Divines, both ancient, and modern, that these questions of predestination being perplexed, thorny, and troublesome through their obscureness, may without all detriment of Salvation be either unknown, or discussed.  
Neither was that comparison of Strigelius amiss, who likens the place of predestination in Divinity to the Cossick Rule in Arithmetic. But what an idleness were it to prove the danger of the passage through these Sands, and Rocks, when we see the Shipwrecks? Where ever did the great Doctor of the Gentiles cry O altitudo but, in this point? To fall upon these discourses then in popular auditories, what were it other, then to teach Algebra to those, that yet know not their figures, or to turn them lose into a perilous Sea, who know neither Coast, nor Card, nor Compass.  
But were the knowledge of these differences as necessary as it is hard, the difficulty should but whet our appetite, and encourage our industry; what if it appear there is as little use, as ease in the common Canvases of them; and that when the noise of passion is stilled on both sides, so as each will but hear other speak with just favour, and moderation, our variance shall be proved less material than may be worthy of the war of Brethren. This shall be made good in our following discourse, which I entreat both parts in the bowels of Jesus Christ to examine without prejudice, as that which proceeds from an heart sincerely devoted to truth and peace. The Judge of all hearts, before whom I stand, knows with what honest intentions to the welfare of this noble Church, with what freedom from all partial affections, with what indignation at these unseasonable troubles, with what zeal of the common tranquillity, I put my hand to this too necessary (if thankless) task. Who can tell whether God did not purposely send me to be a witness of these quarrels abroad, that I might be able to speak a word in season for their appeasing at home.  
That we may distinguish the parts without any aspersion, I shall crave leave to call the followers of the Tenet of the Synod of Dort, Defendants: The other, which vary from these, following the steps, either of acute Arminius, or of our learned, and judicious Bishop Overal, Opponents. The Netherlands are out of our way in this quarrel, yet for the nearness, both of the place, and cause let us touch there in our passage. Now then let us take a short survey of the particular differences, and call each part to the nearest verge of an accord.  
The first is the point of predestination, concerning which, three things are wont to be questioned. 1. The motive or ground. 2ly. The object. 3ly. The order of it.  
Neque fidem, neque infidelitatem causam esse impulsivam decreti Dei, sed liberrimam Dei voluntatem volentis hujus misereri, illius non misereri: damus tamen fidem, & infidelitatem conditiones esse, sine quibus, nec hunc salvare, nec illum praeterire ex puro puto beneplacito visum fuit Deo.  Epist. Remonstr. ad ext. p. 38. 
For the first, both parts hold there is no other impulsive cause of God's Decree of Election, or reprobation, than the free will, and pleasure of the Almighty: Only the one part holds, that God's decree looks at faith, and infidelity, as conditions in those, who are to be chosen, or refused: The other easily grants that no Man is elect but the believer, no Man reprobate, but the rebellious, and unbeliever, although they will not put these as forerequired conditions into the act of God's decree. Why should the mere supposal of a condition be worth their quarrel, since it is yielded on all hands, that in God's decree of our justification he looks at our faith, as a necessary condition required thereunto, without any derogation to the perfect freedom of that his gracious decree. If faith may be granted not to be in our own power, but that it is the gift of God, there can no main inconvenience follow upon this Tenet, that God in our election had an eye to our qualification with that faith, which he would give us.  
An quisquam dicere audehit Deum non praescisse quibus esset daturus, ut crederent, aut quos daturus esset filio suo, ut ex iis non perderet quenquam.  Aug. de bono persev. c. 14. 
Prius si dicant Deum in nobis fidem, & perseverationem operari, nihil est, cur nobiscum certent, sequitur enim, Deum in homine non potuisse plus boni praescire, quam ipsemet in 〈◊〉 electo suo efficere decrevit.  Contra Rem. in Colloq. Hag. p. 26. 
Thus the Belgic Defendants: if they grant (say they) that God works in us faith, and perseverance, there is no cause, why they should contend with us; for it follows, that God could not foresee more good in Man then he decreed to work in him, as his elect one.  
Quaestio est, non Utrum Deus, cum hominem eligit, etc. Sed an cum confideraverit, ut jam credentes dono, & gratia Dei, etc.  
Now hear how close the opponents profess to come. The question is not, saith Corvinus, one of their learnedst Authors, Whether God when he chose Man considered him, as who, by the power of nature, without the help of grace, should believe, but whether God considered him, as now believing by the gift, and grace of God: This is it (saith he) which Arminius teaches, who acknowledges faith to be the pure pute gift of God.  
Hoc dicit Arminius, qui fidem agnoscit purum putum Dei donum,  Jo. Ar. Corvin. advers. Tilen. p. 32. 
Would we not now think both parts agreed? The Defendants do but desire, that faith may be granted to be the mere gift of God. The Opponents profess to grant it; what do they now pretend to stick at, a needless scruple?  
Equidem Arminius agnoscit fidem. Dei donum esse, sed donum in eligendo praerequisitum, & non ex electione, sed alia Dei voluntate datum.  ibid. Coru. p. 54. 
How faith is granted to be a fruit of Election to Grace see Remonstr. scripta dogmat. Declar. Sent. 1. p. 9  
Faith is considered, say the Opponents as a gift of God; but whether proceeding from his election, or from another will of his, this saith Corvinus is the question. But why should this question trouble their peace, or what can this subtlety afford able to countervail a public unquietness, while it is agreed by them, that God foresees nothing in us, but the faith of his own giving, let the Schools care for the rest. Some will perhaps suspect a secret fraud in this so liberal grant of the Belgic Opponents, that faith is the mere gift of God, and some will perhaps imagine, that it might be a word, which dropped casually from their tongue, whereof they might after repent.  
Fidem esse Dei donum & potentia ejus in nobis effici millies in in eadem collatione confessi sumus  Jo. Arnol. resp. ad notas Bogermani part. 2. c. 7. 
But for this latter let Johnnes Arnoldi their best advocate speak for all. That faith is the gift of God and is wrought in us by his power, we have (saith he) a thousand times confessed in our conference at the Hague. For the other, I take not upon me either their procuration, or their patronage, This work were both busy, and impertinent: much perplexed traverse of consequences affirmed, and denied goes to this task. Let it be their part to make good their protested sincerity in that assertion, which for peace sake I gladly report from them at the best, and this piece of the quarrel shall receive a fair mitigation: Only I must needs say that in the contentions of brethren it is far more equal to receive their own best constructions then to urge and obtrude upon them disavowed implications. Surely there is need both of wisdom, and Charity in the discerning of opinions concerning this point. To hold, that faith is the gift of God, as that is given to all them, whom God foresaw would dispose themselves by the good use of their freewill to receive it, and who should improve the powers of nature to their utmost, is no better than Pelagian, whose exploded word was of old, that grace is given according to merit. To hold that faith is so the gift of God, as that it is therefore only not given to all, because all will not receive it, for that God calleth all, and gives unto all men sufficient helps to believe, if they will, and goes no further, and therefore that according to the prevision of our free coworking with this sufficient grace his decree determines of us, is but somewhat better than Pelagian. To hold that faith is so the gift of God, as that he doth not only give common, and sufficient helps to men, whereby they are made able to believe, if they will, but so works in them by his grace, that they do by the power thereof actually believe, and conceive true faith in their soul; This is fair, and Orthodox. And even to this do the Belgic opponents profess to come up in their late dogmatical writings, 
Electionis vero quae ad gratiam est fructus, etc. Beneficio illorum mediorum quae per gratiam suppeditantur homo non tantum potens redditur ad credendum, sed actu etiam credit & fidem concipit, etc.  
Beneficio illius solius gratiae in omnibus qui credunt ea ingeneretur & efficiatur.  Remonstr. Scripta Dogm. Declar. Sent. circa 1. Artic. which how fitly it holds suit with their other Tenants, let it be their care to approve unto the Church of God. I am sure an ingenuous constancy to this position might be a fair advantage taken for peace.  
For the Second: the question is, upon what point of Man's Estate, we should fasten the decree of predestination, whiles the one part holds Man fall'n the object of this decree; The other Man believing, or incredulous. What reason is there this should raise so loud a strife, since we do willingly wink at the rest of the differences of like nature concerning this point. For there are fix several opinions about the object of predestination; whiles some take it to be Man indefinitely, and commonly considered: Others hold it to be Man, that was to be created: Others Man, as he was creable, fallable, saveable; others Man created, but as in his pure naturals: Others Man fall'n, which is the most common Tenet. Lastly others man, as believing, or disobeying the call of God. 
Luc. Irelcat. Cal. Be—  Why should these two last be brought upon the Stage with so much profession of hostility, whiles the other four are passed over by a willing connivency on all hands, and the Authors of them (whose reputation so small a mote is not thought worthy to disfigure) go away with meet honour in the Church of God. There is none of the four first, which, upon some straining, may not yield harsh, and unpleasing consequences, and yet are let go without the mischief of a public division. I must boldly say (reserving my judgement concerning this point to myself) that if this supposed faith may be yielded the mere gift of God (as formerly) I cannot discern any so dangerous inconvenience in this branch of the opinion, as should warrant the breach of the common Peace.  
As for the order, what do we brawling about our own conceits? We all know there is but one most simple Act of God in this his decree, wherein therefore there can be neither precedency not posteriority.  
If we now, for our understandings sake, shall so express this one act of God, as that, whiles we vary in the explication, we are confounded in our own senses, what do we, but fight with our own shadows. That God requires faith as necessary to Salvation is granted of all; but in what place it comes into his decree, there is the doubt. One part makes four distinct acts of God's decree, wherein the general purpose of mercy to Mankind through his Son Christ Jesus, to save believers, and the gift of necessary means for the attaining of faith comes before the special decree of saving those particulars, whom he foresaw would believe, repent, persevere; and contrarily the other makes fewer decrees in a contrary order, placing the decrees of particular election to life before the ordination of the means tending thereunto: So as faith, and perseverance issue from this special decree of choosing individual persons to life. Why should we be distracted in the abstractions of our own making and not rather rest silent, and wondering in the acknowledgement of the simplicity of that one act of the infinitely wise God, who doth Uno intuitu, see Man creable, created, fall'n, redeemed, believing, which our shallow capacities shall in vain labour to comprehend. Surely it were the better posture of our hands, to have one of them laid upon our lips, the other lifted up for admiration, then to employ them in buffeting each other for an invincible ignorance, or misprision of that, which our finite nature can never admit us to know: O God, what do we search, or quarrel to miss those ways of thine, which are past finding out!  
Quod aiunt contra Rem. Deum ab aeterno certas quasdam personas segregasse, ut eas per Christum, perque fidem in ipsum salvaret, non quia praevideret illas credituras, sed●ex mera tantum gratia secundum beneplacitum suum, sed & hoc decretum Dei esse aeternum, & immutabile, etc. Haec descriptio ita laxa est ut etiam & nostrum pedem addmittat:  Colloq. Hag. p. 81, Remonstr. vindic. 1. Art. 
That we may consider all these jointly together, that God hath set apart certain particular persons to save them by Christ, and by faith in him, not because he foresaw they would believe, but of his mere grace only according to his good pleasure; and that this decree is eternal, and unchangeable, is agreed on by both sides, This description the Belgic Opponents grant to be so wide a shoe that it will serve their foot also.  
Sed si personas certas vel singulares intelligant tanquam singulares, ac perinde extra Christum, & fidem consideratas, id vero pernegamus Rem.  ibid. p. 83. 
Contra Rem. Neque nos unquam diximus singulares illas personas, quas Deus ab aeterno elegit plane extra Christum, & fidem esse consider and as, ut qui semper rotunde professi sumus, merita Christi, fidem in ipsum in electione ista singularium personarum adeo spectari, & haberi pro mediis, quibus eos Deus statuit ad salutem perducere,  Colloq. Hag. contra. Rem. pag. 140. 
And why then should either part seek or care for any other Last? Surely a Christian needs not either search or know any more. Now comes in a Scholastical quirk to trouble the peace of men's hearts, and brains, Whether God have set apart these certain singular persons, as persons singular without all respects to any other considerations. or whether his decree looked at them as invested with those qualities which he meant to give and foresees as given? Doubtless to make Men capable of Salvation, there is faith, repentance, good works, perseverance in good actually required of God; But these necessary dispositions are ranged under the execution of God's decree: These he requires, these he gives, these he works, these he decrees to work in his; why should we be scrupulous in what place they come into the holy purposes of God, which we grant cannot be missing in our way to Heaven? Why do we not rather labour to be such, as he requires, that we may enjoy what he hath promised, and preordained for us? What say the Belgic Defendants? Neither did we ever say, that those singular persons, whom God chose from all eternity were to be considered without respect to Christ, and faith in him, but have ever roundly professed, that the merits of Christ and faith in him are considered of God in this election of individual persons, as means, whereby he hath decreed to bring them to salvation; see then how narrow this difference is, God hath decreed by these means to bring men to salvation, yet these fall not into his decree of ordinary choice to salvation, they are in the execution of his decree, and in the decree of his execution, they are not in the decree of his election. Let these be undoubted truths, as they are, yet what need the souls of quiet Christians be racked with so subtle questions? It well befits the Schools to examine these problems, but for common Christians it doth not so much concern them to inquire, how the order of God's decree stands in our apprehension of that one simple act of the divine understanding, or will, as how it is in respect of the execution: Here comes in our main interest in these eternal Councils of the Almighty, which draws from us a due care, and endeavour to be capable of this promised salvation, and to avoid the ways of death: Can we be persuaded to take more from that speculation, and to add more to this practice, it would be much happier for us.  
Neither is this election according to the Plea of the opponents made ever the more uncertain by this prerequisition of our faith, since they profess to teach it supposed in our election, not as a condition, whose performance God expects, as uncertain, but as a gift, which God according to his eternal prescience foresees in Man present, and certain; as the decree of sending Christ into the World, did not depend upon a conditioned, and uncertain expectation of what Man would do, or would not do, but upon the infallible notice of God, who foresaw Man, as presently sinning, or fall'n, so as the election of God is not suspended upon the mutability of Man's will, but upon the infallible certainty of the foreknowledge of God, to whose eyes our faith, and perseverance is not more doubtful, then future, and whose prescience hath no less infallibility, than his decree. If therefore God may have the sole glory of this work in the gift of that faith, which he foresees, and our election hazards no certainty (as they profess to hold) what is there, that should need to draw blood in this first quarrel.  
But what need I labour to reconcile these opinions, which have no reason to concern us. The Church of England according to the explication of R. B. Overall goes a midway betwixt both these. For whiles the one side holds a general conditional decree of God to save all Men, if they believe, and a particular decree of saving those, whom he foresaw would believe, and the other side not admitting of that general conditionate decree, only teaches a particular absolute decree to save some special persons, for whom only Christ was given, and to whom grace is given, irresistibly, all others being by a no less absolute decree rejected; our Church (saith he) with St. Austin maintaineth an absolute and particular decree of God to save those, whom he hath chosen in Christ, not out of the prescience of our faith, and will, but out of the mere purpose of his own will, and grace, and that thereupon God hath decreed to give, to whom he pleaseth a more effectual, and abundant grace, by which they only not may believe and obey, if they will, but whereby they do actually will, believe, obey, and persevere without prejudice to the rest, to whom he hath also given gracious offers, and helps to the same purpose, though by their just fault neglected: What can the Synod of Dort in this case wish to be said more? Indeed with all he addeth a general conditionate will of God, or a general evangelical promise of saving all, if they do believe since God doth will, and command, that all men should hear Christ and believe in him, and in so doing, hath offered grace, and salvation unto all, declaring how well these two may agree together, That first God hath propounded salvation in Christ to all, if they believe, and hath offered them (within the Church especially) a common, and sufficient grace in the means, that he hath mercifully ordained, if men would not be wanting to the word of God, and his holy Spirit; and that to ascertain the salvation of man, he hath decreed to add that especial, effectual and saving grace unto some: Neither of which truths can well and safely be denied of any Christian: Only the sound of a general and conditionate will, perhaps, seems harsh to some ears, whereto yet they should do well to inure themselves, since it is the approved distinction of worthy, Orthodox, and unquestionable Divines.  
Deum velle quaedam absolute manifestum esse, & literae sacrae confirmant; etenim voluit mundum creari, etc.  
Eundem Deum velle quaedam conditionaliter docent itidem sacrae literae, vult enim omnes salvari, si velint implere legem, aut in Christum credere; proinde illam priorem voco absolutam voluntatem, hanc vero posteriorem conditionalem.  Opusc. p. 291. 
Caeterum illud tamen verum est Deum velle omnes homines salvos fieri voluntate scil. revelata, & conditionali, nimirum si velint in Christum credere & ejus legi servandae studere, hac enim voluntate nemo a salute, & cognition veritatis excluditur, etc.  ibid. pag. 285. 
Zanchius (in his book de praedest. Sanct.) hath it interminis with a large exposition. That God willeth some things absolutely (saith he) it is manifest, and plainly confirmed by Scriptures; so he absolutely willed the world should be created, and governed, so he absolutely willed, that Christ should come into the World, and die for the salvation of his elect; he wills also absolutely, that the elect shall be saved, and therefore perfomes to them all things that are necessary to their salvation; that the same God willeth some things conditionally, the Scriptures also teach us, For God would have all men to be saved, if they would keep the Law, or believe in Christ, and therefore I call that first an absolute will, this latter a conditional. And in the next leaf to the same purpose, he saith, it is also true, that God would have all men to be saved in his revealed, and conditionate will, scil. if they would believe in Christ and carefully keep his law; for by this will no man is excluded from salvation, and knowledge of the truth. So Ambrose interprets that place of (1 Tim. 2) he would have all to be saved (saith he) if themselves will, for he hath given his law to all, excepts no man (in respect of his law and will revealed) from salvation.  
The Declarative Decree of salvation to be equally, and indifferently proclaimed unto all men.  Act. Syno. in Thes. etc. 
For the further allowing whereof the same Zanchius citys the testimonies of Luther, Bucer, and others. Neither doth it much ablude from this, that our English Divines at Dort call the Decree of God, whereby he hath appointed, in, and by Christ to save those that repent, believe and persevere, Decretum annunciativum salutis omnibus ex aequo & indiscriminatim promulgandum, Sect. 3. Surely it is easy to observe, that we are too fearful of some distinctions, which carry in them a jealousy of former abuse, and yet both may well be admitted in a good sense, and serve for excellent purpose. As that (if we labour for our better understanding to explicate the one will of God by several notions of the antecedent, and consequent will of God; which Paulus Ferrius a reformed Schoolman approves by the suffrages of Zanchius, Polanus, and other Orthodox Divines to look at it a little running, as that, which gives no small light to the business in hand.  
As there is wont to be conceived a double knowledge of God, the one of mere understanding whereby he forknowes all things, that may be, the other of vision, or approbation, whereby he foreknows, that which undoubtedly, shall be so there is a double will to be conceived of God answerable to this double knowledge; an Antecedent will, which answers to the mere understanding, whereby God wills every possible good without the consideration of the adjuncts appertaining to it; A consequent will answering to the knowledge of approbation, whereby (all circumstances prepensed) God doth simply will this, or that particular event, as simply good to be, and which is there upon impossible not to be, The one of these is a will of complacency, the other of prosecution; the one is as it were an optative will, the other an absolute. In the first of these God would have all to be saved, because it is in a sort good in itself, in that the nature of man is ordainable to life, and man hath by God common helps seriously offered for the attaining thereof; neither can we think it other then pleasing to God, that his creatures should both do well and far well. In the latter he willeth some of all to be saved, as not finding it simply good (all circumstances considered) to extend this favour to all; this appears in the effect, for if God absolutely willed it, it could not fail of being, neither doth aught hinder, but these two may stand well together, a complacence in the blessedness of his creature, and a will of his smart. For both that, which we will in one regard, we may not will in another, As we may wish a fellow to live as a man, to die as a malefactor, and besides the possibility of one opposite doth not hinder the Act of another, as he that hath power to run perhaps doth sit or lie.  
Learned Zanchius methinks gives at once a good satisfaction as to this doubt, so to the ordinary exception, whereat many have stumbled, of the pretended mockage of God's invitations, 
De nat. Dei 1.3. c. 4.  where he means not, as some have misconceived, a serious effect. In the parable of the Gospel (saith he) those, which were first bidden to the marriage feast, and came not, were they therefore mocked by the King, because he only signified unto them, what would be acceptable unto him, and what was their duty to perform? and yet he did not command them to be compelled, as he did the second guests to come to the wedding? Surely no, yet in the mean time, there was not the same will of the King in the inviting of the first, and of the second, for in these second, there was an absolute will of the King, that they should without fail come, and therefore he effectually caused them to come; In the former he only signified, and that fairly, and ingenuously, what would be pleasing to him: Thus he. The entertainment of this one distinction, which hath the allowance of Orthodox, and learned Authors, to be free from any danger, or inconvenience, would mitigate this strife, since it is that, which the Opponents contend for, which the Defendants may yield without any sensible prejudice.  
As for the envy of that irrespective, and absolute decree of reprobation, wherewith the Defendants are charged, it is well taken off, if we distinguish, as we must of a negative, and positive reprobation, The latter whereof, which is a preordination to punishment, is never without a respect, and prevision of sin, for although by his absolute power God might cast any Creature into everlasting torment, without any just exception to be taken on our parts, yet according to that sweet providence of his, which disposeth all things in a fair order of proceeding, he cannot be said to inflict, or adjudge punishment to any soul, but for sin, since this is an act of vindicative justice, which still supposeth an offence. If this be yielded by the Defendants (as it is) wherein also they want not the voices even of the Romish School, what needs any further contention? especially whiles the defendants plead (even those that are most rigorous) that upon the nonelection of some, damnation is not causally but only consecutively inferred. 
Non causaliter sed consecutive Perk. de praedest.  Sure I am, that by this, which is mutually yielded on both parts, all mouths are stopped from any pretence of calumniation against the justice of the Almighty, and we are sufficiently convinced of the necessity of our care to avoid those sins, which shall otherwise be rewarded with just damnation.  
Let this be enough for the first Article, less will serve of the rest.  
Concerning the extent of Christ's death, the Belgic Opponents profess to rest willingly in those words of Musculus. Omnium peccata tulit, etc. He hath born the sins of all Men, if we consider his sacrifice according to the virtue of it in itself, and think, that no Man is excluded from this grace, but he that refuses it, So God loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son to the end, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. J. 3.6. But if we respect those which do so believe, and are saved, so he hath borne only the sins of many. Thus he. Neither will the Opponents yield any less. What is this other, than the explication of that usual distinction, which we have, whether from St. Austin, or his Scholar Prosper of the greatness of the Price, and the propriety of the redemption: That equal to all; This pertaining but to some: That common word seems enough to the Belgic Opponents: The price of Christ's blood is sufficient to save all; and if this may serve their turn, who can grudge it? Contrarily whiles they do willingly grant, that in respect of the efficacy of power, Christ died not for all, and that Christ was given only with this intention of his Father, that the World should not otherwise be saved by his Son, then through faith; what need we urge more?  
Magnitudinem precii distinguit a proprietate redemptionis.  Colloq. Hag. p. 161. 
Christum pro multis duntaxat, & non pro omnibus mortuum quo ad efficaciam virtutis, &  c. p. 171. 
Nulli hominum singulariter annuntiatur Christum pro ipso mortuum non esse.  Col. Hag. p. 155. 
Both will grant that the Apothecary's shop hath drugs enough for the cure of all diseases, which yet can profit none, but those that are willing to make use of them. Both will accord in this position, which B. Overal commends, as in effect the words of worthy Mr. Calvin, So Christ died for all that there is no man (if his incredulity did not hinder him,) but were redeemed by his precious blood; Neither is there, as is willingly confessed by the Defendants, any man living, to whom, it may be singularly said, Christ died not for thee: Seeing therefore whole mankind doth but result of singular, and individual men, why should we fear to say unto all, that Christ died for them? Now what should we stand upon a niggardly contestation of words where so much real truth is mutually yielded? Who can think, there can be any peril to that soul, who believes thus much? The rest to the Schools. But what ever have been the nice scruples, and explications of Foreign Divines, we have no such cause of strife, if we admit that which our learned Bishop commends for the voice of the Church of England, who having laid down the two extreme opinions of the opposite parts, brings in the Church of England as sweetly moderating betwixt both, that she supposing the death of Christ for all men, and God's conditionate intention of the general grace of his Evangelical promise, adds moreover the special intention of God, to apply the benefit of Christ's death by a more abundant, and effectual grace absolutely, certainly and infallibly to the Elect alone, without any diminution of that his sufficient, and common favour, which, as we see so yields to both parts what they desire, as that in the mean time, it puts upon both what they are not greatly forward to admit, yet that which it puts upon them may be admitted without any complaint, except perhaps of excess of Charity, and that which is yielded is abundantly enough for peace.  
These Articles are like to links of a chain, whereof one is riveted within another. The Order of God's decree would not be stiffly stood upon, if our faith and perseverance foreseen by him be clearly ascribed to God, as his mere and only gift. But now the Defendants are jealous of some encroachments, upon the glory of God's only Act in our conversion, in that, they apprehend it according to the Tenet of the adverse part left in our power to entertain, or reject the good motions of his Spirit tending thereunto; whereto the Opponents answer, that they are studiously careful to ascribe unto God the sincere glory of our conversion, professing that they do not teach, (as hath been usually objected to them) that God gives man only proffers of power to believe, which his own freedom may either except, or refuse, but teaching openly (if their words may carry belief) that God gives him the whole power of believing by the illumination of his mind, and vivification of his will, yet so as that in the mean time, God, whiles he gives this new power to believe, doth not take away the natural liberty of the will, whereupon the man, whose will is renewed both may work according to the power of that renovation, and may not work according to the radical freedom of his will, both may use his new power, as a spiritual man, and not use it in part, as a natural man, wherein they urge the distinction betwixt the power and the liberty of our freewill, confessing that in this state of sin the will hath no power at all to that which is good, but that it hath (mean while) a natural Liberty, whereby it can incline to evil, the new power that is given to man, doth not make him cease either to be a man, or a man in part.  
Man hath it not therefore from any power of nature, that he can believe, that is merely from the grace of God; But still he hath it from the remainders of himself, that he can will not to believe, neither do the Opponents profess to say other concerning the first act of Conversion, than the Defendants themselves say concerning the progress thereof, wherein they teach, that a renewed man hath freedom of Will both to good, and evil, and yet stand for the mere and all only power of grace, not occasionally, but causally working the will to good; And if this must be yielded in the proceed of our regeneration, what so great importance is there either way in yielding it to the entrance? I do not inquire into the truth of this point, I inquire into the weight; surely these Questions of the concurrence of the Spirit of God with ours; so as neither the will is necessitated on the one side, nor flattered with a wild liberty on the other: And how far necessity may stand with freedom and what kind of necessity may be here admitted? are points fit to be ranged amongst the deepest problems of the Schools, and not fit to torture the ears of popular auditories.  
Ad nauseam usque inculcamus nihil ex se aut suis viribus hominem posse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, fidei & conversionis gratiae deberi, etc.  
Nusquam hominem boni quicquam agere dicimus nisi gratia praeveniente, concomitante, subsequent ad jutum instructumque.  Rem. Epist. ad ext. p. 62, 63. 
For the main point it must needs be said; no man can speak more fully against the natural power of man's free will, and abilities in spiritual things, than the Belgic Opponents, professing, That, of himself, and his own powers, man can do nothing; That the beginnings, proceed, end of faith, and conversion are owing to mere grace: That no good can come from us unless we be enabled by the preventing, accompanying, subsequent grace of God.  
It is the word of Arminius cited by our late learned Bishop of Salisbury: Give what you will to grace so you hold it not irresistible. Nothing is here stood upon, but the manner of the working of grace upon the hearts, wherein, if both parts would hear and understand each other with favour, the controversy would be found little other, then Verbal. For the part, that most constantly teaches the forceableness of conversion, holds such a kind of actuating the will, as doth no whit hurt, or infringe the liberty thereof; yea rather, which profits it, and whiles they speak of an irresistible act in turning us, they mean not such an act, as cannot be at all resisted, if we would, but such a one, as the will through God's gracious inclination would not wish to resist, for that, their will to resist is so overcome by the sweet motions of God's Spirit, that now yieldance is made powerfully voluntary; In which sense the very Jesuits themselves confess an irresistibility. Bellarmine, Suarez, 
Valent. disp. 8. q. 3. p. 4.  Valentia and others granting it as impossible there should not be a conversion, where there is an effectual grace, as, that there should not be a conversion, where there is a conversion.  
D. Abbot exerc. 2. ex Arm. declare. ad ord. omnia gratiae ascribantur modo ne statuatur irresistibilis.  
Omnia gratiae ascribantur modo ne statuatur irresistibilis,  Arm. (cit. per R. Abbot. ep Sarisb.) e declare. ad ord. p. 56. 
Quicquid sit constanter docent omnes hunc modum actuandi liberum arbitrium ejus libertati nihil nocere imo maxime proficit illam.  Paul. Fir. spec. Scholar p. 487. 
Now whether this irresistibleness be out of a consequent supposition, as the Jesuits, or out of an antecedent, as the Dominicans with many of ours; or whether this powerful influence into the will be by way of a Physical, or moral motion, they are subtleties fit for Schools, not meet to trouble the heads of ordinary Christians; It is enough for us to know, that we will to consent, because God works this will in us strongly, yet sweetly, and by an omnipotent facility, so as no free will of ours resists God's will to save us, as St. Austin pithily.  
Trahitur ergo miris modis, ut velit, ab illo, qui novit intus inipsis hominum cordibus operari, non ut homines, quod fieri non potest, nolentes credant, sed ut volentes ex nolentibus fiant,  Aug. contr. 2. Epist. Pelag. 
To dispute then of the power of that will to resist, which God hath made willing to yield, what is it but to strive about the passage of those sheep which neither are bought, nor ever shall be?  
Man is in a marvellous manner drawn to will by him, that knows to work inwardly in men's hearts, not that they should believe, whether they will, or no, which is impossible, but that of unwilling, they should be made willing saith St. Austin.  
True, God makes us willing of unwilling, and so we resist not. But how doth he make us willing? Whether by an irresistible manner of working in us, or not; this say the Opponents is the main question; Surely so, as that to use Aquinas his word, the will is impelled, though not compelled; so as, that though there is in the nature of the will a freedom, and capacity of agreeing, or dissenting, in respect of itself, yet as it is for the present moved, and actuated by the effectual inclination of the Almighty, now it so sways one way, as if it had for the time put off the power of refusing: What need we then trouble ourselves with these upstart terms of Resistible and Irresistible; Let it content us, that the gracious inoperation of God effectually draws the heart of man to will, to receive, to entertain the happy motions of his good Spirit to our renovation: If we yield not this to God we yield nothing, and if we give him this, he will not quarrel us for more.  
But what place sooner these differences have found in Foreign Schools, and Pulpits, ours have reason to be free, if we shall listen to that wise, and moderate voice of our church, which our forecited reverend Author commends unto us, who after the relation of the two extreme opinions resteth in this, Medio tutissimus: that men are so stirred and moved by Grace that they may, if they attend thereunto, obey the grace, which calleth, and moveth them; And that they may, by their freewill also resist it. But withal, that God, when he will, and to whom he will gives such an abundant, such powerful, such congruous, otherwise effectual grace that although the will may in respect of the liberty thereof resist, yet it resists not, but doth certainly, and infallibly obey: And that thus God deals with those whom he hath chosen in Christ, so far as shall be necessary to their salvation. Who so cannot sit down quietly in this decision me thinks should be no friend to peace.  
And if any man stumble at the first clause, as at the threshold of this sentence; Let him know, that our Divines at Dort have in effect said no less, whiles having yielded to man's freewill in those external works, which are required of us before our conversion, and supposing certain effects in the way to our conversion, which are wrought by the power of the word, and spirit, in the hearts of men not yet justified, add further, that those whom God thus affects by his word and Spirit, those he doth truly, and seriously call, and invite to faith, 
Theol. Bri●. Dord. de Art. 2. Thes. 5.  and conversion, and that Christ in his death not only founded his Evangelical covenant, but hath also obtained of his father, that wheresoever this Covenant shall be published, there also should ordinarily such a measure of grace be administered as should be sufficient to convince all impenitent, and unbelieving men of neglect, or contempt. And lastly, that whom God thus affects, he forsakes not, nor ceaseth to promote in the way of their conversion, till he be first forsaken of them by a voluntary neglect or contempt of this initial grace.  
But what need any proof hereof whiles that clause speaks but of a common grace, and the persons, to whom this liberty is ascribed, are such, as by that learned B. are contra-distinguished to them, which are truly called according to the purpose of God. Let us go, but so far, as these two guides will jointly lead us, it will be bootless to quarrel about any further discovery.  
Hanc nostram esse sententiam prositemur, hominem de salute aete●na cortum esse posse, & debere, solam Dei gratiam esse perseverantiae causam supernaturalem, quae sacit, ut voluntas nostra perseverare & possit & velit.  Rem. Ep. ad ext. p. 75. 
Concerning the fifth Article of perseverance. The Belgic Opponents at first spoke timorously, professing not absolutely to hold a possibility of the total, or final defection of true believers, only suspending their opinion, and rather inclining to the affirmative, but afterward they grew to a strong resolution of that, whereof they formerly but doubted; In whose writings yet, when a Man shall come to read, that a Man may, and aught to be certain of his own eternal Salvation; That the only grace of God is the supernatural cause of perseverance, which makes our will both able, and willing to persevere, he would think there need no more words, that this quarrel were at a happy end.  
But when he shall see them flying off into the distinctions of certainty for the present, and certainty for the future, and dividing this latter into absolute, and conditionate, disclaiming the one, and establishing the other, so as this certainty walks still in even paces with perseverance, and we can only be sure of Salvation, if we continue in faith, and piety; but we cannot be sure we shall continue in either, and hear them conclude it to be both laudable, and profitable for a Christian to nourish these doubts in himself, now he might, as easily be induced to think, that these ends can never meet.  
And yet the opposites strain hard for an accordance, whiles they distinguish of faiths, and yield it fit to consider a faithful Man's Estate in respect of himself, his own weakness, and Satan's frauds, and in respect of the firm promises, and supportations of a faithful God: In regard of the former granting it more than possible, that he should utterly fall away from God; but in regard of the latter fastening their persuasion upon the unremovable Rock of their assurance.  
But what need I launch forth into this foreign deep? Those Opponents, which perseverance meets with in our Church either are, or should be of a softer temper, maintaining only such falling away from grace, as reverend B. Overall stateth for the doctrine of the Church of England, whose last moderation in this point is worthy to be written in Letters of Gold. Having first set down the two contrary Tenets of the opposite parts, he now brings in the Church of England thus (with St. Austin) defining, as from a Celestial Chair.  
That believers, as in a common acception, may through infirmity of flesh, and power of temptation, depart, and fall off from grace, and faith once received, but those believers, which are called according to the purpose of God, and which are sound rooted in a lively faith, can neither totally, nor finally fall away and perish everlastingly, but by the special, and effectual grace of God, do so persevere in a true, and lively faith, that at last they are brought unto eternal Life.  
Now, what wise Christian, can make dainty of admitting so necessary, and just a distinction, since common experience tells us, there are many Meteors, that for the time shine like bright Stars over our heads, which ere long we find under our feet resolved into a base and slimy slough? what heart can desire a more full and satisfying determination, wherein both sides have their own, and we quietly enjoy what is true in both, when thus much is mutually yielded, let him be branded for an enemy of peace, that will further contend.  
Now when the Christian Reader hath seriously perused these differences, especially as they are propounded, and arbitrated by that grave professor, and Prelate of our Church on the one side, and those other our learned, and worthy Divines on the other side; Let me appeal to his better thoughts, what he finds here worthy of a public division? Well may the Schools pick hence matter enough for their Theological Problems, but what should either the Pulpit, or the press do with these busy and bootless brabbles? My Brethren, let our care be to study, and preach Christ, and him crucified: To work the souls of Men to faith, repentance, piety, justice, Charity, temperance, and all other heavenly virtues, that they may find cordial Testimonies in themselves of their happy predestination to Life, and their infallible Interest in the precious blood of their Redeemer: Let us beat down those sins in them, which make them obnoxious to everlasting damnation and strip them of all comfortable assurances of the favour of God: Let us not undiscreetly spend our time, and pains in distracting their thoughts with those Scholastical disquisitions, whereof the knowledge or ignorance makes nothing to Heaven. The way to blessedness is not so short, that we should find leisure to make outroads into needless and unprofitable speculations; Never Treatise could be more necessary in this curious and quarrelous age, than the paucitate credendorum. The infinite subdivisions of those points, which we advance to the honour of being the objects of our belief, confound our thoughts and mar our peace. Peaceable discourse may have much latitude, but matter of faith should have narrow bounds. If in the other, men will abound in their own sense, always let unity of Spirit be held in the bond of peace; since God hath given us change of raiment, and variety of all intellectual provisions, as Joseph said to his brethren, let me to mine; Let us not fall out by the way. Now by the dear bonds of brotherhood, by our love to our common mother the Church, by our holy care, and zeal of the prosperous success of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, Let us all compose our hearts to peace; and rest ourselves in those common truths, which sober minds shall find abundantly sufficient whether for our knowledge, or salvation.  
I have done, and now I make no other account, but that it will fall out with me, as it commonly doth with him, that offers to part a fray; both parts will perhaps drive at me for wishing them no worse than peace. My ambition of the public tranquillity shall willingly carry me through this hazard: Let both beat me, so their quarrel may cease; I shall rejoice in those blows and scars, which I shall take for the Church's safety: men's fingers do so itch after the maintenance of their own opinions, that they can hardly contain themselves from flying upon the fairest moderation of any Umpire. Yet I may safely profess, that herein I have carried myself so indifferently, that as I have hid my own Judgement, so I have rather seemed partial against my own resolutions. If any Man object, that I have not fully stated the questions on both sides, and drawn my accorded propositions out of the heart of those Tenets, which both parts will yield to be their own in an adversaries sense, without waving any consequences, that shall be deduced there from, Let him receive answer to the former of these, that it were a fit task for him, that intended a full tractation of the points controverted, and is already too much done by others, my drift is only to pick out of both what may sound towards concord. He that would describe the way to some remote City of mark, thinks it not needful to map out before the Traveller every Town, and Village of all the Shires, through which he should pass, but only sets down those that lie in his road.  
To the latter, that it is a more strict rule, than needs to be put upon an Agent for peace. For as it is but just on the one side, that every man should be allowed to be his own interpreter, and prejudice and ill will can never make good gloss: So on the other side, it is lawful and meet for moderate minds to make their best use of those savoury and wholesome sentences which fall from the better mood of an adversary, such, so far, as they come home to me, shall gladly reconcile him to me. Let him look how in the rest he can be reconciled to himself; Very shame shall at the last drive such a one (if he be ingenuous) from incompatible propositions.  
In the mean time the good, that he offers, I will not refuse, and leave the evil to his avoiding: As a man, that meets with a slack debtor, will not be unwilling to take what small sums he can get, till either more may come in, or he may conveniently sue for the rest. It is good to hold the ground we have got, till by the power of truth we can recover more.  
Not that I could readily take up with the palpable Equivocations of an Arrius, or Pelagius; No wise Chapman will suffer himself to be paid with slips. Truth, and Falsehood will necessarily descry themselves; Neither is it hard for a judicious Reader to discern a difference betwixt yielding, and dissembling; Where I see a man constant to himself in a favourable assertion, I have reason to construe it, as a fair coming off towards reconcilement. If nothing but the rigour of opinions shall be stood upon, what Hope can there be of Peace? To shut up therefore, if what I have here meant well, be as well taken, and well improved, I shall have comfort in the quieting of many Hearts, and many Tongues: If not, at least I shall have comfort in the quietness of mine own heart; which tells me I have wished well to the Church of God. To whose awful sentence I do m●st humbly submit myself, and these my poor endeavours, professing myself ready to eat, whatsoever word she shall dislike and desirous to buy her peace even with blood.  
Now the God of peace incline the hearts of men, as to zeal of truth, so to love of peace: And since we are fallen upon those points, which are disputable to the world's end (as we see in the practice both of the Romish, and German and Netherlandish Churches) the same God compose the minds of men to a wise moderation, and bind up their lips in a safe, and discreet silence, that if our brains must needs differ, yet our hearts and tongues may be ever one. Amen.   

A LETTER CONCERNING Falling Away FROM GRACE..  
MY good Mr. B. You send me flowers from your Garden, and Look for some in return out of mine; I do not more willingly send you these, than I do thankfully receive the other: I could not keep my hand from the paper, upon the receipt of your Letters, though now in the midst of my attendance: As my desire of your satisfaction calls me to write something, so my other employments force me to brevity, in a question wherein it were easy to be endless: I am sorry that any of our new Excuti-fidians should pester your Suffolk; although glad in this, that they could not Light upon a soil more fruitful of able oppugners: it is a wonder to me, to think that men should Labour to be witty, to rob themselves of comfort: Good Sir Let me know these new Disciples of Leyden; that I may note them with that black coal they are worthy of; Troublers of a better peace then that of the Church, the peace of the Christian soul: they pretend antiquity; What heresy doth not so? What marvel is it, if they would wrest Fathers to them, while they use Scripture itself so violently; For that their first instance of Hymeneus and Alexander how vain it is like themselves?  
Nothing can be more plain than that those men were gross hyppocrites; who doubts therefore but they might fall from all that good, they pretended to have; What is this to prove that a true child of God may do so: but (say they) these men had faith and a good conscience; True, such a faith and goodness of conscience as may be incident into a Worldly counterfeit. Yea but (they reply) a true justifying faith; I think such a one as their own; rather I may say these men deseure not the praise of Himeneus his faith; which is nothing in this place but Orthodox doctrine; How oft doth St. Paul use the word so, to his Timothy, 1 Tim. 4.1. In the latter times some shall departed from the faith; interpreted in the next words, and shall give heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of Devils; and 2 Tim. 3.8. He describes his false teachers by this title, Reprobate concerning the faith; Which I think no man will expound of the grace, but he Doctrine: Yet (say they) there is no necessity binds us to that sense here? But the scope of this place compared with others may evince it; That which follows plainly points us to this meaning (that they might learn not to blaspheme) Their sin was therefore an Apostasy from the Dostrine of the Gospel, and casting foul aspersions upon that profession; so that an opposition to wholesome Doctrine was their shipwreck: They except yet; A good conscience is added to this faith; therefore it must needs be meant of justifying faith; Do but turn your eyes to 1 Tim. 3.9. where (as in a commentary upon this place) you shall find faith and good conscience so conjoined; that yet the Doctrine, not the virtue of faith is signified: St. Paul describes his Deacon there by his spiritual wealth; Having the mystery of faith in pure conscience: No man can be so gross to take the mystery of faith for the grace of faith; or for any other than the same Author in the same chapter calls the mystery of Godliness: It is indeed fit that a good conscience should be the coffer, where truth of Christian Doctrine is the treasure; Therefore both are justly commanded together; and likely each accompanies other in their loss, and that of Irenaeus is found true of all heretics; sententiam impiam, vitam luxuriosam, etc. Yea but Hymeneus and Alexander had both these then, and lost both: They had both in outward profession, not in inward sincerity; that rule is certain and eternal, If they had been of us, they had continued with us; nothing is more ordinary with the Spirit of God then to suppose us such as we pretend; that he might give us an example of Charity in the censure of each other: of which kind is that noted place, Heb. 10.29. And counteth the blood of the Testament wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing; and those unusual eulogies which are given to the Churches, to whom the Apostolical letters were directed.  
This place therefore intends no other but that Himenaeus and Alexander, which were once professors of the Christian doctrine, and such as lived orderly in an unblameable, and outwardly holy fashion to the World, had now turned their copy; cast off the profession which they made, and were fallen both to looseness of manners, & calumniation of the truth they had abandoned.  
For that other Scripture, Rom. 8.12, 13. No place can be more effectual to cut the throat of this uncomfortable heresy: St. Paul writes to a mixed company; it were strange if all the Romans should have been truly sanctified; those which were yet carnal he threats with death, If ye live after the flesh ye shall die; Those which are regenerate (contrary to the wicked paradox of those men) he assures of life; If ye mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, ye shall live: How doth he exclude the Spirit of bondage to fear; which these good guides would lead in again; how confidently doth he aver the inward testimony of God's Spirit to ours; and ascribes that voice to it which bars all doubt and disappointment; and tells us by the powerful assurance of this Abba, we are sons, and if son's heirs, coheirs with Christ; Let them now go and say; that God may disinherit his own son, that he may cast off his adopted: But, say they, to the same regenerate persons he applies these two clauses, and saith at once, ye have received the Spirit of adoption, and yet, if ye walk after the flesh ye shall die; what follows of this commination? any assertion of the possibility of Apostasy in the regenerate? Nothing less: These threats are to make us take better hold, and to walk more warily; as a father that hath set his little son on horseback (it is Zanchies comparison) bids him hold fast, or else he shall fall; though he uphold him the while; that both he may cause him hereby to sit fast; and call the more earnestly for his supportation. But the scope of the place plainly extorts a division of carnal men and regenerate; the threats are propounded to the one, the promises and assurance to the other; and therefore no touch from hence of our uncertainty in a confessed estate of renovation.  
For that Mat. 12.43. The Apodosis, or inference of the parable might well have stopped the mouths of these Cavillers: for you shall find in the end of it; so shall it be with this wicked generation; I suppose no man will be so absurd, as to say these Jews had formerly received true justifying faith; How should they, when they rejected the Messiah? And yet of them is this parable spoken by our Saviour's own explication: Maldonate himself a learned and spiteful Jesuit, can interpret it no otherwise. Ideo Christus hoc dixit ut doceret pejores esse Judaeos, quam si nunquam Dei legem & cognitionem accepissent, and to this purpose he citys Hilary, Hierom, Beda; and this sense is so clear, that unless the seven Devils had found harbour in the dry hearts of these men, they could not so grossly pervert it; Quench not the Spirit, 1 Thes. 5. will never prove a final or total extinction of saving grace; the Spirit is quenched when the degrees of it are abated; when the good motions thereof are by our security let fall; we grant the Spirit may be quenched in tanto not in toto; Or if we should so take it, as they desire; I remember Austin parallels this place with that other to Timothy, Let no man despise thy youth; Not, saith he, that the Spirit can be quenched, or that contempt can be avoided; but that in the one we may not endeavour to do that which may tend towards this wrong to the Spirit; and in the other that we should be careful not to do that which may procure contempt; The place, I remember not directly; but numeros teneo, si verba tenerem: But in all likelihood that place sounds quite another way; as may appear by the connexion of it with those two sentences following; As if he should have said, discourage not the graces that you find in any of your Teachers; despise not their preaching; try their doctrines: And now what is this to the falling from Grace? Which of us do not teach the necessity of perseverance? He only that endures to the end shall be saved; Be faithful to the death, and, etc. But he that hath ordained we shall be saved, hath ordained our perseverance as a mean to this salvation; and hath appointed these sharp advices as the means and motives of our perseverance: So as he that shall be saved shall also endure to the end; Because no man plucks them out of my hand, saith Christ: How evidently doth the Spirit of God proclaim our certainty against these doubt-mongers? Every where is he as full of assurance, as these men of discomfort: He that is borne of God sinneth not, neither can sin, because he is born of God, and the seed of God remains in them; what an invincible, 
1 Jo. 3.3.  and irrefragable consolation is this? The seed of life is sown in the hearts of the elect; though they could be dead to themselves, yet to God they cannot.  
And what a supposition is that of Christ; that if it were possible the very elect should be deceived? Desponsabo te mihi in perpetuum; 
Mat. 24.  
Hos. 2.  and a thousand of this strain, which your exercise in those holy leaves hath, I doubt not, abundantly furnished you withal: hold fast then my dear friend, this sure anchor of our undeceivable hope; and spit in the face of men or Devils that shall go about to slacken your hand; Let these vain Spirits sing despair to themselves; for us, we know whom we have believed; Thus hath my pen run itself out of breath in this so important a demand; and much a do have I had to restrain it; neither would I give you one hours' intermission to my answer; which I know your love cannot but accept, as that which proceeds from a● heart zealous both of God and you.   

Reverendissimo Viro, D o. Marco Antonio DE DOMINIS Archiep. SPALATENSI Epistola DISCESSUS SUI Ad ROMAM dissuas.  
NOli gravate ferre (Reverendissime Praesul) candidam hanc & animi & calami (devotissimi tibi utriusque) libertatem, sane expressit mihi vel renitenti verba haec prius sincerus quidam & religionis zelus & tui. Fama est te discessum a nobis meditari, neque tam loco cedere velle, quam fide; strenua profecto suspicione non caret hoc ipsum proficisci, neque enim cujusquam subire mentem potest hominem senem velle animi causa peregrinari, deferbuit procul dubio jam diu juvenilis ille ardor relictas pridem oras curiose revisendi, nec ita crassi sumus insulares, ut credere possimus coelum te mutare velle, nisi animum prius quadam-tenus mutare decrevisses, multo vero minus septem illos invisos coelo totiesque tuo fulmine ictos colles repetere; novimus & nos sat bene ingenium Romae, ecquem latere potest, nedum hominem cordatum quam infida sit illa statio superbae Hierarchiae expugnatori? Moneat te olim vester Fulgentius, quam nihil ita tutum sit Pontificiae Majestatis tantillo violatori, etiam post fidem (si qua famae fides) sancte datam, post promissa munera, post benignissimae invitationis blanditias. Viderit tua prudentia ut te vel propudiosissima Palinodia, tactaeque quas de jerasti prius, arae liberaverint. O tuam (si quem modo profiteris, sanus & orthodoxus) Romam remeare audeas, miram animi confidentiam, piamque Martyrii sitim, dignam stupore nostro, dignam immortalitate, quin nobis istic liceret & hanc tibi gloriam invidere, & gratulari foelicitatem, sed quam te parum provehat ambitio, est quod non immerito timeamus. Quid ergo? Aegre profecto monuerim opus esse novas profectionis suae raones exponat Reverentia vestra; quas vero tandem illas, si ex fassis liceat (uti plebeis semper licuit conjectari) sanctum quoddam uniendae Ecclesiae studium te Romam, discordae hujusce sacc●rrimam sedem, propellit; machinaturum demum aliquid, quo funcstissimae Christiani orbis lites aliquando sopiantur, ad quod quidem opus instructiorem te aliis omnibus produxisse visus est ille pacis author, animus certe quam non desit memini te alicubi palam profit●ri. Alicubi inquis, a primis clericatus mei annis, in me innatum poene desiderium videndae unionis omnium Christi Ecclesiarum separationem Occidentis ab Oriente in rebus fidei, Austri ab Aquilone aequo animo ferre nunquam poteram, cupiebam anxie tot tantorumque schismatum causam agnoscere, ac perspicere, num possit aliqua excogitari via omnes Christi Ecclesias ad veram antiquam unionem componendi, idque videndi ardebam desiderio, dolore interno animi ex tot dissidiis inter Christianae religionis professores, ex odiis acerrimis inter nobilissimas Ecclesias inflammatis, ex tunica Caristi foede scissa & lacerata concepto, excruciabar. Qui me dolor & nimia tristitia mirum in modum conficiebat, & indies magis conficit in deque ad fervens studium invitabar: Dignam sane piissimo praesule lapsoque o coelis pacis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉? Quis non hunc una & animi candorem & ardorem zeli pronus exosculetur? Percat certe quisquis est, pereat pessume qui descerptissimae Ecclesiae redintegrationem suo ipsius sanguine redemptam ire noluerit. Sed parce si me audis (colendissime praesul) parce huic labori, novimus nos istic, quid possint humanae vires, votis nos una tecum, si lubet, usque contendemus, ut Dei beneficio beet aliquando Christianam Rempublicam pax alma, respiciensque ab alto dissipet tandem omnes errorum inimicitiarumque procellas, quibus hodierno die miserrime conflictamur, sed mortalium quisquis se hoc effectum dare posse sperat, nimio quam frustra est: aut enim exuat se prorsus oportet Romana Ecclesia (quod quis hominum suadere se posse autemet aut hoc profecto nullo modo fi●ri potest; non negarim equidem (dedimus enim & nos strenue, quantum potuimus operam huic instituto) poenes utramque litigantium partem, esse sacra pacis limina quae aliquanto proprius liceret (absque ullo fidei damno) salutare. Nam & leviculae quaedam sunt, quae tuto liceret, alterutrique (si opus foret indulgere, neque quid impedit quo minus in tractandarum (quae necessario obveniunt) controversiarum modo, plus ut●i●que moderationis Christianae possit adhiberi, sed ut unanimem in summis relgionis capitibus (quae nunc est Romae indoles) concordiam incamus (dolens edico) haud minus impossibile est, quam lucem tenebris Beliali Deum consociari. Quam infamis audit hodie Johanis Sturmii media, non secus ac lata illa quae ad imum usque Barathrum deducit via; quam vapulat etiamnum bonus ille Cassander, Friciusque, & quisque moderatioris ingenii theologus, pacis ausus est meminisse? Quin & tepidos hae●eticis suis connumerandos censuit pridem, nec nemo Galicanorum patrum Gualterus quis vero te melius novit, quam mordicus olim tenuerunt Tridentini patres, vel minimas quasque quisquilias, stipulamque suae (quam vocant) fidei? Quibus orbem Christianum penitus conflagrare maluerunt, Romani rerum domini, quam ut tantillum suo qualicunque jure credere viderentur, Ecqua nunc spes est post tot annorum pertinaciam prosusiores veri Pontificios charissimis erroribus ultro ab renunciaturos; nimia profecto fide sit oportet, qui istud crediderit. Eat nunc quis probus monitor & suggerat ista (cujus in pectore conclus a delitescit Ecclesia) Pontifici summo sine modo suadere tibi obsecro sancte Pater, ut fastuosum hunc Papatum, Monarchicumque in Ecclesias Dei imperium abdicare velis, noli Cathedram tuam (quod soles) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venditare; desine tibi post tam apertam tuorum hominum erubescentiam, arrogare gladium illum alterum potestatis secularis; cave tui-ipfius praecepta divinis aequiparanda censeas edicasque. Insigne illud commentum Transubstantiationis, Sacrificii Missatici, Purgatorii ignis, fatere tandem & exsibila, noli Ecclesiam Christianam deinceps ludos facere lucrosis indulgentiarum nundinationibus, jubeas ne sanctorum effigies, reliquiaeve in Idola convertantur. Quid quaeso aliud a magno Romuli nepote nisi facem crucemve reportabit? Quid ergo? ubi steterit palam errorum parentibus simul & patronis, quidvis aut agere, aut pati potius, quam ut a sententia sua, quamlibet impia, ac prodigiosa discedere velint, quid a nobis tandem putat paternitas vestra primaevae veritatis asseclis posse expectari, ut conclamatissimis erroribus dare manus, & plus quam servili jugo Pontificiae Tyrannidis colla subdere, jam sero animum inducamus? Non ita sane & Deum & hominem exuere possumus, ut hac tam insana lege pacem colere mavelimus Alterum profecto horum (si quando convenire lubitum) plane necesse est ut aut illi errare, aut nos recta ire desinamus, illud ipsi valde nolunt, hoc Deus.  
Quod si (qui olim Caesari animus fuisse dicitur) non nisi difficillima quaeque obeundi, idem hodie sacratum Deo pectus insideat promoveatque. Cave tibi Tyrrhenum mare ingressuro a duodecim scopulis, plebi quidem nautarum forfitan incognitis, tibi vero peritissimo naviculatori exploratissimis: minitantur illi scilicet exitium non cymbis modo quotidianis, seu onerariis, seu actuariis, sed ubi eo transfretaveris, sane aut impingat tua navis necesse est, aut subsidat, dicam planius, ne te salus ipsa servare poterit, ubi Romam accesseris quin aut damnatos ā te pridem errores, mutata velificatione revoces, resorbeasque, aut damneris vivi comburio, durum utrunque omen, nec ulla alia ratione, nisi prudenti (quod cautus usque fecisti) profugio avertendum. Potestne fieri ut adeo sis prodigus totius tui, horum uti alterutrum, tuto placideque vitam istic agenti arrideat? Certa mors imminet utrinque reduci, corporis quidem, si verum fateri audes, si dejeratae animae. At at siquidem animo jampridem discessum a nobis anteverteris, non erit ut de diuturniore aliqua molis extimae retentione solliciti simus: Nolo ego de te tanto Theologo mali quicquam-opinari, levis cujusdam inconstantiae si te tuum ip●ius factum palam alligarit, est quod tibi succenseas. Dic mihi vero per Deum immortalem (Magne Presul) quid tandem est, quod te nobis post aliquot annorum moram, jam de subito abripere, Romamque pellicere potuit? Numquid in hospita tibi visa est gens nostra? Minusve quam forte speraras virtutibus tuis indultum? Causari profecto istud non potes, in quem larga benignissimi Regis manus tam ampla, tam opima congessit ultro munera, majora insuper (si foret opus) largitura; quem Aula, Urbs, Academia utraque, plebs denique universa ita suspicere solita est, et venerari. Quin & haec ipsa, qua jam serenissimi Regis beneficio frueris, discedendi libertas, quam ingenue tecum istic actum fuerit, satis clamitat. Non ea patet ubique nobis plenissima eundi qua lubet, redeundique facultas. Fuere e nostris quibus Romam vidisse Capitale pridem fuit, sunt qui ubi saevae urbis limina infelici pede tetigerint, cesserint illico Lictori, jamque septendecem plus minus annos modo usque superesse licuerit) carcere inquisitorio crudelissime detenti sunt. Non ita nos tractamus hostes, non perduelles nostros, nedum advenas; aequo patent istuc coelum & terra: pessimeque de Britannia nostra meriti, hospitium nimis hercle benignum sibi pollicentur. Num tibi ergo parum placuere mores nostri? Paulo forsan depravatiores solutioresque quam par est, vivendi rationes? Obrepent certe vel sanctissimo populo saeculi sui vitia, neque nostros omnes immunes venditamus ab illa malorum illuvie, cujus bonos quosque & piget & pudet serio. Venient scandala, vetus verbum est Servatoris: Atqui teipsum appello testem judicemque, quicquid sumus, non adhuc Italiam impietate exaequavimus. Cedemus profecto non inviti genti Pontificiae, neque illi diram hanc inhonestamque palmam invidebimus. Finge nos (si placet) multo adhuc improbiores, justificabit nos tamen Roma, ipsa Delos Pontificii Apollinis, Itali vice Dei coelum, de qua merito quod olim dixerit Deus, Vivo ego, dicit Dominus Deus, quia non fecit Sodoma soror tua, ipsa & filiae ejus, sicut fecisti tu & filiae tuae, etiam inter Purpuratos Ecclesiae illius Moderatores comperies, a quibus turpissimi inter nostros gancones facile se victos fatebuntur. Quid ergo d●mum? Num displicet quam nos istic profitemur, religio? Absit, absit ut grandaevus Antistes tam eximiis animi dotibus imbutus recedivam patiatur; Apage mendacem famam, non possum ego tam iniquis rumisculis aurem praebere, quicquid ogganniat vulgus, nolo ego istoc credere, nolo suspicari. Quod si quis tui similis tam male consulet & suae & aliorum saluti, cum sic audacter compellare non dubitarem. Displicetne ergo religio? Non ea nunc primulum innotescit, diu est ex quo utriusque Ecclesiae dogmata, serio soliciteque pensiculaveris, ac notam a te probe sententiam nostram denique amplexus solam veritati divinae consonam orbi propinaveris, veracique calamo palam consignaveris.  
Ecquod vero nunc novi luminis tibi improviso obortum sic illustravit oculos ut quae solertissima viginti fere annorum indagine frustra perquisiveris, clarissime demum cerneres. Res eadem est, tu si sisalius, videris quod te numen mutarit. Certe qui religionem nostram odio habentplusquam Eteocleo, fatentur nos verum dicere, sed totumnon dicere criminantur, quicquid est positivae (quam appellant) apud nostros Theologiae etiam adversariis perplacet, negationum solummodo quarundam paulo atrociorum graviter accusamur, nempe audacem illam, impiamque novae fidei farraginem ferre nec posse nos, nec debere profitemur, nihil quicqum addimus nihil timmutavimus non aut formosior est, quam fuit olim Romanae Eccesiae facies, aut reformataturpior. Dic mihi nunc cur quae intoleranda tibi primum visa sunt religionis assumenta placere incipiant? Cur jam sero primigenia nostrae simplicitatis forma tibi sordescere videatur? Obsecro te (amplissime Domine) imo ad juro per Dominum Jesum Christum redeas ad cor tuum, velisque animae tuae misereri, senex nunc es, moneant te Cani tui (flores illi coemiteriales: qui nunc caput tuum gravi quodam decore obtegunt) non longe abesse fatalem illum diem, quo tremendo summi Judicis tribunali sisteris rationem demutatae sententiae redditurus. Cogita jam serio, quid responsi daturus sis illi, illi falli nescio, vivorum, mortuorumque arbitro, quicquid certe fiat caecae plebeculae, cui perfida Doctorum Tyrannide coelestis doctrinae jubar intercludi solet, fieri non potest, quin ut tu quem tam insigni eruditione rerumque omnium scientia instruxit Deus poenam a veritatis agnitae prius abnegataeque acerrimo vindice reportes. Assurgent contra te in illo verendo die scripta tua egregia orthodoxias quondam tuae monumenta aeviterna, testabunturque & quis olim fueris & quam solidis rationum nixus firmamentis ad nostras partes accesseris turpemque tibi lapsum coram Deo & Angelis exprobrabunt. Interim vero coelum & terra nobis attestentur, ecquid sit in quo nos sacris indubiisque Dei eloquiis non firmissime adhaereamus. Ecquid in quo sanctorum patrum, conciliorumque authoritate destituamur, ecquid in quo nos a Romans discessionem fecerimus, nisi ubi illos a se, a Deo discessisse constiterit. O pios salutaresque nostros errores; Ecquis bonus est, qui cum beatis Patribus, cum gloriosis Martyribus, cum sanctissimis Apostolis, cum Deo denique ipso errare dubitaverit? Aliam profecto semitam qui sibi calcandam elegerit erret, cadat, pereat, necesse est. Fige ergo si sapis, (Venerande praesul) fige istic pedem, mane usque nobiscum & fruere Deo, fruere Evangelio, fruere suavissima bonae conscientiae pace. Quod si te ista parum moveant, age orna hanc modo, & accipe, quandoquidem ita vis, fugam ab hoc Asylo pacis simul & Religionis, daque aurem noctuis illis (si quae sint) loioliticis quae tibi istaec suaserint olim (vivit Dominus) sera duceris facti poenitentia, Brittaniamque nostram aut nunquam vidisse, aut nunquam dereliquisse frustra ex optabis, quod ex animo deprecor.  
Reverentiae vestrae humillime deditissimus Joseph. Hallus Archipresb. Wigornien.   

A LETTER paraenetical, TO A WORTHY KNIGHT Ready to Revolt from the RELIGION ESTABLISHED.  
WOrthy Sir, when lewd and debauched persons drop away from us, we lament their loss, not our own, but when Men of worth leave us, it is not their loss more than ours, with so much more indignation must we needs think of those Cheaters (for so I construe St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) that would fain win you from us with mere tricks of mis-suggestion; the attempt whereof hath given occasion to these warm lines which my true zeal of your safety hath drawn from me: So much hath been already spoken to this cavil, that would you please but to cast your eye upon Bishop Mortons' treatise of the grand imposture, and Bishop Bedells' Epistles to Wadsworth you could not desire other satisfaction, thither give me leave to refer you at your best leisure, in the mean time lest I should seem willing to spare my own endeavours, let me shortly discover the vanity of that stolen collusion which some Seducers would put upon you.  
Certainly, Sir, the more you look into these quarrels the more you find that Templum Domini, was not a more mocking plea amongst the Jews of old, then Ecclesia Catholica, is this day among Christians, those challenge it whole that have it not, and those that have right to it, are excluded with equal importunity. Blessed be God you were born and bred in a noble and renowned Daughter of that great and universal Mother, the Church of England, what reason can an Enemy show you why you should repent you of such a parentage and spit in the face of so gracious a Mother and nurse, nothing it seems, is urged to you but her age; It is a kill word with those Romish Impostors, where was your Church before Luther, than which, there was never any plea more idle, more frivolous, when it falls under a wise and judicious discussion; for consider I beseech you. Did we go about to lay the foundations of a new Church, the challenge were most just; Primum verum was the old and sure rule of Tertullian, we abhor new Churches, and new Truths, find ours either to be, or to be pretended such, and forsake us: But when all our claim, all our endeavour is only the reforming and repairing of an old Church, faulty in some mouldered stones, and mis-daubed with some untempered, and lately laid mortar, what a frenzy is this to ask where that Church was which we show them sensibly thus repaired, had it not been before how could it have been capable of this amendment, and if it be but reform by us, It was form before, and having been since deformed by their errors, is only restored by us to the former beauty. As sure as there is any Church, any truth in the World this is the true and only State of this controversy, the misprision whereof hath been guilty of the loss of many thousand souls. To speak plainly, it is only the gross abuses, and palpable innovations of the Church of Rome which we have parted from, set these aside, they, and we, are, and will be one Church, let this be done, and if their cruelty, and uncharitableness would sever us, our unity of faith and Christian love shall make us one, in spite of malice: If their mis-zealous importunity will needs so incorporate those which we can convince for new errors, as to make them essential to the very being of their Church, they are more injurious to themselves, than their Enemies can be, we can but lament to see them guilty of their own mischief: For us we have erred in nothing but this, that we would not err; to demonstrate this in particulars, were a longsome task, and that which I have already performed in that my treatise of the Old Religion, may it please you to let fall your eye upon that plain and moderate discourse, you shall confess this truth made good, every parcel whereof I am ready to justify against all gainsayers; when these Men therefore shall ask, where our Church was, answer them boldly, where it is; It is with Churches, as with those several persons, whereof they consist, give me a Man that having been Romish for opinion is now grown wiser, and reform, he hath still the same form or essence, though not the same errors, he is the same Man then, yea I add he is the same Christian that he was whiles he holds firmly all those Articles of Catholic faith which are essential to Christianity; if he now find reason to reject those hideous novelties of the inerrability of a Man of sin, of the new and monstrous, but invisible, incarnation of his Saviour by charm of a sinful Priest, of marting of sins, of purgatory flames, and the rest of that upstart rabble of the Tridentine Creed, whiles he undoubtedly believes all those truths which carried our Fathers (who lived before the hatching of these devices) safely and directly to Heaven, who can deny him the honour of true Catholicism and Christianity: No otherwise is it in whole Churches, whereof every believing soul is an abridgement; if any of them find just cause to refuse some newly obtruded opinions, which the rest are set to maintain, whiles in the mean time the foundation remains entire, this can be no ground to dis-Church that differing company of Christians, neither are they other from themselves, upon this diversity of opinion.  
But I hear what some whisperers say: It is the determination of the Church which makes what points she thinks fit, de fide, and fundamental: Let me confidently say this is the most dangerous innovation that can fall into the ears, hearts, hands of Christians; If the Church can make another God, another Christ, another Heaven, other Prophets and Apostles, she may also lay another foundation; But the old rule of the chosen Vessel, whereon I securely cast my soul, is, 
Fundamentum aliud ponere nemo potest.   
But, that You may perfectly discover the fraud, what Church is it, I beseech you, to whom this power it arrogated? and by whom is it usurped? None, but the Roman, and what is that but a particular Church? I speak boldly, there was never so gross a gullery in the World as this; what interest hath Rome in Heaven more than Constantinople, than Paris, than Prague, than Basil, than London, or any other City under Heaven, or what privilege hath the Italian Church, above the Greek, French, German, English, It is the charge of the Apostle: My Brethren have not the faith of God in respect of persons: I may upon the same Grounds, say, in respect of places, the locality of truth is the most idle and childish plea, that ever imposed upon wise men: Away with this foppery the true divinity of St. Peter was, and is, in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him, the climate makes no difference and if more respect have been anciently given to that See, then to others, it was the sovereignty of the City which then drew on those honours to the Church; which upon the very same reason were no less transmitted to Constantinople: Set those aside, and what holiness can Tiber challenge above Rhine, or Thames? Let fools be mocked with these fancies, but you whom God hath endued with singular judgement and understanding in all things will easily resent the fraud; and see that there is no more reason why the English Church should conform in opinion to the Romish (were the Doctrines equally indifferent) then the Roman Church to the English. They are but the several limbs of one large and universal body; and if in respect of outward order there have been, or may be acknowledged a precedency, yet in regard of the main substance of truth we cannot admit of any dependence on any Church under Heaven; Here, that which is the purer from Error and corruption, must take the wall, maugre all the loud throats of acclaming parasites, yea so far must we needs be from pinning our faith upon the sleeve of Rome, as that we cannot (without violence offered to our own consciences) but see and say that there is no particular Church on Earth, so branded by the Spirit of God, in the Scriptures, as Rome; In so much as the best abettors, and dearest fautors of that See, are glad to plead that Rome is St. Peter's and St. john's Babylon: we bless God for standing on our own feet, and those feet of ours stand upon the infallible grounds of the Prophets, and Apostles, of Primitive Creeds, Counsels, Fathers, and therefore we can no more deceive you, than they can deceive us.  
The censure that the enemies of our Church cast upon it, is not untruth, but defect, they dare not but grant what we say is true, but they blame us for not saying all is true which they say; now that which we say, was enough to serve those ancient Christians, which lived before those lately devised additions, the refusal whereof is made heinous and deadly to us; how safe, how happy is this erring? Let my soul be with those blessed Martyrs, Confessors, Fathers, Christians which never lived to hear of those new Articles of the new Roman faith, and I dare say, you will not wish yours any other where, there can be no danger in old truths, there can be nothing but danger in new obtrusions. But I find how apt my pen is to overrun the bounds of a letter, my zeal of your safety carries me into this length, the errors into which these seducers would lead you are deadly, especially upon a revolt: your very ingenuity I hope (besides grace) will suggest better things to you: Hold that which you have, that no man take your crown; My Soul for yours you go right; so sure as there is a heaven, this way will lead you thither, go on confidently, and cheerfully in it, let me never be happy, if you be not; you will pardon my holy importunity, which shall be ever seconded with my hearty prayers to the God of truth, that he will establish your heart in that eternal truth of his Gospel which you have received, and both work and crown your happy perseverance; such shall be the fervent appreciations of  
Your much devoted Friend Jos. Exon.   

RESOLUTIONS FOR RELIGION.  
WHereas there are many loud quarrels, and brabbles about matter of Religion, this is my firm and steadfast Resolution, wherein I find peace with God, and my own Soul, as being undoubtedly certain in itself, and holily charitable to others, and that in which I constantly purpose (God willing) as to Live so to Die.  
1. I do believe and know that there is but one way to Heaven, even the True and Living way, Jesus Christ, God and Man the Saviour of the World.  
2. I believe and know, that this way however it is a narrow and strait way, in respect of the World, yet hath much Latitude in itself: So as those that truly believe in this Son of God, their Saviour, though they may be misled into many bypaths of small errors, yet by the mercy of God are acknowledged not to be out of the main high way to eternal life.  
3. I believe and know, that the Canonical Scriptures of God are the true and unfailing Rule of our Faith, so as whatsoever is therein contained is the infallible Truth of God, and whatsoever is necessary to be believed to eternal Salvation, is therein expressly, or by clear and undoubted consequence contained, and so set forth as it neither needeth farther explication, nor admits of any probable Contradiction.  
4. I believe and know, that God hath ever since the creation of Mankind had a Church upon Earth, and so shall have to the end of the World, which is a Society or Communion of Faithful men professing his Name, against which the gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail, for the failing thereof.  
5. I believe and know, that the consenting voice of the successions, and present universality of faithful Men in all times and places, is worthy of great authority, both for our Confirmation in all truths, and for our direction in all the circumstantial points of God's service; so as it cannot be opposed, or severed from, without just offence to God.  
6. I believe and know, that besides those necessary truths contained in the Holy Scriptures and Seconded by the Consent and Profession of all Gods faithful ones, there may be, and ever have been, certain collateral and not-mainly importing verities, wherein it is not unlawful, for several particular Churches, to maintain their own Tenets, and to descent from other; and the several members of those particular Churches are bound, so far to tender the common Peace; as not to oppose such publicly received truths.  
7. I do confidently believe, that if all the particular Churches, through the whole Christian World, should meet together, and determine these secondary and unimporting truths to be believed upon necessity of Salvation, and shall enact Damnation to all those which shall deny their assent thereunto, they should go beyond the Commission which God hath given them, and do an act which God hath never undertaken to warrant: Since there can be no new Principles of Christian Religion, however there may be an application, of some formerly received Divine truths to some emergent occasions, and a clearer explication of some obscure verities.  
8. I do confidently believe that God hath never confined the determination of his will in all questions and matters, pertaining to Salvation, or whatsoever controversies of Religion to the breast of any one Man, or to a particular Church, or to a correspondence, of some particular Churches, so as they shall not possibly err, in their Definitions and Decrees.  
9 I do confidently believe, that the Church of Rome comprehending both the head and those her adherents, and dependence, being but particular Churches, have highly offended God in arrogating to themselves the privilege of infallibility which was never given them, and in ordaining new Articles of faith, and excluding from the bosom of God's Church, and the Gates of Heaven all those which differ from her in the refusal of her late bred impositions, though otherwise holy men, and no less true Christians, than any of themselves.  
10. I do confidently believe, that though it be a thing very requisite to public peace and good order, that every several Christian should be ranged under some particular Church, and every particular assembly to be subordinate to some higher Government, which may oversee & over rule them in the case of different opinions and matters of practice; yet that God hath not required, or commanded either of these upon necessity of Salvation; so as an Indian convert, in the remotest part of the World believing in Christ, may without relation to any Church whatsoever be saved; and a particular Church being Orthodox in the main principles of Religion, upon matter of litigious contestation, flying off from some more eminent Church under which it was ranked for Orders sake, however it may be faulty, in an undue division, yet is not hereby excluded from the capacity of salvation; since such sleight jars, and unkindnesses in Churches, can no more shut them out, from a common interest in Christ, than the like quarrels of a Paul and Barnabas, Act. 15.39. could keep either of them out of Heaven.  
11. I do confidently believe, that all the particular National Churches, through the whole Christian World, are no other than Sisters, Daughters of the same Father God; of the same Mother, the Spiritual Jerusalem which is from above; some of them are Elder Sisters, others Younger: Some more Tall and large spread; others of less stature, some fairer in respect of Holiness of life and Orthodoxy of Judgement; others fouler in respect of Corruptions, both of doctrine and manners; still Sisters; and if any of them shall usurp a Mistress-ship over the rest, or make herself a Queen over them, and make them subjects and slaves to her; or a Motherhood to the rest (otherwise then in a priority and aid of conversion) and make them, but Daughters and Punies to her; She shall be guilty of an high Arrogance and Presumption, against Christ and his dear Spouse, the Church; since with the just and holy God, there is no respect of persons or places, but in all Nations those that serve him best, are most accepted of him.  
12. From hence will follow this double Corollary: First, That (as there is a kind of natural equality in Sisterhood) no particular National Church can by right of any institution of God, challenge a commanding power over the rest, however some one may have a precedency to other, in respect, whether of more constant Holiness and sincerity, or more speed of conversion; or of larger extent; or of that civil greatness, and preeminence of that State or Nation, wherein it is settled; And upon this occasion may & must improve and exercise her eminence, to the defence and furtherance of the weaker & more distressed: But if any particular National Church being less able to suste in itself, shall agree voluntarily to submit herself (for order's sake and for safety and protection) to the sway of one more famous and powerful, her engagement doth justly bind her, so far as lawfully it reacheth; viz. To accknowledg a priority of place, and to respect her directions in matters of form and outward Administration, so long as they vary not from the rule, which God hath set in his Church: But if that more potent Church shall abuse that power and begin to exercise Tyranny over the weaker, by forcing upon her new and undue impositions of faith, or intolerable insolences in government; there is no law of God that binds that weaker Church Issachar-like to lie down between two burdens, she may challenge and resume the right of a Sister, and shake off the yoke of a slave, without the violation of any command of God; and not the injuried but the oppressor is guilty of the breach of peace.  
2. It will hence follow, that the relation of this common Sisterhood of all Christian Churches, justly ties all those that profess the name of Christ, to a charitable regard of each to other: So as though there be in some of them gross errors in matters of Doctrine, and foul corruptions in matters of practice, yet whiles they hold and maintain, all the Articles of the same Christian faith and acknowledge the same Scriptures, the substance of the same baptism, and of the institution of the Holy Eucharist, they cease not to continue Sisters, notwithstanding their manifold enormities, and depravations; these are enough to deform any Church, not enough to Dischurch it; These are enough to impair the health, not to bereave the life; Howsoever therefore we must always hate, and cry down their errors (which a wilful maintenance makes no less than damnable) yet we must pity and pray for their Persons, and by all good means, labour to bring them to an acknowledgement of the opposed truth; and although I well know there is ill use made of our charity this way; by those willing mistakers who turn it to our disadvantage; that we pass so favourable censures upon their Churches, whiles they pass so cruel and merciless censures upon ours, yet my conscience bids me to say that I cannot repent of this just sentence wherein I know I shall find comfort in my appearance, before the dreadful Tribunal of God, when the uncharitableness and injustice of these bloody men, that send their charitable opposers to a remediless damnation, shall be adjudged to that Hell, which they have presumptuously doomed unto others: As for them, let them see how they can answer it to that just Judge of the World in that great day, that they have presumed to blot out of the book of life so many millions of faithful Christians, only for dissenting from them in such points as God never gave them warrant to impose.  
From the force then of this Relation it is easily subinfered that it is not lawful for Christian Churches, upon differences about points not essential to the faith either voluntarily to forsake the communion of each other, or forceably to abdicate and thrust out each other from their communion. There being the same reason in this behalf, of a Church, and a several Christian: As therefore one Christian may not abandon another for differences of opinion in matters not necessary to be believed; so neither may one Church, upon such ground either leave or expel another, but if any such act be done, it is to be inquired both where the fault is, and what may be the Remedy.  
In a mere simple dereliction of a Church thus differing, and supposed so to err, the faults must needs be in the Church forsaking: But where the departure is accompanied with such circumstances, as may be supposed to be incident in such cases, there the state of the business may be altered, and the blame of either part, either taken off or aggravated. To instance in the prosecution of this Relation which we have in hand: Two Sisters are appointed by their Mother to look to her house, the charge is given equally to both, the Mother is no sooner out of sight, than the Elder gins to domineer over the younger, and requires her to do something in the Family, which she conceives may tend to the prejudice of the common profit, and cross the Mother's intention, the younger finding herself grieved, with this carriage, and disliking the task enjoined, both forbears to do it and seriously expostulates with her Sister; laying before her the inconveniencies which will follow upon such an act; the Elder impatient of a contradiction, not only gives sharp language, but thrusts her Sister out of doors; neither will admit her to come in again, except she submit herself to her authority, and perform that chare which she formerly refused, the Younger holds off, as thinking she may not yield without wrong to herself, and to her Mother's Trust: The Sisters are now thus parted; but where is the blame? The Younger is gone away from the Elder; but she doth it upon the Elders violence; on the one side, she had not gone if she had not been thrust out; on the other side she had not been thrust out, if she had not refused to do the thing required; on the one side, the Elder might not be so imperious, nor enjoin a thing unfit; on the otherside the Younger might not upon such a command voluntarily forsake the Elder; but if the Elder shall unjustly challenge such authority, and shall thereupon impose unmeet services; and shall put the Younger out of doors for not performing them, it is clear where the fault rests.  
I appeal to God, and the consciences of all just men, if this be not the state of the present differences, of the Romans and Reformed Churches; the remedy whereof must therefore begin from those parties which have given cause of the breach; if they shall remit of their undue Height and Rigour, and be content, with those Moderate bounds which God hath set them both for Doctrine, and Government, and yield themselves but capable of error, there may be possibility of Reunion, and Peace: But whiles they persist to challenge an infallibility of judgement, and uncontrollableness of practice, they do wilfully block up the way to all reconciliation and concord, and stand guilty of all that Grievous Schism, under which the Church of God, thus long and miserably suffers.  
And this upon full deliberation, is my settled and final Resolution; concerning the main difference in Religion; wherein my soul doth so confidently rest; that I dare therewith boldly appear before the face of that great Judge of the Quick and Dead, as knowing it infallibly warranted by his own UNDOUBTED WORD.  
JOS. EXON.   

A LETTER OF ANSWER TO AN UNKNOWN COMPLAINANT, Concerning the Frequent Injecting of TEMPTATIONS.  
THe case whereof you complain is not more worthy of secrecy then of pity; and yet in true judgement not so heinous as you conceive it: Evil motions are cast into you, which yet you entertain not with consent: Let me assure you these are not your sins, but his that injects them: You may be (as you are) troubled with their importunity; but you are not tainted with their evil, whiles you dislike and hate them, and are grieved with their suggestion: That bold and subtle enemy of ours durst cast temptations into the Son of God himself, in whom yet he could find nothing. It were woe with us, if lewd motions (though repelled) should be imputed unto us: It is only our consent that brings them home to us, and makes them our sins; were then these thoughts (as you suppose them) blasphemies; yet whiles your heart goes not with them, but abhors them, and strives against them, they may afflict you, they cannot hurt you: As Luther said in the like case, Birds may fly over our heads, whether we will or no, but they cannot nestle in our hair unless we permit them. Take heart therefore to yourself; and be not too much dejected with the wicked solicitations of a known enemy: For the redress whereof (as I have not been unacquainted with the like causes of complaints) let me prescribe you a double remedy; Resolution, and Prayer.  
In the first place take up strong resolutions not to give heed or ear to these unreasonable motions; resolve rather to scorn and contemn them upon their first intimation, as not worthy of a particular answer; For certainly holding chat with them and sad agitations, and arguing of them, as thoughts meet to receive a satisfaction, draws on their more troublesome importunity; whereas if they were slighted, and disdainfully turned off upon their first glimpse, they would go away ashamed. Whensoever therefore any such suggestions offer themselves unto you, think with yourself: I know whence this comes, it is Satan's; let him take it whose it is, I will not meddle with it; say but in your Saviour's words, Avoid Satan; and divert your thoughts to some holy and profitable subject, and these temptations will by God's grace soon vanish.  
In the second place, apply yourself to the remedy of that chosen Vessel, who when he was buffeted by the messenger of Satan, had recourse to the throne of Grace, and besought God thrice, (that is frequently) that he might departed away from him: Whensoever you shall be thus troubled, do you by a sudden ejaculation raise up your heart to God; and beseech him to rebuke that evil one, and do not so much care to answer the Temptation, as to implore the aid of him, who can take off the tempter at pleasure; who hath an hook in the nostrils of that Leviathan. Certainly those evil thoughts cannot be more swift-winged than our prayers may be, nor so prevalent to our vexation as our prayers shall be for our rescue. Be therefore fervent and assiduous in them, and my soul for yours the enemy shall have no power to harm you. As for your doubt of receiving the blessed Sacrament because of these misconceived blasphemies, it falls alone by what I have already said; The blasphemies (if they were such) are Satan's not yours; Why should you not do yourself good, because he would do you a mischief: In God's name go on to defy that evil one; and let him take his wickedness to himself; and do you go with chieerfulness and good courage to that Holy Table: as there and thence expecting to receive new strength against all his assaults: Neither doubt I but that our good God will so bless unto you this institution of his own, together with your prayers and Resolutions, that you shall be soon and fully freed from these hateful guests; and Comfortably enjoy him and Yourself; which I shall also gladly second with my prayers for you (though unknown) as who am  
Your truly Compassionate and well-wishing Friend in Christ Jos. Exon. Exon. April 14 1630.   

A CONSOLATORY LETTER, TO ONE Under Censure.  
Sir,  
IT is not for me to examine the Grounds of your affliction, which as they shall come to be scanned by greater judgements, so in the mean time have doubtless received both a Verdict and sentence from your own heart: and if this act were in my power I can much better suffer with my Friend then judge him. But however either partial or rigorous the conceits of others may be, be sure I beseech you that you receive from your own bosom a free and just doom on all your actions; after all the censures of others, thence must proceed either your peace or torment: But what do I undertake to teach him that is already in the School of God and under that divine ferule hath learned more than by all the Theorical counsels of prosperity. Surely I cannot but profess that I know not whether I were more sorry for the desert of your durance, or glad of such fruit thereof as mine eyes end ears witnessed from you. But one Sabaoth is passed since my meditations were occasioned to fix themselves upon the gain which Gods children make of their sins, the practice whereof I rejoiced to see concur in you with my speculation; and indeed it is one of the wonders of God's mercy and providence that those wounds wherewith Satan hopes to kill the Soul, through the wise and gracious ordination of God, serve to heal it.  
We faint Soldiers should never fight so valiantly, if it were not for the indignation at our foil. There are corruptions that may lurk secretly in a corner of the Soul unknown, unseen; till the shame of a notorious evil send us to search and ransack; if but a spot light upon our cloak we regard it not, but if through our neglect or the violence of a blast it fall into the mire, than we wash and scour it.  
As we use therefore to say there cannot be better physic to a choleric body then a seasonable Ague, so may I say safely there can be nothing so advantageous to a secure heart, as to be sinsick; for hereby he who before fell in overpleasing himself, gins to displease himself at his fall: Fire never ascends so high as when it is beaten back with a cool blast: Water that runs in a smooth level with an insensible declination (though an heavy body) yet if it fall low it rises high again: Much forgiven causeth much love; neither had the penitent made an ewer of her eyes, and a towel of her hair for Christ's feet if she had not found herself more faulty than her neighbours: Had not Peter thrice denied, he had not been graced with that threefold question of his Saviour's love; it is an harsh but a true word, Gods Children have cause to bless him for nothing more than for their sins: If that alwise providence have thought good to raise up even your forgotten sins in your face to shame you before men, there cannot be a greater argument of his mercy; This blushing shall avoid eternal confusion: Envy not at the felicity of the closely or gloriously guilty; who have at once firm foreheads, and foul bosoms; vaunting therefore of their innocence because they can have no accusers, like wicked harlots who because they were delivered without a midwife, and have made away their stolen birth, go currant still for maids; nothing can be more miserable than a sinner's prosperity; this argues him bound over in God's just decree to an everlasting vengeance, Woe be to them that laugh here, for they shall weep and gnash: Happy is that shame that shall end in glory.  
And if the wisdom of that just judge of the world shall think fit to strip you of your worldly wealth and outward estate, acknowledge his mercy and your gain in this loss; he saw this camels bunch kept you out of the needle's eye; he saw these bells too heavy for that high flight to which he intended you; now shall you begin to be truly rich when you can enjoy the possessor of Heaven and Earth; when these base rivals are shut out of doors God shall have your whole heart; who were not himself, if he were not all-sufficient.  
Neither let it lie too heavy upon your heart that your hopeful Sons shall inherit nothing from you but shame and dishonour; why are you injurious to yourself and those you love, your repentance shall feoff upon them more blessings than your sin hath lost; let posterity say they were the sons of a penitent Father; this stain is washed off with your tears and their virtue: and for their provision, (if the worst fall) The Earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof, imagine them born to nothing; we that are more Rich in Children then estate hope well of those vessels whom we can put forth well rigged, & well ballaest though not wealthy laden: How sensibly do you now find that wealth doth not consist in getting much, but well; and that contentment doth not lie in the coffer but in the breast; lastly that all treasures are dross to a good conscience.  
For yourself; If you be penned up within four walls, and barred both of Sun and Men; make God yours and you cannot complain of restraint, or solitude: No prison is too strait for his presence; Heaven itself would be a prison without him; your serious repentance may win that Society which makes the very Angels blessed; this is the way to make him your comforter, your companion, in whose presence is the fullness of joy.  
Shortly, let your thoughts be altogether such as may beseem a man not unwillingly weaned from this world, and careful only to speed happily in another; We your poor friends can answer the kind respects of your prosperity no otherwise then with our prayers for the best use of your affliction; which shall not be wanting from your true and sorrowful well-willer  
J. H.   

A SHORT ANSWER TO THOSE Nine Arguments Which are brought against the BISHOPS SITTING IN PARLIAMENT.  
THose reasons had need to be strong; and the inconveniences heinous that should take away an ancient and hereditary right, established by law. These are not such,  
1. To trade in secular affairs, and to be taken up with them, is indeed a great and just hindrance to the exercise of our ministerial function; but to meet once in three years in a Parliament for some few weeks at the same time when we are bound to attend convocation business, is no sensible impediment to our holy calling.  
2. We do indeed promise & profess when we enter into holy orders that we will give ourselves so much as in us lies wholly to this vocation; will it therefore follow that we may not upon any occasion lend ourselves to the care of the public when we are thereunto called? And if this notwithstanding, we may, yea must take moderate care of our household affairs, and the provision for our family; why not as well of the Commonwealth?  
3. For ancient Canons of Counsels; will they be content to be bound by them, who urge them upon us? Or will they admit some, and reject others? Or will they admit them where they are contrary to our own laws? Now our Clarendon Constit. have expressly, debent interesse omnibus judiciis: The Canons therefore must yield to them, not they to the Canons.  
4. Twenty four Bishops have dependence upon two Archbishops. When was it otherwise? Is it not so in all subordinations of government? If this be a just inconvenience, let all be leveled to an equality, and that shall end in a certain confusion but they swear to them Canonical obedience: True, but it is only in omnibus licitis & honestis mandatis: The supposition employed must needs savour of uncharitableness; that the Metropolitans will be still apt to require unlawful things, and the Bishops will ever basely stoop to a servile humouring of them.  
5. But they have their places only for their lives; and therefore not fit to have a legislative power over the honours, liberties, proprieties of the subject. 1. If they have their Bishoprics but for their lives, yet there are scarce any of them that have not so much temporal estate in fee as may make them no less capable of a legislative power then many of the house of Commons who claim this right. Secondly, is the case other now than it hath been all this while? yet for so many hundred years there have been good laws, and just sentences given by their concurrence, notwithstanding this their tenure for Life. 3ly. If they be honest and conscionable though they had their places but for a year, or a day, they would not yield to determine aught unjustly: And if dishonest and conscienceless, it is not the perpetual inheritance of our places that can make our determinations just.  
6. If dependencies, and expectations of further preferment lie in our way; why not equally in many Temporal Lords, who are interessed in offices, and places in court? why should we be more mis-carriageable by such possibilities or hopes than others? Especially, when our age is commonly such, and the charges of removes so great that there is small likelihood of an equal gaining by he change.  
7. If several and particular Bishops have much encroached upon the consciences of his Majesty's subjects, in matter of their propriety, and liberty; what reason is there to impute this unto all? why should the innocent be punished for the wrongs of the guilty? Let those who can be convinced of an offence this way undergo a condign censure; Let not an unjust prejudice be cast upon the whole calling for the errors of a few.  
8. It is not to be expected but the whole number of 26. should be interessed in the maintenance of that their Jurisdiction which both the laws of Men, and Apostolical institution hath feoffed them in; why should they not defend their own lawful and holy calling against all unjust opposition of gainsayers. If their hearts did not assure them their station were warrantable and good, they were beasts if they would hold them; and if their hearts do assure them so, they were beasts if they would not defend them: But there are numbers in all the three Kingdoms that cry them down; True, but there are greater numbers for them, perhaps an hundred for one; and if some busy factionists of the meaner sort here about (a body compounded of Separatists, Anabaptists, Familists, and such like stuff) make some show and noise, yet what are these, to the whole Kingdom? Neither do these men more oppugn our votes in Parliament, than our stations in the Church; so as this argument will no less hold for no bishops, then for no votes, as likewise that instance in the practice of Scotland. Scotland hath abolished Episcopacy they say; The more pity; let them look, quo jure, and what answer to make unto that God whose ordinance it is: But I had thought it should have been a stronger argument; England retains Episcopacy therefore Scotland should; then Scotland hath abolished Episcopacy, therefore England should do so too: Let there be any other Church named in the whole Christian World that hath voluntarily abandoned Episcopacy, when it might have continued it; and if their practice be herein singular, why should not they rather conform to all the rest of Christendom, than we to them.  
9 But the core of all, is, that it sets too great a distance between us, and our Brethren of the Clergy, and so nourishes pride in us, discontentment in them, and disquietness in the Church: An argument that fights equally against all our superiority over our Brethren, and against our votes here: By this reason we must be all equal, none subordinate; and what order can there be where none is above other? What is this but old Korahs' challenge. Ye take too much upon you, wherefore lift ye up yourselves above the Congregation of the Lord: Now; I beseech you, whether was there more pride in Moses and Aaron that governed, or in Corah and Dathan that murmured and repined?  
It is pride then that causeth contention, but where is this pride? whether in those that moderately manage a lawful superiority, or in those that scorn and hate to be under government? Were those Brethren so affected as they ought, they should rather rejoice that any of their own tribe are advanced to those places wherein they might be capable of doing good offices to them and the Church of God, in stead of swelling with envy against their just exaltation, and would feel this honour done to their profession; and not to the persons.  
Lastly, what a mean opinion doth this imply to be conceived of us by the suggesters, that we who are old Men, Christian Philososophers, and Divines should have so little government of ourselves as to be puffed up with those poor accessions of titular respects, which those who are really and hereditarily possessed of, can wield without any such taint or suspicion of transportedness.  
Shortly, in all these Nine reasons there is nothing that may induce an indifferent Man to think there is any just ground to exclude Bishops from sitting and voting in Parliament.   

FOR EPISCOPACY, AND LITURGY.  
WE cannot be too wary of, or too opposite to Popery & Antichristianism: But let me admonish you in the fear of God to take heed that we do not dilate the name and imputation of these too far; for I speak it with just sorrow and compassion there are some well meaning and seduced souls that are by Erroneous teachers brought into the opinion that the sacred form of the Government of the Church and the holy forms of the public devotions, and prayers of the Church and all the favourers of them are worthy to be branded with the title of Popery and Antichristianism.  
For the first, my heart bleeds in me to think that that calling which was instituted by the Apostles themselves and hath ever since continued in the universal Church of Christ without interruption to this day, should now come under the name of Popery: I speak of the calling; if the persons of any in this station have been faulty, let them bear their own burden, but that the calling itself should receive this construction in the opinion of well-minded and conscionable Christians is justly most lamentable. I beseech you look back upon the histories of former times, look but upon your Acts and Monuments, and see whether any have been more expensive either of their ink, or their blood against the tyranny of Popery and superstition than the Bishops of this Church of England, in so much as the reverend Dr. Du Moulin in his public Epistle professes that the Bishops of England were they to whom this Church is beholden for the liberty and maintenance of the Protestant Religion in this Kingdom and in this present age how many of us have written and are content and ready to bleed for the sincerity of the Gospel? If there be any therefore in this holy order whose lips have hanged towards the onions and garlic, and fleshpots of Egypt, let them undergo just censure; but let the calling, and the zealous and faithful managers of it be acquitted before God, and Men.  
For the latter, I see and mourn to see that many good souls are brought into a dislike and detestation of the common prayers of the Church of England as mere Mass and Popery, woe is me that error should prevail so far with good hearts. I beseech you for God's sake and your souls sake be rightly informed in this so material and important a point.  
I see there is herein a double offence. One of them which dislike the prayers because they are set forms; the other that dislike them because they are such set forms.  
For the former I beseech them to consider seriously whether they ought to think themselves wiser and perfecter than all the Churches of God that ever have been upon the Earth: This I dare confidently say that since God had an established Church in the World there were set forms of devotion: in the Jewish Church before and since Christ, in the Christian Church of all ages; and at this very day all those varieties of Christians in the large circle of Christianography they have their set forms of prayers which they do and must use, and in the Reformed Churches both of the Lutherans, and France, and Scotland, it is no otherwise: yea reverend Mr. Calvin himself whose judgement had wont to sway with the forwardest Christians writing to the Protector of England, Anno 1548. hath these words, Quod ad formulam precum attinet & rituum Ecclesiasticorum valsle prob● ut certa illa extet a qua pastoribus discedere non liceat in functione sua, etc. And adding three grave and solid reasons for it, concludes thus: so then there ought to be a set form of Catechism, a set form of administration of Sacraments, and of public prayers; and why will we cast off the judgement both of him and all the Divines of the whole Christian World till Barrow and Browne in our age and remembrance contradicted it, and run after a conceit that never had any being in the World till within our own memory:  
For the latter. There are those who could allow some form of set prayers, but dislike this of ours as savouring of the Pope and the Mass, whence they say it is derived; Now I beseech you Brethren as you would avoid the danger of that woe of calling good evil, and evil good, inform yourselves throughly of the true State of this business.  
Know therefore that the whole Church of God both Eastern and Western as it was divided; both the Greek and Latin Church under which this Island was wont to be ranged had their forms of prayer from the beginning, which were then holy and Heavenly compiled by the holy Fathers of those first times: Afterwards the abuses and errors of popery came in by degrees, as Transubstantiation, Sacrifice of the Mass, prayers for the dead, prayers to Saints; these poisoned the Church, and vitiated these holy forms whiles they continued, but when Reformation came in, divers worthy Protestant Divines, whereof some were noble Martyrs for religion, were appointed to revise that form of service, to purge out all that popish leaven that had soured them, to restore them to their former purity; leaving nothing in that book but that which they found consonant to godliness, and pure religion.  
If any Man will now say that our prayer book is taken out of the Mass, let him know rather that the Mass was cast out of our prayer-book into which it was injuriously and impiously intruded; the good of those prayers are ours in the right of Christians, the evil that was in them let them take as their own.  
And if it should have been as they imagine; let them know that we have departed from the Church of Rome but in those things wherein they have departed from Christ, what good thing they have is ours still; That scripture which they have, That Creed which they profess is ours, neither will we part with it for their abuse.  
If a piece of Gold be offered us, will we not take it because it was taken out of the channel? If the Devil have given a confession of Christ, and said, I know who thou art even Jesus the Son of the living God; shall not I make this confession because it came out of the Devil's mouth? Alas we shall be herein very injurious both to ourselves and to God whose every holy truth is.  
This then is the form which hath been compiled by learned and holy Divines, by blessed Martyrs themselves, who used it comfortably, and blessed God for it.  
But if the quicker eyes of later times have found any thing which displeases them in the phrases and manners of expression or in some rites prescribed in it, Let them in God's name await for the reforming sentence of that public authority whereby it was framed and enacted; and let not private persons presume to put their hands to the work; which would introduce nothing but palpable confusion, let all things be done decently, and in order.  
Shortly my Brethren let us hate Popery to the death but let us not involve within that odious name those holy forms both of administration, and devotion which are both pleasing unto God, and agreeable to all Christianity and Godliness.   

A SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT.  
My Lords,  
I Have long held my peace, and meant to have done so still, but now like to Croesus his mute Son, I must break silence; I humbly beseech your Lordships to give me leave, to take this too just occasion to move your Lordships to take into your deep, and serious consideration, the woeful, and lamentable condition of the poor Church of England, your dear Mother; My Lords, this was not wont to be her stile, we have heretofore talked of the famous and flourishing Church of England, but now your Lordships must give me leave to say, that the poor Church of England humbly prostrates herself (next after his sacred Majesty) at your Lordship's feet, and humbly craves your compassion and present aid.  
My Lords, It is a foul and dangerous insolence, this which is now complained of to you, but it is but one of a hundred of those which have been of late done to this Church and Government. The Church of England, as your Lordships cannot choose but know, hath been and is miserably infested on both sides, with Papists on the one side, and Schismatics on the other; The Psalmist hath of old distinguished the enemies of it, into wild Boars out of the Wood, and little Foxes out of the Burroughs; The one whereof goes about to root up the very foundation of Religion, the other to crop the branches, and blossoms and clusters thereof, both of them conspire the utter ruin & devastation of it; As for the former of them; I do perceive a great deal of good zeal for the remedy and suppression of them; and I do hearty congratulate it, and bless God for it, and beseech him to prosper it, in those hands that shall undertake and prosecute it; but for the other give me leave to say, I do not find many that are sensible of the danger of it, which yet in my apprehension is very great and apparent; Alas my Lords, I beseech you to consider what it is; that there should be in London, and the Suburbs and Liberties, no fewer than fourscore Congregations of several Sectaries, as I have been too credibly informed, instructed by Guides fit for them, Cobblers, Tailors, Feltmakers and such like trash, which all are taught to spit in the face of their Mother the Church of England; and to defy and revile her government; From hence have issued those dangerous assaults of our Church Governors; From hence that inundation of base and scurrilous libels and pamphlets, wherewith we have been of late overborne, in which Papists and Prelates like Oxen in a yoke are still matched together; O my Lords, I beseech you that you will be sensible of this great indignity: Do but look upon these reverend persons: Do not your Lordships see here sitting upon these benches, those that have spent their time, their strength, their bodies and lives, in preaching down, in writing down Popery? and which would be ready (if occasion were offered) to sacrifice all their old blood that remains to the maintenance of that truth of God, which they have taught and written, and shall we be thus despitefully ranged with them, whom we do thus professedly oppose; but alas this is but one of those many scandalous aspersions, and intolerable affronts that are daily cast upon us. Now whither should we in this case have recourse for a needful and seasonable redress? The arm of the Church is alas now short and sinewless, it is the interposing of your authority that must rescue us. You are the Eldest sons of your dear Mother the Church, and therefore most fit & most able to vindicate her wrongs, you are amici Sponsae, give me leave therefore in the bowels of Christ humbly to beseech your Lordships to be tenderly sensible of these woeful and dangerous conditions of the times. And if the government of the Church of England be unlawful and unfit, abandon and disclaim it, but if otherwise uphold and maintain it. Otherwise if these lawless outrages be yet suffered to gather head, who knows where they will end? My Lords, if these men may with impunity, and freedom, thus bear down Ecclesiastical authority, it is to be feared they will not rest there, but will be ready to affront civil power too: Your Lordships know that the Jack Straws, and Cades, and Watt Tilers of former times, did not more cry down Learning then Nobility: and those of your Lordships that have read the history of the Anabaptistical tumults at Munster will need no other Item, let it be enough to say that many of these Sectaries are of the same profession: Shortly therefore let me humbly move your Lordships to take these dangers and miseries of this poor Church deeply to heart, and upon this occasion to give order for the speedy redressing of these horrible insolences, and for the stopping of that deluge of libellous invectives, wherewith we are thus impetuously overflown; Which in all due submission, I humbly present to your Lordship's wise, and religious consideration.   

A SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT, In Defence of the CANONS MADE IN CONVOCATION.  
My Lords,  
I cannot choose but know that whosoever rises up in this cause must speak with the disadvantage of much prejudice; and therefore I do humbly crave your Lordship's best construction, were it (my Lords) that some few doubting persons were to be satisfied in some scruples about matter of the Canons, there might have been some life in the hope of prevailing; but now that we are borne down with such a torrent of general and resolute contradiction, we yield; but yet give us leave I beseech you so to yield that posterity may not say we have willingly betrayed our own innocence. First therefore let us plead to your Lordships and the World, that to abate the edge of that illegality which is objected to us, it was our obedience that both assembled and kept us together for the making of Synodical acts. We had the great Seal of England for it, seconded by the judgements of the oracles of law and justice; and upon these the command of our superior to whom we have sworn and own canonical obedience: Now in this case, what should we do (Was it for us to judge of the great seal of England; or to judge of our Judges (alas we are not for the law, but for the Gospel) or to disobey that authority which was to be ever sacred to us, I beseech your Lordships put yourselves a while in to our condition, had the case been yours, what would you have done? If we obey not, we are rebels to authority; if we obey we are censured for illegal procedures? Where are we now, my Lords? It is an old rule of Casuists, nemo tenetur esse perplexus, Free us one way or other; and show us whether we must rather hazard censure, or incur disobedience. In the next place give us leave to plead our good intentions; since we must make new Canons. I persuade myself we all came (I am sure I can speak for one) with honest and zealous desires to do God and his Church good service, and expected to have received great thanks both of Church and Commonwealth; for your Lordships see that the main drift of those Canons was to repress and confine the indiscreet and lawless discourses of some either ignorant, or parasitical, I am sure offensive Preachers to suppress the growth of Socinianism, Popery, Separatism, to redress some abuses of Ecclesiastical courts and officers; In all which I dare say your Lordships do hearty concur with them; And if in the manner of expression there have been any failings I shall humbly beseech your Lordships that those may not be too much stood upon where the main substance is well meant; and in itself profitable. In the third place give me leave to put your Lordships in mind of the continual practice of the Christian Church, since the first Synod of the Apostles (Act. 15.) to this present day; wherein I suppose it can never be showed that ever any Ecclesiastical Canons made by the Bishops and Clergy in Synods, general, national, provincial, were either offered or required to be confirmed by Parliaments: Emperors and Princes, by whose authority those Synods were called, have still given their power to the ratification and execution of them; and none others; and if you please to look into the times within the ken of memory or somewhat beyond it, Linwoods' Constitutions, what Parliaments confirmed? The Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth, the Canons of King James were never tendered to the Parliament for confirmation; and yet have so far obtained hitherto, that the government of the Church was by them still regulated; compare I beseech you those of K. James with the present, your Lordships shall find them many, peremptory, resolute, standing upon their own grounds, in points much harder of digestion than these which are but few, and only seconds to former constitutions: if therefore in this we have erred, surely the whole Christian Church of all places and times hath erred with us; either therefore we shall have too good company in the censure, or else we shall be excused.  
Fourthly give me leave to urge the authority of these Canons; in which regard if I might without offence speak it, I might say that the complainants have not (under correction) laid a right ground of their accusation; They say we have made Canons and Constitutions; alas my Lords we have made none.  
We neither did, nor could make Canons, more than they can make laws; The Canons are so to the Church as laws are for the Commonwealth; now they do but rogare legem, they do not far or sancire legem, that is only for the King to do, it is le Roy le Veult, that of bills makes laws; so was it for us to do in matter of Canons, we might propound some such constitutions as we should think might be useful; but when we have done we send them to his Majesty, who perusing them cum avisamento Consilii sui, and approving them puts life into them, and of dead propositions makes them Canons; as therefore the laws are the King's laws, and not ours; so are the Canons the King's Canons, and not the Clergies, Think thus of them, and then draw what conclusions you please.  
As for that pecuniary business of our contribution wherein we are said to have trenched upon the liberty of subjects and propriety of goods; I beseech your Lordships do but see the difference of times, we had a precedent for it; The same thing was done in Qu. Elizabeth's time in a mulct of 3 s. the pound and that after the end of the Parliament, with the same clauses of Suspension, Sequestration, Deprivation, without noise of any exception which now is cried down for an unheard of encroachment; how legal it may be I dispute not, and did then make bold to move; but let the guide of that example and the zeal that we had to the supply of his Majesty's necessities excuse us a tanto at least; if having given these as subsidies sitting the Parliament, and the bill being drawn up for the confirmation of the Parliament, we now, upon the unhappy dissolution of it as loath to retract so necessary a grant we were willing to have it continued to his Majesty's use.  
But, my Lords, if I may have leave to speak my own thoughts, I shall freely say that whereas there are three general concernments both of persons and causes, merely Ecclesiastical, merely Temporal, or mixed of both Ecclesiastical and temporal; as it is fit, the Church by her Synod should take cognizance of, and order for the first which is merely Ecclesiastical, so next under his Majesty, the Parliament should have the power of ordering the other; but in the mean time, my Lords, where are we? The Canons of the Church both late and former are pronounced to be void and forceless, the Church is a garden or vineyard enclosed; the laws and constitutions of it are as the wall, or hedge, if these be cast open, in what State are we: shall the enemies of this Church have such an advantage of us, as to say, we are a lawless Church, or shall all Men be left lose to their licentious freedom, God in Heaven forbidden: Hitherto we have been quietly and happily governed by those former Canons, the extent whereof we have not I hope (and for some of us) I am confident, we have not exceeded; why should we not be so still? Let these late Canons sleep since you will have it so, till we awake them, which shall not be till Doomsday, and let us be where we were, and regulate ourselves by those constitutions which were quietly submitted to on all hands, and for this which is past, since that which we did was out of our true obedience, and with honest and godly intentions and according to the Universal practice of all Christian Churches, and with the full power of his Majesty's authority, let it not be imputed to us as any way worthy of your Lordship's censure.   

A SPEECH in PARLIAMENT, Concerning the power of BISHOPS IN SECULAR THINGS.  
MY Lords this is the strangest bill that ever I heard since I was admitted to sit under this roof, for it strikes at the very fabric and composition of this house; at the style of all laws; and therefore were it not that it comes from such a recommendation it would not, I suppose, undergo any long consideration; but coming to us from such hands, It cannot but be worthy of your best thoughts; and truly for the main scope of the bill I shall yield it most willingly, that Ecclesiastical and sacred persons should not ordinarily be taken up with secular affairs.  
The Minister is called Vir Dei, a Man of God; he may not be Vir Seculi, he may lend himself to them upon occasion, he may not give himself over purposely to them: Shortly, he may not so attend worldly things as that he do neglect divine things. This we gladly yield; matters of justice therefore are not proper, as in an ordinary trade, for our function, and by my consent shall be as in generally waved and deserted, which for my part I never have meddled with but in a charitable way; with no profit, but some charge to myself, whereof I shall be glad to be eased: Tractent fabrilia fabri, as the old word is: But if any man shall hence think to infer, that some spiritual person, may not occasionally be in a special service of his King or Country; & when he is so required by his Prince, give his advice in the urgent affairs of the Kingdom (which I suppose is the main point driven at) is such an inconsequence as I dare boldly say cannot be made good, either by divinity or reason; by the laws either of God or man; whereas the contrary may be proved and enforced by both.  
As for the grounds of this bill, that the Ministers duty is so great that it is able to take up the whole man, and the Apostle saith 'tis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, who is sufficient for these things, and that he who warfares to God, should not entangle himself with this world, it is a sufficient and just conviction of those who would divide themselves betwixt God and the World, and bestow any main part of their time upon secular affairs; but it hath no operation at all upon this tenet which we have in hand; that a man dedicate to God, may not so much as when he is required, cast a glance of his eye, or some minutes of time, or some motions of his tongue upon the public business of his King and Country.  
Those that expect this from us may as well and upon the same reason hold that a minister must have no family at all, or if he have one, must not care for it; yea that he must have no body to tend, but be all Spirit: My Lords, we are men of the same composition with others, and our breeding hath been accordingly, we cannot have lived in the World but we have seen it, and observed it too, and our long experience and conversation both in Men and in books, cannot but have put something into us for the good of others; and now having a double capacity; qua cives, qua Ecclesiastici; as members of the common wealth; as Ministers and Governors of the Church, we are ready to do our best service in both; one of them is no way incompatible with the other; yea the subjects of them both are so united with the Church and Commonwealth, that they cannot be severed: yea so, as that, not the one is in the other, but one is the other, is both: so as the services which we do upon these occasions to the Commonwealth are inseparable from our good offices to the Church: so as upon this ground there is no reason of our exclusion.  
If ye say that our sitting in Parliament takes up much time which we might have employed in our studies or pulpits; consider I beseech you; that whiles you have a Parliament, we must have a convocation; and that our attendance upon that will call for the same expense of time which we afford to this service, so as herein we have neither got nor lost.  
But I fear it is not on some hands the tender regard of the full scope to our calling that is so much here stood upon; as the conceit of too much honour that is done us in taking up the room of Peers, and voting in this high Court; for surely those that are averse from our votes, yet could be content we should have place upon the woolsacks; and could allow us ears, but not tongues. If this be the matter I beseech your Lordships to consider that this honour is not done to us but our profession; which (what ever we be in our several persons) can not easily be capable of too much respect from your Lordships, Non tibi sed Isidi, as he said of old: Neither is this any new grace that is put upon our calling; (which if it were now to begin might perhaps be justly grudged to our unworthiness) but it is an ancient right and inheritance inherent in our station: No less ancient than these walls wherein we sit; yea more; before ever there were Parliaments, in the Magna Consilia of the Kingdom we had our places; and as for my predecessors ever since the Conquerors time, I can show your Lordships a just catalogue of them that have sat before me here; and truly though I have just cause to be mean in mine own eyes, yet why or wherein there should be more unworthiness in me then the rest, that I should be stripped of that privilege which they so long enjoyed though there were no law to hold me here, I cannot see, or confess. What respects of honour have been put upon the prime Clergy of old both by Pagans, and Jews, and Christians, and what are still both within Christendom and without, I shall not need to urge, it is enough to say, this of ours is not merely arbitrary, but stands so firmly established by law and custom, that I hope it neither will nor can be removed except you will shake those foundations which I believe you desire to hold firm and inviolable.  
Shortly then, my Lords, the church craves no new honour from you, and justly hopes you will not be guilty of pulling down the old: as you are the eldest sons, and next under his Majesty the honourable patrons of the Church, so she expects, and beseeches you to receive her into your tenderest care, so to order her affairs that ye leave her to posterity in no worse case than you found her. It is a true word of Damasus, Uti vilescit nomen episcopi, omnis statua perturbatur Ecclesiae; If this be suffered, the misery will be the Churches, the dishonour & blur of the act in future ages will be yours. To shut up therefore, let us be taken off from all ordinary trade of secular employments, and if you please abridge us of intermeddling with matters of common justice, but leave us possessed of those places and privileges in Parliament which our predecessors have so long and peaceably enjoyed.   

ANTHEMS FOR THE CATHEDRAL OF EXETER.  

LOrd what am I? A worm, dust, vapour, nothing!  
What is my life? A dream, a daily dying!  
What is my flesh? My souls uneasy clothing!  
What is my time? A minute ever flying:  
My time, my flesh, my life, and I;  
What are we Lord but vanity?   

Where am I Lord? down in a vale of death:  
What is my trade? sin, my dear God offending;  
My sport sin too, my stay a puff of breath:  
What end of sin? hell's horror never ending:  
My way, my trade, sport, stay, and place  
help up to make up my doleful case.   

Lord what art thou? pure life, power, beauty, bliss:  
Where dwellest thou? up above in perfect light:  
What is thy time? eternity it is:  
What state? attendance of each glorious spirit:  
Thyself, thy place, thy days, thy state  
Pass all the thoughts of powers create.   

How shall I reach thee, Lord? Oh soar above,  
Ambitious soul: but which way should I fly?  
Thou, Lord, art way and end: what wings have I?  
Aspiring thoughts, of faith, of hope, of love:  
Oh let these wings, that way alone  
Present me to thy blissful throne.    

ANTHEM FOR Christmas Day.  

Immortal babe, who this dear day  
Didst change thine Heaven for our clay,  
And didst with flesh thy Godhead vail,  
Eternal Son of God, All-hail.   

Shine happy star, ye Angels sing  
Glory on high to Heaven's King:  
Run Shepherds, leave your nightly watch,  
See Heaven come down to Bethleems cratch.   

Worship ye Sages of the East  
The King of Gods in meanness dressed.  
O blessed maid smile and adore  
The God thy womb and arms have boar.   

Star, Angels, Shepherds, and wise sages;  
Thou Virgin glory of all ages  
Restored frame of Heaven and Earth  
Joy in your dear Redeemers Birth.   

LEave O my soul this base World below,  
O leave this doleful dungeon of woe,  
And soar aloft to that supernal rest  
That maketh all the Saints and Angels blest:  
Lo there the Godheads radiant throne,  
Like to ten thousand Suns in one!  
Lo there thy Saviour dear in glory dight  
Adored of all the powers of Heavens bright:  
Lo where that head that bled with thorny wound,  
Shines ever with celestial honour crowned:  
That hand that held the scornful reed  
Makes all the fiends infernal dread.   

That back and side that ran with bloody streams  
Daunt Angels eyes with their majestic beams;  
Those feet once fastened to the cursed tree  
Trample on death and hell, in glorious glee.  
Those lips once drenched with gall do make  
With their dread doom the world to quake.   

Behold those joys thou never canst behold;  
Those precious gates of pearl, those Streets of gold,  
Those streams of Life, those trees of Paradise  
That never can be seen by mortal eyes:  
And when thou seest this state divine,  
Think that it is or shall be thine.   

See there the happy troops of purest sprights  
That live above in endless true delights;  
And see where once thyself shalt ranged be,  
And look and long for immortality:  
And now beforehand help to sing  
Allelujahs to Heavens King.   
FINIS.   

BOOKS printed for, and to be sold by, John Crook, at the Sign of the Ship in Saint Paul's Churchyard.  
Annals veteris & novi Testamenti, Aviro Reverend. Jacob Usserio Archiepisco Armachano. 
Folio.  The Annals of the Old and New Testament, with the Synchronismus of Heathen story to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, by James Usher D.D. Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland. 
Folio.  The Antiquities of Warwikcshire illustrated & beautified with Maps, prospects, and pourtractures, by William Dugdale. 
Folio.  Hymen's Preludia or Love's Master piece being the 9th. and 10th. parts of Cleopatra. 
Folio.  The History of this I●on Age▪ wherein is set down the Original of all the wars and commotions▪ that have happened from the year of God 1500. Illustrated with the figures of the most Renowned persons of this Time. 
Folio.  The History of the great and renowned Monarchy of China. 
Fol.  The holy History, containing excellent observations on the Remarkable passages of the old Testament, written Originally in French by N. Caussin S.I. and now rendered into English by a Person of Honour. 
4.  Ejusdem de textus hebraici Veteris Testamenti variantibus Lectionibus ad Lodovicum Capellum Epistola. 
Quarto.  Usserii de 70. Interpretum version syntagma. 
Quarto.  Montagues Miscellanea Spiritual●ia. 
4. second part.  A Treatise of Gavelkind both name and thing, showing the true Etymology, and derivation of the one, the nature, antiquity, and Original of the other, by William Sonner. 
Quarto  The Holy Life of monsieur de Renty a late noble man of France. 
8.  Certain discourses viz. of Babylon the present See of Rome, of laying on of hands, of the old form of words in Ordination, of a set form of prayer, being the judgement of the Late Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland by N. Bernard, D. D. 
Octavo.  The Character of England with reflections upon Gallus Castratus. 
12.   
The French Gardener, instructing how to cultivate all sorts of Fruit-trees, with directions to dry and conserve them in their natural. An accomplished piece illustrated with sculpture.  
By whom also all manner of Books are to be sold, brought from beyond the Seas.