Come and see. THE BLISS OF BRIGHTEST BEAUTY: SHINING OUT OF ZION IN PERFECT GLORY. Being the sum of four sermons preached in the Cathedral Church of Gloucester at commandment of superiors.  
BY WILLIAM Lo.  
Imprinted at London by Richard Field for Matthew Law. 1614   

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL, AND RIGHT WORTHY GENTLEman Sir William Sandis Knight, and to that well-disposed, & very Christian Lady, the Lady Margaret Sandis his virtuous wife, and joyful consort, grace and glory be multiplied in Christ's kingdoms of grace and glory.  
Much honoured. The Christian neighbourhood, and kind commerce both of bountiful liberality, and gracious respect, which myself, and mine received from you and yours this time twelvemonth by our contiguous vicinity, hath occasioned me to be thus bold in saluting you after long silence with a paper token, the only miniment, and memorial of a Scholar in this last, and worst age, that hath nothing for us but books amongst the best, and bywords amongst the worst, as her only bequest, and our legacy. Howsoever, notwithstanding it is the hearty joy of Israel, & the unspeakable comfort of jacob, that still some of the precious balm of Gilead that falls upon Aaron's head, doth distill down even unto the skirts of his priestly clothing. And whereas others may have spices, and balms to preserve their bodies for a time, and monuments of brass, and stone to continue a future glory to their memorial: yet ever those have been most ennobled, whose remembrances the tokens of virtue, and godliness have endeavoured to eternize, and keep from the rottenness of corrupted baserie, and obscure oblivion. And albeit the purport of this whole project is but the turning of my tongue into my pen, and the matter itself is but a preaching again (as it were) the same words another Sabbath day, 
Act. 13.  as the Gentiles besought Paul in the Acts: yet I pray you entertain them as the presence of my spirit, the pledge of mine heart, and the earnest of that affection, and love which I justly bear unto you. And whereas before I spoke in a great auditory in the presence and countenance of a living man, am now content in this my pains to bury myself in a dead letter of less effectual persuasion: But principally I protest to this only end and purpose, that God might be magnified (if it be his holy will) in me the weakest, & meanest of his servants both by the meditations of mine heart, and in the endeavours of mine hand. The Treatise is of the love of God devoted unto yourselves in whom I have observed much love toward God, toward your brethren without, and amongst yourselves at home. Go on then (blessed in the Lord jesus) in this sacred vettue that disposeth you to God so amiably, and you 
joh. 20.  shall find these holy increases in you 1. You shall ever desire to think on him that made 
Luke 2.  you. 2. Gladly, and willingly to frequent his house the palace of prayer 3. Duly to speak, 
1. Pet 4.  & talk of him. 4. Often to hear of him by 
Io. 14.  his messengers, and to meditate of that you hear. 5. Ready will you be to give for his 
1. Io. 3.  sake. 6. joyful that you suffer whatsoever it 
Io. 18. 1. Io. 5.  be for God's honour. 7. Duly to bow your hearts to the obedience of his holy laws, 8. Yea you will love them that love the Lord, 
Mat. 12.  and despise and hate them that hate him. 9 Neither will you love this world, nor anything therein, unless it be for the Lords cause. 10. Yea in a word, you will love your friend in the Lord, and your enemy for the Lord.  
Long may the blessing of this divine love which is the beautiful Idea of your souls, sparkle and flame in you. Let the God of heaven grant that the distempered humours of misperswasion may never quench it within you, nor the overflowings of ungodliness in the world ever put it out, but let the light of Gods own most blessed countenance for ever and ever shine upon you, and cause it to be inflamed eternally. I beseech the God of heaven and of earth to multiply his richest blessings upon yourself, your Lady, and your children for evermore. Even so Lord jesus be it.  
The College of Glou. Febru. 20. 1611. Yours, because you are of Christ. WILLIAM Lo.   

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER, BUT ESPECIALLY TO E. B. HIS VERY much respected friend, Grace, and Glory  
LEt God arise, and let his enemies 
Psal. 68 1.  be scattered, let them that hate him, fly before him. As the smoke vanisheth, so let them perish at thy presence (o Lord) that have evil will at Zion. But let them that love and seek the Lord, be ever joyful and glad in him, let them be telling his praises from day to day. And if there be any man so brutish, that loveth not the Lord jesus, let him be had in execration Maranatha. 
1. Cor. 16. 22.   
Seeing man being fallen is raised by Christ only, man is returned to God, having turned away from all good. The Angels that fell are damned, man that sinned is pardoned. To man God hath given a motion never to 
Picus Mirand. Hexapl.  cease until he rest in him, grace to guide him, goodness to embrace him, messengers of glad tidings to instruct him, faith to furnish him with the fullness of persuasion, sanctimony to dignify him in this life, glory to deify him in the other life. Seeing with jesus Christ also is the fullness of joy, whose name is salvation, whose passion 
Zan●h. in Euchirid.  redemption, whose sacrifice satisfaction, whose blood purgation, whose resurrection sanctification, whose ascension eternal glorification. And seeing that the Lord jesus Christ is love substantially, having nothing 
Bern. de am. dei.  in himself but himself, being love itself essentially, not accidentally, he is also love causally, causing it in others, as in the Elements, in the creatures, in the sweet symphony of the whole universe, and in the bitter jars of man's corrupted nature, making men to be of one mind in an house, and of one heart in a commonwealth. He is love actively loving all things he hath made, man more particularly, his redeemed most especially, with a love to the end, in the end, without end.  
Loving them in their election, when they could not love him; loving them in their redemption when they would not love him; loving them externally, for they have a promise to enjoy their outward blessings; loving them internally, for their hearts shall be comforted; loving them eternally, for they shall ever be blessed with him in heavenly things. He is love passively most worthy to be beloved, being loving every day in multiplying his blessings, being loving every way in magnifying his mercies, loving us first in preventing us mercifully, loving us in continuance in guiding us powerfully, loving us last in perfecting us eternally. Yea so loving that if he go to punish, he walks a soft pace, he comes in the cool of the day: but to show mercy he runs; for he is gracious, righteous, yea our God is merciful, punishing three, or four of the generation of the godless; but showing mercy to thousands that love him, and live in his fear. Taste then, and see how gracious the Lord jesus is, and how plentiful is his goodness, which he hath laid up for them that fear him, and prepared for them that trust in him, even before the sons of men. He being the perfection of Priesthood and prophecy, of sacrifice and sacrament, so that now who so setteth his heart upon any thing but upon the Lord jesus, is liable to the extreme curse of God's desertion. Set not then your hearts on beauty, beloved, it is but a forward blossom soon nipped; nor on pleasure, it is but a bitter pill leapt in sugar; nor on your belly, it is but the pantry for the draft house; nor on riches, they are but guiles, and baits to ensnare us, which while they are in getting weary us, while they are possessed, befool us; and when 
Picus Mirand. in Apolog.  we lose them, they crucify us. Set not your hearts on the favour of Princes or Potentates, for they are but the sons of men; nor on ambition, it is but a feather tossed with the wind; nor on gay apparel, it is but rags; nor on goodly houses, they are but so many bonfires against the day of doom; nor on any thing under the sun: but only like, and love them in and for the Lord jesus sake, as they are either remedies for sin, or directions in ordine ad Deum for our useful necessities, and furtherances to further our future happiness. But as for those who despite the spirit of grace, and trample the blessed blood of the new Testament under their feet, as do all sycophantizing Papists, schismatizing Puritan, neutralizing Atheists, satanizing scorners of all godliness, truth, and honesty: I will ever pray against their wickedness, Psal. 69. Let their table be their snare, their eyes dimmed, their habitation void, their backs bowed down, let them heap up iniquity upon iniquity, and let their names be razed out of the book of life. Let them be unto us as paganish Ethnics, and Publicans, as unclean lepers put out of the camp of Israel, as rotten members, cut off from the body of the Church, as dead branches, broken off from the true vine, as unclean dogs, put out of the holy City, and as those of the Concision, of whom we must beware, Phil. 3. 2. Yea let all that is about them be hateful unto us. Let the 
josu. 6. Dan 3.  goods of such be as the cursed things of jericho, their houses as odious as a jakes, their possessions as direful as Acheldama, their gains as vile as the pharisees Corban, their name as branded and as infamous as was jeroboams, their posterity as obscure as the untimely fruit of a woman which never seeth the sun. If they be honourable, and do not honour Christ, o Lord lay their honour in the dust. If noble, let them be accounted base, unless they be ennobled in jesus Christ. If learned, let their learning be a byword, and a fable among the vulgar, that study not to be students in Christ's school. If they be a whole nation, let their portion be as the men of Ashdod, 1. Sam. 5. If a king, let him be made as Nabuchadnezzar that he may know the Almighty. If a Courtier, let him be despised in the sight of the king: yea let all them be delivered over that love not the Lord jesus but despise him, unto Satan by excommunication, that confession at least may be wrested from them as it was from Simon Magus, and Elimas the Bariesu, who craved aid of the Church which formerly they desperately despised; that if it be the will of the Lord, they may be saved by repentance in this day of grace, before that fatal and final divorce from the Lord of their souls and bodies be denounced, before the curses of separation, Depart from me; of indignation, 
Mat. 25.  ye cursed; of dolour, into fire; of desperation, into hell fire; of confusion, prepared for the devil and his angels, be in the last judgement awarded against them, for their contempt of the Lord jesus Christ. But to them that seek the Lord jesus, mella fluant illis, and all the beatitudes of mount Gerazim, let their ears never hear the horrors of the vale of the children of Hinnon, but let Zion's rays shine upon them all their life, and let the Lord jesus appear unto them in his second coming to salvation, who love him, and look for him from heaven, 
Heb. 9 28.  and long for him from the bottom of their hearts, crying come Lord jesu. Let them hear o Lord thy perfect 
Apoc. 22.  blessings of association, Come; of benediction, ye blessed; of inheritance, possess; of glory, the kingdom; of election, prepared for you, before the foundations of 
Mat. 25.  the world were laid. And God persuade japhet to dwell in the tents of blessed Sem. Even so (o Lord) be it.  
Amen.   
My well-beloved is white, and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand. Cant. 5. 10. 
YOu may justly demand of me (blessed, and beloved in the Lord jesus) as the daughters or faithful people of jerusalem do here of the spouse in the Canticles, concerning her beloved, saying: What is thy 
Cant. 5. 9  beloved more than other beloved? what is thy beloved more than another lover, that thou dost so charge us? because of late I denounced from this place before you (not against you, for I am persuaded better things of you my brethren, and such as accompany salvation) Paul his fearful curse of Anathema Maranatha, to wit, If any man love not the 
1. Cor. 16. 22.  Lord jesus, let him be accursed when the Lord shall come: And my reply unto you must be my text, which the spouse here maketh to the like demand, that is, My 
Cant. 5. 10.  beloved is white, and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand. The words are few, the matter manifold.  
Out of Zion (saith David) hath God appeared in 
Psal. 50. 2.  perfect beauty; for what higher, and more heavenly perfection can be imagined, or was ever hard of then Zions sacred rays, which give bright splendour, and most glorious lustre to the whole Christian world? The rigour of the law from Sinai is satisfied in the righteousness of the Gospel from mount Zion. If any than be affectionate, let him come hither, here is love; and if he have grace, here is his well-beloved also, and this commencement and commerce of sweet love, will be the whetstone of true, perfect and perpetual love.  
If any be curious, here is amiable beauty white and ruddy: white, answering the pureness he would have, and ruddy corresponding the zealous heartinesses he would crave. And further if he shall be curious, and be elegans formarum spectator, here is choice, even the chiefest of ten thousand. For here he may behold the spouse, first showing her dear affection, than her true loves description: her affection she uttereth by appellation of unfeigned love, well-beloved: and also by application, thus, My well-beloved: she than describes him generally, as thus, is white, and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand. And then particularly in his parts as in the verses following of this Chapter.  
In her general description she sets him down in 
The division.  orient colours of heavenly perfection, as first his purity, is white, both essentially (is) and especially to, white. Secondly his purity, and zeal both Seraphical, and also Cherubical, wholly passable, wholly amiable, even in these words (and ruddy) which is a sweet, and seemly commixture of white, and red. Then the choice, above thousands, and the chief of choice the chiefest of ten thousand. In love than you see he is matchless, in purity spotless, in zeal priceless, in choice peerless.  
Come hither then thou passionate lover, and repent thee of thine inordinate, and immoderate love to alluring, and deceitful beauty, that vain vermilion die mingled with white, (like blood in snow) both vanishing with the Sun's beams, with sickness, old age, and many other casualties; and whereof thou thyself art suspicious, even while thou dost enjoy it, and art inly tormented, lest an other should partake with thee: come hither I say, and sit down at these pure waters a while, and let thy soul see, and be ravished with the sight of celestial beauty, and grace shining unto thee (miserable, and wretched man) even from heaven; and yet thou never didst vouchsafe so much as once to cast thine eye upon it.  
No man I confess can portray or delineate this love unto thee as it is in deed, therefore I could wish that my soul had consulted with the Lord jesus his 
joh. 13. 23.  Paranymph the beloved disciple, who leaned upon his sacred breast at supper, and felt the breaths of blessed love that breathed out of his tender bowels, or had been rapt up with Paul into the third heaven, to 
2. Cor. 12. 4.  be lift up above myself, or had seen that glimpse of glory which Peter saw in mount Tabor, or had conferred 
Mat. 17. Aquinas.  with him who died meditating on this love, and saying at his last gasp, Love is as strong as death: 
Cant. 8. 6.  or had been with Philip Melancthon who departed this life saying Egrediamur, egrediamur, or at least had 
Cant. 3 11.  heard sweet Bernard preach thereof, or learned Theodar Beze, both purposing to write their meditations thereon, and to go through this song, but both dying before they could finish it, as being surprised (as I conceive) with the singular love of the Lord jesus portrayed herein most mystically, and divinely.  
But how shall I then dare to adventure, or take upon me to open my mouth to set forth this love? seeing as S. Bernard saith, None can understand Paul's 
Bern. de consyd. ad Euge nium. l. 3. c. 4  meaning, but they that are endued with Paul's mind, so none can conceive the spouses' affection, but they that are touched with the like love. How shall we either speak of the spouses tender affection, or you hear accordingly? seeing we are all carnal, sold under sin, and these things are mystically, and spiritually discerned. This only comforts me, that God hath granted two means to know these sacred mysteries, the one infused and extraordinary, only proper and peculiar to the men of God in the former ages; the other attained by study, and industry joined with invocation to God for illumination & grace, the only sacred relics of jesus Christ left to his servants in these last ages. The Gospel being the foundation of all our sacred skill, out of the which whosoever preacheth Christ crucified, hath the mind of Christ. And having his mind, we may with reverend boldness aver, that we also know the true Church's meaning.  
Hearken then to the Church here styling Christ, her well-beloved, for he is hers, and she is his: first, she by way of petition entreateth saying, Show me (o thou whom my soul loveth) when thou feedest, where thou liest at noon? And then he by way of replication answereth, My love, my dove, mine undefiled, 
Cant. 5. 2.  open unto me, for my head is full of dew, and my hair of the drops of the morning: whereupon the Church doth in eight Chapters in this divine song, nine and twenty times style him (her best beloved) as if she could never too oft remember his unspeakable love towards her his well-beloved. Saint Paul also a son of this sacred mother hath in his Epistles five hundred times the name of his Lord jesus, as accounting 
Cenebrards' observation.  himself most happy, when that most sacred name of love and life sounded in his lips, or was written with his pen. If therefore we of the last and worst generation be transported, and out of our wits as you think (being ravished with the surpassing love of God, it being shed in our hearts by the holy 
2 Cor. 5. 13. 14.  Ghost) wear it to God: or if we be modest, and in our right mind, we are it unto you, for the love of Christ constraineth us.  
S. john the beloved disciple, now being old, writes of nothing else but of this love, as appeareth in his canonical Epistles, choosing now to die, and depart in beholding the surpassing beauty thereof, insomuch that he summons all degrees, children, young men and 
1. joh. 2. 14.  the aged to the view thereof, as being indeed their heaven upon earth. For who so abideth in this love, 
1. joh. 4. 8.  dwelleth in God.  
If we shall descend lower to other lights of the Church, we shall also see that this was the earnest, & most certain pledge that their souls had here, even to be swayed, and transported with this divine love. Every thing is carried with his weight: Love is my weight (saith S. Augustine) by it am I carried, whither soever 
Aug. in Soliloqui Bern. de 2. more Dei. Cyprian. de me ●o dilig. Dei Euseb. Emiss.  I am transported. S. Bernard admireth this love, that God being so great, so greatly should love us wretched miscreants, and that freely. Cyprian adviseth us to prefer nothing before the love of Christ, forasmuch as he preferred nothing before our love. Eusebius Emiss. epitomiseth our service thus, Be not distracted with many circumstances, for what God requireth of thee, is in thee, to wit, the service of thy mouth by confession, and the affection of thine heart in faithfulness. In thy heart then hath God set the soul's city of refuge, that whence the sin came, the medicine might thence also issue. How nigh then is this remedy? How sweet is this counsel? Of this doubtless spoke Moses: It is near even in thy 
Deut. 30. 14.  mouth, and in thine heart: miserable therefore is our condition (saith Jerome) not to be with him, without whom we cannot be. Be with God we cannot otherwise (while we are here) then by affection. What (o love) can be sufficiently said in thy praise? saith Hugo de S. Victore, seeing through thee God should humble himself to descend from heaven, and man should be exalted from earth to heaven; great is thy power, that thus God should be abased, and sinful man so advanced.  
Thus have the sacred sons of the true Church's generation expressed their affectionate ravishments in this divine love, showing that nothing can be more pious, nothing is more precious. And this heavenly affection also is not only general in the whole Church, but also particularly in every religious soul, which applieth it sound, certainly, and sweetly to itself, and saith as the spouse here, He is my beloved, by way of appropriation, whereby we may discern a twofold certainty of our 
Certitudo objecti.  faith, the one of the object; as that there is a life everlasting, that Christ died for the sins of the world. Both certain by the promise of God. Yet this is small comfort, unless the other certainty of the subject also be assured unto us. To wit, that this everlasting 
Certitudo subiecti.  life is prepared for me, and that Christ died for my sins. This indeed is the undoubted work of faith. David could say, Blessed is the man whose sins 
Psal. 32. 1.  are forgiven. Yet this is but Christ in the whole cloth, (as we may say) but Paul had learned to turn David's quorum into his own ego, and say, whereof I am 
1. Tim. 1. 15.  chief, and so cut himself a garment thereof to cover his own wretchedness: For he well knew that as many 
Gal. 3. 27.  as were baptised into Christ, had put on Christ. So you see, he is fitted as a garment to wear, and not to gaze upon.  
The reason of this certainty, is this. Because faith maketh that present which is absent. Therefore by the 
Heb. 11. 1.  Spirit of God faith is called The evidence of things not seen. Neither is this certainty of hope, but of knowledge. For S. john saith, We know that when he shall appear, we also shall appear in glory. And S. Paul testifieth 
Rom. 8. 16.  that the Spirit assureth our spirits that we are the sons of God. Doubtless therefore most restless, and most unquiet is the mind of that man which doubteth of God's love. For what availeth it thee, be thy estate never so happy, if it be miserable to thyself? What comfort is it to a king to wear a crown of gold, albeit in great happiness of estate, if he be not persuaded of the enjoyment thereof? What sound solace is it to any Christian to know, that there is a life everlasting, & yet knows not whether he shall hear Come ye blessed, or go ye cursed? it being a very dictate of nature, 
Mat. 25. Seneca.  That no man is happy, but he that so thinketh himself. The felicity thereof consisting not in the happy expectation, but in the present persuasion.  
Thus than you see the appropriation of this love, how necessary it is, and not only herein, but in all other inducements of godliness. S. Augustine recordeth that he was converted by reading that of S. 
Aug. lib. confes. 8. cap. 12. Rom. 13. 13.  Paul, Rom. 13. Not in chambering, and wantonness, strife, and envying, but put on the Lord jesus. So S. Augustine applied the Scripture to the particular reformation of his own life. And Alipius S. Augustine's loving consort applied the beginning of the 14. Chapter to the Rom. to the end that S. Augustine might thereby recover & confirm him that wavered, and staggered in the holy faith of Christ jesus. So the spouse here appropriateth God's dear love to her own affections, whereby we may learn, That to a devoted and truly religious soul, Christ jesus applied 
The lesson.  is the only love, and life.  
O hear a godly soul speak in her divine phrases to Christ jesus, applying him to every part, to her mouth, saying, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his 
Cant. 11.  mouth, that her words might be gracious, and seasoned by the salt of the spirit of God. 2. To her breasts, My beloved is as a bundle of myrrh unto me, he shall lie between my breasts, that by always meditating on him, she might not be drawn aside to the bypaths of folly, and vanity. 3. To her affections, Set me as a 
Cant. 8 6.  seal upon thine heart, that she might never be without his impression. 4. To her actions, And as a signet upon thine arm, that she might never be destitute of his directions. The reason is, For love is as strong as 
7.  death, jealousy as cruel as the grave: Much water cannot quench it, neither can the flood drown it; whence ensueth a whole resignation. Therefore I am my beloveds, 
Cant. 7.  and he is mine. Thus the true spouse. David likewise in 
Psal. 1 19  the same case, I am thine o Lord, hide not thy commandments from me. David was now neither for sin, nor for Satan, nor for the world, nor for the flesh, nor for his own self, but for the Lord totally by resignation, fully by affection. And verily how can it be otherwise, but that a religious soul should thus wholly devote itself to God in all sacred affection, if it call to mind but these motives following?  
First what jeremy saith, how the Lord speaketh, when he considered whereof the sons of men were made, and weighed, that they were but dust, and therefore in his mercy to them he said it, and not to the Angels that fell, Shall they fall, And not 
jer. 8. 4.  arise? shall they turn away, and not turn again? Here is rising from the gulf of hell, and returning from the bondage, and captivity of the devil, assured unto us by promise in Gods preventing mercy. Secondly when we shall remember that God hath omitted all his other creatures of heaven and of earth, and as it were neglected them, and hath set his love only upon us, yea the Angels that fell he hath reserved in chains of darkness for the judgement of the great day, and yet saved a remnant of the sons of men. Thirdly, when it shall call to mind, that to all other creatures God hath given a direct 
Picus Mirand. in Heptapl. sup. Gen.  motion to content themselves in their now being, but to man a circular motion, that we should only seek our felicity in him, in whom we had our beginning. Fourthly, that forasmuch as God's grace is given us for our guide, in this dangerous world, which overcometh infallibly the world, the devil, and the flesh, holdeth the truth inseparably against all heresy and schism, and leadeth indeclinably into the Paradise of God, we should with all devoted thankfulness entertain this holy blessedness. Fiftly, seeing that we may by holy faith (as in a crystal mirror) behold the whole holy and undivided Trinity in this work of loving, saving and sanctifiing grace, we should as those that had newly received their eye sight, after a long blindness, be ravished with joy, and comfort. For see, God the father so loved us, that he gave his only begotten son, 
Ioh 3.  etc. that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life. God the son so loved us that he would die for us, God the holy ghost so loved us, that he maketh request for us with 
Rom. 8.  sighs unutterable in our souls.  
Who would not then gather hence divine affections according to the measure of grace given unto us? calling to mind the precept of Christ which is the sum of all: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, that is, saith S. Augustine, Love him with all thy right 
Aug. in locum.  reason, with all thy earnest affection, and with all thy strongest powers, love him with all thy understanding, with all thy will, and with all thy memory; love him wisely, that thou be not deceived by the devil in an angel of light. Love him sweetly that thou be not alured by the wicked and bewitching world. Love him valiantly, that thou be not daunted with the devilish projects, and practices of God's enemies. See the sparks of this divine, and seraphical fire in Daniel who is styled vir desideriorum, a man never satisfied here, but still desiring to be replenished with the full sight of God. Behold them in Esay 
Esay 26.  the evangelical Prophet, whose soul desired God in the night season when his eyes were bereft of the distractions of the day: In David also whose soul thirsted for the living Lord; and in S. Paul who was straitted for want of this enjoyment and cried, Who 
Rom. 7.  shall deliver me wretched man that I am from this body of death?  
Doubtless these holy souls knew that this love was all love unto them, for even in natural love Christ can be all things unto thee; whereas thy gold cannot be thy clothing, thy silver cannot be thy drink, thy bread cannot be thy light, Christ alone is all this unto thee. If thou need necessary love, he is thy protector, and bulwark. If thou wouldst be happy in love, with him is the fountain of living life for ever. These considerations, and the like caused Gods children never to admit any thing near their hearts, contrary to this love, as is the affection inordinate to the creature, but loved the creature only for the Lords sake. They ever removed far from their holy affections all carking care, and over much toiling in the business, and negotiations of this world, as being the deceitful bane of this love: using indeed the world necessarily, but so as if they used it not, which caused their love to be continual, not flashes of passion rather than true affection, enduring for a moment, but resembling the love of the blessed Saints who see God, and love him for evermore. Again, they knew that if we would be covetous, and sell our love, none could buy it dearer, for he will give us a kingdom for it: if we would be liberal and give it, none more worthy of it, for he is absolutely the sovereign good. But if we would have our love strained from us by violence, he also will unsheath the sword of the Spirit, and with the blade thereof divide asunder the soul and spirit, even with this one stroke, If any man love not the Lord 
1. Cor. 16. ●2.  jesus, let him be accursed Anathema Maranatha.  
Furthermore the faithful souls will hence gather good degrees and steps of grace, as first, considering even in nature, that if one had lost an eye, or were distracted of his wit, or were condemned to execution, how would we tender him that could and would heal our eye sight, restore us to our right mind, and redeem us from the dreadful horror of death? But Christ hath illuminated us with the light of grace, that were in the power of darkness and shadow of death, hath given us repentance unto life, and regeneration, that were sold to sin and Satan, and hath purchased for us a pardon, that were condemned to everlasting torments; was made poor that we might be enriched, gave himself for me, 
Bern. in Solil.  (saith Bernard) that I might be given to myself: yea we owe him now more for redeeming us, then for making us. For in the creation he spoke the word, and it was done, but in our redemption it cost him his dearest blood. In this life he hath promised, That 
Rom. 8. 28.  all things whatsoever, shall work together for the best to them that love him: and in the other life the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, nor the heart can conceive, what is his displayed glory, in seeing him as he is seen, and knowing him as he is known. And to purchase this inheritance for us, see how vilely he esteems himself, being sold for thirty pence, and prizeth us, us (I say) wretches at so high a rate, as his own most peerless, and precious blood.  
O insensible, indurate, and intolerable unthankfulness of the sons of Adam, who do not totally resign themselves, and their affections to this love! But yet for all this, behold I pray you, and see whether Christ be the beloved of ourage, and the Helena of our country, as we would bear the world in hand he is; and be you yourselves witnesses in this case. Do we diligently seek him (when we have lost him by our prevarication) as we use to do those whom our soul loveth? and as did that much loving soul Mary Magdalen when she sought him at the fearful sepulchre, and abode there, though a weak woman, and would not be satisfied with looking, but asked jesus, (then risen) (supposing he had been a gardener) If thou hast taken away my Lord, tell 
joh. 20 15.  me, where thou hast put him, that I may fetch him. O happy soul that so sought, that she found. Are we often frequenters of his house, and lovers of the place where his honour dwelleth; as Anna did, who 
Luke 2 37.  departed not from the Temple, but served God day and night with prayers, and fasting? Do we talk of him in our journeying, as did the disciples that traveled to Emaus? Do we willingly hear of him, and 
Luke 24  in hearing lay up the things in our hearts, as did the blessed Virgin? Do we restore and give for his sake 
Luke 2. Act. 10.  as Zacheus, and Cornelius did? Do we suffer reproach gladly for his glory, and rejoice in it as the Apostles 
Act 5. Psal. 1.  did? Do we love his commandments as David did? whose study was in them day, and night. Do we decline from the love of this world, and as jacob who 
Gen. 32.  wresting with the angel, fell lame; so we in the business with God prevail, but in the affairs of this world grow cold, and remiss? Do we honour them that serve God as the Galathians did, that would have pulled out their own eyes (had not the law of God, and nature forbade them) to do Paul their Preacher good?  
O how far different are the affections of our times! If we look the Lord jesus among some governors, they say he is not here, many of us have something else to do then to attend preaching▪ If among some of the rude people, they seldom or never think of him. If among the giddy hearers, with Peter they answer, we know not the man. If among 
Math. 26.  the worldly rich, with Demas they have forsaken the love of Christ, and have embraced this present world. If among the loud, but lewd professors, they have a show of godliness, but have denied the power thereof. If among the coverous, there is linsey wolsey, as far as will make for their profit, so far, and no longer they love God, nor any of his servants. If among the ahabaptistical zealous, they say we are not justified by works, and therefore we will do none at all. As if their faith, or any faith were available with God, but that which worketh by love. For without love was never any man saved, and with love never any damned. If of the worldlings, they are so busy in dividing Christ his coat, that they cannot awhile to love. They are of king Ro●us mind that used to say, That the bread of Christ was sweet, meaning thereby the revenues of the Church. Not unlike the refined, and acquaint illuminates of our time, who think, and say the Church hath to much, yea and do what they can to profane into their own wicked hands▪ the holy goods of God's Church, which their forefathers bountifully bestowed upon her. O good Lord jesus come quickly, else thou wilt not have one foot of ground left at thy second coming, to take possession of this earth that is thine own, and all things therein by natural right of inheritance, by merit of redemption, and 
Bero. sup. Cant.  gift of thine eternal Father.  
Beloved, do we thus reward the Lords love? foolish people that we are, our affections then are worse than we imagine: for if we give all we have, the divelll offers the whole world, and says, All this will I 
Math. 4.  give thee. Do we fist? the devil eateth nothing. Do we watch? the devil sleepeth not. If then we excel him not in holy love, he far exceedeth and excelleth us, both in bounty, temperance, and watchfulness. What, are we become lame of both legs as was Mephibosheth, both in our love to God, & in our affections to men? Let us then become Ishbosheths' the sons of shame for it. Let us be abashed, and confounded at this our ingratitude and neglect, and let us henceforth express in our actions the true conditions of unfeigned, and hearty love.  
Let us (brethren) love God only, and all things for him, as did Paul, who accounted all things dung 
Phil. 3. ●.  that he might gain the Lord jesus. 2. Let us account ourselves unhappy that we be not where he is, as did the said Paul, who desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ jesus. 3. Let us suffer all things for him, yea death itself, that as Paul said to the Elders of Ephesus at Miletum, that we may finish our course 
Act. 20.  with joy. 4. Let us be with him as we may, to wit, in affection, seeing (while we live here) we cannot be with him as we would to enjoy his blessed presence: which is indeed apostolical counsel, Set 
Col. 3. 2.  your affection on heaven and heavenly things, saith Saint Paul, and not on earth and earthly things. Let us love all things, both persons, and places that belong unto 
Psal. 16. 6.  him, for our goodness extendeth not to him, but to his that are on earth: and to such as excel in virtue. Let us deck ourselves to please him in our wedding garment, the rob of the faith of jesus. Let us seek his glory, and not endure his dishonour; and let us weep when he is absent from us by his grace, as did Peter; and joy when he is present with us in his goodness, as did David, who rejoiced when it was said unto him, Let us go into the house of the Lord. 
Psal. 122. 1.   
Then shall we there see what an one our Love is, and discern, yea and he ravished both with our loves essential beauty, and especial purity; for the true Church is white, not seeming so, nor painted, but native, and natural shining white. The purity of this bright beauty consists in the essentialness (●) and especialnesse thereof, white. The essentiality discerneth it from all hypocritical, painted, and seeming shows of goodly lustre, which are for nought but to deceive: and the especialnesse distinguisheth it in excellency from all other glories, albeit essential and true; for this beauty is both essentially especial, and especially essential above all others without all compare.  
Consult with the wise man (that you be not deceived with shows) but in two oracles, and he will show you of a glorying generation, and of a painted path▪ from which prosapie or generation a true Christian descends not, and in which way the faithful believers walk not; for in neither of these shall you find Christ jesus in his perfect beauty. There is a generation, saith Solomon, that is wise in their 
Pro. 30. 11.  own conceit: yet are not cleansed from their filthiness. This is painted whiteness, or conceited pureness. And There is a way that seemeth just to a man, but the issues 
Pro. 16. 25.  thereof are the issues of death. This is seeming holiness, and pretended righteousness. Neither this generation, nor this way is essential; for the one is in conceit, and the other in show, both deceitful, both dangerous, yea and (unless repentance come in time) both damnably erroneous. Therein the more fearful, the less those (that content themselves in the one, and proceed● in the other) see, and know their sinful erring, but are led on, and deluded with a conceiptfull, heady, and specious glittering of their own overloved, and overweened Helena.  
Of this conceiptfull pure generation comes the devil, and appears to the witch at Endor in the habit of holy Samuel only to deceive. The spies also 
1. Sam. 28. Luke 20. 20.  that were sent to entrap our Saviour must receive their descent from this generation, and feign themselves just men, and demand questions of purity, and professed holiness; but the intendment was to turn the tail & sting like a serpentine, surrepent generation. Herod is another imp of this cursed brood, for he pretends worship to the Son of God, 
Mat. 2. 7.  whom he like a savage bear intends to worry. judas 
Mat. 2. 6.  had the impudent and shameless face to say, Is it I? as well as the innocent Apostles: And julian the apostate wrote a book entitled Admetus Christianos, which altogether intended to pervert, and to undo the Christians. All this hypocrisy and painted purity is wrought out by the strength of imagination, and 
Rom. 15. 1.  conceit, which S. Paul mannerly termeth flattering of ourselves; but the Naturalists show it to be mere melancholy, frenzy and madness, upon which humours the devil chiefly worketh, and into which he doth most cunningly and subtly insinuate himself to ensnare the simple. The instance of Ananias makes this evident, to whom Peter saith, Why hath 
Acts 5.  Satan tempted thine heart that thou should bely the holy Ghost? That is, See now O Ananias how strangely the devil hath stirred up thy fond imaginations, and suggested slily into thy false conceit, that thou shouldest sell thy land in pretended purity, and holy perfection, and yet keep back part, and bely the holy Ghost.  
This unpure generation, and all the tribes thereof have four principal characters, that as coate-armors demonstrate the pedigree, and deceit thereof, which are, First an inward conceit. Secondly a vaunting utterance thereof. Thirdly an affectation of public applause: and fourthly an admiration of itself, joined with contempt of all others. All these four being the waiting maids of lady self love. By the inward conceit, they are sure, that their breasts be not transparent like a glass to be seen through, be their inward parts never so wretched, and therefore they rest contented to be specious in specie, & superficie tantùm, that is, outwardly, to the world's view; and to God they have said inwardly in their hearts, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. 
job 21. 14.  2. Then lest that this inward conceit should be too private, and none take notice of their hypocritical, and hyperbolical integrity, like an old bottle they must vent it, or else they would burst, and utter they must, yea slaver out (rather than fail) their own fooleries, be they never so gross, or never so grievous to be endured. So that they may be then taken for great ones (they think) and have the names of None such, or the great outcry of vain glory 
Leviculus noster Demosthenes. Tull. lib. 5. Tusc. Act. 19  and popularity, and hear others say of them, as the Ephesians doting on their Idol Diana, cried, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And then do they beyond all mean, and measure admire themselves, and their own beauties, as did Narcissus, and lift up their plumes with the peacock, contemning all other in the basest manner, and crying out to their brethren, (whom they most contemptuously despise) like the Elysian spirits to the Tartarian, and say, Procul, o proculite 
Vir. lib. 6. Aenead.  profani.  
But yet for all this the whole rank of them, in the sound judgement of true and essential wisdom, is but a rout of foolish dottards, and dizzy drunkards, doting on their own conceitful beauty, and transgressing in the pride of their own hearts. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit, more hope is of 
Pro. 26. 12.  a fool then of him. See the dotard. The reason is, because a fool is wiser in his own conceit, than seven 
Pro. 26. 16.  men that can render a reason. Seest thou a man that is 
Abac. 2.  proud in his heart, he is as one that transgresseth with wine, as did drunken Zebul taking trees for men, and as did mad Ajax taking rams for lambs, and taking carts for castles, as they do Qui concipiunt aethera mente. The way also that this generation walketh in, is like them, to wit, a seeming just, and imagined strait way.  
For whereas all skill in divinity is either opinion, faith, or knowledge; these dizzy dottards are only guided by opinion, the very fountain of Atheism, and the high way to heresy and schism grounded upon uncertainties, and seeming truths, but are not guided by the direction of jesus faith, which hath holy increasings, and doth suscipere maius, 
Rom. 1.  & minus, there being a progress à fide ad fidem, according to the prayer of the young believer, O Lord increase my faith. These chose take upon them to know suddenly all reason, all rule, all resolutions, and like ignorant idiots control even their learned Priests.  
Certainly they might notwithstanding do well to call to mind Saules way, which seemed just unto 
1. Sam. 15.  him, when he spared Agag, and the best things for sacrifice, yet the issue thereof was the overrhrow of him, and his estate. They might also remember the fiery zeal of james and john, that would fire should come from heaven upon the Samaritans. But the Lord jesus told them, that they wotted not of what spirit they were, and sent them to learn a new lesson, even this, I will mercy, and not sacrifice. There is a way therefore that seemeth right, but the issues thereof are the issues of death. So S. Peter likewise in the tenderness of his heart would not the Lord should suffer at jerusalem, as he prophesied to his Apostles, Math. 16. saying, Master spare thyself: But the Lord called him an adversary, and told him that he savoured not of the things of God. In the singularity also of his good manners, Peter said unto the Lord, Thou shalt not wash my feet: but when 
joh. 13.  he understood better, that if he were not washed, he had no part with him, he suddenly changed his mind, and then would have his head, and all his body bathed by him. And yet again in the singularity of his sincerity above all his fellows, he told his Master, that if all forsook him, he would not▪ and see his sinful defect immediately following, as a punishment of that presumptuous singularity, for he first, and only denied him, and that most strangely being 
Mat. 26.  vanquished with very slight provocations. There is a way then that seemeth right to a man, but the issues thereof are the issues of death. In this conceitful generation then and in this seeming way there is no essential worth, much less any especial virtue to be found.  
Look up then to your Lord jesus your souls beloved, and in him, and by him you shall see a beautiful generation, regenerated by grace, who are of his own generation, and partake of his divine graces by the measure of sanctification given them: they are also a choice generation set apart for himself, and for his service, which are styled, The generation of them that seek the Lord. The way that they insist in is a right way, not of opinion, but of judgement; For all the ways of God are so many judgements, 
Deut. 9  saith God's secretary Moses. These turn neither to the right hand too superciliously, nor to the 
Nicolaus de▪ Lyra sup. 5. cap. Exod.  left hand too superstitiously, but keep the old, ancient and perfect way to God; Christ himself being their direction in this blessed way, for he is verbum genitum, the begotten word; and the way to him is by verbum scriptum, the written word. If therefore I should have my wish, I would rather choose to be a doorekeeper to this generation of essential goodness, then to dwell in the glorious tents of seeming holiness; and I shall rather be at sea, tossed with a tempestuous storm in the ship with those that humbly profess themselves sinners, then on the shore in the table of those pharisees that justify themselves with their hideous haughtiness.  
Now as this bright beauty is essential in the substance: so also it is especial in the brightness, and excellency thereof. For there are four sorts of whiteness: First fanatically fantastical whiteness. Secondly superficial whiteness. Thirdly natural whiteness; but changeable in the subject. Fourthly native whiteness, and not changeable in the subject. The first is the devil transformed into an Angel of light, for he is fanatically fantastical white. The man that had a blemish of white in his eye was debarred from the priesthood, & was resembled to the owl, of whom the Naturalists yield the reason, that she cannot see in the day time, because of the exceeding great whiteness she hath in her eyes, which scattereth so the sight, that the optics thereof cannot discern perfectly the objects. Such are all those that conceive themselves pure, and yet are not washed and cleansed from their evil conscience, who say they see, and therefore their sins remain; for had they been blind, they might pretend some excuse, but now all excuse is taken from them, because they say that they see. The superficial white are painted sepulchres, and whited walls, loathsome within, and the best is but wooden without, like the gilded potsherd Solomon speaks of, that the next shower of rain discovereth to be but an outcast for the potter's field, how gloriously soever it glister. The natural white, but changeable, are they that are borne fair, but afterwards by the Sun and soil they become black and Aethiopian-like. Semblable are those that begin in the spirit of grace, and bright beauty, and end in the frail and filthy flesh. The native and unchangeable whiteness is that of peerless, and priceless diamonds, whose least sparkle will shine, and give true lustre, albeit it be severed from the whole.  
Such was, and is this special candour in our well-beloved Lord jesus, and his chosen, who even in this life have these white robes in part put on them mentioned in the Revelation, not their own conceited 
Apoc. 3.  attire of the righteousness of works, but Gods own righteousness; and they have also the white stone given them, which is sanctification in some measure as an earnest penny, and pledge of further favour, and future beauty, to be perfected in glory. Behold then with milk white, and pure eyes of holy faith your Lord jesus especial and perfect whiteness, your precious diamond in especialnesse, by whom all we, and as many as have gone before us being his holy servants, have been beautified, and graced.  
First as he is Emanuel, that is, God with us: His conception pure, he was conceived by the holy Ghost. 2. His birth pure, he was borne of an undefiled virgin. 3. His life the perfection of sanctimony, for there was no guile found, no not in his mouth: And he is perfect, that offends not in his tongue. 
jam 3.  4. His doctrine pure, correcting all the unpure glosses of the reformalizing pharisees; as in old time it was said, Thou shalt not kill, but Christ taught true 
Mat. 5.  purity, that we should not be angry with our brother unadvisedly. Teaching thereby, that fury and wrath doth oft transport us to fell and desperate actions, and therefore his holy doctrine as an axe struck at the root. Again, it was said of old time Thou shalt not commit Adultery in act. But Christ taught us not to look on a woman to lust after her, and so in turning away our eyes, we should not behold vanity: Likewise it hath been said, Thou shalt not forswear thyself. But Christ taught that we should not swear at all; for be doubtless that useth to swear much, must needs sometime forget, and forswear himself. And it hath been said of old, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, & hate thine enemy. But Christ taught, Thou shalt love thine enemy; for that is the exaltation of Christian charity above all other loves. Nay, of every idle word he told us that we must render an account. Oh holy lessons, o sacred discipline! how pure is the beauty hereof, how precious the sincerity? In his death therefore, neither death nor he that had the power of death could find any part whereon to fasten their intended fury, but in spite of death, and the devil, and the wicked world, he was declared mightily to be the Son of God, by 
Rom. 1. 2.  the spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection from the dead.  
We may learn then out of this which hath been already said, That the purity of a sincere conscience 
The lesson.  consists in essential and sanctified actions, and not in seeming holiness of froward and dottish factions. The blessing being promised to the pure in heart, and not 
Mat. 5.  to the wordy pure, but to the worthy, of whom it is also said, That to such all things are pure: but of 
Tit. 1.  the other, That their very consciences are defiled, and they themselves (howsoever reputed holy for some good works) yet reproved to every good work.  
The reason, because God requireth truth in the inward parts, and the searcher of the heart knoweth what is in man. Likewise because no unpure thing 
Apoc. 22.  shall enter into the kingdom of God, and therefore surely no party propale Christian that dealeth hypocritically shall there have entrance: I wonder therefore that any will be so foolish as to make themselves odious every way by their seeming holiness. First to the world, for the world hateth even those that are Christians but in show. For it can discern no further. Secondly they are abominable to God who hates them because they are but in show. And lastly they are traitors to themselves, in deceiving their own souls and consciences with deceitful dreams of sanctity.  
But let us a little launch forth, and ken the devil transforming himself into an Angel of light and brightness, and boasting both of purity, and pre-eminence above, and before all others, both in judaism, and also in Christianisme, as he even yet worketh with too too many in this our age. In judaism we will take a view but of the pharisees, Sadduces, Essens, and Hemerobaptists. The pharisees were men separate from others in respect of their pretended perfection, they were pure in their garments, pure in their devotion, pure in their laundring. 
pharisees.   
Their vestures must be environed, and the borders made broad with the commandments of God embroidered thereon. Luc. 11. Mat. 15. Their devotion such that they would not cure on the Sabbath were the sickness never so desperate, nor pluck an ear of corn in the extremity of hunger. Their washings divers, both of hands, pots, boards, and what not? Yet for all this outward pretended pureness, Christ the true Doctor, and teacher of perfection tells them seven times in one Chapter, 
Mat. 23.  that they were mere hypocrites and dissemblers.  
The Sadduces so pure in their own conceit, that 
Sadduces.  they only, and no other were the true justiciaries: yet were they so sottish that they neither knew Angel, nor spirit; and then judge how brutish, how bestial, and how carnal they were.  
The Essens thought themselves both essential, 
Essen●.  and especially pure above all others in the world. They wore white robes at all their refections, they observed so strictly and precisely the Sabbath, that in that day they would not make a fire, nor stop a running 
joseph. antiquit. lib. 18. cap. 2. Item de bello judaico. lib. 2. cap. 7.  vessel, nor lay an apple in the fire, nor knock upon a table to still a child, nor quench a burning, nor spit, nor do the requisites of nature; yet Epiphanius ranks them in the rank of branded heretics.  
The Hemerobaptists every day did baptise and 
Hemerobaptists.  drench themselves in water, imagining that all their sins were thereby washed away, for ●asse ex opere operato; whereas Epiphanius saith, that the whole ocean, 
Epiph. de haeres.  and all the floods in the world cannot purge one sin.  
These were the seem of judaism, all dying in their dreaming divinity. In Christendom what should I recall from hell the old Cathari, that pretended 
Epiph de haeres.  the only purity of life? the Gnostics that had (as they deemed) the impropriation of all divine knowledge; or Manes that only boasted of the Paraclete: seeing our later age of fresher memory hath heard of, yea and seen fanatical Anabaptists, dreaming Euthusiasts of revelation, and hideous visions, rebaptizations, and new pretended policy of Church, and common wealth? And we see many are daily misled, and mispersuaded by Jesuits, the rare illuminates accounted of the world, who pretend above all the rest of their fry to be the most perfect in respect of their direction in all negotiations, in ordine ad Deum; and most sacred in that holy exercise which they obtrude upon their novices, that subject and devote themselves unto them; yet are they no other indeed but the chimeras, and Gorgon's heads of ridiculous and fanatical foppery.  
From out all these impious and impure routs of pretended purity and perfection, the view of the sacred beauty of the true purity, and perfection of Christ jesus doth deliver us; and teacheth us that men are deceived most with shows, and that the devil when he means most mischief than doth he (as jezabel did) paint and set out himself to show. Let us therefore hence learn important considerations, and wise judgements, and let us try the spirits whether they be of God, or no; for all is not gold that glittereth, saith the old, and true English Adage.  
Is there one that can cunningly expound the Scriptures? Do not suddenly believe him, for so could the caitiff Caiphas. Is an other skilful in all divine, and human hearing? so was julian, yet an apostate. Hath an other received gracious, and principal gifts of God's spirit? So had Saul the reprobate. Do others know the mysteries of faith, of Moses, and of the Prophets? So knew King Agrippa, yet 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  his best was but almost a Christian. Can others foretell, and presage things to come? So could bawling Balaam, being a base hireling. Can they cite the Scriptures? So could the damned devil. Are they ready in the Fathers of the Church, and in the Counsels? so were the ancient heretics Faustus, Arrius, Manichaeus. Especially note them if they pretend holy and pure names, as do the mahumetical Saracens at this day, boasting that they came of Sara the free woman, when as indeed they are Agarens of Agar, as Zosomen a thousand years ago observed; 
Sozomen. 6. 38. joseph. de antiquit. jud. lib. 18 cap. 2. Act. 5.  And as the judaites did call themselves of judas the Gaulonite or Galilean, who would not endure the name of Lord to be attributed to any creature. They themselves being a rabble (as the book of God tells us) of desperate cutthroates.  
Beware then of false prophets, and be assured that as many as partake of this beauty are essentially sincere, not in words only but in deeds, not in conceit or opinion, but in understanding and verity; for whatsoever they believe, it is either of nature, grace, or glory. The things of nature they see, touch, and feel. The blessings of grace they read, they perceive, they enjoy, and joy in the certain expectation of glory which even now they have a taste of and earnestly long after. The things they hope for are not Absalon's pillar, set up in the king's dale, nor the flower of the poppy, the hypocrites hypothesis. But those beatitudes which they expect are sure, certain, and even in this life by faith evident. The things they ought to do they acknowledge to be the mandates of the highest God. Therefore to be performed. They know they are judgements, not opinions, therefore to be subscribed unto. They are statutes like these of the Medes and Persians, therefore not to be repealed: they are testimonies, and therefore bind the consciences. We pray therefore That this name may be sanctified by goodness, not dishonoured by seeming godliness. That his will may be done in sincerity, not neglected with pretence of purity, and that his kingdom may come unto us in verity, and not we put it from us in deceitful integrity.  
For the life of an hypocrite is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a masked mummery, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a known verity. His faith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; of things imaginary, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of solidity. His memorial as a post that hasteneth by, his good deeds as the trace of a ship in the waters, no where to be seen; and his glory as the waffing of a birds wings in the air, but her passage appears not. Let the Atheist then tremble hereat, for he is indeed the devils vizard. Let the Libertines fear that arose from Coppin and Quintan in the Low countries, being the basery of baseness. Let the begetters and hatchers of new opinions be amazed, who more trust their private spirit then the stream of judgement, who had rather be the head of a fox then the tail of a lion, and choose rather with imperious Caesar to be the first and chief of mean and beggarly Tarentum, than the second of imperial and triumphant Rome.  
And let us (men and brethren) be ravished with the true, and matchless beauty of our Lord jesus God's best beloved, our well-beloved; and let us be Reals, not Nominals only, knowing that we look not for an imaginary heaven, but for the heaven of heavens, the coelum coelorum; being always mindful of that of our Saviour: Unless your righteousness 
Mat. 5. 20.  exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and pharisees, (that is, of all hypocritical and seeming professors) you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.  
Come then ye faithful souls unto this pure and bright fountain of grace, and his blood shall purge you from all sins past, present, and to come: Come to this pure fountain, for here is the clean water that Ezechìel speaks of, powered out upon you 
Ezech▪ 36.  to purify you in God's sight by the invisible hand of the sacred Trinity. Call upon God that he may wash you with hyssop of grace here, that you may be truly clean as all his people are, and that in the end he may present you beautiful and blameless in his displayed glory, in the bright and white eminent robes of his own righteousness in Christ, our only mediator, and perfecter.  
And then doubtless our souls shall yet further see, even in this life, another glimpse of this surpassing beauty; for our beloved is not only white, but ruddy also; white in pureness, ruddy in zealous love towards us, both seraphical, and cherubicall, herein both wholly passable, and wholly amiable. Let us review then this his zealous love in the mystery of the colour prefiguring his passion; and in the history of the substance, performing the forespoken prophecies.  
There is a threefold red. 1. a scarlet red. 2. a roseal red. 3. a purple red: all prefiguring this our well-beloved in his sufferings, and really performed in him. Who is this that cometh from Edome (that is, from this cursed earth) saith Esay, with red-coloured clothes of Bozrah, that is, with trophies of victory and triumph? etc. There is scarlet red, Esay 63. 1. I am the rose of the field, and the lily of the valleys, saith Christ of himself: there is roseal red, Cant. 2. 1. And in the Gospel we read, that his enemies put a purple garment upon him, to portend his purple death. This colour was also prefigured in the red sea that saved Israel; in the red cow in the sacrifices; in the red cord in Reahabs' window, the secure hostage 
jos. 1.  of war; in the red thread about Zarahs' arm in his 
Gen. 38. 27. Mat 1. 3. Be●. sup. Cant.  birth, of whose pedigree Christ descended. Oh, our well-beloved is a violet in humility, a lily in purity, a rose in suavity.  
You see the colour, behold also the substance, and performance of this zealous love; which to display unto you, I shall be bold to take up jeremy's proclamation used in his Lamentations, and say unto you as if Christ himself spoke in person, and showing you his sufferings, should cry: Have ye no regard all ye 
jer. Lament. 1 12.  that pass by this way? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, and wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me, in the day of his fierce wrath. For what could he have suffered that he did not suffer? He was most lamentably afflicted by all sorts of men for whom he suffered. Despised he was of jews. 2. Scorned of Gentiles; Princes of the 
Psal. 2.  earth stood up, and kings banded themselves against the Lord, and against his Christ. 4. Priests conspire in 
Mat. 26.  counsel, and choose a murderer rather than the Lord of life. Soldiers divide his vestures. 6. His own servants fly from him, judas betrays him, Peter denies him. Thus we may on all sides see jews and Gentiles, Princes and Priests, soldiers and servants, 
Act. 3.  doing whatsoever the Lord of heaven had determined before to be done.  
Look upon him again, and see him perplexed in all his members, with loathsome spittings in his blessed face, with piercing thorns upon his sacred head, with buffets upon his comely cheeks, with stripes upon his manly back, and with the transverse part of the cross upon his glorious shoulders. 3. Impeached in his estate with scornful reproaches, his good name wronged with blasphemies, his honour trampled upon with shameless obloquys, his holy garments shared with profane lottery, and his reputation stained with the association of thieves▪ 4. Tormented in his senses, his touch with the piercing nails, his scent with the loathsomeness of Caluarie, the place of dead skulls; his hearing with wicked detractions, his sight with the sorrow of his blessed mother, and with the moan of his beloved disciple: his taste with gall, and vinegar. Inwardly also distressed; for his soul is heavy even unto the death: so that he cries, Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; and sweateth clots of blood that trikle down 
Luke 22.  to the earth, to bless it that was accursed: At which time an Angel is sent from heaven to comfort him. Yea in the extremity of this his unspeakable passion he cries with a loud voice, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Yet none of this, nor all this could suffice until he had yielded up his sacred soul into the hands of his heavenly Father.  
Blessed, and beloved men, fathers, and brethren in this our Beloved, is not this his zealous love the roseal beauty of our benediction? 1. Is not this that blood that purgeth us from all our sins? 2. that speaketh better things for us then the blood of Abel? for that called for vengeance, but this craves for us mercy. 3. Is not this the sacrifice whereby we have remission of our sin? 4. Is not this the reconciliation whereby we do partake of the divine nature, this sacred blood being shed into our hearts by the Spirit of God? 1. Is not this red sea the bath for all sinners, to cure us of our leprosies of incontinency, of our lethargies of ingratitude, of our dropsies of covetousness, and of our palsies of inconstancy, and strayings aside from God? 3. Is not this the oblation that maketh God propitious, and a loving father unto us? openeth the kingdom of heaven that was shut, and sealeth unto us all the holy promises of God?  
Let then a believing soul say, O Lord jesus what shall I repay unto thee for this thy love? I owed the debt, and thou didst pay it: I have sinned, and thou art punished; this whole work of thine is singular patience, the performance of it wonderful humility, the cause unspeakable charity. I have circuited the whole earth, and can find no where any such love, as in thy glorious passion, the breadth whereof is Charity diffused, dilating itself into the four parts of the world. The length is long suffering, for thou hast borne man's iniquities; the height is the hope of heaven, and a certain assurance of the same. The depth of it, is deliverance from the lowest deep the pit of fatal and final destruction. If any should persuade me to come down from the high meditation of this sacred mystery, I should greatly refuse it: for it shall ever be a bundle of Myrrh between my breasts; yea here will I die, and not descend until the Lord stretch his hand from heaven, and take me into his holy sanctuary.  
But to the reckless and respectless soul which regardeth none of this, our well-beloved saith farther, See what I suffer; these pains, these groans, these moans, these nails, these thorns, this spear; this profusion, and red sea of crimson blood: yet am I much more inly tormented, that thy wilful soul should yet be unthankful for this so unspeakable love, for this so unutterable and grievous passion, sustained for thy sake, to make thee a wretched son of man by nature, to become a blessed son of God by grace.  
Let us beloved, and believing brethren take yet a review of this blessed beauty in the sacred mixture of white and red, for he is ruddy both in himself, and in his mystical members. 1. In himself his beauty appears ruddy; for in the sacrament he is white in the bread, and red in the wine: therefore in the Scripture styled sometime Manna, which was white, like the crystal dew; and sometime a Vine which yieldeth red grapes to glad the heart of man. The grapes of this sacred vine were the parts of his body, the cross the wine press, his blood the holy liquor thereof, making glad both God, and man: God in the holy obedience of his sacred Son, purchasing himself a glorious kingdom; and man in the salvation of his sinful soul. These sacred seals of bread and wine show the Lords death until he come again. Joseph's coat besprinkled with blood, portended him to old Israel as dead, but not actually; but these show our true joseph to be crucified, and done to death in deed; and yet he like Sanpsons' lion sends forth even in, & after his death, sweet honey combs, and most redolent graces. For his death abateth the sting of death, abandoneth sin, despoileth sathan the strong man of his weapons, and procureth for us that die in him the land of the living.  
This holy mixture of white and red appeared in the opening of his side, whence flowed water and blood, this blessed opening being much more powerful than Moses rod; for that caused water only to come out of the rock, but this both water and blood. The Fathers therefore observe, that as out of the side of the first Adam the woman was taken by whom came sin: so out of the side of the second Adam the Church should be framed, to save (as Noah's ark) the sons of men from the general and fearful deluge of sin, and shame. Let then now all Histories tell, or historiographers of the world show if in any age they have seen or read, how that a man's limbs did shower down streams of blood, or that in any agony the face of man should stand beset with drops of crimson blood. Neither doth this content the holy wisdom of God, but that also we should see this love of Christ resembled, yea testified unto us again in reference, even in his mystical members, that is, in the believers, by forgiving whose sins he hath made them pure and white in his fight, and giving also many of them grace, and honouring them so far, that they willingly suffered as martyrs, whereby they also became purple red. Of the first white this is understood: Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; 
Psal. 51.  wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. This is the perfect beauty indeed to be purged from sin. Of the second it is said of his beloved martyrs, That they 
Apoc. 12.  were prodigal of their lives even unto the death, for the testimony of the Lord jesus. Such were james, Antipas, Ignatius, Polycarpus in the former ages; and all other even those thousands (in hose Mariana tempora) whom fire and faggot devoured, and all other exquisite torments that could be devised by the wicked, bloody, butcherlike minds of God's enemies. All which blessed souls were translated to God whom they loved, in fiery chariots of persecution, and were rapt up with Elias to the vision of the eternal God. This being indeed their matchless felicity, that they were so greatly honoured of their God, that they should shadow out unto him his Christ whipped, stocked, stricken, stoned, tormented, tortured, and bloodily butchered.  
Let not then the vain and gallant minions of the world boast of their venereous ladies, or of their bright courtesans, or Helenaes', on whom they dote, which are but as the dunghills & unsavoury salt of the earth; for behold here is a lily and a rose from heaven, even our Lord jesus, a white lily devoid of sin, and a damask rose in his pure and crimson passion. And let them again behold his martyrs as pure lilies clothed with his righteousness, and as red roses in their sacred martyrdoms, into whose calendar every believing soul should desire rather to be registered, then in the catalogue of all the world's misbelieving or mispersuaded Magnificoes.  
And seeing beloved that we are come to blood, let us pause a little, and stand still awhile as the people did when in the wars they came, and saw Azael lie weltering in his blood; and let us see the godly suffer for the godless, the guiltless for the guilty. Let us look up to the cross, and see our Saviour lie weltering, gasping, crying, bathing, struggling, and dying in his blood. David could say, when he saw the Angel of the Lord kill the people with the plague of pestilence: I have sinned, what have these sheep done? But Christ might have said otherwise; These sheep have sinned, what have I done? I am constrained to pay the things I never took. What more (blessed brethren) could he have done for his vineyard? what greater love can be showed, then for a man to die for his friends? yet our well-beloved died for us his enemies. But what doth the Lord require at our hands in retribution for all these blessings? Surely only faith, and fervency of zeal, by which we also shall become white and ruddy by his sanctifying and by his saving grace. Faith is as Jacob's hand, which will not let the Angel go until he have the blessing. It is also as Jacob's rob put on to gain our elder brother Christ jesus his blessings; and it is the wedding garment wherewith we must enter into the wedding house of our spouse. And fervency of zeal is an effect of our love, and is an heroical, and magnanimous virtue shed in our hearts by the holy Ghost, whereby we are moved to holy anger when either the glory of God, his truth, or his honour is violated. Behold the zealous, and ruddy beautified Christians in this kind: Who will rise with me against the wicked? or who will take my part against the evil doers? saith David the Lords worthy; And in another 
Psalm. 119.  Psalm, I fainted because men kept not thy law. And again, The zeal of thine house hath even eaten me up.  
The zeal of God doth eat one up, when God giveth such courage and magnanimity of heart unto some one man, that he withstands many mighty and malicious transgressors; and yet is not removed from his holy valour and resolution, though the earth be moved, and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea. Such an one was Elias against all Baal's false prophets, and Micheas against the four hundred false prophets of Ahab: and of late years Martin Luther against the Pope and all his complices. But we in our last, and worst age eat up the zeal of God, because we do not resist the evil wherein totus mundus ponitur, the whole world lieth; nor the arrogancy of the presumptuous, nor the malice of the mighty, nor the haughtiness of the proud, nor the tyranny of the oppressors: but like bastards, and not children, declaring to our own selves that we have not one drop of the good blood of our heavenly Father in us; for bonus sanguis non mentitur: honourable blood cannot dissemble, we suffer God to be blasphemed in our hearing, Christ to be scorned, his sacred Ministry to be despised; and we in the mean while either assent thereunto, or neglect to rebuke it; which showeth that we partake not at all of this divine and roselike beauty.  
O that the Seraphical zeal of God had inflamed the Princes, the Prelates, and people of the Christian world, as it did David: not a martial zeal which is a fervour without discretion, but a zeal according to knowledge; not anger per vitium, but holy anger by zeal; not private grudge, but zeal appertaining to the vocation and calling we are of, which hath both a good root, and a good end. Such as was Elias zeal for the Lord of hosts against idolatry: Such as was Phineas zeal against the beastliness of Zmiri the son of Sale, and Cozbi: Such as was Ezechias zeal for the people's revolt; Such as was good king josias zeal, for the Lords dishonour among the Priests: Such as was Nehemiahs' zeal when he heard the people speak half Hebrew, half Ashdod, half Sur, half Zion, half Christ, half Belial.  
Oh, to these holy Cherubicall zeals I exhort you (beloved) in the name of the Lord. Be you angry with those that are angry with God, when tribulation befalls them, or if their hearts be not glutted with all the delights they desire, or if God do not fill their bellies with onions, and garlic, and other such like grossness. Be angry with preachers that lie as jonah did under the gourd, and preach not. Be angry with the dogs that return to their vomit, and with hogs that wallow in the mire, albeit they have been ten times purged. Be angry with vice that ruleth, with the devil that rageth, with vanity that reigneth, with lies that sway almost every where. It remaineth that I only acquaint you with a safe station (while you are here) to stand in, and a powerful supplication (while we are here) to pray with.  
Let your station be like that of Elias in mount Horeb, who stood in the cliffs of the rocks entrance, until the strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire (in all which God was not) were passed by; but when he heard a soft, and still voice, he came out, and stood before the Lord: so let us be continually meditating the passion and rents of our rock Christ jesus, and hiding ourselves therein, while the winds of wickedness, the earthquakes of change and chances, the fire of might and malice, and while all the works of darkness (wherein God is not) pass by; until we hear a soft, and sweet voice of the Lord to call us forth of our station to rest: Then let us go forth willingly unto our well-beloved, and love him, and live with him for ever. Let our prayers and supplications in the mean while be the words of the hardhearted and misbelieving jews, but not their 
Mat. 26.  spirit; for they cried, His blood be upon us, and upon our children: and it was, and is so to their utter ruin, and desolation, even until this day, as a just judgement of God, for their crucifying the Lord of life. But we will pray, and say in the spirit of the faith of jesus in whom we believe: His holy blood be upon us, and upon our children to our salvation, according to God's blessed promise made to the patriarchs, Prophets, and to all the faithful.  
For he is the chiefest of ten thousand, etc. or as some read it, the chiefest of twelve thousand; where in we may see the mystery of the number, both of ten and twelve; as also the excellency of the party, that he is the chiefest in heaven, and the choicest on earth, together with the perfection of both heaven and earth in himself, and imparted to his chosen the Church of the redeemed. The Papists, imitating the Platonists, are very superstitious in numbers, the one putting a fatal necessity in them in the period of estates and kingdoms; the other affirming a certain secret efficacy to be in many numbers, but in the septenary number especially. Hence have they their canonical hours for prayer, and sacrifice. But Bodin in his book de Repub. justly taxeth Plato for that dream. And the schools conclude against them both, that Numeri, qua numerus, nulla vis, nulla efficacia. We therefore will content ourselves with the holy and mystical use, which the book of God maketh of them. The mystical numbers of sacred text are these, to wit, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, ten, twelve. Ten and twelve meet us in this text by variation of readings, both signifying perfection. Ten is the highest of simple numbers, all nations after ten begin to number again. The tenths was consecrated to the Priests, Gods servants. In the tenth month the waters of Noah's flood abated. Sem a father of the faithful seeth the tenth age: Ten words for the Creation of the world, and ten words for the government thereof, as the Talmudists observe.  
For twelve, we read of twelve patriarchs the sons of jacob, twelve stones set up in jordan, twelve precious stones in the breast plate of Aaron. At twelve years Solomon decideth the plea of the dead child. Christ the true Solomon at twelve years disputeth with the Doctors. Twelve Apostles are sent to perfect the kingdom of grace. Twelve foundations, twelve gates, twelve Angels the porters; a tree that beareth twelve manner of fruits medicinable all the twelve months of the year, describe the perfection of the kingdom of glory in the celestial jerusalem.  
Thus we see, that the mystery of the number showeth only the excellency of the perfection of the party, being the chiefest in heaven and earth, so described by john the Divine, Apoc. 5. A throne is seen in heaven, one sitting thereon having a book in his hand written within and without, sealed with seven seals. But none was found neither in heaven, nor in earth, nor under the earth worthy to open the book, no nor once to look into it. Then wept the Divine because none was found worthy to open the book; or once to look therein. But one of the Elders said, Weep not: Behold the Lion of the tribe of juda, the stock of David, hath so prevailed, that he may open the book, and lose the seals thereof.  
This book is God's will, these seven seals are loosed, and made known unto us by the declaration 
Rom. 1.  of jesus Christ. The first seal is his Nativity opened, Mal. 4. 2. But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise, and health shall be under his wings, and ye shall go forth, and grow up as fat calves.  
The second his Baptism, Zach. 13. 1. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.  
The third his Passion, poutrayed by Esay 53. chap. throughout.  
The fourth his Descent deciphered Hosh. 13. 14. I will redeem them from the power of the grave, I will deliver them from death: O death, I will be thy death: O grave, I will be thy destruction.  
The fifth is his Resurrection, recorded Psal. 16. 10. For thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.  
The sixth his Ascension, described Psal. 68 18. Thou art gone up on high, thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts for men, yea even the rebellious baste thou led, that the Lord might dwell there.  
The seventh is the sending of the holy Ghost, pointed out unto unto us, joel 2. 28. And afterward will I power out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.  
By the opening of the first seal, to wit, his Nativity, whereby he became flesh, he hath redeemed us from being worse than very brute beasts. For man being in honour understood it not, and therefore was compared to the beasts that perish. S. Augustine speaking of the grace of the new Testament comforteth us thus saying: Let no man despair, but conceive hope unspeakable, for by participation of the word, we become the sons of God, seeing that jesus Christ by incarnation is become the son of man. Ask your forefathers, saith Moses, and the days of old, even since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one end of heaven unto the other, if there come to pass such a great thing as this. Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of a fire, as thou hast heard, and lived? If Moses spoke thus of the voice of an Angel (for the law was given by the ministry of Angels) what may we say of the gracious words of eternal life, uttered by the Lord of life? Indeed the cloud that led the people of God in the wilderness, was dark toward the Egyptians, but bright and lightsome toward the Israelits: So if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, for now the book is opened, and the seals loosed.  
By Baptism the second seal we put on Christ, Gal. 3. 2. For as many as are baptised into Christ, have put on Christ, & are engrafted into him by the Spirit, Rom. 6. For if we be graffed into him by the similitude of his death: even so shall we be in the similitude of his resurrection. It being the lavacre of regeneration both privatively, and positively; privatively in forgiving our sinfulness, and positively in conferring his own righteousness upon us, begun by sanctification, perfected by glorification. This blessed seal of sacred baptism being unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Clemens Alexandrinus calleth it, the counterpoise of all deadly venom of corruption, being also the dilwium peccati, as Nazianzen cleapes it, the deluge of sin; the water of adoption, so Basil; and the purgatory of life, so Chrysostome. These virtues being not in the element, nor in the weight of the work, nor in the intention of the Baptizer, but only in the blood of Christ, which purgeth us from sin and shame.  
By the third seal, to wit, his Passion we are reconciled to God the Father, and sealed to everlasting life. Behold the wounds of Christ hanging upon the cross, his precious blood shed in his agony of death, the price of our redemption. Behold again his head on the cross inclined to hear us pray, his heart opened that we might see his dear love, his arms stretched forth to embrace us, his whole body exposed to shame, scorn, and torture, to redeem us.  
His descent the fourth seal was the death of death, and the death of the devil who had the power of death, the ruin of the gates of hell, that they might never prevail against his people, the triumph over darkness, and the defiance of all hellish power, and principalities.  
By his resurrection the fifth seal, our corruption putteth on incorruption, the bands of death are broken, the horror of the grave is turned to sweet repose and sacred rest in the Lord.  
By his ascension the sixth seal revealed, is opened an entrance to heaven for us, from whence before we were exiled. He is entered himself not in his own name, but in ours, according as he himself saith, I go to provide you a place. joh. 14. In a word, he ascended to fulfil all things, the earth with his mercy, hell with his justice, and the heavens with his glory.  
The mission of the holy Ghost being the seventh seal, hath furnished the Christian Church of the redeemed with the seavenfold graces of his glorious spirit. Gregory upon Ezech. saith, that seven ascents or steps were to go up into jerusalem the holy city, mystically signifying the seven graces of God's spirit tending to the perfection of Christian glory.  
The first of these gifts is filial fear, making us humble.  
The second, Christian piety, making us merciful.  
The third, divine knowledge, making us discreet.  
The fourth, sacred intelligence, causing us to be provident.  
The fifth is the wisdom of God, making us prudent.  
The sixth, fortitude, setting us free.  
The seventh, counsel, making us wise to salvation in every occurrence.  
These graces of God's Spirit are also signs unto our brethren, and seals unto ourselves, of our heavenly perfection. For by his revealed Nativity we as new borne babes in the second birth must desire the sincere milk of the word, to feed our souls thereby up to eternal life  
By baptism we learn to confess our sins to God, and turn our misdeeds outwards, as the Scolapendra doth her entrails to wash them.  
By his passion, only to rejoice in the cross of Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto us, and we unto the world.  
By his descent into hell, to remember that we covet not, lest we fall into temptation and snares of the devil.  
By his resurrection, to strive that we may have part in the first resurrection, so shall not the second death touch us.  
By his ascension, to seek the things that are above where now Christ our treasure is, and not the things beneath.  
And by the sending of his graces, whereby the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit 
Rom. 5. 5.  which is given unto us, that all things may be consecrated to God's glory.  
Which things that we may perform, behold Christ the chiefest in heaven hath opened the book, that we might know them, and loosed the seals that we might do them. Woe therefore be unto them to whom his book is yet shut, and those seals yet unloosed, for our Gospel is hid to none but to them that are lost. Christ jesus is also the chiefest to be found on earth. In the Revelation of S. joh. Chap. 7. there are 144000 sealed by twelves; Christ is sealed in the tribe of juda, in whom also the rest are sealed, to be the associates of the Lamb, according to that ancient prophecy of jacob, Gen. 49. saying, that the Sceptre should not depart from juda until Silo come. And against Dan he prophesieth thus; O Lord▪ I have waited for thy salvation, meaning Christ. Thus the Chaldaean paraphrasts.  
I will not here mention the portraiture which Pub. Lentul. sent unto the Senate of Rome, describing the lineaments of our Saviour, as he was upon earth: That he was gracious in aspect, of a smooth brow, of an aburne hair, long, and waving at his back like a Nazarite, with a parted beard, and the whole frame of his blessed body being incomparably beyond all men that ever were, both in feature and favour. For I am not ignorant how apocryphal that relation is in sacred history, and how grossly the Papists abuse themselves, and others in the table painting, & limming of that Lord of life, according to the rude hand of many an idle lozel, that dares adventure to portray that sacred beauty. But what a one the Scripture mystically hath deciphered, and described him to be, that willingly will we look upon, and behold with awful eyes of fear, and divine reverence. And therein also we shall see him the chiefest of ten thousand.  
The Psalmographer in the 45. Psal. setteth him out in the person of Solomon to be of surpassing beauty, in the dignity of his form. For he was fairer than the sons of men. Gracious in his speech, for grace was powered from his lips: valiant in his acts, for he was mighty in renown: powerful in his facts, for his arrows pierced the hearts of his enemies: splendent in his royalty, his throne being for ever, and his sceptre, a sceptre of righteousness itself. Magnificent in his whole deportment, for all his garments smell of Myrrh, Aloes, and Cassia.  
The beauty of joseph, David, and Absalon are recommended in Scripture, but the first had an alluring beauty, the father, and the son goodly to be looked on; but in Christ it was the beauty of perfection, and not of defection: Nullus in egregio corpore naews erat. The jews indeed saw no beauty, form, or feature in his face, Esay 53▪ yet was he peerless, being void of all stain, either of sin or shame; the most absolute perfection of beauty. For his eloquence, what eloquence may declare it? The Grecian Demosthenes, and the Roman Cicero, are herein but rudesbies. Hercules that was conceived to draw multitudes after him with golden chains, si ad illum comparetur, nihil est. The Queen of the South comes to hear the wisdom of Solomon, matchless in his time: but behold our true Salomon's eloquence, whom being yet but a child of twelve years, the grand Doctors are amazed to hear, Luke 2. Being a man his very enemies said, No man spoke like this man. john 7. His own that knew his worth said; Thou hast the 
joh. 6. 68  words of eternal life. When he disputed he put his adversaries to silence, as we may see in his discourse with the Sadduces: and when he preached, he taught with authority, and not as the Scribes. Mat. 7. 29. Yet this gracious eloquence, and heavenly charming was folly to the pharisees, who thrust him out, Lu. 4. 29. and to the unbelievers madness, and therefore they cry, He hath a devil. So even at this day, the spirit 
joh. 8.  of prophecy (which indeed is the savour of life unto life) becomes to some mispersuaded misbelievers the favour of death unto death. Neither is this eloquence of this chiefest the delicacy of words, but the efficacy of power; for out of his mouth goeth a two edged sword, Apoc. 1. 16. By the eloquence of his word he leadeth the facile, with the terror of his 
Volentes ducit, nolentes trahit.  sword he enforceth the stubborn, and unwilling: for if his word prevail not, which divides & discerns; divides between the soul and the spirit, the marrow and the joints, and discerneth the very intentions of the heart; then his sword, the rod of his manly mouth shall plague them, and the breath of his mouth shall kill them. Esay 11. 4.  
As for his power, who was ever able to resist it? either Heroic, or Heretic? Let the fatal destructions, and fearful downfalls of Herod Ascalonita, that murdered the infants of Bethlem, and died disconsolatly; of Herod Archelaus, who died ingloriously at Vienna in Austria, being but a terror only to Christ; of Herod Antipas, who beheaded john Baptist Christ's servant, and perished with his dancing minion in Spain; and of Herod Agrippa a persecuter of Christ's preachers, who was eaten up of worms in the sight of thousands at Caesarea Philippi, Act. 12. be exemplary warnings to all posterities how they dare resist the Lord jesus. Among the rank of heretics, let the wretched ends of Arrius, Nestorius, and Euty che be precedents of his power & puissant renown. And besides all this, the glorious increase, and godly perfection of his Church, maugre the projects of all his open, and secret enemies. The splendour whereof is so eminent, that it remaineth firm & steadfast, when other powers have yielded thereunto: For his kingdom shall have no end. Esay 9 7. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall bring it to pass. And God the Father hath given him a kingdom that shall not be taken away, Dan. 7. 14. As the Angel told the blessed Virgin, That Christ should rule over the house of jacob for ever, Luke 2. 33. His equity sustaining his throne, For he judgeth not by the sight of the eyes, nor by the hearing of the ears▪ but according to judgement, and equity. Esay 11. 4.  
His magnificence is boundless mercy, All about 
Psal 45.  him smell of Myrrh, Aloes and Cassia. For he abhorred not the confessing thief: he despised not the sinful woman that wept unto him: he rejected not the suppliant Canaanite: he judged not the adulteress apprehended in the fact▪ he called Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom; he had respect unto the disciple that denied him: yea he prayed for them that crucified him. And therefore the spouse representing the Church of the redeemed, saith in the Cant. We 
Cant. 1.  will run after thee in the sweet odours of these thine ointments, and fragrant perfumes, the sacred confections of thy most perfect nature.  
Thus we see our well-beloved to be the chiefest in heaven, and the choicest on earth, yea the perfection both of heaven and earth, both in himself, and also in his redeemed Church. For he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by which the heavens and the earth were perfected. The Elohim by whom all things in the great universe receive special perfection in particular; he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all sufficient for himself and others, rightly resembled to the glorious Sun, that hath light sufficient for itself, and for both the superior, and this inferior world also.  
He is Ens simplicissimum, and things the more simple, and devoid of commixture, the more pure and perfect they are, as heat is the more itself the less it is intermingled with cold; and wine the less it is allayed with water, and gold the less dross is in it, the more refined. But our well-beloved is most pure and perfect without any the least dram of blending or commixture.  
In a word, he is the perfection of life, motion, and being. 
joh. 3.   
Of life; for who so liveth not in him is dead already, albeit he hath a name that he liveth.  
Of motion; for who so moveth not in him is distracted, and doth peregrinarià Domino vitae, estrange himself from the Lord of life.  
Of being; for who so is not in him by his Spirit, is subject to be lost by an eternal privation.  
In his Church of the redeemed he is also of most absolute perfection, which Church consisteth both of men and Angels, he being the perfection of both: who albeit he was made man, yet was he God from everlasting, laid in a cratch, yet adored by Angels from heaven, and worshipped by sages on earth. The jews saw no beauty, nor comeliness in him, yet believing eyes saw in the mount a glimpse of that glory which ravished them with exceeding great joy. He was baptised as man, yet forgiveth sins as God; he hungered, yet filleth a thousand hungry souls with the bread of life, the Angel's food. He prayed as man, yet heareth our prayers as God: he wept as man, yet wipeth all tears from our eyes.  
In a word, he is the perfection of prophecy and priesthood, of sacrifice and sacrament.  
I exhort you therefore beloved and blessed in the Lord jesus; seeing that the chiefest, and choicest man and woman among us is more than a little imperfect, let us fly and hasten to our perfection, to be perfect men and women in Christ jesus, and to rest and abide with him, that we may be beautiful, and perfect, as surely all those shall be that abide steadfast, and are found in jesus Christ, according to his effectual prayer, john 17. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. For by him was our creation, in him is our preservation, and of him shall be our eternal felicity, and perfection.  
Let us then (men, fathers and brethren) return unto him with steadfast eyes lift up to heaven, where our perfection is; with bowed knees of humility, and grace, and with pure hands lifted up to the throne of God, without wrath, or envying, even to him that was, and is, and is to come; that he would grant us continuance of that we are to be his, and give us supply of that we want, and that we resolve that it is our chiefest grace, and choicest beauty, to have the least resemblance of his divine perfection in us. Even so Lord jesus. To whom with the Father, and the holy Ghost, be rendered all praise, perfection, power, majesty, and glory, throughout all ages, for evermore.  
Amen.   

Errata.  
Pag. 4 lin. 28. for when, read where. p. 17. l. 12. Goddess, read goodness. p. 23. l. 19 shall, read had. p. 30. l. 4. hearing, read learning. p. 27. l. 4. propale, read perpale.