A SERMON PREACHED at Paul's Cross the 9 of june. 1605.  
Upon the 20. of the Revelation the 12. vers. treating of these several heads.  

1. Of the Resurrection of the Flesh.  
2. Of the judgement of the quick and dead.  
3. Of the Communion of Saints.  
4. Of Everlasting life.   
By Samuel Gardnier, Doct. of Divinity.  
LONDON Printed for Edward White, and are to be sold at the little North-door of Saint Paul's Church, at the Sign of the Gun. 1605.   

TO THE RIGHT Honourable and virtuous Lady, Jane Lady Barkley, wife to Henry Lord Barkley.  
IN the full affiance I have in the lords mercy, which made this poor Sermon, welcome to so many ears, being preached: that he will direct it to the common comfort, being now presented to their eyes printed: the importunity of many of my good friends had success with me.  
I consecrate it, most Honourable Lady, unto you, in token of duty towards you: for your great Love, by which I am enabled to labour in this sort, and indeed to live. God's blessing be upon it, and upon you.  
Your honours Chaplain, SAMVEL GARDNIER.   
Revelat. 20. Vers. 12 ¶ And I saw the dead both great and small stand before God, and the Books were opened, and an other Book was opened, which is the Book of Life, and the dead were judged of those things, which were written in the Books according to their works. 
Here is cluster, and multiplicity of Christian Catechism, as including and concluding these four Articles of the catholic faith. 1. The resurrection of the flesh, touched in the standing of the dead before God. 2. The judgement of the quick and the dead, noted in the opening of the Books, out of which they have the sentence of judgement read them. 3. The Communion of Saints. 4. Everlasting life, not obscurely insinuated by the other book, entitled: The Book of life, here spoken of.  
This sentence is an absolute description of the judgement, wherein we have these circumstances. 1. The persons standing in the judgement to be tried. All. 1 Great, 2. Small, of what note & mark soever they be 2. The manner of trial & proceeding with them, by the bills of inditement found out against them in the opening the books. 3. The doom definitive of double nature. 1. Absolution. 2. Condemnation according to the property and condition of their works.  
The precedency is an introduction to this, which telleth us the person of the judge in the immediate verse before, which is Christ the Son of God, the Son of man, 
John. 5.22.  to whom all the judgement is committed by the father, being the predestinate man, by whom he will judge the world in righteousness, 
Act. 17.31.  whose majesty is there depicted unto us, in his orient colours, answerable in effect to that which Augustine saith: videbitur terribilis, qui visus est contemptibilis, demonstrabit potentiam, qui demonstravit patientiam. He shall be seen terrible, that hath been seen contemptible, and he shall manifest his power, as he hath showed his patience. And thus I pretermit the purport of the premises with this sentence of monition given you out of Augustin: 
August. in Psal. 66.  Deut se corrigendos, dent se dirigendos, ei qui videt iudicandos. Let them yield to be corrected, let them yield to be directed, to him that one day shall see them all detected.  
That which is first in nature, is here handled first in order: the learning of the resurrection, the fore runner of the judgement & the consequents thereof: taught in the very entry in these words. I saw the dead both great and small stand before God. The resurrection is the hand that holdeth up religion by the head: the life and soul of it, the first stone that we are to lay in our spiritual building, or rather the foundation that beareth up the building, the anchor of our hope, the certainty of our salvation, called by Tertullian, janua regni caelestis. The door whereat we enter into the Kingdom of heaven, the Godly thereby going to the joys, the wicked to the torment's prepared for them: the reference of our faith by the same Godly Father, Fiducia Christianorum est resurrectio mortuorum: Our Christian expectation is the corporal resurrection, which is grounded on the Doctrine of Saint Paul, who bringeth in bundles of reasons for it by order of just consequence thus: If there were no resurrection. 1. Then were our preaching vain. 
1. Cor. 1● 1.  2. Your faith of none effect. 3. We should be found false witnesses. 4. The dead were quite undone. 5. We were yet in our sins. 6. Of all men, Christians were most miserable. As if he should have said, take away the resurrection, and take away altogether, our preaching, your believing, burn the Bible, throw down pulpits, lay our churches even with their foundations, play the Epicures & belli-gods, and live as ye list. For the Books are found liars, the Prophets & Apostles have fed us with fables, & they are as Fountains dried up. But our foundations are in the holy hills, and not in the valleys of human reasons, we know what we believe, and we lay steadfast hold of the resurrection & of faith towards Christ. 
Psal. 3.21.  Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like his glorious body, according to the working, whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. But yet there is more oppugnation, and insurrection, against this sweet Article of the resurrection, then against any parcel of Divinity beside: the devil and his black guard, bending and banding themselves against this, withal the might and malice that they can. 1. By Gentiles. 2. By jews, without and within the Liberties of the Church. Without, by the Peripatecians, and almost all the brood of Brainsick Philosophers and school of Epicures, among whom, here what Seneca, 
Seneca ad Martiam.  one of the best of that bunch, saith: Mors omnium solutio est et finis, extra quam mala nostra non exeant. Death is the Period and determination of all things, beyond which they cannot go. And he standeth to reason it, and maintain it in this wise: Quo modo potest miser esse qui nullus est? How can he be a wretched man that is no man? But there are in the Church that speak proudly and perversely against this excellent Divinity, either marring it altogether, or (which is little better) making it in their own moulds, casting clouds & fume upon the clear light of the Scriptures, making a spiritual resurrection consisting in our renuamce & regeneration. Such were the Sadduces among the jews, put to a non plus, 
Mat. 22.33  and silence by our Saviour: Such were Hymeneus and Philetus, while the Apostles lived & taught among them, taxed by saint Paul in his letter to Timothee. 
2. Tim. 2. 1●  Such were the Athenians very troublesome to the same Apostle, no sooner he touched this text of the resurrection, how be it they heard him willingly the forepart of the Sermon: 
Act. 17.32  and such are the mockers & scoffers of whom saint Peter speaketh that this last age should bring forth, 
2. Pet. 3.4  who shall have in derision whatsoever Preachers out of Scriptures shall tell them of the resurrection, the judgement & the world's destruction, Such was Simon Magus, from whom came the sect of the Simonians. Such were the Valentinians, Carpocratians, Cardonians, Archotici, Severians, Basilidians, Hierarchites, with rabblements of such Locusts & Caterpillars, of whom Augustine hath entreated. Such were the Manichees that were mainly bend against this Article, against whom saint Augustin worthily disputeth: such a one was Martion, who was no faithful friend to the resurrection, as Tertullian in his fift Book witnesseth. But that every mouth may be stopped, God glorified, our faith strengthened, we shall. 1. by authorities of Scriptures. 2. Sacred examples. 3. Reason's irrefragable. 4. The whole course of nature make good this proposition, and wind it up with the use, and application that it giveth, and pass on to the rest.  
1. In both the instruments the old and the new, we are compassed with clouds of witnesses in the cause. 
Isaiah. 26.19  The Prophet Isaiah thus speaketh in it. Thy dead men shall live: even with my body shall they rise. Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Lively illustration hereof is in the dead bones, 
Ezech. 37.10  which by Ezechiel his prophesying upon them, recovered their joints, 
Dan. 12.2  sinews, flesh, skin, life. Daniel maketh this as clear as the Sun, when as he saith: Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and perpetual contempt. 
Psal. 17.16  David is as plain and open in the point. As for me, I will behold thy presence in righteousness: and when I wake up after thy likeness, I shall be satisfied with it. 
Job. 19.25  But job striketh the nail to the head, who amidst all his perturbations and passions, maketh this profession. I am sure that my redeemer liveth, and he shall stand the last on the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet shall I see God in my flesh, whom I myself shall see, and mine eyes shall behold, and nove other for me, though my reins are consumed within me. There be more places in the old Testament besides these: but these are bones enough to choke them that are so impudent as to say, that the old Charter performeth no testimony to this present article: or if there be any one to be found, that it was unknown to the Fathers of those times. I am driven to deal with the proofs of the new Testament, as Solomon did with the brass in the Temple: it was so much he would not weigh it: they are so many, we cannot stand upon them.  
2. Examples of such as have been raised from the dead, do nourish and fortify our faith in the resurrection, 
1. Ki. 17.22 2. Kin. 4.35 Math. 9.25 Luke. 7.15 joh. 11.44 Act. 9.40 Act. 20.10  as of the widows Son of Zarephath raised by Elijah: of the Shunamites Son restored by Elisha, of jairus his Daughter, the widows Son of the City of Naijm, Lazarus that had lain in his grave four days, brought from death to life again by Christ, Tabytha by Peter: Eutichus by Paul.  
3. There are fundamental reasons on the side of the resurrection that ought to sway with us. 1. We draw the first from the justice of God, which would that the body which hath partaked with the mind, in the good or bad inclinations thereof, should be rewarded accordingly: which not being so performed in this life, it could never be served in number, measure, proportion, without the resurrection. 2. We also dispute from his infinite goodness, which plenteously rewardeth the well doer: and his anger implacable, (worse, as Chrisostome faith, than a thousand hells) which must make an end, or rather no end with the workers of wickedness: both which were quite voided, were there a nullity of the resurrection. 3. We further argue from the immutability of his verity, his promises being signed by the finger of his spirit, and sealed with the blood of the Lamb, of honour, glory, peace, a crown of immortality, the fruition of the tree of life, the sight of the glorious face of God, the society with his Angels and Saints, the congregation of first borne, new names, white garments, pleasures at the right hand of God, abundance of joys for evermore: all which must take place by the resurrection. 4. Finally, our dignity and excellency above all other creatures, (wherein we go as much beyond them, as the Moon doth the smaller Stars in glory) challengeth the same: which without the condition of the life to come, should be many ways inferior unto them. For as the earth with the other elements are of longer standing then man: so there be among Birds, Beasts, Fishes, that are of greater strength and longer life than he. And whereas almost all creatures immediately after they be producted can shift for themselves, and have either no, or little need others: mankind only must have need of great attendance, & assistance, his time is shorter than of many of them, & his miseries more than any of them. Therefore there must be an other life to recompense it.  
4. But because it pleaseth the Philosophers to arraign the Scriptures of folly, and measure Divinity by the line of human wisdom, and cannot maintain this maxim of their school a priuatione ad habitum impossibilis regressus, from the privation to the habit, the return is impossible, unless they flatly disclaim the resurrection: and the Atheist rubbeth his filthiness against God's holiness, and scorneth whatsoever is spoken out of scriptures, (whereby our forecited testimonies, examples, reasons, grounded upon them, concern not their profession) we will deal with them, by their own learning, the order of nature, which is every one's Schoolmaster, and that shall stint the strife that is between us, & make the question questionless.  
There be many good resemblances in the works of nature, of the resurrection in creatures of all kinds. 1. Vegetative. 2. Sensitive. 3. Rational, which albeit they be not proofs so pregnant: yet give they good enforcement to the present argument.  
1. Out of things vegetative, that have but a growing life: groweth very good probability of this sacred mystery. 
1. Cor. 15, ●6  As of Corn, (which is Paul's comparison, and brought in by him to prove the resurrection) which first rotteth, and dieth in the ground, and again in the spring, the renewing time of the season, reviveth and flourisheth, yea the earth with all her stirpes, herbs, plants, yield to the wrath & wrack of the winter, and decay, & die away: and draw their breath again at the return of the times, and put on their new habit and attire with which they stately mantle and adorn the surface of the earth, and plentifully serve for the use of man.  
2. To come to things sensitive: there be among them sensible and significant signs of the resurrection, Historians of very good worth make report, that there be certain Bears and Mice, who sleep whole winters without repast, and that in such sort, as by no agitation, and compunction that is used, they can be perceived to stir, until the spring of the year, when they awake again, and show themselves abroad out of their Caves and Dens. The Indian Bird the Phoenix (as witnesseth Lactantius) is burnt to ashes by the power of the Sun, and out of the same ashes another is quickened, whereby that kind is preserved. The Lion missing of her prey, is longer from her whelps, who returning finding them dead, roareth so outrageously as she recovereth them.  
3. But in the reasonable and royal creature, which is man, this matter is manifested, he is conceived an infant in his mother's womb, where of liquid seed things of sundry natures are producted, as flesh, bones, sinews, veins, hair: in the womb he is qualified with vital Spirits, where he liveth, moveth, feedeth, at the last out of the womb, as out of a winding sheet, he cometh into the world. Who is so stockish as cannot here perceive, special good token, & type of the resurrection? To press this point further, that man may be instance of man's resurrection, doth not every man every day as it were die by his sleep, which is the ligature of his senses and reason, there being such cognation between death and sleep, as sleep is termed by Philosophers, Imago mortis, the Image of death, and by Homer, Frater mortis, the Brother of death.  
For what office doth he perform of a living man, while he lieth like a timber log in his dead sleep. But his sleep being dispelled, he is a new man, and returneth a fresh to his wont labours, Do we not also see how many are cast into sows and trances, which for a time seem to deprive them of breath and life: and yet do recover themselves again. These be to me very good memorials of my good resurrection, and they preach the like to you. Finally, the very distinction of the times, readeth this Divinity lecture unto us, while the day is buried in the darkness of the night, as it were in a Sepulchre, & so rolleth a stone over it, as it cannot, until the dawning, break out again. The like we say of the night which dieth by the day. The seasons die and departed from us, and live and return again: all things by deformity are reform. These be Tertullians' arguments in Apologetico to prove the resurrection against the Gentiles. But to the adversaries of this Doctrine, it seemeth against reason, and to be impossible, that of nothing any thing should be made, & so that a body, by death as they say, resolved into nothing, should become a body again, we answer them herein, that it is suprarationem, non contra rationem: above reason, but not against reason it should be so. And Potentia facientis est ratio facti. 
Aug. Epist. 3. ad volus.  Considera authorem, tolle dubitationem, it is Augustine's saying: The power of the doer is the reason of the deed. Consider the Author & do away all doubt, the reason of the resurrection of the creature, is the power of the creator, there being nothing of impossible condition with God, that implieth not a contradiction, as the schoolmen do distinguish. And it is false they say: that the body by death is dissolved to nothing, for it is but turned into his element, the earth, the Rock from which it was first hewed, the pit from whence it was first digged and to take up the form of the speech of the Philosopher, in materiam priman, into his first matter, of which it was first made, into which it shall be marred, & out of which it shall be made again. Why should it seem to you harder for God, to restore that which once was, then to create at the first of nothing that which never was? Are Artificers and workmen in Metals able to dissolve such vessels as they list, & to make them new again? Can glaziers do the like in that brittle ware? to let pass Potters, and Plodders in clay, who can mar and make any utensill of that fragile nature, as many times as they please. And shall not the great master workman of the whole world be able to do the like? Spend & disperse my body, so far as force of imagination will suffer you, suppose a Beast eateth it, an other beast prayeth upon him, and that beast again is devoured by birds, those Birds are incorporated by men, and so my substance is after many concoctions and degrees, transfused into many men's substance: the Lord shall sunder and divide them again, aswell as the craftsmen can part sundry metals that are molten together.  
But we are not to conceive, that every thing that giveth increase to the body's substance, is to rise again in the resurrection: but that every one shall have such sufficiency of dimensions, as shall serve for a perfect and absolute body. But be it that the body is to take up that stature in the resurrection, which is laid down by dissolution (as some stiffly defend it, whom we will not offend in it, with the restrictions and cautions that Augustine speaketh of, that we free it of deformity, 
De Civit. lei lib, 22, cap, 20.  infirmity, tardity, impurity) and be it never so piecemeal divided according to the former supposition, the like whereof Augustine maketh in the same place, every part must again be restored to the right owner, as being but borrowed for the time, as the same father saith.  
But we conclude this, with these grave and reverend words of this man: Absit ut sinus ullus, secretumque naturae, 
ibidem.  ita recipiat aliquid subtractum sensibus nostris, ut omnium creatoris aut lateat cognitionem, aut effugiat potestatem. Be it far from us to think that any secret place, or conveyance of nature, should so hide any thing removed from our senses, as it may be kept from the knowledge of the Creator, or escape his power.  
It remaineth that we reap the Harvest of this Doctrine, and the Vintage this Divinity giveth us: much being to be gathered and gleaned from hence.  
1. The resurrection is a comfort to the Godly, and a corsive to the wicked. So our Saviour Christ saith of it: 
joh. 5.29.  They shall come forth that have done good to the resurrection of life: but they that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.  
Hear the Godly sow in tears, they shall then reap in joy: here they labour and are heavy laden, there they shall rest from their labours, and take out their general quietus est. And that is the reckoning David maketh of it saying: 
Psal. 16.9.  Mine heart is glad, my tongue rejoiceth, and my flesh also doth rest in hope, the effect of the resurrection as the addition showeth: For thou shalt not leave my soul in grave, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Wherefore the resurrection is styled by Peter, 
Act. 3.19 Ma. 5.4.6 Reu. 17.1 Revel. 21  the time of refreshing: for the hungry shall be satisfied, which is their refreshing: the mourners comforted, which is their refreshing: all tears wiped away from our eyes, which is our refreshing: death shall be no more, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, which is our gracious general refreshing.  
The resurrection as Augustine saith: 
August Psal. 10.  Est formidenda malis propter paenam: amanda bonis propter coronam. It is fearful to the wicked for the stroke of justice: it is welcome to the Godly for the crown of righteousness. As two that are cast into the jail, the one for a Capital, the other for a common offence, entertain the time of the assizes and coming of the judge, with contrary affection, as being this man's absolution, & the other man's condemnation, and therefore the one is encouraged, and the other is cast down, when this time cometh: so the good in the resurrection hold up their heads, for their jail delivery and redemption is at hand, the bad hang down their heads, and are out of soul, for their swift damnation cometh. This calleth upon us for our speedy repentance, lest that day as a snare unawares come upon us: For such as this time leave us, such shall that time find us: Qualis quisque in isto die moritur, 
jug. hesych pist, 8  talis in die illo iudicabitur: as a man dieth in this day, so shall he be judged in that day.  
2. The certain expectation of the resurrection, and the due and dutiful meditation of it, serveth to rouse us up from our beds of security, to take us by the elbows and set us on our feet, and much fruit groweth upon the stalk. It poureth water upon the Furnace of our furious affections and cooleth them, it is the watch and the dial by which we are directed to spend our time, and it is the fan that fifth and winnoweth the pelf from the corn, the staff of our journey towards heaven more fortunate than jacobs' was, with which he passed over jordan, the star that leadeth the Godly wise to the heavenly Bethlehem, where Christ is, as the Comet led the wisemen of the east to Bethlehem where Christ was.  
He that hath a yearly great inheritance may spend somewhat liberally, but he that oweth more than he is worth must not spend an idle penny, as being to stand to the courtesy of his creditor that will call him to a reckoning. It so fareth with us, we are already much cast behind hand, as having spent too much time already upon our pleasures and our sins: it remaineth now that we apply ourselves to the Apostles counsel, to redeem the time, because the days are evil, and to join in petition to God with David; O let me live and recover myself, before I go hence, and be no more seen. The serious thought of this drove jerom to his dumps, and pricked him in the quickest vain, whatsoever he went about, hearing the voice of the judgement sounding in his ears, of which he saith thus: sive vigilo sive dormio, sive aliquidaliud ago, videor mihi audire vocem hanc in aure mea, surgite mortui, venite ad judicium: whether I awake or sleep, or whatsoever else I do, I seem to hear this voice, ringing in mine ears. Awake ye dead and come to judgement. The sound of this trumpet awaketh us all, and it is a Spur to the Godly to prick them unto virtue, and a bridle to the wicked to hold them in from vice. While the Apostle fed upon this, as upon a restorative. That the resurrection of the dead should be of the just and unjust, how it wrought, he telleth us. In this respect I endeavour myself to have always a clear conscience towards God and man. 
Act. 24.15.16.   
3. The faith in the resurrection serveth to scatter our inordinate passions, which naturally strangle us for our deceased friends and to keep them within the limits and bounds of orderly moderation.  
While we consider how death that slayeth us all, is slain in the elect by the general resurrection, that non obijt, sed abijt: non amisimus sed premisin us. He is not lost, 
Gen. 15.15 Num. 27.13  but left for a while, he is but gone with Abraham to his fathers, as here living, but among strangers: he is but gathered to his people with Moses, as being here but scattered: his flesh sleeping and resting in hope with David's, 
Psal. 16.9.  easing himself after such wearisome labours of this life, which being finished he ariseth there fully to his endless felicity, his soul all the while being in God's custody, and his spirit in the hands of the Lord of the spirits of all flesh, as David teacheth us in his last will and testament, leaving his kingdom to his Son, his carcase to the soil, and to God his soul, 
Psal. 31.5.  saying: Into thy hands I commend my spirit, for thou hast redeemed me, O Lord thou God of truth, which the second David of the seed of David sampleth, committing his soul to no other keeper, then to the Creator as being there most sure, as the Apostle saith: 
Luk 23, 46  I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded, 
2. Tim. 1, 12  that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day.  
4. While we ascertain ourselves of the resurrection, and rest ourselves in that as Doves in the clefts of the rocks, we are armed and prepared against the terror of death, for we consider how God hath turned it into our benefit, and made it our entrance into a better life, our passage from a prison to a palace, from a tabernacle to an abiding City: from a region of death, to the land of the living: from the life of men, to the life of Angels: from a body of humility, to a body of glory: from the vale of tears, to that mount of Zion, where the Lamb is gathering the Saints about him, to the copartnershippe of those joys, which he himself enjoyeth according to that which the Apostle saith: 
2, Cor, 5, 1  We know that when our earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved: we have a building given of God, which is an house not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens.  
What man hath been thrown into a deep dungeon without light of Sun or Mooneful of Serpents, and all vile creatures, would not be glad to be set at liberty? our death & resurrection is this great mutation, the body being the prison of the soul, and the grave the prison of the body: the body being as full of sins as any prison is of Serpents in this life, and heaven being the palace of our endless pleasures. What man maketh not haste for his life out of an old house ready to fall? our bodies are no better then old clay: cottages ready to drop down: our spirit is but vapour and fume, our garments are corruption, the worm and canker, our portion, the earth, the womb that did conceive us, and the earth, the womb that must receive us. If a skilful Pilot shall foresee and foretell a storm, shall not the Mariners hast all that they may towards the Haven? Christ our great ship-master hath forespoken many storms in the sea of this world: hie we therefore to heaven, which is our haven, to the key-side of the kingdom of God, & to the land of the living, the landing place of us all. In the joined Battle with the worldly enemy, when our soldiers are strooken with gun shot on all sides, and our fellows fall before us, and behind us, on the right hand, and the left, what a happy turn is it for the enemy to turn his back to us, and betake him to his heels, and how would this quicken and hearten our Spirits? but by the resurrection, all the ranks and Classeis of our enemies, the devil, death, condemnation, turn us their back parts and fly away from us. The day labourer is glad when the day is at an end, for them his rest and his reward beginneth: the end of this life is the end of our labour, and then our rest and reward without end beginneth.  
Every man is glad at the departure of Winter, and at the approach of Summer: this life of ours is but a troublesome Winter, the life that is to come is the joyful Summer season.  
He is a brainless beggar indeed, that would not put off his rotten rags, to be clad with royal robes: our hides that cover us are paltry leather coats, and as filthy as any beggars weeds: but in the other life we shall be clothed with the white garment of Christ's innocency, who shall change the vile raiment of our bodies, and shall deck them with all glory and Majesty suitable to his body. The traveler that hath been long in far parts, is a glad man when his business are at an end, that he may return to his wife, children, and friends: our life is but a weariesome pilgrimage, of few and evil days: by death and the resurrection we have a merry meeting withal our kindred, and dear friends departed in the lords fear. He that is outlawed and banished for debt, is made a merry man by his calling home again, and the canceling that debt: we live here debtors and banished men, the Lord calleth us home by the way of our death, and throweth all our tickets of accounts into the sea. Why therefore should not our hearts skip like Rams within our bellies for joy? If David, Paul, Peter, john, or any of these great men and dear Saints of God, the fingers of God's hand, and sacred actuaries and penmen of his Counsels, might be sent down from heaven unto us, we would be glad to take the widest perambulation that is, to look any of them on the face: but in the resurrection, we shall see all the glorious company of the prophets, the fellowship of the Apostles, the noble army of Martyrs, and his holy Angels, yea Christ himself face to face, wherefore we have cause to wish & welcome this our resurrection.  
5. I note also this advantage in the resurrection that the faithful have: it is their Bulwark and wall of brass against all temptations, the City of refuge amidst their persecutions in this world, the soul of the inward man, and blessed Bee God which hath showed us this kindness in a strong City. This was armour of proof to job against all the fiery Darts of the devil thrown against his patience, 
job, 19.25,  whereby he was more than Conqueror, whilst his heart like Mount Zion, which could not be removed, was fixed and fastened upon the resurrection.  
And this was as it were the latter gracious rain in the heat and drought of summer, which refreshed the inheritance of God, even the souls of his Saints, and as the sweet wood thrown into the waters of Marah that took away the bitterness of it, when in the days of Antiochus they were under the Cross, and endured strange torments: for they looked as the Spirit of God saith: for a better resurrection. 
Heb. 11. 3●  David by this Target that covered his heart could fight like a man, and break every Spear that was lift up against him, & was in a readiness for every enemy when he came in the gate, of which he doubted not to make this godly boast saying. Though I walk through the midst of the shadow of death, 
Psal. 23.4  I will fear none evil: for thou art with me, thy rod & thy staff comfort me. 
Phil. 1.21  This made Paul to say that it was life for him to die, because it was lucre and gain to him. And the same Apostle being the mouth of the rest saith: Therefore we faint not, 
2. Cor. 4.2  because we know though the outward man perish, the inward man shall be renewed daily, while we look not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are not seen. For that which the left hand of nature pulleth down, the right hand of the creator shall build up again. The destruction of our earthly mansion is the construction of our heavenly habitation, it is the same Apostles profession: 
2. Cor. 5  We know that when the earthly house of this tahernacle be destroved: we shall have a house not made with hands, 
judg. 5.23.  but eternal in the heavens. For this cause curse ye Atheists as the Angel did Meroz because they go not out with us to fight in the Lord's cause in the resurrection. 
Sa. 1.21  As David pronounced a curse on the mountains of Gilboa that the clouds might never drop upon those clods, because there the shields of the mighty were cast down: so a curse of all curses and the full vial of the lords malidiction be powered upon the bodies and souls of all unrepentant Atheists, whose hearts are so hooped and bound about with infidelity, as they have thrown down this shield and buckler of all their expectation, which is the resurrection:  
But the blessing of the Lord be on the mountains of Armenia which gave rest unto the Ark: and blessed be all those Christian bodies and souls that rest upon this, and let this rest with them, the Ark and the coffer of his most gracious promises. And oh that David's fools that say there is no God, and so no resurrection, who I fear are too rife in this Royal City, had the marks of knowledge set upon them, as the Leprous person had, whose garments were split, whose head and lips were covered, who was enjoined to proclaim, as he passed by, I am unclean, I am unclean: that all that see them might point at them, and say, There, there: Behold an Atheist, behold an Atheist, who are dead while they live (by the sentence of Socrates) because all the cares of their life are but to live: Non vivit cui nihil est in mente nisi ut vivat. He liveth not, that mindeth nothing but to live, or as the Roman Emperor said: cui nihill in vita dulcius est vita: to whom nothing in this life is sweeter than life: whose estate therein is no better than a stone, vivit et lapis saith St. Augustin: a stone itself liveth. But they are dead & dead again, as St. Jude saith: & to be plucked up by the roots, 
Mar. 11.13  as the Figtree blasted by Christ his lips: dead by natural vegetation, dead by spiritual execration. From the subject of the resurrection, we are led by the hand of the Text, to the tractat of the judgement. And first to the circumstance of the persons in the judgement to be tried, All great and small, without any difference of sex, or sort. So saith Esay in the person of God: 
Isai. 45.23.  Every knee shall bow unto 〈◊〉, etc. St. Paul confirmeth it, saying: We shall all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, 
Ro. 14.10.  not one shall escape: so he concludeth it in the same place, five or one of us 〈◊〉 give accounts of himself to God. 
Ro. 14.12. john. 5.  This proposition is always indefinitely delivered. All that are in the graves shall hear the voice of Christ, and come forth to judgement. All nations shall be gathered before him. 
Mat. 13.15.  He shall give to every one according to his works. Wherefore the lords judgement is compared to a Barber's Razor, which shall have the hair of the head and the feet, even the highest and the lowest, the Peasant and the Prince. 
Isai. 7.20. Isai. 8.8.  It is compared to a violent rage of waters, which shall not only fill the channels, and the valleys below, but shall cover the tops of the proudest mountains. Men lay their nets for the smaller fish, but the Lord trammeleth for the great Leviathan, 
job. 40.20.  and casteth a line unto his tongue, and pierceth his nostrils with a hook, 
Isai. 27.1.  he hath Tewe for the great Dragon, & the crocodile in the waters, as the prophet Esay saith. There is no running behind a tree with Adam, behind a Tent with Sara, or covering ourselves with a vail with Thamar. There is no running into the holes of Rocks, or into the Caves of the earth from the glory of his Majesty. The Mountains cannot cover us, the hills cannot hide us, from the anger of him that sitteth upon the Throne, and of the Lamb. 
Isai. 22. Psalm. 62. joel. 2.9  Though we make our nest in a Rock, yet shall we be as a tottering wall, and as a broken hedge. God's judgement shall run upon the wall, climb up upon the houses, & enter in at the windows like a Thief. No secret or sacred place shall then shroud us: 
●ephan, 1  but jerusalem shall be searched with lanterns: whereby make conjecture what shall be become of Babylon. When the judgement of waters came upon the first world, there was an Ark and a Bark to rescue Noah and his family. When the judgement of fire, licked up Sodom and Comorra like dry stubble, yet Lot was exempted, and the little City Zoar appointed him to run unto. But the universal judgement spareth none, there is no covenant to be made with it. 
Isa. 30.33. Wisd. 6.  Tophet is prepared for the King and the mighty shall be mightily tormented. The Lord puts this text into his servant jeremies' mouth: Say unto the King & the Queen. Humble yourselves, 
jere. 13.18  sit down, for the Crown of your glory shall come down. The great mountain before Zorobabell shall be made plain: it is the prophecy and aphorism of the Prophet. Corrupt judges shall then stand at the Bar before their judge, and be condemned, as Shebna was. 
Isai. 22.8.  The jdle, jdol bishops and Ministers shall then be cut of in that day, as he once cut of three of them in a month. 
Zach. 11.8.  Blasphemers who now throw out oaths as mad men throw stones, shall be sentenced to death, 
Levi. 24.10  as that Son of the Egyptian was, that was overwhelmed with stones and died: False witnesses, 
Zach. 11.5  under the burden of whom the earth now groaneth, shall then be served with a witness, & shall reap the fruit, their wickedness have ploughed, as the accusers of Daniel were handled. 
Dan. 6.24  All thieves and especially the Clerophagi of our time, that engross the patrimony of the Church, and say among themselves: Come let us take to ourselves the house of God in possession, who have already broken down the carved works thereof with axes, & hammers shall be condemned in the judgement with Achan, who stole a wedge of gold and a Babylonish garment, 
Josue. 7.  and be led to execution. All Politicians & counterfeit Christians, that look under the brow, and run with the stream and tide of the times, to engross the prosperity and plenteousness thereof, shall in the judgement be strooken out of life, 
Acts. 5.  as Ananias, and Saphira were. Our Popish heretics, and all maintainers of Heretical pravity and purloiners and Barterers of Gods holy mysteries, rather than they shall want executioners, their own parents shall be glad of the office, 
Zach. 13.3.  & shall thrust them through.  
Finally let all the sort of Schismatics that fight under the standard of their grand Captains Korah and his complices, 
Numb. 16.  and would unjoint government, tremble at their judgement, the earth opening and swallowing up Dathan, and covering the congregation of Abiram. Of which saith saint Augustin: Quis dubitaverit hoc esse sceleratius commissum quod est gravius vindicatum? Who doth doubt that this is heinously committed, which is of the Lord so highly punished? When a Noble man in case of treason is brought to Westminster Hal to be arraigned, the people in admiration thereof, run in flocks and heaps thither: But what a sight will there be that judgement Hall, where the Lord will hold his Assizes, so many Princes & Potentates, shall stand without guard or retinue, naked, & trembling, yearning, & eating their tongues through grief, & shall receive sentence not only capital, but eternal. If all the bodies that ever were borne, might be now seen in one heap, what a fearful spectackle would it make? but there shall be this object in the general judgement, to strike us all with amazement.  
2. The next circumstance is the manner of the trial, & judicial proceeding with the persons convented in the judgement, & that is, by the books & evidences that are put in against them: wherein what is meant by these books, & how many books there are, it is to be considered. By the books I understand the certain & infallible knowledge of God, his remembrance & care of all things, especially of such as concern his choose once: so as their number & names are before his eyes, as if he had amanuensis, registers & Scriveners to make enrolment of them. For as he numbereth the stars & calleth them all by their names: as he keepeth tale of the hairs of our head, so as not one of them fall away from us without his foreknowledge: as his providence stretcheth itself to the handful of meal of the woman of zarepthah, & to the pitcher of oil of the preachers widow: to the fall of a sparrow from the house top to the clothing of the lilleiss, & grass of the field: to the provission of the young Ravens that call upon him: so much more keepeth he a Calendar of our doings, and setteth our secret sins in the sight of his countenance. Thus metaphorically in this sense are Books given to God, the spirit here alluding to the custom of the wise, to Princes, Universities, Merchants, Masters of families and such like. Prince's use to have a bill of the names of such as appertain unto them, that they may know what number they have, & how to provide for them in time. So the Lord hath his court in heaven, to which he hath not chosen all, but some before the foundations of the world were laid. Now the number and names of such, he keepeth in as sure and sweet remembrance, as if he had put them into writing Tables for the purpose. As God said to Moses, I know thee by thy name: 
Exo. 35.12  as Christ saith of himself to the Church. 
john 10.3.  He calleth his own sheep by name, & else where: 
Luk. 10.20  willing them to rejoice, because their names were written in heaven. Universities do the like: when they admit any into their corporation, they cataloguize their names: Merchants and Householders serve their memories in matters of moment, by notes that they keep of them. So this is the reason and cause of the Metaphor, and the signification of the Books, so often remembered in divine learning. God's mind therefore is his book: the Tables of our hearts are the writing Tables, aswell as parchment skrolles, wherein are things engrossed. The omniscience of God is the writing itself. Things are said to be written in a book, that is in the sacred secrets of his breast, as he knoweth them altogether.  
We find three books given to God in the Scriptures. 1. One is of his Providence, & foreknowledge of all things before ever they were. 2. Another is of the judgement. 3. The other is of life. The sweet singer of Israel saith. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect, 
Psal. 139.16.  and in thy book were all my members written, which day by day were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. There is the first book of his providence, & foreknowledge. 2. The second which is the book of judgement hath two Tomes or volumes. 1. The first is his understanding of all our works and words, according to which he will award judgement in the day of judgement: so as this is instead of a roll in God's hand, wherein the names of all delinquents are set down, and the quality of their doings. 2. The other Tome is the book of every one's conscience, which shall perform testimony to things done and undone, which may also be entitled the book of life, that is of this life: which divine operation in the conscience accusing or excusing, scientia conscientiam the knowledge, the conscience, hath the name of a book, because in that in a manner is read, whatsoever by the agent hath been hid. 3. The third book is inscribed the book of life, that is of God's predestination to eternal life: which is begun in this life by our steadfast faith in Christ, according to the words of Christ, He that believeth in me hath eternal life, that is the inchoation & first fruits thereof, after death it must have consummation & perfection. So the book of life is a register or role in the Lords right hand of the names of such as are preordinated to everlasting life, whom God will always acknowledge to be his, 
john. 13.8. 2. Tim. 1.19  as our Saviour saith: I know whom I have chosen, as St. Paul saith: The Lord knoweth who are his. This book is often spoken of in the scriptures, as by Moses: 
Exo. 32.32.  when he saith: Raze me out of thy book which thou hast written. 
Psal. 69.29  By David, Let them be put out of the book of life, & not be written among the righteous. By Isaiah he shall be called holy, 
Isai. 4.3.  that shallbe written among the living in jerusalem. 
Ezech. 13.9  By Ezechiel, They shall not be written in the writings of the house of Israel. By Daniel: 
Dan. 12.1.  Every one shall be delivered, that shallbe found written in the book. The new Testament doth often entreat of it: 
Luk. 10.20  Christ toucheth it saying: Rejoice because your name is written in heaven, that is, in the book of life: 
Phil. 4.3.  so doth Paul when he saith, I believe thee faithful yoke-fellow help those women which laboured with me in the Gospel, with Clement also, & with other my fellow labourers, whose names are in the book of life: so doth the spirit elsewhere in the Revelation. There shall enter in it no unclean thing, 
Revela. 21.27  neither whatsoever worketh abomination 〈…〉  
Now these books shall be opened, that is the Lord whose fiery eyes of his omniscience pierceth all things, that holdeth the ball of the world in his hands, and keepeth a perfect reckoning of our doings, shall set every ones several sin in his sight. And this divine power shall smite open the doors of our consciences, which shall call to remembrance our forepast misdeeds & convict & condemn them. For there is a book that is written in our hearts, which is of the works of the law, the Lord having imprinted in them the notions of them: as naturally enduing the very heathens with judgement to divide good from evil, & to discern between things honest and dishonest, that no man might hold up for his defence, the target of ignorance. This we shall soon perceive by our cursory conference of the ten commandments, with their politic sanctions. 1. Of the first which teacheth that there is a God whom we all stand bound to worship, the Orator Cicero saith: 
Cicero Legibus.  Nulla gens tam sera nulla tam barbara natio, in quibus non misideat deorum opinio. There is no nation so wild and barbarous, that is not persuaded that there is a God. The Athenians did set up an Altar, Ignoto Deo, the unknown God. Protagoras, 
Act. 17.  Abderites that said: Whether there be Gods or no, I have nothing to say, was by the Athenians banished for it.  
2. To the second, which is an inhibition of Idolatry the Persians gave consent, who as Strabo writeth 〈…〉 abomination, burned and destroyed their Temples and their Images. Cornelius Tacitus storyeth it of the ancient Germans, that they held it very unbeseeming the heavenly Majesty, to mure him up within private walls, & according to human shape to shadow him. And Numa the second King of the Romans (as Plutarch relateth) held it very heinous, that any should comprehend the invisible God, under the similitude of a visible creature.  
3. The third precept against blasphemy, and profane use of this great name, was as duly practised among them. Theophrastus noteth Pericles with his inkhorn for an absurd fellow, as showing to a friend of his in his sickness, certain charms, which old Beldames had tied about his neck, under which the name of God was invocated and profaned. Tullus Hostilius was stricken out of life, by a thunder bolt, and was deprived of solemnity of funerals, because it was in his mind to have called out jupiter, and so to have cast abuse upon his name.  
4. The fourth of the Sabaoth, was by them solemnly observed: which their Laws in that behalf provided, abundantly do testify, but herein we are to give them the blame, that they pestered and cloyed the Religion of the Sabaoth with such a crew of jdle and nasty ceremonies.  
Now this common sentence of theirs, then in every one's mouth, That which thou wouldst not have done to thee, do not to another, is the some & Epitome of the cannons of the second Table: but yet let us in a word particularise upon them.  
5. How they esteemed of Parents, and of the aged, and grey headed, that go also in Divinity, under the name of parents, be their own Author's judges. It is Menander's saying: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  
The great Gods are to wisemen their Parents.  The same Poet also saith: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
I will that thou have thy Parents in all honour.   
Valerius giveth us a memorable example of a Daughter, who being charged upon pain of death, not to bring any succour to her Mother, being adjudged to die by famishment in prison, having access to her, relieved her notwithstanding with the milk of her breasts, which was so admired as it effected the woman's pardon. But how could this have been saith Valerius, had not the very instinct of nature, weitten this law of love within her heart? hence it is that Solon, thought it superfluous to give a decree against Parricides, as not imagining that any could so put off nature, as to bereave them of their life, of whom they had their life. And how they rogarded those that were in years, Parents for their age, this custom of theirs showeth 
Credebant hoc grand nefas, et morte piandum:  
Si juvenis vetulo non assurrexerit.   
They did account it a prodigious impiety and capital, for the young men not to rise up, and to do reverence to the aged.  
6. Murder was of that execrable nature unto them, as Romulus confoundeth these two words together, homicidium and parricidium: adjudging homicide & Parricide all one: yea the punishment thereof was so exquisite, as there was not a man slain by private hand within the walls of Rome, for the space of six hundred and twenty years after that City was founded, as Dion Halicarnasseus doth report.  
7. How by nature the heathens abhorred whoredom, and were therein a law unto themselves, before the law of God was given: the examples of Pharaoh, & Abimilech shows, who assaulted Sara in ignorance that she was another's wife.  
8. Theft, by the Athenian Lawgiver, Draco was punished by death: & by Solon by double damage: and by the Romans', according to the proportion of the felony, yea Usury which is thefts Daughter, is consorted by Cato the elder to murder.  
9 They made such provision against false testimony as it was enacted among them, that none should be a witness in his own cause though the matter were never so mean as Cicero saith. 
Cic. 2. Osi.  And their saw also excepted against such, who were known to be enemies to that person, against whom they should give witness, as the same Orator telleth us, giving us this reason for it: Ementiuntur enim sape in eos quos oderunt: Men will easily lie against such whom they hate: among the Indians every liar was very sharply censured.  
10. The last was very requisite to curb our affections: Sophocles calleth this affection of coveting that is an others, a furious commander. It was the answer of Leonides to Xerxes, egging him to defection, and promising him the Grecian monarchy, upon that condition: If thou knewest what things were honest in this life, thou wouldst forbear to covet that which is another's: as for me I had rather die then do it.  
But here the natural man's conscience is as a book clasped, and shut up, every man being willingly ignorant of that, which the Lord with an iron pen hath thus written in his heart, either not acknowledging his misdoings with Giezi, who could say to his Master, 
2. King. 5.  Thy servant was no where, or else pleading a good intention in defence of a bad action, 
1. Sam. 15.  as Saul did to Samuel that under colour of sacrifice would protect 〈◊〉 disobedience. If there be but a bush in the thicket of Paradise, 
Gen. 3.  thither will Adam convey himself to shroud his nakedness: and if there be any shift in the world though it be never, so bald and miserable, the Sons of Adam will be bold with it. David would never have known the man that was nathan's declamation, and the principal of the Parable: if the Preacher had not plucked him by the sleeve, and roundly made him the application of it, saying: Thou art the man. The accusers of the woman taken in adultery, drew a formal Bill of indictment against her, 
2. Sam. 12. john. 8.  and followed it to the full: But when Christ willed them to lay their hands upon their own hearts, they put up their papers and shrunk away suddenly.  
If an oath would have gone for payment, Peter had a lusty one at commaundent in the denial of his Master, to put of a danger, I know not the man. So long as there were eleven else, upon whom Christ's prediction of a traitor to come out of the company of the twelve, 
Math. 26.  might be cast, judas would make a question of it, though he knew it to be questionless, Master is it I? But in the judgement Adam shall be put besides his apron of fig leaves, Sara besides her Tent, Thamer besides her mask, and every man's conscience shall say unto him, as Achab to Elias: Hast thou found me, O my enemy? Quando Deus judex erit, alius testis quam conscientia tua, non erit. 〈◊〉 judicem ius●um, et conscientiam tuam, 
August. 〈◊〉 Psalm. 36  noli●●mere nisi causam tuam. Si causam malam non habueris nullum accusatorem pertimnesces: nullam falsum testem refelles, nullum verum requires. When God (saith Augustin) shall be thy judge, there shall be no other witness then thy conscience Between this just judge & thy conscience doubt nothing but thy cause: if thy cause be not bad thou shalt fear no promoter, thou shalt not challenged any false witness, nor call for any that is true. Again saith the same father: Interrogat te non alium de te: interrogat te, non ut discat a te, sed ut coufundat te. He asketh thee, not any other of thee: he asketh thee, not to learn of thee, but to confound thee. Augustin giveth us a copy of the indictment by the judge, which shall be put to the conscience to reply unto, form in this wise: Suscepi dolores tuos ut tibi gloriam darem: suscept mortem tuam ut in eternum viveres, conditus iacui in sepulchro ut tu regnares in caelo. Cur quod pro te pertuli perdidisti? Red mihi vitam tuam, pro qua meam dedi. Tu despexisti in ●omine deum, in infitmo salutem, in via reditun, in judice veniam, in crace vitani, in supplicijs medicinam. I undertook thy sorrows to bring thee to glory, I suffered this death to give thee eternal life: I lay buried in earth, that thou mightest reign in heaven: why hast thou lost that which I have bought? Give me this life, for which I gave thee mine. Thou hast despised in man, this God: in infirmity, this strength: in the way, thy return: in the judge, thy pardon: in the torments, thy medicines. To all this shall the conscience, which is instead of a thousand witnesses give testimony & consent, which shall be as Barnard saith: Testis, judex, Torture, witness, judge, Executioner: Ipsa accusat, Ipsa judicat, ipsa punit, Ipsa damnat. That inditeth, that judgeth, that punisheth, that damneth. The shield of ignorance which we shall then hold up, shall be turned into a spider's web. The conviction of the conscience is an argument unresistible. The truth whereof by sensible experience is known to every one, that hath but a dram of ordinary understanding. For howsoever we may blear the eyes of men, yet we cannot pluck out the eyes of our mind and knowledge. We may beguile a judge by subtlety, and terrify an informer by our insolency, but we cannot escape the arraignment & judgement of conscience, which maugre our hearts, shall sift our misdeeds to the coarsest bran, bring them to the light, proclaim them on the house top, and shall set down torments before us, for time and times, and when there shall be no more time, and set nothing but terrors about us, which the Poets understand, fuciarum taedis ardentibus, by the burning tapers of furious and hellish hags. To conclude, ourselves being judges, we cannot be acquainted. And there cannot be a greater punishment in human invention, than thus to carry our accuser in our bosom, and this is the Opening of the books, here spoken of God's omniscience calling into our knowledge all our misdeeds and our unrestie conscience in the guiltiness thereof, openly acknowledging them.  
We have many duties read us in this lecture of the opening of the books. 1. As first of humiliation and repentance. This was that the Apostle would infer out of the Sermon that he made to the Athenians of the judgement, the Text whereof was: 
Act. 17.32  The Lord hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness. For all our new Doctrine, we keep still the old conversation. But for God's sake let us think of the count day, and prevent the judgement to come with newness of life, as jacob by rewards sent before him, aswadged the fury of his Brother Esau. Let us meet the Lord in the way, 
Amos. 4.12. 1. Sam. 25.  it is the counsel of the Prophet Amos: As Abigail met David in the way to her great good. For by this she stayed the sword of his vengeance: and by this we shall stay a more devouring sword, drawn long ago out of the scabbard of his patience. To this end saith the Apostle: If we would judge ourselves, 
1. Cor. 11.31  we should not be judged. A former judgement taken out of ourselves, shallbe a Supersedeas to the second judgement that must else come out against us. To the due performance whereof these four things are required. 1. A due examination of ourselves, 
2. Kings. 5  because the flesh is as Giezie that lieth to his Master, that is to his soul, and will not acknowledge what it hath done. Wherefore as Elisha examined him: so must the soul examine the body. 
judg. 16.6.  And as Dalilah examined Samson in what part his strength was, so is every one to examine himself in what part his weakness is. As jehu did examine jehonadab, 
1. King. 10.15  whether his heart stood right toward him, so we are to examine ourselves whether our heart stand right towards God. Paul willeth us to try allthings: wherefore it followeth by needful consequence, 
1. Thes. 5.  that we should try ourselves.  
Isaac tried his Children before he blessed them. Solomon tried who was the right mother: The Ephramites were tried before they could pass jordan: Graziers try their Oxen, Merchant's their gold, wisemen their servants. Therefore we are much more to try ourselves. 2. Having found out our sins in the next room, we must confess them unto the Lord. In this duty lieth a great part of God's glory, as josua saith to Achan: My Son give glory to God and confess what thou hast done: 
joshua 7 Cypian.  It is Cyprian's grave saying, Somnium narrare vigilantis est, et vitia confiteri sanitatis indicium est. To deliver our dream, it is a token of wakefulness, and to acknowledge our misdeeds, it is a sign of healthfulness: which Seneca showeth by similitude when he saith: Vulnera clausa plus cruciant. 
Seneca.  Wounds that are stopped, are more painful to us: which hath just application unto the stoppage of our spiritual wounds. And how they will torment us Gregory delivereth: Si non confessus lates, inconfessus damnaberis. it unconfessed thou hast hid, 
Greg.  unconfessed thou shalt be damned. 3. Upon this our confession we must proceed unto a judgement and condemnation of ourselves, to stop the greater judgement and condemnation. Wherefore August. saith: 
Aug.  Peccatum puniendum est aut ate, aut a deo: si punitur a te, tune punitur sine te: si vero a te non punitur, tecum punietur. Sin must either be punished by thee or by God, If it be punished by thee, it shall be punished without thee. If it be not punished by thee, it shall be punished with thee. Wherefore Bernard taketh bond by decree of himself to perform this part of duty. 
Bernard in Canti. serm. 24.  He saith he will present himself to his judge, judicatus non iudicandus, already judged, and not be judged. 4. lastly to save ourselves from destruction, let us call for the Psalm of mercy for our neck-verse, which is so infinite, as no affection of nature, or proportion of creature is able to express. The height of the heaven above the earth, the wideness from the east to the west, the tender love of Parents to their Children, of Eagles to their young ones, are but light shadows and resemblances thereof, they are not equal rules and measures of it. The mercy of God is the mother that conceiveth us, the nurse that feedeth us, and that which shall keep us for ever and ever saith Cassiodorus.  
2. It is also caution & provision against rash judgement, it is the use and application, the Apostle maketh of it in two places: 
1. Cor. 4.3.  as when he saith, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who lighten things that are hid in darkness, and make the counsels of the heart manifest. 
Ro. 14.10.  Again, Why dost thou judge thy Brother, for we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ. To God only appertaineth the judgement, and the judicial seat he keepeth only to himself, wherefore Christ saith: judgement is mine. Wherefore what a presumption is this for the prisoner that must stand at the Bar to be judged, to take the room on the bench that belongeth unto the judge? the Lord will be sure to recompense this sauciness with retaliation of judgement, as he insinuateth in this his caution, judge not & ye shall not be judged. But this is the common disease of our nature and as kind unto us, as the skin that we carry about us, we will give judgement of a man's inclination if we but see his outward behavionr and action. As if he looketh downward we will note him for an Hypocrite: If upward, we conclude him to be proud: If silent too severe, if somewhat pleasant & talkative to be too remiss. If somewhat frugal too covetous, if somewhat liberal too careless, if somewhat costly in apparel too lascivious, if somewhat familiar a flatterer, if somewhat grave, stoical. There was a fellow shot his fools bolt at Pompey, and argued him of effeminate nature, for he scratched his head forsooth with one of his fingers, & that was the luxate logic to conclude it. This Hydra doth more hurt than any one can divine, yea even in the church among us: while he that is formal taketh the other side to be too peevish, and those that would reform take us to be too Popish. For my part I shall judge of them in love, and if they shall judge of us according to their lusts, I shall leave them to their lusts: to contend with them, we have no such custom nor the church of God: we will not take up the Lords peculiar Chair, which he hath in the hearts and the reins of men. In many things we sin all, the Lord be merciful unto us all.  
3. It traineth us to the timely reverence and fear of the name of the Lord, and to give him his glory: the spiritual learning deducted from the judgement which the Angel giveth us. Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgement is come. For be our sinews never so hooped about with iron, and our hearts harder than the neither most millstone, the hammer of God's judgement will break & mollify them, or else there is no Iron instrument in the world can do it. The Canaanites were as contumacious a people as any under the Sun: yet the coming of Moses, joshua & the people of Israel in military manner, so perplexed & apalled them, as their hearts melted in their bellies as wax before the Sun. And shall not the coming of the great jehovah, riding upon the heavens as upon an horse, & flying with the wings of the wind, like a man of war, putting on the habergeon, & sword of justice, which shall then be drunken with blood in heaven, more strike us out of heart, & take our spirits from us? Elias his coming to the Priests of Baal, was their stupefaction & destruction: wherefore Christ his coming in wrath and indignation, his face burning, and his lips full of indignation, must needs have a more terrible operation in us. 
Psalm. 18  If the earth trembleth and quaketh, and the mighty foundations of the hills shake, & be removed because he is wrath: how shall he not rend asunder the foundations of our hearts, and make them to stagger like a drunken man, when he shall come to execute the furiousness of his wrath? 
Math. 2.  If Herod & jerusalem were so troubled at the birth of Christ: what an intricate maze of miseries & troubles shall encircle the wicked in that great day, when he shall come to judgement? 
Exod. 17.  If the thunder claps and fire flashes on Mount Sinai, when the Law was published, so quelled all the people, as they crouched unto Moses, and besought him, that he might speak unto them, and not God: when the whole world shall be set on fire, Et incandescet eundo, and it shall flame as it goeth, and shall climb up to the midst of heaven, and the highest shall sound his shrill trumpet, to the doleful and bloody battle, what shall become of us? 
Hest. 14.  If Queen Hester was thrown into a trance, at the sight of the Majesty of King Assuerus: at the sight of the ineffable glory of the King of glory, how shall not all palpitation and extremity of passion possess us? If the sight of one Angel put Daniel to an ecstasy, 
Dan. 9  what effect shall the fight of so many myriads of Angels have with us? which must accompany the judgement? 
Math. 28.  The warders of the Sepulchre were dead men at Christ's resurrection, wherefore dead and dead again shall the wicked be in the general judgement.  
If the armed Soldiers sent to attach Christ in the garden, 
john. 18.  were so thrown backward at these mild words of Christ, I am the man: when every word shall be a deadly wound to the wicked in the judgement, how shall they be able to abide it? whose breasts and sides, shall then be able to receive the quiver of his arrows, which must lick up all their blood and devour their flesh.  
This Doctrine therefore of the opening of the books, openeth all our hearts: wherefore go we not about to pluck out the eyes of all knowledge of God, with David's vain man that saith: Tush God doth not see it, the God of jaacob doth not regard it, who is there noted for a noddy for his labour: O thou fool, shall not he that made the eye see? The Lord is not liable to the scorn that was thrown upon Baal, Cry louder, for Baal may be otherwise employed, or coasting about the Country, or happily hath betaken himself to his pillow and is at rest. His seven eyes saith Zacharie run through the world: the circles thereof are broader than the Moon: And as he is Totus oculus, as Augustine saith: so he is totus manus, he is all hand to strike: and let this serve for the Doctrine of this place.  
But there is an other wrighting book besides these, that is to be opened, bearing here the Title of the book of life, namely of our eternal life, begun in this life, and finished by our death. But we must likewise distinguish of this, as it is of two sorts.  
1. The first is a wrighting in opinion and not indeed, the judgement of the faithful which is led by charity, being led blindfolde by the Hypocrisy of many, who make shows of Godliness, & use strange fallacies between the Temple and the Altar, to the enchantment of their souls, as staring up with their eyes, elevating their hands, smiting of their breasts, hanging down their heads, wagging their lips, sighing, weeping, and looking demurely, with many such mockeries, which easily cousin credulous charitable Christians. But howsoever these have a name that they live, the courtesy of Christians making the best construction of their painted profession, and wrighting them in the Church book: they are not indeed in the writings of the house of Israel, or in the legend of the living. For the Lord will strip them of these vain shows, and bewray their hollow hearts and discover all their knavery.  
2. The second sort, is uncreated prescience, and eternal foreknowledge, by which he acknowledgeth, and hath acknowledged those whom he hath preordinated to be his. Of this saith Augustine, Liber iste apertus non admonet deum qui sunt sernandi, sed predestinationem eorum significat, quibus aeterna dabitur vita. Neque enim nescit eos Deus, aut in hoc libro legit ut sciat: sed potius ipsa eius praescientia de illis quae falli non potest, liber est vite in quo sit scripti id est praecognitj. This book that is opened, doth not learn God who are to be saved: but it signifieth the predestination of such, to whom eternal life shall be given. Neither are they unknown to God, neither readeth he in this book to know them: but rather his very foreknowledge itself of them, which cannot be deceived, is the book of life, in which they are written, that is to say, foreknown.  
Now here we are to open the vain of the liveliest and sweetest question in the Bible. Whether he whose name is once entered into the book of life, may ever be blotted out, that is, whether an elect child of God, can ever be a reprobate? Our answer is negative that he cannot: & the affirmative part is most detestable, & devilish. True faith doth not know what this meaneth, to hover between hope & fear, as the Raven over the Ark between heaven & earth. Our faith layeth hold upon the omnipotency of God, as being in security of his will, it being ours by promises before the best witnesses in heaven & earth, under the wrighting of his hand, & the seal of the blood of the Lamb: whatsoever he would have us believe, he hath liberally promised of his own accord, which he would never have done, had he not minded to stand to his bargain, and to be as good as his word.  
But let us carry away the cause from every gaine-sayer by the power, and strong hand of argument.  
Of the just saith the Psalmist. 
1. Argument salme. 1.  His leaf shall not fade, as a tree planted by the right hand of God, and engrafted into the stock Christ jesus; he so ordering their doings, as they shall not turn aside to ungodly counsels, to the ways of the wicked, or take up the seat & chair of the scornful.  
The Prophet Isaiah speaking of the kingdom of Christ, which is the church, saith: 
2. Argument Isai. 9.7.  He shall sit upon his kingdom to order it, and to 'stablish it with judgement and justice from hence forth, even for ever. But this justice is established by faith in the regenerate, by which we stand. 1. Cor. 1. yea by which we live, Aba. 2 If this be, out of cry true, of the whole church, it cannot but be verified of every singular member thereof.  
jeremy pleasureth us with as plain a place as can be, saying: I will put my fear in their hearts, 
3. Argument jer. 32.40  that they Shall not departed from me. This so satisfied Augustine, as he often to this purpose produceth it.  
Hosea singeth the self same song, taking his text from the Lords own mouth. 
4. Argument Hose. 2.19  I will marry thee unto me for ever in righteousness. I will marry thee unto me in faithfulness. This Sermon is made to all the elect. And the reason standeth thus: Christ knitteth the indissoluble marriage knot with the Church, faith being the marriage ring that joineth them. Therefore those whom he hath thus conjoined to himself, who shall put a sunder?  
The Lord by the mouth of the Prophet Amos saith: 
5. Argument Amos. 9. 1●  I will plant thee upon their land, and they shall be no more pulled up again out of their land. The plants are the elect: the plot wherein they are planted is the church, as engrafted into Christ: they are planted therein by a true and lively faith. Now to these is this promise made, they shall be no more pulled up.  
The Church is founded upon a Rock, 
6. Argument Math. 7.  which all the driving of tempests cannot stir: that is the machinations of the devil and all his darlings.  
Hell gates shall not prevail against this Rock. 
7. Argume. Math. 16. 8. Argum. john. 6.37.   
It is Christ's saying, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I cast not away. For this is the will of my Father that sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lack nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. Here is the whole form & structure of our salvation, and the compass and dimensions of it. For whereas the father hath given us all to Christ, 1. Hear is our election: So that we hold of Christ as in Capite, our mediator in whom we were chosen before the groundwork of the world was laid. And whereas those that are thus given cannot be kept from him, but must come unto him: 2. There is our effectual and lively vocation, our coming to Christ being by the feet of our faith: now in that it is added, that such as come unto him, he will not cast away. 3. There is our justification, and the gift of perseverance in Christ. The conclusion, I will raise him up again at the last day. 4. Is the hand that pointeth at our glorification. Upon the former words of Christ, 
9 Argumens' Rom. 8.29.  the Apostle Paul paraphraceth in this wise: Those whom he knew before, he also predestinate, and whom he predestinate, them also he called, and whom he called them also he justified: and whom he justified, them also he glorified, which are the four rings and links of one chain that are impartible, let down from heaven, to draw us up thither. 1. The first is our predestination to life in Christ. 2. The second is our effectual calling to Christ. 3. The third is our justification by Christ. 4. The fourth is our glorification with Christ. The last cannot be broken from the first, nor the first from the last, wherefore it is impossible the predestinate should perish. The reason hereof layeth in the nature of God, his will and counsel answering his nature, his nature being without variableness or shadow of change: as he telleth us saying: 
Mal. 3.6.  I am jehovah and I change not, it is no way subject to repentance, to which Balam performeth testimony: 
Nu. 23.19  God is not as man that he should lie, neither as the Son of man that he should repent: hath he said and shall he not do it? and hath he spoken, and shall he not accomplish it? It is Augustine's apt inference, Shall man say That I have written, I have written? (which was Pilat's speech of the title and inscription that was set upon Christ's Cross) and shall God go from his hand wrighting, or alter? Let God be true and every man else a liar, that he may be justified in his sayings, & clear when he is judged.  
It is Christ's asseveration. 
10. Argum. john. 10.  No man can take my sheep from my hands. Hereupon it is concluded that the elect being delivered by the father into the hands of his Son, and joined unto him by a lively faith, cannot be snatched from him.  
It is Christ his gracious promise, 
11. Argu. john. 14.  I will ask my father & he shall give thee another comforter, & he shall abide with you for ever, wherefore the holy Ghost dwelleth with them for ever, with whom he hath once been.  
If any thing could blot or tear out our names out of the Book of life, 
12. Argum.  it is sin. For that is only to be feared, 
Exo. 32.33  because God hath said whosoever hath sinned against me, I will put him out of my Book. But this shall not scare us, as being to be understood of preapared, and presumptuous sin, which goeth down to the grave with us, which a final impenitency doth accompany. For as God could not be stopped by the foreseen sins of his Saints, from making entry of their names into the lambs book of life, so when sin hath done the extent of his spite, it shall never separate his love towards us, wherein it thus pleased him at the first to unroll us. We are worthy whose names should be razed & defaced: as having showed our sins as Sodom, cast down ourselves upon the bed of sin, as jezabel upon a bed of fornication, drinking iniquity as an Ass drinketh water, as job saith, and drawing iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with cartropes, as Isaiah saith: & the Lord punisheth our iniquities by the rod, and our sins by scourges: but his mercy will he never take from us, it being tied to us by an everlasting covenant. Yea because we are written unto life by God, we shall not sin contumaciously and stubbornly, or continue in it as the wicked do. Our Faith may be much perplexed with doubts, overshadowed with clouds, shaken with tempests, winnowed by Satan, and the shield and breast plate thereof may be tried to the uttermost by all the fiery darts of the devil: our faith may be challenged the field, and endure a fierce fight, and be in an agony, and bloody sweat as Christ was in the garden: it may be as the last spark of a fire ready to go out, as the last gasp that a man's dying spirit giveth: yet shall it kindle and recover again, and in all these things be conqueror.  
Be the Sun never so much under a cloud, it will break out again, and appear unto us in his perfect beauty. Though fire be covered under ashes, it will execute his nature. Though the Philistimes take the Ark of the Lord, they shall restore it to the Isralites again. These are aplycations to faith, which howsoever assaulted with temptations, and borne down a while, shall rise up again and have the upper hand of them, the Lord being faithful and just, & not suffering us to be tried above that which we are able to bear. There is an Apoplexy of sin in man, which seemeth to stop his life altogether, but he shall recover again. Thus there was in David an Apoplexy of adultery, which he overcame: thus there was an Apoplexy of idolatry in Solomon, which we doubt not he subdued: thus there was an apoplexy of cruelty in Paul, while he was a Saul, which the Lord did drive from him: thus there was an apoplexy of perjury in Peter, which his repentance shook off. It is with a Christian, as it was with Eutichus, that fell from the third loft, and was taken up dead, of whom Paul said: Trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him. 
Act. 20.  Be not over troubled dear friends in the Lord, the life of the inward man is in us all, howsoever Satan would stifle and strangle it.  
OUr election is in God, 
3. Argum.  and not in man, for election was before ever there was man. For we were elected as Paul saith, 
Ephes. 1.4.  before the foundations of the world were laid, at what time there was nothing but God, wherefore our salvation is cocksure as being wholly in God. For what is the reason that the heavens keep their certain motions? the Sun, Moon, Stars, their certain courses? the day and night their successive returns? It is because the rule and government of them is absolutely in God, and not in any other creature, whether Angel or man.  
All things in God are stable and unchangeable: 
14. Argum.  wherefore his decree of our election is unmovable.  
God's election is eternal: 
15. Argu.  that which is eternal is invariable, as admitting no beginning, ending or changing.  
He that changeth his purpose, 
16, Argum.  doth it in the sight he hath of a better way, or else because he cannot compass it. Hence it is, that being not able to do as we would, we do as we can. But be it far from us to think any of these in God. For as his wisdom is uncreated, nothing can be better than that he hath purposed: & as his power is illimmited, and absolutely omnipotent, it cannot as the arms of Samson be manacled.  
The reasons producted against this infallible divinity, are simple God wots, and will hold no tack with us, we will single out the best, and scatter them like foam.  
They oppose this Text out of the Revelation, 
1. Objection Revel. 3. 1●  Hold that which thou baste, that no man take away thy crown, that is to say, they of beavenly glory, to which the Apostles sentence hath reference. 
1. Cor. 10  Let him that thinketh be standeth, take heed least be fall. We answer that the Crown there spoken of, is the Crown of the ministry, the spirit there directing admonition to the Bishop of Philadelphia to perseverance in his function: lest being remisle and defective therein, he be deposed, and another consecrated. But let it carry the construction, they give it: they shall gain nothing by it. For the losing of the Crown of glory is of double meaning.  
1. In respect of ourselves. 2. In respect of God. In the first respect which is of ourselves, there is nothing more certain than that we may lose it being so sinful as we are, and death and not glory being the stipend of iniquity. But second, in respect of God that hath chosen us: of Christ in whom we are chosen, this crown can never be taken from our heads, being set on by him that can never repent himself of any thing that he doth.  
Whereas they object to us the churches of the Ephesians, Thessalonians, 
2. Object. Ephes. 1.4. 1. Thes. 14 1. Pet 1.1.  and scattered jews, who were called Elect by the Apostles, and yet many of them afterward were relapsed: we answer that there are two sorts of judgements.  
1. There is a judgement of certainty, 2. There is a judgement of charity. 1. That which is of certainty is in God only: it is in men but in part, so far forth as they have certificate from God of any man's estate. 2. But that which is of charity is belonging to us all: it being our part to leave the Lords sacred secrets to himself, and to judge the best of every one, that giveth his name to Christ, maketh a good profession, and showeth the fruits thereof in outward conversation, God having revealed to us nothing to the contrary. 2. Also the elect are so called of the chief part, as an heap of corn is called corn though it standeth most upon chaff.  
But they think they hold up Alax his shield unto us, when they tell us of that which Moses saith, 
3. Objection Exod. 32.  Blot me out of the Book of life. 1. I will not answer them that that is meant of the Book of the Law which he had penned, as some men do: because it is a base exposition, and unworthy a man of such a spirit, as if he had thrown out these words in his hastiness, and heat of his blood. 2. Neither will I understand them of the Book of this present life, as if he chose rather to be strangled then to live in his bones, albeit many Captains are content to die for the common good, and therefore some would charge us with this sense. But because it seemeth as gold that is too light, we will not receive it. 3 Neither shall I give them reference to the book of the covenant, to the Catalogue of communion of Saints, & of the church: as if Moses would be out of the Rubric in the Calendar of the church: because we take it, that Moses had a further prospect and a higher reach than this.  
4. Wherefore we will willingly receive the meaning they do like of, that is: of deprivation of eternal life, as if he should have said, put me out of thy predestination book, implying this condition, if it be possible. But he knew it to be impossible. If any shall think it an absurdity in him to come in with an impossible condition, I choke them with the like of our Saviour Christ, who not being ignorant that he could not possible avoid the deadly cup of the red wine of God's wrath, that was given him to drink, yet put up this form of petition to his father, Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me.  
The like prayer hath David against his enemies, 
4. Object. Psal. 69.29.  Let them be blotted out of the book of life, we reply thus to that, that their names were never in the book of life, but in the charitable opinion of men, whom their hypocrisy beguiled.  
This Doctrine is much useful, but the chiefest grace it hath, is the comfort it giveth us in the greatest temptations that besiege us: while we have in lively & lovely remembrance, the love of God towards us, whereby we are graven with an iron pen, in lead or stone for ever, in the Book of God's mind, and so can never be expugned or forsaken. Why then should we be afraid in the days of evil, when the iniquities compass us to the beeles? It is David's sweet aphorism with the double spirit of Elias to have a plause, and aclamation given unto it. I know nothing more detestable to God, and dangerous to ourselves, then to despair of God's mercy: which is to turn his truth into a lie, and set Satan's suggestions before his gracious promises. Wherefore we are of Hieroms mind, that judas his treason was not so great as judas his desperation. The reason whereof is given by Isidore, because his transgression was but the death of the soul: but his desperation the introduction into the very hell of damnation. Wherefore put but off the helmet of this hope, which covereth the brain pan, and the Target of faith, which hideth the heart, and we perish unquestionably. Wherefore be we not worse than Lions to rise up against ourselves, but behold the Lamb of God, whose blood let it be sprinkled on the door posts of your hearts. One deep swalloweth up another: the depth of his mercies, the depth of our sins. Desperation is a disease incurable. For the Phiscitian would put to his helping hand, and recover us: and we with our nails undo all again. Nil miserius misero non miserant seip sum. Nothing is more miserable than a miserable man, that commiserateth not himself. Though it was the saying of an heathen, a Christian well may use it. Qui nihil potest sperare, desperit nihil. He that can hope for nothing let him despair of nothing. Christ hath sowed in tears, that we might reap in joy: He hath trodden the winepress of God's wrath, that we might drink the wine of his love, & be drunken with it. He hath borne the heat and burden of the day, that the wages might be ours: He hath given us a cup of salvation, that we drinking it down, might drive away all dread and desperation: wherefore we hold up our heads & stand fast against all the assaults of our enemies in this life, after which we shall enjoy the place to which we have of old by the Father been written and prepared, and which by Christ of late hath been purchased, & to which by the spirit unto the day of redemption we are sealed. Now to these three persons, one eternal and everliving God, be all honour, praise, power, thanksgiving, ascribed in the congreation of Christ jesus, now and for ever. Amen.  
FINIS.