THE SACRIFICE.  
A SHORT SERMON Upon PSAL. 51. 17. at St. Mary's in Oxford, Sept. 3. 1637.  
By CLEMENT BARKSDALE, (then) of Gloucester Hall.  
LONDON, Printed by T. W. for W. Lee, and are to be Sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Turks-head in Fleetstreet. M. DC. LV.   

THE SACRIFICE.  
A SERMON UPON PSAL. 51. 17.  The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt thou not despise. 
BOnaventure compares this Psalm, the fiftieth in the vulgar Latin, to the year of Jubilee; as in that year servants were restored to themselves, and Lands to their ancient possessors: so in this Psalm we may behold a Man captivated by sin, recovering his liberty by repentance, and restored again to the possession of God's favour, which his high offence had forfeited David is the Man: one of so firm and sublime a station in the Church of God, that we cannot behold his fall without some horror. Cum dolore quidem dicimus, etc. I speak of holy David's sin with sorrow and trembling, saith St. Austin, but yet I must speak of it: for it was not written, that it should be buried in silence, 'twas written at first, and 'tis now remembered, not for imitation, but for caution. For, as God out of his wisdom hath suffered his strongest servants to fall, that he might preserve them from pride, and make them know by whose hand they are upheld: so hath he caused their falls to be set upon record, that others by their remembrance might fear to presume. If a Peter, the forwardest among the Apostles, deny his Master; a David, the Man after Gods own heart, prefer his lust before his God; if these Hero's so grievously fall, what circumspection and heed to my standing should I poor weakling have? And on the other side, if he that renounced Christ, and he that added Murder to Adultery; if these heinous offenders are received again into favour, why should I despair of mercy? Thus from the height of the persons that fell, we may argue against presumption; from the depth of the Sins whence they risen, we may take comfort against despair. Audiant qui ceciderunt, ut surgant: audiant qui non ceciderunt, ne cadant; nor is it easy to say, from which of the two, whether from the infirmities of the Saints, or their virtues registered for our use in the Book of God, the Church receives more good. But, alas! as the Father complains, multi cadere volunt cum David, & nolunt surgere cum David; such is humane, whether weakness or perverseness, that among the great number of those that accompany David in his Sin, few there are that follow him in his Repentance.  
Not to detain you too long from the Text: upon the Prophet's admonition, our Penitent addresses himself to his Psalm of mercy: Miserere Domine! Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions: and so he goes on, like a pitiful suppliant, until toward the conclusion of the Psalm, (which is observable also in many other Psalms, that begin in a sad tune, in heaviness and distress, but conclude in rejoicing and assurance: to teach us, that Humiliation is the only true way to comfort:) I say, toward the conclusion of the Psalm, feeling in himself, and tasting as it were, what he prayed for, the joy of the Holy Spirit, he no sooner receives the benefit, but is full of thankfulness: in token whereof he voweth to serve and glorify the God of his salvation; but his zeal is not suffered to outrun his discretion: for whereas God's service is either moral, or ceremonial: the ceremonial consisting in legal rites and sacrifices, wherein God delighteth not: not at all, as they are considered by themselves, without respect to the end of them; so as the sign and thing signified are separated, Moses and Christ opposed; or else, not so much, nothing in comparison of the moral service. David therefore discreetly passeth over the ceremonial service, in the precedent verse, and comes to the moral, consisting in spiritual Sacrifices and Oblations, fittest for him to give, and most delightful for God to receive.  
The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit, etc.  
In which words you may be pleased to observe these three parts: 1. The matter of the Sacrifice, the thing to be offered, expressed in two words: Spirit and heart: 2. The qualification or requisite conditions of the matter in the words, broken and contrite: 3. God's gracious acceptance, in the first and last words of the verse: these are the Sacrifices of God; these he will not despise. What the meaness of the speaker cannot hope for, in so grave and learned an Assembly, let the ever honoured name of our Lord and Master Christ Jesus challenge your patience and attention to that which by God's assistance, and with a sincere aim at his glory, shall from the mouth of his servant plainly be delivered; and first of the first part.  

I. Spirit and Heart.  
The Soul of Man is signified by both words: and it is the ●●se of Scripture thus to multiply words of the same signification, either propter emphasin, or propter exegesin: to show the earnestness of the Speaker, or to help the understanding of the Hearer. If we will distinguish them, then by Spirit may be understood the superior part and faculties, the faculties which are inorganical, and depend not on corporeal instruments: by Heart we may conceive the inferior powers, so called from that principal member of the Body, the chief seat and original of life and affection. Well then, the Soul, and the whole Soul is to be sacrificed.  
As in the Mosaical Law God reserved the Inwards for himself, so in our Evangelical service he requires especially our inward Man; nay, without it, the Jewish Sacrifices were not accepted. All their Ceremonies before Christ; and our outward performances since Christ, are of none account, unless the heart concur and give value to them. Flavius Josephus calls the Polity of the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God himself was immediately the Author of it; he gave them Laws both Civil and Ceremonial, and so could not but be pleased with what himself commanded: nevertheless when the Jews preferred those outward signs and ceremonies, before inward and moral duties; when they came once to this pass, that they placed all Religion and holiness in them, how sharply doth the Lord upbraid them by his Prophets? Let me call to your remembrance two remarkable places to this purpose, which do fully show how God stands affected. In the first of Esay ver. 10. the Prophet calls for audience, and in the following words, he expostulateth with the superstitious Jews: To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord, I am full of the burnt of Rams, and the fat of fed Beasts, and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks. If the Lord delight not in these, what then would he have? that the Prophet signifies, v. 16. Wash you, make you clean, cease to do evil, learn to do well; and then come, saith the Lord, v. 18. though your sins be as Scarlet, they shall be as white as Snow. In the sixth of Micah, v. 6. a question is proposed, Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with  offerings, with Calves of a year old? will the Lord be pleased with thousand of Rams, or ten thousand of Rivers of Oil? This is much, and who is there that can repent at so dear a rate? but there's more yet: shall I give my first Born for my transgression, and the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul? The Answer's Negative: none of this will do; no, the Lord hath not required it. Why, what then hath the Lord required? that follows at the 8. v. and I pray you mark it well: He hath showed thee, O Man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? there's the top of all, the humiliation of the Soul, to walk humbly with thy God.  
If the Prophets in the Old Testament, by such pathetical passages endeavoured to lessen the esteem of outward ceremonial worship, and press upon the Jews the inward and moral, what may we expect from Christ and his Apostles in the New, when Types and shadows are vanished, and have given place to the substance now exhibited? Christ hath denounced no less than eight woes in one Chapter against Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites, that appear beautiful outwardly, and cleanse only the outside of the Cup: and St. Paul hath set it down for a rule to Timothy, Bodily exercise is of little profit.  
Wherefore if I were to speak to such as are superstitiously addicted to the outward form of Godliness, denying the power thereof (that there would be such, the Apostle hath foretold) such would I beseech to remember Esay's Quis requisivit? who hath required these things at your hands? and that frustra colunt, which our Saviour urgeth, Mar. 7. In vain do they worship me, teaching for Doctrines the Commandements of Men. The aim of my Speech is not to condemn any humane Ordinance, for the better ordering of the Church, not repugnable to God's word: but this is my drift, that we would all employ our chiefest care to serve God with that, which he most cares for; and therefore I beseech you, Fathers and Brethren, that you present your Souls a living Sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.  
A living Sacrifice. Behold here a main difference between this and the legal offering; the Beast was slain; the Soul then truly gins to live, when she is offered up to God; for as the Soul is the life of the Body, so is God the life of the Soul; ye● somewhat in the Soul is slain; Lust and Wantonness are slain, and then as it were, a Goat is offered: Wrath and Anger are slain, and then as it were, a Bull is offered: but these are enemies of the Soul, by whose death she lives the better; And hence from the benefit accrueing to the Soul by this oblation, may be taken an incentive to the performance of it; perform it we shall the rather, if we consider, that all the rest we can possibly do in God's service, without this, is but mere simulation, no more but the acting of a Religious part upon a Stage. Can we pray unto God, till our Tongues are weary, and our Knees cleave to the dust; could we fast as long as Moses and Elias; could we feed the hungry, and  the naked of the whole world; whatsoever can be imagined to be done, & there be wanting an humble and religious heart, all is to little purpose in God's esteem, 'tis not piety, but hypocrisy; not Religion, but ostentation.  
Nor do I mean that the business of Religion is to be dispatched privately between God and our own Souls only: that's the other extreme. The Soul indeed hath the first and choicest place, both because it hath the greatest share in sin, the rest being but instruments of sin, and fuel for sin abused by the Soul, and so the Soul in point of justice is to bear the greatest pain in the exercise of Humiliation; and also, because it is the best thing we have, and most peecious in God's account, and so in point of gratitude to be chief offered. Now as the Scripture saith of God, Having given us his Son, how shall he not give us all things? so may it be said of us; offering up to God our Soul, that which is in our Bosom and dearest to us, how shall we choose but give him all things else? Our Bodies, form into reverend gestures at the performance of Religious exercises, and chastened with those too much neglected works of mortification, whereby the Soul as it were setting Foot upon the Body raiseth herself higher for Divine contemplation: Our Estates too, extending them to pious uses, works of mercy: wherein, as God himself to our great comfort is principally exercised, so when we resemble him therein, he is in us most delighted. Thus a broken Body is required, and a broken Estate too, but above all, a broken Soul.  
And here see the goodness of God in requiring that Sacrifice which the poorest Man may offer as freely as the richest. Under the Law, when a Lamb was wanting, God accepted of a pair of turtle Doves. Thou poor Soul, that hast nothing, dost thou ask me, Quid retribuam? What shall I render, what shall I offer unto God? Habes in te quod offer as. August. Harken, I will tell thee how thou mayst be as liberal as the best; Give him thyself: give him a broken and a contrite Heart. If there be any advantage, it seems to be on the poor Man's side; for there is a certain thing that the Apostle mentions, 1 Tim. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, pride and high-mindedness usually waits upon rich Men, quite contrary to this humbling of ourselves: and besides, daunt sua non se: because they give unto God somewhat of their Estates, they are the more apt to withhold, and make the bolder to keep back from him somewhat of themselves: but Men of a poor and of a broken Estate are more easily brought to that poorness and brokenness of Spirit, which is of so high esteem with God, and being able to give little else, will give themselves wholly.  
Wholly, I say; for the Soul, and the whole Soul is to be offered. God hath employment for every part and faculty of it. To the understanding he is truth: to the will goodness itself: our fear hath his wonderful judgements to work upon; our love cannot but take flame from his loving kindness: what greater joy, then in his presence? what better things can be hoped for, than his promises? He hath enemies of his glory for our anger and indignation to spend themselves upon, especially those domestic enemies in our own Bosom, our sins, the proper object of our sorrow too; this anger and sorrow are the busiest Agents in the work of Humiliation; they will not leave, till the whole Soul be broken; that as the hard and impenitent heart kept out God, so the broken heart may give him entrance: and as sin hath overspread the whole, so there may be a gracious work wrought upon every part. When the Soul is thus whole, that is, no part withheld from God, and thus broken that is, truly humbled for her offences, then have we our offering ready: the former wholeness doth not exclude this breach of contrition. So from the matter itself, the Heart and Spirit, let us with your patience proceed to the qualification or requisite conditions of the matter, in the words, broken and contrite:  
The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit, etc.   

II. Broken and contrite.  
I will not be curious in the terms, only tell you this from a learned hand, that they seem to be borrowed from the manner of Sacrificing among the Jews. Their Sacrifices were first cut in pieces, not mangled but jointed, as is observed out of the Jewish Rituals; that was their breaking: then were they burnt to ashes, that was their contrition. A breaking and contrition which doth not unfitly represent the breaking and contrition required in true repentance. Wherein we must after a sort take asunder every part and faculty of the Soul, and examine the particular defects; not the greater defects only, but piercing into the closest corruptions, in recessus animi; searching the most retired Corners of this Labyrinth.  
A necessary piece of work, this breaking and contrition; but hard and ungrateful to most Men: to such, as frame to themselves a new pleasing Divinity agreeable to their own lusts & ends: such as think to gain Heaven and Earth together: who, not remembering that Christ himself wore a Crown of thorns before that of glory, and bore the Cross before the Sceptre, hope to walk to Heaven on Roses, to live in all the delights & pleasures of this world, and be ne'er the further off from that eternal happiness of the world to come. Scrupulous they are, in the judgement of these, & unpolitick, that require in a Christian life, such mourning in private, such breaking of the Heart, such contrition of the Spirit. Yet they will in the end appear the wiser sort, that are content to forgo the pleasures of this life, for the joys of that hereafter. And indeed we must all be content, unless we can find a smother way to Heaven, than God hath showed us, than Christ and all the Saints have led us, we must be content I say; notwithstanding the tenderness of the Flesh, that prompts every Man, with propitius esto tibi, to take seriously in hand this work so necessary. Let the Flesh reclaim and deter us from setting upon it: or when we are about it, let it move us to do it slightly, yet for all this we must do it, and we must do it throughly.  
Now for the through performance of this work let us take a view of the means. It is true, there is a Tribunal within us, and a witness also within us, and an executioner also to torment us sur do verbere; but neither is this torment so effectual, nor the witness so faithful, nor the judge so incorrupt, that the business can be completed without any further help. Our natural knowledge of the principles of good and evil is but weak: in the application of which principles to our particular actions we are not skilful. The Copy of the Law was written in our Hearts exactly at the first, when we had Hearts of Flesh, and capable of a fair Impression; but since our hearts became stony, the Characters are much defaced, and we have need to repair to the authentic Copy, thereby to correct our errors and supply our defects. I mean the Law written in the Holy Bible, of which the Psalmist hath a fit Elogium: The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the Soul. Psal. 19 God that can out of stones raise up Children unto Abraham, and draw water out of the hard Rock, can as well by the power of his word melt these Rocky Hearts of ours into tears of penitence, and of these stones make us new Hearts. Vox Domini confringens Cedros, Ps. 29. The voice of the Lord is mighty in operation; and although as it proceeds from the mouth of his weak Minister it be but wind, yet this wind accompanied with the virtue of his Holy Spirit, is strong enough, not only to shake the top branches, but even to rend up the bottom root of the tallest Cedar. The Sword of the Spirit hath a sharp point and a keen edge; when it is managed by a Paul or Apollo's, Men mighty in the Scriptures, and such as have boldness equal to their skill, it will pierce and cut deep, even to the dividing asunder of the Heart and Spirit.  
Besides a powerful application of the Law unto a sinner's conscience, it pleaseth God many times to further this gracious work by joining with it some affliction. Affliction sanctified hath a special influence to that effect. Worldly Crosses drive the Soul inward, and put us into a serious meditation of their Original: Omnis paena propter culpam: All the evil of pain is for the evil of sin; the consideration whereof brings a fresh report of God's anger to the guilty conscience, and makes the wound wider. And withal, it may be noted, Men are usually punished in the same kind wherein they have offended. The punishment so answers the offence, that the one serves to renew the memory of the other; and thus is the Book of conscience like unto some secret Letters, most plainly read by the fire of tribulation. These briefly I take to be the means, whereby a hard heart is broken, Conscience awaked and informed by the Law sound applied, the Law backed by Affliction.  
The Sinner being arrested by the terrors of a natural Conscience, the threats of the Law, and some present tokens of God's anger; although like a malefactor he be ready to try all shifts before he will fly to the mercy of the Judge, cannot hold against so strong impressions: to stand out, he sees, were but to make God redouble his strokes; now at length he understands, by his own feeling, the malignant quality of sin: he melteth into sorrow one while, other while he is cut to the Heart with a holy indignation: Oh, saith he, in the detestation of his sins, that I should ever so ingratefully forget God, and so desperately neglect my own safety: that being a Man, I should lead a life so brutish: that without care so much as of common honesty, I should commit acts so shameful! What madness was it to pretend to happiness, and venture upon such pernicious erterprises: so greedily to swallow poison, and to hug my own damnation! Oh, how am I am bashed and confounded, that for a trifle, a matter of nothing, a few ounces of gain, a little breath of applause, some minutes of delight, I should so, and so often, by such and such sins, offend so presumptuously against so glorious a God, so undutifully against so kind a Father, so ungratefully against so gracious a Redeemer!  
The case of our penitent, whilst he hath one eye fixed on God's Majesty, the other on his own guilt, is pitiful beyond expression. Da Christianum, & scit quod dico. The intercourse between God and the Soul is truly known only to the experienced Christian. He alone conceives what it is to receive the word with fear and trembling: with what affectionate longing, and thirsty desires the Soul panteth and gaspeth after mercy, choosing rather to hear of mercy then a Kingdom. He that hath felt the smart of sin, knows what detestation is due unto it, and that there is no sorrow like unto that sorrow. Reuben principium doloris mei: as some read it. Gen. 49. 3. jacob calls Reuben the beginning of his sorrow, non quod in nullo, etc. because all his former griefs were swallowed up in that which the Sin of Reuben brought him. If another's sin were so grievous, how much more ones own. So heavy is the burden of this sorrow, that it presseth down the Soul well nigh to desperation; it may be truly said, that a penitents way to Heaven lies near the Gates of Hell: and Satan, that at first plays the Serpent, by fly temptation, turns Lion in our distress, and endeavours by open force to draw us in. But our comfort is, that when we are cast down, God hath not cast us off: when we walk through this shady vale, he shall lead us forth to the Streams of comfort; when our Heart and Spirit is broken and contrite, then are we his Sacrifices, than he doth not despise us. So from the qualification of this Sacrifice in the words broken and contrite, we are fallen upon God's acceptance and esteem of it, in the first and last words, these are the Sacrifices of God, these he will not despise.   

III. The Sacrifices of God.  
Sacrifices in the Plural, to signify, pro omnibus unum sufficere, as Calvin notes: that this one Sacrifice of a broken Heart is worth all Sacrifices of God: not because he is the giver of what we offer: although thats very true; for what have we worth a giving, which we have not first received? but that's not the meaning here; the addition of God to Sacrifices is a mark of special excellency. Thy righteousness is like the Mountains of God, Psal. 36. So the Margin hath expressed the Hebrew, which the Text Interprets, like the great Mountains; so here, the Sacrifices of God are the greatest and most excellent Sacrifices. The latter words, Thou shalt not despise, are spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a figure very frequent: Bethlehem not the least, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which indeed for our Saviour's Birth in it, was the greatest of all Cities. And Saint Paul would have us most highly to esteem prophesying, when he bids us not despise it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the very same word here used by the Seventy; by which we must understand, that God is so far from despising or setting at nought the Sacrifice of a contrite Heart, that nothing can be more acceptable or precious in his sight.  
God Almighty glorieth not in any Title so much as that of merciful and gractous: a Father of mercies, and God of comfort: and the Church could not possibly style him better, then, a God whose nature and property is ever to have mercy and to forgive. This is his proper work, but vengeance is called opus non suum, Esay 28. a strange work and not his own. Behold here the true ground and reason of that Acceptance I speak of. 'Tis God's goodness, not the dignity of our Contrition that so commends it. To talk of merit and satisfaction with the presumptuous Papist is no less unreverent, then unsafe. Let them beware (said judicious Hooker) who challenge to themselves a strength which they have not, lest they lose the comfortable support of that weakness which indeed they have. By the power of Grace, say we our hard Hearts are broken, and by the gentleness of grace they are so favourably accepted.  
Yea, such is God's goodness, that he would bring us whole and sound to Heaven, if it might be: for he delighteth not, in the death; no, nor in any pain or trouble of his creature: not, as it is absolutely considered, but in regard of the end thereof, so he is much pleased with it. As the Physician is glad to see the working of his Physic, not that he desires the pain of his Patient, but his recovery: or as a loving Husband desires his Wife's travel, not for the pain she must endure, but for the Births sake: So is God affected, as I may say, in the travel of his Spouse, the Christian Soul, the pangs whereof he willeth not for their own sake, but for the new Births sake that cannot be produced nor revived without them.  
Well, to return, that the contrite Soul is an acceptable Sacrifice to God, we cannot doubt. My Dove that mournest in the Cliffs of the Rock, let me see thy Face, Cant. 2. Our Face is never so fair in God's Eye, as when 'tis washed with the tears of a Penitent Heart; these Penitent tears Satan cannot endure: nay, 'tis the conceit of one, tolerabilius sustinet flammam suam quàm lacrymam nostram. Satan can as little abide this Water of Repentance, as the fire of Hell: but God so much values and loves our tears, that he hath a Bottle on purpose to preserve them in. When we are least in our own eyes, then are we most precious in his. To this Man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite Heart, Esay, 66. 2. Nor doth he only cast a favourable look upon that Man, but vouchsafeth to make him his dwelling place: For thus saith the high and holy one, that inhabiteth Eternity, whose name is holy; I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit, to revive the Spirit of the humble, and to revive the Heart of the contrite. Es: 57: 15:  
What comfort, what glory is this to an humble Soul, that she is chosen out for an habitation of the most high! sure, where God dwelleth by his gracious presence, that place must needs be Heavenly; so indeed is the penitent Soul, what ere she seems: God that dwells there doth not so hid his countenance, but that the beams of comfort either mingle with the most bitter complaints of a broken Heart, or at least in due time succeed them. No better instance than David. See him in the first of his Penitentials, Psal. 6. My Soul is sore vexed, ver. 3. I am weary with my groaning, ver. 6. Mine eye is consumed for very grief, ver. 7. There is sorrow, plenty; But hath the Lord no pity? in the next verses, The Lord, saith he, hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer. Here is comfort. Thus as I grounded God's acceptation of our Repentance, upon his Mercy: so have I now settled our Comfort upon his Acceptation Because he is merciful, therefore he accepts us; and because he doth accept us, therefore shall we find certain comfort.  
These are, for whose sakes this point is to be carefully handled; weak Christians: whose minds the extremity of grief hath so overclouded, that they find not themselves in themselves: they complain most bitterly of the hardness of their Hearts, when their very complaints are a comfortable Argument that they are already broken: they grieve for the total want of grace, when the presence of it in some measure is proved by their unfeigned desire and longing after it. Such poor souls must be made to understand, that Grace may work in the Heart, which for the present perceives it not. God like the Sun scattereth his influence further than his light: and the Penitent Soul, like the Moon in Conjunction, hath the fairest side toward Heaven.  
In Spiritual conflicts nothing is of power sufficient to uphold the fainting Soul, but the Hand of Divine mercy. Mercy can find no way unto us, but through the wounds of Christ, and the streams of our Saviour's Blood. O wretched Man that I am, cries out the Apostle: Who shall deliver me! and in the next verse; I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our Lord is of a gracious and sweet disposition: he underwent most grievous conflicts in his own person, in the days of his Humiliation; he knows the better how to secure us; and he chose such to preach mercy to others, as had themselves found most mercy: namely, Paul and Peter: to the end that their examples as well as their Doctrine might speak comfort to distressed consciences. When we consider the first fruits of those that came unto Christ, the Publican, the Harlot, the Thief and the Blasphemer: when we consider the comfortable Titles he hath assumed; of a Head, that suffereth in the lowest member; of a Shepherd, that hath care of his weakest Lambs; of a Husband, indulgent to his Spouse; of a Physician, good at all diseases, but especially the binding up of a broken Heart: these things when we consider, we cannot want Arguments to raise up the dejected Heart, and assure the distrustful, that in the lowest degree of Humiliation he shall never be forgotten, never be despised.  
To draw to an end, with a word or two of Exhortation.  
1. To all. St. Peter hath honoured us with the title of Priesthood, 1 Pet. 2. Priests you know should not be without their Sacrifices: we cannot offer a more acceptable Sacrifice then this of a broken Heart. Whether it be a morning Sacrifice offered in our Youth, or an Evening Sacrifice offered in our Age, God, we are sure, will not despise it. Let us perform this Office of our Priesthood, or never look to be partakers of the Kingdom. It is indeed a hard piece of service and unpleasing; such is the untowardness of our Hearts, and such power have sensual pleasures over us: but difficulty is not a curb but a spur to generous minds: and remember, Qui instat praecepto, praecurrit auxilio, He that urgeth us with his command, leads us by his grace. What should deter us, when the Almighty is our aid? Many oppositions and discouragements must the tender-hearted Man expect from this wicked world, but let the Devil and the world conspire, this is a faithful saying, The Heart that is in God's hand cannot miscarry. Memorable is that speech of Adherbal in Sallust to the Senators of Rome, Ego sic existimabum P. C. uti Patrem saepe meum, etc. We may justly apply it to our case: Our Fathers and Prophets, our Lord and Master hath foretold, by long experience we have found it true; as many as have, with humble and Penitent hearts, entered into a Covenant with God, eos maximum laborem suscipere, they have undertaken a laboursome and painful profession; sed omnium maxime tutus esse, but they have safety for their pains, no Man's security like to theirs.  
2. To the Clergy. St. Paul, Rom. 15. calls the Gentiles his oblation. Ministers are Priests in an especial manner: neither can we do better service, then to offer unto God the broken hearts of our people. God hath put fire into our Mouths to kindle those Sacrifices. He hath put a Sword into our hands to pierce and cut the hardest heart. Verily, such is the temper of these times, that piercing and cutting Scriptures seem most seasonable; in the handling whereof we must endeavour to stir up in our hearers, as St. Hierom speaks, non clamorem, sed genitum, the sighs and tears of the Auditors best commend the Preachers eloquence; nevertheless we must remember, that the Holy Spirit descended as well in the shape of a Dove, as in the likeness of fire, and Spiritual Men must be no less meek than vehement. Nil tam Spiritualem virum indicat, quàm alieni peccati tractatio: the discreet handling of a sinner is the Ministers Masterpiece; Men are prone to Sin, the conscience must be awakened by the Law: Men are prone to despair for Sin, the conscience must be comforted by the Gospel. We must so prudently mix and administer both Law and Gospel, that hard hearts may be broken, and broken hearts may be bound up.  
To close up all: The custom of the Ancients was to begin their Feasts with Sacrifice: Our Spiritual Sacrifice of a broken heart, what is it else but the introduction to a Feast? the Feast of a good Conscience, our only comfort in this vale of tears, and that other Feast at God's Heavenly Table, the consummation of our bliss, in the life to come.  
God of his mercy grant, that we may all offer up this Sacrifice, that we may be partakers of that Feast. Amen.  
Soli Deo Gloria.    

An Advertisement.  
WHereas one Master Collins in a Preface to a late Book of his pretends to answer some Arguments contained in a Letter of Master Barksdales, published with the Dispute at Winchcomb, the Reader is entreated to compare the places, and judge whether Mr. C. hath not much mistaken Mr. B. and perverted his Reasons. For Mr. B. saith not, That the ignorant and scandalous are to be admitted to the Sacrament. No: He hath declared sufficiently in that Book his love of knowledge and of piety: and of Christian Discipline: But thus: That Ministers are not to be condemned for administering the Sacrament in their Congregations, though mixed. [That is: though, after all the Ministers care and pains in exhorting, instructing, admonishing all, and keeping back those whom he certainly knows to be notorious evil livers; though, I say, after all his care, some unworthy persons do partake of the Sacrament.] To this purpose the Reasons in that Letter are offered to his friend: and much more is set down in those Papers. Wherein He hath imprinted such marks of his desire and endeavour of true Reformation, that he deserved not thus to be traduced by Mr. Collins, as a maintainer of ignorance and scandal. Let such writers hereafter use more candour and fidelity in reciting the opinions and reasons of other Men, and sure we shall have more Truth and Charity amongst us. As to the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, let the eminent Doctor's Annotation, Jo. 13. 26. be considered. And for polluting the Ordinance, it is clear that the guilty pollute it only to themselves, not to the innocent, either Minister or people. Let this suffice (at present) for a return to Mr. Collins.   

A CATALOGUE of what Books this AUTHOR hath published.  
OBitus & Elogia Doctorum virorum ex Historii Thuani, Lond. 1640.  
The Authority of the Highest powers in matters of Religion, out of Hugo Grotius. Lon. 1651.  
Adagialia Sacra Novi Test: ex Andraea Schotto. Ox. 1651.  
Two Discourses, of God, and of Christ, out of Hugo Grotius. Lond. 1652.  
The Commonwealth of the Hebrews, out of P. Cunaeus. Lond. 1653.  
The Dispute at Winchcomb in Gloc. Lond. 1654.  
The Law of War and Peace, out of Hugo Grotius. Lond. 1654.  
And sundry little pieces for the use of young Scholars.  
FINIS.