A SERMON PREACHED AT MAPPLE-DURHAM in Oxfordshire: AND PUBLISHED at the request of Sir RICHARD BLOUNT. By I. B. D. D. and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty. Quoties 〈◊〉, toties iudicamur. Hierom. LONDON: Printed by T. S. for john hodget's. 1616. ROMANS 6. 23. The wages of Sin is Death; but the gift of God is eternal Life, through jesus Christ our Lord. ALl Scripture cometh from one fountain, which is the spirit of God: and therefore all Scripture is fit to perfect the man, of God. But as in Paradise, though there were one Fountain, yet it was divided into four Rivers, whose waters were diversly relished, according to the nature of the soil through which they passed: Or as in an Instrument of Music, though one wind give a general sound, yet by the diversity of the Pipes and Organs, the Tones are varied: So the holy Scriptures, inspired by one spirit, have an accidental difference, according to the nature of the Penmen of the sacred Scripture. Prologue in jobum. Hence is it that Gregory compared some Scriptures to Jacob's hazel rods; partly peeled, and partly covered: other Scriptures to Achabs' house of ivory, without any covering. The Scripture that I have read, is of the former sort, which craveth your attention whilst it is interpreted: craveth your affection when it is applied: And justly doth it crave both; the Holy Ghost joining together Ima summis, the highest and the lowest things, as Leo speaketh. The first proposition being of Death. The second of Life. Death, of all things the most terrible. Life, of all things the most comfortable. To leave an impression in you, I will compare them to the two remarkable Trees in Paradise. The first is as the Tree of the knowledge of good & evil. The second, as the Tree of immortality. The first the experimental Tree of Death. The second as the Sacramental Tree of Life. Both of these have a double consideration. In the tree of death, you may consider. First the bitter root, which is sin, and the evil fruit, which is death, the wages of sin. In the tree of life, you may consider the sacred root, which is God's gift; and the happy fruit, which is eternal life by jesus Christ our Lord. Sin the root of death. Death the fruit of sin. The gift of God the root of life. Life the fruit of the gift of God, are the four corners of the Altar, upon which at this time, we will offer up our sacrifice unto God. sin. The first is Sin, which Saint john doth define to be the breach of God's law. A law so much urged by the justice of God, that our Saviour Christ proclaimeth that heaven and earth shall pass away, but one iod or title shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. One Iod, which is but a letter amongst the Hebrews, as the grain of Mustard seed, the least of all letters, but one point (.) of a letter. From whence the Rabines have observed, that God changing the name of Sarai to Sara, took one Iod from her name; which that it might not be taken from the Law, he added one Iod to Osheah, and called him jehoshuah. A Law so urged that S. Paul repeats the sentence of God in a language of fear & trembling. Galat. 3. 10. Cursed is every man that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them. We are (bound), we are (All) bound, all to (Do) to do (All,) all to (Continue) to continue under pain of a (Curse,) a curse, which implieth, a Esay 30. a river of brimstone, and the breath of the Lord to set it on fire. This is the sentence of God against Sin: against every Sin: against the least Sin: whether it be a sin of Thought, or Word, or Act, or Degree, or Delight, or Desperation, or Omission. God hath concluded All Sin to be the Root of Death and destruction. How just then is the Complaint of b In Enchiridio. S. Augustine? Vaepeccatis hominum quae sola inusitata exhauressimus: Woe to the custom of sin, that taketh away the sense of sin, and causeth us to fear none but unusual, monstrous, & prodigious impieties. Common civility keepeth many a man from redness of the eyes, the inheritance of the Drunkard: from rottenness of the bones, the leprosy of the Adulterer: from jezabel's dogs, the sepulchre of the Oppressor. But Covetousness, Pride, Envy, Detraction, Bribing, Flattering, Idle-Complementing, and Fashioning of ourselves to all luxurious ambition, and foolish-vanities of the world, are now become Free-Denisons of Court, of City, of Country, that challengeth the privilege of the unrighteous judge, neither to be afraid of the justice of God, nor to be ashamed in the sight of men. I do confess, that there are Essential, and Accidental differences of sins: Some do grieve, some do resist, some do quench the spirit of God: But yet every sin in the own nature hath the sting of a Viper, and doth wound us mortally. Take a view, and you shall find that Adam lost Paradise for eating of an Apple: Some say it was an Indian fig, an enticing bait of sweetness. You shall find that God drowned the world for Imaginations. Gen. 6. 5. You shall find that a Homo▪ Iliadot. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, words of feathers, dalliances, chamberings, wantonness, and the scum of lasciviousness shall make us give an account at the day of judgement. b Bernard. Sagitta leviter volat, sed graviter vulnerat: Idle words are as feathered arrows, which fly lightly, but wound the soul deeply. Yea, you shall find that there are sins of Gesture, Quando cum oculis fabulamur: When saith S. Augustine we c De Doctri Christia. lib. 1. speak lewdly with our eyes: which God so punished in Lot's wife, that she is a pillar of Salt until this day. These sins, so small in our estimations, so familiar to our corruptions, so usual in our conversations, so glued to our affections, they have poison in the root, and the fruit of them is death. We read in Ecclesiastical history of Cassianus d Prud. Peristeph. Hym. 4. a Schoolmaster of Children, and a Scholar and Martyr of Christ, who by the commandment of the Tyrant, was stabbed to death by his scholars pen-knives. We read in Scripture of Amasa, whose bowels were shed out by the sword of joab. Of Sis●raes head gored with a nail: we read of Acha● who was wounded in his breast with an arrow. We read of Christ, whose side was pierced with a spear. All these did not wound a like deeply, but all did wound alike deadly. Spears, swords, arrows, nails, pen-knives, all instruments of the death of the body. Deeds, swords, looks, gestures, thoughts, all causes of the death of the soul. Our sins in Scripture are compared unto sands, which are very small considering them severally, and yet the greatest ship is easily swallowed up of quicksands. There is not a sin of any nature, but is as big as one of Herod's worms which devoured Herod's bowels. Noli despicere peccata tua quia parva sunt; August. nam et plwiarum guttae paruae sunt. Despise not (Augustine) thy sins because they are little; for the drops of rain are small, and yet they are the bottles of the heaven, and the fountains of the Ocean. To conclude this point. No sins are lesser than the point of those thorns that pierced August. in Enchi. the head of Christ. Pro quibus abluendis sanguis Christi effusus: For the washing away of which Christ shed drops of blood in the garden, and opened the spouts of blood on the Crosse. So bitter a root is sin, that it could not be taken away, but by the death of our Saviour: And as sin is a root so bitter; so no better is the fruit, which the text calleth Death. The wages and guerdon of Iniquity. The wages of Sin is (Death.) Death is the Fruit; but death as wages: For it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. is not a singular, but a plural death. The least sickness in the stomach, pain in the head, ache in the tooth, consumption in the lungs, wind in the belly, gravel in the kidneys, are the harbingers of death, are the wages of sin and iniquity. But to speak more distinctly. Death; saith S. Augustine is threefold. First, De 〈◊〉 Dei. 1 Quando Deus deserit animam volentem: When God forsakes the Soul, that will be forsaken. Secondly, Quando anima deserit corpus: When 2 the soul forsakes the body that would not be forsaken. Thirdly, Quando anima nolens tenetur 3 in corpore: When the unwilling soul is manacled to the body. The first expressed in the young man. Matth. 8. 22. to whom Christ said, Let the dead bury the dead. A strange speech; for a man would think that the dead were more fit to be buried, then to bury: But therefore was it delivered by Christ, that every Christian man may know, That a sinner's body, is but the breathing Sepulchre of a sinner's soul. The second expressed in Lazarus: john 11. 39 Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days. Whose body in life is a beautiful cask of ivory, within four days after the soul's departure, is nothing else but a stinking and loathsome carrion. The third expressed in Dives, Luke 16. 24. He prayed to Father Abraham, therefore he had a Soul: He had a tongue to be cooled; therefore he had a Body. That wretched man may know that this is everlasting Death, when soul and body are coupled together with everlasting chains of sorrow, that they may be sensible of their endless torment. But howsoever these three deaths are the wages of sin, yet there is a difference in the manner: For the death of the soul is the wages of sin, as an act of order: The death of the body, as an act of justice: The death of soul and body as an act of proportion. First, there is order in disorder. Man's disorder: God doth order. You read Exodus 7. 13. that Pharaoh hardened his own heart; before God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Durities est hominis peccatum, obduratio judicium Dei: they are the words of Calvin, upon the third verse, which I purposely allege. Hardness of heart is man's sin; hardening of the heart is God's judgement. You read in 1 Sam. 10. 9 10. that God gave to Saul an other heart. 1 Sam. 15. 26. Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast cast away the Lord, & the Lord hath cast away thee. 1 Sam. 16. 14. The spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. So you see that Saul first resisted God's spirit, before God sent upon Saul an evil spirit. In the very root of Reprobation; Adam first sinned, and then God punished. It is the Conclusion of Augustine, which shall conclude this point. Ad bonum prior est voluntas Creatoris, ad malum prior est voluntas Creaturae. God's will in goodness, is the first efficient. Man's will in wickedness is the first deficient. Sin goes before, and Death of the soul follows in order as the wages of sin. Secondly, Bodily-death, when the soul is breathed out, as it was breathed in; when the body which was composed of dust, is resolved into dust, is the wages of sin, as an act of justice. It is the sentence of God, Genes. 3. Because thou Non lege naturae sed merito peccati. Aug. de civit. lib. 13. cap. 15. hast hearkened to the voice of thy Wife, and hast eaten of the forbidden tree; thou shalt return to dust, from whence thou wert taken. Because thou hast eaten, thou shalt return to dust. Therefore if man had not eaten, he should not have returned to dust. God's power was as sufficient to have translated Adam from Paradise, without death, as to take up, Elias to heaven in a Chariot of fire. Let no Scotist, nor Andradian, nor jesuit bewitch you with any Philosophical speculation, as that of Plato, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: every thing that is composed, In Tim●o. must be resolved. Nor with that of Damascen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: everything that is made Ortho. fidei. De long▪ et brevi. vitae. is subject to be marred. Nor with that of Aristotle, that every body composed of contrary elements, disposed into contrary humours, must at length have a natural date of corruption. For S. Paul tells you, that death is not the dissolving of what God created, but the wages of sin, which man committed. Will you know the reason? You see by experience that the same Sun remains in the same substance, and individual circle, but all sublunary bodies do continue in succession. If then Philosophers give probable reason of this difference, because they say, Forma coeli tollit contradictionem materiae: The form of heaven taketh away all contrariety, & preserves them in an eviternity. Shall we think then that Afflatus oris divini, that the breath of De resurca●nis. Gods own mouth, as Tertullian calls the soul, had not a celestial power in the creation, to have eternally preserved a corruptible body from corruption? Again, Divinity hath made it plain, Genes. 2. God created two sorts of trees in Paradise: All the common trees in the garden for eating, but one celestial tree for preserving. Reliquae arbores erant alimento, arbour Aug. de civit. dei. lib. 13. c. 20. vitae erat sacramento: The other trees were for aliment, the tree of life was for a Sacrament. Examine then the cause of natural death, which is the decay of radical humour: If then the eating of the tree of life, did not, as ordinary meat, only refresh the body, but as a Celestial cordial, did repair the natural sap of the body, than no question but the angels sword that kept our first Parents from the tree of life, brought upon them, brought upon us, Legem moriendi, as the Fathers speak, the Law of Death and destruction. This is God's justice, when man defaced God's image in his soul, to take away the power of the soul. This is God's justice, when man eats of the forbidden fruit, to forbid him to eat of the fruit of Life. In the third place, the Death of Soul and Body is the Wages of sin, by way of proportion. For if any man shall wonder at the severe judgement of God, that extends his indignation to eternity, when the act of every sin is but short and momentary. If any man shall think that there is no proportion betwixt a finite time of sinning, and an infinite time of punishing: Let that man give a reason of the justice of man, and compare it with the justice of God. Why is Theft by the Laws of Man punished with Death? The time of stealing is but short, but the punishment is for ever. Tollitur de numero viventium. A thief, saith Lege, de ciu. dei. lib. 21. cap. 11. S. Austen is taken from the living, and shall never again return to life: Therefore though the act be temporal, the punishment is eternal. Again, by the justice of Man, every delinquent is proportionably punished, according to the quality of the party offended. By the Laws of the Romans, a simple Murderer was crucified, but a Parricide was sewed in a sack, with an Ape, a Cock, and a Serpent, and flung into the Sea, that he might neither have the light of the Sun, nor a breath of air, nor any to pity him, whilst he was alive; nor a Clod of earth, nor a leaf of grass to cover him, nor any other creature to bury him when he was dead. By the Law of julia, an Adulterer was beheaded: But by the Law of the twelve Tables, an incestuous vestal virgin was buried alive. If then the quality of the person against whom we sin, doth proportionably increase the quantity of the punishment: Man sinning against the infinite majesty of God, deserveth by proportion an infinite torment. Go a little farther. Inquire at the bar of Heaven, why sinful souls are harried to eternal sorrows? What did God give? Did he not create man in perfection? Did he not give a power to live for ever? Therefore saith Anselmus. Factus est malo dignus aeterno, qui inse peremit bonum quo potuit esse aeternus: Was not he worthy by proportion of eternal death, who lost in himself, and by himself the power of eternal life? Let no bastard-brood of Origen deceive you with pretence that the immortal worm shall die, that the everlasting fire shall be quenched. You read in the 25. of Matth. 46. The wicked shall go into everlasting punishment; The righteous into everlasting life. From hence S. Augustine hath most gravely observed. here is Death everlasting, & Life everlasting; both equal. Therefore, Aut utrumque cum fine diuturnum; Aut utrumque sine fine perpetuum: You must make either both to have an End, and then no Eternity of Heaven: Or both to have no End, and then there is an Eternity of Hell. I doubt not therefore but that it is sufficiently cleared by way of explication, that the death of the soul, of the body, of soul and body, are the wages of sin, by an act of order, of justice, of proportion. But as these things are sufficiently cleared, so I beseech you suffer them to be effectually enforced. For first. If the Death of the soul be fearful, and therefore more fearful because less sensible; as Physicians speak of Hectic fevers, which are never discerned perfectly till they kill mortally. We can behold a Lazar at Dives gate, & be sensible of his sores. We can see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the moving rubbish of men, as Nazian. styles them, and be sensible of their sorrows. But could we behold a Lazarus and Leprous soul, whom the dogs of hell will not lick; could our eyeballs fasten upon so loathed an object, we would exclaim with S. Bernard: Si meipsum non inspicio, meipsum nescio: Si inspicio meipsum ferre non queo: If I look not into myself, I am like unto a frantic man that know not my own madness; If I look into myself, I am like a desperate man, that cannot endure 〈◊〉 own vildness. We may learn from every Coarse ●hat is buried, what the daughters of Israel ●ere to learn from CHRIST crucified: Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves. Plangis corpus quod deserit anima: Non plangis Chrysost. animam quam deserit Deus? Thou dost bewail a body forsaken of the soul, and dost not bewail the soul forsaken of God. S. Austen confesseth that in his youth (as many wantoness do) he read the Love History of Aeneas and Dido with great affection: And when he came to the death of Dido, he wept for pure compassion. But, O me miserum, (saith the Father) I bewailed (miserable man that I was) the fabulous death of Dido, forsaken of Aeneas, and did not bewail the true death of my soul, forsaken of her jesus. How many unhallowed tears are sacrificed to the idols of our eyes, which yet are as dry as Pumises in regard of our souls! I will conclude this meditation with S. Austin's devotion. Nihil est miserius, misero non miserant seipsum: Nothing is more miserable, than a miserable soul that doth not comprehend her own misery. Again, is the Death of the Body the Wages of sin? This also is a fearful thing. Fearful in the preparation. Fearful in the separation. In the preparation: For all our Life is but a consumption unto Death; sorrows of mind, and sicknesses of the body, are but the harbingers of the grave. Search the Gospel, you shall find one blind, another deaf, another lame. One Lazar lying at Dives gate, another at the pool of Bethesda, a third at the beautiful gate of the Temple. You shall find hear a Leper crying, there a woman with an issue of blood adoring. Here the house untiled by the sick of the Palsy, there the graves haunted by men possessed of Devils. Nescias utrum apelles vitam mortalem an mortem vitalem: We cannot (saith S. Austen) tell what to call our Life, whether a Dying Life, or a Living Death, when every day our houses of clay do crumble to corruption. Bodily Death is Fearful in the Separation. For it is not a Law written in letters of ink, but of blood, bred in the marrow of our bones, and centred in our bowels: That skin for skin, and all that man hath for the safeguard of his Life. Never was there a great cry in Egypt, till there was a great slaughter in Egypt: And then Magnus' clamour, a great cry and Lamentation. Never was Bethlem in woe, until Herod's sword was bathed in the blood of infants. And then vox audita, A voice was heard in Rama, Rachel would not be comforted. There was nothing but carousing to the gods of gold & silver in the feasts of Balthasar, till the hand-writing appeared upon the wall; but then Mutatus est vultus, the King's countenance was changed, his joints were dissolved, his knees failed, his heart fainted. The Soul and the Body are old friends, so enchased one into another, that they cannot part without sighing. Bos bovem requirit, saith Hierome: If an Ox do bellow at the loss of his yoke-fellow; questionless then there is a natural, and fearful Horror, when the soul is rend from the body. And yet behold, we are prodigal of our lives, to spend them upon Harlots, as the youngman in the Gospel, who after his surfeiting with his droves of Harlots, could not any way be satisfied amongst the herds of Hogs. In the 5. of john, verse. 3. There lay a multitude of impotent folk at the pool of Bethesda: Some blind, some halt, some withered. So many sick, so many sinners. It is plain by Christ's words: Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. Sin no more: Therefore he sinned before: therefore he sickened, therefore jezabel died, therefore all the world shall be dissolved. It is the wicked man's curse, that He shall not live out half his days. Why, doth God alter his decrees? Surely no; But man having a general period of Life, by natural constitution, that if sickness within, and casualties without do not take away life, he may attain to the years of his Fathers. But wicked men pull upon themselves ordinary rottenness, and extraordinary judgements: They live not out half their days. To conclude. Why will you die, O you house of Israel? No man is so fearful at his Death, as the Carnal man that is Prodigal of his life. But if this were all, the Epicure would do well enough. He would say of his Death; Quando mors est, nos non sumus, quando nos sumus, mors non est: When Death is, we are not; When we are, Death is not. There is therefore another Death which imprisons a damned soul in a tormented body. Where Death is, and Man is. Vbi anima est non vivendi causa sed dolendi: Where, saith S. Austen, the soul is not to give comfort of life; but to give the sense of eternal Death. The apprehension of which Death, hath drawn water out of rocks, and cloven iron hearts in sunder. It is the excellent speech of Luther. Qui novit quid sit certare cum formidine aeternae mortis, in sanctorum fletibus nullos excessus reperiet: He that knoweth what it is to strive with the fear of eternal Death, shall find no strangeness in the affected passions of the Saints of God. You read of Peter that he wept bitterly. Of jeremy that he was drunk with wormwood. Of Mary that washed Christ's feet with tears. Of David, that he caused his bed to swim. Of jonas, that he cried out of the belly of hell. Their hearts whilst they sinned, were like frozen snowballs: when they melted with apprehension of eternal fire, they thawed out at their eyes, and caused a flood of tears. It is observable in Christ's prayer, Luk. 13. 34. Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. In the Converts prayer, Act. 2. Men and brethren, Quid faciemus, what shall we do? When they crucify, they know not what they do: when they hear they have crucified, they know not what to do. I will conclude this point, with another passionate meditation: That a sorrowful soul apprehending the wrath of God, and the infinite punishment due to sin. Such a sinner goeth to heaven by the very gates of hell; his sighs, Luther. as pillars of smoke perfumed with myrhhe, ascend up into the presence of God, to implore mercy, being fully assured in the midst of all his fears, that howsoever Eternal Death is the wages of sin, yet that the Gift of God is eternal life through jesus Christ our Lord. This is the Tree of life, the Root whereof is the Grace and gift of God by jesus Christ: The Fruit eternal Life, and happiness. Of these the time will not permit to speak largely; and yet no Tongue can speak sufficiently. In the Root, we may first observe that it is a Gift. Death is wages, no Gift. Life is a Gift, and no Wages. Wages supposeth Demerrit. Gift supposeth no Merit. If it be a Gift, then is it not deserved. If it be Deserved, then is it no Gift. In one word S. Bernard hath concluded it. Sufficit ad meritum scire, quod non sufficiant merita: It is sufficient to know of Merits that there is no sufficiency of our Merits. A Gift than it is: but not every Gift. A gift it is, but not every way a Gift. For first; It is Donum Dei, the Gift of God; to make a distinction from men's Gifts. And next it is per jesum Christum, by jesus Christ, to distinguish it from the common Gifts of God. First: It is the Gift of God; not the pharisees Gift. Math. 28. They gave large gifts to the Soldiers, to equivocate & lie artificially: Say that whilst we slept his Disciples stole him away. But the Gifts of God are not given to corrupt us, but to amend us. It is no pharisees Gift. Neither is it Dionysius Gift, to rob the temple, that they may build an Hospital. The price of Christ was such a Gift to buy the Potter's field to bury strangers, but it is the Field of Blood until this day. God takes not life from one, that he may give it to another. Our Salvation is not builded upon the Angel's Damnation: But in the due order of causes, he would have all to be saved. It is not Jacob's Gift, for fear of Esau, to pacify Esau's wrath. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lords, Romans 14. 8. It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Greek Orator speaks, the Huksters' Gift: who look for more, for the reward of their gift, than the price of the gift: For our living for ever, adds nothing to God's blessedness, but to our happiness. It is not any man's gift, which is subject to repenting, for the unthankfulness of the receiver: For the gift of life in the Saints of God, hath this power, that as it giveth Happiness, so it worketh thankfulness. He that is not thankful to God, hath not yet received the first fruits of Grace. All these ways is it distinguished from the gifts, of Men: But above all these, it is per jesum Christum, by jesus Christ; and so it is above all the gifts of God: For without Christ the Sun riseth upon the just and unjust. Without Christ; Esau hath the fat of the earth; Naball his Flocks of sheep; Nimrod his Herds of beasts; Nabuchadnezzar his pile of wonderment; Herod his rob of stars. But Eternal life, as it is God's gift, so it is Christ's purchase, not of gold, but of Blood; not of the blood of Goats, but of the precious blood of jesus Christ. Look in every link of the chain of Heaven: How are we predestinated to the Adoption of Children? By jesus Christ, Ephe. 1. 5. How are we called to Glory? By jesus Christ, 1 Pet. 5. 10. How are we justified? In jesus Christ, Rom. 4. 26. How are we sanctified? In jesus Christ, Ephes. 2. 10. In what is our Hope? In the resurrection of jesus Christ, 1 Peter 1. 13. In whom is our Peace? In jesus Christ, Rom. 5. 1. Who is the Mediator of Redemption? jesus Christ, 1 Timothy. 2. 5. Who is the Mediator of Intercession? Our Prayers are offered upon a golden Censure by the Angel of Covenant, which is jesus Christ, Revel. 8. 3. He maketh continual Intercession for us, Romans 8. 34. Who hath conquered Death? jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 15. 37. By whom attain we eternal salvation? By jesus Christ our Lord, 1 Thess. 5. 9 Our predestination, Calling, justification, Sanctification, Hope, Peace, Redemption, Intercession, the Conquest of Death, our Purchase of Life; All come unto us by the Merits of jesus Christ. O then disconsolate soul, whosoever thou art, that art tossed with woes, confounded with fears, amazed with the terrors of eternal Death. here is Balm of Gilead, dropping from the Root of less: Be not disquiered (O blessed soul) trust in God; it is his Gift, not thy Merit. Trust in Christ, it is his Purchase, not thy Price. Trust in God, the fountain of Mercy. Trust in Christ the Fountain of Merit: And they will deliver thy soul from the broken Cistern, from the waterlesse pits, from the windy Clouds, from the withered reeds of thy own imperfections. God so loved the world that be gave his Son. Christ so loved the world that he gave himself. He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. Mentitur johannes fy peccatum mundi, quod non tollit Agnus Dei: It is the plain speech of S. Hierome, that S. john the Evangelist had told a lie if there were any sin of the world, which the Lamb of God had not taken away. The Grace of God by the sole Merits of Christ is the sacred Root of Eternal Life and Happiness. But of the golden apples of eternity how shall I speak? It is the confession of Philosophy, that our understanding of heavenly things, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the eyes of Bats and Owls, that cannot behold the suns glory. It is the Profession of Divinity, that these joys were never perceived of the eye: Never received by the ear: Never conceived by the heart of man, 1 Corinth. 2. Yet, as the Apostle speaks, Videmus per speculum, we see in a Glass; as Elias, we see under a mantel, the glory and happiness of heaven. For what is more glorious on earth than a Kingdom? A Kingdom is promised, Luke 12. Fear not little flock, it is your Father's pleasure to give you a Kingdom. What is the honour of a Kingdom, but a Crown? A Crown is promised, yea an incorruptible Crown of Glory, 1 Corinthians▪ 9 What is in a Crown more precious than the massiness of Gold, and lustre of jewels? And these are promised. Aeternum pondus gloriae: An eternal weight of glory, 1 Corinth. 5. And our Bodies to be like the stars in beauty, 1 Corinthians 15. But what speak I of Stars? The Scripture saith, that our Bodies shall be like to the Body of jesus Christ, whose glory is shadowed out with the comparison of Angels. Matth. 28. 3. The text speaketh of the Angel, that his countenance was like Lightning, and his Raiment like Snow. Matthew 17. 2. The text speaketh of Christ's transfiguration, (the glass of his glory) that his Face did shine as the Sun, and his Garments▪ as the Light. Our glory shall not be like to the Angels, lightning, and snow; but to Christ the sun and light of heaven. So that at the day of judgement, Leah shall not arise with blear eyes; nor Mephibosheth with lame feet; nor Ehud with a withered Arme. But the Bodies of the Saints shall arise, as so many glorious Suns, from the horizon of Earth, to the circumference of Heaven. I am swallowed up in contemplation, and must conclude with the history of the Queen of Sheba, unto King Solomon, 1 King 10. 6. She said unto the King, It was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy Acts and Wisdom: Howbeit I believed not, till I came, and mine eyes had seen: and behold the half was not told me. First, we are farther from Heaven, than the Queen of Sheba from Solomon. Secondly, we hear of Heaven, as the Queen of Sheba of Solomon. Thirdly, our report is true of Heaven, as their report of Solomon. Fourthly, you do not believe our report of heaven, no more than the Queen of Sheba the report of the Wisdom of Solomon. But when your eyes shall see God, and enjoy Heaven, you will confess, that not half the Glory was reported in Earth, which you find in Heaven. When the Queen, that is the Church, shall stand on the right hand of the Lamb, glorious in divers colours, in the infinite, incomprehensible variety of happiness. To this Kingdom, this Crown, this Eternal weight of glory, good Lord bring us, for the infinite Mercies, for jesus Christ's infinite Merits. Amen. Laus Deo.