THE MIRROR OF pure Devotion: OR, THE DISCOVERY of Hypocrisy. Delivered in six several Sermons, in the Cathedral Church of Chichester, by way of an exposition of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican.  
By R. B. Preacher of the Word, at Chidham in the County of Sussex,  1 Corinth. 2. 14. The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Verse 15. But he that is spiritual discerneth all things: yet he himself is judged of no man. 
Aut appare quodes, aut esto quod appares.  
LONDON, Printed by john Legatt, for Richard Thrale, dwelling at the Crosskeys by Paul's gate. 16●5.   

TO THE WORSHIPFUL, RIGHT worthy, and his much honoured Maecenas William Drury Esquire, one of the Gentlemen of His Majesty's most honourable Privy Chamber, all increase of temporal, with endless succession of eternal happiness.  
Iámque opus exegi.  
AS Ovid concludes his Poetry, so may I begin my Divinity. I am at length delivered of that birth, which mine unfeigned zeal to God's glory, mine humble service to his Church, and my respective observance unto your worship, have been this many years conceiving in me; and whereof neither the barrenness of the womb, nor the hardness of the travel, nor the unskilfulness of the midwife, nor the rough handling of some ill disposed Gossips, could (being so graciously assisted by the Almighty) make me miscarry. How timely and comely the fruit may be, the predominant End I aim at (the glory of God) gives me sufficient boldness; and the two subordinate's (my service in general to the Church, in particular to your worship) give me sufficient encouragement to present it to the eye of the world: wherein if it shall find but churlish entertainment, I shall not marvel. I know sufficiently the world cannot brook its nature: the discovery of an hypocrite or a Pharisee deserves no less than a Crucifige at the world's hands, that is so full fraught with both. But I know again there be some in the world, that are called out of the world, because they are not of the world, that will bid my child good welcome; such as lean neither to the right hand of Schism, nor the left of heresy, but worship the Father in spirit and in truth: amongst which small number your worship is well noted and approved, for sincere and eminent. To these therefore under your worship's protection, I desire to commend my first fruit with Saint john's blessing, in his 1. Epist. 4. 4. Little babe, thou art of God, and therefore thou shalt overcome the world, for greater is he that is in thee, than he that is in the world. So he, that is in thee, keep thee in him; and he, that hath overcome the world for thee, defend thee from the world, and from the men of the world, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. And the God of peace tread Satan under thy feet shortly. Amen.  
Your Worships, in all humble and truehearted observance, always to be commanded in the Lord jesus. RO: BALL.   

THE MIRROR OF PURE DEVOTION: OR, THE DISCOVERY OF HYPOCRISY.  Luke 18. ●. Also he spoke this parable unto certain, which trusted in themselves that they were just (or righteous) and despised others. 
OUR Blessed Saviour, (having in the former part of this Chapter, most powerfully exhorted, and persuaded his disciples to the undeniable and never-ceasing importunity of Faith, by a resemblance traduced from an importunate widow and almost inexorable judge,) begins now to draw them to humility of heart in confession of sin by a parable of two men, a Publican become the son of God, and a Pharisee the servant of Mammon. Better is a penitent offender, than a presumptuous justiciary: for, in that the one humbleth himself, he is no longer an offender, Every valley shall be exalted; and in that the other swelleth with an imaginary opinion of self-conceited purity he is no longer righteous; Every mountain and hill shall be brought low. 
Esa 40. 4.   
It was long since rung in the ears of curiosity, presuming to 
Eras. Ap.  outreach humane capacity, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. That God every day plucks down high things and lives up base things. Our God is in heaven (saith David) and doth whatsoever pleaseth him. As God judgeth not after the outward appearance like unto man, so his proceed are quite contrary to the course of the world; they grow from a little to more, from a base mean there amounts a mighty matter. The world itself was made of nothing: The eternal Word itself was compared to a slender grain of mustard seed: Christ himself came out of Galilee a contemptible city: and here a penitent Publican is justified rather than a presumptuous Pharisee. But the course of the world is altogether retrograde; like Ahaz his dial, it runs backward, from greater to less, from ostentation to confusion. Balshazar in his princely royalty at supper; but in the hand-writing upon the wall, he and his Monarchy numbered, weighed, and divided to others. So here, a fullswollen Pharisee, all glorious in the sight of his own eyes, but most odious and abominable in the sight of God. The Saint's preferment (it seems) comes neither from the East, nor from the West; It is the Lord that judgeth, whose eyes are purity, whose ears jealousy, 
Bern.  whose word verity, whose hand equity, and whose days eternity. Invocat pauper, et exaudit Dominus; flet miserabilis, et flectitur misericors; agnoscit Publicanus, ignoscit et Christus. The poor man calls upon, and the Lord listens unto; the miserable man mourns, and the merciful God is moved; the sinner confesses, and the Saviour forgives. Confessio salus animarum, 
Amb.  dissipatrix vitiorum, restauratrix virtutum. oppugnatrix Daemonum; quid plura? obstruit os inferni, aperis portas Paradisi. The confession of sins is the saving health of souls, the dispersing of vice, the repair of virtue, the overture of the Devil: What shall I say more (saith S. Augustine)? it stoppeth 
Aug.  the very gulf of hell, and openeth unto us the everlasting doors of Heaven.  
The whole Parable depends upon these four Generals. The Preface: The Parable itself: The Event: And the Application.  
The Preface is set down, in this ninth verse:  
9 Also he spoke this parable to certain that trusted in themselves that they were just, (or righteous) and despised others.  
The Parable itself, in the 10, 11, 12, and 13. verses.  
10. Two men went up into the Temple to pray: the one a Pharisee. and the other a Publican.  
11. The Pharisee stood, and prayed with himself thus, God I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as that publican.  
12. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.  
13. But the Publican standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven: but smote his breast saying; O God, be merciful to me a sinner.  
The event, in the former part of the 14. verse.  
14. I tell you this man departed to his house justified rather than ●●● the other.  
The Application in the latter part of the same verse:  
For every one that exalteth himself shall be brought low, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.  
The Preface admits of a threefold Quaere. The first is, what may be the meaning or signification of the word Parable? The second is, what may be the reason, why our Saviour so often in the Gospel spoke unto the people by parables? The third and last is, what may be the occasion, why he spoke and delivered this parable? which appears by the Text, to be a discovery of three gross corruptions in certain of his auditors. The first was a presumptuous self-confidence by reason of a fond conceit of merit in their own works; They trusted in themselves. That presumptuous selfe-confidence begat an arrogant conceit of inherent righteousness; that they were just. And that arrogant conceit of inherent righteousness hatched the third generation of the viper, That they vilified and despised others.  
Also he spoke a parable to certain that trusted in themselves, that they were just (or Righteous) and despised others.  
The first, Quaene leads us to the Etymology, or signification of the word Parable; which is taken either in the worse, or in the better part.  
When it is taken in the worse part, it signifies a byword, a word of reproach, or a fable. As the Israelites 
Psal. 44. 14.  in the Psalm, Posuisti nos (Domine) in parabolam. Thou hast ●●ade us, O Lord, a parable, or a proverb, or a byword amongst the heathen. So the Lord by his servant Moses threatens a rebellious 
Deut 28.  people, that They shall become a wonder, a proverb, and a byword amongst all nations. So that holy man joh, complains in 
job 17. 6.  the heat of his misery, that God had made him a proverb, or a byword of the people. And so not only David the type, but the 
Psal. 69. 12.  son of David the substance complains, that he became a parable, or a proverb unto the people, and that the very drunkards made songs upon him.  
When it is taken in the better part, it signifies, either some grave and weighty matter, such as David uttered upon his Harp. Or else 
Psal. 49. 4.  some short and sweet sentence, such as Solomon delivers in his Proverbes. Or else some dark, obscure, or figurative speech, when the truth is wrapped up in a similitude or a comparison as in a riddle. Thus the Lord commanded the Prophet Ezechiel to speak a parable 
Ezek. 24. 3.  unto the rebellious house, and say; Prepare a pot, and put water in it, etc. Ezechiel 24. 3. Under which shadow, is represented both the sin and the punishment of impenitent jerusalem. And in this sense our Saviour tells his Disciples. 
Matth. 13.  Matth. 13. That he spoke unto the people by parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not hear, neither understand, that the Prophecy of Isaiah might be fulfilled upon them. And this must needs be the most genuine and proper signification of the word parable, from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assimulare: being nothing else (as Thomas Aquinas notes) but Sermo similitudinarius, qui aliud dicit, aliud significat; A comparative or an Enigmatical kind of speech, speaking one thing; and signifying another: as it plainly appears, not only in this, but in all the parables of the Gospel.  
The second Quaere leads us to the reason, why our Saviour so often in the Gospel spoke unto the people by parables? which I find to be threefold.  
First, for the accomplishment of Scripture-prophecies. This was our Saviour's own reason. Matth. 13. before mentioned, therefore do I speak to them in parables, that the prophecy of Isaiah might be fulfilled upon them.  
Secondly, for the confirmation of other Scripture-prophecies; to give us to understand, that Christ spoke not only by the same spirit, but with the very mouth, and phrase, and language of all the holy Prophets, that ever were since the world began; whose writings are full of comparisons, similitudes, and parables.  
Thirstly, and lastly: That the mysteries of the Kingdom might be hidden from the wise and prudent of this world, and only revealed unto babes in Christ: that to them only might be given to know the secrets of the Kingdom, but to others in parables. And therefore the holy Scripture is aptly compared by Saint Gregory unto 
●o flumen in que agnus ambukt, & Elepha● na tet Ep. ad Leand.  a flood, wherein the Lamb may wade, and the Elephant swim. Though parables are dark mysteries unto the proud and scornful, yet they are made ●pert and plain unto the humble and meek. Our blessed Saviour in his infinite wisdom conceived it to be the quaintest, and most profitable kind of teaching, to instruct the simple people by similes and parables: which being once truly understood, do mightily delight the understanding, help the memory, move the will, captivate the affections, cast down the imaginations, and every high thing, that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.  
How strangely did nathan's parable wind itself secretly into the heart of David, convincing him so modestly, and so strongly too, that his own mouth condemned him to be that man of blood the parable intimated? Our Saviour 
2 Sam. 12.  caught the jews in the very same trap by putting a question unto them in the parable of the Vineyard, and ungracious husbandmen. When the Lord of the 
Matth. 21. 20.  Vineyard shall come (saith he) what shall he do to these husbandmen. They themselves reply, and plead themselves guilty in the very answer following. He will cruelly destroy those wicked men, and let out his Vineyard to others. Whereupon our Saviour infers most bitterly, but most justly: Therefore I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you.  
If Seneca held the use of parables 
Epist 59  so necessary to wade through the shallow study of humanity, that he calls them, Imbecillitatis nostrae adminicula, props and supporters of our weakness; how much more needful are these bladders to bear us up in the main Ocean of Divinity; they may be something windy, but exceeding profitable: Discentem et audientem in rem praesentem adducunt, (saith Seneca): Plain similitudes, familiar examples, and homely comparisons do force more doctrine into vulgar apprehensions, then subtle reasons, solid arguments, or accurate discourses. When every Mechanic is argued withal in his own language, every Tradesman in his own occupation, and every country Swain in the natural dialect of his own barbarism; it must needs inform the understanding, reform the will, and so mightily edify the whole man, that it will even pierce through to the dividing asunder of the soul and of the spirit, of the joints and of the marrow; nay it will dive into the very secret thoughts and intentions of the heart.  
For say, I beseech you; Is not the parable of the hidden treasure abundantly able, to convince the Usurer in particular? The parable of the fruitless figtree, to inform the Gardener? The house built upon the sand, the Mason? The strong man armed, the Soldier? The lost groat, the Widow? And the lost sheep, the Shepherd? and each, or all of these abundantly able to instruct all? What ploughman is there in the world so stupid, but, when he reads the parable of the Sour, Luke 8. both propounded, and expounded unto him by our blessed Saviour, is able to read unto himself a Lecture of sound Divinity, and medi●●te with himself thus:  
That as himself goes forth into the field to sow his seed; so the Son of man came once personally into the world to sow the immortal seed of his sacred Word, in the hearts of believers; and to this very day hath left behind him Ministerial Seeds-men (the Preachers of the Gospel) to dress, and dung, and to manure his field, and sow his seed. As he himself cannot possibly scatter his seed so choicely, but some will of necessity fall by the highway side, and so either be trodden under foot of men, or devoured of the fowls of the Air: some will fall amongst the stones, and then no sooner it springs up, but withers away again for want of moisture: some will fall amongst thorns, and so the thorns spring up with it and choke it: It is but the fourth part that falls upon good ground, that springs up, and bears fruit; some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred fold.  
So the Preachers of the Gospel cannot possibly scatter the good seed of the Word so choicely, but do what they can, some will fall by the highway side that is, amongst careless, drowsy, and negligent hearers, and then it is either trodden under foot of men, contemned and vilified, or else devoured of the fowls of the air; that is, the Devil and his instruments steal it out of the hearts of the hearers, lest they should believe and be saved: some will fall amongst stones, hard and flinty hearts, where the Word for a time may be received with joy, but for want of root the people believe for a time, and in the time of temptation they fall away: some will fall amongst thorns; worldly and licentious hearers, in whom the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things do so choke the Word, that it becomes unfruitful: It is but the fourth part, or scarce that, which falls upon good ground, that with an honest and good heart, hear the Word, and keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. Upon which due, and serious meditation, he cannot choose but bring the Application of the parable home to himself, himself then being in the very act of sowing. When he sees three parts of every handful of temporal seed he sows, in danger of miscarrying, some falling by the hieway-side, some amongst stones, and some amongst thorns, he cannot choose but grieve, and much lament it: oh, how ought it then to perplex his soul, and yearn his very bowels to consider the most lamentable hardness, and intolerable barrenness of his own heart, that receives not the most precious seed of the Word of God, with any reasonable cheerfulness, muchless returns it with any tolerable fruitfulness. See what lumps of divinity lie hid and buried under the very clods of the earth; what profound Lectures of Divine literature may be read in the very field at plough; so profitable are those doctrines in Scripture, that are couched by our blessed Saviour under Similes and Parables.  
In what a lamentable and dangerous condition than is the stupid Papist in forbidding, and the negligent carnal gospeler in forbearing to read the sacred Scriptures, both building their Babel upon this sandy foundation, That they are dark mysteries, and obscure parables. Whereupon the Papists some of them forbid the reading of the Scriptures to the Laiety, as a thing most dangerous and pernicious for them; being (as they affirm) the root and seminary of all strife and controversy, the mother and the nurse of all heresy and faction. Christ commands us to search the Scriptures 
〈…〉 19  for eternal happiness; they countermand it with a Noli me tangere for fear of heresy. The Spirit of Christ exhorts us to try the spirits whether they be of God; because many false prophets are come into the world: these spirits forbidden the common people the very touchstone of trial. The spirit of truth adviseth 
Colos. 3. 16.  us to give the Word of God all possible entertainment; not to lodge with us as a stranger for a night, but to dwell in us plenteously as a continual Inmate: because it is profitable to teach, to improove, to correct, and to instruct in righteousness. The spirit of error counsels to banish it quite out of our coasts, and in stead thereof to bring in ignorance for the mother of devotion. The one tells us, it is the people's instruction; the other tells us, it is the people's destruction. The one tells us, it makes the man of God perfect and absolute; the other tells us, it makes him heretical and dissolute. And so we may safely conclude with Reverend Wickeliffe and that jewel of England: To condemn the Word of God of heresy, is no better than to make God himself an heretic.  
But the very truth is (beloved) the Scriptures make men heretics, no otherwise then the Sun makes men blind. As nothing is clearer than the Sun, and yet nothing harder to be looked into for the weakness of our sight: So nothing more manifest than the Scriptures in themselves, and yet nothing more obscure than mysteries therein contained, for that the natural man perceives not the things of God. Say then, (I beseech you) Is light darkness, because darkness comprehends it not? Is sweet sour, because some men taste it not? no more certainly are the Scriptures obscure because some men understand them not. We deny not then a kind of obscurity to be in the Scriptures, both in regard of the profundity of the particular points, and of our disability to conceive them: but the manner of the delivery is not obscure in itself, but familiar and easy to them that have their senses prepared by the holy Ghost to understand them, and use the means that God hath ordained for that end.  
Let the wary Protestant then, that would carefully avoid the Papists gin, sound distinguish of these three. The mysteries delivered: the manner of the delivery: and the indisposition of the receiver. The things themselves are mysteries: therefore secret, and involved in diverse difficulties. The indisposition of our understanding not only dark, but darkness it 
Eph. 5. 8.  self (therefore were they never so clear we could not possibly understand them, till we were enlightened. But for the manner of the delivery, in itself it is apert and patent: if any where dark, it is accidentally and from without. And therefore S. Chrysostome excludes 
In Ep: ad Coloss.  none from the comfortable use of the Scriptures, but makes general Proclamation to all sorts of people: Audite quotquot est is mundani, etc. Harken all ye men of the world that have wives and children, how S. Paul the Apostle of Christ, commands you to read the Scriptures, and that not slightly, or perfunctorily, but with great diligence. Yea, the same Father is so eager upon the point, that he doth, as it were, force and thrust the Bible into the people's hands. Take the Bible into your hands (saith he) in your houses at home. So likewise S. Jerome, most 
Jerome.  gravely and divinely, urges upon the same place of Scripture, that Laymen ought to have the Word of God, not only sufficiently, but abundantly; whereby they may be able to teach, and to counsel others.  
But be it granted, that some places of Scripture are obscure and dark: it were but a fallacy à secundum quid ad simpliciter (as the Logicians call it) to argue from thence, that the Scriptures are full of darkness: because some are difficult to some, therefore all are dangerous to all sorts of vulgars'? The Prophet David reads a contrary Lecture to us, and tells us, That the Word of God is a Lantern unto our feet, and a light unto our paths. And therefore Saint Chrysostome builds upon a sure foundation. Omnia clara & plana 
In Gen. Hom. 29.  sunt in Scriptures Divinis (saith he) quaecunque necessaria sunt, manifestasunt. All things are clear and plain in the Holy Scriptures, whatsoever things are necessary for us, are also manifested unto us. Whereupon Clemens Alexandrinus makes an other Proclamation, as he is quoted by the same Chrysostome. Audite qui est is 
In 2 Thes. Hom. 3.  longè, auditè qui prope; nullis caelatum est verbum. Harken ye that be fare off, harken ye that be near, the Word of God is hid from no man. As Moses to the Israelites. It is neither in heaven, 
Deut. 30.  that we need hire any to climb for it; nor yet beyond the Seas, that we need get any travel for it; but the Word of God is in our own mouths, and in our own hearts to do it. Lu● est communis, omnibus 
Clem Ale●. orat. a●hort ad gentes.  illuces●it, nullis in verbo Cymm●rius. As God, so his Word, is that common Light, that inlightneth every man that comes into this world, in it there is no darkness at all. So Irenaeus: Scripturae in aperto 
Lib. 1. cap. 45.  sunt, etc. The Scriptures are plain●, and without doubtfulness, and may be read indifferently of any. So Saint Jerome: The Lord hath spoken by his Gospel, not that a few should understand him, but that all. For certainly (beloved) the Spirit of God is a free Spirit, bound neither to the sharpness of our wit, nor to the deepness of our learning: for many times the simple and illiterate man, being illuminated sees more than the Scribe, or the great disputer of this world. According to that clause of our Saviour's prayer. Matth. 11. I thank thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto Babes. Whereupon Epiphanius divinely: Solis Spiritus 
Lib. 2.  Sancti filiis facilis est Scriptura. The Scriptures are plain and clear only to the children of the holy Ghost. The Spirit breatheth where it listeth, without which we can neither live, nor move, nor have any spiritual being; we are mere dead men, and therefore must needs be blind men. But to those that are illuminated, whether learned or unlearned, there ariseth up light in darkness. There is food of all sorts, for all sorts of people; So Fulgentius: In Scriptures Divinis 
Serm. de con.  abundat, & quod robustus comedat, & quod parvulus sugat. In the Word of God there is plenty sufficient, strong meat for men, milk for Babes. It is the Bridegroom's Wine-cellar, wherein he feasteth and comforteth his beloved Spouse, with Flagons, and Apples, and delicates of all sorts; whereof she hath free welcome and liberty, bibere & inebriari, to drink and to be satisfied, and to drink, and to be more then satisfied.  
So fare are the reverend Fathers (you see) from fathering the abortives of heresy, and schism upon the sacred Scriptures; that they rather indeed proclaim them to be the severe stepmother, or murderess of such Cockatrices in the egg. Irenaeus confesses ingenuously, that the only cause of the Valentinian heresy was, Scripturarum Dei ignorantia, the people's blindness and ignorance of the Scriptures. So Saint Chrysostome concerning the error of the Manichees in his time, Manichaei & 
Ad Heb. hom. 8.  omnes haereses decipiunt simplices. The Manichees and all heresies deceive the simple. But if our minds be illuminated by often reading and hearing of the Scriptures, we may be able to discern both good and evil. So likewise Theophylact: Illis, qui scrutantur Divinas Scripturas, nihil potest illudere: nothing can deceive them that diligently search the Holy Scriptures, it is the candle whereby the thief is discovered. So the ancient of days himself unto the Sadduces. Ye err (not because 
Math. 2●.  ye know, but) because ye know not the Scriptures. For heresies, or schisms arise not from the Scriptures themselves, or any darkness in them; but from the ignorance and pravity that is in man's understanding; they are rather discovered and suppressed by Scripture. Should I tell you, that a blind man may better avoid dangers than he that seethe: Or that a naked man in the midst of his enemies may better acquit himself then he that is completely armed: Or that the full fed I picure is nearer starving, than the miserable captive, that is debarred all kind of sustenance; you might well think I were mad: So (certainly) it argues no less frenzy and in compossibilitie of mind, to broach such unreasonable, and unlikely doctrines.  
But to wind up this controversy in one word. It were an easy matter (me thinks) to catch the adversary in his own gin, if we did urge him to nominate, what manner of persons he thinks meet in his own conscience, to be exempted from the reading of the Scriptures? He cannot say, old men, for shame; they are the very staff and comfort of their age. It was the sweet amabaeum, and burden to David's song when he was aged. In God's Word will 
Psal 58. 10.  I rejoice; in the Lord's Word will I comfort me. Not young men for pity: they are the only curb to restrain the heat and fury of their tamelesse youth: for wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways, but by ruling 
Psal 119. 9  himself according to God's word? Surely the Apostle S. Paul thought it the best breeding he could possibly bestow upon his son Timothy, 
2 Tim. 3. 15.  to bring him up in the knowledge of the Scriptures from a child. Not women or maidens, for the frailty of their sex sake: for how then should such weak and brittle vessels, become strong in 
Eph. 6. 10.  the Lord, and in the power of his might, as they are commanded? It is enough for that Apostate julian to quarrel with the Christians, for that their women were skilful in the Scriptures: But sure I am, good old Nazsanzen will revive the neverdying fame of his sister Gorgonia, by a funeral Oration; for that she was skilful both in the Old and New Testament: and reverend Jerome, of Lady Paula by an Epitaph, for that all the maidens about her, were forced daily to learn the Scriptures. Not poor men, for God's sake: the chiefest alms they can ask, or receive, is the free passage of the Gospel. Whereupon our Saviour speaks 
Matt. 11.  it, not only for their warrant, but their commendation: That the poor receive the Gospel, with all alacrity and cheerfulness. So it hath pleased our gracious God, in all ages, by his infinite wisdom and mercy, to make choice of the poor of this world (as S. james speaketh) that they should be rich in faith; and that by often hearing and reading of the Scriptures. Not infidels or heretics, for charity sake; It is the only ordinary means of their conversion: And therefore it was permitted that Queen Candaces Chamberlain, being an infidel, might read the 
Act. 8.  Scriptures without controlment. And S. Augustine confesseth, that himself, being inclined to the error 
Conf. lib. 8. c. 12.  of the Manichees, by reading the Scriptures was converted. If then neither old nor young; parents nor children; men nor boys; women nor maidens; learned nor unlearned; rich nor poor; heretics nor infidels, may lawfully be exempted from the reading of the Scriptures; we may easily discover those hypocrites, that our Saviour's woe directly points at: That take away the key of knowledge, 
Matt. 23.  that shut up the kingdom of heaven before men; and neither enter themselves, nor suffer others to enter in. Alas, (saith Irenaeus) Hoc non est sanantium & vivificantium, 
Lib. 3. c. 5.  sed magis gravantium & augentium ignorantiam: This is not the part of them that would heal and give life; but rather of them that augment the burden, and increase ignorance.  
The third and last Quaere yet behind, most proper and pertinent to the text of all, is, What might be the occasion, why our blessed Saviour spoke and delivered this Parable?  
The occasion we must needs conceive could not be slight, that induced the wisdom of the Father to propound a special parable. It was the discovery of a whole nest of sectaries, as appears by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text. Certain (it seems) there were, that would be singular above the rest, the common gap to all kind of hypocrisy, and confusion in devotion: for mark (I beseech you) the growth of their faction; The main root of all, was the root of all mischief, pride. From thence sprang up the rank blade of selfe-confidence; out of an arrogant proud spirit, attributing every good thing in themselves, to themselves: they trusted in themselves. From thence shot forth the full care of presumption; an arrogant conceit of inherent righteousness, that they were just. And then their harvest grew on so fast, that their too forward fruit were not only, albae ad messem, but even siccae ad ignem, ripe for the hook, but dry for the fire; their arrogant singularity parched them up, upon so high a strain of boasting of their own eminency, that they ●●fied, and despised others. All which Circumstances being duly considered, the truly zealous, and rig●● humble auditor, 〈◊〉 ●ee is confess, that there was too just occasion for our Saviour to propound, and us to expound this Parable.  
Self confidence? what a wooden head of folly, a broken staff, and a rotten post of presumption is it? which hath not only sought to make Angels, but men equal to God himself. But whom she hath so proudly lifted up; she hath likewise most miserably cast down: What mischiefs indeed hath she not done? She hath cast Lucifer out of Heaven; Adam out of Paradise; overthrown the tower of Babel, and brought in the first confusion of languages; prostrated Goliath with dishonour, and slew Nicanor with reproach; finished Antiochus his Empire, and drowned Pharaoh in the red Sea; caused Senacherib to be slain by the hands of his own sons in the temple, and Herod by an Angel in his Parliament; Absolom to perish by his own locks, and Haman to totter upon his own gallows. Broken reeds are not so dangerous to him that leaneth, nor slippery Ice to him that runneth, nor the beauty of an harlot to him that lusteth, as selfe-confidence is pernicious to him that embraceth it. Broken reeds may wound the flesh, slippery Ice procure desperate fall, the beauty of an harlot bring shame before, and beggary behind: but selfe-confidence taketh away God from the soul, the soul from the body, the body from immortality; It fadeth when it flourisheth, it is not when it seems to be, it falls and never rises again. Man, trusting to himself, (saith Gregory) is fall'n like 
Gregor.  a dead leaf from the Cedar in Paradise, and is blown away with the tempest of temptation, and wind of vanity. As saul's coat of armour was an hindrance to David, that his hands could not war, nor his fingers fight; as Peter walking upon the Sea, was in hazard of drowning: so miserable is man being left unto himself, nothing but desolation; His birth corruption, his life transgression, his death confusion: In his birth miserable, in his life culpable, in his death of himself damnable: His knowledge imperfect, his life uncertain, his mind changeable, and he himself nothing but fragility. And therefore I conclude the point with Saint Augustine: Confidentia in scipso est lubrica spes, incerta victoria, impossibilis liberatio: It is a flattering and fickel hope for a man to think he is safe and inviolable amongst the infinite increasings, and daily nourishing of sin; It must needs be a doubtful and uncertain victory for a man to fight amidst his enemy's ambushment; and an impossible delivery to be environed on every side with fire, and not to be scorched. And such was the desperate condition of these Sectaries in the first step or degree of their affected singularity, selfe-confidence: they trusted in themselves.  
To this wooden head of theirs, selfe-confidence, they must needs annex the brazen face of impudence, a whorish forehead that cannot blush, presumption of righteousness. They are absolutely perfect in their own eyes, justifiable with God, equal with Angels, superior to their brethren. Whereas alas, man's righteousness (saith Gregory) being weighed 
Gregor.  in the balance with God's justice is found to be nothing but unrighteousness: and that the more vile in the examination of the upright judge, by how much the more glorious it seemed in the partial estimation of the owner thereof. A candle that burns bright in the dark, is dimmed at noon day. Agesilaus, his maskers coats were thought all gold over night, in the Chamber of presence by torch light, but found nothing but Wheat-straw the next morning in the wardrobe. Leah, jacobs' elder daughter, was said to be brown and blear-eyed in regard of beautiful Rachel the younger. When we have done all that we can, the very Prince of Prophets tells us, we are but unprofitable servants; And if we will be tried by a brace of inferiors, that spoke by the same spirit with him; the one tells us, that all our righteousness is as filthy as a menstruous rag; the other, that we ourselves are altogether lighter than vanity itself. Without all question the merit of finnefull man can be nothing but misery, his knowledge error, his work wickedness, his invention deceivable, his profession colourable, his will abominable: And as the Moon is eclipsed being removed from the irradiation of the Sun: As Rivers dry up, not watered from their fountains: As Trees whither, not moistened from the earth: so the sons of Adam putrify in the old and rotten root of nature, if they be not transplanted and implanted into the stock of grace. If in that we live, it is not of ourselves, how can that be ours that we do possess? A most gross kind of folly, I blush not to call it mere stupidity, for a man to acknowledge the benefit of his life from another, and yet to ascribe the ornament of his virtues to himself. In God we live, and move, and have our being: what then can any man have, that he hath not received? And why then should any man boast as if he had not received it? Goodness (saith Bernard) is the Vineyard of 
Bernard.  the just Man; or rather a just Man is a good Vineyard; whose Vine is his virtue; whose branch, action; whose Wine, the testimony of a good conscience; whose Winepress, is the tongue of praise; whose godly tears of humility, are the Grapes of true repentance; whose pruner, is the Preacher; and the Lord of this Vineyard, is the God of Heaven. Such than was the desperate condition of these sectaries in the second step, or degree of their affected singularity, an arrogant and presumptuous conceit of inherent righteousness: That they were just.  
To their wooden head of selconfidence, and brazen face of impudence, to make up a perfect monster of imperfection, they affix the iron heart of cruelty, harder than the neither millstone; and fare more apt to sting then the biting nettle, Contempt of others. I am not like that Publican, (saith the foreman of their jury in this Parable, that brings in the verdict for all the rest) spying a mote of infirmity in his brother's eye, but not discerning the beam of impiety in his own; straining at every Gnat he meets in the street, but leaping over every Camel that lies at his own threshold; nothing is sweet that fits not his taste, but all things unsavoury that seed not his humour; barking at the Stars like a Dog in the n●ght, and hissing in a corner like a Serpent; consuming the next member like a Canker, and gnawing an issue in the womb of his mother like a Viper: viscera impiorum crudelia. Contempt of our brethren? It is the unkind dissolution of the whole frame of nature, which delighteth chiefly in society. It is a rottenness in the marrow, a fire in the body, a fury in the soul, the rust of a good conscience, the poison of charity, the enemy of peace, the breach of unity, the mother of mischief, the nurse of contention, the daughter of pride that is never barren; It is a frenzy infecting the head, vexing the spirit, molesting the heart; It fills the head with wicked inventions, they sleep not (saith David) till they have done mischief; The mind with perplexed thought, juaas sought opportunity to betray Christ; The heart with bloody revenge, cain's countenance was cast down, he rose up and massacred his brother. Contempt of our brethren? It is the seed of sedition, the brand of a reprobate, a Locust of the bottomless pit, the son of those Giant's Anach, and Anakim, a murdering spirit, and a spiritual murderer; so Saint john expressly: He that hateth his brother is a . And such likewise was the lamentable condition of these sectaries in the third and last step or degree of their affected singularity Advancement of their own eminency, and contempt of others.  
As therefore our blessed Saviour hath upon these grounds propounded; so proceed we in his name, and by the assistance of his spirit, to expound this parable. Wherein we may observe as in a glass representative the perfect character of an hypocrite; whose genealogy hath many generations. Suggestion of the Serpent, begat concupiscence; concupiscence, sin; sin, ill custom; ill custom, blind devotion; blind devotion, wilful ignorance; wilful ignorance, hypocrisy; hypocrisy, vainglory; vainglory, self-love; self-love, selfe-confidence; selfe-confidence, presumption of righteousness; presumption of righteousness, contempt of others; contempt of others, a Pharisee: And a Pharisee begat two twins, hypocrites both: the one a dissembler with his God, the other a deceiver of his brother: and both of them either bearing private grudges in their hearts as Cain to Abel, or else open reproaches in their mouths as Ishmael to Isaac, till they both fall into the pit that they dig for others.  
I have now brought you to the threshold of the parable, where for this time I must needs leave you: the text I named, and the time I am bound to obey, have granted commission to proceed no further.   

THE SECOND SERMON.  Luke 18. 10. Two men went up into the Temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. 
WE have already dispatched the Preface in the former Verse, which lead our meditations to a threefold Quaere. The first, to the Etymology, or signification of the word Parable. The second, to the reason, why our Saviour so often in the Gospel spoke unto the people by parables? The third and last, to the special occasion, that induced him to propound this parable.  
Proceed we now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by God's assistance and your christian patience, to enter upon the Parable itself. Which being a glass representative, of the perfect character of an Hypocrite: I shall be so fare from personal invectives in the prosecution thereof, that I shall desire all in general, to behold their faces in it. Not (as the common course of the world is) for a man to glance over the shoulder upon his brother, as if the doctrine delivered concerned not himself: Or, like S. james his Natural, to take so slight a notice, that presently he forgets it at the turning of the back: but with a serious and particular application to the conscience, and with a full purpose and resolution of amendment. For (though I confess) the drift of the parable aims most punctually at the Heretic and Schismatic, in whom the ocean of hypocrisy swells to a full Sea: yet, before we have done with it, we shall find it will reach us all, and spare none: for as much as he that is soundest at the heart, may at one time or other (if he flatter not himself too much) discover in himself some dregs of hypocrisy, some spice of the Pharisee. Let every one then in the fear of God, apply the parable only to himself, as ingenuously taxing his own conscience, as Nathan did David, and say, Tu es homo, Thou art the man our Saviour now taxes, and the Preacher now speaks to. That so every one resolving to mend one, God in his mercy may mend all. And upon this good resolution, by the blessing of the Author, we may venture upon the Parable.  
Two men went up into the Temple to pray: the one was a Pharisce, and the other a Publican.  
That great Devil incarnate, Hypocrisy in devotion, is here discovered unto us by our blessed Saviour, by a parable of two men, as like in outward show, that it is very hard to discern the one from the other; but as different in inward substance, as light and darkness. Their behaviour is expressed in the words of this Text, jointly together; then severally and apart, in the verses following. At first sight a man would think all were well. Here are first, Duo homines, two men; good company. Here is secondly, ascensus in Templum, they walk, and they talk, and they converse together, and they go up into the Temple together; a good posture. Here is thirdly, Devotio, a seeming strong devotion; They go up into the Temple to pray; a good exercise. But alas, here is the leaven that sours all, and swells all, the leaven of Pharisees: The one was a Pharisee, and the other a Publican.  
Duo homines, two men? why good company, and once a rarity to be found upon the face of the earth. Without all question, society is both commendable and comfortable, by the principles of nature and grace to: for though unum & bonum cov●rtuntur, by our mecaphysicall discipline; yet he that soars but one degree higher shall find, that the most perfect unity is best pleased to admit of a Trinity: No doubt, to signify, that as there can be no true society without an unity; so there can be no perfect unity without a Society.  
Went these two men up into the Temple? they could not have trod a fairer path. A journey that David undertook with great alacrity and cheerfulness, especially when he went up into the Temple with company; the more the merrier. I was glad (saith h●) when they said unto me, We will go into the house of the Lord. It is a good sight to see men go by twoes into the Temple; but a fare more blessed, to see them flock by ten, and hundreds, and thousands: As (blessed be God) in this, and diverse other Congregations in this Kingdom.  
Went these two men up into the Temple to pray? they could not have gone with a better resolution, nor performed a better exercise. Had they gone but singly up into a private chamber, or a closet to pray, and been still; it had been (no question) an acceptable sacrifice of righteousness: Devotion, be it never so private, if it be hearty, shall never return empty without a blessing. It is like David's Tree planted by the 
Psal. 1.  water's side, whose leaf never withers, but still brings forth fruit in due season; whatsoever it doth it shall prosper. It is a fruitful Vine, continually bearing clusters of ripe grapes; whose root, is charity; whose stock, faith; whose top, hope; whose spreading twigs are laden with fruit, the works of mercy; and whose flourishing blossoms, are the wholesome words of wisdom.  
As the morning Star in the midst of a cloud; As the Moon 
Eccle. 50.  when it is at full; As the Sun shining upon the Temple of the most high; As a bright rainbow in fair clouds; As the flower of Roses in the spring; As Lilies by the rivers of water; As fire and incense in the Censer; As a vessel of massy gold, beset with all manner of precious stones; As a fair Olive tree that is fruitful; As a Cypress tree that grows up to the clouds; And as the fat that is taken from the Peace-offering; so is the 
I am. 5. 16.  prayer of the righteous man if it be fervent. It is paled in like the garden of Eden with everlasting mercies, when the best of our sacrifices are laid waste and common; It floats like Noah's Ark upon the waters of affliction, when the best of our thoughts are overwhelmed and perish; It buds and blooms like Aaron's rod, and brings forth ripe Almonds, when the best of our works remain dry and whither; This one sheaf stands upright, and this one star sparkles, when the rest of the hile fall flat upon the ground, and all wandering Comets are quite obscured.  
Abigals' bottles of Wine, and frails of Raisins were never so welcome to hungry David in the wilderness of Parran; Nor the shady juniper tree so delectable to the Prophet in the parching Sun; Nor jacobs' fat Kid, so acceptable to his father Isaac in his sickness; Nor the sight of young Benjamin so precious to his brother joseph, when he was the chief Governor of Pharaohs Court in Egypt; Nor the Walls of jerusalem so dear unto the jews, that kissed them at their return from captivity: as zealous and hearty prayer is unspeakeably comfortable to the soul of a distresled sinner. It fills the mouth with laughter, and the heart with gladness: It gives light to them that sit in darkness, and life to them that sit in the shadow of death: it is Damonibus flagellum, animae subsidium, Deo sacrificium. 
Aug.  A scourge to the Devil, a prop to the Soul, a Sacrifice to God, which God cannot despise: It is the continual feast of a pined conscience; the only solace in a Sea of sorrows: (Call upon me in the time of trouble, saith the Lord, so will I hear thee and thou shalt praise me.) It is the very 
Lodovicus Grana●eus.  station of the soul in the presence of God, and the station of God in the presence of the soul; God looks upon her with the Eye of mercy, and she glances upon God with the eye of humility. What shall I say more? It is the food of the Soul; the quintessence of all spiritual comfort; the obtaining of all the graces and favours of the great King of Heaven; the ravishing seal of that interchangable kiss of peace, betwixt the Bridegroom and the Bride; that spiritual Sabbath, wherein the Creator himself desires to rest; that Lodge in the forest of Libanus, wherein the true Solomon solaces himself, and enjoys his delights with the sons of men. It is milk for Babes, strong meat for men, provision for the traveller, an haven to the mariner, victory to the militant, and glory to the triumphant. It is physic to the sick, joy to the afflicted, strength to the weak. It amends the bad, it confirms the good, it comforts all. It is the Gate of Heaven, the first fruits of future glory, the heavenly Manna of all ravishing sweetness, and the jacobs' Ladder that reaches from▪ Earth to Heaven, whereby the Angels ascend and descend, to carry up our petitions, and to bring down God's blessings.  
If such than be the power and efficacy of private devotion, how much more powerful is the strength of public prayer? If the bubbling of one single Conduit-pipe be so harmonious in the ears of God, how acceptable is the noise of many waters? If the one be so potent, the other must needs be omnipotent; (If we may be so bold to use the phrase of Alstedius) Est quaedam omnipotentia 
System. theol.  precum, (saith he) There is such a kind of majesty and omnipotency in public prayer, that it raises the dead, it overcomes Angels, it casts out devils, and (which is more wonderful than all the rest) it seems to master and overmaster God himself; enabling the feeble Christian, to wrestle with his Maker, as jacob with the Angel, with a non dimittam, I will not let thee go● without a blessing.  
Thus fare then the Parable succeeds well: that there were two men, it was good company; that they went up into the Temple, it was a better posture; that they went up into the Temple to pray, it, was the best exercise, That house shall be called the house of prayer. But here is that which turns jordan quite backwards, makes the company uncomfortable, the posture preposterous, and the exercise most execrable, the one was a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. That two men should be of two minds; the same in show, but different in substance; come up into the Temple, and to pray too, and not with one accord in one place; this turns our honey into gall, the waters of Meribah into the waters of Marah: The one was a Pharisee, and the other a Publican.  
Mention is often made in the Gospel of Pharises, to the shameful reproach of their life, and severe reprehension of their unbelief; who either with the faithless traditions of men, or the fruitless objections of the Law, ever went about to entangle our Saviour in his speech. But in vain is the net laid (saith Solomon) before the eyes of the winged. A busy 
Prov.  sect it seems they were: for either, when they went with him into the Temple, they lift up their heels against him, like deceivable hypocrites; or else in the judgement-hall they spend their mouths against him with a Crucifige, crucify him, like murderous homicides. Their lips preserve much knowledge of the Law, and yet the poison of asps is under their throat. The moral precepts are written in their Phylacteries with a thorn to prick their Ankles, and yet their feet most swift to shed blood. They sit in the Chair of Moses, and yet resist the Lords anointed with Corah. They bind heavy burdens upon the shoulders of other men, and yet they touch them not with their own fingers.  
Greater enemies to the Cross of Christ, which is his glory and our Salvation, were there none than Pharisees. Not Pilate the judge with his halting opinion, and lukewarm religion. Not Caiaphas the high Priest with his inward malice, and outward holiness. Not judas the traitor with his kissing lip, and kill heart. Not the vulgar rout and rabble of the jews clamorously acquitting Barrabas the malefactor, and despitefully condemning jesus the innocent. And yet forsooth none so pure, none so holy in outward profession as a Pharisee.  
Hujusmodi venandi fallacias sectatur 
Orig. in Math.  Satanas, sub titulo sanctitatis agere insidias. It is Satan's usual sleight of hunting, by a show of holmesse to entrap the simple. Pharisees in the eye of the world reputed for mirrors, shrined for Saints, canonised for half gods: and yet for all this glittering pretended piety, in the judgement of Christ and his witnesses, true Reeds shaken with the Wind, painted Sepulchers, Wolves in sheep's clothing, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, woe be unto them.  
Thus hath Satan juggled from the beginning, and continually changed himself into an Angel of light. Cicero's Rhetorician, Plat●es Politician, and Homer's Traveller are not so lively painted in their colours, as here a Pharisee, in his due and true conditions, his counterfeit conscience being discovered, and the vizard of hypocrisy, semblable to religious sanctimony, plucked from his face of impudence. For though he be a Proteus of many shapes, and variable changes; (and never a change from worse to better; (for desinit esse melior, qui desinit esse bonus,) he that ceases to be good in the positive, is fare from proceeding to better in the Comparative:) Yet here like the Moon, he may be seen at full: he is totally Eclipsed with his God; he is waxing and waning with the world; He is almost at last quarter, darkened and obscured in soul to himself. In that, an hypocrite, drawing near unto God with his lips, but fare from him in his heart; In the other, a heretic, saying, Lo here is Christ, and there is Christ, we know not where; And in this an Atheist, neither hot nor cold, having a name to be alive, but indeed is dead. And as the Master took the first draught of this hypocrite for former; so the Scholar continues it for latter times, 2 Tim. 3. 2. Where he tells us, that men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, cursed speakers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, intemperate, fierce, despisers of them that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God. This for the Pharisee, now for the Publican.  
Of whom (yopu may well suppose) that much cannot be said, having so little to say for himself, only he craves the benefit of his book: Miserere mei Domine, so fare he reads Clarkelike, O God be merciful to me a sinner. And therefore for charity sake, we may plead thus much for him: As the Pharisee said of himself, that he was not as this Publican; so may we justly say of this Publican, that he was not as the Pharisee; whatsoever the Pharisee was, he was not; and whatsoever the Pharisee was not, that was he; in the sight of God, in the sight of man, and in the sight of his own eyes. A man of no public fame, but public infamy; His very name discovers both his nature and office too; a poor Publican, a tribute gatherer, an under-customer, an officer of the basest account amongst the jews; both by reason they were servants to the Romans, whose yoke they could not endure, and also grinding exacters of more than their due for their own advantage. This public contempt of others made him at length seem odious in his own eyes: for peccat & publicat (though not in Senecaes' sense) he sins, and he publishes his sin, not to 
Sen.  his glory, but to his shame; not to the erection of his head, but to the confusion of his face; and when he was smallest and vilest in his own eyes, he was then in greatest repute and estimation in the sight of God; as it shall appear (God willing) more at large hereafter. In the mean time we see the parable turns upon these two hinges; A proud boaster, and an humble confessor; A presumptuous justiciary, and a penitent offender; An arrogant hypocrite, and a dejected sinner. These two men went up into the Temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican.  
Such a general resemblance is there betwixt hollow hypocrisy, and truly religious sanctity, that the Church may too justly lament and complain, that her children are black like unto coals, no man 
Lam. 4.  is able to discern them when he meets them in the streets; and that the great City of God is become like an harlot. This general resemblance is set down in the forehead of this Parable, by four special representations; wherein painted hypocrisy, and naked simplicity may seem at first both alike, or rather hypocrisy, to carry the fairer show. The first is, the number of the persons, duo homines, two men, the Pharisee and the Publican, one for one; and most commonly greater, is the multitude of hypocrites.  
In the old world and days of Noah with his two faces, the one looking to the world perishing, the other to the posterity coming, but eight persons were reserved 
Gen 8. 1 King. 22. 6.  in the Ark. But one Michaiah against four hundred false Prophets. Elias complains that he is left alone, and not five good men to be found in those great and famous Cities of Pentapolis. But only three brethren in that mighty flow of idolatry, and Empire of Nabuchadnezzar. Only Caleb and joshuah of innumerable thousands of Israelites entered into the Land of Canaan. Our Saviour cured ten Lepers, and but one returned thankful. And therefore he foretold, that in these last days many false Prophets should arise and deceive many; For strait is the Gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. The Church of God is a little flock: a small ship for Simon to launch out into the deep. Paphnutius stood against the whole Council of Nice; john Husse against the Council of Constance; Luther alone forsook his Clo●ster; and these three men, (by the help of their God,) in their times prevailed. Generality then, and the greater number, can be no certainty o● the true Church. Auxensius made a proud challenge to the Emperor Constantine: Nos habemus consensum & concentum sexcentorum Episcoporum; We have the consent and harmony of six hundred Bishops: and yet he was an Arrian.  
The second resemblance is in external form, and outward behaviour, wherein they are still both alike; they both ascend and go up. As well the idolatrous jew to Dan and Bethel, to worship jeroboams' calves, as the true Israelite to jerusalem, to worship the living 
job 2.  God: Upon a certain day, the children of God came and stood before him, and Satan came amongst them too: They like Priests clothed with righteousness, and Saints singing with joyfulness; but he, either like a subtle Serpent seeking whom he may deceive; as he did Eve, in the Garden; Peter, in the High Priests hall; and judas at the Passeover: Or else, as a roaring Lion into the conscience; an accuser of his brethren; as he entered into Cain the fratricide; and julian the Apostate: Or else a red Dragon, for the trial of their faith and patience; as unto job, and Paul, when the messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him. Thus Cain goes to the Altar to sacrifice, as well as Abel. judas will have a finger in Christ's dish, as well as john. The Pharisee carries a countenance of holiness, a grace of godliness, and a show of sanctimony, more than doth the Publican, and yet they both go up; here is yet small difference.  
The third resemblance is, One place, the Temple receives them both. Where God will have his Church, the devil will be sure to have his chapel. As in the world there is heat and cold; night and day; hill and valley. As in humane Arts there is opposition of Sciences, Sophistry and probability, rage and reason, affirmation and negation, pro and con: So in God's Church militant, superstitious faction will be sure to couch under the same roof, with true devotion; disguised hypocrisy, with naked piety; and shameless vanity, with simple verity. Where the painful husbandman sows pure seed; there the envious man will scatter tares. Where Paul plants the grafts of grace and unity; there Alexander the Coppersmith, inserts his imps of contention and impiety. Where Simon Peter preaches conversion unto God; there Simon Magus practices conjuration by the Devil. Dagon, the Idol and folly of the Philistines; and the Ark of God, the glory and felicity of the Israelites, were sometime both in one house. Noah's Ark harboured as well ravenous wolves, as tame and simple creatures; The Lamb, and the Wolf; the Raven, and the Dove; the Adder, and the Coney.  
 lilium inter spinas, sic Ecclesia 
Bern. in Cant.  Dei bonis atque malis permista est. As a lily grows up between two thorns; so the outward visible Church is a mixed Congregation of good and bad. As in all gardens, grow as well weeds as herbs: As upon all trees, as well blasse as blossom: As in all rivers, as well frogs as fish: So Isaac and Ishmael; Magus and Philip; Publican and Pharisee, go up into the Temple together.  
The fourth and last resemblance to them both, is, One end and purpose, in general to pray. Some worship the host of heaven, calling the Sun Isis, and the Moon Osiris; as the Ethnic and Pagan. Some an Idol, turning the glory of the Creator, into the similitude of the creature; a calf that eateth hay; as the Sodomite and Gentile: But in vain are these men, and their hope is amongst them that go down into the pit. Some trust in their own merits, not God's mercy; in their own works, not Christ's worthiness: In the invocation of the Mother a sinner, and not the intercession of the Son the only Saviour; robbing him of that honour, whereof he is so justly jealous, that he will not impart it to another.  
But the humble Publican, and truly penitent, lays his prayer a steep in a flood of tears; throughly spiced with a broken and contrite heart, ground to powder betwixt the two millstones of faith and hope; trusting in God as in a merciful Father, lest he should despair; and fearing to dread him as a most just judge, lest he should presume, as did this Pharisee.  
It is observed by S. Chrys● upon the 1. of Matt: That as Christ made four wonderful followers of himself: Of a simple fisherman, a learned Pastor of the Church, Peter: Of a Persecutor in jewry, a Teacher and Doctor of the Gentiles, Paul: Of a Publican, sitting at the receipt of Custom, a chief Evangelist; Matthew: And of an ignominious thief upon the Cross, a glorious Saint in Paradise. So likewise, the false Prophets would make themselves wonderful followers of Christ too; creeping upon the flock in sheep's clothing of innocency, when inwardly they are ravening wolves full of hypocrisy.  
Thus is the Church of God become like josephs' Crib, a cradle for Christ, and a manger for the Ass. Mendacium imitatur veritatem. 
Jerome.  Hypocrisy will have jacobs' small voice, though the rough hands of Esau; heresy, judas his kiss in the lip like a disciple, but a curse in the heart like a Devil: And a Pharisee will be puffed up like a bladder, both in words and countenance. The flies Cantharideses breed (they say) in the sweetest roses. The Palmer worm neasteth in the fairest Cedar. The flatterer crouches to a man of the best nature. And hollow hypocrisy will be an inseparable companion, to religious sanctity. Lucifer is fallen like a star, and hath gotten him a new kind of policy, under the name of Christ to deceive the simple. Some things are, and yet not seen, as the spirit of a man: Some things both are, and se●ne, as the body of a man; Some things neither are, nor seen, as the thoughts of a man: And some things seem, and are not, as the shadow of a man; a perfect emblem of pharisaical simulation. Rachel was never so cunning for her father Laban, in sitting upon his idols hid in the litter: Nor Mic●ll so crafty for Saul, in the conveyance of David: Nor 〈◊〉 so pregnant an ●●yning an e●o●●e to 〈◊〉: A●● Pharisee is to halt with his God, and to gloze with his brother; he seem●s to go up neighbourly into the Temple with the one, and to pray devoutly to the Other.  
The last work then, that we have to do for the Conclusion of this exercise, is to settle, and quiet the conscience in so turbulent a Sex of distracted devotion. That two men went sociably in company together, thou likest it well. That their society led them so fair a way, to go up into the Temple together, thou likest it better. That their journey tended to so good an end, to go up into the Temple to pray, it ravishes thy contemplation. But that the one should be a Pharisee, and the other a Publican; that there should he such Heresy and Schism in the Church, such fractions and factions in the public body; and such deceivable hypocrisy in the private members; this (I dare say) troubles the conscience much, and cools thy devotion more.  
And why so? Know'st thou not that Rebecka had two twins, jacoh and Esau; the one a vessel ordained to honour, the other to dishonour? why these were the du● homines, we now treat of: and therefore she a lively type and Emblem of the Church militant. Semen unum, diversi concepti; uterus 
Aug.  unus, diversi nati; The seed one, the conception diverse; the womb one, the birth diverse: And why should not the Church then take as patiently, as Rebecka did, the struggling of her twins?  
Knowest thou not again? that our blessed Saviour, Matth. 13. compares the Kingdom of Heaven, which is his Church militant, unto an husbandman that sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, the envious man came and sowed tares: which, when the servants perceived, they by all means counsel their Master to weed them up. But the Master in his wisdom would not grant it, lest they should pluck up the good corn, with the cares; and therefore he resolves upon a sinite utrosque croscere; let both grow together until the harvest. To prevent such weeders amongst the Corinthians; the Apostle was fain to propound an op●rt●t harese esse; and tell them plainly, that there was; and must be divisions, and heresies, even amongst them, the true Church of God; that they which are approved might ●ee known. There must be heresy to try thy faith; there must be schism to try thy judgement; there must be fury to try thy patience; there must be frenzy to try thy wisdom; there must be hypocrisy to try thy soundness. Shouldest thou fall from thy God to an Idol with the heretic; where is thy faith? Shouldst thou rend thyself from his Congregation with the Schismatic; where is thy judgement? Shouldest thou play fast and lose with both, like an Hypocrite; where i● thy sincerity?  
Quid si totus mundus adora●● 
Tertullians'.  Saranam? It is Tertullians' case: what though the whole world should forsake God, and serve the Devil, shall God therefore lose his service of thee? Si Episcopus, si diaconus, si vidus, si virgo▪ si doctor, si etiam Martyr lapsus ● regula fuerit, numid●● harese ●●ritatem videbuntur obtinere to saith the same father. What if a Bishop; a Deacon, a Widow, a Virgin, a Doctor or master in Israel; nay, what if a Martyr of Christ jesus shall f●ll from the rule and proportion of faith, shall heresies therefore seem to obtain the approbation of the truth? or shall the truth shrink from the proud face of heresy? what if two men go up into the Temple together; the one a Pharisee and the other a Publican? Non ex personis probamus fidem, sed ex fide personas: we do not approve of the faith of Christ by the persons of men, but the persons of men by the faith of Christ. Or what if two men go up into the Temple by succession? Non habet haereditatem Potri, qui fidem Petri non habet: He cannot inherit Peter's chair, that doth not inherit Peter's faith. The jews could boast themselves to be of the seed of faithful Abraham: but our Saviour tells them they are no better than the seminary of their father the Devil. After St. Paul's departure grievous Wolves were to enter in, not sparing the flock. The desolation of abomination was to sit in the holy places; and Antichrist himself, that man of sin in the Temple of God. Manasses succeeded Ezeckias, jeroboam David, and now the Turk is crept into the four patriarchal seats; Alexandri●, jerusalem, Constantinople, and Antioch. Et in Romana ecclesia s●dent Scribae & Pharisei. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses his chair at Rome too. They are not all jews (it seems) that dwell at jerusalem, nor all Israel that are of Israel, nor all of the Church that are in the Church; nor all of the Temple that go into the Temple to pray. The hedge-sparrow many times hatches the young Cuckoo; and the Hen sits upon the egg of the young Cockatrice; and frogs come into Pharaohs Privy Chamber; Scribes and Pharisees, Nullifidians and Atheists, Anabaptists, and Adiaphorists, and all come up into the Temple to pray.  
And what of all this? Esto tu rectus, only be thou upright and all shall work together for the best to thee that lovest God, and art effectually called according to his purpose. Mali tecum esse possunt in area, in horreo nunquam erunt. Well may evil men be with thee in the seed-furrow, but they shall never be with thee in the barn. They are yet in the furrow and tillage, as those that to day are bad, but to morrow may be good, as was this Publican; and they which presume to day that they are perfect, to morrow may be found agraine too light, as was this Pharisee. And therefore, sine utrosque crescere, let them both grow together until the harvest. Then the great husbandman shall come with his fan in his hand, to purge his floor thoroughly; the Wheat he shall carry into his barn, but burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.  
In the mean time, let no sublunary distraction, slacken thy happy progress to the Temple; but ascend in body, and ascend in spirit. For this purpose, Temples were anciently situated upon hills; as that at jerusalem upon mount Zion, a fair place, and the joy of the whole earth. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, (said the woman of Samaria) And many of our Temples are so situated at this day. And most of them have certain steps or ascents to Quires and Chancels, to teach thee to ascend in spirit, aswell as in body: to ascend from the blindness of nature to the light of grace▪ from the old Adam of sin to the new man of righteousness; from affection to perfection; forsaking thyself and following thy Saviour.  
And when thou art come up into the Temple, stand not up proudly to justify thyself, as did this Pharisee; neither squot down unmannerly in thy seat to sleep, as too many in this drowsy age; but fall low on thy knees with this Publican to pray. The Temple was not made to prate in, or to sleep in, but to pray in. Pray then, and be sure to pray as thou oughtest to pray. Pray humbly, pray hearty, pray devoutly, pray faithfully, and waver not. Fear not the two men that are about thee, or without thee, they can neither help nor hinder thy devotion; but let all thy care be when thou comest into the Temple to pray, that there be not duo homines as and homine, two men in one man within thee. Consider where thou art, in the Temple. Consider wherefore thou comest thither, to pray. Consider to whom thou speakest by prayer, to to him that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a searcher of thy very heart and reines, and a discerner of thy secret thoughts long before thyself, and therefore will not be doubled or dissembled with all. O consider all this, thou that forgettest God and thyself too much, when thou goest up into the Temple to pray. First, take Salonion for thy counsel: Be not rash with thy mouth, nor let thine heart be hasty to utter a thing before God. Then take Moses and David for thy Precedents. Put off the unclean shoes of thy polluted affections, for the ground whereon thou treadest is holy ground. First be able to say, Paratum est cor meum Domine, My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: and then wash thine hands in innocency and so compass God's altar.   

THE THIRD SERMON.  Luke 18. 11. The Pharisee stood and prayed with himself thus, etc. 
WE are passed the Preface, and have made an entrance into the Parable itself so fare, as the behaviour of the two men, whom it principally concerns, the Pharisee and the Publican, is expressed jointly in the Temple; where for a time we left them at thei● devotion together, and now have found them at it again severally, and apart, and first the Pharisee, for still he will be first.  
Who though he came into the Temple with the Publican, yet being come, he prays by himself apart. Whose devotion proclaims him a presumptuous hypocrite both in the manner, and in the matter. In the manner, by standing up so pert, and by standing apart. In the matter, which was nothing but mere braggery, bombasting his petitions, first with odious commendations of himself, privative, and positive; God I thank thee I am no extortioner, no unjust man, no adulterer; but I fast twice in the week, and I give tithe of all that I possess. Secondly, by a malicious contempt of others, general and special; I am not as other men are, nor as this Publican.  
The very manner of his devotion, plucks away the vale from his face, and fets him apparently up to the view of the whole world, that folly may blush, and wisdom be nothing ashamed. And first it discovers the wooden head of selfe-confidence, which hath three parts.  
The first is his division, or departing from the Church, taxed in this word, Ph●●ifee; which is derived from the Hebrew Phares and Phareth, to divide 80 signifies the name of King Pharaoh, whose regiment consisted of two forts of people, Hebrews, and Egyptians. So Thamars ●●btwins, the younger ●●●eth, but the elder called Pharez, beon use he first opened the womb. So in that hand-writing against: Balthasar, MEN● TEKEL PHARES or PERES, Thon and thy kingdom are humbred, weighed, and divided to others.  
The second part of self confidence, is wilful resolution or obfirmation of judgement, neither moved by reason, nor removed by argument, intimated in the word, Standing.  
The third part of selfe-confidence, is either heresy or any other imperfection of doctrine, employed in these words, praying with himself. Three notable notes, and manifest marks of a complete Pharisee.  
First, the rending and sequestering of a man's self from the Congregation; if it be in matters of faith, it is called heresy; if in matter of order or Ceremony, it is called Schism. Both which fall under the compass of Saint john's virge. They went out from us, because they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: But this comes to pass, that it might appear they are not all of us.  
These two vipers and pestilent brood of their mother Confusion, have from the very beginning, either snatched at the heels, or flown into the face of the true Church of God. The one, like those men of jabes Gilead will conclude no peace with Israel, except they may pluck out; their right eyes. The other, like the young prince Ammon, shave away half the beard, and cut off by the buttocks the garments of David's Ambassadors. So unmercifully is the Church crucified betwixt these two malefactors: The one do disrumpere charitatis vincula; 
D. Boys.  untie the bonds of peace; the other do corrumpere fidei dogmata, undo the unity of the spirit. The first are different, in things indifferent; the second almost indifferent, in matters different; and both spurn at the poor Church, as at a common football. Of all the world like Sampsons' Foxes, severed in their head, but tied together by the tails, with firebrands betwixt them, able to set a whole State in an uproar and a combustion.  
The Church is called in Scripture a pillar, from whence they are fallen like a tottering roof. A Ship, out of which they have wilfully leapt to be drowned, making shipwreck of their faith. The hill of Zion, from whence they have tumbled, and broken the neck of a good conscience. And the Spouse of Christ, whose love they have forsaken, like vowbreakers and adulterers.  
They can be content to acknowledge this to be the true Church; and yet in a pharisaical humour, they will not stick to cut themselves from it. Some for filthy lucre, teaching such things as they ought not; as the Priest of Bell, and Hyminaeus, and Philetus, and Demas, departing for the love of this present world. And as Paulus Samosatenus, gaping for preferment from Zenobia Queen of Arabia. Some for ambition, as Donatus, because he could not get a Bishoprickei ●n Carthage: And Novati● missing the cushion for another in Italy: And Arrius greatly stomacking the matter, because his schoolfellow Eustathius was 
Jerome in 13. Zach:  consecrated Bishop of Pontus, and not he. Some as sick as ever they can hold, of self-love; their very conceit is their Idol. The covetous man worships his money; and the Heretic his opinion; both like to the Athenians, worshipping an unknown God. Simon Magus said, he was the great power of God the Father to the Samaritans, the Son to the jews, and the Holy Ghost to the Gentiles. Some amongst us like the Manichees, 
Tertul.  who take their name from Manna; all that they say is Angel's food. Some like Montanus, who said he was the Comforter; none edify but they. Some like Novatus, calling himself Moses, and his brother Aaron their Pastor and Elder. Some like Donatus; there is no 
Clem. Alex.  Church but in their Africa, causing our charity to whither like grass on the house top; and truth to be disguised like jeroboams' muffled wife, hardly to be known, and our concord to fall in pieces like sand, and to be cut in the head like the greek letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
There was an harlot (you know) would not suffer Solomon to cut in pieces her living child; yet these miscreants can endure to divide their everliving Saviour. Some hold of Paul, some of Apollo's, some of Cephas; who (if they had any grace) might at length hear their Saviour to complain: I was torn with spears, rend with nails, shed my blood, and laid down my life; ut te mihi conjungerem, 
Aug. con. Ar.  & tu dividis me, to join thee to myself, and thou dividest me.  
Christ is the head of the Church, and the Church is the fullness of his body; as they are not to be divorced, so they should not be divided. The Olive Tree must be left with her fatness; the 
judge 9 9  Figtree with her sweetness; the Vine with her wine, that cheereth the heart of man; and the bramble bush (forsooth) must be anointed King, that men may trust under the shadow of her branches: As if we could gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles. It is impossible to gather wholesome grapes (sound doctrine, good life, true worship, dutiful subjection) of thorns (mutinous minds, turbulent spirits, throats full of adders poison, feet swift to shed blood;) Or figs of thistles, (bread for hungry souls, certain for doubting spirits, comfort for pined consciences:) they are both full of stinging pricks; malice and melancholy, humours and rumours, conceit and deceit, disorder and discord, madness and badness, Thistles indeed, that have in their tops flowers like wool, but are tossed to and fro of every wind. Their libels are more than standerous, their scoffs more than histrionical, and their calumniations more than Sycophanticall, They would be petty Popes in their parishes, Princes in their privileges, and Nero's after their five and few years government. utinam abscindantur (say I with the Apostle) I would to God they were even cut off that thus disquiet you. They pretend that the zeal of God's house hath even eton them up; when indeed the zeal of their own houses would eat up God's house. Zealous Peter would fain build three tabernacles; one for Christ, one for Moses, and one for Elias: In that, he wots not what he said; he was wrapped. Zealous Boanerges, james and john, those Sons of thunder, at one time would fain have commanded lightning from heaven, to destroy the unbelieving Samaritans: at another time they desired to sit, the one at the right hand, the other at the left hand of Christ in his Kingdom. In neither of which, knew they of what spirit they were, or what they asked: Christ grants his Disciples, no such busy warrants, as Antichrist. Et ad quid perditio isthaec (said judas in his thrifty zeal) This ointment might have been sold, and given to the poor: But we all know he was a purse-bearer.  
Zealous jews crucify the Lord of light as a blasphemer making himself the Son of God: And zealous Pharises will part his Garment amongst them; even that tunicam inconsutilem, that seamelesse coat, the Unity of the faith, and pretend all conscience without science; they will lose life and living, and yet not for righteousness sake. These are the strongest bolts they shoot upon the sudden, and the choicest arrows in all their quiver: All things they 
Rom. 11.  say are lawful for them, but all things are not expedient. Which being spoken by the Apostle of things indifferent, nothing at all concern matters of necessity. Fides docet quid debet, charitas quid decet: Our faith shows us what is lawful; our charity, what is expedient: And therefore the ordinances of the Church are necessary, quoad benè esse, being the fosterers of faith, and cherishers of charity.  
The second arrow which is feathered with folly, shafted with error, and armed with blindness, is this, Stand fast in the liberty which 
Gal. 5.  ye have received in Christ jesus, and be brought no more into the bondage of beggarly rudiments. Let them prove that they are the traditions of men, unwashed hands, the bondage of the world, and not the wholesome discipline of the true Church of God, inspired by the holy-Ghost, warranted by Scriptures, admitted by Counsels, and approved by precedents, and we shall quickly yield. Otherwise it will be told them, their colourable insinuations, and metaphorical shadows, à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter. The ceremonies levitical of the Law are abolished, Ergo our Injunctions are abominable? Such men such matter. It is well known, the Apple speaks there of justification by works and faith, and not of the ceremonies of the Gospel. And yet (forsooth) these men in substance of religion can come and build with us, as did the men of Samaria by Zerubbabel; But to steal away the hearts of the people as Absalon did; Proclaiming fasts, as did jezabel, but to massacre Naboth; Devouring Widow's houses in pretence of long prayer; they kiss like Iscariot, but they kill like judas.  
If reasonable and judicious men, would not wilfully suffer themselves to be hood-winked and flattered in their folly, they might easily discern these Gibeonites, for all their rend sacks, old shoes, dried and moulded bread. I bear them record they have a zeal indeed, but not according to knowledge; I could rather wish they would have an inoffensive conscience both towards God and Man; then would they be sure to give God his true fear, and Caesar his due honour. And so I conclude this case of conscience with Saint Jerome: Si de veritate scandalum oriatur, 
J● Matt.  utiliùs scandalum nasci permittitur, quàm veritas relinquatur. If some small offence should arise from the profession of the truth, surely that offence must needs be more tolerable, then gross ignorance. But when there is strife, and 
1 Cor. 3. 3.  envy, and division amongst you, (saith the Apostle) are you not carnal? When one saith, I am Paul's; another, I am Apollo's; hearing one and hating another, are ye not carnal? I beseech you brethren (in the Apostles heart and tongue) Mark them which cause contention amongst you, and avoid them.  
The second part of Pharisaical selfe-confidence, is a wilful resolution of opinion, or obfirmation of judgement intimated by the word, Standing. A flattering and confident arrogancy in itself, but uncharitably contemptuous unto others, begetting two grand-follies, an erroneous falsehood in the speaker, and a doubtful dubitation in the hearer, and making both miserable, when there are so many faiths, as there are wills in men; so many Doctors and doctrines, as manners in the world; and so many occasions of blasphemies admitted, as there are vices committed, till at length our faith and religion must be written as we list, and as we list, it must be understood; when our Preachers like Spiders, wove Webs out of their own bowels, and like deceitful Vintners turn Wine into Water by falsifying texts, but never like Christ turn Water into Wine, by broaching sound doctrines, dividing the Word of God aright. When the hearers again have itching ears, that cannot endure wholesome doctrines, and commendable constitutions; their will being, like unto a sick man's taste, nothing is savoury; and their judgement like the lightning that will be seen before the thunder be heard. Tertullian complains much of their Preachers in his time: Caedem Scripturarum faciunt (saith he) ad suam materiam, They make a slaughter of the Scriptures for their own purpose. And Thomas Aquinas, as much of the hearers in his time. They run like mad men into the wilderness to see, and what do they see? nothing but reeds shaken with the wind.  
Vainglory, is both the mother and the nurse of obstinacy. All that a Pharisee doth (saith our 
Math. 23.  Saviour) is to be seen of men. He makes his Phylactery broad, and the fringes of his garment long. He loves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the chief rooms at feasts, the chief seats at Synagogues, solemn greetings in the Markets, and to be called of men Rabbi, that his Science may be manifested, and himself magnified; and that either directly, or indirectly. Directly; if in words, it is called ostentation; if in deeds, that have a face of truth, it is called invocation; but if the deeds be but apparent only, it deserves no better a name than painted hypocrisy. Indirectly; if in understanding, it is called pertinacy, and stubbornness of opinion; if in will, dissension; if in plausible speech, and vociferation of words, contention; if in action, it is called obstinacy: So julian answering the christian Epistles of the Bishops: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Sozom. l. 50. c. 18.  I read, I understood, and I despised. This is the pharisaical practice (I fear) of too many amongst us, that being convicted by reason before prudent authority, triumph at home amongst their populous rusticity, as if they had gotten great spoils; like S. Augustine's, Donatists, Disputare nolumus, baptizare volumus; being more wordy than worthy, they speak what they list, who should control them? Stat pro ratione voluntas; their will is their reason, and shall be, though there be no reason in their will, nor can be: thou shalt not persuade them though thou dost persuade them: like salomon's fool, the more they are brayed in the mortar of discipline, the less they seem to understand; and, like the milk of a Tiger, the more they are salted, the fresher they are. A Pharisee sits chief in Synods, speaks first in Counsels, runs not sent, intrudes not called, records things ordered, undoes things done, censures them that have judged, prejudicate them that are to judge; and if he be not preferred when he would, and as he would; either he presently condemns the superior as envious, himself being malevolent, or else taxes his equal of Simony, himself being full fraught with Sodomy.  
The Papist stands stiffly in his privilege of provincial Counsels, uncanonical verity, Church above Scripture, and Pope above both, making him in the plea, both party, and judge too. The Turk, in his Mahomet's Koran, a golden book of a leaden Saint. The Enthusiastae, in their forced inspiration, and superilluminated brotherhood, being but new peeped out of the Shell, and scrambled into the Pulpit with the reproachful contumely of the learned, and such peremptory boldness in themselves, will speak of Pythagoras his numbers, Plato's Idea, the complots of a new heaven, and a new earth, ripping up all secrets, as though they had been wrapped up into the third heavens, had the tongues of Angels, and the wisdom of Cherubimes. On the other side the hearers with unbridled tongues, and itching ears, kick against the pricks, and bear them up in their hands, as Rachel did her father's Idols. Some like Montanus his Disciples tremble not to affirm, that their Teacher knows as much or more than Christ himself: Some like Carpocrates his Disciples, that he understands more than Paul or Peter, with all hail unto their Seraphical Rabbis; and Hosanna, Hosanna to their irrefragable Doctors, magnifying them, as Pythagoras his Scholars did their Tutor, with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he said it; and therefore it must be so. Or as dunce Carolus argued, it is so, because it is so.  
Woe worth this multiplicity of opinions, this wracking of Scriptures, and this squeezing and wire-drawing of texts, and this Pharisaical pertinacy and standing upon it too, which is worse than all the rest. Humanum est errare, non retrahere belluinum, perseverare diabolicum. It is the part of humane frailty to fall into error, of swinish beastliness not to retract, but devilish pertinacy to persist or to maintain an error. It is told in Gath, and it is reported in Askalon, that our kingdom is divided, and cannot long stand. It were to be wished indeed, that Peter and Andrew, would both Steer one course in this our British Haven; that were the only way to keep the net whole, and to catch most store of fish. But howsoever I doubt not but I may safely answer the malignant spirit, that hath most evil will at our Zion, as Simon Peter said unto Simon Magus; Vive, & regnum Dci crescere videas, vel invitus: Long mayst thou live, and to thy sorrow see, the kingdom of God to increase mightily, even in this kingdom.  
The third and last part of pharisaical selfe-confidence is secrecy of doctrine, in that he stands and prays with himself thus. He must have a vizard to cover his face be it never so brazen, l●st at one time or other it might blush. He flies like the Owl by night, and like a Lion seeks his prey before the Sunrising. Every one that doth evil (saith our Saviour) 
joh. 3.  hates the light, neither comes he to it, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds might be made manifest, that they are wrought according to God. Pharisaical hypocrisy is as naked as Adam after his fall, so miserably ashamed of himself, that he runs into the bushes at the voice of God. The truth is as naked too, but as Adam in the estate of innocence; and therefore the bolder to appear at the first call with Samuel, Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth: Or, to join in that grand challenge with jesus his author and finisher: Quis ex vobis arguet, Which of you can rebuke me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do ye not believe me? veritas non quaerit angulos, truth seeks no corners, I have spoken openly in the world, and in secret have I said nothing.  
O Pharisee, pharisee, dost not thou know that our Saviour commands thee, Matthew 10. to 
Mate. 10.  preach that upon the house top, which thou hearest in the ear? Why dost thou then detract from the doctrine of the truth in corners, and carp at the good life of thy brother in conventicles? without all question, Magna est veritas & praevalet, Great is the truth and will prevail: though some as Seminaries amongst their Massemongers brag against us, and say, that we have a slight Apology for our faith. But as the King of Israel to Benhadad, so may I say to these braggarts: Let not him that 
1 Kin 20.  girds on his harness boast like him that puts it off; it must needs be a silly triumph that is proclaimed before victory. Some as Marcionites, a generation that hath not set their heart aright, and whose spirit cleaveth not steadfastly unto God. Like as the children of Ephraim, which being harnessed; and carrying bows, turned themselves 
Psal. 7. 8.  back in the day of battle: Crowing in their Pulpits a far off like cocks (as Theodoret makes the comparison) and bustling their feathers like Turkeys in their parlours: That would fain bind our Kings in chains, and our Nobles in links of iron, and make Our Priests believe that God hath not spoken by them.  
As Numa Pompilius wrote his Laws in Closets and fathered them upon Vesta; so they paint opprobrious libels, and contentious books in corners with Venus▪ Mahomet's Koran was published in the night; and Prodicus his mystical communion, men and women together, was celebrated when the candle was put out. When every man must have a private Ephod with Gedeon; or a whispering Levite with Micaiah; Religion must needs fall to Idolatry with jeroboam. In such a case it is high time for Samson, a famous judge and Worthy of Israel to tie his Foxes not only by the tails, but also by the heads together, in unity and verity of doctrine (as one of the Rabbins 
Ben-sira.  divinely adviseth) that they may burn up the weedy corn of the Philistines with the firebrands of faith and truth, lest they take both life and strength from Samson himself.  
Correct a wise man with a nod (saith Solomon) but a fool with a club. Cave nè circulus in sylvam, gutta in mare, scintilla in slammam excreseat: It is wholesome counsel from a Father; to beware that a small waste increase not to a vast wilderness; a drop to a Sea; a spark to a flame. One jarring string mars a whole consort of music; one rift hazards a whole building; and a little leaven sours the whole lump: for if severity of discipline turn once into liberty, edification will presently run into destruction; custom into corruption; law into contempt; mercy into derision; godliness into hypocrisy; preaching into silence; the savour of life into the savour of death, an● everlasting destruction.  
Thus fare (you see) we have traced the Pharisee by his inward profession in matter of Church doctrine, in a metaphorical sense; now the Text leads us to follow him a step or two by his outward gesture in matter of Church discipline in a literal sense: for certainly they are both the true meaning of the Holy Ghost, and aught to be urged both; as most profitable, and natural to the analogy and proportion of faith.  
Where still we shall be sure to find him a true Pharisee, a man divided; for he divides himself from his brethren, even in the Congregation too. He is too well acquainted with discord, and yet many times he runs and outruns himself upon a point of division. At a Feast he will be sure to take the upper room, till he be bidden with shame to sit; lower. In the market he mightily affects respective greetings. And in the T●●ple he stands up by himself like a Noun Substantive, amongst the Eight parts of Speech; or an I per se I, amongst the five vowels; as if his neighbour's adjective devotion could not stand by i● self without his Substantive; bu● were altogether inarticulate, as a sentence wholly composed of consonants, without his vocal assistance, or assistant vocalitie: and why? because he thanke●s his God, he is not as other men are?  
This arrogant presumption, and presumptuous arrogancy, se●● him upon his tiptoes; and makes him as stiff in the joints as an Elephant, that hath no joints at all. He stands, when he should kneel, at prayer; he sits, when he should stand, at the Creed; and either he sits or stands, when he should kneel, at the Sacrament. To be sure to avoid artolatry, he will not stick to commit autolatry; he is mightily afraid, where no fear is, to worship the bread; but he fears not his own proud insolent carriage, whereby; instead of God, he worships himself. In all the parts of Divine worship, both inward and outward, he is all upon contraries. The Church by her leave shall prescribe him no form, he will have a will-worship by himself; and why? because he thanks his God, he is not as other men are.  
Indeed he is not; nor as himself should be, neither by Scripture precept, nor Scripture precedent, which plead both for kneeling in Divine worship. A Scripture precept we gather, 1 King. 19 18. Where God expects from all trùe Israelites the bending of the knee only to himself. Will the Pharisee believe God (think you) if he bind it with an oath? I refer him then to Esay 25. 23. I have sworn by myself (saith the Lord there) that unto me every knee shall how. If the Pharisee dare attempt, in vain, to make God forsworn; God shall swear once more, and he shall not repent: This many forty years, have I been grieved with the stubborn generation of this Pharisee, and therefore now will I swear in my wrath, that neither he, nor any of his, shall ever enter into my rest.  
Should I muster up the whole army Royal of Scripture precedents for this religious duty of kneeling in Divine worship, I might be infinite. I shall therefore, to avoid prolixity, draw out but some of the principal commanders, no less than Kings and Prophets, that have expressed the inward true humility of the heart, by the outward humiliation of the body; that the Pharisee may blush for shame, if there be any shame in him, when we shall object unto him the quot Reges & Propheta, how many Kings, and Prophets, and dear Saints of God, and some after his own heart too, have humbly desired to embrace this reverend gesture, which he out of an haughty spirit most proudly and scornfully refuseth.  
Let him look first upon Solomon, the wisest, and wealthiest, the most gracious and glorious prince (one only excepted) that ever the jews had, or the earth bare. Observe his graceful gesture at the dedication of the Temple. 2. Chron. 6. 13. He made a brazen scaffold, he set it in the midst of the Court, first he stood upon it, than 
2 Chron. 6. 13.  he kneeled down upon his knees before all the Congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands towards heaven, and prayed. Let him look upon Daniel in the ninth 
Dan. 9  of his Prophecy, and he shall find him at his devotion, humbling himself by fasting, and sackeloth, and ashes. Let him look upon Moses, Numb. 16. And there he 
Num. 16.  shall find him lower than his knees, even flat upon his face before his Maker. Let him look upon the King of Niniveh, Io●. 3. and behold the heathen Monarch, what strange gestures of hearty humiliation, he expresses in the very instant act of his conversion. For no sooner had he heard that thundering Sermon from the Prophet, (yet forty days and Niniveh shall be destroyed,) but presently he arose, and starts up, as if he had been raised by an earthquake from his seat of honour and principality, his royal, his regal, magnificent, Monarchical throne; He casts his robe from him, with fury and indignation, as if his kingly attire of gold and purple had been a burden to his back, and as unseemly to be worn as the Egyptian scab. He covers himself with sackcloth, it is all the apparel now, that his highness' desires to wear; the Diadem to his head, the mantle to his back, the sandals to his feet; the King winds up his body in sackcloth, as a corpse made ready for the burial, humbling his dust and earth to sit in ashes, that he might read the Son of Siraches Lecture of sound humiliation effectually to himself: Quare superbis terra & cinis? why art thou proud, oh earth and ashes? humble thy spirit, see thy mortality, tremble before the presence of that God, that strikes terror into the hearts, and confusion into the faces of all earthly Potentates.  
Let him look upon the very King of Kings, and Prince of Prophets, the Author and finisher of our faith, even jesus the Mediator of the New Testament; who might justly say indeed, Non sum sicut cateri, I am not as other men are; neither proud, as thou Pharisee; nor sinful, as thou Publican: yet he, when he was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery, to be equal with God, humbled himself to become man; and in the former part of his passive obedience for the sin of man, fell down upon his knees to prayer on the mount. As in the 22. chapter of this Gospel.  
And to conclude all in a word; let him look into the 26 of job. and Revel. 7. And he shall find that the very Pillars of heaven do tremble, and are astonished at the Majesty of God; and the very Angels of Heaven do fall upon their faces before the throne to worship God. Shall Kings, and Prophets, and the very Prince of Prophets; shall men and Angels, Saints and sinners, Heaven and earth, and all the powers in both, quake and tremble, and fall low upon their knees, and flat upon their faces before the throne to worship their Maker; and only the Pharisee stand up to justify himself, and in the Temple too, and at prayer too and so devoutly by himself too?  
There let him stand by himself still, as  as his heart of stone that he stands upon, or the pillar of stone that he stands by. If either he thinks he may outface his Maker, or challenge him upon a true debt, or tax him upon his own worthiness, or as a choice piece of clay dispute with his potter, and convince him by dint of argument; he may do well to stand up by himself still, to boast, and brag, and dispute, and challenge: what need he pray? If otherwise, I must needs tell him, that one day there will come a miserable humiliation for this proud exaltation: when he that taxes him in this parable here (and yet he stands up proudly by himself) shall come to tax him the second time with an innumerable company of Saints and Angels in the clouds, he shall never be able to stand there. The man that stood up so pertly upon his terms of righteousness here, shall never be able to stand up in judgement amongst the righteous there. Then he shall fall down, when it is too late, desiring the hills to cover him, and the mountains to fall upon him: then he shall be glad to humble himself so low, as to annihilate himself (if it were possible) to a mere nothing.  
And thus ends the first part of pharisaical devotion, which is so corrupt (you see) in the very manner: The second part, which is the matter, we shall find as corrupt in the next exercise.   

THE FOURTH SERMON.  Luke 18. 11. God I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican. Vers. 12. I fast twice in the week, and I give tithe of all that I possess. 
YOU have heard the corrupt manner of the Pharisees devotion, now follows the matter as corrupt as it, being neither formal, nor effectual, nor substantial. Because it is not formal, it cannot be substantial, by the principles of nature and grace too: For forma dat esse rei; without which devotion itself, is but a rude lump of indigested confusion. And because it is neither formal, nor substantial, it cannot be effectual, but as a founding brass, and as a tinkling cymbal.  
First, his devotion is corrupt in form; He gins with an Ago gratias, God I thank thee, whereas me thinks a miserere, would have became him better: Oh God, be merciful to me a sinner. A good Priest always gins his devotion with a confession of sin, and ends with a thanksgiving or grace; as the Church Liturgy directs him, and as all approved examples in Scripture warrant him. Abraham, Gen. 18. petitioning for 
Gen. 18.  the Sodomites, prostrated himself before the Lord by an humble confession of his own weakness: Behold, now I have begun to speak unto my Lord that am but dust and ashes. As if he should have said; Oh let it not displease my Lord; that I petition so earnestly for sinners, being a sinner myself. So jacoh Gen. 32. Minor sum omnibus 
Gen. 32.  miserationibus tuis, O Lord I am not worthy the least of all thy mercies. So David, 2 Sam. 7. 
2 Sam. 7.  Quis ego, & quae domus mea? who am I, O Lord, & what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? So Daniel 9 We have sinned, 
Dan. 9  and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly; O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us open shame. But this Map of irregularity gins at the wrong end with an Ago gratias, and in stead of accusing himself condemns his brother: In general, Non sum sicut caeteri, I am not as other men are; In special, non sicut ist● Publicanus, I am not as this Publican; for I fast twice in the week, and I give tithe of all that I possess.  
And this makes his devotion as corrupt in substance as in form, puffed up with nothing but battologies, and tautologies, and idle repetitions. He might aswell have expressed all his perfections by that one word just, as did the Publican his imperfections by that one word sinner: for if he were just he could be no extortioner; and if no extortioner, without question he paid his tithes; and if he fasted often, it argues that he was continent; and if more righteous than all men, it must needs be granted, that he was more just than the Publican. But it seems this vain babbler loves to hear himself talk; as if he came not to pray unto his God, but to prate unto his own sweet-selfe. As Thomas Aquinas upon the place, and as the words of the text expressly insinuate: The Pharise● stood, and prayed with himself thus.  
His devotion then, being so void of form, and void of substance, cannot choose but be altogether ineffectual: for mark first how arrogantly he pleads, Non sum sicut cateri; I am not as other men are. It had been an extreme point of arrogancy, to have advanced himself above some men, or above most men; but to vilify and contemn all men, and especially the penitent Publican, it must needs be the part of an incarnate Lucifer, and more than the spice of Ero similis altissimo; I will be like unto the most high, and place my nest above amongst the stars of God. For upon earth (you see) he acknowledges no man equal to himself. Whereby he seems mightily to disparage both the wisdom, and the goodness of God; as if God were bound only to bless, and to enrich him.  
And therefore the sin of pride is most aptly compared to a whirlwind, that turns up whole Cedars by the roots; and to its power will endure nothing to subsist before it. There is no sin else but will be sociable, and admit of too many companions: only this devilish pride is of so stern, and austere a nature, that it brooks no equal: it exalts itself not only against all that is called man, but all that is called God.  
Again, mark how ridiculously he pleads: I fast twice in the week, and I give tithe of all that I possess. As if a beggar should come to the door and ask an alms, and show his Rings and Robes, and costly ornaments; a man would think that rags and wounds would sooner speed his suit: So this proud beggar, or bragger rather, shows not his rags, but his robes; not his wounds, but his worth; not his misery, but his bravery: Ergojam plenus es Pharisaee 
Aug.  (saith S. Augustine upon the place) He is full, and needs not alms; he is whole, and needs 
Reu. 3. 17  no physician: He thanks his God, with the Church of Laodicea, That he is rich in grace, and increased in goods, and wants nothing; and Knows not that he is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.  
The case of such a man must needs be as desperate as that sick patients, that having a vein opened by a Chirurgeon, let's out his best blood that maintains life, and only retains the worst that hastens death: So this Pharisee here, let's out all his goodness at once, that should maintain his spiritual health; and keeps his wickedness close to himself; the only speedy way to hasten his everlasting death. Yet such are the sacrifices, that these fools offer continually to the Almighty. It is the language of Balaam, Num. 23. 
Numb. ●5  when his Maker met him; septem altaria ordinavi, I have prepared seven altars, and offered upon every altar a Bullock and a Ram: As if God were so respectless that he would not, or so blind that he could not see the best of our actions. We need not fear the omnisciency of God, who sees not only the deed but the will, and duly weighs and considers every circumstance of both. Let Abraham testify, Genes. 22. He was ready there to offer up the sacrifice enjoined him by the Angel, with an Ecce ego twice, Behold here I am. At the first call to receive the fiat, Hear: At the second call to act the fiat, Hear. And God was as ready to consider, and to commend, and to reward every circumstance of his obedience, so wracked and tortured upon such a multiplicity of difficulties, with a quia fecisti hanc rem. By myself I have sworn (saith the Lord) Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thine only son: Therefore I will surely bless thee, and greatly multiply thy seed. As if God should have said unto Abraham thus. Abraham, I see thy will, and I see thy deed, and I accept thy will for thy deed; and I weigh and consider every circumstance of both to be full of difficulty. I see thou art ready for my sake to sacrifice, not a beast, but a man; not a servant, but a son; not one amongst many, but an only Son; and he not an ordinary, or a disrespected Son, but a beloved Isaac, upon whose life depends the whole burden of the promised blessing. All these circumstances I weigh, as weighty and ponderous indeed; and by myself I swear, quia fecisti hanc rem, Because thou hast done this thing, this great thing, this thing beyond a name; Therefore I will surely bless thee, and greatly multiply thy seed.  
Marry Magdalen, Luk. 7. can testify the like; who received such strange approbation from our Saviour, for that poor entertainment she gave him, for anointing his feet; that he weighed and considered every circumstance, to the great disparagement of Simon the housekeeper. For, turning to the woman, and speaking unto Simon, he said: Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, and thou gavest me no water to my feet; but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss; but she, since the time that I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my fleet. Mine head with oil didst thou not anoint; but she hath anointed my fleet with ointment. Mark how he observes every circumstance of his entertainment, and accordingly rewards it with a boon, no less than a peccata remittuntur: Thy sins are forgiven thee.  
It is bootless then for any man to play the Pharisee so deeply, as to divulge his goodness, and to conceal his wickedness, and to, and from Him too, that is an equal and an impartial discerner of both. To proclaim that to him, that knows it long before ourselves, it is extreme tolly; to hide that from him, to whom all things are open, it is extreme frenzy. He cannot possibly be the better by the one, but he must needs be a great deal the worse by the other; and indeed to say the truth, a great loser by both.  
That the Pharisee went up into the Temple to pray; that he was not an extortioner, unjust, adulterer; that he fasted, and paid his tithes, were things (no doubt) both exceeding commendable, and absolutely commandable: for these things he ought to have done. But his proud boasting, like the herb Coloquintida, or wild gourd mentioned, 2 Kings 4. spoiled 
2 King 4.  the whole pot of pottage. Mille virtutibus affluens propter arrogantiam falicitatem amisit: The wonderful virtuous man, is now become wonderful vicious; He, that before was haply none, is now unhappily become an extortioner in the highest degree, robbing God of his due honour, and relying wholly upon his own merits. He that before might be comparatively just, is now most unjust beyond comparison, taking the wall of his betters, and condemning the Publican rashly without proof or reason, or any due form of Law; playing the part of an accuser and a judge too. He, that before might be little or none, is now become an adulterer in the highest degree, being so wedded unto the world, and wholly enamoured with popular applause, not knowing (like an adulterer as he is,) that the amity of the world, is but enmity with God. So that in fine (you see) like a foolish Hen he lost all his eggs by cackling; he did verbis praeferre virtutem indeed, but he did factis destruere veritatem too. Like 
Cypr.  an empty mill, the more the clack goes, the less the mill grinds.  
Such is the dangerous nature and condition of secret pride; It can make nothing more, but it doth make all things less; and yet even then seeming greatest in show, when they are lest in substance: Like the painting of an harlot, it cousin's all, and yet it draws most men after it. It is the devils own darling, and therefore must needs be most accurate to seduce. All other sins are but his bastards, this is his own brat, and like the father; his express character, as Bernard calls it. All other sins (as Thomas Aquinas observes) 
Bern. Aquin.  are said to be in the Devil secundum reatum, by guilt only, as being the tempter to every sin: only pride and envy is in him secundum effectum; as being the first actor of this sin in his own person.  
This makes the politic Jesuit abroad, and the crafty jebusite at home such mighty mountebanks of their own perfections, and roaring trumpets of their own vainglory; thanking their God, that they are not as other men are, nor as we, castaways; but selectioris farinae men of a purer note, and clearer conversation; thinking nothing but truth, saying nothing but truth, doing nothing but truth. Especially the jesuite will not be persuaded, but that the fee-simple of all men's actions, words, and thoughts, are in his free gift, to raise, and set the price at his devotion. His entia be transcendentia; in all things an absolute Superlative, sans peer. His very sots are salomon's, his blackbirds Swans, and his silent'sts politickes. He is the very spawn and fry of the old Pharisee; of whom I may too justly say, as Saint Augustine against Faustus the Manichee: 
Aug.  Si hoc esset justum esse, justificare seipsum; if this were to be just for a man to justify himself, certainly this generation of Vipers had long since flown up into heaven in the whirlwind of their own imaginations: but examine their actions, and you shall find David's clog at their heels, that weighs them down. They travel with mischief, they conceive sorrow, and they bring forth ungodliness. Their throat is an open sepulchre, 
Psal. 5. 9  they flatter with their tongue, there is no faithfulness in their mouth, their inward parts are very wickedness.  
And indeed to say the truth, this makes every man, almost without exception, so familiar with this Non sum sicut caeteri, (I am not as other men are, or as that Publican) that I fear I might too justly invert our Saviour's question to the jews, and say, Quis ex vobis non argueretur de peccato hoc? which of you may not in some sort be taxed of this sin? Quis non Pharisaeus? who hath not in one degree or other, some dreg, some spice of a Pharisee; some more, some less?  
The glutton, and the Drunkard, he thanks his God too, that he is not as other men are: Extortioner, unjust (adulterer perhaps) but not as that usurer, He fasts little, he confesses; but he pays his tithes as freely as he drinks, and that is commonly more than his share for quietness sake. And indeed well may he thank the god he serves for it, his belly; which makes him draw so large a patrimony thorough his throa●e, that eases him of all care, either for use or principal.  
The Usurer, and Extortioner, he thanks his god too, that he is not as other men are. A little unjust perhaps? but sure he is no adulterer, no glutton, nor as that drunkard; he fasts enough in conscience, all the week long, both he and his family to save charges: and he pays tithe for as much of his possession as the Law can sqeeze out of him. But he too may thank the god he serves for all this, his gold; to whom he is so prostrate by a certain kind of superstition, that upon pain of sacrilege, he dares scarce lay finger 
Auri Sacra fames Virg  on it, even for pinching necessity, much less for superfluity.  
The riotous, and voluptuous swaggerer, he thanks his god too, that he is not as other men are; wracking extortioners, griping Usurers, unjust oppressors, or as that plodding worldling. He scorns to be so base to lad himself with thick clay; or that the stone should cry out of the wall to him, or the beam out of the timber answer it. For adultery, tush, it is but a trick of youth: fasting 
Je●unium coactum.  he is content to embrace when he can get no victuals: He neither sows, nor reaps; and therefore neither cares for tithes, nor any thing else: for his part he will ●e sure to make much of one so long as it holds; Eat, drink, and be merry, and let the world wag. But alas little doth this madman dream, how soon this god he thanks, and this master he serves, his body of sin, will turn him out of doors with slender wages, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at most, the perishing pleasures of sin for a short reason; like Iona● his gourd, soon Worm-eaten, and soon withered.  
But why spend we time about these vicious men? This leaven of the Pharisee, a secret conceit of the Non sum sicut caeteri, hath both soured and swelled the greatest professors in the school of virtue and godliness too. In so much that it is observed by some, that this devilish pride hath not only raised all vices, either publicly or privately, but all virtues against humility too. For,  
Concute, tecum habita, te consul, dic tibi quis sis.  
Let every man plumb deep into his own conscience, and tell me, whether he be not secretly proud of his giving of alms, proud of his fasting, proud of his praying; and, if he pay his tithes duly, whether he be not secretly proud of that too? It is likewise observed further, that this infernal haggard hath set humility at variance with herself, lift up her hand to offer violence to her own person, and by a monstrous, unnatural, prodigious kind of birth to bring forth pride: In so much that the humble man is too often as proud of his humility as Diogenes of his rags. It is high time then for that great Actor and Teacher of humility itself, to deliver unto us that wholesome caveat in the Gospel: Beware of the leaven of the Pharises; for it sours all, and it swells all: when the heart is once secretly infected with it, it sends up such a bitterness out of the stomach in●o the mouth, that men sorbeare not to speak evil of such as are in authority; much less to vilify their equals or inferiors, with a Non sum sicut caeteri, I am not as other men are, or as that Publican.  
Oh that men would once purge out this old leaven, that they might be a new lump, and celebrate a perpetuate feast of sweet bread unto the Lord their God with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth: which with hearty prayer, and honest Christian endeavour they might in time accomplish, if they would but observe and practise this our rule. When a man looks upon his neighbour, let him observe his virtues, and not his vices; when he looks upon himself, let him take notice of his own vices, but not his virtues. An excellent pill to purge out the old leaven, if it be truly observed and duly kept; the breach of either clause whereof opens a large gap unto the Non sum sicut caeteri, I am not as other men are, or as that Publican.  
For example sake: when a man undertakes the burden of his own actions, he put his vices into the hinder part of the Wallet, and casts them behind his back; but his virtues he will be sure to carry before him in the former part of the Wallet. His vices are no sooner acted but forgotten; but his virtues are many times proclaimed before they are acted. Let him be taxed for vice, and presently he pleads. Either 
Dr. King in jon.  non feci; Or, si feci, non male feci; Or si male, non multum male; Or si multum male, non mala intention; Or si mala intention, aliena tamen perswasione: Either he did it not; Or if that be proved, than he did not ill in so doing; Or if that be made manifest, than it was not very ill done: a small fault God knows. Is it not a little one and my soul shall live? Or if it be proved to be a great one, horrendum facinus, then God forgive him for it, it was done against his will, he had no intention in the world to do it: or if his ill intent be discovered, then, true it is indeed, it was a great weakness of his to be so foolishly lead and drawn to it by the persuasion and instigation of others, Thus are most men too familiar in begetting, but too strange in fathering their bastard vices; they will be sure to have one trick or an other to slip them (if it may be possible) into the hinder part of the Wallet, and carry them unto their graves, as if they had never been. But let him be commended for virtue, and he presently answers like a pert Trojan— Coràm quem quaeritis adsum: and if no man take notice of his goodness, he commonly proclaims it himself, he carries it in the former part of the Wallet, and for a need he can be the trumpeter of his own praises.  
But when a man bears the burden of another man's actions, he puts his vices into the former part of the wallet, and his virtues into the hinder part, to verify that old proverbial distichon:  
Do a man ill, he hears of that ever:  
Do a man well, he hears of that never.  
As it was affirmed of Peter, after he denied his Master; Pe●cata vides, lachrymas non vides, And as the accusers of the Adultress behaved themselves. joh. 8. Good God, how 
joh. 8.  skilful, and busy they were in detecting the poor woman's folly. First, they took her (saith the text.) Secondly, In the act. Thirdly, they set her in the midst. Fourthly, they urge the Law of. Moses, and needs they must have her stoned to death forsooth. Peccata vident, they see her sin, it is plain and evident, and they aggravate every circumstance to the full: Lachrymas non vident, her tears of true repentance they see not, they cast them into the hinder part of the wallet: And therefore our blessed Saviour, that knew all secrets both hers and theirs, gives the wallet but the right turn, bids him, that was without sin, cast the first stone; And presently (saith the text) they went out one by one, and jesus and the woman were left alone. So the woman's accusers became their own accusers: they found that writing, which our Saviour drew in the dust, so deeply engraven in their own hearts with a pen of iron, it could not be dissembled.  
So that you see, if that every man would but do as he ought, bear one another's burden in love, and give the wallet but the right turn; this leaven of the Pharisee, which is no better then secret pride, and devilish hypocrisy, would quickly be converted into the unleavened bread of truth and sincerity. If every man, when he carries his own burden, would but turn his vice before him, and his virtue behind him; it would both mightily further his humiliation, and slacken his ostentation. If when he carries an other man's burden, he would but turn the virtue before him, and the vice behind him; it would mightily further his own edification, and slacken the contempt, and vilification of his brother. Then would he judge no man rashly before the time, but pass the verdict of guiltiness only upon himself here, that he may escape the severe censure of the Lord hereafter. Then would the ugly shape of his own vice mortify him, and the exemplary virtue of his neighbour quicken him. And then would he turn the stream of the Non sum sicut caeteri, quite an other way; And when he comes up into the Temple to pray, after an humble confession of sin upon his bended knees, he would pour out an hearty thanksgiving for his first fruits of grace, after this, or the like manner.  
I confess, (a fit prayer for those 
Doctor Featly Handmaid to private Devotio.  to make, that have fall'n since their Baptism into gross sins,) O Lord, the time was not long since, that I walked in darkness, and in the shadow of death; in the error of mine understanding, the depravation of my will, the disorder of mine affections, the impurity of my thoughts, the vanity of my desires, the deceitfulness of mine heart, and the wickedness of of all my ways. The God of this world had so blinded mine eyes that I thought myself most happy, when indeed I was most miserable; and the leaven of the Pharisee had so soured and swelled mine heart, that I only advanced myself, and vilified my brother. But now, God I thank thee, thou hast given me the grace to begin to see my wretchedness. Non sum sicut caeteri; indeed, it is true, I am not as other men are, nor as this Publican. They are just, I unjust: they none extortioners, nor adulterers; I both in the highest degree, I have rob thee of thine honour, wedded myself wholly to the world, and been puffed up with the vain blast of popularity: They have been temperate in the comfortable use of thy good creatures, I have been often suffocated and crop-sick with the swinish abuse of them; and with my fellow glutton in the Gospel, have fared deliciously every day: They have paid their tithes justly and willingly, without grudging or grumbling, not for fear of the Law, but for the maintenance of the Gospel; I have pinched and purloined sometimes half, sometimes all thy portion for the maintenance of mine own devilish pride and sensuality. Vae misero, oh miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? God I thank 
Rom. 7.  thee through jesus Christ my Lord, that thou hast given me this singular grace, at length to see this great wretchedness of mine: The consideration whereof must needs humble me in myself, that Christ may raise me; wound me in myself, that Christ may heal me; burden me in myself, that Christ may ease me; kill me in mine own conceit, that Christ may quicken me; and make me most vile and despectible in mine own eyes, that I may be most precious in his sight: For now, God I thank thee, I see most clearly, Non sum sicut caeteri. I am not as other men are, nor as this Publican.   

THE FIFTH SERMON.  Luke 18. 13. But the Publican standing a fare off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote his breast, saying, O God be merciful to me a sinner. 
WE have sufficiently scanned every part and particle of Pharisaical devotion, occasioned by the precedent passages of this parable; which we found to be altogether corrupt, both in the manner, and in the matter. But now this Text presents unto us a matchless mirror of pure devotion with a (But) indeed; which puts a Diametrical opposition betwixt the two Supplyants', and their several devotions. The Pharisee and the Publican stand (both) at first; The Pharisee in the most eminent and perspicuous place of the Temple, as if he had been the only professor of piety; But the Publican a fare off in some obscure or dark corner, as a mere castaway in his own conceit. The Pharisee prays by himself in the midst of the Congregation, as judging himself the best of the Congregation: But the Publican by himself in the very skirts of the Congregation, as judging himself not worthy the communion of Saints. The Pharisee stood up to justify himself, and to dispute with his maker; to advance himself, and to vilify his brother: But the Publican would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but vilify and debase himself below the greatest Sinner: The Pharisees devotion was sour and tedious; containing as many lines as the Publicans, words; But the Publicans was short and sweet, every word a sentence, couching much matter in a little room, Oravit paucis, 
Bucer.  sed affectu multo, (as Bucer upon the place) Expressing by three postures, and four words, the four capital virtues of a true penitent; Contrition, Confession, Faith, and Amendment. His contrition was abundantly manifested by the humble distance of place he kept, Standing a fare off; by his dejected countenance, not presuming so much as to lift up his eyes to heaven; and by smiting his hand upon his breast. His confession, by acknowledging himself to be a sinner. His faith by calling upon God in the midst of his fear, and knocking his breast to rouse up his heart; and by applying the mercies of God in Christ unto himself by a timely Miserere. O God, be merciful to me a sinner. And for the amendment of his life, that likewise followed in its order: For he went home (saith our Saviour) unto his house justified: nor are we to doubt but that he, after this, brought forth fruit worthy of amendment of life.  
Behold then in this humble Publican an incomparable pattern of pure devotion, right worthy the note and imitation, both for the matter, and for the manner. For the manner (me thinks) he performs the office of a skilful Organist, who commonly keeps the remotest place of distance from the Altar, standing a fare off: And though his fantasy be inwardly wrapped with a conception of an heavenly air, yet his countenance is outwardly dejected and cast down, not so much as lifting up his eyes to heaven: But for his hand, it is agile and nimble for want of an assistant to blow the bellowes, by smiting the breast; the bellowes being full to send it into the trunk of the heart; the keys of the heart being touched to let it into the pipes, and so to begin his service.  
For the matter (me thinks) he makes up a complete Choir, of himself, and sings a solemn Service of four parts. A jove principium: He begins upon a triple, and an high one too, no lower than the highest; happy is he that can reach him, sure I am there isnone can overreach him, O God. The Diapason to that is a Base, and a deep one too, De profundis clamat. Out of the deeps he cries with that sweet Singer of Israel, because a Sinner. And the two closing parts, that give the relish, and make the music full, are a true Tenor, that always sings me in Ela me, upon a sharp strain of misery; and a sweet Mean, that closes up all upon a flat strain of mercy: And the same heart and hand, that give breath unto the pipes, beat time unto the Song, O God, be merciful to me a sinner.  
I suppose I need not call for your ears to hearken to his Service, being so musically divine, and divinely musical, and so proper and pertinent to the Text and time. Wherein first the manner of his devotion directs us to his humble postures, and first to his Stat a longè: The Publican standing a fare off.  
The strength of his devotion brought him into the Temple to pray; but when he came thither, the guilt of his own sin, the tenderness of his own conscience, the fearfulness of the place, itself being the house of God, the habitation of the most High, the place where his honour dwelleth; All these meeting together in his perplexed thoughts, with the Prophets peccata diviserunt, Your sins have made a separation betwixt your God and you; laid such a block at the feet of his forward zeal; that, standing a fare off, he durst not approach nearer, till he had obtained a plenary and comfortable absolution, by the means of an humble and hearty confession: Propitius esto Deus mihi peccatori. O God, be merciful to me a Sinner.  
And to assure you that this is the right posture of true humility in divine Service, for a sinner to acknowledge and bewail his long distance from God, before he can draw near unto him; we have a Prodigal in another Parable in this Gospel to parallel the Publican. Who when he had spent 
Luk. 15.  all his goods by riotous living in a fare Country, in so much that he would feign, if he had been suffered, have eaten husks amongst the Swine for hunger, no sooner came to himself, but presently he found and bewailed his fare distance from his Father's house, where the very hired servants had bread enough, and he ready to die for hunger. Whereupon he presently resolves to arise, and to go to his Father, and say; Father, I have sinned against heaven, and against thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son; make me but as one of thine hired Servants. But before he found himself to be a stranger, there was no thought of home.  
Surely (beloved) it was not only that Prodigals, or this Publicans, but it is every sinner's case; if men would but rightly understand themselves. Too many there are (I fear) that think they are stayed children at home in their Father's house, when indeed, they are no better then unthrifty prodigals, wasting and consuming their portions in a fare Country. Too many that are too audacious to press into the House of God, without either fear or wit to keep their true distance: For le● every man be assured and resolved of this; whosoever shall presume to draw near unto God with his lips only, and close in with him upon a sudden, by an arrogant advancement of his own worthiness, God shall stand off as fare from him as from this Pharisee: But whosoever shall stand trembling a fare off, by an hearty confession of sin, and an humble acknowledgement of his own unworthiness, God shall draw as near unto that man, as unto this Publican.  
The second posture of true humility, expressed by this humble Publican, was the dejection of his countenance: Nolebat oculos ad coelum levare, He would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, or to his Father, which was in heaven: He knew and acknowledged with the aforesaid Prodigal, that he had sinned against heaven, and against his heavenly Father, and that he was no more worthy to be called his Son. This was Esdras 
Esd. 8. Luk. 7.  his posture, Who confessed unto the Lord, That he was ashamed, and confounded before His face. It was likewise Marry Magdalons in the seaventh of this Gospel; Who thought herself unworthy by reason of her manifold transgressions to appear before the face of her blessed Saviour; and therefore when He sat at Table in the Pharises house, she stood trembling behind him, brought a box of ointment, prostrated herself at His feet, washed them with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed them, and anointed them with ointment, and never presumed to show her face either to him or others, before she had received those blessed words of absolution, Peccata remittuntur, thy sins are forgiven thee.  
Certainly (beloved) such is the ugly shape and disguise of sin; that if but every ones Rimmon were written in his forehead, we should not meet one another in the streets with that boldness that we do, much less crowd into the Temple to justify ourselves with such impudence, and erection of countenance. Many a man (saith Tacitus) carries a smooth face outwardly, 
Tacitus.  Quonum si mentes recludantur, possint adspici laniatus & ictus; if a man could but turn their inside outward, he might soon discover strange stripes, and rents, and galls of conscience. The reason is, because the grief is inward, gnawing and feeding upon an heart as hard as brawn, and therefore insensible. This makes most men as insensible of their spiritual, as Senecaes' fool Harpastes 
Senecats.  of her natural blindness: She knew (saith he) that she was blind, and yet she often entreated her guide to lead her out of doors, because the house was dark. It is even so with most men; I may too justly make Seneca's Application; Rem incredibilem narro, sed veram; I tell you a very strange, but a true tale: Men are such strangers to themselves, and sins; if you charge them with any, They will say, and swear, and bind it with a curse, They know it not; In the very same terms that Peter denied his Master, Non novi hominem, I know not the man. But when Christ looks back once, than Peter weeps bitterly. When men find themselves narrowly eyed and observed by him, that continually looks down from heaven 
Psal. 14.  upon the children of men, to see if there be any, that will understand and seek after God; then they come crouching into the Temple with all humility as did this Publican. Who first, stood a fare off. Secondly, presumed not so much as to lift up his eyes to heaven Thirdly, smote his hand upon his breast, which was the last posture.  
This smiting his hand upon his breast, as it argued abundance of humility, so it expressed abundance of significancy. He smote his breast, sometime the cave and dungeon of a wilful, slavish, and a rebellious heart; from whence, as from an impure fountain, issued evil thoughts, adulteries, murders, fornications, thefts, slanders, and all the noisome lusts that defile the man: but now the Sanctuary of a broken heart, and contrite spirit, groaning under the former burden of bondage and captivity, and desiring to break up prison with all the violence the hand can assist it with. Such are the passions and distractions of troubled and perplexed consciences, that as when a tree is torn up by the roots, it leaves the ground all rent & mangled where it stood; so when sin is newly rooted out of the heart with much violence, it leaves it much troubled and perplexed; commanding the hand as strict a service as Theseus did Hercules, that committed 
Sen. Trag.  an unnatural murder upon his wife and children; Percute, percute ictu valido; non enim debent mollitenr tractari ea pectora, quae tanti sceleris conscia extitêrunt. Strike, and strike valiantly; for such corrupt hearts, or breasts as these, ought not to be favoured, that are guilty of such outrageous, and abominable wickedness.  
But to draw towards a conclusion of the first part, which is the manner of the Publicans devotion. Without question these three postures of his; a mannerly distance in the Temple, standing a fare off; dejection of the countenance, not prefuming so much as to lift up his eyes to heaven; and smiting his hand upon his breast, must needs be true signs of hearty humiliation, if hearty performed. But let me give you this Caveat by the way: whosoever he be, that shall so eagerly affect the outward Ceremony, as not principally to intent the inward sincerity, the non sum sicut caeteri will quickly steal upon that man, and an arrogant conceit of proud humility (as was formerly premised) even in these commendable gestures will spoil all the service.  
For example sake: The Ninivites. jon. 3. Proclaimed a fast, and 
jon. 3.  put on Sackcloth, from the greatest even to the least of them; and God was so well pleased with it, that he repent him of the evil, that he said, he would do unto them, and he did it not. The Israelites again, Isai. 58. they fared 
Isal. 58.  as hardly, and went as coursely as ever the Ninivites did; and yet God was so infinitely displeased with them, that he slighted, and altogether neglected their service; whereupon they exclaim, and cry out hand-smoothe upon him: Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest it not? And punished ourselves, and thou regardest it not? The Holy Ghost gives a reason of both, in both places. God saw the Ninevites works, but he saw nothing but shows in the Israelites: The one turned from their evil ways, the other followed their own inventions: The one fasted from sin as well as from food, Every man turned from his evil way (saith the text) and from the wickedness that was in his hands: the other, when they fasted from food, feasted on sin, whereupon the Lord by his Prophet most justly against them: Is this the fast that I have have chosen, that a man should afflict his soul for a day, or hang down his head like a Bulrush, or lie down in Sackcloth and ashes? Wilt thou call this an acceptable fast unto the Lord? Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen, to lose the bands of wickedness, to take off the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread unto the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that wander, into thine house; when thou seest the naked that thou cloth him, and lude not thyself from thine own flesh? It seems it is not the emptiness of the craw, nor the roughness of the garment, nor the tumbling in ashes, which are but outward signs of an inward 
Maro● is ●. signia. Te●t.  cause, rather passiones quàm opera (as one truly terms them) passions than actions, not sought, or affected, or studied for, but such as in sorrow, or fear, or some such like perturbations, offer themselves, and are consequent of their own accords, as helps to express unto the world, our inward dispositions. I say none of all these simply considered in themselves can give any pleasure or contentment to the Almighty, but the unfeigned sorrow of the heart, and the true humility of the mind, which these outward humiliations of the body give some assurance and testimony of.  
So likewise stood the case with the Sacrifices of the old Law: Nunquam in odoribus Sacrificiorum 
August.  delectatus est dominus, nisi in side & desiderio offerentis. The sensible and ceremonial handling of these sacrifices, without the inward oblation of the heart, with the other did but signify, was never accepted or approved of God. Without this, how abominable was the outward countenance, or lineaments of the Israelites sacrifices, Isai. 1. Their Rams, their 
●ai. 1.  fed Beasts, their Bullocks, their Lambs, their Goats, their incense, their Sabbaths, their new Moons, their Festivals. Alas the Searcher of all hearts knew, this was but the dead carcase of Religion without the quickening spirit, and therefore he protesteth that he will have nothing to do with them; he is full, and over-full; they are loathsome, and burdensome, and abominable unto him.  
How much more boldly than may I assirme of our sacrifices of Christianity under the Gospel, or indeed but the very husks of them, without a faithful and humble heart, which is their joshuah, and Captain to go in and out before them, I may either speak mildly with Origen, they 
Origen.  are but nutus tantum & opus mutum, bare ceremony and dumb show, they have neither speech nor language: For certainly the crouching of the body, or the dejection of the countenance, or the knocking of the breast, or any other bodily exercise, either within or without the Temple, of itself profiteth nothing, unless the inward operation of the spirit give life to quicken it. Or to speak some thing more tartly with Lactantius; They are not sacrifices 
Lact.  but sacrileges, robbing God of the better part, and as jeremy styles the idle repetitions of the jews, The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord, this is the Temple of the Lord, Verba mendaci●, Lying words; so may I these, Opera mendacil, Lying works: or of less substance yet; Vmbrae mendacii, Lying shadows, so fraudulently handled, and so hypocritically dissembled, as if men went about to lie unto the Holy Ghost, and to cheat (if it were possible) the Searcher of all hearts.  
Would you know then how the Publicans postures may safely be performed in the Temple, with a good conscience to the Servitor, and a commendable grace unto service, that all things may be done decently, and in order; then briefly thus. The Philosopher compares the heart of man seated in the midst of the body to a Princely Monarch, in the midst of his kingdom sitting in his chair of State, commanding as his subjects every faculty of the mind, and every member of the body to do him service; saying, to the foot go, and it goeth; to the tongue speak this, and it speaks it; to the hand do this, and it doth it. Now you know it is lawful and just, that the King should command the subject, but no reason or conscience, that the subject should command the King. Whatsoever commendable postures than are performed by the privity of the heart, they are lawfully warranted by the King, and they are thankworthy: But if either the body shall bow, or the head droop, or the hand smite, and not the heart consent; such postures as these must needs be preposterous, altogether irregular, and hypocritical, and whosoever shall look for thanks or recompense for such fancies as these, he doth but delude himself as the Prophet's dreamer did, who ate by imagination at midnight, and when he awoke from sleep, his soul had nothing.  
Let every member of the body then, and every faculty of the mind be so subject to the higher powers of the heart, that as the Ninivites presumed not to venture upon their General humiliation, without lawful authority from the King and the Council; so let neither the body bow, nor the head droop, nor the hand smite, without a lawful Fiat from the heart and affections; So be it. Then shall I be sure both to seem as I am, and to be as I seem; Not to be intùs Nero, foris Cato, totus ambiguus, Monstrum; A Saint without, and a Devil within, an hypocrite in both, a mere monster: But like unto Nathavael a true Israelite, in whose heart, and hand, and tongue there is no guile. So then (to conclude the point in the Apostles language) When I come into the Temple to do my humble service, I will bow my heart to the Father of our Lord jesus Christ, and I will bow my body also, for he is the Creator of that too: My heart shall droop first, and my head shall droop next: first my heart shall bleed, and then my hand shall smite, and so shall I be sure mine Organs are in tune, and I may begin my service when I please. And so I pass from the Organ, to the Choir; from the pipe, to the voice; from the instrument, to the Song: Deus propitius esto mihi peccatori. O God, be merciful to me a sinner.  
We are now come unto the song itself, you see; ready pricked unto our hands, by the hand and heart of humility itself, an excellent artist in his kind, the humble Publican. The first note he reaches is a note above Ela, no lower than the highest, Oh God.  
God then (it seems) is the first note he reaches, and higher he cannot reach, neither for name, nor purity, nor glory. He is a transcendent note above all notes for name: They shall know (saith David) that thou, whose name is jehovah, art the most high God over all the earth. He is such a transcendent note of purity, that the Moon shines not, and the Stars are impure in his sight, and the Cherubims clap their wings 
Esa. 6. 3.  upon their faces, and cry continually; Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts. And he is such a transcendent note of glory, that he is 
Psal. 104. Psal. 68 13. Psa. 50. 1.  become exceeding glorious (saith David) he is clothed with Majesty and honour. He decks himself with light as with a garment, and spreads out the heavens like a curtain. The Chari●ots of this God are twenty thousands even thousands of Angels. This is the Lord even the most mighty God, that hath spoken and called the world, from the ri●ing of the Sun unto the going down thereof. The glorious Majesty of this God shall endure for ever. Blessed be his glorious name for ever, and let all the earth be filled with his Majesty, Amen, Amen.  
Now the Diapason, that answers to this high treble, is a deep base. Deep indeed, he reaches a note below Gam ut, base than the basest, a sinner. This Base was once a Mean, if he could have kept himself there. Minuisti eum paulò ab Angelis (saith David) thou madest him a little inferior to the Angels, an innocent and a spotless man in his estate of integrity; but his voice being cracked by overreaching himself, this homo became homulus, and so fell a note lower; and by multiplication of error, this homulus became mulus, a note lower yet, a beast and no man; a worm or vermin, and no beast; the basest of all bases, a Sinner. Now then for a judicious Artist to tell me justly, how many Eights there may be betwixt this high treble, and this deep base; this mighty jehovah, and this silly worm; this fountain of purity and this sink of impiety; this glorious Majesty, and this despectible misery; this great God and this wretched sinner. There had need (you see) to be two good closing parts to make the Music sweet and full betwixt these two extreme Extremes the treble and the base, and so behold there is: A true Tenor to close with the Base, that always sings Me in E lafoy, Me to make the Music full, by an humble and hearty confession of sin, or else it could never be; And a sweet Mean to close with the Treble, to make the Music harmonious; by an humble and hearty apprecation of mercy. Deus, propitius esto mihi peccatori, O God be merciful to me a Sinner.  
This for the Diapasons, now for the closing parts: And first I beseech you mark, how truly the Tenor closes with the Base. To be a sinner, and not to know it is the part of a bungler, Qui peccare 
Epicuru●. ●  se nescit, non vult corrigi, It was the best doctrine that ever Epicure preached. To be a Sinner, and to know it, and not to acknowledge it, is the part of a fumbler; to slubber and shift a sin from the man to the woman, and from the woman to the Serpent, this is but muffling the conscience, and juggling with God. But the skilful and ingenuous Artist, will both know, and acknowledge, and rather aggravate then mince a sin: He will both produce, and accuse, and condemn himself, as jonas to the Mariners, Novi Quia propter me (there is his me in Ela me) Take 
jon. 1.  me, and cast me into the Sea; for I know that for my sake this mighty storm is come upon you. Deus, propitius esto mihi peccatori: O God, be merciful to me a Sinner. When the Tenor closes thus truly with the base, that makes the Music full.  
So full indeed, that it even ravished all the Saints of God, they were never in quiet till they had learned this part. It was the part of David to Nathan; Peccavi, I 
2 Sam. 12 2 Sam. 24  have sinned. And again to God himself, both with a restriction to the person, and aggravation to the sin, Valdè peccavi, I have exceedingly sinned. And, Ego sum qui peccavi. And, Ego sum qui inique egi; It is I, and only I that have done wickedly. The part of 
job 7. 1 sim. 1. 15.  job, Peccavi, I have sinned. And the part of the very chiefest Apostle to proclaim himself the very chiefest Sinner; Ego peccatorum primus, I am the chiefest sinner. Let presumptuous Pharisees than harp upon an harsher stibine, and say, God be merciful to this, or that man, most odious, and abominable sinners: God I thank thee, I am not as these men are: But oh may it be my part, and oh may it be all their parts, at the very last close of our service, and at the last blast that shall give breath unto the Organ; That breath, and pipe, and voice, and all may humbly conclude with this Publican: Deus, propitius esto mihi peccatori: O God, be merciful to me a sinner. This is the first closing part, a ●enor to the Base, and a true one too.  
In the next place I beseech you, mark how sweetly the Mean closes with the Triple. Mercy is the only Mean to reach so high a Triple as God himself is: If we reach at any other of his attributes we overreach ourselves. If at his wisdom, it confounds us; If at his glory it dazel● us; if at his Majesty, it beats us down; if at his justice, it strikes us dead; but if we reach at mercy, he presently closes with us; Misericordiam vult, non sacrificium, in this sense too; He had rather save us by his mercy, then sacrifice us by his justice. We can no sooner look homewards, and resolve to return to this Father of all mercies; but presently like that overjoyed one in the Gospel, he runs half way to meet his Prodigals, hugs us in the arms of his mercy, falls upon our neekes and kisses us with the kisses of his mouth, brings us home to his house the Church, changes our garments of iniquity, puts upon us the robe of our elder brother's righteousness, gives all possible entertainment, and causes his family to rejoice with us; for that the dead are revived, and the lost are found. This is the second closing part, the Mean to the Triple, and a sweet one too.  
Now we have sufficiently proved the notes, let us for a Conclusion of all admire the singular skill of this Artist in setting and composing the Chords, that we may the better relish the harmony. He gives not the least touch upon the merits of Saints or intercessions of Angels; that Clift is too low to begin his Treble upon: so sweet a mean as mercy, would never close with the harsh, a Triple as Saints or Angels. Neither presumes he to touch upon the strain of his own merits; that Clift is too high to begin his base upon. Neither thinks he it safe to touch upon a strain of selfe-confidence; that Clift is too false to begin his Tenor upon: so deep a base as a sinner, and so false a Tenor as a merit-monger, would never close. Neither dares he touch upon the strain of God's justice: that Clift is too harsh to begin his Mean upon: there would be such a jarring discord betwixt justice and misery, they would never close, but mar all the harmony. But when he gins his service upon the highest Treble, God; and misery like a sweet Mean closes with him. And concludes with the deepest base, a Sinner; and humble confession like a true Tenor closes with him; then is the Music sweet and full, no matter how curious the ear be that hears it. Oratio humiliantis se, penetrate nubes; The prayer of him that humbleth himself thus, goeth thorough the clouds, and ceaseth not till it come near, and will not departed till the highest of all have respect unto it. Ascendit miseria, descendit misericordia; Humble misery creeps up, melting mercy drops down. God, and man, and Artist, and hearers, and all are pleased. Heaven and earth, Men and Angels, Saints and Sinners, stand all amazed, as ravished at this harmony. Deus propitius esto mihi peccatori: O God be merciful to me a sinner. And thus ends the Publicans service with the time, and mine.   

THE SIXTH SERMON.  Luke 18. 14. I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. 
THIS one verse closes up the series of the whole Parable, and comprehends the two last generals we observed in it, when we first ventured on it: The Event, and the Application. You have already heard the occasion, that induced our blessed Saviour to propound it, which was a discovery of three gross corruptions in certain of his auditors. The first was a presumptuous selfe-confidence, by reason of a fond conceit of merit in their own works: They trusted in themselves. The second was an arrogant conceit of inherent righteousness, that they were just. The third was a most proud and uncharitable contempt and vilification of others.  
You have likewise heard of the particular passages of the Parable itself, and the several devotions of the two men, whom it principally concerned; the Pharisee, and the Publican. The Pharisee standing 
Eras. par.  next unto the propitiatory, as most worthy in his own eyes to stand jig by jowl, and discourse familiarly with his Maker, prayed by himself thus: God I thank th●●. I am not as other men are, that altogether live by wrong and robbery, by riot and luxury, by odious defiling their neighbour's bed, or by any scandalous or unlawful course of living, as doth this Publican; I pamper not my genius as other men do, but I fast twice in the week; and I rm so far from doing the least wrong to any, that I defraud not the Minister of his least dues: for I give tithes of all that I possess. This was the swelling Oration of the Pharisee, froathing and foaming like the Sea at full; which happily in itself might be true, and seemingly thankworthy, because he thanked his God for it: but his God thanks not him for it, because he only praised himself, and condemned his brother. But the Publican, as a most wretched and dejected caitiff, only displeased with himself, by reason of the guilt of sin and gall of conscience, stood trembling a fare off, so miserably ashamed and confounded in himself, that he would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote his breast, saying; O God, be merciful to me a sinner. The Pharisee came only to give thankes for his goodness, without either inward feeling of the want of grace, or outward confession of sin; though the very heart of his devotion was most miserably tainted and infected with it, by an arrogant advancement of his own worthiness, and a rash accusation of his brother's weakness. But the Publican puts all the good that ever he did into the hinder part of the wallet, and only lays before him, close unto his conscience, the evil he had done; smites his breast as the only fountain of his impure thoughts, but impurer actions; and though he presumes not so much as to lift up his eyes to heaven, yet he only calls unto the God of heaven for mercy for both. Deus, propitius esto mihi peccatori. O God, be merciful to me a Sinner.  
And would you now know the Event of all this? then read the former part of this Text, and you shall find, that iste remotus & cum contemptu, that respued contemptible Publican, in the Pharisees eye, to become Hic vir, & Deo proximus, the only man of account in God's eye. That poor crippled Sinner, that came crawling into the Temple, even bowed quite double by his infirmity, is sent home to his house justified for a strait and an upright man, singing, and leaping, and praising God. But the Pharisee, the I, per se I, or the Ipse Ego in his own eyes, is quite cast out of the sight of God, excommunicated the congregation of Saints, and sent home to his own pest-house an infectious leper as white as snow. This man went home to his house justified rather than (or, and not) the other.  
Again, would you know the Application of all this? then read the latter part of the Text, and you shall find, that these things were written for our learning and instruction; that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. For this Parable was propounded not only in terrorem populi (as was promised in the Preface) for the terror and confusion of hollow hypocrites, (as places of execution are set up on hills, or high ways, to terrify the like offenders) but also in consolationem sanctorum, for the comfort and consolation of true Saints. And therefore legehistoriam, nè fias historia; Read this Parable, lest thou be made a parable. Read the effect of it to thy profit, lest thou feel the Event of it to thy punishment: For He that first propounded it to some, applies it now to all: yet so, that as he would have all in general to note it; so he would have every one in particular to apply it. For this purpose, like that good Shepherd, he shows us both virgam & baculum, both, to comfort us; he hath a rod to beat down our pride, he hath a staff to raise up our humility. For every that exalts himself shall be abased; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.  
And lastly, would you know how to believe all this? why here is more than Pythagoras his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or dixit Aristotel●s: Christ himself avers it; the Truth itself speaks it; the eternal Word himself hath given the word, and his testimony must needs be true: I say unto you. He that justified the ungodly, justified the Publican, and filled his hungry soul with good things; and he that always resisteth the proud, sent home the rich Pharisee empty away. He that did it spoke it, and he that spoke it did it; the Event than must needs be true.  
And for the Application we may well demand with the Apostle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, who so able to apply the doctrine as the great Doctor himself, who is both Doctor and doctrine too? who so able to confect and administer the potion, as the great Physician himself, that is both Physician and Physic too? He that is the Subject of all Text, read unto his auditors this Text; He that spoke as never man spoke, preached and delivered unto them this Parable: And He that is the eternal Highpriest, and Bishop of all our souls, hath framed both for them and us, this useful application. That every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Rest we then fully satisfied, 
Rev. 19  and say with that beloved Disciple, Revel. 19 These words of God are true, upon the authentic warrant of an Ipse dixit, It was Christ himself that spoke it, it was Christ himself that did it.  
So that now (we see) the two last generals of the whole Parable are become the two considerable particulars of this Text: the former, presents unto us the Event; the latter, the Application. The Event is this: The humble Publican, that stood trembling a fare off, not presuming so much as to lift up his eyes to heaven, but smiting his breast and crying, O God, be merciful to me a Sinner, is justified by our blessed Saviour; and not the arrogant and presumptuous Pharisee, that was perched up to the highest place in the Temple, not praying to his God, but prating to himself, advancing himself, and vilifying his brother. The Pharisee that justified himself is condemned, and the Publican that condemned himself is justified. This man, etc.  
Videte fratres; magis placuit humilitas 
Aug.  in malis factis, quam superbia in honis fact is. And indeed it is right worthy our note and observation; that of the twain, the Publican, that was humbled for his weakness, was justified rather than the Pharisee, that boasted of his worthiness. The ways of God (it seems) are not as man's ways, nor his thoughts as man's thoughts; He neither judges according to the outward appearance, nor yet justifies according to the 〈…〉 holiness:  

Non vox, sed votum, non musica chordula, sed cor;  
Non clamans, sed amans cantat in aure Dei.   
It is neither our great words, nor good works, nor high conceit of either, that strike any stroke at all in the act of justification before God. Not great words; for how many shall meet our Saviour in the clouds at the last day with these swelling words: Lord, 
Matth. 7. 22.  Lord, have we not in thy Name prophesied, and by thy Name cast out Devils, and by thy Name done many great miracles? but He shall shall shake them off with a Non novi vos, I never knew you. Not good works: for righteous Abraham was justified by faith only. The Apostle Saint Paul testifies that his faith was only accounted unto him for righteousness: only we are bold to enter into his secret chamber; where he desires to enjoy the company of his Spouse by faith alone. It is not fit that any of the family of servants should rush in, to interrupt their privacy. But afterwards, when the door is opened, and the Bridegroom come forth with his Bride into the waiting room, to present her unto men and Angels all fair, and without spot; then (in the name of God) let all the servants and handmaidens attend. Then may we give all diligence to add unto our Faith Virtue; and to Virtue Knowledge; and to Knowledge Temperance; and to Temperance Patience; and to Patience Godliness; and to Godliness Brotherly kindness; and to Brotherly kindness Love. For, if these things be in us and abound, they will make us that we shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord jesus Christ. Though Faith 
2 Pet. 1. 5.  then be Sola, alone; yet she is not solitaria, but gloriously attended by a whole guard of graces'. As the eye in regard of its being, is not alone from the head; but in respect of seeing, it is alone: it is the eye only in the head that sees: So a true and lively Faith cannot possibly subsist without a whole train of graces.  
What shall we say then to this controversy (to speak in the Apostles language.) Do we therefore make voide the Law through Faith? God forbidden; yea, we establish the Law. Do we therefore make void good works through Faith? God forbidden; yea, we establish good works. Only we say, it were no way of preferment for the handmaid either to take the wall of her Mistress; or to go equal with her. If Bilhah supply the defects of Rachel, and bear children unto jacob, let her remember notwithstanding that Rachel is above her, and singular in some respect. If joseph be mounted into the second Chariot of Egypt, and become the next man unto the King; let him then especially remember that the King hath reserved the Throne unto himself. We conceive (and we know we stand upon a sure ground) that we can do good works no better right, then to to assign them locum proprium, their own place; to advance them higher, is but to bring them lower. The principal aim and intention of our blessed Saviour in the proposition of this parable, was the conviction of certain arrogant and hypocritical merit-mongers, trusting in the righteousness of their own works, that they were just, and despised others. And after a plain demonstration of the controversy, in the several passages of the parable expressed in the Temple by the several devotions of the two men, the Pharisee and the Publican; the Event of all proclaims the controvery ended in the Consistory; where the impartial judge, that cannot lie, neither for fear nor favour, is pleased to pronounce this irrevocable sentence. I say unto you, this man (that is, the humble Publican, that renounced his own merits and laid hold by faith only on God's mercies) was justified rather than the other (that is the proud Pharisee) boasting, and trusting to the broken staff of selfe-confidence.  
From whence I briefly gather thus much to conclude the point. That if such dejected, and rejected humility, so over-clogged and pressed down with a mass of iniquity, did, in the estimation of the Almighty, so triumph and insult over pharisaical sanctity; how much more shall the same humility, supported by true piety, become more than a conqueress through him that so infinitely loves her? And if pride and arrogancy be so mischievous to destroy a whole brood of virtues; oh, what a generation of Vipers is she able to hatch in a nest of vices? If our blessed Saviour condemn those, that boast of the good works they havedone, whereof they may seem to have some small share, because both by Gods preventing, accompanying, and consummating grace, they do in some 
Gratia praeveniens, concomitans, & consummans.  sort cooperate with God; (such as are fasting, praying, giving of alms, paying of tithes, & the like) and give not God all the glory in them, and for them; how much more shall he condemn those that boast of their good qualities, and comely features, wherein they have no share at all, and yet rob God of all his glory for them; (such as are health, beauty, comeliness, strength and agility of body, and the like:) certainly most abominable must these fools needs be in the sight of God. It is a sufficient warning given us by the Prophet. Let not the rich man glory in his riches, nor the 
jer. 9  strong man glory in his strength, nor the wise man glory in his wisdom; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that 〈◊〉 knows, and understands me, sai 〈…〉 Lord. Whereupon the Ap 〈…〉 Paul most humbly resolves upon an, Absit gloriari. God forbidden that I should glory in any thing, but in the Cross of Christ, whereby the world is crucified to me, & I unto the world. All other glory is but vain, and will end in shame. The Event of this Parable hath already proved it fatal to others; & (if we take not the more heed) the ensuing application will prove it fearful to ourselves. For every one that exalts himself shall be abased; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.  
I am securis ad radicem: Now is the axe laid unto the root of the tree by the best Workman that ever struck stroke: Every tree therefore, that brings not forth good fruit now, is hewn down, and cast into the fire. The use and Application of the doctrine is framed by the best Preacher that ever was, or shall be; He therefore that hath ears to hear, let him now hear hearing believe, and believing practice the things that belong unto his peace, lest hereafter they b● kept for ever from his ears: At first indeed the Parable was propounded but to some, but the doctrine and application was intended unto all. And indeed no more than needs; for every man by nature is like Simon the Sorcerer, conceiting himself to be some great man. We have all by nature a kind of an inbred Pope, a fantastical opinion of our own works: Narcissus-like we  upon our own shadows, though we find no real virtue, or true substance in us. And this is no better than the very head of the Serpent, as Luther terms it: Omnium in justitiarum 
Tit: de prasump.  ferè sola causa est justitia. An arrogant presumption of our own righteousness, is the only cause almost, of all unrighteousness. But so great a thing is it for a man to seem small in his own eyes, that no man is able to learn that lesson of any man, but of him only, who being in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, took upon him the form of a Servan●, and became man; yea the very scorn of men, and the contempt of the people. It is high time then for the seed of the woman to break this Serpent's head; and for that great Actor and teacher of humility to read unto us a large Lecture of humility in his own person: not only by propounding a special Parable to some, but by framing a general doctrine to all, and a particular application to every individual. So that now the case stands not only between the Pharisee and the Publican; but Every one that exalts himself shall be abased; and every one that humbles himself shall be exalted.  
You see then the finger of the Application directly points at the fall of pride, and the resurrection of humility. Every mountain and hill shall be brought low, but every valley shall be exalted. Pride and humility be the two common Roads, that are most tracked and beaten in this mortal pilgrimage; the one leads to misery, the other to glory. The former of these is chalked outby Solomon, Prov. 
Prov. 16.  16. Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. The first that found out this road was Lucifer, that road post from heaven to hell. The second was Adam, that posted from Paradise to misery. The third was Pharaoh and his Host, that posted from the pomp and pleasures of Egypt to a fearful ruin in the red Sea. And presently that road grew so common, one passenger could not pass for another; for not only Dathan and Abiram, Saul, Absalon, Adonias, Rehoboam, Senacherib, Nabuchadnezzar, Antiochus, and diverse others have made the sacred Story black with fearful precedents of ruin; but daily examples do continually prove it a fatal thorow-faire to destruction.  
The latter of these was chalked out by Solomon too. Proverbs 15. 
Prov. 15.  Where he tells us, That humility is the highway to glory. But (I must needs say) this road was first found out by a greater than Solomon, even the propounder and applyer of this Parable, the blessed Author and finisher of humility itself; who posted so fast from heaven to earth, leaping upon the mountains, and skipping upon the hills, to make plain this untrodden path of humility; whereby he opened unto us the gate of glory, by his own first entrance with the Apostles Propter quod, 
Phillip 2.  wherefore God hath highly exalted him. The next that posted in this road after him, was the blessed Virgin Mary his Mother; who by reason of her extraordinary lowliness, was so extraordinarily magnified, that all succeeding generations shall call her blessed. The next after her was john the Baptist; in whom because our Saviour found Omnia vocalia, (as one divinely notes) his words, his thoughts, his deeds, his garments, his diet, his life, his death, to be so many preaching voices, and vocal Preachers to humble penance: therefore our Saviour dignifies him, Matthew 11. with 
Math. 11.  the name of a Prophet, and more than a Prophet; for amongst them that are begotten of women, there arose not a greater than john the Baptist. Yea even hollow-hearted Achab, lost not a sufficient reward for his hypocritical humiliation: wherefore the Lord promised, 
1 King. 21 25.  That he would not bring the evil upon him in his days. Much more the poor widow, that drops in but duo minuta, two mites into God's treasury, out of her truehearted humility, and humble penury, shall be more accepted with God, than a whole world of vainglorious hypocrites, that cast in never so many thousand talents, out of their proud arrogancy, and arrogant superfluity.  
So that this may stand for the main pillar of the Application: That according to our proportion of humility, God will be sure to prepare us a portion of glory: And according to our proportion of pride, he will be as sure to prepare us a portion of vengeance. Our blessed Saviour tells us, That in his Father's house there are many Mansions. Speaking of that Kingdom, that cannot be shaken: that habitation that is everlasting: that inheritance that is immortal, and undefiled, and fades not away: that house not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens. And why so many Mansions in this house? but only to assure us of diverse degrees of glory there, for diverse degrees of humility here. As there is one glory of the Sun, 
1 Cor. 15.  and another glory of the Moon, and another glory of the Stars, one Star differing from another in glory; so shall it likewise be in the resurrection of the dead. That Comet that appears most dull, as overclouded by true humility in this Sublunary firmament, shall shine the brightest Star in that Empyreal and Imperial Orb. And that vainglorious Meteor, that gives the greatest flash in this lower Region, shall sink yet lower to that infernal Legion. For look how much that glittering Whore. Rev. 18. hath glorified 
Rev. 18.  herself, and lived in pleasure here; so much shall be added to her torment and sorrow hereafter.  
So that now (me thinks) our blessed Saviour by the application of this Parable, speaks the same in effect to us, that Moses to the Israelites, Deut. 30. I call heaven 
Deut. 30.  and earth to record, that I have set before you this day life and death, good and evil, the broad way and common road that leads unto destruction; and the narrow way that leads unto life, though few there be that find it. If you post on the road of pride without either fear or wit, you run headlong down into hell, and without a speedy retentive there can be no hope of you. But if you place never so gently in the road of humility, you are in the highway to heaven, and there is great joy of you, even amongst the Angels of heaven. Every one that exalts himself shall be abased: but every one that humbleth himself shall be exalted.  
Not he that is exalted by an other, either immediately by the God of heaven, or mediately by the King & his Magistrates, which are gods on earth; such exaltations as these, being humbly used, prognosticate no ruins. Nor he that is humbled by an other; either immediately by God for a time, and presently to return to his former obstinacy, as Pharaoh, julian, Herod, and the like; against whom the Prophet jeremy most justly, Percussisti eos (Domine) & non doluêrunt, Thou hast smitten them (O Lord) and they have not grieved; 
jer. 5. 3.  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. Or mediately by the Magistrare, that 
Rom. 13.  beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the Minister of God to execute vengeance on them that do evil. And therefore such humiliations as these prognosticate no rise. But he that humbles himself; not in outward hypocrisy, but inward sincerity: for as in Plato's school, every man's soul is himself; so in Christ's School, every man's heart is himself. It is not then the humble tongue, or the humble knee, or the humble habit, but the humble heart, that is next unto advancement. Lord, (saith David) I am not puffed in mind, I do not exercise 
Psal. 131.  myself in great matters, that are too high for me. But I refrain my soul, and keep it low, like as a child that is weaned from his mother; yea my soul is even as a weaned child. A man that humbles himself thus, when he falls, he rises; and when he is raised, he stands, as immooveable as Mount Zion, that standeth fast for ever. But he that exaltes himself, hardens his heart, stiffens his neck, lifts up his countenance, and overlookes his equals, many times his betters, as if he would overlook Cedars; Little (alas) doth this wretch dream how near his fall is; and that such a fearful one too, that will admit no rising. When this man falls, mole ruit suâ, he falls with such a powder, that he is even ground to powder; he sinks from one misery into another, from a flood of temporal, to a main Ocean of eternal torment.  
Blame me not then, if I lift up my voice like a trumpet, and close up both Parable, Event, and Application, and all pathetically with the Prophet. O earth, earth, 
jer. 22.  earth, hear the word of the Lord. Earth by creation, Earth by continuance, Earth by resolution, look but into thy first principles, thou camest earth, thou remainest earth, and thou returnest earth. O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Look but into thy best thoughts, they perish with thine earth; look but upon thy freshest beauty, it fades before thine earth; look but into thy soundest wisdom, it savours of thine earth. O earth, earth, earth, etc. Look but above thee, and behold an angry God of vengeance, that always resists proud earth; Look but beneath thee, and behold an everburning Tophet prepared of old to torment proud earth; Look but within thee, and behold a puddle and sink of sin that corrupts proud earth; Look but against thee, and behold thine adversary the devil, like a roaring Lion, always ready at hand to accuse and condemn proud earth; Look but round about thee, and behold many thousands fare more deserving, and yet fare more humble vessels then thyself, of earth. And lastly, look but right before thee, and so look once for all, and behold the Author and finisher of thine earth; mark, and learn, what a singular precept and precedent he reads unto thee, even in terrâ tuâ in thine own earth. He, that was an eternal and ever-blessed spirit, humbled himself so low, as to stoop to a mortal and miserable lump of thine earth; And in that earth he did infimum sapere in altissimo cloth the highest majesty with lowest misery; And in that misery, he was liberrimus agens though miserrimus patience; he was not humbled by an other, but quia ipse voluit, he humbled himself; Neither was he superficially, but substantially humble, and obediently humble, and legally obedient, and singularly legal, 
Bishop Andrews sermon in Pasch.  even to a threefold usque, the nature of man, the form of a servant, and the death of the cross: for these be his steps of descent noted by the Apostle. Phil. 2. 
Phil. 2.  Humiliavit ipse; & Ipse se; & Ipse obediens; & obediens factus; & factus usque. He was humbled; not by an other, but himself; and his humility was obedient, and his obedience legal, and his legality singular.  
Oh Earth, earth, earth, canst thou behold humble God-man, clothed in the ragged humility of thine earth, and thyself not clothed so much as with one rag of the glorious humility of that God? canst thou for shame endure so miserable a Solecism as humilem Deum & superbum hominem, an humble God of heaven, and a proud man of earth? wert thou any thing else but earth, thou wouldst never spread it so proudly upon the face of the earth, terra oalcans terram, as if the earth should never set her foot upon thy face. Cannot the bitter passion of thy Saviour, that split the very stones, pierce thine earth? or his powerful resurrection that raised so many dead, quicken thy 
This Sermon was preached the Sunday after Easter.  living earth? Consider, oh consider, what a Trophy it were to procure solemnity to the instant season; for that ugly and infernal fiend pride, to be conjured down to the devil in hell that first sent her, never to rise again within this circle; and that fair damsel humility to be raised (by virtue of a Tabytha Cumi) with her blessed Saviour, that first found her, never to become a stranger more unto us; but that every Easter she may spring a fresh, and bud out of the earth with that Primrose of Sharon, and Lily of the valleys; that no longer proud but humble earth may be our Epithet. That being at this instant raised (with our blessed Saviour) from pride to humility, we may be hereafter raised with him from humility to glory. Which he for his tender mercy grant us, who by his precious blood so dear bought us, jesus Christ the righteous; to whom, with the Father, and the blessed Spirit, be ascribed as is most meet, all possible honour, glory, power, praise, might, majesty, and dominion, now and for ever, Amen.  
Soli Deo tri-uni Gloria.   

Recensui Librum hunc cui titulus (The mirror of pure Devotion, etc.) in quo nihil reperio quò minùs cum utilitate publicâ Imprimatur, modò intra quatuor menses proximè sequentes typis mandetur.  
Ex aedi: Londin: Nou. 3. 1634. Sa. Baker.